alternet--2020-12-20--Stanford front-line residents excluded from COVID vaccine after 'algorithm' prioritizes leadership,

Stanford front-line residents excluded from COVID vaccine after 'algorithm' prioritizes leadership, high-ranking doctors

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Stanford Medicine residents who work in close contact with COVID-19 patients were left out of the first wave of staff members for the new Pfizer vaccine .
In their place were higher-ranking doctors who carry a lower risk of patient transmission , according to interviews with six residents and two other staff members and e-mail communications obtained by ProPublica .
“ Residents are patient-facing , we 're the ones who have been asked to intubate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ face-timing us from home are being vaccinated before us , '' said Dr. Sarah Johnson , a third-year OB-GYN resident who has delivered babies from COVID-positive patients during the pandemic .
“ This is the final straw to say , 'We do n't actually care about you . '
'' Another resident , who asked not to be named , said a nurse who works in an operating room for elective surgeries has been notified she 'll get the vaccine in the first wave .
“ We test people for COVID before elective @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will know if those patients have COVID , '' he said , so to him , it did n't make sense that that nurse would be prioritized .
“ We take complete responsibility for the errors in the execution of our vaccine distribution plan , '' said Lisa Kim , a Stanford Medicine spokesperson .
“ Our intent was to develop an ethical and equitable process for distribution of the vaccine .
We apologize to our entire community , including our residents , fellows and other frontline care providers , who have performed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are immediately revising our plan to better sequence the distribution of the vaccine . ''
An algorithm chose who would be the first 5,000 in line .
The residents said they were told they were at a disadvantage because they did not have an assigned “ location '' to plug into the calculation and because they are young , according to an email sent by a chief resident to his peers .
Residents are the lowest-ranking doctors in a hospital .
Stanford Medicine has about 1,300 across all disciplines .
Only seven made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fact that this week , residents were asked to volunteer for ICU coverage in anticipation of a surge in COVID-19 cases .
Stanford Medicine did n't respond to a request for comment on how the vaccines were allocated and whether there was a flaw in the algorithm .
The tumult reflects the difficulties of ethically parceling out a limited supply of vaccine and weighing competing factors , such as age , risk of contracting the disease and comorbidities .
Adding to the challenge is the angst that comes when such decisions are made @ @ @ @ @ @ @ letter to Stanford leadership sent on Thursday , the chief resident council wrote , “ While leadership is pointing to an error in an algorithm meant to ensure equity and justice , our understanding is this error was identified on Tuesday and a decision was made not to revise the vaccine allocation scheme before its release today . ''
The council asked for a timeline for vaccination of the residents and transparency regarding the algorithm .
In response to the residents ' protests , Dr. Niraj Sehgal , chief medical officer , sent @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the perceived lack of priority for residents and fellows was not the intent at all . ''
He added that with the anticipated authorization of Moderna 's vaccine , “ we 're increasingly confident in getting everyone vaccinated , including all of you . ''
He signed off with “ heartfelt apologies . ''
Some departments appear to be trying to fix the problem on their own .
Dr. Mary Hawn , chair of the department of surgery , confessed to being “ disturbed and puzzled '' by the vaccination roster that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ list that are n't our physicians on the front line . ''
She emailed her department asking people slotted for the first wave to “ bring a resident that is patient facing to get the vaccine in your place '' and to ask the program director for their “ buddy '' assignment .
She added : “ Let 's get this right . ''

ProPublica is a Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative newsroom. Sign up for The Big Story newsletter to receive stories like this one in your inbox.
Stanford Medicine residents who work in close contact with COVID-19 patients were left out of the first wave of staff members for the new Pfizer vaccine. In their place were higher-ranking doctors who carry a lower risk of patient transmission, according to interviews with six residents and two other staff members and e-mail communications obtained by ProPublica.
“Residents are patient-facing, we're the ones who have been asked to intubate, yet some attendings who have been face-timing us from home are being vaccinated before us," said Dr. Sarah Johnson, a third-year OB-GYN resident who has delivered babies from COVID-positive patients during the pandemic. “This is the final straw to say, 'We don't actually care about you.'"
Another resident, who asked not to be named, said a nurse who works in an operating room for elective surgeries has been notified she'll get the vaccine in the first wave. “We test people for COVID before elective surgeries, so by definition, we will know if those patients have COVID," he said, so to him, it didn't make sense that that nurse would be prioritized.
“We take complete responsibility for the errors in the execution of our vaccine distribution plan," said Lisa Kim, a Stanford Medicine spokesperson. “Our intent was to develop an ethical and equitable process for distribution of the vaccine. We apologize to our entire community, including our residents, fellows and other frontline care providers, who have performed heroically during our pandemic response. We are immediately revising our plan to better sequence the distribution of the vaccine."
An algorithm chose who would be the first 5,000 in line. The residents said they were told they were at a disadvantage because they did not have an assigned “location" to plug into the calculation and because they are young, according to an email sent by a chief resident to his peers. Residents are the lowest-ranking doctors in a hospital. Stanford Medicine has about 1,300 across all disciplines.
Only seven made the priority vaccination list, despite the fact that this week, residents were asked to volunteer for ICU coverage in anticipation of a surge in COVID-19 cases.
Stanford Medicine didn't respond to a request for comment on how the vaccines were allocated and whether there was a flaw in the algorithm. The tumult reflects the difficulties of ethically parceling out a limited supply of vaccine and weighing competing factors, such as age, risk of contracting the disease and comorbidities. Adding to the challenge is the angst that comes when such decisions are made without all stakeholders involved.
In a letter to Stanford leadership sent on Thursday, the chief resident council wrote, “While leadership is pointing to an error in an algorithm meant to ensure equity and justice, our understanding is this error was identified on Tuesday and a decision was made not to revise the vaccine allocation scheme before its release today." The council asked for a timeline for vaccination of the residents and transparency regarding the algorithm.
In response to the residents' protests, Dr. Niraj Sehgal, chief medical officer, sent an email saying, “Please know that the perceived lack of priority for residents and fellows was not the intent at all." He added that with the anticipated authorization of Moderna's vaccine, “we're increasingly confident in getting everyone vaccinated, including all of you." He signed off with “heartfelt apologies."
Some departments appear to be trying to fix the problem on their own. Dr. Mary Hawn, chair of the department of surgery, confessed to being “disturbed and puzzled" by the vaccination roster that “included many of the medical staff list that aren't our physicians on the front line." She emailed her department asking people slotted for the first wave to “bring a resident that is patient facing to get the vaccine in your place" and to ask the program director for their “buddy" assignment.
She added: “Let's get this right."


alternet--2020-12-21--Fort Lauderdale newspaper dubs Gov. Ron DeSantis 'Florida's mis-communicator in chief'

Gov .
Ron DeSantis really tried to redefine his own failure to order enough doses of a much-anticipated coronavirus vaccine as an error on the part of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Tuesday .
Of course , few people are buying it , but he tried .
When posed with the prospect of Florida getting less than the needed 452,000 vaccine doses the state was anticipating , DeSantis tried to explain the problem away as a Pfizer `` production issue . ''
Pfizer , however , said in a statement the Tampa Bay Times obtained that the pharmaceutical giant is having @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not having any production issues with our COVID-19 vaccine , and no shipments containing the vaccine are on hold or delayed , '' the company said in the statement .
`` This week , we successfully shipped all 2.9 million doses that we were asked to ship by the U.S. Government to the locations specified by them .
We have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but , as of now , we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses . ''
For this example of DeSantis ' departure from @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's editorial board blasted the governor , President Donald Trump 's mentee , as `` Florida 's mis-communicator in chief . ''
`` DeSantis has been off-pitch since the coronavirus first hit our shores — denying community spread , spinning happy talk about scarce protective gear , and shielding data about nursing home infections , hospital bed capacity and the lack of contact tracing , '' the editorial board wrote .
`` But in the weeks before and since the 2020 presidential election , he 's gotten worse . ''
The newspaper cited @ @ @ @ @ @ @ reports of Florida 's 1.19 million COVID-19 infections and 20,473 deaths have been manipulated to seem worse than they are .
He 's deemed `` anti-masker '' Kyle Lamb and conservative blogger Jennifer Cabrera more reliable sources on the virus , and DeSantis is dodging South Florida mayors seeking mask mandates like an anti-masker dodges common sense .
`` Never have we heard DeSantis admit a mistake , '' the editorial board wrote .
`` Rarely have we heard him express empathy for those who 've been infected , placed on a ventilator @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of numbers , not people — people with real names like Christine and Earl , Doris and Stuart , Adrian and Shannon , Thom and Jose , and tomorrow , perhaps your name , too . ''

