alternet--2020-12-01--We're witnessing a desperate attempt to sabotage Biden's Iran policy in Trump's last days in office

Israel used all four years of Trump 's presidency to entrench its systems of occupation and apartheid .
Now that Joe Biden has won the U.S. election , the assassination of Iran 's top nuclear scientist , likely by Israel with the go-ahead from the US administration , is a desperate attempt to use Trump 's last days in office to sabotage Biden 's chances of successful diplomacy with Iran .
Biden , Congress and the world community ca n't let that happen .
On Friday November 27 , Iran 's top nuclear scientist , Mohsen Fakhrizadeh , was assassinated @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Tehran .
First , a truck with explosives blew up near the car carrying Fakhrizadeh .
Then , gunmen started firing on Fakhrizadeh 's car .
The immediate speculation was that Israel had carried out the attack , perhaps with the support of the Iranian terrorist group the People 's Mujahedin Organization of Iran ( MEK ) .
Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted that there were `` serious indications of [ an ] Israeli role '' in the assassination .
All indications indeed point to Israel .
In 2018 , Israeli @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Fakhrizadeh , as a target of his administration during a presentation in which he claimed that Israel had obtained secret Iranian files that alleged the country was not actually abiding by the Iran Nuclear Deal .
`` Remember that name , Fakhrizadeh .
So here 's his directive , right here , '' Netanyahu said .
Fakhrizadeh was far from the first assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist .
Between 2010 and 2012 , four Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated—Masoud Alimohammadi , Majid Shahriari , Darioush Rezaeinejad and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ the extrajudicial executions , reports were fairly conclusive that Israel , working with the MEK , were behind the killings .
The Israeli government never denied the allegations .
The assassination of Fakhrizadeh also follows reports that the Israeli government recently instructed its senior military officials to prepare for a possible U.S. strike on Iran , likely referring to a narrowly averted plan by President Trump to bomb Iran 's Natanz nuclear site .
Furthermore , there was a clandestine meeting between Netanyahu and Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman .
Among the topics @ @ @ @ @ @ @ countries and their shared antagonism towards Iran .
Israel 's attacks on Iran 's nuclear activities are particularly galling given that Israel , not Iran , is the only country in the Middle East in possession of nuclear weapons , and Israel refuses to sign the International Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons .
Iran , on the other hand , does n't have nuclear weapons and it has opened itself up to the most intrusive international inspections ever implemented .
Adding to this absurd double standard is the intense pressure on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has more nuclear weapons than any country on earth .
Given the close relationship between Netanyahu and Trump , and the seriousness of this attack , it is very likely that this assassination was carried out with the green light from Trump himself .
Trump has spent his time in the White House destroying the progress the Obama administration made in easing the conflict with Iran .
He withdrew from the nuclear deal and imposed an unending stream of crippling sanctions that have affected everything from the price of food and housing , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ medicines during the pandemic .
He has blocked Iran from getting an IMF $ 5 billion emergency loan to deal with the pandemic .
In January , Trump brought the US to the brink of war by assassinating Iranian General Qassem Soleimani , and in an early November meeting with his top security advisors , and right before the assassination of Fakhrizadeh , Trump himself reportedly raised the possibility of a military strike against Iran 's nuclear facilities .
After the news broke of the assassination , Trump expressed implicit approval of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the Israeli Mossad intelligence service , Yossi Melman , who described the killing of Fahkrizadeh as a `` major psychological and professional blow for Iran . ''
Iran has responded to these intense provocations with extreme patience and reserve .
The government was hoping for a change in the White House and Biden 's victory signaled the possibility of both the U.S. and Iran going back into compliance with the nuclear deal .
This recent assassination , however , further strengthens the hands of Iranian hardliners who say it was a mistake @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and that Iran should just leave the nuclear deal and build a nuclear weapon for its own defense .
Iranian-American analyst Negar Mortazavi bemoaned the chilling effect the assassination will have on Iran 's political space .
`` The atmosphere will be even more securitized , civil society and political opposition will be pressured even more , and the anti-West discourse will be strengthened in Iran 's upcoming presidential election , '' she tweeted .
The hardliners already won the majority of seats in the February parliamentary elections and are predicted to win @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So the window for negotiations is a narrow one of four months immediately after Biden 's inauguration .
W. What happens between now and January 20 could derail negotiations before they even start .
Jamal Abdi , president of the National Iranian American Council , said that US and Israeli efforts to sabotage Iran 's nuclear program `` have now morphed into Trump & Netanyahu sabotaging the next US President .
They are trying to goad Iran into provocations & accelerating nuclear work—exactly what they claim to oppose .
Their real fear is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's why U.S. members of Congress , and President-elect Joe Biden himself , must vigorously condemn this act and affirm their commitment to the US rejoining the nuclear deal .
When Israel assassinated other nuclear scientists during the Obama administration , Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denounced the murders , understanding that such illegal actions made negotiations infinitely more difficult .
The European Union , as well as some important US figures have already condemned the attack .
Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy pointed out the risks involved in normalizing assassinations , how the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Iran Nuclear agreement , and how the assassination of General Soleimani backfired from a security standpoint .
Former Obama advisor Ben Rhodes tweeted that it was an `` outrageous action aimed at undermining diplomacy , '' and former CIA head John Brennan called the assassination `` criminal '' and `` highly reckless , '' risking `` lethal retaliation and a new round of regional conflict , '' but rather than putting the responsibility on the U.S. and Israel to stop the provocations , he called on Iran to `` be wise '' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . ''
Many on Twitter have raised the question of what the world response would be if the roles were reversed and Iran assassinated an Israeli nuclear scientist .
Without a doubt , the U.S. administration , whether Democrat or Republican , would be outraged and supportive of a swift military response .
But if we want to avoid escalation , then we must hope that Iran will not retaliate , at least not during Trump 's last days in office .
The only way to stop this crisis from spiraling out of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ condemn the act , and demand a UN investigation and accountability for the perpetrators .
The countries that joined Iran and the United States in signing the 2015 nuclear agreement—Russia , China , Germany , the UK and France—must not only oppose the assassination but publicly recommit to upholding the nuclear deal .
President-elect Joe Biden must send a clear message to Israel that under his administration , these illegal acts will have consequences .
He must also send a clear message to Iran that he intends to quickly re-enter the nuclear deal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ billion IMF loan request , and begin a new era of diplomacy to dial back the intense conflict he inherited from Trump 's recklessness .
Medea Benjamin is cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace , and author of several books , including Inside Iran : The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran .
She is a member of the writers ' group Collective20 .
Ariel Gold is the national co-director of CODEPINK and runs their Peace with Iran campaign .

