alternet--2020-10-17--Trump facing a 'crushing loss' on election day as he scrambles to save states he won in 2016: report

When Donald Trump 's 2020 re-election campaign kicked off the president and his aides targeted states they felt they could pick up that went to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016 .
That was then and this is now .
According to a report from Politico , with the president 's approval numbers in freefall and pollsters predicting a substantial Electoral College loss , the president is now being forced to appear in states he won in 2016 to keep them out of the loss column in what could be a `` crushing loss '' at the ballot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Politico 's Gabby Orr , `` In the final 18 days before voters decide whether to keep President Donald Trump in the White House , the incumbent Republican is spending precious time in states that were never supposed to be this close but now threaten to upend his reelection campaign . ''
If recent polling is to be believed , Trump is in danger of losing normally stalwart Republican states like Georgia , Arizona , Iowa and Florida -- making his path to re-election near impossible .
As Orr wrote , `` The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weeks is either a tacit acknowledgment that he 's on the brink of crushing losses in major battlegrounds and once-impenetrable red states , or an over cautious exercise in due-diligence . ''
She then added , `` Trump 's defensive posture follows a stretch of devastating blows to his reelection campaign that further imperiled his standing in the industrial Midwest , where the 2020 election is likely to be decided , and cast new doubt on his ability to keep the Sun Belt in his column . ''
Noting the stunning reversal of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ close to Trump 's campaign admitted , `` I 've never seen a Republican president with numbers like this in Arizona . ''
According to the Politico report , `` Trump is expected to remain on the campaign trail nearly every day until the election , zig-zagging between the Midwest and southern tier of the U.S. to cover all his bases .
Next week he will participate in his second and final debate against Biden at Belmont University in Nashville . ''
You can read more here .

When Donald Trump's 2020 re-election campaign kicked off the president and his aides targeted states they felt they could pick up that went to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2016.
That was then and this is now.
According to a report from Politico, with the president's approval numbers in freefall and pollsters predicting a substantial Electoral College loss, the president is now being forced to appear in states he won in 2016 to keep them out of the loss column in what could be a "crushing loss" at the ballot box.
According to the report from Politico's Gabby Orr, "In the final 18 days before voters decide whether to keep President Donald Trump in the White House, the incumbent Republican is spending precious time in states that were never supposed to be this close but now threaten to upend his reelection campaign."
If recent polling is to be believed, Trump is in danger of losing normally stalwart Republican states like Georgia, Arizona, Iowa and Florida -- making his path to re-election near impossible.
As Orr wrote, "The president's campaign schedule in the final weeks is either a tacit acknowledgment that he's on the brink of crushing losses in major battlegrounds and once-impenetrable red states, or an over cautious exercise in due-diligence." She then added, "Trump's defensive posture follows a stretch of devastating blows to his reelection campaign that further imperiled his standing in the industrial Midwest, where the 2020 election is likely to be decided, and cast new doubt on his ability to keep the Sun Belt in his column."
Noting the stunning reversal of Trump's political fortunes, one person close to Trump's campaign admitted, "I've never seen a Republican president with numbers like this in Arizona."
According to the Politico report, "Trump is expected to remain on the campaign trail nearly every day until the election, zig-zagging between the Midwest and southern tier of the U.S. to cover all his bases. Next week he will participate in his second and final debate against Biden at Belmont University in Nashville."
You can read more here.


alternet--2020-10-17--Who decides when vaccine studies are done? Internal docs show Fauci plays a key role

Dr. Anthony Fauci , the nation 's top infectious disease official , will oversee most of the ongoing COVID-19 vaccine trials in the U.S. , but not that of the current front-runner made by Pfizer , documents obtained by ProPublica show .
According to a draft charter spelling out how most of the advanced COVID-19 vaccine trials will be monitored , Fauci is the “ designated senior representative '' of the U.S. government who will be part of the first look at the results .
That puts Fauci in the room with the companies — including Moderna , Johnson & @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the vaccines are ready to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration .
Fauci 's role , which has not been previously reported and was confirmed for ProPublica by the National Institutes of Health , could offer some reassurance in the face of widespread concerns that President Donald Trump wants to rush through an unproven vaccine .
As Sen. Kamala Harris , the Democratic nominee for vice president , put it at last week 's debate , “ If the public health professionals , if Dr. Fauci , if the doctors tell @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I 'll be the first in line to take it . ''
But there 's a big caveat .
Fauci does n't have the same hands-on role for the vaccine that seems poised to show results soonest : Pfizer 's .
That 's because Pfizer opted not to accept government funding and participate in the federal program to develop a coronavirus vaccine , known as Operation Warp Speed .
( The government did make an almost $ 2 billion deal with Pfizer to preorder up to 600 million doses of the company 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money to the vaccine 's development like it is for other companies . )
“ ( We ) offered opportunities for collaboration with Pfizer , '' said a spokesperson for the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases , a branch of the NIH .
“ Pfizer chose to conduct their Phase 3 study without Operation Warp Speed or NIH support . ''
Pfizer 's CEO , Albert Bourla , said Friday that the earliest his company would be ready to apply for authorization would be the third week of November .
While @ @ @ @ @ @ @ October if its vaccine is effective , it would need additional time to gather sufficient safety data to present to the FDA , Bourla said in an open letter on the company 's website .
Fauci 's role in overseeing the companies that are participating in Operation Warp Speed arises from a unique arrangement that the government set up to monitor the trials .
Typically , clinical trials set up their own independent panels of scientists , known as a data safety monitoring board or DSMB , to watch out for safety concerns @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all of the vaccine trials in Operation Warp Speed are sharing a common DSMB whose members were selected by Fauci 's agency , the NIAID .
They 're also sharing a network of clinical trial sites where some volunteers are recruited for the studies .
A DSMB is responsible for making recommendations such as halting the trial if there is a safety concern or letting the manufacturer know that there 's enough evidence to submit an application to the FDA .
Ordinarily , a DSMB 's recommendation goes to the company running the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S. government — which gets two representatives , one from the NIAID and one from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority — will also have a seat at the table in deciding what to do next .
“ Once the DSMB makes a decision , the DSMB provides the recommendation to not only the study sponsor but also to the '' U.S. government , whose “ designated senior representative '' is Fauci , the NIAID confirmed in an email .
Fauci declined to be interviewed .
That 's not the same as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The company and the government are supposed to reach a consensus , the agency said .
But if they ca n't all agree , the ultimate decision belongs with the company .
Still , it would be an improbably brazen move for a company to move ahead over Fauci 's objection , given his public stature , experts said .
“ These are the most important trials in medical history , this is the ultimate fishbowl , '' said Dr. Eric Topol , director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute .
“ I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ defy the DSMB 's recommendation . ''
While the mechanics of a DSMB may be unfamiliar to most members of the public , people probably know and trust Fauci , according to Amy Pisani , executive director of the national nonprofit organization Vaccinate Your Family .
“ ( He 's ) the sweetheart of the nation right now , '' Pisani said .
“ I do think people have faith in Anthony Fauci . ''
“ Having Fauci with oversight is terrific , '' Topol added .
“ The more people who are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
You ca n't be careful enough . ''
Other members of the DSMB for the COVID-19 vaccines , though not as well known as Fauci , are also widely respected in their fields .
DSMB members are typically kept confidential to shield them from outside influence , but ProPublica has been able to identify a few members .
The charter obtained by ProPublica described the group , which has about a dozen members , as having expertise in “ biostatistics , clinical trials , infectious diseases , vaccine development and ethics .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Richard Whitley , a professor of pediatrics , microbiology , medicine and neurosurgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham .
His role became public when the university announced it , though the webpage was later taken down .
His leadership provides another level of comfort in the trustworthiness of the trials to those who know him .
“ He is not only famously bright but he is famously independent and outspoken , '' said Dr. William Schaffner , professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt Medicine .
“ He 'll @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exactly what he thinks . ''
Susan Ellenberg , professor of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania and a former director at the FDA , told ProPublica in an interview that many people , including herself , were worried the NIH might be “ pushed by the political leadership at HHS to release data '' from trials prematurely , which could undermine the integrity of a trial .
HHS , the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services , is the NIH 's parent agency .
Her concern was that political leaders might @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the trials when wanting to have data “ to be able to move quickly in an urgent situation , '' she said .
At the time of the interview , Ellenberg had not identified herself as a member of the NIH 's DSMB , but later acknowledged that she was a member .
Dr. Malegapuru William Makgoba , an immunologist based in South Africa , is one of a few international members of the DSMB .
Makgoba is well known for his work on public health initiatives around HIV/AIDS , including the South @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his role on the DSMB but declined to comment further .
The common DSMB appears to be unprecedented , if only because there have not previously been multiple vaccines in development for the same disease at the same time .
Experts said the arrangement offers benefits such as bolstering the evidence available to show that any one shot is safe and effective .
Standardizing trial measurements should make the vaccines easier to compare head to head , which may be useful for knowing whether one is better or worse than another in certain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people with compromised immune systems , according to Vanderbilt 's Schaffner .
“ To me , it 's better for public health to have a fairly common assessment , '' said Dr. Gregory Glenn , president of research and development at Novavax , which has received $ 1.6 billion from Operation Warp Speed and hopes to begin its Phase 3 trial in the U.S. this month as part of the NIH 's clinical trial network .
There may also be some benefits from a safety perspective .
If a potential safety issue appears @ @ @ @ @ @ @ data safety monitoring board for multiple trials means that the board knows to look out for that same issue across all the trials , said Dr. Tal Zaks , chief medical officer of Moderna .
“ When AstraZeneca had an adverse side effect , we have a DSMB looking at our trial — the fact that it 's the same DSMB means that there 's not one DSMB that has to go educate another DSMB , '' Zaks said .
( ProPublica 's board chairman , Paul Sagan , is a member of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . )
AstraZeneca 's trial has been put on hold in the U.S. while the company and the FDA investigates what happened with a participant who had a bad reaction .
It 's not yet clear whether the reaction was due to the vaccine or unrelated .
“ AstraZeneca is committed to working with governments and key partners to ensure we develop and gain regulatory approval for an effective vaccine as quickly as possible , '' the company said in a statement .
AstraZeneca added that another benefit of joining the government 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trial sites can help reach minority communities that are historically less represented in clinical trials and also more vulnerable to COVID-19 .
Pfizer 's decision not to participate means that it and the other companies may miss out on some of these benefits of pooling resources .
“ It 's at least unfortunate , and not very sporting , as the British would say , '' Schaffner said .
At the same time , there could be advantages to Pfizer 's going solo .
“ One of the greatest risks to this process @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and in that regard , having parallel efforts , especially efforts seen as independent of one another and/or independent of perceived sources of political influence , is a good thing , '' said Mani Foroohar , an analyst at the investment bank SVB Leerink .
Pfizer declined to comment on its decision not to join the government 's shared DSMB and trial network .
Whether it 's Pfizer or one of the companies participating in Operation Warp Speed , the final say on whether a vaccine is ready for public use belongs to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to present the data to an advisory committee of external experts in a public meeting .
A preliminary meeting will be held on Oct. 22 to discuss , generally , the standards the FDA will seek to see before authorizing any vaccine .
The agency has also committed to holding advisory committee meetings to review data from individual vaccine candidates .
Between the independent trial safety monitoring boards and the public advisory committee meetings , “ any kind of hanky-panky there that people are worried about is going to ( go through ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ an interview with Dr. Howard Bachner on the JAMA Network podcast on Sept. 25 .
“ The big elephant in the room is , is somebody going to try to make a political end run to interfere with the process ?
… If you look at the standard process of how these things work , I think you can feel comfortable that it is really unlikely that that is going to happen . ''