Gov. Ron DeSantis really tried to redefine his own failure to order enough doses of a much-anticipated coronavirus vaccine as an error on the part of the pharmaceutical company Pfizer Tuesday. Of course, few people are buying it, but he tried. When posed with the prospect of Florida getting less than the needed 452,000 vaccine doses the state was anticipating, DeSantis tried to explain the problem away as a Pfizer "production issue." Pfizer, however, said in a statement the Tampa Bay Times obtained that the pharmaceutical giant is having no such issue.
"Pfizer is not having any production issues with our COVID-19 vaccine, and no shipments containing the vaccine are on hold or delayed," the company said in the statement. "This week, we successfully shipped all 2.9 million doses that we were asked to ship by the U.S. Government to the locations specified by them. We have millions more doses sitting in our warehouse but, as of now, we have not received any shipment instructions for additional doses."
For this example of DeSantis' departure from reality and more, South Florida Sun-Sentinel's editorial board blasted the governor, President Donald Trump's mentee, as "Florida's mis-communicator in chief."
"DeSantis has been off-pitch since the coronavirus first hit our shores — denying community spread, spinning happy talk about scarce protective gear, and shielding data about nursing home infections, hospital bed capacity and the lack of contact tracing," the editorial board wrote. "But in the weeks before and since the 2020 presidential election, he's gotten worse."
The newspaper cited as evidence the governor's claim that reports of Florida's 1.19 million COVID-19 infections and 20,473 deaths have been manipulated to seem worse than they are. He's deemed "anti-masker" Kyle Lamb and conservative blogger Jennifer Cabrera more reliable sources on the virus, and DeSantis is dodging South Florida mayors seeking mask mandates like an anti-masker dodges common sense.
"Never have we heard DeSantis admit a mistake," the editorial board wrote. "Rarely have we heard him express empathy for those who've been infected, placed on a ventilator or died. He talks in terms of numbers, not people — people with real names like Christine and Earl, Doris and Stuart, Adrian and Shannon, Thom and Jose, and tomorrow, perhaps your name, too."


alternet--2020-12-21--House and Senate leaders reach agreement on new $900 billion pandemic relief package

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced late Sunday that congressional leaders have now reached agreement on an end-of-year pandemic relief package .
While the details are still being inked , the agreement will reportedly include $ 600 per person stimulus checks , extended unemployment benefits of up to $ 300 per week , and an extension of small business loans aimed at keeping payrolls intact despite pandemic restrictions .
While school aid is included , other details remain unclear .
Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced earlier that the agreement will not include Republican demands to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ provide crisis funding to individual states and cities .
Congress will approve a one-day deal to avoid an evening government shutdown , and is to vote on the packaged relief and yearly government spending bill on Monday .
The total is said to rise to over $ 2 trillion in funding .
The deal follows nine months of refusals by Sen. Mitch McConnell to allow additional pandemic aid , repeatedly blocking bills with his own poison-pill demands that businesses be provided immunity from liability for exposing either customers or employees to COVID-19 ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is not included in the agreed-to package .
In the end , the deciding factor in favor of the deal may have been the Senate runoff elections in Georgia .
After blocking near-identical aid proposals all summer and fall , in recent days McConnell had reportedly expressed to his caucus that he wanted to move forward with pandemic relief so as to boost Republican chances of keeping the Senate .

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Democratic Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced late Sunday that congressional leaders have now reached agreement on an end-of-year pandemic relief package. While the details are still being inked, the agreement will reportedly include $600 per person stimulus checks, extended unemployment benefits of up to $300 per week, and an extension of small business loans aimed at keeping payrolls intact despite pandemic restrictions. While school aid is included, other details remain unclear. Sen. Elizabeth Warren announced earlier that the agreement will not include Republican demands to curtail the Federal Reserve's ability to provide crisis funding to individual states and cities.
Congress will approve a one-day deal to avoid an evening government shutdown, and is to vote on the packaged relief and yearly government spending bill on Monday. The total is said to rise to over $2 trillion in funding.
The deal follows nine months of refusals by Sen. Mitch McConnell to allow additional pandemic aid, repeatedly blocking bills with his own poison-pill demands that businesses be provided immunity from liability for exposing either customers or employees to COVID-19; according to Sen. Schumer, that demand is not included in the agreed-to package.
In the end, the deciding factor in favor of the deal may have been the Senate runoff elections in Georgia. After blocking near-identical aid proposals all summer and fall, in recent days McConnell had reportedly expressed to his caucus that he wanted to move forward with pandemic relief so as to boost Republican chances of keeping the Senate.


alternet--2020-12-21--Rubio slammed for receiving COVID vaccine before many frontline healthcare workers after downplaying

Rubio slammed for receiving COVID vaccine before many frontline healthcare workers after downplaying virus

In the true spirit of GOP service , Sen. Marco Rubio , of Florida , showed his support for vaccinating Florida 's most vulnerable residents by scoring one of those vaccinations in short supply himself .
`` I know I looked away from the needle And yes , I know I need a tan But I am so confident that the # Covid19 vaccine is safe & effective that I decided to take it myself , '' he said in a tweet Saturday .
Thankfully , Twitter users saw through the senator 's selfless display .
Daniel Uhlfelder , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ beaches by wearing a Grim Reaper costume , advocated for the safety of Floridians in the face of Rubio 's tweet pretending to .
`` Florida has a population of 21,480,000 largely made up of people over 65 with large nursing home population , '' he tweeted .
`` According to Florida Dept .
of Health only 32,000 people have been vaccinated .
One of them is Marco Rubio , a 49 year healthy corrupt , career politician @ marcorubio '' Author Don Winslow tweeted : `` .
@ marcorubio is the guy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so he can jump ahead of the line for a lifeboat . '
I have a child !
I have a child ! '
'' Democratic strategist Kaivan Shroff tweeted : `` Every janitor in every COVID wing of every hospital should have gotten the vaccine before feckless Marco Rubio .
It 's absurd . ''
Political strategist Ana Navarro-Cárdenas tweeted : `` Young , healthy Senator , who spoke at rallies packed w/thousands w/o masks , who supports Trump -who 's down-played COVID & mocked those who wear masks , is 1st @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , elderly & infirm Americans , wait .
Congratulations on ur privilege , @ marcorubio . ''
Do n't get me wrong .
There 's nothing wrong with lawmakers , nurses , and other politicians getting vaccinated in the hopes of inspiring the general public to do so .
But when the very politicians fighting expert-recommended advice to reduce the virus ' spread and keeping much-needed coronavirus relief funds tied up in political red tape start shouting me first with regards to vaccines , I find it a bit gag-worthy .
Rubio , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republican putting his needs before his constituents .
Sen. Lindsey Graham , of South Carolina , and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made sure to get vaccinated too .
Mary Trump , author and niece of President Donald Trump , tweeted Saturday : `` Mitch McConnell is a traitor to this country .
That he got the vaccine after willfully failing to protect us from Covid-19 is obscene .
That he 's continuing to block aid to Americans that would help them survive the catastrophes his party created is unconscionable . ''