Israel used all four years of Trump's presidency to entrench its systems of occupation and apartheid. Now that Joe Biden has won the U.S. election, the assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist, likely by Israel with the go-ahead from the US administration, is a desperate attempt to use Trump's last days in office to sabotage Biden's chances of successful diplomacy with Iran. Biden, Congress and the world community can't let that happen.
On Friday November 27, Iran's top nuclear scientist, Mohsen Fakhrizadeh, was assassinated in the Iranian city of Absard outside of Tehran. First, a truck with explosives blew up near the car carrying Fakhrizadeh. Then, gunmen started firing on Fakhrizadeh's car. The immediate speculation was that Israel had carried out the attack, perhaps with the support of the Iranian terrorist group the People's Mujahedin Organization of Iran (MEK). Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif tweeted that there were "serious indications of [an] Israeli role" in the assassination.
All indications indeed point to Israel. In 2018, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu identified this scientist, Fakhrizadeh, as a target of his administration during a presentation in which he claimed that Israel had obtained secret Iranian files that alleged the country was not actually abiding by the Iran Nuclear Deal. "Remember that name, Fakhrizadeh. So here's his directive, right here," Netanyahu said.
Fakhrizadeh was far from the first assassination of an Iranian nuclear scientist. Between 2010 and 2012, four Iranian nuclear scientists were assassinated—Masoud Alimohammadi, Majid Shahriari, Darioush Rezaeinejad and Mostafa Ahmadi Roshan. Though Israel never took official credit for the extrajudicial executions, reports were fairly conclusive that Israel, working with the MEK, were behind the killings. The Israeli government never denied the allegations.
The assassination of Fakhrizadeh also follows reports that the Israeli government recently instructed its senior military officials to prepare for a possible U.S. strike on Iran, likely referring to a narrowly averted plan by President Trump to bomb Iran's Natanz nuclear site. Furthermore, there was a clandestine meeting between Netanyahu and Saudi ruler Mohammed bin Salman. Among the topics of conversation were normalization between the two countries and their shared antagonism towards Iran.
Israel's attacks on Iran's nuclear activities are particularly galling given that Israel, not Iran, is the only country in the Middle East in possession of nuclear weapons, and Israel refuses to sign the International Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. Iran, on the other hand, doesn't have nuclear weapons and it has opened itself up to the most intrusive international inspections ever implemented. Adding to this absurd double standard is the intense pressure on Iran from the United States—a nation that has more nuclear weapons than any country on earth.
Given the close relationship between Netanyahu and Trump, and the seriousness of this attack, it is very likely that this assassination was carried out with the green light from Trump himself. Trump has spent his time in the White House destroying the progress the Obama administration made in easing the conflict with Iran. He withdrew from the nuclear deal and imposed an unending stream of crippling sanctions that have affected everything from the price of food and housing, to Iran's ability to obtain life-saving medicines during the pandemic. He has blocked Iran from getting an IMF $5 billion emergency loan to deal with the pandemic. In January, Trump brought the US to the brink of war by assassinating Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, and in an early November meeting with his top security advisors, and right before the assassination of Fakhrizadeh, Trump himself reportedly raised the possibility of a military strike against Iran's nuclear facilities.
After the news broke of the assassination, Trump expressed implicit approval of the attack by retweeting Israeli journalist and expert on the Israeli Mossad intelligence service, Yossi Melman, who described the killing of Fahkrizadeh as a "major psychological and professional blow for Iran."
Iran has responded to these intense provocations with extreme patience and reserve. The government was hoping for a change in the White House and Biden's victory signaled the possibility of both the U.S. and Iran going back into compliance with the nuclear deal. This recent assassination, however, further strengthens the hands of Iranian hardliners who say it was a mistake to negotiate with the United States, and that Iran should just leave the nuclear deal and build a nuclear weapon for its own defense.
Iranian-American analyst Negar Mortazavi bemoaned the chilling effect the assassination will have on Iran's political space. "The atmosphere will be even more securitized, civil society and political opposition will be pressured even more, and the anti-West discourse will be strengthened in Iran's upcoming presidential election," she tweeted.
The hardliners already won the majority of seats in the February parliamentary elections and are predicted to win the presidential elections scheduled for June. So the window for negotiations is a narrow one of four months immediately after Biden's inauguration. W. What happens between now and January 20 could derail negotiations before they even start.
Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, said that US and Israeli efforts to sabotage Iran's nuclear program "have now morphed into Trump & Netanyahu sabotaging the next US President. They are trying to goad Iran into provocations & accelerating nuclear work—exactly what they claim to oppose. Their real fear is US & Iran talking."
That's why U.S. members of Congress, and President-elect Joe Biden himself, must vigorously condemn this act and affirm their commitment to the US rejoining the nuclear deal. When Israel assassinated other nuclear scientists during the Obama administration, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton denounced the murders, understanding that such illegal actions made negotiations infinitely more difficult.
The European Union, as well as some important US figures have already condemned the attack. Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy pointed out the risks involved in normalizing assassinations, how the killing will make it harder to restart the Iran Nuclear agreement, and how the assassination of General Soleimani backfired from a security standpoint. Former Obama advisor Ben Rhodes tweeted that it was an "outrageous action aimed at undermining diplomacy," and former CIA head John Brennan called the assassination "criminal" and "highly reckless," risking "lethal retaliation and a new round of regional conflict," but rather than putting the responsibility on the U.S. and Israel to stop the provocations, he called on Iran to "be wise" and "resist the urge to respond."
Many on Twitter have raised the question of what the world response would be if the roles were reversed and Iran assassinated an Israeli nuclear scientist. Without a doubt, the U.S. administration, whether Democrat or Republican, would be outraged and supportive of a swift military response. But if we want to avoid escalation, then we must hope that Iran will not retaliate, at least not during Trump's last days in office.
The only way to stop this crisis from spiraling out of control is for the world community to condemn the act, and demand a UN investigation and accountability for the perpetrators. The countries that joined Iran and the United States in signing the 2015 nuclear agreement—Russia, China, Germany, the UK and France—must not only oppose the assassination but publicly recommit to upholding the nuclear deal. President-elect Joe Biden must send a clear message to Israel that under his administration, these illegal acts will have consequences. He must also send a clear message to Iran that he intends to quickly re-enter the nuclear deal, stop blocking Iran's $5 billion IMF loan request, and begin a new era of diplomacy to dial back the intense conflict he inherited from Trump's recklessness.
Medea Benjamin is cofounder of CODEPINK for Peace, and author of several books, including Inside Iran: The Real History and Politics of the Islamic Republic of Iran. She is a member of the writers' group Collective20.
Ariel Gold is the national co-director of CODEPINK and runs their Peace with Iran campaign.


alternet--2020-12-01--'It's over': Biden's win is certified in all key states — and Trump can't handle it

Since Nov. 7 , the result of the 2020 presidential race has been clear : Joe Biden has defeated President Donald Trump by a substantial enough margin that the outcome has never really been in doubt by serious observers .
But on Monday , the results met a new official threshold as Arizona and Wisconsin became the final decisive swing states to certify their votes .
`` All six key states have now certified their election results with Joe Biden as the winner , '' said attorney Marc Elias , who has been involved in key election law cases for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his allies remain 1-39 in court . ''
In addition to the newly certified swing states , Pennsylvania , Michigan , Nevada , and Georgia have also certified Biden as the winner .
Georgia is still undergoing a recount , but it is not expected to affect the result , especially since the state has already conducted an audit of the ballots , carried out by hand , that affirmed a margin for Biden of more than 12,000 votes .
Trump also funded recounts of two counties in Wisconsin , which likewise reaffirmed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being carried out in swing states Trump won and states where the presidential election outcome was never really in doubt .
Usually , the certification of the presidential results is not a newsworthy event , because — aside from the 2000 race , which was exceptionally close and disputed — the loser in the race concedes as soon as the media calls the election .
That makes the formalities of the election process much less interesting to cover .
This year , though , Trump has refused to concede the election and , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ won .
He 's been pushing a slew of ridiculous and clumsy lawsuits , along with a disinformation campaign pushing conspiracy fictions , in an effort to overturn the election , but these baseless maneuvers have consistently failed to move him any closer to staying in power .
The certification of the key results is just another sign that has clownish coup attempt is failing .
In theory , Trump still has some cards he could try to play .
He could try to convince enough electors in the Electoral College to vote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Alternatively , he can try to convince legislatures in states he lost to send alternative slates of electors that really would vote for him rather than Biden .
But there 's not really any mechanism to do this .
Democrats in Congress would have the power to stop it .
And the certification of the official results just makes any effort to overturn the vote all the more pathetic , duplicitous , and untenable .
It 's just not going to work .
`` We still have some mop up legal work @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to say it 's over , '' said Elias .
But Trump is n't handling this news well .
He 's been lashing out at his allies , like Republican Gov .
Brian Kemp of Georgia , for failing to hand him victory , despite the fact that Kemp had no power or authority to do so .
And Republicans seem increasingly worried that Trump is stoking animus among the party 's base for its elected officials , which could undermine their hopes of keeping the two Georgia Senate seats on the ballot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ win both those seats — which looks difficult but not impossible — they 'll take control of the Senate , giving Biden a much freer hand to enact his agenda .
That 's why it should be particularly concerning for Republicans that Trump is retweeting posts like the following , which express doubts about the purpose of voting for the GOP : He lashed out specifically at Arizona Republican Gov .
Doug Ducey on Monday because of his role in certifying the election results .
To be clear , Trump has no grounds @ @ @ @ @ @ @ states except for the fact that he lost .
This is likely doing serious damage to the GOP as a whole , spreading distrust between loyal party voters and the leadership , which has realized it ca n't do anything about Trump 's loss .
But much of GOP leadership , with a few key exceptions , spent far too long tolerating or supporting Trump 's empty talk of a stolen election ; they may find it hard to turn the clock back now and convince their voters to accept an orderly return @ @ @ @

Since Nov. 7, the result of the 2020 presidential race has been clear: Joe Biden has defeated President Donald Trump by a substantial enough margin that the outcome has never really been in doubt by serious observers. But on Monday, the results met a new official threshold as Arizona and Wisconsin became the final decisive swing states to certify their votes.
"All six key states have now certified their election results with Joe Biden as the winner," said attorney Marc Elias, who has been involved in key election law cases for the Democratic Party. "Trump and his allies remain 1-39 in court."
In addition to the newly certified swing states, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, and Georgia have also certified Biden as the winner. Georgia is still undergoing a recount, but it is not expected to affect the result, especially since the state has already conducted an audit of the ballots, carried out by hand, that affirmed a margin for Biden of more than 12,000 votes. Trump also funded recounts of two counties in Wisconsin, which likewise reaffirmed Biden's win. Certifications are also being carried out in swing states Trump won and states where the presidential election outcome was never really in doubt.
Usually, the certification of the presidential results is not a newsworthy event, because — aside from the 2000 race, which was exceptionally close and disputed — the loser in the race concedes as soon as the media calls the election. That makes the formalities of the election process much less interesting to cover. This year, though, Trump has refused to concede the election and, in fact, continues to insist he won. He's been pushing a slew of ridiculous and clumsy lawsuits, along with a disinformation campaign pushing conspiracy fictions, in an effort to overturn the election, but these baseless maneuvers have consistently failed to move him any closer to staying in power. The certification of the key results is just another sign that has clownish coup attempt is failing.
In theory, Trump still has some cards he could try to play. He could try to convince enough electors in the Electoral College to vote for him. But they won't. Alternatively, he can try to convince legislatures in states he lost to send alternative slates of electors that really would vote for him rather than Biden. But there's not really any mechanism to do this. Democrats in Congress would have the power to stop it. And the certification of the official results just makes any effort to overturn the vote all the more pathetic, duplicitous, and untenable. It's just not going to work.
"We still have some mop up legal work to do, but it's fair to say it's over," said Elias.
But Trump isn't handling this news well. He's been lashing out at his allies, like Republican Gov. Brian Kemp of Georgia, for failing to hand him victory, despite the fact that Kemp had no power or authority to do so. And Republicans seem increasingly worried that Trump is stoking animus among the party's base for its elected officials, which could undermine their hopes of keeping the two Georgia Senate seats on the ballot in January runoff. If Democrats can win both those seats — which looks difficult but not impossible — they'll take control of the Senate, giving Biden a much freer hand to enact his agenda.
That's why it should be particularly concerning for Republicans that Trump is retweeting posts like the following, which express doubts about the purpose of voting for the GOP:
He lashed out specifically at Arizona Republican Gov. Doug Ducey on Monday because of his role in certifying the election results. To be clear, Trump has no grounds for objecting to the results in these states except for the fact that he lost.
This is likely doing serious damage to the GOP as a whole, spreading distrust between loyal party voters and the leadership, which has realized it can't do anything about Trump's loss. But much of GOP leadership, with a few key exceptions, spent far too long tolerating or supporting Trump's empty talk of a stolen election; they may find it hard to turn the clock back now and convince their voters to accept an orderly return to electoral politics.