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease official, will oversee most of the ongoing COVID-19 vaccine trials in the U.S., but not that of the current front-runner made by Pfizer, documents obtained by ProPublica show.
According to a draft charter spelling out how most of the advanced COVID-19 vaccine trials will be monitored, Fauci is the “designated senior representative" of the U.S. government who will be part of the first look at the results. That puts Fauci in the room with the companies — including Moderna, Johnson & Johnson and AstraZeneca — in deciding whether the vaccines are ready to seek approval from the Food and Drug Administration.
Fauci's role, which has not been previously reported and was confirmed for ProPublica by the National Institutes of Health, could offer some reassurance in the face of widespread concerns that President Donald Trump wants to rush through an unproven vaccine. As Sen. Kamala Harris, the Democratic nominee for vice president, put it at last week's debate, “If the public health professionals, if Dr. Fauci, if the doctors tell us that we should take it, I'll be the first in line to take it."
But there's a big caveat. Fauci doesn't have the same hands-on role for the vaccine that seems poised to show results soonest: Pfizer's. That's because Pfizer opted not to accept government funding and participate in the federal program to develop a coronavirus vaccine, known as Operation Warp Speed. (The government did make an almost $2 billion deal with Pfizer to preorder up to 600 million doses of the company's vaccine, but it isn't contributing money to the vaccine's development like it is for other companies.)
“(We) offered opportunities for collaboration with Pfizer," said a spokesperson for the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, a branch of the NIH. “Pfizer chose to conduct their Phase 3 study without Operation Warp Speed or NIH support."
Pfizer's CEO, Albert Bourla, said Friday that the earliest his company would be ready to apply for authorization would be the third week of November. While Pfizer might know by the end of October if its vaccine is effective, it would need additional time to gather sufficient safety data to present to the FDA, Bourla said in an open letter on the company's website.
Fauci's role in overseeing the companies that are participating in Operation Warp Speed arises from a unique arrangement that the government set up to monitor the trials. Typically, clinical trials set up their own independent panels of scientists, known as a data safety monitoring board or DSMB, to watch out for safety concerns or early signs of success. But all of the vaccine trials in Operation Warp Speed are sharing a common DSMB whose members were selected by Fauci's agency, the NIAID. They're also sharing a network of clinical trial sites where some volunteers are recruited for the studies.
A DSMB is responsible for making recommendations such as halting the trial if there is a safety concern or letting the manufacturer know that there's enough evidence to submit an application to the FDA. Ordinarily, a DSMB's recommendation goes to the company running the trial. In this case, the U.S. government — which gets two representatives, one from the NIAID and one from the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority — will also have a seat at the table in deciding what to do next.
“Once the DSMB makes a decision, the DSMB provides the recommendation to not only the study sponsor but also to the" U.S. government, whose “designated senior representative" is Fauci, the NIAID confirmed in an email. Fauci declined to be interviewed.
That's not the same as saying Fauci has the last word. The company and the government are supposed to reach a consensus, the agency said. But if they can't all agree, the ultimate decision belongs with the company.
Still, it would be an improbably brazen move for a company to move ahead over Fauci's objection, given his public stature, experts said. “These are the most important trials in medical history, this is the ultimate fishbowl," said Dr. Eric Topol, director of the Scripps Research Translational Institute. “I don't think any sponsor would dare defy the DSMB's recommendation."
While the mechanics of a DSMB may be unfamiliar to most members of the public, people probably know and trust Fauci, according to Amy Pisani, executive director of the national nonprofit organization Vaccinate Your Family. “(He's) the sweetheart of the nation right now," Pisani said. “I do think people have faith in Anthony Fauci."
“Having Fauci with oversight is terrific," Topol added. “The more people who are experts looking at it, the better. You can't be careful enough."
Other members of the DSMB for the COVID-19 vaccines, though not as well known as Fauci, are also widely respected in their fields. DSMB members are typically kept confidential to shield them from outside influence, but ProPublica has been able to identify a few members. The charter obtained by ProPublica described the group, which has about a dozen members, as having expertise in “biostatistics, clinical trials, infectious diseases, vaccine development and ethics."
The panel's chair is Dr. Richard Whitley, a professor of pediatrics, microbiology, medicine and neurosurgery at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. His role became public when the university announced it, though the webpage was later taken down.
His leadership provides another level of comfort in the trustworthiness of the trials to those who know him. “He is not only famously bright but he is famously independent and outspoken," said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of preventive medicine and infectious diseases at Vanderbilt Medicine. “He'll look at the data and tell you exactly what he thinks."
Whitley declined to comment.
Susan Ellenberg, professor of biostatistics at the University of Pennsylvania and a former director at the FDA, told ProPublica in an interview that many people, including herself, were worried the NIH might be “pushed by the political leadership at HHS to release data" from trials prematurely, which could undermine the integrity of a trial. HHS, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, is the NIH's parent agency. Her concern was that political leaders might not understand scientific arguments to not disrupt the trials when wanting to have data “to be able to move quickly in an urgent situation," she said.
At the time of the interview, Ellenberg had not identified herself as a member of the NIH's DSMB, but later acknowledged that she was a member.
Dr. Malegapuru William Makgoba, an immunologist based in South Africa, is one of a few international members of the DSMB. Makgoba is well known for his work on public health initiatives around HIV/AIDS, including the South African AIDS Vaccine Initiative. Makgoba confirmed his role on the DSMB but declined to comment further.
The common DSMB appears to be unprecedented, if only because there have not previously been multiple vaccines in development for the same disease at the same time. Experts said the arrangement offers benefits such as bolstering the evidence available to show that any one shot is safe and effective.
Standardizing trial measurements should make the vaccines easier to compare head to head, which may be useful for knowing whether one is better or worse than another in certain subgroups, such as the elderly or people with compromised immune systems, according to Vanderbilt's Schaffner.
“To me, it's better for public health to have a fairly common assessment," said Dr. Gregory Glenn, president of research and development at Novavax, which has received $1.6 billion from Operation Warp Speed and hopes to begin its Phase 3 trial in the U.S. this month as part of the NIH's clinical trial network.
There may also be some benefits from a safety perspective.
If a potential safety issue appears in one trial, having a common data safety monitoring board for multiple trials means that the board knows to look out for that same issue across all the trials, said Dr. Tal Zaks, chief medical officer of Moderna. “When AstraZeneca had an adverse side effect, we have a DSMB looking at our trial — the fact that it's the same DSMB means that there's not one DSMB that has to go educate another DSMB," Zaks said. (ProPublica's board chairman, Paul Sagan, is a member of Moderna's board and a company stockholder.)
AstraZeneca's trial has been put on hold in the U.S. while the company and the FDA investigates what happened with a participant who had a bad reaction. It's not yet clear whether the reaction was due to the vaccine or unrelated.
“AstraZeneca is committed to working with governments and key partners to ensure we develop and gain regulatory approval for an effective vaccine as quickly as possible," the company said in a statement.
AstraZeneca added that another benefit of joining the government's consortium was that its large network of trial sites can help reach minority communities that are historically less represented in clinical trials and also more vulnerable to COVID-19.
Pfizer's decision not to participate means that it and the other companies may miss out on some of these benefits of pooling resources. “It's at least unfortunate, and not very sporting, as the British would say," Schaffner said.
At the same time, there could be advantages to Pfizer's going solo. “One of the greatest risks to this process is the perception of political influence, and in that regard, having parallel efforts, especially efforts seen as independent of one another and/or independent of perceived sources of political influence, is a good thing," said Mani Foroohar, an analyst at the investment bank SVB Leerink.
Pfizer declined to comment on its decision not to join the government's shared DSMB and trial network.
Whether it's Pfizer or one of the companies participating in Operation Warp Speed, the final say on whether a vaccine is ready for public use belongs to the FDA.
The FDA has promised to present the data to an advisory committee of external experts in a public meeting. A preliminary meeting will be held on Oct. 22 to discuss, generally, the standards the FDA will seek to see before authorizing any vaccine. The agency has also committed to holding advisory committee meetings to review data from individual vaccine candidates.
Between the independent trial safety monitoring boards and the public advisory committee meetings, “any kind of hanky-panky there that people are worried about is going to (go through) multiple checkpoints," Fauci said in an interview with Dr. Howard Bachner on the JAMA Network podcast on Sept. 25. “The big elephant in the room is, is somebody going to try to make a political end run to interfere with the process? … If you look at the standard process of how these things work, I think you can feel comfortable that it is really unlikely that that is going to happen."