In the true spirit of GOP service, Sen. Marco Rubio, of Florida, showed his support for vaccinating Florida's most vulnerable residents by scoring one of those vaccinations in short supply himself. "I know I looked away from the needle And yes, I know I need a tan But I am so confident that the #Covid19 vaccine is safe & effective that I decided to take it myself," he said in a tweet Saturday.
Thankfully, Twitter users saw through the senator's selfless display. Daniel Uhlfelder, the Florida lawyer who protested the state reopening beaches by wearing a Grim Reaper costume, advocated for the safety of Floridians in the face of Rubio's tweet pretending to. "Florida has a population of 21,480,000 largely made up of people over 65 with large nursing home population," he tweeted. "According to Florida Dept. of Health only 32,000 people have been vaccinated. One of them is Marco Rubio, a 49 year healthy corrupt, career politician @marcorubio"
Author Don Winslow tweeted: ". @marcorubio is the guy from Titanic who grabs a baby just so he can jump ahead of the line for a lifeboat. 'I have a child! I have a child!'" Democratic strategist Kaivan Shroff tweeted: "Every janitor in every COVID wing of every hospital should have gotten the vaccine before feckless Marco Rubio. It's absurd." Political strategist Ana Navarro-Cárdenas tweeted: "Young, healthy Senator, who spoke at rallies packed w/thousands w/o masks, who supports Trump -who's down-played COVID & mocked those who wear masks, is 1st to get vaccine while most medical workers, elderly & infirm Americans, wait. Congratulations on ur privilege, @marcorubio."
Don't get me wrong. There's nothing wrong with lawmakers, nurses, and other politicians getting vaccinated in the hopes of inspiring the general public to do so. But when the very politicians fighting expert-recommended advice to reduce the virus' spread and keeping much-needed coronavirus relief funds tied up in political red tape start shouting me first with regards to vaccines, I find it a bit gag-worthy.
Rubio, of course, isn't the only Republican putting his needs before his constituents. Sen. Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell made sure to get vaccinated too. Mary Trump, author and niece of President Donald Trump, tweeted Saturday: "Mitch McConnell is a traitor to this country. That he got the vaccine after willfully failing to protect us from Covid-19 is obscene. That he's continuing to block aid to Americans that would help them survive the catastrophes his party created is unconscionable."


alternet--2020-12-21--Why right wingers attacking voting systems and software may eat their own words in court

There 's an old country saying that may soon take on new meaning for some of the right-wing media and celebrities who have been making wild accusations about voting machines and software in the wake of Donald Trump 's defeat .
It goes like this : '' Hunting ai n't no fun when the rabbit got the gun . ''
As the New York Times reported Sunday night , the digital security system Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems may soon be turning the tables on some of the people who have brashly tormented them since the election .
In particular @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , has some wingnut TV outlets in his legal sights .
`` In an era of brazen political lies , Mr. Mugica has emerged as an unlikely figure with the power to put the genie back in the bottle , '' the Times reported .
`` Last week , his lawyer sent scathing letters to the Fox News Channel , Newsmax and OAN demanding that they immediately , forcefully clear his company 's name — and that they retain documents for a planned defamation lawsuit .
He has , legal experts say , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ new lawyer is J. Erik Connolly , who not coincidentally won the largest settlement in the history of American media defamation in 2017 , at least $ 177 million , for a beef producer whose `` lean finely textured beef '' was described by ABC News as `` pink slime . ''
Well , that ca n't be so good if you 've been slinging lies for fun and profit at a company whose software was n't even used outside of Los Angeles County in the 2020 election .
What 's more , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hiring high-powered legal talent to get a little justice from the TV networks .
Reports the Times : '' Dominion Voting Systems has hired another high-powered libel lawyer , Tom Clare , who has threatened legal action against Ms. Powell and the Trump campaign .
Mr. Clare said in an emailed statement that `` we are moving forward on the basis that she will not retract those false statements and that it will be necessary for Dominion to take aggressive legal action , both against Ms. Powell and the many others who have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by spreading damaging falsehoods about Dominion . ''
Citing a top legal expert , the Times suggested OAN and Newsmax in particular could have their business destroyed if they got sued .
`` The letters written by lawyers for Smartmatic and Dominion are `` extremely powerful , '' said Floyd Abrams , one of the country 's most prominent First Amendment lawyers , in an email to Times .
`` The repeated accusations against both companies are plainly defamatory and surely have done enormous reputational and financial harm to both . ''
Mr. @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a defense '' and that , failing that , the networks may defend themselves by saying they did n't know the charges were false , while Ms. Powell may say she was simply describing legal filings .
`` It is far too early to predict how the cases , if commenced , will end , '' he said .
`` But it is not too early to say that they would be highly dangerous to those sued . ''
Earlier reporting last week at Fortune.com also suggested that Smartmatic is threatening to go @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
`` For Smartmatic , the claims about its machines—which appear to have come primarily from the networks ' guests rather than the hosts—are not just frustrating examples of disinformation but a major business risk as well , '' Fortune reported .
`` According to its CEO , the company has lost contracts in other countries because of the controversy . ''
As a result , Smartmatic issued a statement on Monday warning it will sue Fox News , as well as smaller media outlets NewsMax and OANN , for defamation if they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ inaccurate statements .
The Fortune reporting cautioned that proving libel is difficult for a prominent company .
`` According to long-time media lawyer Ed Klaris , companies are subject to the same rules of defamation as individuals—including the need to clear the high bar of `` actual malice '' in the event they are so-called public figures .
Klaris says it 's unclear if Smartmatic is so well-known that it would have to meet the actual malice standard .
He also predicted that Fox would likely try to pass off the claims about @ @ @ @ @ @ @ statements of fact .
While matters of opinion—including those thrown out in the hurly-burly of a talk show segment—are typically outside the realm of defamation , courts may find at least some of the `` dozens '' of allegedly false claims do not qualify as opinion .
Smartmatic 's potential lawsuits could also serve to bring judicial scrutiny of some of the more outlandish claims—like plots by Venezuela to rig the election—advanced by the likes of ( Rudy ) Giuliani and ( Sidney ) Powell .
While the pair has repeatedly advanced such @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not included claims of fraud in their numerous court challenges .
Legal watchers say this is because , as attorneys , they can be sanctioned for making baseless claims before a judge .
In any event , Rudy and the Kraken slayer lady might not be sleeping too comfortably on their My Pillows for a while .
`` The distinction between a media outlet 's positions and those of its guests may not always matter in court , however , '' according to Klaris .
He notes that a victim of defamation is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ made the statement as well as the outlet on which the statement was aired .
Klaris also noted that , if Smartmatic has indeed lost out on contracts because of false claims about its voting machines , it will be in a strong position to seek damages .
`` Absolutely , they 're suffering harm .
That 's what libel law is meant to fix .
It 's meant to fix reputational harm , '' said Klaris .