alternet--2020-11-30--GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler's attempt to win over Black voters is completely ridiculous

If Sen. Kelly Loeffler has learned one thing from Donald Trump , it appears to be shameless nerve .
A new ad attempting to woo Black voters in Georgia 's Senate runoff includes this astonishing line , spoken by Janelle King , a Black former deputy state director of the Georgia Republican Party : `` We need someone who understands how to not only write paychecks and sign paychecks , but how it feels like waiting on that paycheck . ''
And Kelly Loeffler is supposed to be that person ?
Loeffler likes to make much of the fact that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ but at this point she is one of the wealthiest , if not the wealthiest , people in Congress—in a Senate that includes Mitt Romney , mind you .
She and her husband have around $ 500 million and live in a 15,000 square foot home that was the most expensive real estate transaction ever in Atlanta .
And even her much-touted farming roots allowed her to pay for graduate school by mortgaging land she 'd inherited .
Waiting on that paycheck does not appear to have been a huge feature of her @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which Loeffler pretends to be a woman of the people to peel Black voters away from the Rev .
Raphael Warnock , a Black man who grew up in public housing—shows the desperation Republicans are feeling in the runoff elections scheduled for Jan. 5 , 2021 .
In another sign of that desperation , Donald Trump Jr. is launching a super PAC focused on the Senate , starting with Georgia .
( Don Jr. 's own rumored Senate aspirations may also be relevant here , to be sure . )
The Save the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ six-figure ad buy on conservative radio stations , then will expand to television and digital with ads featuring Junior himself in an interesting effort to push back on his father 's habit of undermining Republican voters ' faith in the election system .

If Sen. Kelly Loeffler has learned one thing from Donald Trump, it appears to be shameless nerve. A new ad attempting to woo Black voters in Georgia's Senate runoff includes this astonishing line, spoken by Janelle King, a Black former deputy state director of the Georgia Republican Party: "We need someone who understands how to not only write paychecks and sign paychecks, but how it feels like waiting on that paycheck."
And Kelly Loeffler is supposed to be that person?
Loeffler likes to make much of the fact that she grew up on a farm, but at this point she is one of the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest, people in Congress—in a Senate that includes Mitt Romney, mind you. She and her husband have around $500 million and live in a 15,000 square foot home that was the most expensive real estate transaction ever in Atlanta. And even her much-touted farming roots allowed her to pay for graduate school by mortgaging land she'd inherited. Waiting on that paycheck does not appear to have been a huge feature of her life.
This kind of ridiculous ad—in which Loeffler pretends to be a woman of the people to peel Black voters away from the Rev. Raphael Warnock, a Black man who grew up in public housing—shows the desperation Republicans are feeling in the runoff elections scheduled for Jan. 5, 2021. In another sign of that desperation, Donald Trump Jr. is launching a super PAC focused on the Senate, starting with Georgia. (Don Jr.'s own rumored Senate aspirations may also be relevant here, to be sure.)
The Save the U.S. Senate PAC is starting with a six-figure ad buy on conservative radio stations, then will expand to television and digital with ads featuring Junior himself in an interesting effort to push back on his father's habit of undermining Republican voters' faith in the election system.


alternet--2020-12-02--Trump voters know his lies are part of a con game — but they think they're in on the joke

Republican Party muckety-mucks in Georgia are worried about the upcoming Senate runoff elections in January .
No , not about the threat of massive Democratic turnout , which is certainly possible .
They 're worried that their own voters will sink the chances of both Republican incumbents , Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue .
The problem some Republicans perceive is that Donald Trump and the various conspiracy theorists he has empowered keep declaring that the Nov. 3 election was `` rigged '' and that Democrats — especially in cities with large Black populations — are somehow manipulating vote totals .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
But the claim is being pumped throughout right-wing media , from Trump 's Twitter account to Fox News to email lists to all the sleazy sub-Fox knockoffs like Newsmax and OAN to viral Facebook posts .
Polling shows that it 's working , with 63 % of Republican voters claiming they do n't believe the election was `` free and fair . ''
So worry has started to spread among the party elite in Georgia : How can they get GOP voters to turn out , if those voters keep hearing that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ?
Earlier this month , Sophia Tesfaye explained the concerns in Salon , arguing that `` Trump 's attacks on America 's electoral system [ could ] depress GOP turnout , '' because `` the president GOP voters adore has said that America 's elections are rigged . ''
I 'm much more skeptical .
I suspect Republican voters understand full well that Trump and his allies are lying about voter fraud , and they 're playing along because they believe doing so is politically advantageous .
On Jan. 5 , their actions @ @ @ @ @ @ @ turn out to vote in Georgia in huge numbers , because they do n't really believe the elections are rigged .
In Democratic circles , it 's long been a concern that conspiracy theories about elections can discourage voter turnout .
Voting is a chore under the best of circumstances , and long lines and other voter suppression tactics — largely aimed at the Democratic base — can make it a miserable experience .
People are n't going to do it if they 're convinced that voting does n't matter .
As such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ push back hard against conspiracy theories , and even try to avoid talking about long lines at polls or similar impediments , fearing it might scare voters away from even trying .
The difference , however , is that Democratic voters are n't steeped in bad faith the way Republicans are .
But like their elected leaders , they are fluent in speciousness .
They understand that Trump 's conspiracy theories are n't sincere expressions of belief , but shibboleths uttered to score political points and to justify future election cheating .
Republican @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are part of a con game — and they imagine they 're in on the con .
Certainly , since Tesfaye 's article was published , GOP fears have been rising that Trumpian conspiracy theories could cause Perdue and Loeffler to lose to Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and the Rev .
Raphael Warnock ( respectively ) in next month 's special election .
On Thursday , the Washington Post ran a piece of delicious schadenfreude bait , reporting that Perdue and Loeffler are facing a `` conundrum '' by `` asking Trump supporters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voting system their president claims was manipulated to engineer his defeat . ''
`` Would you bother voting in an election you thought was hopelessly corrupt ? ''
Matt Shuham and Kate Riga at Talking Points Memo write in their coverage of this conundrum , pointing out that the situation is even more dire for Republicans when `` even the elected Republican leadership of your state '' is being accused of being in on the conspiracy to steal the election for Democrats .
That 's a reference to Trump 's attacks on Georgia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ State Brad Raffensperger , both Republicans and ( at least until now ) allies of the president .
Some prominent Trump supporters , in fact , are actively discouraging voting in the election .
`` I choose not to vote in another fraudulent election with rigged voting machines & fake mail ballots , '' Lin Wood , a right-wing attorney who represents Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse and has filed lawsuits alleging fraud in the presidential election , tweeted on Sunday .
Another PAC , this one linked to Trump 's nefarious ally Roger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ write in Trump 's name instead of voting for either GOP senatorial candidate .
( It 's hard to say what the point of that would be , other than a theatrical protest : Trump is not a Georgia resident , and write-in votes do n't even count in a two-person runoff election . )
`` Georgia Republicans are now actively pleading with Trump , '' Greg Sargent of the Washington Post writes , hoping that he can `` explain to voters that the voting was actually legitimate in their own state .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Donald Trump Jr. , seemingly undercutting his father 's `` rigged '' narrative , tweeted last week that it was `` NONSENSE '' to say Georgia votes do n't count and that Peach State voters must `` IGNORE those people '' who are spouting conspiracy theories — such as , um , his dad ?
— and come out to vote on Jan. 5 .
But the fact that Don Jr. does n't even seem to register that he 's contradicting his father 's outrageous lies is exactly why I do n't believe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ depress Republican turnout .
Don Jr. clearly understands and expects his audience to understand that Trump is lying about the 2020 election , and that they should go ahead and vote without any worry that Trump actually means what he says or that the elections are actually rigged .
This conclusion is borne out by polling evidence .
For instance , while the majority of Republican voters will insist to pollsters that they believe the election was n't fair , when asked about whether their own vote was counted , a strong majority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ This discrepancy suggests that Republican voters know they 're `` supposed '' to say the election was rigged in Joe Biden 's favor , because saying so pleases their overlord and benefits their medium-term political agenda .
But ultimately , they do n't really believe it .
Then there 's the biggest poll of them all : Election Day .
Despite the fact that Trump has been claiming for years that the election would be `` rigged '' , his voters were not dissuaded from turning out .
On the contrary , Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more than in 2016 and second only to Biden 's 80 million as the largest vote total in American history .
That is n't the behavior of people who actually think their votes will be magically disappeared by the `` deep state . ''
That 's the behavior of people who know perfectly that their votes count — indeed , in the American political system writ large , their votes count disproportionately — and who only say otherwise as a nod and a wink to Trump 's con .
Trust me , I @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the possibility that their anti-democratic conspiracy theories could blow up in the party 's face and cost it control of the Senate .
I cackled through coverage of Perdue and Loeffler 's teams sweating bullets at the thought that infighting will sink their election chances .
But I do n't buy a word of it .
Democrats are going to have to fight tooth and nail to win those Georgia 's runoff races , because Republican voters will turn out in droves .
At the end of the day , the typical GOP @ @ @ @ @ @ @ elections is smoke and mirrors , and will behave accordingly .