alternet--2020-10-17--Donald Trump's reign of corruption has left the federal government in ruins

Who remembers Tom Price ?
Gee , you might say , that name sounds familiar … he had something to do with the Trump administration , did n't he ?
This article first appeared in Salon .
You 're right !
He was one of those guys who resigned from a cabinet position because he was abusing something … let me see … think I 've got it … he was the one who took all those flights on private jets , something like a million dollars worth of flights , including on military aircraft during trips to Europe and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 51,887 to the federal government , which he said accounted for the cost of his seat on private charter flights he took before he resigned from Trump 's cabinet .
But that was just the cost of his seat .
The total amount spent to fly old Tom Price around the world on private jets was more than $ 400,000 in taxpayer dollars .
What cabinet position did he hold that made it necessary for so many trips on chartered private jets and other business aircraft ?
What was he doing that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ back and forth to Europe and Africa and making trips to Aspen and Salt Lake City and Nashville , and basically jetting all over the place on the taxpayers ' dime and staying in first-class hotels and eating out at expensive restaurants and taking his wife along with him a lot of the time ?
Oh , I remember !
He was the secretary of Health and Human Services .
He was the dude who resigned after only 231 days in office , the shortest term ever served by an HHS secretary .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Georgia who during his term in the House voted multiple times to repeal the Affordable Care Act , supported a Republican plan to privatize Medicare , voted to defund Planned Parenthood and sponsored the `` Right to Life Act , '' which would have defined life as beginning at conception and banned all abortions and many forms of contraception .
Busy , busy man , old Tom , with all those flights around the world and fighting to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood and banning abortion .
Took up a lot of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ took up the time he could have spent studying the plan to contain pandemics which was left for him at the Department of Health and Human Services by the Obama administration .
But old Tom Price did n't study that plan , did he ?
No , he shelved the Obama pandemic plan , where it stayed as his successor , Alex Azar , was appointed .
So it was Azar who was running HHS when COVID hit in February of this year , and it was Azar who left the pandemic plan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in charge of the pandemic task force at the White House , until Vice President Pence took over that job .
It was Azar who appointed Brian Harrison , a 37-year-old former labradoodle breeder with zero education and zero background in public health as the department 's top man in charge of organizing the HHS response to the COVID crisis .
Now he has overseen the appointment of two more nonentities with no background in public health or epidemiology to keep Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield `` in line @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the coronavirus pandemic coming out of the department .
Oh , I almost forgot : Azar also supports ending the Affordable Care Act and defunding Planned Parenthood and banning abortion and every other whacked-out right wing idea that ever came down the pike .
Are you beginning to get the picture here ?
Health and Human Services is just one Trump cabinet department that has been led by not one , but two half-wit hacks and undercut by the White House from Day One .
Both HHS and CDC have been hollowed out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump White House while some 220,000 Americans have lost their lives and 8 million more have been infected by the COVID virus .
Trump 's ravaging of the rest of the government has followed the same script .
Remember Scott Pruitt , Trump 's first administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency ?
He lasted just about a year before he resigned under the cloud of investigations by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel , the Government Accountability Office , the EPA inspector general and 11 other federal agencies and congressional committees .
Pruitt @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on chartered jets and used EPA employees to reserve tables for dinner at exclusive Washington restaurants .
He set the EPA on a course to undo nearly every Obama administration environmental accomplishment .
He fired all the scientists on the Board of Scientific Counselors and replaced them with representatives of industries regulated by the EPA .
When he left the agency in disgrace , Pruitt was replaced by his deputy , Andrew Wheeler , a former coal industry lobbyist , who proceeded apace to continue the fine legacy left to him by his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coal fired electrical plants and declined to raise standards for `` fine soot pollution '' under a mandated review .
In the midst of the COVID pandemic , Wheeler 's EPA announced that it would not enforce regulations for `` routine compliance monitoring [ of pollution ] , integrity testing , sampling , laboratory analysis , training and reporting or certification obligations . ''
In other words , polluting industries , here 's your get-out-of-jail-free COVID card , courtesy of your friendly EPA .
Donald Trump 's pillaging of the rest of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's gone through cabinet secretaries like they were an order of Big Macs .
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson ?
Gone early on , replaced by Mike Pompeo .
Attorney General Jeff Sessions ?
Out the door in disgrace .
In his place , the odious Bill Barr ( after a brief appearance by the totally incompetent Matt Whitaker ) .
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry ?
Bye-bye in a blink .
Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta ?
Resigned in disgrace for his connection to a kid-gloves plea arrangement with famed pedophile and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Defense James Mattis ?
Resigned in protest against Trump 's haphazard misuse of U.S. military forces .
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke ?
Resigned rather than face federal investigation for using his office for personal gain .
Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats ?
Ousted in a Trumpian power play to politicize the intelligence community .
Trump has proceeded to appoint acting secretaries to replace expired acting secretaries .
Recently , one of his attempts to get around the rules hit a wall when a federal judge in Montana ordered the removal of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Management , William Perry Pendley , who he found had been serving illegally for 400 days without Senate confirmation .
Pendley has been an advocate of selling federal lands to the states or private citizens .
There is more , much , much more , but you get the picture .
The damage Trump will be leaving to Joe Biden is incalculable .
The death toll caused by his mismanagement of the COVID crisis and the numbers of infections increase by the thousands seemingly every day .
The only good thing about a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of appointments Biden will be able to make upon taking office , and the dozens of executive orders he 'll be able to sign reversing Trump 's giveaways to polluters , drug companies and corrupt corporations .
All we 've got to do is get out and vote to make that happen .