There's an old country saying that may soon take on new meaning for some of the right-wing media and celebrities who have been making wild accusations about voting machines and software in the wake of Donald Trump's defeat. It goes like this:
"Hunting ain't no fun when the rabbit got the gun."
As the New York Times reported Sunday night, the digital security system Smartmatic and Dominion Voting Systems may soon be turning the tables on some of the people who have brashly tormented them since the election. In particular, Antonio Mugica, founder of Smartmatic, has some wingnut TV outlets in his legal sights.
"In an era of brazen political lies, Mr. Mugica has emerged as an unlikely figure with the power to put the genie back in the bottle," the Times reported. "Last week, his lawyer sent scathing letters to the Fox News Channel, Newsmax and OAN demanding that they immediately, forcefully clear his company's name — and that they retain documents for a planned defamation lawsuit. He has, legal experts say, an unusually strong case. And his new lawyer is J. Erik Connolly, who not coincidentally won the largest settlement in the history of American media defamation in 2017, at least $177 million, for a beef producer whose "lean finely textured beef" was described by ABC News as "pink slime."
Well, that can't be so good if you've been slinging lies for fun and profit at a company whose software wasn't even used outside of Los Angeles County in the 2020 election. What's more, Dominion is right there with Smartmatic in hiring high-powered legal talent to get a little justice from the TV networks. Reports the Times:
"Dominion Voting Systems has hired another high-powered libel lawyer, Tom Clare, who has threatened legal action against Ms. Powell and the Trump campaign. Mr. Clare said in an emailed statement that "we are moving forward on the basis that she will not retract those false statements and that it will be necessary for Dominion to take aggressive legal action, both against Ms. Powell and the many others who have enabled and amplified her campaign of defamation by spreading damaging falsehoods about Dominion."
Citing a top legal expert, the Times suggested OAN and Newsmax in particular could have their business destroyed if they got sued.
"The letters written by lawyers for Smartmatic and Dominion are "extremely powerful," said Floyd Abrams, one of the country's most prominent First Amendment lawyers, in an email to Times. "The repeated accusations against both companies are plainly defamatory and surely have done enormous reputational and financial harm to both."
Mr. Abrams noted that "truth is always a defense" and that, failing that, the networks may defend themselves by saying they didn't know the charges were false, while Ms. Powell may say she was simply describing legal filings.
"It is far too early to predict how the cases, if commenced, will end," he said. "But it is not too early to say that they would be highly dangerous to those sued."
Earlier reporting last week at Fortune.com also suggested that Smartmatic is threatening to go after Fox News and its smaller competitors.
"For Smartmatic, the claims about its machines—which appear to have come primarily from the networks' guests rather than the hosts—are not just frustrating examples of disinformation but a major business risk as well," Fortune reported. "According to its CEO, the company has lost contracts in other countries because of the controversy." As a result, Smartmatic issued a statement on Monday warning it will sue Fox News, as well as smaller media outlets NewsMax and OANN, for defamation if they don't retract "dozens" of inaccurate statements.
The Fortune reporting cautioned that proving libel is difficult for a prominent company.
"According to long-time media lawyer Ed Klaris, companies are subject to the same rules of defamation as individuals—including the need to clear the high bar of "actual malice" in the event they are so-called public figures.
Klaris says it's unclear if Smartmatic is so well-known that it would have to meet the actual malice standard. He also predicted that Fox would likely try to pass off the claims about the voting machines as opinion rather than statements of fact. While matters of opinion—including those thrown out in the hurly-burly of a talk show segment—are typically outside the realm of defamation, courts may find at least some of the "dozens" of allegedly false claims do not qualify as opinion.
Smartmatic's potential lawsuits could also serve to bring judicial scrutiny of some of the more outlandish claims—like plots by Venezuela to rig the election—advanced by the likes of (Rudy) Giuliani and (Sidney) Powell. While the pair has repeatedly advanced such claims in the media, they have not included claims of fraud in their numerous court challenges. Legal watchers say this is because, as attorneys, they can be sanctioned for making baseless claims before a judge.
In any event, Rudy and the Kraken slayer lady might not be sleeping too comfortably on their My Pillows for a while.
"The distinction between a media outlet's positions and those of its guests may not always matter in court, however," according to Klaris. He notes that a victim of defamation is entitled to sue both the person who made the statement as well as the outlet on which the statement was aired.
Klaris also noted that, if Smartmatic has indeed lost out on contracts because of false claims about its voting machines, it will be in a strong position to seek damages.
"Absolutely, they're suffering harm. That's what libel law is meant to fix. It's meant to fix reputational harm," said Klaris.


alternet--2020-12-21--Kelly Loeffler says she uses $10 billion private jet to save taxpayers — but they're still covering

Kelly Loeffler says she uses $10 billion private jet to save taxpayers — but they're still covering her flights to DC

Three days after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution broke a story in which a spokesperson for Sen. Kelly Loeffler , R-Ga. , said she used her private jet to `` save taxpayer money , '' the unelected Republican took a taxpayer-funded commercial flight from Atlanta to Washington .
Three days later , she took another one home .
In all , Loeffler has taken at least two dozen taxpayer-backed commercial flights between back and forth to Washington after claiming her personal airplane was an asset that benefited the people she served , according to biannual reports published by the secretary of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ covers expenditures up to Sept. 1 ; it is unclear how many times Loeffler has flown on commercial aircraft since then .
Senators and their staff can avail themselves of public funds for travel that is deemed necessary to their government jobs .
Conversely , ethics rules allow Loeffler to use her private plane for government business as long as she does n't expense it to her government account .
Aides told the Atlanta paper in February that the `` majority '' of her private flights are her trips between Atlanta and Washington @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' flies commercial to D.C. — in coach class , believe it or not .
At the time of that report , however Loeffler had not reported taking any commercial flights at all , according to Senate records , although her staff appears to have taken several .
In all , Loeffler 's airfare cost taxpayers $ 3,665.45 , a sum that would likely be substantially higher in a normal year , as the steep drop in demand brought about by the coronavirus pandemic has forced major airlines to make dramatic price cuts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ significant difference in cost between trips taken in the months of May and June , when airfares had cratered , suggesting that Loeffler has not always flown in coach class , as she has claimed .
For instance , the senator 's May 4 flight to Washington cost $ 87.31 , and her return to Atlanta on May 7 cost the same amount , to the penny .
For her next round trip to the nation 's capital , the first leg cost $ 233.36 , but the return once again cost $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ same amounts ( with one exception ) , hold true for all 16 taxpayer-funded flights in May , June and July , when average fares between the two cities were almost always under $ 100 .
In July , Loeffler said in a Fox News interview that she had been flying on Delta Airlines , which is based at Atlanta 's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport , one of the the busiest in the country .
Delta 's PACs and CEO made maximum donations to Loeffler 's campaign at the end of March , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Salon reported in April that airlines that gave large amounts to President Trump 's re-election were among the first recipients of corporate bailout money included in that $ 2.2 trillion relief bill .
Delta alone got $ 5.4 billion .
If Loeffler had indeed used her private jet for the `` majority '' of her flights to Washington , she would be squeezing in an additional 25 trips , minimum .
But because the senator and her husband , Jeff Sprecher , chairman of the New York Stock Exchange , chartered their @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the jet is `` not available for public tracking per request from the owner/operator , '' according to a database on the site FlightAware .
Loeffler 's spokesperson claimed last February that not only did the senator use her $ 10 million 2010 Bombardier Challenger 300 — which she and Sprecher bought after her appointment to the Senate — to save her constituents money , but that she paid for it `` out of her pocket . ''
It appears possible , however , that the couple joined the `` frenzy '' @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at a loophole in the 2017 Republican tax bill that turns private jets into flying tax shelters : The provision allows a company to write off the full price of a new or used airplane against the company 's earnings .
Loeffler has also used her private jet for campaign-related trips as short as an 18-minute hop from a central Georgia town to Savannah , on the Atlantic coast .
The senator 's former Republican opponent in the 2020 primary , Rep. Doug Collins , frequently invoked the jet on the campaign trail @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by far the wealthiest member of Congress , as out of touch with Georgia voters .
`` Who buys a $ 30 million jet in secret then posts a picture with their new KIA on Facebook around the same time ? ''
a Collins spokesperson told the Journal Constitution in February .
`` That 's all you need to know about Kelly Loeffler . ''
Next month , Loeffler faces a runoff against her Democratic opponent , the Rev .
Raphael Warnock , who grew up in government housing and later became pastor @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Polls suggest the race will be very close .