Republican Party muckety-mucks in Georgia are worried about the upcoming Senate runoff elections in January. No, not about the threat of massive Democratic turnout, which is certainly possible. They're worried that their own voters will sink the chances of both Republican incumbents, Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue.
The problem some Republicans perceive is that Donald Trump and the various conspiracy theorists he has empowered keep declaring that the Nov. 3 election was "rigged" and that Democrats — especially in cities with large Black populations — are somehow manipulating vote totals.
That's completely false, of course. But the claim is being pumped throughout right-wing media, from Trump's Twitter account to Fox News to email lists to all the sleazy sub-Fox knockoffs like Newsmax and OAN to viral Facebook posts. Polling shows that it's working, with 63% of Republican voters claiming they don't believe the election was "free and fair."
So worry has started to spread among the party elite in Georgia: How can they get GOP voters to turn out, if those voters keep hearing that Democrats are going to steal the election?
Earlier this month, Sophia Tesfaye explained the concerns in Salon, arguing that "Trump's attacks on America's electoral system [could] depress GOP turnout," because "the president GOP voters adore has said that America's elections are rigged."
I'm much more skeptical. I suspect Republican voters understand full well that Trump and his allies are lying about voter fraud, and they're playing along because they believe doing so is politically advantageous. On Jan. 5, their actions will tell the truth: They'll turn out to vote in Georgia in huge numbers, because they don't really believe the elections are rigged.
In Democratic circles, it's long been a concern that conspiracy theories about elections can discourage voter turnout. Voting is a chore under the best of circumstances, and long lines and other voter suppression tactics — largely aimed at the Democratic base — can make it a miserable experience. People aren't going to do it if they're convinced that voting doesn't matter. As such, Democratic politicians and organizers tend to push back hard against conspiracy theories, and even try to avoid talking about long lines at polls or similar impediments, fearing it might scare voters away from even trying.
The difference, however, is that Democratic voters aren't steeped in bad faith the way Republicans are. But like their elected leaders, they are fluent in speciousness. They understand that Trump's conspiracy theories aren't sincere expressions of belief, but shibboleths uttered to score political points and to justify future election cheating. Republican voters understand perfectly that Trump's lies are part of a con game — and they imagine they're in on the con.
Certainly, since Tesfaye's article was published, GOP fears have been rising that Trumpian conspiracy theories could cause Perdue and Loeffler to lose to Democratic challengers Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock (respectively) in next month's special election.
On Thursday, the Washington Post ran a piece of delicious schadenfreude bait, reporting that Perdue and Loeffler are facing a "conundrum" by "asking Trump supporters to put their faith in the same voting system their president claims was manipulated to engineer his defeat."
"Would you bother voting in an election you thought was hopelessly corrupt?" Matt Shuham and Kate Riga at Talking Points Memo write in their coverage of this conundrum, pointing out that the situation is even more dire for Republicans when "even the elected Republican leadership of your state" is being accused of being in on the conspiracy to steal the election for Democrats. That's a reference to Trump's attacks on Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, both Republicans and (at least until now) allies of the president.
Some prominent Trump supporters, in fact, are actively discouraging voting in the election. "I choose not to vote in another fraudulent election with rigged voting machines & fake mail ballots," Lin Wood, a right-wing attorney who represents Kenosha shooter Kyle Rittenhouse and has filed lawsuits alleging fraud in the presidential election, tweeted on Sunday.
Another PAC, this one linked to Trump's nefarious ally Roger Stone, has been encouraging voters to write in Trump's name instead of voting for either GOP senatorial candidate. (It's hard to say what the point of that would be, other than a theatrical protest: Trump is not a Georgia resident, and write-in votes don't even count in a two-person runoff election.)
"Georgia Republicans are now actively pleading with Trump," Greg Sargent of the Washington Post writes, hoping that he can "explain to voters that the voting was actually legitimate in their own state."
Fears are running so high that Donald Trump Jr., seemingly undercutting his father's "rigged" narrative, tweeted last week that it was "NONSENSE" to say Georgia votes don't count and that Peach State voters must "IGNORE those people" who are spouting conspiracy theories — such as, um, his dad? — and come out to vote on Jan. 5.
But the fact that Don Jr. doesn't even seem to register that he's contradicting his father's outrageous lies is exactly why I don't believe that all these bewildering claims will actually depress Republican turnout. Don Jr. clearly understands and expects his audience to understand that Trump is lying about the 2020 election, and that they should go ahead and vote without any worry that Trump actually means what he says or that the elections are actually rigged.
This conclusion is borne out by polling evidence. For instance, while the majority of Republican voters will insist to pollsters that they believe the election wasn't fair, when asked about whether their own vote was counted, a strong majority — 72% — say yes.
This discrepancy suggests that Republican voters know they're "supposed" to say the election was rigged in Joe Biden's favor, because saying so pleases their overlord and benefits their medium-term political agenda. But ultimately, they don't really believe it.
Then there's the biggest poll of them all: Election Day. Despite the fact that Trump has been claiming for years that the election would be "rigged", his voters were not dissuaded from turning out. On the contrary, Trump got 74 million votes, 11 million more than in 2016 and second only to Biden's 80 million as the largest vote total in American history. That isn't the behavior of people who actually think their votes will be magically disappeared by the "deep state." That's the behavior of people who know perfectly that their votes count — indeed, in the American political system writ large, their votes count disproportionately — and who only say otherwise as a nod and a wink to Trump's con.
Trust me, I enjoy reading about Republican panic, and the possibility that their anti-democratic conspiracy theories could blow up in the party's face and cost it control of the Senate. I cackled through coverage of Perdue and Loeffler's teams sweating bullets at the thought that infighting will sink their election chances. But I don't buy a word of it. Democrats are going to have to fight tooth and nail to win those Georgia's runoff races, because Republican voters will turn out in droves. At the end of the day, the typical GOP voter knows all this talk of rigged elections is smoke and mirrors, and will behave accordingly.


alternet--2020-12-02--Rudy Giuliani discussed a preemptive pardon with Trump: report

Rudy Giuliani , erstwhile spokesperson for LifeLock identity theft protection services and current top lawyer in President Donald Trump 's muddled efforts to overturn his electoral defeat , discussed a preemptive pardon with his boss , according to a new report .
Two individuals told The New York Times that the pair of longtime friends had discussed the possibility as recently as last week , though it was unclear who first raised the topic .
While Giuliani has not been charged with a crime , federal investigators have probed his business dealings abroad , including in connection with his failed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ then-candidate Joe Biden with allegations of corruption .
Giuliani 's efforts led directly to the impeachment of his client , Trump — a process the former U.S. attorney has vigorously defended in numerous TV appearances .
`` # FakeNews NYT lies again .
Never had the discussion they falsely attribute to an anonymous source , '' he posted on Tuesday .
`` Hard to keep up with all their lies . ''
Though an unlimited pardon , which implies admission of a crime , would offer Giuliani blanket immunity , it would also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he were called to testify in any future court proceedings .
Trump last week issued a sweeping pardon to Michael Flynn , his former national security adviser who had sought to overturn a 2017 guilty plea for lying to the FBI about backchannel contacts with the Russian government ahead of the president 's inauguration .
The first appeared in a Department of Justice court filing on Monday , once again asking U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan to dismiss the government 's case against Flynn .
The filing described a `` full and unconditional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ plea to `` any and all possible offenses '' that might arise in connection to the case , as well as `` any and all '' possible future offenses related to the Mueller investigation `` in any manner '' — including grand jury proceedings .
In addition to the Russia-related charges , Flynn faced possible criminal liability for failing to register as a foreign agent for his work on behalf of the Turkish government during the 2016 election , when he was the Trump campaign 's top national security adviser .
Giuliani 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
A pardon ahead of unspecified charges would appear to stand out in U.S. history .
Former President George Washington preemptively pardoned members of the Whiskey Rebellion for treason , and former President Jimmy Carter preemptively pardoned thousands of Americans who avoided draft during the Vietnam War .
The closest example would appear to be former President Gerald Ford 's preemptive pardon of former President Richard Nixon .
Nixon , however , faced clear legal jeopardy for obstruction of the Watergate investigation .
Any criminal liability for Giuliani is at this point speculative @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
According to interviews conducted by Salon with individuals familiar with the case and multiple news reports , Giuliani 's business dealings have been subject of subpoenas from the Southern District of New York — the very office he once led .
That probe grew out of the arrest of former Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman , who were booked one year ago on unrelated campaign finance charges at a Washington-area airport as they waited to board a flight to Vienna .
Their arrests came as impeachment hearings heated up in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ met Giuliani for drinks at Trump 's Washington hotel .
`` He 's not concerned about this investigation , because he did n't do anything wrong and that 's been our position from Day 1 , '' Robert Costello , Giuliani 's personal attorney , told The Times on Tuesday .
Additionally , CNN reported last month that FBI agents in New York revisited witnesses with new questions about Giuliani 's efforts in Ukraine and possible links to Russian intelligence .
The agents reportedly inquired about the source of communications and images which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hunter Biden 's hard drive .
Salon reported in October that Giuliani had declined similar material in May 2019 , citing concerns about reliability , as well as connections to Russian intelligence .
Politico later matched that report .
Giuliani 's communications director did not reply to Salon 's request for comment for this article .