Who remembers Tom Price? Gee, you might say, that name sounds familiar … he had something to do with the Trump administration, didn't he?
This article first appeared in Salon.
You're right! He was one of those guys who resigned from a cabinet position because he was abusing something … let me see … think I've got it … he was the one who took all those flights on private jets, something like a million dollars worth of flights, including on military aircraft during trips to Europe and Africa with his wife. He refunded $51,887 to the federal government, which he said accounted for the cost of his seat on private charter flights he took before he resigned from Trump's cabinet. But that was just the cost of his seat. The total amount spent to fly old Tom Price around the world on private jets was more than $400,000 in taxpayer dollars.
What cabinet position did he hold that made it necessary for so many trips on chartered private jets and other business aircraft? What was he doing that was so important that he was flying back and forth to Europe and Africa and making trips to Aspen and Salt Lake City and Nashville, and basically jetting all over the place on the taxpayers' dime and staying in first-class hotels and eating out at expensive restaurants and taking his wife along with him a lot of the time? Oh, I remember! He was the secretary of Health and Human Services. He was the dude who resigned after only 231 days in office, the shortest term ever served by an HHS secretary. Price had been a right-wing congressman from Georgia who during his term in the House voted multiple times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, supported a Republican plan to privatize Medicare, voted to defund Planned Parenthood and sponsored the "Right to Life Act," which would have defined life as beginning at conception and banned all abortions and many forms of contraception.
Busy, busy man, old Tom, with all those flights around the world and fighting to repeal Obamacare and defund Planned Parenthood and banning abortion. Took up a lot of his time. In fact, it took up the time he could have spent studying the plan to contain pandemics which was left for him at the Department of Health and Human Services by the Obama administration. But old Tom Price didn't study that plan, did he? No, he shelved the Obama pandemic plan, where it stayed as his successor, Alex Azar, was appointed. So it was Azar who was running HHS when COVID hit in February of this year, and it was Azar who left the pandemic plan on the shelf and was first put in charge of the pandemic task force at the White House, until Vice President Pence took over that job. It was Azar who appointed Brian Harrison, a 37-year-old former labradoodle breeder with zero education and zero background in public health as the department's top man in charge of organizing the HHS response to the COVID crisis. Now he has overseen the appointment of two more nonentities with no background in public health or epidemiology to keep Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Robert Redfield "in line," and to control messaging on the coronavirus pandemic coming out of the department. Oh, I almost forgot: Azar also supports ending the Affordable Care Act and defunding Planned Parenthood and banning abortion and every other whacked-out right wing idea that ever came down the pike.
Are you beginning to get the picture here? Health and Human Services is just one Trump cabinet department that has been led by not one, but two half-wit hacks and undercut by the White House from Day One. Both HHS and CDC have been hollowed out and weakened under the control of the Trump White House while some 220,000 Americans have lost their lives and 8 million more have been infected by the COVID virus.
Trump's ravaging of the rest of the government has followed the same script. Remember Scott Pruitt, Trump's first administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency? He lasted just about a year before he resigned under the cloud of investigations by the U.S. Office of Special Counsel, the Government Accountability Office, the EPA inspector general and 11 other federal agencies and congressional committees. Pruitt was another Trumpazoid incompetent who flew around on chartered jets and used EPA employees to reserve tables for dinner at exclusive Washington restaurants. He set the EPA on a course to undo nearly every Obama administration environmental accomplishment. He fired all the scientists on the Board of Scientific Counselors and replaced them with representatives of industries regulated by the EPA.
When he left the agency in disgrace, Pruitt was replaced by his deputy, Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, who proceeded apace to continue the fine legacy left to him by his predecessor. Wheeler has weakened regulations on coal fired electrical plants and declined to raise standards for "fine soot pollution" under a mandated review. In the midst of the COVID pandemic, Wheeler's EPA announced that it would not enforce regulations for "routine compliance monitoring [of pollution], integrity testing, sampling, laboratory analysis, training and reporting or certification obligations." In other words, polluting industries, here's your get-out-of-jail-free COVID card, courtesy of your friendly EPA.
Donald Trump's pillaging of the rest of the federal government is equally astonishing. He's gone through cabinet secretaries like they were an order of Big Macs. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson? Gone early on, replaced by Mike Pompeo. Attorney General Jeff Sessions? Out the door in disgrace. In his place, the odious Bill Barr (after a brief appearance by the totally incompetent Matt Whitaker). Secretary of Energy Rick Perry? Bye-bye in a blink. Secretary of Labor Alex Acosta? Resigned in disgrace for his connection to a kid-gloves plea arrangement with famed pedophile and presidential friend Jeffrey Epstein. Secretary of Defense James Mattis? Resigned in protest against Trump's haphazard misuse of U.S. military forces. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke? Resigned rather than face federal investigation for using his office for personal gain. Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats? Ousted in a Trumpian power play to politicize the intelligence community.
Trump has proceeded to appoint acting secretaries to replace expired acting secretaries. Recently, one of his attempts to get around the rules hit a wall when a federal judge in Montana ordered the removal of the acting director of the Bureau of Land Management, William Perry Pendley, who he found had been serving illegally for 400 days without Senate confirmation. Pendley has been an advocate of selling federal lands to the states or private citizens.
There is more, much, much more, but you get the picture. The damage Trump will be leaving to Joe Biden is incalculable. The death toll caused by his mismanagement of the COVID crisis and the numbers of infections increase by the thousands seemingly every day. The only good thing about a hollowed-out federal government will be the thousands of appointments Biden will be able to make upon taking office, and the dozens of executive orders he'll be able to sign reversing Trump's giveaways to polluters, drug companies and corrupt corporations.
All we've got to do is get out and vote to make that happen.


alternet--2020-10-17--Watch: Trump rallygoers offer bizarre explanations to defend president's failure to condemn QAnon

President Donald Trump 's fierce supporters are offering bizarre and baseless explanations to defend his refusal to condemn QAnon conspiracy theories during his town hall with NBC News moderator Savannah Guthrie .
Despite being repeatedly grilled about the disturbing conspiracy theories which Guthrie explained , Trump continued to claim he had very little knowledge about the extremist group .
Ahead of the president 's campaign rally in Macon , Ga. , on Friday , CNN national correspondent Gary Tuchman had an opportunity to speak with a number of Trump supporters who weighed in on the president 's failure to condemn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Anderson Cooper with details about his observations and experience speaking with several of the president 's supporters .
`` Like we have seen before , most people are not wearing masks and not social distancing , '' Tuchman said of Trump 's rally in Sanford , Fla. , earlier this week .
`` It looks like a concert .
He 's been talking about locking up Hillary Clinton and no mention of QAnon .
He had a chance to condemn QAnon last night but he did not do it .
We talked to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ others know little about it but none we talked to want to condemn it . ''
Many of them believe the president 's refusal to condemn the group is a subtle form of support for it .
The first rallygoer Tuchman spoke with wore a white T-shirt that read , `` QAnon : WWG1WGA '' to show her support for the conspiracy group .
Then , while speaking with two women , Tuchman asked , `` Do you think he [ Trump ] has your back by not criticizing it ? ''
`` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she nodded her head .
`` I really do . ''
The next rallygoer was asked should Trump denounce the QAnon conspiracy .
He flatly responded , `` No . ''
When Tuchman described the conspiracy theories as `` crazy stuff , '' the woman standing next to the man interjected saying , `` No , that 's what you guys try to make us believe , crazy stuff . ''
Not deterred , Tuchman pressed further : `` But do you believe that there are Democrats and celebrities that are in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ I do , '' she said .
When Tuchman asked the woman to explain the origin of the conspiracy theory , she struggled to come up with a solid answer .
`` Where does that come from ? ''
the woman repeated .
`` Why do n't you ask the little kids ? ''
As Tuchman noted that there is no evidence to support the QAnon claims , the woman pivoted and asked what news outlet he works for .
After learning he works for CNN , she quickly retreated with no further @ @ @ @ @ @ @ evidence , Trump 's supporters have made it clear that they support him by any means .
Tuchman also revealed how rare it is to ever find an undecided voter in attendance at a Trump rally .
Most rallygoers attend the event maskless while disregarding social distancing practices .

President Donald Trump's fierce supporters are offering bizarre and baseless explanations to defend his refusal to condemn QAnon conspiracy theories during his town hall with NBC News moderator Savannah Guthrie.
Despite being repeatedly grilled about the disturbing conspiracy theories which Guthrie explained, Trump continued to claim he had very little knowledge about the extremist group. Ahead of the president's campaign rally in Macon, Ga., on Friday, CNN national correspondent Gary Tuchman had an opportunity to speak with a number of Trump supporters who weighed in on the president's failure to condemn QAnon.
Tuchman spoke with CNN's Anderson Cooper with details about his observations and experience speaking with several of the president's supporters.
"Like we have seen before, most people are not wearing masks and not social distancing," Tuchman said of Trump's rally in Sanford, Fla., earlier this week. "It looks like a concert. He's been talking about locking up Hillary Clinton and no mention of QAnon. He had a chance to condemn QAnon last night but he did not do it. We talked to supporters in strong favor of QAnon and others know little about it but none we talked to want to condemn it."
Many of them believe the president's refusal to condemn the group is a subtle form of support for it. The first rallygoer Tuchman spoke with wore a white T-shirt that read, "QAnon: WWG1WGA" to show her support for the conspiracy group. Then, while speaking with two women, Tuchman asked, "Do you think he [Trump] has your back by not criticizing it?"
"Yeah," the woman responded as she nodded her head. "I really do."
The next rallygoer was asked should Trump denounce the QAnon conspiracy. He flatly responded, "No." When Tuchman described the conspiracy theories as "crazy stuff," the woman standing next to the man interjected saying, "No, that's what you guys try to make us believe, crazy stuff."
Not deterred, Tuchman pressed further: "But do you believe that there are Democrats and celebrities that are in a pedophile ring?"
"Yes, I do," she said.
When Tuchman asked the woman to explain the origin of the conspiracy theory, she struggled to come up with a solid answer.
"Where does that come from?" the woman repeated. "Why don't you ask the little kids?"
As Tuchman noted that there is no evidence to support the QAnon claims, the woman pivoted and asked what news outlet he works for. After learning he works for CNN, she quickly retreated with no further defense of the conspiracy. Despite no evidence, Trump's supporters have made it clear that they support him by any means. Tuchman also revealed how rare it is to ever find an undecided voter in attendance at a Trump rally.
Most rallygoers attend the event maskless while disregarding social distancing practices.