Three days after The Atlanta Journal-Constitution broke a story in which a spokesperson for Sen. Kelly Loeffler, R-Ga., said she used her private jet to "save taxpayer money," the unelected Republican took a taxpayer-funded commercial flight from Atlanta to Washington. Three days later, she took another one home.
In all, Loeffler has taken at least two dozen taxpayer-backed commercial flights between back and forth to Washington after claiming her personal airplane was an asset that benefited the people she served, according to biannualreports published by the secretary of the Senate.
The latest of those reports covers expenditures up to Sept. 1; it is unclear how many times Loeffler has flown on commercial aircraft since then.
Senators and their staff can avail themselves of public funds for travel that is deemed necessary to their government jobs. Conversely, ethics rules allow Loeffler to use her private plane for government business as long as she doesn't expense it to her government account. Aides told the Atlanta paper in February that the "majority" of her private flights are her trips between Atlanta and Washington, adding that the multimillionaire "occasionally" flies commercial to D.C. — in coach class, believe it or not.
At the time of that report, however Loeffler had not reported taking any commercial flights at all, according to Senate records, although her staff appears to have taken several.
In all, Loeffler's airfare cost taxpayers $3,665.45, a sum that would likely be substantially higher in a normal year, as the steep drop in demand brought about by the coronavirus pandemic has forced major airlines to make dramatic price cuts.
Loeffler's expense reports show a significant difference in cost between trips taken in the months of May and June, when airfares had cratered, suggesting that Loeffler has not always flown in coach class, as she has claimed.
For instance, the senator's May 4 flight to Washington cost $87.31, and her return to Atlanta on May 7 cost the same amount, to the penny. For her next round trip to the nation's capital, the first leg cost $233.36, but the return once again cost $87.31. These discrepancies, in those same amounts (with one exception), hold true for all 16 taxpayer-funded flights in May, June and July, when average fares between the two cities were almost always under $100.
In July, Loeffler said in a Fox News interview that she had been flying on Delta Airlines, which is based at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport, one of the the busiest in the country. Delta's PACs and CEO made maximum donations to Loeffler's campaign at the end of March, as she was working on the CARES Act.
Salon reported in April that airlines that gave large amounts to President Trump's re-election were among the first recipients of corporate bailout money included in that $2.2 trillion relief bill. Delta alone got $5.4 billion.
If Loeffler had indeed used her private jet for the "majority" of her flights to Washington, she would be squeezing in an additional 25 trips, minimum. But because the senator and her husband, Jeff Sprecher, chairman of the New York Stock Exchange, chartered their plane under a company that offers anonymity, the jet is "not available for public tracking per request from the owner/operator," according to a database on the site FlightAware.
Loeffler's spokesperson claimed last February that not only did the senator use her $10 million 2010 Bombardier Challenger 300 — which she and Sprecher bought after her appointment to the Senate — to save her constituents money, but that she paid for it "out of her pocket." It appears possible, however, that the couple joined the "frenzy" of Wall Street money managers who leapt at a loophole in the 2017 Republican tax bill that turns private jets into flying tax shelters: The provision allows a company to write off the full price of a new or used airplane against the company's earnings.
(Loeffler's financial disclosure forms also show that Sprecher owns a Fulton County jet hangar worth $1 million, which pulls in somewhere between $100,001 and $1 million in annual rent.)
Loeffler has also used her private jet for campaign-related trips as short as an 18-minute hop from a central Georgia town to Savannah, on the Atlantic coast.
The senator's former Republican opponent in the 2020 primary, Rep. Doug Collins, frequently invoked the jet on the campaign trail in an effort to paint Loeffler, by far the wealthiest member of Congress, as out of touch with Georgia voters.
"Who buys a $30 million jet in secret then posts a picture with their new KIA on Facebook around the same time?" a Collins spokesperson told the Journal Constitution in February. "That's all you need to know about Kelly Loeffler."
Next month, Loeffler faces a runoff against her Democratic opponent, the Rev. Raphael Warnock, who grew up in government housing and later became pastor at Atlanta's historic Ebenezer Baptist Church. Polls suggest the race will be very close.


alternet--2020-12-21--'Up to no good': Why this retired 4-star general is sounding the alarm over Trump's acting Pentagon

'Up to no good': Why this retired 4-star general is sounding the alarm over Trump's acting Pentagon chief

Four star Army General Barry McCaffrey ( Ret . )
is sounding the alarm on reports acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller has banned Pentagon brass from holding meetings with Biden transition team officials , leaving career military staff `` stunned . ''
`` Pentagon abruptly halts Biden transition—- MAKES NO SENSE .
CLAIM THEY ARE OVERWHELMED .
DOD GOES OPAQUE .
TRUMP-MILLER UP TO NO GOOD .
DANGER .
—- '' tweeted McCaffrey , who is a well-known and highly-respected NBC News and MSNBC military analyst .
Reports from Axios and Business Insider both say Pentagon officials are feeling @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meetings they 've attended with Biden staff , and Miller has decided to order a two-week break for the holidays .
An official who spoke with Business Insider attempted to soften the ban , `` explaining that the Pentagon and the Biden transition team agreed to a break and that the transition meetings are being rescheduled for after the holidays . ''
That report adds `` other transition activities , such as answering requests for information and providing written materials , continue uninterrupted , the official explained . ''
Last month ( video @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump getting rid of senior Pentagon officials – including his Secretary of Defense – and substituting them with top Trump loyalists .
McCaffrey said he was `` alarmed '' with the shakeup .
`` If I was a CIA officer trying to understand what was going on in a third-world country and I saw this pattern of behavior , I would say the strongman 's trying to take over the government and defy an election . ''
Gen. Barry McCaffrey On Shakeup At The Pentagon : 'Mark Me Down As Alarmed ' | @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all the more concerning given that the only item on Trump 's official schedule today is a meeting with acting Defense Secretary Miller .

Four star Army General Barry McCaffrey (Ret.) is sounding the alarm on reports acting Secretary of Defense Chris Miller has banned Pentagon brass from holding meetings with Biden transition team officials, leaving career military staff "stunned."
"Pentagon abruptly halts Biden transition—- MAKES NO SENSE. CLAIM THEY ARE OVERWHELMED. DOD GOES OPAQUE. TRUMP-MILLER UP TO NO GOOD. DANGER. —-" tweeted McCaffrey, who is a well-known and highly-respected NBC News and MSNBC military analyst.
Reports from Axios and Business Insider both say Pentagon officials are feeling "overwhelmed" by the number of meetings they've attended with Biden staff, and Miller has decided to order a two-week break for the holidays.
An official who spoke with Business Insider attempted to soften the ban, "explaining that the Pentagon and the Biden transition team agreed to a break and that the transition meetings are being rescheduled for after the holidays."
That report adds "other transition activities, such as answering requests for information and providing written materials, continue uninterrupted, the official explained."
Last month (video below) McCaffrey expressed great concern about Trump getting rid of senior Pentagon officials – including his Secretary of Defense – and substituting them with top Trump loyalists. McCaffrey said he was "alarmed" with the shakeup.
"If I was a CIA officer trying to understand what was going on in a third-world country and I saw this pattern of behavior, I would say the strongman's trying to take over the government and defy an election."
Gen. Barry McCaffrey On Shakeup At The Pentagon: 'Mark Me Down As Alarmed' | Deadline | MSNBC youtu.be
Today's news is all the more concerning given that the only item on Trump's official schedule today is a meeting with acting Defense Secretary Miller.


alternet--2020-12-21--Chris Hedges: Here's the real lesson we should learn from the rise of demagogue Trump