Rudy Giuliani, erstwhile spokesperson for LifeLock identity theft protection services and current top lawyer in President Donald Trump's muddled efforts to overturn his electoral defeat, discussed a preemptive pardon with his boss, according to a new report.
Two individuals told The New York Times that the pair of longtime friends had discussed the possibility as recently as last week, though it was unclear who first raised the topic.
While Giuliani has not been charged with a crime, federal investigators have probed his business dealings abroad, including in connection with his failed attempts in Ukraine last year to smear then-candidate Joe Biden with allegations of corruption. Giuliani's efforts led directly to the impeachment of his client, Trump — a process the former U.S. attorney has vigorously defended in numerous TV appearances.
Giuliani denied report in a tweet decrying alleged "fake news."
"#FakeNews NYT lies again. Never had the discussion they falsely attribute to an anonymous source," he posted on Tuesday. "Hard to keep up with all their lies."
Though an unlimited pardon, which implies admission of a crime, would offer Giuliani blanket immunity, it would also prevent him from pleading the Fifth if he were called to testify in any future court proceedings.
Trump last week issued a sweeping pardon to Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser who had sought to overturn a 2017 guilty plea for lying to the FBI about backchannel contacts with the Russian government ahead of the president's inauguration.
The formal language of that pardon first appeared in a Department of Justice court filing on Monday, once again asking U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan to dismiss the government's case against Flynn.
The filing described a "full and unconditional pardon" which extended beyond Flynn's plea to "any and all possible offenses" that might arise in connection to the case, as well as "any and all" possible future offenses related to the Mueller investigation "in any manner" — including grand jury proceedings.
In addition to the Russia-related charges, Flynn faced possible criminal liability for failing to register as a foreign agent for his work on behalf of the Turkish government during the 2016 election, when he was the Trump campaign's top national security adviser.
Giuliani's legal exposure, however, appears unclear. A pardon ahead of unspecified charges would appear to stand out in U.S. history. Former President George Washington preemptively pardoned members of the Whiskey Rebellion for treason, and former President Jimmy Carter preemptively pardoned thousands of Americans who avoided draft during the Vietnam War. The closest example would appear to be former President Gerald Ford's preemptive pardon of former President Richard Nixon.
Nixon, however, faced clear legal jeopardy for obstruction of the Watergate investigation. Any criminal liability for Giuliani is at this point speculative, as far as public reporting goes.
According to interviews conducted by Salon with individuals familiar with the case and multiple news reports, Giuliani's business dealings have been subject of subpoenas from the Southern District of New York — the very office he once led.
That probe grew out of the arrest of former Giuliani associates Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, who were booked one year ago on unrelated campaign finance charges at a Washington-area airport as they waited to board a flight to Vienna. Their arrests came as impeachment hearings heated up in Congress — and one day after they met Giuliani for drinks at Trump's Washington hotel.
"He's not concerned about this investigation, because he didn't do anything wrong and that's been our position from Day 1," Robert Costello, Giuliani's personal attorney, told The Times on Tuesday.
Additionally, CNN reported last month that FBI agents in New York revisited witnesses with new questions about Giuliani's efforts in Ukraine and possible links to Russian intelligence. The agents reportedly inquired about the source of communications and images which Giuliani pulled from what he said was Hunter Biden's hard drive.
Salon reported in October that Giuliani had declined similar material in May 2019, citing concerns about reliability, as well as connections to Russian intelligence. Politico later matched that report.
Giuliani's communications director did not reply to Salon's request for comment for this article.


alternet--2020-12-01--Bombshell filing reveals the DOJ is investigating a potential 'bribery conspiracy' for a presidentia

Bombshell filing reveals the DOJ is investigating a potential 'bribery conspiracy' for a presidential pardon

A new , heavily redacted filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia revealed on Tuesday that the Justice Department is seriously investigating a potential `` bribery conspiracy scheme '' relating to a presidential pardon .
The document were first publicized by CNN .
The names of individuals involved in the investigation have been redacted throughout the documents since they have n't been charged at this point with any crimes .
President Donald Trump 's name does not appear in the filing .
But of course , only a president can issue a presidential pardon .
A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ also suggests that the Justice Department is investigating whether two people whose names are redacted `` acted as lobbyists to senior White House officials , without complying with the registration requirement of the Lobbying Disclosure Act . ''
The investigators are pursuing what the judge referred to as a `` Bribery-for-pardon scheme '' in which a person whose name is redacted `` would offer a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence for [ redacted ] . ''
A footnote indicates that the government has submitted emails @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a pardon .
Instead , the judge wrote , they `` indicate that [ redacted ] expected [ redacted ] to assist in obtaining clemency for [ redacted ] due to [ redacted ] 's past substantial campaign contributions [ extensive redaction ] and [ redacted ] 's anticipated future substantial political contributions . ''
The memorandum suggests that the person seeking a pardon has already been charged and sentenced for a crime .
It also suggests the person in question is already in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the opinion was whether certain evidence , obtained by investigators with a search warrant , should be covered by attorney-client privilege .
Her discussion of the issue suggests that an attorney , possibly working for the president , was involved .
However , she also says that the involvement of a third-party in the communications nullifies the attorney-client protection .

A new, heavily redacted filing in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia revealed on Tuesday that the Justice Department is seriously investigating a potential "bribery conspiracy scheme" relating to a presidential pardon. The document were first publicized by CNN.
The names of individuals involved in the investigation have been redacted throughout the documents since they haven't been charged at this point with any crimes. President Donald Trump's name does not appear in the filing. But of course, only a president can issue a presidential pardon.
A memorandum opinion from Chief Judge Beryl Howell also suggests that the Justice Department is investigating whether two people whose names are redacted "acted as lobbyists to senior White House officials, without complying with the registration requirement of the Lobbying Disclosure Act."
The investigators are pursuing what the judge referred to as a "Bribery-for-pardon scheme" in which a person whose name is redacted "would offer a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence for [redacted]." A footnote indicates that the government has submitted emails do not show a direct payment for a pardon. Instead, the judge wrote, they "indicate that [redacted] expected [redacted] to assist in obtaining clemency for [redacted] due to [redacted]'s past substantial campaign contributions [extensive redaction] and [redacted]'s anticipated future substantial political contributions."
The memorandum suggests that the person seeking a pardon has already been charged and sentenced for a crime. It also suggests the person in question is already in the custody of the Bureau of Prisons.
The heart of the question Howell was addressing in the opinion was whether certain evidence, obtained by investigators with a search warrant, should be covered by attorney-client privilege. Her discussion of the issue suggests that an attorney, possibly working for the president, was involved. However, she also says that the involvement of a third-party in the communications nullifies the attorney-client protection.


alternet--2020-12-01--The rise and fall of American empire: Trump brought a message from hell to a failing planet