alternet--2020-10-18--Alaska GOP senator routinely voted for policies that benefited family's chemical company

Sen. Dan Sullivan , R-Alaska , who faces an unexpectedly tight challenge from Democratic-backed independent Al Gross , has repeatedly cast votes in favor of policies that benefit the financial interests of his family 's multinational industrial manufacturing company .
Sullivan , first elected in 2014 , has come under scrutiny in recent weeks as Democratic-aligned groups pour money into the Alaska race in a surprising effort to expand the electoral map .
A recent investigation by Popular Investigation detailed connections between Sullivan and corporate donors pushing to develop Pebble Mine , a sprawling project in a part of Alaska @ @ @ @ @ @ @ salmon fishery and a number of federally sanctioned tribal governments .
The Republican incumbent 's committee appointments and voting record reviewed by Salon appear to show links to another industrial interest with a record of environmental negligence : Republic Powdered Metals International ( RPM ) , a sealant and coating manufacturer founded by his grandfather in 1947 .
Sullivan 's older brother , Frank , is the current CEO .
Senate records show that Sullivan holds between $ 1 million and $ 5 million in RPM stock .
He has reported earning up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ gains since filing his first financial disclosure in 2014 .
He has augmented that income with eight stock sales since 2018 , bringing in a total of $ 495,000 , the disclosures show .
Reached for comment , Sullivan campaign spokesperson Matt Shuckerow told Salon , `` Unlike Al Gross ' closest adviser , former Sen. Mark Begich , who actively day-traded while in office , Sen. Sullivan has long delegated the oversight of his investments to financial advisers . ''
The Associated Press reported in 2015 that Sullivan 's committee assignments , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , were his `` top picks . ''
`` Sullivan said he is excited to get to work and pleased with his committee assignments , which he said were his top picks , '' the outlet wrote .
`` Sullivan will serve on the committees of Commerce , Science and Transportation ; Environment and Public Works ; Armed Services ; and Veterans ' Affairs . ''
The Committee on Environment and Public Works conducts oversight for the Environmental Protection Agency , which has targeted RPM during Sullivan 's term .
The conglomerate has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fines since 2015 to various environmental regulatory agencies , including the EPA , for violating the Clean Air Act and chemical reporting requirements , among other citations .
RPM expressed its frustration with government oversight in its July 2020 annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission , claiming that the government had burdened the company with `` numerous , complicated and often increasingly stringent environmental , health and safety laws and regulations . ''
That filing shows that an RPM subsidiary called Carboline agreed to a $ 1.3 million settlement with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Compensation and Liability Act after a citation for what the company characterized as `` the release or threatened release of hazardous substances '' at the Lammers Barrel Superfund site in Beavercreek , Ohio .
The final amount was still subject to approval at the time of the filing .
Other subsidiaries of RPM have also been hit with fines in previous years .
New Jersey 's Department of Environmental Protection filed a $ 192,000 citation with Kirker Enterprises in 2019 for failing to fully meet conditions for an air permit .
Rust-Oleum @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a $ 168,000 settlement in 2018 with the EPA for violating hazardous waste reporting requirements at its plant in Williamsport , Maryland .
The same plant paid out another $ 133,000 one year later .
( No waste was released , according to the EPA . )
RPM paid out another $ 181,000 to the EPA in 2017 for violations of the Clean Air Act by Rust-Oleum .
Its 2018 SEC filing disclosed that Rust-Oleum had struck a $ 455,000 settlement with California 's air quality regulator regarding hazardous compounds .
In committee @ @ @ @ @ @ @ certain harmful carcinogen contained in sealants manufactured and sold by RPM , such as formaldehyde .
He also voted against a 2015 amendment which would have strengthened asbestos regulations .
In the previous year , RPM subsidiary Bondex had paid $ 800 million to settle asbestos claims , pushing it to file for bankruptcy .
That amendment would have designated asbestos as a `` high priority chemical for regulation under the law , '' according to Congressional Quarterly .
Sullivan 's vote was consequential , in that the committee rejected the amendment by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also voted to confirm two EPA administrators nominated by President Trump — Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler , the agency 's current head — who both later blocked proposed Obama-era regulations of a chemical implicated in a wrongful death lawsuit pending against an RPM subsidiary .
Both nominees were confirmed along party lines .
The woman who brought the wrongful death suit settled with Rust-Oleum in June 2020 .
She also sued the EPA in 2019 for refusing to ban the chemical outright .
That case remains pending .
In committee , Sullivan @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act to strengthen EPA oversights on chemical companies and compounds contained in RPM products .
One amendment would have imposed new compliance requirements , while another would have required the EPA to consider the threat the substances posed to drinking water .
Both amendments failed , and in the case of the latter amendment , Sullivan 's vote was decisive .
( The amendment failed on a tied 10-10 vote . )
Sullivan also cast a pivotal vote on an amendment which would have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ toxic substances that may cause cancer and other disease clusters .
Throughout this time , RPM lobbied continually against environmental regulations and compliance standards that , in the company 's words , `` could subject us to unforeseen future expenditures or liabilities , which could have a material adverse affect on our business . ''
Targets included the Clean Air Act , the Clean Water Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act .
The company 's CEO — Sullivan 's brother — commended the Trump administration 's approach to environmental regulations , telling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he approved of the president 's `` lighter regulatory touch . ''
Sullivan , who sat on committees charged with overseeing military construction budgets and veterans ' affairs , also voted for budget expansions that opened new opportunities for RPM to secure millions in federal contracts , federal records searches show .
Beyond Sullivan 's stock sales and dividends , his campaigns have received more than $ 70,000 from RPM employees and executives .
The company 's PAC contributed the maximum $ 10,000 to Sullivan 's 2020 re-election campaign , federal filings show @ @ @ @ @ @ @ International did not reply to Salon 's requests for comment .