Joe Biden and the systems managers of the deep state and empire are returning to power .
Trump and his coterie of buffoons , racists , con artists and Christian fascists are sullenly preparing to leave office .
U.S. pharmaceutical corporations are starting to disseminate vaccines to mitigate the globe 's worst outbreak of COVID-19 that has resulted in more than 2,600 deaths per day .
America , as Biden says , is back , ready to take its place at the head of the table .
In the battle for the soul of America , he assures us , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , civility and a reassertion of American prestige and power are , we are promised , weeks away .
But the real lesson we should learn from the rise of a demagogue such as Trump , who received 74 million votes , and a pandemic that our for-profit health care industry proved unable to contain , is that we are losing control as a nation and as a species .
Far more dangerous demagogues will arise from the imperial and neoliberal policies the Biden administration will embrace .
Far worse pandemics will sweep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and mortality , an inevitable result of our continued consumption of animals and animal products , and the wanton destruction of the ecosystem on which we and other species depend for life .
`` One of the most pathetic aspects of human history , '' Reinhold Niebuhr wrote , `` is that every civilization expresses itself most pretentiously , compounds its partial and universal values most convincingly , and claims immortality for its finite existence at the very moment when the decay which leads to death has already begun . ''
Biden 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ circles of the Democratic Party and corporate elite , those responsible for the massive social inequality , trade deals , de-industrialization , militarized police , world 's largest prison system , austerity programs that abolished social programs such as welfare , the revived Cold War with Russia , wholesale government surveillance , endless wars in the Middle East and the disenfranchisement and impoverishment of the working class .
The Washington Post writes that `` about 80 percent of the White House and agency officials he 's announced have the word 'Obama ' on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Obama campaign jobs . ''
Bernie Sanders , apparently rebuffed in his efforts to become secretary of labor in the Biden administration , has expressed frustration with the Biden nominations .
Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was denied a seat by House Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee because of her support for the Green New Deal .
The message of the Biden administration to progressives and left-wing populists is very clear – `` Drop dead . ''
The list of new administration officials includes retired General Lloyd J. Austin III who is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Austin is on the board of Raytheon Technologies and a partner at Pine Island Capital , a firm that invests in defense industries and also includes Antony Blinken , Biden 's nominee to be secretary of state .
Blinken , who was deputy national security adviser and deputy secretary of state , is a strong supporter of the apartheid state of Israel .
He was one of the architects of the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and a proponent of the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya , resulting in yet another @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Janet Yellen , former Federal Reserve chair under Barack Obama , is slated to be Treasury Secretary .
Yellen as the chair of Bill Clinton 's Council of Economic Advisors ( CEA ) and later as a member of the board of the Federal Reserve , backed the repeal of Glass-Steagall , which led to the banking crisis of 2008 .
She supported the North American Free Trade Agreement ( NAFTA ) .
She also lobbied for a new statistical metric intended to lower payments to senior citizens on Social Security .
Yellen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ trillions in virtually no-interest loans to Wall Street , loans used to bail out banks and corporations and engage in massive stock buy-backs while the victims of financial fraud were abandoned .
Former Secretary of State John Kerry is to become a special envoy for climate .
Kerry championed the massive expansion of domestic oil and gas production , largely through fracking , and , according to Obama 's memoir , worked doggedly to convince those concerned about the climate crisis to `` offer up concessions on subsidies for the nuclear power industry @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to offshore oil drilling . ''
Avril Haines , a former Obama deputy CIA chief , is to become Biden 's director of national intelligence .
Haines oversaw Obama 's expanded and murderous drone program overseas and backed Gina Haspel 's nomination to be the head of the CIA , despite Haspels ' direct involvement in the CIA torture program carried out in black sites around the globe .
Haines called Haspel `` intelligent , compassionate , and fair . ''
Brian Deese , the executive who was in charge of the `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ invests heavily in fossil fuels , including coal , and who served as a former Obama economic adviser who advocated austerity measures , has been chosen to run the White House 's economic policy .
Neera Tanden , a former aide to Hillary Clinton , has been picked to be director of the Office of Management and Budget .
Tanden , as the head of the Democratic Party 's thinktank , the Center for American Progress , raised millions in dark money from Silicon Valley and Wall Street .
Her donors include Bain @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and the defense contractor Northrup Grumman .
The United Arab Emirates , a close ally of Saudi Arabia in the war in Yemen , also gave the thinktank between $ 1.5 million and $ 3 million .
She relentlessly ridicules Sanders and his supporters on cable news and social media .
She also proposed a plank in the Democratic platform calling for the bombing Iran .
The perpetuation of the deeply unpopular wars and onerous neoliberal policies by the Biden administration will be accompanied by a fevered demonization of Russia , most recently @ @ @ @ @ @ @ War with Russia will be used by the corporate Democrats to discredit domestic and foreign critics and deflect attention from the political stagnation and the corporate pillaging of the country .
It will allow MSNBC and The New York Times , which spent two years slogging empty Russiagate conspiracies , to disseminate a daily stream of emotionally charged rumors and shady accusations about Russia .
Cable celebrities such as Rachel Maddow will hyperventilate night after night about Russia while ignoring the corruption of the Biden administration .
The only reason Russia is not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , as opposed to 2016 , by the Democratic Party is because Trump was defeated .
Biden , after his defeat in the Democratic Party Caucus in Nevada by Bernie Sanders , where Sanders got more than twice his vote , immediately played the Russian card , telling CBS News that the `` Russians do n't want me to be the nominee , they like Bernie . ''
Hillary Clinton started this dirty game when she attacked 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein as a `` Russian asset '' and in 2020 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Gabbard .
The Democrats need an enemy , real or fictious , and Silicon Valley and major manufacturers will not allow them to target China .
More of the same means more disaster .
If we want to reclaim our open society and save the ecosystem , we must abolish the corporate stranglehold on global economic and political power .
If we want to avert zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19 , swine flu , avian flu , bovine spongiform encephalopathy ( Mad Cow disease ) , Ebola , and SARS we must stop @ @ @ @ @ @ @ We must abolish factory farming and adopt a vegan diet .
And we must keep fossil fuels in the ground .
Razing the rainforest for cattle grazing and vast tracts of farmland devoted to growing monocrops to feed animals destined for human consumption are responsible for up to 91 percent of Amazon rainforest destruction since 1970 .
The loss of forests is one of the single biggest contributors to climate change .
Animal agriculture is the leading cause of ocean dead zones .
Oceans could be devoid of fish by 2048 .