We 're nw living in an age of opacity , as Rudy Giuliani pointed out in a courtroom recently .
Here was the exchange : Big words indeed !
And he could n't have been more on the mark , whether he knew it or not .
Thanks in part to him and to the president he 's represented so avidly , even as hair dye or mascara dripped down his face , we find ourselves in an era in which , to steal a biblical phrase from Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman , all of us see as if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ As in Election Campaign 2016 , Donald Trump is n't the cause but a symptom ( though what a symptom ! )
of an American world going down .
Then as now , he somehow gathered into his one-and-only self so many of the worst impulses of a country that , in this century , found itself eternally at war not just with Afghans and Iraqis and Syrians and Somalis but increasingly with itself , a true heavyweight of a superpower already heading down for the count .
Here 's a little of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about The Donald , a reminder that what 's happening now , bizarre as it might seem , was n't beyond imagining even so many years ago : Even then , it should have been obvious that Donald Trump was , as I also wrote in that campaign year , a wildly self-absorbed symptom of American-style imperial decline on a planet increasingly from hell .
And that , of course , was four years before the pandemic struck or there was a wildfire season in the West the likes of which no one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ storms that more or less used up two alphabets in a never-ending hurricane season .
In the most literal sense possible , The Donald was our first presidential candidate of imperial decline and so a genuine sign of the times .
He swore he would make America great again , and in doing so , he alone , among American politicians of that moment , admitted that this country was n't great then , that it was n't , as the rest of the American political class claimed , the greatest , most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the sole superpower left on Planet Earth .
An American World Without `` New Deals '' ( Except for Billionaires ) In that campaign year , the United States was already something else again and that was more than four years before the richest , most powerful country on the planet could n't handle a virus in a fashion the way other advanced nations did .
Instead , it set staggering records for Covid-19 cases and deaths , numbers that previously might have been associated with third-world countries .
You can practically @ @ @ @ @ @ @ continue to rise exponentially : USA !
USA !
We 're still number one ( in pandemic casualties ) !
Somehow , in that pre-pandemic year , a billionaire bankruptee and former reality TV host instinctively caught the mood of the moment in an ever-less-unionized American heartland , long in decline if you were an ordinary citizen .
By then , the abandonment of the white working class and lower middle class by the `` new Democrats '' was history .
The party of Bill and Hillary Clinton had long been , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , `` preaching competence rather than ideology and reaching out to new constituencies : the enlightened suburbanites ; the 'wired workers ' ; the 'learning class ' ; the winners in our new post-industrial society . ''
Donald Trump arrived on the scene promising to attend to the abandoned ones , the white Americans whose dreams of better lives for themselves or their children had largely been left in the dust in an ever-more-unequal country .
Increasingly embittered , they were , at best , taken totally for granted by the former party @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the 2016 campaign , Hillary Clinton did n't even consider it worth the bother to visit Wisconsin and her campaign underplayed the very idea of focusing on key heartland states . )
In the twenty-first century , there were to be no `` new deals '' for them and they knew it .
They had been losing ground -- to the tune of $ 2.5 trillion a year since 1975 -- to the very billionaires whom The Donald so proudly proclaimed himself one of and to a version of corporate America that had @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in a fashion that would have been unimaginable decades earlier .
On entering the Oval Office , Trump would still offer them blunt words , which would ring bells in rally after rally where they could cheer him to death .
At the same time , with the help of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell , he continued the process of abandonment by handing a staggering tax cut to the 1 % and those very same corporations , enriching them ever so much more .
So , of course , would the pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the fortunes of billionaires and various corporate giants ( while granting the front-line workers who kept those companies afloat only the most meager and passing `` hazard pay '' ) .
Today , the coronavirus here in the United States might be more accurately relabeled `` the Trump virus . ''
After all , the president really did make it his own in a unique fashion .
Via ignorance , neglect , and a striking lack of care , he managed to spread it around the country ( and , of course @ @ @ @ @ @ @ record ways , holding rallies that were visibly instruments of death and destruction .
All of this would have been clearer yet if , in Election Campaign 2020 , he had just replaced MAGA as his slogan with MASA ( Make America Sick Again ) , since the country was still going down , just in a new way .
In other words , ever since 2016 , Donald Trump , wrapped up eternally in his own overwrought self , has come to personify the very essence of a bifurcated country that was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if you were n't part of that up , up , up 1 % .
The moment when he returned from the hospital , having had Covid-19 himself , stepped out on a White House balcony , and proudly tore off his mask for all the world to see summed up the messaging of this all-American twenty-first-century moment perfectly .
Unique as Donald Trump may seem in this moment and overwhelming as Covid-19 might be for now , the American story of recent years is anything but unique in history , at least @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black Death ( bubonic plague ) of the fourteenth century to the Spanish Flu of the early twentieth century , pandemics have , in their own fashion , been a dime a dozen .
And as for foolish rulers who made a spectacle of themselves , well , the Romans had their Nero and he was anything but unique in the annals of history .
As for going down , down , down , that 's in the nature of history .
Known once upon a time as `` imperial powers '' or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ call `` great powers '' or `` superpowers '' rise , have their moments in the sun ( even if it 's the shade for so many of those they rule over ) , and then fall , one and all .
Were that not so , Edward Gibbon 's classic six-volume work , The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire , would never have gained the fame it did in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries .
Across the planet and across time , that imperial rising and falling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , part of humanity 's story since practically the dawn of history .
It was certainly the story of China , repeatedly , and definitely the tale of the ancient Middle East .
It was the essence of the history of Europe from the Portuguese and Spanish empires to the English empire that arose in the 18th century and finally fell ( in essence , to our own ) in the middle of the last century .
And do n't forget that other superpower of the Cold War , the Soviet Union , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Revolution of 1917 and grew and grew , only to implode in 1991 , after a ( gulp ! )
disastrous war in Afghanistan , less than 70 years later .
And none of this , as I say , is in itself anything special , not even for a genuinely global power like the United States .
( What other country ever had at least 800 military garrisons spread across the whole planet ? )
If this were history as it 's always been , the only real shock would perhaps be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by this country 's leadership and the pundit class that went with it after that other Cold War superpower so surprisingly blew a fuse .
In the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the Soviet Union 's plunge to its grave in 1991 , leaving behind an impoverished place once again known as `` Russia , '' they engaged in distinctly delusional behavior .
They convinced themselves that history as it had always been known , the very rise and fall and rise ( and fall ) that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ somehow `` ended '' with this country atop everything forever and beyond .
Not quite three decades later , in the midst of a set of `` forever wars '' in which the U.S. managed to impose its will on essentially no one and in an increasingly chaotic , riven , pandemicized country , who does n't doubt that this was delusionary thinking of the first order ?
Even at the time , it should have been obvious enough that the United States would sooner or later follow the Soviet Union to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ enveloped in a kind of self-adoration .
A quarter-century later , Donald Trump would be the living evidence that this country was anything but immune to history , though few then recognized him as a messenger of the fall already underway .
Four years after that , in a pandemicized land , its economy a wreck , its military power deeply frustrated , its people divided , angry , and increasingly well-armed , that sense of failing ( already felt so strongly in the American heartland that welcomed The Donald in 2016 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ thing .
It feels more like the new us -- as in U.S .
Despite the oddity of The Donald himself , all of this would just be more of the same , if it were n't for one thing .
There 's an extra factor now at work that 's all but guaranteed to make the history of the decline and fall of the American empire different from the declines and falls of centuries past .
And no , it has next to nothing to do with ( blare of trumpets !
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ long ago reject climate change as a `` Chinese hoax '' and , in every way possible , thanks to his love of fossil fuels , give it as much of a helping hand as he could , opening oil lands of every sort to the drill , and dismissing environmental regulations that might have impeded the giant energy companies .
And do n't forget his mad mockery of alternative power of any sort .
I could go on , of course , but why bother .
You know this part of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Yes , in its own distinctive fashion , the U.S. is going down and will do so whether Donald Trump , Joe Biden , or Mitch McConnell is running the show .
But here 's what 's new : for the first time , a great imperial power is falling just as the earth , at least as humanity has known it all these thousands of years , seems to be going down , too .
And that means there will be no way , no matter what The Donald may think @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fires , or floods , mega-droughts , melting ice shelves and the rising sea levels that go with them , record temperatures , and so much more , including the hundreds of millions of people who are likely to be displaced across a failing planet , thanks to those greenhouse gases released by the burning of the fossil fuels that Donald Trump loves so much .
Undoubtedly , the first genuine twist in the rise-and-fall version of human history -- the first story , that is , that was potentially all about falling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , 1945 when the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki .
It soon became apparent that such weaponry , collected in vast and spreading arsenals , had ( and still has ) the power to quite literally take history out of our hands .
In this century , even a `` limited '' regional war with such weaponry could create a nuclear winter that might starve billions .
That version of Armageddon has at least been postponed time and again since August 1945 , but as it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coming up with another version of ultimate disaster , even if its effects , no less calamitous , happen not with the speed of an exploding nuclear weapon , but over the years , the decades , the centuries .
Donald Trump was the messenger from hell when it came to a falling empire on a failing planet .
Whether , on such a changing world , the next empire or empires , China or unknown powers to come , can rise in the normal fashion remains to be seen .
As does @ @ @ @ @ @ @ some other way of organizing human life , some potentially better , more empathetic way of dealing with the world and ourselves will be found .
Just know that the rise and fall of history , as it always was , is no more .
The rest , I suppose , is still ours to discover , for better or for worse .
Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of a history of the Cold War , The End of Victory Culture .
He runs TomDispatch @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Media Center .
His sixth and latest book is A Nation Unmade by War .
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook .
Check out the newest Dispatch Books , John Feffer 's new dystopian novel ( the second in the Splinterlands series ) Frostlands , Beverly Gologorsky 's novel Every Body Has a Story , and Tom Engelhardt 's A Nation Unmade by War , as well as Alfred McCoy 's In the Shadows of the American Century : The Rise and Decline of U.S .
Global Power and John @ @ @ @ @ @ @ War and Terror Since World War II .