Sen. Dan Sullivan, R-Alaska, who faces an unexpectedly tight challenge from Democratic-backed independent Al Gross, has repeatedly cast votes in favor of policies that benefit the financial interests of his family's multinational industrial manufacturing company.
Sullivan, first elected in 2014, has come under scrutiny in recent weeks as Democratic-aligned groups pour money into the Alaska race in a surprising effort to expand the electoral map. A recent investigation by Popular Investigation detailed connections between Sullivan and corporate donors pushing to develop Pebble Mine, a sprawling project in a part of Alaska home to the world's largest sockeye salmon fishery and a number of federally sanctioned tribal governments.
The Republican incumbent's committee appointments and voting record reviewed by Salon appear to show links to another industrial interest with a record of environmental negligence: Republic Powdered Metals International (RPM), a sealant and coating manufacturer founded by his grandfather in 1947. Sullivan's older brother, Frank, is the current CEO.
Senate records show that Sullivan holds between $1 million and $5 million in RPM stock. He has reported earning up to $300,000 in dividends and capital gains since filing his first financial disclosure in 2014. He has augmented that income with eight stock sales since 2018, bringing in a total of $495,000, the disclosures show.
Reached for comment, Sullivan campaign spokesperson Matt Shuckerow told Salon, "Unlike Al Gross' closest adviser, former Sen. Mark Begich, who actively day-traded while in office, Sen. Sullivan has long delegated the oversight of his investments to financial advisers."
The Associated Press reported in 2015 that Sullivan's committee assignments, which oversee areas of interest to RPM, were his "top picks."
"Sullivan said he is excited to get to work and pleased with his committee assignments, which he said were his top picks," the outlet wrote. "Sullivan will serve on the committees of Commerce, Science and Transportation; Environment and Public Works; Armed Services; and Veterans' Affairs."
The Committee on Environment and Public Works conducts oversight for the Environmental Protection Agency, which has targeted RPM during Sullivan's term. The conglomerate has paid more than $2.2 million in fines since 2015 to various environmental regulatory agencies, including the EPA, for violating the Clean Air Act and chemical reporting requirements, among other citations.
RPM expressed its frustration with government oversight in its July 2020 annual filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, claiming that the government had burdened the company with "numerous, complicated and often increasingly stringent environmental, health and safety laws and regulations."
That filing shows that an RPM subsidiary called Carboline agreed to a $1.3 million settlement with the EPA for violating the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act after a citation for what the company characterized as "the release or threatened release of hazardous substances" at the Lammers Barrel Superfund site in Beavercreek, Ohio. The final amount was still subject to approval at the time of the filing.
Other subsidiaries of RPM have also been hit with fines in previous years. New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection filed a $192,000 citation with Kirker Enterprises in 2019 for failing to fully meet conditions for an air permit.
Rust-Oleum, another RPM subsidiary, agreed to a $168,000 settlement in 2018 with the EPA for violating hazardous waste reporting requirements at its plant in Williamsport, Maryland. The same plant paid out another $133,000 one year later. (No waste was released, according to the EPA.)
RPM paid out another $181,000 to the EPA in 2017 for violations of the Clean Air Act by Rust-Oleum. Its 2018 SEC filing disclosed that Rust-Oleum had struck a $455,000 settlement with California's air quality regulator regarding hazardous compounds.
In committee, Sullivan voted against EPA regulations for certain harmful carcinogen contained in sealants manufactured and sold by RPM, such as formaldehyde. He also voted against a 2015 amendment which would have strengthened asbestos regulations. In the previous year, RPM subsidiary Bondex had paid $800 million to settle asbestos claims, pushing it to file for bankruptcy.
That amendment would have designated asbestos as a "high priority chemical for regulation under the law," according to Congressional Quarterly. Sullivan's vote was consequential, in that the committee rejected the amendment by a margin of two votes.
Sullivan also voted to confirm two EPA administrators nominated by President Trump — Scott Pruitt and Andrew Wheeler, the agency's current head — who both later blocked proposed Obama-era regulations of a chemical implicated in a wrongful death lawsuit pending against an RPM subsidiary. Both nominees were confirmed along party lines.
The woman who brought the wrongful death suit settled with Rust-Oleum in June 2020. She also sued the EPA in 2019 for refusing to ban the chemical outright. That case remains pending.
In committee, Sullivan voted against a number of amendments to the Frank Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act to strengthen EPA oversights on chemical companies and compounds contained in RPM products. One amendment would have imposed new compliance requirements, while another would have required the EPA to consider the threat the substances posed to drinking water. Both amendments failed, and in the case of the latter amendment, Sullivan's vote was decisive. (The amendment failed on a tied 10-10 vote.)
Sullivan also cast a pivotal vote on an amendment which would have allowed the EPA to investigate pollutants and toxic substances that may cause cancer and other disease clusters.
Throughout this time, RPM lobbied continually against environmental regulations and compliance standards that, in the company's words, "could subject us to unforeseen future expenditures or liabilities, which could have a material adverse affect on our business." Targets included the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Toxic Substances Control Act.
The company's CEO — Sullivan's brother — commended the Trump administration's approach to environmental regulations, telling Crain's Cleveland Business in 2017 that he approved of the president's "lighter regulatory touch."
Sullivan, who sat on committees charged with overseeing military construction budgets and veterans' affairs, also voted for budget expansions that opened new opportunities for RPM to secure millions in federal contracts, federal records searches show.
Beyond Sullivan's stock sales and dividends, his campaigns have received more than $70,000 from RPM employees and executives. The company's PAC contributed the maximum $10,000 to Sullivan's 2020 re-election campaign, federal filings show.
Sullivan's Senate office and RPM International did not reply to Salon's requests for comment.


alternet--2020-10-18--Rural voters explain why they’re ditching Trump: ‘I went from being a pawn — to collateral damage’

President Donald Trump has desperately tried to convince rural America that he will save them as their communities are slowly falling away .
Trump has tried to prop them up with farmer funding , but the tactic shows an ignorance about the issues that rural families are facing when it comes to education and access to medical care .
In a Washington Post report , Creston , Iowa beautician Re Nae Fulton said that she was done with Trump early on in his presidency .
`` Silly us ! ''
Fulton said .
`` He had everything handed to him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be about him — me , me , me , why are n't you bowing down to me ?
We need somebody who is going to heal our country and bring people back together . ''
After a long-term trade war that sent many farmers spiraling into bankruptcy and a crusade against the Affordable Care Act , which funded rural hospitals , national polls show Trump 's support among rural voters is narrowing .
`` In Michigan , Trump won 56 percent of rural votes to Hillary Clinton 's 38 percent , according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Post cited .
`` A New York Times/Siena College poll of the state earlier this month found Trump and Biden were essentially tied with rural voters .
Alan Weisshaar is a farmer and rancher who left the Democratic Party .
In 2016 he thought the promises the president made `` sounded pretty good for farmers . ''
While he voted for Clinton , he was ready to give Trump the benefit of the doubt .
It did n't go well .
He and his fellow farmers lost their shirts when the export demand @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He lost about $ 40,000 each year of the Trump trade war .
`` Before he was elected , he was all about the little guy , this populist rhetoric , '' he said .
`` But then he got us out of the trade treaties , like all of them , and I went from feeling like a pawn in his personal trade war to being collateral damage . ''
While Trump is still expected to win rural America , it 's clear the broken promises have made a dent in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years of Trump .
Read the full report at the Washington Post .

President Donald Trump has desperately tried to convince rural America that he will save them as their communities are slowly falling away. Trump has tried to prop them up with farmer funding, but the tactic shows an ignorance about the issues that rural families are facing when it comes to education and access to medical care.
In a Washington Post report, Creston, Iowa beautician Re Nae Fulton said that she was done with Trump early on in his presidency.
"Silly us!" Fulton said. "He had everything handed to him. . . . Everything had to be about him — me, me, me, why aren't you bowing down to me? We need somebody who is going to heal our country and bring people back together."
After a long-term trade war that sent many farmers spiraling into bankruptcy and a crusade against the Affordable Care Act, which funded rural hospitals, national polls show Trump's support among rural voters is narrowing.
"In Michigan, Trump won 56 percent of rural votes to Hillary Clinton's 38 percent, according to 2016 exit polls," the Post cited. "A New York Times/Siena College poll of the state earlier this month found Trump and Biden were essentially tied with rural voters.
Alan Weisshaar is a farmer and rancher who left the Democratic Party. In 2016 he thought the promises the president made "sounded pretty good for farmers." While he voted for Clinton, he was ready to give Trump the benefit of the doubt. It didn't go well. He and his fellow farmers lost their shirts when the export demand for corn and soybeans took a dive. He lost about $40,000 each year of the Trump trade war.
"Before he was elected, he was all about the little guy, this populist rhetoric," he said. "But then he got us out of the trade treaties, like all of them, and I went from feeling like a pawn in his personal trade war to being collateral damage."
While Trump is still expected to win rural America, it's clear the broken promises have made a dent in those whose lives are worse after four years of Trump.
Read the full report at the Washington Post.


alternet--2020-10-18--Ralph Nader breaks down 'travesty' of Barrett's confirmation as Senate ensures 'corporate supremacy'

Ralph Nader breaks down 'travesty' of Barrett's confirmation as Senate ensures 'corporate supremacy' reigns