Each @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are produced by the animals raised for human food in the US alone .
The continued destruction of natural habitat , coupled with the vast factory farms which use 80 percent of the antibiotics in the U.S. and incubate drug-resistant pathogens that spread to human populations , presage new forms of the Black Death .
The belief that we can maintain current levels of consumption , especially of animal products , capitalist expansion , imperial wars , a reliance on fossil fuels and abject subservience to unfettered corporate power , which has solidified @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , is not a form of hope but suicidal self-delusion .
We are not headed under the policies of the Biden administration and the global ruling elite for the broad sunlit uplands of a new and glorious future , but economic misery , vast climate migrations , waves of new and more virulent pandemics , of which COVID-19 is a mild precursor , along with irreversible ecological systems collapse and frightening forms of societal breakdown , authoritarianism and neofascism .
Global warming is inevitable .
It can not be stopped .
At best @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the next 50 years the earth will most likely heat up to levels that will make whole parts of the planet uninhabitable .
Tens , perhaps hundreds , of millions of people will be displaced .
Millions of species will go extinct .
Cities on or near a coast , including New York and London , will be submerged .
Oceans absorb much of the excess CO2 and heat from the atmosphere .
This absorption is rapidly warming and acidifying ocean waters , resulting in the deoxygenation of the oceans .
Each of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ was preceded by at least one part of what climate scientists call the `` deadly trio '' – warming , acidification and deoxygenation of the oceans .
The next mass extinction of sea life is already under way , the first in some 55 million years .
This is not defeatism .
It is realism .
We appear to have bought four years with Biden 's election , but if we do not use it wisely – and there is nothing in the Biden nominations that offer any encouragement – we are merely @ @ @ @ @ @ @ soon be flattened by the gale-force political and environmental hurricanes that are gathering around us .
One of the lessons I learned from covering wars and revolutions as a foreign correspondent is that the political , economic and cultural systems that are erected by any society are very fragile .
The façade of power remains in place , as I saw in Eastern Europe during the 1989 revolutions and later in Yugoslavia , long after terminal rot has consumed the foundations .
This façade fools a society into thinking the structures of authority @ @ @ @ @ @ @ So , when collapse comes , which should have been long predicted , it appears sudden and incomprehensible .
The ensuing chaos is disorienting and frightening .
The cognitive dissonance between the perception of power and its rapid dissolution feeds self-delusion .
It creates , as I witnessed in the former Yugoslavia , what anthropologists call crisis cults , as well as bizarre conspiracy theories , fascism and the embrace of inchoate violence to purge society of the demons blamed for the national debacle .
Hatred becomes the highest form of patriotism .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ journalists and scientists rooted in a fact-based world are despised .
Ruling elites and ruling structures lose all credibility .
This collapse is often a portal to a world of nihilism and blood-drenched fantasy .
After four years of lies , the stoking of racist violence , stunning ineptitude , rampant corruption and an abject failure to cope with a national health crisis , Trump expanded his base by 11 million votes .
This should be a huge , flashing red light .
Worse , 70 percent of Trump voters , 51 million @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democrats '' and the deep state rigged the elections through `` voter fraud , '' including the importation of Venezuelan voting software , illegitimate mail-in ballots and the wholesale destruction of Trump ballots by election officials .
One hundred and twenty-six Republican House members joined a lawsuit filed by 18 Republican state attorneys general asking the Supreme Court to overturn Biden 's victory .
The vast majority of Republican senators refused to acknowledge the election results following the November vote .
Electors from the Electoral College were forced in several states to deliver @ @ @ @ @ @ @ guard .
Some two dozen armed protesters carrying American flags and chanting `` Stop the Steal '' descended on the home of Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson .
Seven hundred members of the white nationalist group the Proud Boys took over streets in Washington last weekend to protest the alleged theft of the election , leading to more than three dozen arrests , four stabbings , the vandalizing of four Black churches , and Black Lives Matter banners and signs ripped down and burned .
Trump may be gone soon , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is openly authoritarian , dismissive of democratic norms , an enemy to science and fact-based discourse and which attempted a coup d'état .
The next time around they wo n't be so disorganized and inept .
This hostility to democracy by one of the two ruling parties , supported by millions of Americans , many of whom were betrayed by Biden and the leaders of the Democratic Party , will not dissipate but grow , especially as the hammer of economic dislocation , including the looming evictions of millions of Americans , pummels @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on culture , journalism , education , the arts , universities and critical thinking has left those who speak this truth marginalized and ignored .
These Cassandras , locked out of the national debate , are dismissed as unhinged and depressingly apocalyptic .
The country is consumed by a mania for hope , which our corporate masters lavishly provide , at the expense of truth .
It is this delusional hope that will doom us .
The Austrian writer Stefan Zweig , who with a handful of other writers and artists desperately tried @ @ @ @ @ @ @ World War I , wrote of what he called `` the mental superiority of the defeated . ''
His anti-war play Jeremiah , based on the Biblical prophet Jeremiah who issued warnings in vain , illustrated that those who face reality , however bitter , are able to endure and rise above it .
`` Awaken , doomed city , that thou mayest save thyself , '' the prophet cries out in Zweig 's play .
`` Awaken from your heavy slumbers , heedless ones , lest you be slain in sleep ; @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and will crush you ; awaken . ''
But the warnings from Jeremiah , called `` the weeping prophet , '' were ignored and ridiculed .
He was attacked for demoralizing the people .
There were plots against his life .
When the Babylonian army captured Jerusalem , Jeremiah , like Julian Assange , was in prison .
`` I was always attracted to showing how any form of power can harden a human being 's heart , how victory can bring mental rigidity to whole nations , and to contrasting that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and terribly ploughing through the soul , '' Zweig wrote in his memoir , `` The World of Yesterday '' .
`` In the middle of war , while others , celebrating triumph too soon , were proving to one another that victory was inevitable , I was plumbing the depths of the catastrophe and looking for a way to emerge from them . ''
We can not use the word hope if we refuse to face the truth .
All hope rooted in self-delusion is fantasy .
We must lift the filter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ before us .
We must heed the warnings of our own prophets .
We must destroy the centers of power that lure us and our children , like the Pied Piper of Hamelin , to certain doom .
The walls , daily , are closing in around us .
The radical evil we face is as real under Trump as it will be under Biden .
And if this radical evil is not smashed , then the world ahead will be one of torment and mass death .
[ Chris Hedges writes a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weeks .
Click here to sign up for email alerts . ]
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times , where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper .
He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News , The Christian Science Monitor , and NPR .
He is the host of the Emmy Award-nominated RT America show On Contact .