We're nw living in an age of opacity, as Rudy Giuliani pointed out in a courtroom recently. Here was the exchange:
"'In the plaintiffs' counties, they were denied the opportunity to have an unobstructed observation and ensure opacity,' Giuliani said. 'I'm not quite sure I know what opacity means. It probably means you can see, right?'
"'It means you can't,' said U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann.
"'Big words, your honor,' Giuliani said."
Big words indeed! And he couldn't have been more on the mark, whether he knew it or not. Thanks in part to him and to the president he's represented so avidly, even as hair dye or mascara dripped down his face, we find ourselves in an era in which, to steal a biblical phrase from Swedish film director Ingmar Bergman, all of us see as if "through a glass darkly."
As in Election Campaign 2016, Donald Trump isn't the cause but a symptom (though what a symptom!) of an American world going down. Then as now, he somehow gathered into his one-and-only self so many of the worst impulses of a country that, in this century, found itself eternally at war not just with Afghans and Iraqis and Syrians and Somalis but increasingly with itself, a true heavyweight of a superpower already heading down for the count.
Here's a little of what I wrote back in June 2016 about The Donald, a reminder that what's happening now, bizarre as it might seem, wasn't beyond imagining even so many years ago:
"It's been relatively easy... -- at least until Donald Trump arrived to the stunned fascination of the country (not to speak of the rest of the planet) -- to imagine that we live in a peaceable land with most of its familiar markers still reassuringly in place... In truth, however, the American world is coming to bear ever less resemblance to the one we still claim as ours, or rather that older America looks increasingly like a hollowed-out shell within which something new and quite different has been gestating.
"After all, can anyone really doubt that representative democracy as it once existed has been eviscerated and is now -- consider Congress Exhibit A -- in a state of advanced paralysis, or that just about every aspect of the country's infrastructure is slowly fraying or crumbling and that little is being done about it? Can anyone doubt that the constitutional system -- take war powers as a prime example or, for that matter, American liberties -- has also been fraying? Can anyone doubt that the country's classic tripartite form of government, from a Supreme Court missing a member by choice of Congress to a national security state that mocks the law, is ever less checked and balanced and increasingly more than 'tri'?"
Even then, it should have been obvious that Donald Trump was, as I also wrote in that campaign year, a wildly self-absorbed symptom of American-style imperial decline on a planet increasingly from hell. And that, of course, was four years before the pandemic struck or there was a wildfire season in the West the likes of which no one had imagined possible and a record 30 storms that more or less used up two alphabets in a never-ending hurricane season.
In the most literal sense possible, The Donald was our first presidential candidate of imperial decline and so a genuine sign of the times. He swore he would make America great again, and in doing so, he alone, among American politicians of that moment, admitted that this country wasn't great then, that it wasn't, as the rest of the American political class claimed, the greatest, most exceptional, most indispensible country in history, the sole superpower left on Planet Earth.
An American World Without "New Deals" (Except for Billionaires)
In that campaign year, the United States was already something else again and that was more than four years before the richest, most powerful country on the planet couldn't handle a virus in a fashion the way other advanced nations did. Instead, it set staggering records for Covid-19 cases and deaths, numbers that previously might have been associated with third-world countries. You can practically hear the chants now as those figures continue to rise exponentially: USA! USA! We're still number one (in pandemic casualties)!
Somehow, in that pre-pandemic year, a billionaire bankruptee and former reality TV host instinctively caught the mood of the moment in an ever-less-unionized American heartland, long in decline if you were an ordinary citizen. By then, the abandonment of the white working class and lower middle class by the "new Democrats" was history. The party of Bill and Hillary Clinton had long been, as Thomas Frank wrote recently in the Guardian, "preaching competence rather than ideology and reaching out to new constituencies: the enlightened suburbanites; the 'wired workers'; the 'learning class'; the winners in our new post-industrial society."
Donald Trump arrived on the scene promising to attend to the abandoned ones, the white Americans whose dreams of better lives for themselves or their children had largely been left in the dust in an ever-more-unequal country. Increasingly embittered, they were, at best, taken totally for granted by the former party of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. (In the 2016 campaign, Hillary Clinton didn't even consider it worth the bother to visit Wisconsin and her campaign underplayed the very idea of focusing on key heartland states.) In the twenty-first century, there were to be no "new deals" for them and they knew it. They had been losing ground -- to the tune of $2.5 trillion a year since 1975 -- to the very billionaires whom The Donald so proudly proclaimed himself one of and to a version of corporate America that had grown oversized, wealthy, and powerful in a fashion that would have been unimaginable decades earlier.
On entering the Oval Office, Trump would still offer them blunt words, which would ring bells in rally after rally where they could cheer him to death. At the same time, with the help of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, he continued the process of abandonment by handing a staggering tax cut to the 1% and those very same corporations, enriching them ever so much more. So, of course, wouldthe pandemic, which only added yet more billions to the fortunes of billionaires and various corporate giants (while granting the front-line workers who kept those companies afloat only the most meager and passing "hazard pay").
Today, the coronavirus here in the United States might be more accurately relabeled "the Trump virus." After all, the president really did make it his own in a unique fashion. Via ignorance, neglect, and a striking lack of care, he managed to spread it around the country (and, of course, the White House itself) in record ways, holding rallies that were visibly instruments of death and destruction. All of this would have been clearer yet if, in Election Campaign 2020, he had just replaced MAGA as his slogan with MASA (Make America Sick Again), since the country was still going down, just in a new way.
In other words, ever since 2016, Donald Trump, wrapped up eternally in his own overwrought self, has come to personify the very essence of a bifurcated country that was heading down, down, down, if you weren't part of that up, up, up 1%. The moment when he returned from the hospital, having had Covid-19 himself, stepped out on a White House balcony, and proudly tore off his mask for all the world to see summed up the messaging of this all-American twenty-first-century moment perfectly.
Waving Goodbye to the American Moment
Unique as Donald Trump may seem in this moment and overwhelming as Covid-19 might be for now, the American story of recent years is anything but unique in history, at least as so far described. From the Black Death (bubonic plague) of the fourteenth century to the Spanish Flu of the early twentieth century, pandemics have, in their own fashion, been a dime a dozen. And as for foolish rulers who made a spectacle of themselves, well, the Romans had their Nero and he was anything but unique in the annals of history.
As for going down, down, down, that's in the nature of history. Known once upon a time as "imperial powers" or "empires," what we now call "great powers" or "superpowers" rise, have their moments in the sun (even if it's the shade for so many of those they rule over), and then fall, one and all. Were that not so, Edward Gibbon's classic six-volume work, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, would never have gained the fame it did in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Across the planet and across time, that imperial rising and falling has been an essential, even metronomic, part of humanity's story since practically the dawn of history. It was certainly the story of China, repeatedly, and definitely the tale of the ancient Middle East. It was the essence of the history of Europe from the Portuguese and Spanish empires to the English empire that arose in the 18th century and finally fell (in essence, to our own) in the middle of the last century. And don't forget that other superpower of the Cold War, the Soviet Union, which came into being after the Russian Revolution of 1917 and grew and grew, only to implode in 1991, after a (gulp!) disastrous war in Afghanistan, less than 70 years later.
And none of this, as I say, is in itself anything special, not even for a genuinely global power like the United States. (What other country ever had at least 800 military garrisons spread across the whole planet?) If this were history as it's always been, the only real shock would perhaps be the strikingly bizarre sense of self-adulation felt by this country's leadership and the pundit class that went with it after that other Cold War superpower so surprisingly blew a fuse. In the wake of the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 and the Soviet Union's plunge to its grave in 1991, leaving behind an impoverished place once again known as "Russia," they engaged in distinctly delusional behavior. They convinced themselves that history as it had always been known, the very rise and fall and rise (and fall) that had been its repetitious tune, had somehow "ended" with this country atop everything forever and beyond.
Not quite three decades later, in the midst of a set of "forever wars" in which the U.S. managed to impose its will on essentially no one and in an increasingly chaotic, riven, pandemicized country, who doesn't doubt that this was delusionary thinking of the first order? Even at the time, it should have been obvious enough that the United States would sooner or later follow the Soviet Union to the exits, no matter how slowly, enveloped in a kind of self-adoration.
A quarter-century later, Donald Trump would be the living evidence that this country was anything but immune to history, though few then recognized him as a messenger of the fall already underway. Four years after that, in a pandemicized land, its economy a wreck, its military power deeply frustrated, its people divided, angry, and increasingly well-armed, that sense of failing (already felt so strongly in the American heartland that welcomed The Donald in 2016) no longer seems like such an alien thing. It feels more like the new us -- as in U.S.
Despite the oddity of The Donald himself, all of this would just be more of the same, if it weren't for one thing. There's an extra factor now at work that's all but guaranteed to make the history of the decline and fall of the American empire different from the declines and falls of centuries past. And no, it has next to nothing to do with (blare of trumpets!) Donald Trump, though he did long ago reject climate change as a "Chinese hoax" and, in every way possible, thanks to his love of fossil fuels, give it as much of a helping hand as he could, opening oil lands of every sort to the drill, and dismissing environmental regulations that might have impeded the giant energy companies. And don't forget his mad mockery of alternative power of any sort.
I could go on, of course, but why bother. You know this part of the story well. You're living it.
Yes, in its own distinctive fashion, the U.S. is going down and will do so whether Donald Trump, Joe Biden, or Mitch McConnell is running the show. But here's what's new: for the first time, a great imperial power is falling just as the earth, at least as humanity has known it all these thousands of years, seems to be going down, too. And that means there will be no way, no matter what The Donald may think, to wall out intensifying storms, fires, or floods, mega-droughts, melting ice shelves and the rising sea levels that go with them, record temperatures, and so much more, including the hundreds of millions of people who are likely to be displaced across a failing planet, thanks to those greenhouse gases released by the burning of the fossil fuels that Donald Trump loves so much.
Undoubtedly, the first genuine twist in the rise-and-fall version of human history -- the first story, that is, that was potentially all about falling -- arrived on August 6th and 9th, 1945 when the U.S. dropped nuclear bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. It soon became apparent that such weaponry, collected in vast and spreading arsenals, had (and still has) the power to quite literally take history out of our hands. In this century, even a "limited" regional war with such weaponry could create a nuclear winter that might starve billions. That version of Armageddon has at least been postponed time and again since August 1945, but as it happened, humanity proved quite capable of coming up with another version of ultimate disaster, even if its effects, no less calamitous, happen not with the speed of an exploding nuclear weapon, but over the years, the decades, the centuries.
Donald Trump was the messenger from hell when it came to a falling empire on a failing planet. Whether, on such a changing world, the next empire or empires, China or unknown powers to come, can rise in the normal fashion remains to be seen. As does whether, on such a planet, some other way of organizing human life, some potentially better, more empathetic way of dealing with the world and ourselves will be found.
Just know that the rise and fall of history, as it always was, is no more. The rest, I suppose, is still ours to discover, for better or for worse.
Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of a history of the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture. He runs TomDispatchand is a fellow of the Type Media Center. His sixth and latest book is A Nation Unmade by War.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Books, John Feffer's new dystopian novel (the second in the Splinterlands series) Frostlands, Beverly Gologorsky's novel Every Body Has a Story, and Tom Engelhardt's A Nation Unmade by War, as well as Alfred McCoy's In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power and John Dower's The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II.
Copyright 2020 Tom Engelhardt


alternet--2020-12-01--'Very bad signs': Columnist warns of a Trump plan for a 'massive, government-wide purge' before leav