In a 1995 book review published in the University of Chicago Law Review , Elena Kagan ( now Justice Kagan ) wrote about judicial nominees avoiding disclosing their views on legal issues .
She said , `` [ T ] he safest and surest route to the prize lay in alternating platitudinous statement and judicious silence .
Who would have done anything different , in the absence of pressure from members of Congress ? ''
This week , nominee to the High Court , Judge Amy Coney Barrett followed the `` say-nothing '' playbook , through injudicious and repetitious filibustering @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for a judge `` to opine '' on matters outside the judicial process .
Really ?
Judge Barrett `` opined '' in lectures , interviews , and articles as a judge as have many sitting Supreme Court Justices .
Her mentor , Justice Antonin Scalia regularly made controversial declarations at law school addresses and all kinds of other public appearances .
Judge Barrett 's hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee were consistently defiant .
She refused to answer questions about the legality of intimidating voters , or whether all losing presidents should commit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Judge Barrett even refused to say whether she accepts the science on the climate crisis because she lacks the expertise on this issue and because it is a controversial topic .
Senator Pat Leahy said , `` President Trump claims he has an absolute right to pardon himself .
Would you agree , first , that nobody is above the law — not the president , not you , not me — is that correct ? ''
Judge Barrett said she agreed no one is above the law but could not answer the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because `` it had never been litigated . ''
She would not even say that a President can not unilaterally change the date of the election .
Perhaps Judge Barrett should review Article II of the Constitution which empowers Congress to choose the timing of the general election and a law enacted by Congress that requires the election to be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November .
The hearings were truly a travesty .
Too few hearing days , exclusion of prominent civic and scholarly critics of her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the defeatist position by the Democrats .
Their repetitive political campaign-related focus on Roe v. Wade and access to abortions , Obamacare , and the Second Amendment was directed to the voters back home .
The Republicans did their things for the elections too , led by Chair Lindsey Graham .
( This is an important reason why nomination hearings should not be conducted close to elections ) .
It gets worse .
Chair Lindsey Graham pronounced victory for the judge in his opening statement and by their behavior the Democrats largely agreed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political views without exposing how a Judge 's corporatist ideology can let corporations prevail over workers , consumers , the environment , and the electoral process .
Republican Justices on the Supreme Court , most notoriously , in the Citizens United case opened the floodgates to corporate cash further corrupting our elections .
As constitutional law expert , Bruce Fein noted , Judge Barrett maintained no distance between her and her nominator , President Trump , who stunningly has said , `` I have an Article II , where I have the right @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . ''
As a presidential tyrant , Trump knew how to choose a judicial nominee who is not likely to reject tyranny .
Except for Senator Sheldon Whitehouse ( D-RI ) , the Democrats , as they have in previous Supreme Court nomination hearings , declined to question Judge Barrett about rampant corporate crime , and corporate personhood harming all Americans .
Corporate power and control are scraping the rule of law with worsening brazenness , privileges , and immunities .
A 6 to 3 corporatist Court will install an era of corporate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ foundation in our Constitution .
There is no mention , whatsoever , of the words `` corporation '' or `` company '' in the Constitution , the juridical foundation of our Republic .
Treating corporations as artificial entities – as `` persons '' is based on a headnote in the 1886 Supreme Court case , Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Rail Road .
The headnote that was not even part of the Court 's opinion .
This judicial unfortunate and legally suspect twist has been relied on and expanded by generations of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ went to the root of the choice of Judge Barrett .
It 's about power by the few over the many .
The long-driven goal of the Koch Brothers and the Bradley Foundation .
The Democratic Party should have avoided all these losing nomination battles over Trump 's , Neil Gorsuch , Brett Kavanaugh , and now Amy Barrett .
How ?
By handily winning half a dozen Senate seats in 2016 and 2018 that they botched big time .
They even lost seats of sitting Senators Heidi Heitkamp ( D-ND ) , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Bill Nelson ( D-FL ) the latter to then-Governor Rick Scott .
Rick Scott , prior to being governor , was the CEO of Columbia/HCA which under Scott engaged in one of the largest Medicare frauds in history .
The federal government fined Columbia/HCA $ 1.7 billion for this outrageous behavior .
In their own ways , these Senators tried to be Republican-lite by avoiding front-burner issues such as higher minimum wages , law and order for corporate outlaws , full Medicare for All , and the creation of good community-based jobs to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ other much-needed programs could be paid for by restoring corporate taxes to the level they were in the more prosperous nineteen sixties .
Because of the two-party duopoly , our country has been cornered with the `` choice of the lesser of two evils '' as both parties were dialing for the same corporate/commercial campaign dollars .
In 2016 , Bernie Sanders showed that big amounts of money can come from many small donors .
The Democrats are outspending the Republicans in many races , but more than money is needed to win @ @ @ @ @ @ @ letting the worst Republican in Party history win , again and again , control the Congress with one or both Houses , and entrench their clenched-teeth judges for decades ?
Look in the mirror Democrats .
Start self-examining why collectively you 've let the American people down ?
It 's time for the rising movement of elected and grassroots progressive to take over .

In a 1995 book review published in the University of Chicago Law Review, Elena Kagan (now Justice Kagan) wrote about judicial nominees avoiding disclosing their views on legal issues. She said, "[T]he safest and surest route to the prize lay in alternating platitudinous statement and judicious silence. Who would have done anything different, in the absence of pressure from members of Congress?"
This week, nominee to the High Court, Judge Amy Coney Barrett followed the "say-nothing" playbook, through injudicious and repetitious filibustering, essentially claiming that it was improper for a judge "to opine" on matters outside the judicial process.
Really? Judge Barrett "opined" in lectures, interviews, and articles as a judge as have many sitting Supreme Court Justices. Her mentor, Justice Antonin Scalia regularly made controversial declarations at law school addresses and all kinds of other public appearances.
Judge Barrett's hours before the Senate Judiciary Committee were consistently defiant. She refused to answer questions about the legality of intimidating voters, or whether all losing presidents should commit to a peaceful transition of power. Judge Barrett even refused to say whether she accepts the science on the climate crisis because she lacks the expertise on this issue and because it is a controversial topic.
Senator Pat Leahy said, "President Trump claims he has an absolute right to pardon himself. Would you agree, first, that nobody is above the law — not the president, not you, not me — is that correct?" Judge Barrett said she agreed no one is above the law but could not answer the question about a president's pardon powers because "it had never been litigated."
She would not even say that a President cannot unilaterally change the date of the election. Perhaps Judge Barrett should review Article II of the Constitution which empowers Congress to choose the timing of the general election and a law enacted by Congress that requires the election to be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November.
The hearings were truly a travesty. Too few hearing days, exclusion of prominent civic and scholarly critics of her record and statements, and remarkably, the defeatist position by the Democrats. Their repetitive political campaign-related focus on Roe v. Wade and access to abortions, Obamacare, and the Second Amendment was directed to the voters back home. The Republicans did their things for the elections too, led by Chair Lindsey Graham. (This is an important reason why nomination hearings should not be conducted close to elections).
It gets worse. Chair Lindsey Graham pronounced victory for the judge in his opening statement and by their behavior the Democrats largely agreed, using the occasion to share their political views without exposing how a Judge's corporatist ideology can let corporations prevail over workers, consumers, the environment, and the electoral process. Republican Justices on the Supreme Court, most notoriously, in the Citizens United case opened the floodgates to corporate cash further corrupting our elections.
As constitutional law expert, Bruce Fein noted, Judge Barrett maintained no distance between her and her nominator, President Trump, who stunningly has said, "I have an Article II, where I have the right to do whatever I want as president." As a presidential tyrant, Trump knew how to choose a judicial nominee who is not likely to reject tyranny.
Except for Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), the Democrats, as they have in previous Supreme Court nomination hearings, declined to question Judge Barrett about rampant corporate crime, and corporate personhood harming all Americans. Corporate power and control are scraping the rule of law with worsening brazenness, privileges, and immunities.
A 6 to 3 corporatist Court will install an era of corporate supremacy over real people that has no foundation in our Constitution. There is no mention, whatsoever, of the words "corporation" or "company" in the Constitution, the juridical foundation of our Republic. Treating corporations as artificial entities – as "persons" is based on a headnote in the 1886 Supreme Court case, Santa Clara County v. Southern Pacific Rail Road. The headnote that was not even part of the Court's opinion. This judicial unfortunate and legally suspect twist has been relied on and expanded by generations of corporatist Supreme Court Justices.
Senator Whitehouse went to the root of the choice of Judge Barrett. It's about power by the few over the many. The long-driven goal of the Koch Brothers and the Bradley Foundation.
The Democratic Party should have avoided all these losing nomination battles over Trump's, Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and now Amy Barrett. How? By handily winning half a dozen Senate seats in 2016 and 2018 that they botched big time. They even lost seats of sitting Senators Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND), Claire McCaskill (D-MO), and Bill Nelson (D-FL) the latter to then-Governor Rick Scott. Rick Scott, prior to being governor, was the CEO of Columbia/HCA which under Scott engaged in one of the largest Medicare frauds in history. The federal government fined Columbia/HCA $1.7 billion for this outrageous behavior.
In their own ways, these Senators tried to be Republican-lite by avoiding front-burner issues such as higher minimum wages, law and order for corporate outlaws, full Medicare for All, and the creation of good community-based jobs to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. These and other much-needed programs could be paid for by restoring corporate taxes to the level they were in the more prosperous nineteen sixties.
Because of the two-party duopoly, our country has been cornered with the "choice of the lesser of two evils" as both parties were dialing for the same corporate/commercial campaign dollars. In 2016, Bernie Sanders showed that big amounts of money can come from many small donors. The Democrats are outspending the Republicans in many races, but more than money is needed to win elections. What's their excuse for letting the worst Republican in Party history win, again and again, control the Congress with one or both Houses, and entrench their clenched-teeth judges for decades?
Look in the mirror Democrats. Start self-examining why collectively you've let the American people down? It's time for the rising movement of elected and grassroots progressive to take over.


alternet--2020-10-18--Kamala Harris team strikes back after David Perdue's 'incredibly racist' attack on her name

Republican Sen. David Perdue of Georgia was denounced for being `` incredibly racist '' Friday night after he willfully mispronounced the name of his Senate colleague Kamala Harris , the Democrat from California and her party 's vice presidential nominee , at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump .
Perdue—currently in a heated reelection campaign of his own against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff—was just completing his introduction for Trump at the rally in Macon , Georgia when he referred to Harris as `` Kah-mah-lah ?
Kah-MAH-lah ?
Kamala-mala-mala '' and then said : `` I do n't know .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ said the GOP senator `` did n't mean anything by it , '' it was clear from the laughter by the predominantly white Republican crowd that the overt dogwhistle had its intended effect .
As the Washington Post 's White Hosue bureau chief Phil Rucker noted , any feigned ignorance should not be taken seriously .
`` Perdue has served with Kamala Harris in the Senate for four years , '' tweeted Rucker .
`` He knows how to properly pronounce her name . ''
`` Well that is incredibly racist , '' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ secretary , in a tweet responding to Perdue 's comment .
`` Vote him out , '' Singh added , `` and vote for Ossoff . ''
For his part , Ossoff denounced the remarks as part of pattern of discriminatory attacks by Perdue and said Georgians and other Americans `` are better than this . ''
Later Friday night , Ossoff appeared on MSNBC where he further characterized the attack on Harris as the `` kind of vile , race-baiting trash talk '' that Trump `` has unleashed from sitting Republican members @ @ @ @ @ @ @ statement , Nikema Williams , state chairwoman of Georgia 's Democratic Party , said `` Perdue 's intentionally disrespectful mispronunciation of Senator Harris 's name is a bigoted and racist tactic straight from President Trump 's handbook .
He owes Georgians an apology for his offensive display . ''
A Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday showed Osoff , who had been trailing , moving ahead of Perdue with a 6 percentage point lead ( 51 % to 45 % ) , though poll averages show the contenders in more or less a dead heat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .

Republican Sen. David Perdue of Georgia was denounced for being "incredibly racist" Friday night after he willfully mispronounced the name of his Senate colleague Kamala Harris, the Democrat from California and her party's vice presidential nominee, at a campaign rally for President Donald Trump.
Perdue—currently in a heated reelection campaign of his own against Democratic challenger Jon Ossoff—was just completing his introduction for Trump at the rally in Macon, Georgia when he referred to Harris as "Kah-mah-lah? Kah-MAH-lah? Kamala-mala-mala" and then said: "I don't know. Whatever."
Watch:
Sen. David Perdue mispronounces Sen. Kamala Harris's first name youtu.be
While the Perdue campaign said the GOP senator "didn't mean anything by it," it was clear from the laughter by the predominantly white Republican crowd that the overt dogwhistle had its intended effect.
As the Washington Post's White Hosue bureau chief Phil Rucker noted, any feigned ignorance should not be taken seriously. "Perdue has served with Kamala Harris in the Senate for four years," tweeted Rucker. "He knows how to properly pronounce her name."
"Well that is incredibly racist," said Sabrina Singh, Harris' press secretary, in a tweet responding to Perdue's comment. "Vote him out," Singh added, "and vote for Ossoff."
According to CNN:
Kamala is pronounced "'comma-la,' like the punctuation mark," according to the California senator. Harris wrote in the preface of her 2019 memoir, "The Truths We Hold," "First, my name is pronounced 'comma-la,' like the punctuation mark. It means 'lotus flower,' which is a symbol of significance in Indian culture. A lotus grows underwater, its flower rising above the surface while its roots are planted firmly in the river bottom."
If elected in November, Harris will become the nation's first Indian-American vice president, the first Black vice president, the first female vice president and the first Jamaican-American vice president. Harris' father was born in Jamaica and her late mother was born in India.
For his part, Ossoff denounced the remarks as part of pattern of discriminatory attacks by Perdue and said Georgians and other Americans "are better than this." Later Friday night, Ossoff appeared on MSNBC where he further characterized the attack on Harris as the "kind of vile, race-baiting trash talk" that Trump "has unleashed from sitting Republican members of the Senate."
In a statement, Nikema Williams, state chairwoman of Georgia's Democratic Party, said "Perdue's intentionally disrespectful mispronunciation of Senator Harris's name is a bigoted and racist tactic straight from President Trump's handbook. He owes Georgians an apology for his offensive display."
A Quinnipiac poll released Wednesday showed Osoff, who had been trailing, moving ahead of Perdue with a 6 percentage point lead (51% to 45%), though poll averages show the contenders in more or less a dead heat with just over weeks until Election Day.


alternet--2020-10-18--Deregulatory rush shows Trump White House willing to 'scorch the Earth before they go'

With President Donald Trump 's re-election very much in doubt , his administration is rushing to ram through regulatory rollbacks that could adversely affect millions of Americans , the environment , and the ability of Joe Biden—should he win—to pursue his agenda or even undo the damage done over the past four years .
Reporting by the New York Times details how the administration is cutting corners as it scrambles to enact as much of its agenda as possible before ceding power on January 20 if Trump loses the election .
Required public comment periods and detailed analyses , according @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in favor of streamlined approval processes that have left even staunch deregulation defenders sounding the alarm .
`` Two main hallmarks of a good regulation is sound analysis to support the alternatives chosen and extensive public comment to get broader opinion , '' Susan E. Dudley , director of the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center and formerly head of regulation in the George W. Bush White House , told the Times .
`` It is a concern if you are bypassing both of those . ''
Russell Vought , director of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , told the Times that the president has always `` worked quickly ... to grow the economy by removing the mountain of Obama-Biden job-killing regulations . ''
However , critics are warning that some of the proposed changes are being rushed through with insufficient regard to the harm they might cause .
Some of the issues that are raising red flags include : • Refusing to lower limits on dangerous particulate and ozone pollution , which cause thousands of annual premature deaths .
• Determining when workers can be classified as employees or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ drivers from mandatory hour limits and rest periods .
• Placing limits on how science is used in the air pollution rule-making process .
• Expanding regulation of immigrants by requiring citizenship applicants to submit biometric data , by forcing sponsors of immigrants to stay off welfare and prove their financial independence .
In response to the reporting , critics of the administration like writer Matthew Kressel said that it helps make clear that if the Republicans in the White House can not win reelection , they 'll `` scorch the earth before @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a senior fellow at Media Matters for America , tweeted : `` I think people underestimate the amount of time and energy that is going to be needed just to climb out from under the mountain of shit this administration leaves behind . ''
Many of the changes reflect the agendas of the powerful corporate and other business interests whose key players have donated generously to Trump , belying the president 's oft-repeated claim that he is `` draining the swamp . ''
Other regulator rollbacks come despite warnings from career officials @ @ @ @ @ @ @ could cause .
Alarmed by the administration 's rushed rate of regulatory rollbacks , a group of over 15 Democratic senators earlier this month sent a letter ( pdf ) to Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia warning of `` profound economic implications '' for some 143 million U.S. workers that would result from curtailing public comment periods for the proposed rule change regarding independent contractors .
`` Workers across the country deserve a chance to fully examine and properly respond to these potentially radical changes , and a 30-day comment period is not nearly @ @ @ @ @ @ @

With President Donald Trump's re-election very much in doubt, his administration is rushing to ram through regulatory rollbacks that could adversely affect millions of Americans, the environment, and the ability of Joe Biden—should he win—to pursue his agenda or even undo the damage done over the past four years.
Reporting by the New York Timesdetails how the administration is cutting corners as it scrambles to enact as much of its agenda as possible before ceding power on January 20 if Trump loses the election. Required public comment periods and detailed analyses, according to the Times, are being eschewed in favor of streamlined approval processes that have left even staunch deregulation defenders sounding the alarm.
"Two main hallmarks of a good regulation is sound analysis to support the alternatives chosen and extensive public comment to get broader opinion," Susan E. Dudley, director of the George Washington University Regulatory Studies Center and formerly head of regulation in the George W. Bush White House, told the Times. "It is a concern if you are bypassing both of those."
Russell Vought, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, told the Times that the president has always "worked quickly... to grow the economy by removing the mountain of Obama-Biden job-killing regulations."
However, critics are warning that some of the proposed changes are being rushed through with insufficient regard to the harm they might cause. Some of the issues that are raising red flags include:
Refusing to lower limits on dangerous particulate and ozone pollution, which cause thousands of annual premature deaths.
Allowing so-called "bomb trains" that transport highly combustible liquefied natural gas on freight trains.
Determining when workers can be classified as employees or independent contractors.
Exempting certain commercial drivers from mandatory hour limits and rest periods.
Placing limits on how science is used in the air pollution rule-making process.
Expanding regulation of immigrants by requiring citizenship applicants to submit biometric data, by forcing sponsors of immigrants to stay off welfare and prove their financial independence.
In response to the reporting, critics of the administration like writer Matthew Kressel said that it helps make clear that if the Republicans in the White House cannot win reelection, they'll "scorch the earth before they go."
And Matthew Gertz, a senior fellow at Media Matters for America, tweeted: "I think people underestimate the amount of time and energy that is going to be needed just to climb out from under the mountain of shit this administration leaves behind."
Many of the changes reflect the agendas of the powerful corporate and other business interests whose key players have donated generously to Trump, belying the president's oft-repeated claim that he is "draining the swamp." Other regulator rollbacks come despite warnings from career officials within federal agencies about the harm they could cause.
Alarmed by the administration's rushed rate of regulatory rollbacks, a group of over 15 Democratic senators earlier this month sent a letter (pdf) to Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia warning of "profound economic implications" for some 143 million U.S. workers that would result from curtailing public comment periods for the proposed rule change regarding independent contractors.
"Workers across the country deserve a chance to fully examine and properly respond to these potentially radical changes, and a 30-day comment period is not nearly enough," the letter states.