'Very bad signs': Columnist warns of a Trump plan for a 'massive, government-wide purge' before leaving

Since the November 3 election , President Donald Trump has fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper , Homeland Security official Chris Krebs and others he considered insufficiently loyal .
But more firings are likely during Trump 's final weeks in office , and Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell is predicting that there will be a lot of them .
`` Trump has been quietly dismantling the entire federal civil service — and possibly laying the groundwork for a massive , government-wide purge on his way out the door , '' Rampell explains .
`` Trump signed a technical-sounding executive order in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ government employees , called 'Schedule F. ' Career civil servants whose jobs include 'policymaking , ' the order said , should be newly reclassified under Schedule F — a designation that would strip them of long-held civil service protections and allow them to be fired with little demonstrated cause or recourse .
Including , presumably , for showing insufficient loyalty to Trump . ''
Rampell observes that Trump `` gave the heads of federal agencies 90 days — that is , until January 19 , Inauguration Eve — to review their personnel rosters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ F. '' According to Rampell , an Office of Management and Budget memo that was leaked last week `` proposed reclassifying 88 % of his agency 's workforce , or 425 employees , under Schedule F. '' '' These are very bad signs , '' Rampell warns .
`` OMB , for example , reaches across nearly every government function , given its involvement in setting budgets and vetting regulations for other agencies .
Had Trump won a second term , he presumably would have used this reclassification to clear out distrusted members @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Trump has been working to politicize traditionally independent agencies , including by 'burrowing ' political appointees into senior civil service jobs for which they 're not qualified . ''
Rampell adds , `` Now that he 's lost , it 's reasonable to wonder if Trump simply plans to fire — and perhaps not replace — as many career experts as possible , leaving Biden with a hollowed-out government unable to perform even its most basic functions .
In other words : a purge . ''
The Post columnist points out that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Partnership for Public Service , has described Trump 's actions as `` crashing the car before turning back the keys . ''
And Rampell notes that a union of federal government employees has `` challenged the Schedule F executive order in court '' and that Democrats `` have tried to block it . ''
`` Presumably , the incoming Biden Administration could reverse Trump 's executive order and try to rehire civil servants fired under it , '' Rampell notes .
`` But in the meantime , a chill is running @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Workers who should be focusing on the country 's health or economic crisis are instead worried about their own job security , and whether it 's still safe to speak truth to power . ''

Since the November 3 election, President Donald Trump has fired Defense Secretary Mark Esper, Homeland Security official Chris Krebs and others he considered insufficiently loyal. But more firings are likely during Trump's final weeks in office, and Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell is predicting that there will be a lot of them.
"Trump has been quietly dismantling the entire federal civil service — and possibly laying the groundwork for a massive, government-wide purge on his way out the door," Rampell explains. "Trump signed a technical-sounding executive order in October that invented a new category of government employees, called 'Schedule F.' Career civil servants whose jobs include 'policymaking,' the order said, should be newly reclassified under Schedule F — a designation that would strip them of long-held civil service protections and allow them to be fired with little demonstrated cause or recourse. Including, presumably, for showing insufficient loyalty to Trump."
Rampell observes that Trump "gave the heads of federal agencies 90 days — that is, until January 19, Inauguration Eve — to review their personnel rosters and decide which roles should be Schedule F." According to Rampell, an Office of Management and Budget memo that was leaked last week "proposed reclassifying 88% of his agency's workforce, or 425 employees, under Schedule F."
"These are very bad signs," Rampell warns. "OMB, for example, reaches across nearly every government function, given its involvement in setting budgets and vetting regulations for other agencies. Had Trump won a second term, he presumably would have used this reclassification to clear out distrusted members of the 'Deep State.' Already, Trump has been working to politicize traditionally independent agencies, including by 'burrowing' political appointees into senior civil service jobs for which they're not qualified."
Rampell adds, "Now that he's lost, it's reasonable to wonder if Trump simply plans to fire — and perhaps not replace — as many career experts as possible, leaving Biden with a hollowed-out government unable to perform even its most basic functions. In other words: a purge."
The Post columnist points out that Max Stier, president and chief executive of the Partnership for Public Service, has described Trump's actions as "crashing the car before turning back the keys." And Rampell notes that a union of federal government employees has "challenged the Schedule F executive order in court" and that Democrats "have tried to block it."
"Presumably, the incoming Biden Administration could reverse Trump's executive order and try to rehire civil servants fired under it," Rampell notes. "But in the meantime, a chill is running through the ranks of the civil service. Workers who should be focusing on the country's health or economic crisis are instead worried about their own job security, and whether it's still safe to speak truth to power."


alternet--2020-12-01--CNN host rains fire on a Republican's attack on a Biden nominee after ignoring Trump's misdeeds

This week , President-elect Joe Biden announced that he plans to nominate Neera Tanden — who heads the Center for America Progress , a liberal think tank — for director of the Office of Management and Budget .
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is highly critical of the nomination , citing Tanden 's `` combative and insulting '' tweets attacking U.S. senators .
But CNN 's Brianna Keilar emphatically called out Cornyn 's hypocrisy by noting some of the many inflammatory things that Cornyn 's ally , President Donald Trump , has said about both Republican and Democratic senators .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ an imperfect messenger here , clutching his pearls in Donald Trump 's oyster bar . ''
And the CNN host went on to play a supercut video that showed Trump insulting and berating one U.S. senator after another , from Elizabeth Warren to Mitt Romney to Bernie Sanders to the late John McCain '' The other ironic part of Cornyn 's Trump amnesia is his sudden attention to Twitter , because this comes on the heels of his pretty noteworthy ignorance of what 's said on the platform , '' Keilar told viewers @ @ @ @ @ @ @ often dodges questions about President Trump 's tweets by pretending he has n't seen them , or dismissing them with ambivalence — sometimes , not so subtly . ''
Keilar made her point by airing a clip of a reporter asking Cornyn if Trump should be `` more cautious about his tweets '' — and Cornyn responded to her by walking away .
But now , as Keilar stressed , Cornyn is very concerned about what Tanden has been tweeting .
Cornyn , Keilar noted , has developed `` a sudden and intense @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the president — Cornyn does n't want to talk about them , does n't want to know about them , he told one reporter .
He said it 's not his job to provide running commentary on the president 's behavior .
But tweets from a prospective budget director , he would like to provide running commentary on her behavior . ''

This week, President-elect Joe Biden announced that he plans to nominate Neera Tanden — who heads the Center for America Progress, a liberal think tank — for director of the Office of Management and Budget. Sen. John Cornyn of Texas is highly critical of the nomination, citing Tanden's "combative and insulting" tweets attacking U.S. senators. But CNN's Brianna Keilar emphatically called out Cornyn's hypocrisy by noting some of the many inflammatory things that Cornyn's ally, President Donald Trump, has said about both Republican and Democratic senators.
Keilar stressed, "Sen. Cornyn is an imperfect messenger here, clutching his pearls in Donald Trump's oyster bar." And the CNN host went on to play a supercut video that showed Trump insulting and berating one U.S. senator after another, from Elizabeth Warren to Mitt Romney to Bernie Sanders to the late John McCain
"The other ironic part of Cornyn's Trump amnesia is his sudden attention to Twitter, because this comes on the heels of his pretty noteworthy ignorance of what's said on the platform," Keilar told viewers. "Like many Republicans, he often dodges questions about President Trump's tweets by pretending he hasn't seen them, or dismissing them with ambivalence — sometimes, not so subtly."
Keilar made her point by airing a clip of a reporter asking Cornyn if Trump should be "more cautious about his tweets" — and Cornyn responded to her by walking away. But now, as Keilar stressed, Cornyn is very concerned about what Tanden has been tweeting.
Cornyn, Keilar noted, has developed "a sudden and intense interest in the Twittersphere. Tweets from the president — Cornyn doesn't want to talk about them, doesn't want to know about them, he told one reporter. He said it's not his job to provide running commentary on the president's behavior. But tweets from a prospective budget director, he would like to provide running commentary on her behavior."