Joe Biden and the systems managers of the deep state and empire are returning to power. Trump and his coterie of buffoons, racists, con artists and Christian fascists are sullenly preparing to leave office. U.S. pharmaceutical corporations are starting to disseminate vaccines to mitigate the globe's worst outbreak of COVID-19 that has resulted in more than 2,600 deaths per day. America, as Biden says, is back, ready to take its place at the head of the table. In the battle for the soul of America, he assures us, democracy has prevailed. Progress, prosperity, civility and a reassertion of American prestige and power are, we are promised, weeks away.
This article originally appeared at ScheerPost.com.
But the real lesson we should learn from the rise of a demagogue such as Trump, who received 74 million votes, and a pandemic that our for-profit health care industry proved unable to contain, is that we are losing control as a nation and as a species. Far more dangerous demagogues will arise from the imperial and neoliberal policies the Biden administration will embrace. Far worse pandemics will sweep the globe with higher rates of infections and mortality, an inevitable result of our continued consumption of animals and animal products, and the wanton destruction of the ecosystem on which we and other species depend for life.
"One of the most pathetic aspects of human history," Reinhold Niebuhr wrote, "is that every civilization expresses itself most pretentiously, compounds its partial and universal values most convincingly, and claims immortality for its finite existence at the very moment when the decay which leads to death has already begun."
Biden's appointments are drawn almost exclusively from the circles of the Democratic Party and corporate elite, those responsible for the massive social inequality, trade deals, de-industrialization, militarized police, world's largest prison system, austerity programs that abolished social programs such as welfare, the revived Cold War with Russia, wholesale government surveillance, endless wars in the Middle East and the disenfranchisement and impoverishment of the working class. The Washington Post writes that "about 80 percent of the White House and agency officials he's announced have the word 'Obama' on their résumé from previous White House or Obama campaign jobs." Bernie Sanders, apparently rebuffed in his efforts to become secretary of labor in the Biden administration, has expressed frustration with the Biden nominations. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez was denied a seat by House Democrats on the House Energy and Commerce Committee because of her support for the Green New Deal. The message of the Biden administration to progressives and left-wing populists is very clear – "Drop dead."
The list of new administration officials includes retired General Lloyd J. Austin III who is being nominated to be secretary of defense. Austin is on the board of Raytheon Technologies and a partner at Pine Island Capital, a firm that invests in defense industries and also includes Antony Blinken, Biden's nominee to be secretary of state. Blinken, who was deputy national security adviser and deputy secretary of state, is a strong supporter of the apartheid state of Israel. He was one of the architects of the invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq and a proponent of the overthrow of Muammar Gaddafi in Libya, resulting in yet another failed state in the Middle East.
Janet Yellen, former Federal Reserve chair under Barack Obama, is slated to be Treasury Secretary. Yellen as the chair of Bill Clinton's Council of Economic Advisors (CEA) and later as a member of the board of the Federal Reserve, backed the repeal of Glass-Steagall, which led to the banking crisis of 2008. She supported the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). She also lobbied for a new statistical metric intended to lower payments to senior citizens on Social Security. Yellen backed "quantitative easing" that provided trillions in virtually no-interest loans to Wall Street, loans used to bail out banks and corporations and engage in massive stock buy-backs while the victims of financial fraud were abandoned.
Former Secretary of State John Kerry is to become a special envoy for climate. Kerry championed the massive expansion of domestic oil and gas production, largely through fracking, and, according to Obama's memoir, worked doggedly to convince those concerned about the climate crisis to "offer up concessions on subsidies for the nuclear power industry and the opening of additional U.S. coastlines to offshore oil drilling."
Avril Haines, a former Obama deputy CIA chief, is to become Biden's director of national intelligence. Haines oversaw Obama's expanded and murderous drone program overseas and backed Gina Haspel's nomination to be the head of the CIA, despite Haspels' direct involvement in the CIA torture program carried out in black sites around the globe. Haines called Haspel "intelligent, compassionate, and fair." Brian Deese, the executive who was in charge of the "climate portfolio" at BlackRock, which invests heavily in fossil fuels, including coal, and who served as a former Obama economic adviser who advocated austerity measures, has been chosen to run the White House's economic policy.
Neera Tanden, a former aide to Hillary Clinton, has been picked to be director of the Office of Management and Budget. Tanden, as the head of the Democratic Party's thinktank, the Center for American Progress, raised millions in dark money from Silicon Valley and Wall Street. Her donors include Bain Capital, Blackstone, Evercore, Walmart and the defense contractor Northrup Grumman. The United Arab Emirates, a close ally of Saudi Arabia in the war in Yemen, also gave the thinktank between $1.5 million and $3 million. She relentlessly ridicules Sanders and his supporters on cable news and social media. She also proposed a plank in the Democratic platform calling for the bombing Iran.
The perpetuation of the deeply unpopular wars and onerous neoliberal policies by the Biden administration will be accompanied by a fevered demonization of Russia, most recently blamed for cyber-attacks. A new Cold War with Russia will be used by the corporate Democrats to discredit domestic and foreign critics and deflect attention from the political stagnation and the corporate pillaging of the country. It will allow MSNBC and The New York Times, which spent two years slogging empty Russiagate conspiracies, to disseminate a daily stream of emotionally charged rumors and shady accusations about Russia. Cable celebrities such as Rachel Maddow will hyperventilate night after night about Russia while ignoring the corruption of the Biden administration. The only reason Russia is not blamed for rigging the election in 2020, as opposed to 2016, by the Democratic Party is because Trump was defeated.
Biden, after his defeat in the Democratic Party Caucus in Nevada by Bernie Sanders, where Sanders got more than twice his vote, immediately played the Russian card, telling CBS News that the "Russians don't want me to be the nominee, they like Bernie." Hillary Clinton started this dirty game when she attacked 2016 Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein as a "Russian asset" and in 2020 leveled the same charge against Rep. Tulsi Gabbard. The Democrats need an enemy, real or fictious, and Silicon Valley and major manufacturers will not allow them to target China.
More of the same means more disaster. If we want to reclaim our open society and save the ecosystem, we must abolish the corporate stranglehold on global economic and political power. If we want to avert zoonotic diseases such as COVID-19, swine flu, avian flu, bovine spongiform encephalopathy (Mad Cow disease), Ebola, and SARS we must stop consuming animals and their bodily secretions. We must abolish factory farming and adopt a vegan diet. And we must keep fossil fuels in the ground.
Razing the rainforest for cattle grazing and vast tracts of farmland devoted to growing monocrops to feed animals destined for human consumption are responsible for up to 91 percent of Amazon rainforest destruction since 1970. The loss of forests is one of the single biggest contributors to climate change. Animal agriculture is the leading cause of ocean dead zones. Oceans could be devoid of fish by 2048. Each minute, 7 million pounds of feces are produced by the animals raised for human food in the US alone. The continued destruction of natural habitat, coupled with the vast factory farms which use 80 percent of the antibiotics in the U.S. and incubate drug-resistant pathogens that spread to human populations, presage new forms of the Black Death.
The belief that we can maintain current levels of consumption, especially of animal products, capitalist expansion, imperial wars, a reliance on fossil fuels and abject subservience to unfettered corporate power, which has solidified the worst income inequality in human history, is not a form of hope but suicidal self-delusion. We are not headed under the policies of the Biden administration and the global ruling elite for the broad sunlit uplands of a new and glorious future, but economic misery, vast climate migrations, waves of new and more virulent pandemics, of which COVID-19 is a mild precursor, along with irreversible ecological systems collapse and frightening forms of societal breakdown, authoritarianism and neofascism.
Global warming is inevitable. It cannot be stopped. At best, it can be slowed. Over the next 50 years the earth will most likely heat up to levels that will make whole parts of the planet uninhabitable. Tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of people will be displaced. Millions of species will go extinct. Cities on or near a coast, including New York and London, will be submerged.
Oceans absorb much of the excess CO2 and heat from the atmosphere. This absorption is rapidly warming and acidifying ocean waters, resulting in the deoxygenation of the oceans. Each of the earth's five known mass extinctions was preceded by at least one part of what climate scientists call the "deadly trio" – warming, acidification and deoxygenation of the oceans. The next mass extinction of sea life is already under way, the first in some 55 million years.
This is not defeatism. It is realism. We appear to have bought four years with Biden's election, but if we do not use it wisely – and there is nothing in the Biden nominations that offer any encouragement – we are merely reconstructing a shabby Potemkin village that will soon be flattened by the gale-force political and environmental hurricanes that are gathering around us.
One of the lessons I learned from covering wars and revolutions as a foreign correspondent is that the political, economic and cultural systems that are erected by any society are very fragile. The façade of power remains in place, as I saw in Eastern Europe during the 1989 revolutions and later in Yugoslavia, long after terminal rot has consumed the foundations. This façade fools a society into thinking the structures of authority remain solid, impervious to collapse. So, when collapse comes, which should have been long predicted, it appears sudden and incomprehensible. The ensuing chaos is disorienting and frightening. The cognitive dissonance between the perception of power and its rapid dissolution feeds self-delusion. It creates, as I witnessed in the former Yugoslavia, what anthropologists call crisis cults, as well as bizarre conspiracy theories, fascism and the embrace of inchoate violence to purge society of the demons blamed for the national debacle. Hatred becomes the highest form of patriotism. The vulnerable are scapegoated. Intellectuals, journalists and scientists rooted in a fact-based world are despised. Ruling elites and ruling structures lose all credibility. This collapse is often a portal to a world of nihilism and blood-drenched fantasy.
After four years of lies, the stoking of racist violence, stunning ineptitude, rampant corruption and an abject failure to cope with a national health crisis, Trump expanded his base by 11 million votes. This should be a huge, flashing red light. Worse, 70 percent of Trump voters, 51 million Americans, believe that "radical Left Democrats" and the deep state rigged the elections through "voter fraud," including the importation of Venezuelan voting software, illegitimate mail-in ballots and the wholesale destruction of Trump ballots by election officials. One hundred and twenty-six Republican House members joined a lawsuit filed by 18 Republican state attorneys general asking the Supreme Court to overturn Biden's victory. The vast majority of Republican senators refused to acknowledge the election results following the November vote. Electors from the Electoral College were forced in several states to deliver their votes to state legislatures under armed guard. Some two dozen armed protesters carrying American flags and chanting "Stop the Steal" descended on the home of Democratic Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson. Seven hundred members of the white nationalist group the Proud Boys took over streets in Washington last weekend to protest the alleged theft of the election, leading to more than three dozen arrests, four stabbings, the vandalizing of four Black churches, and Black Lives Matter banners and signs ripped down and burned.
Trump may be gone soon, but he leaves behind a party that is openly authoritarian, dismissive of democratic norms, an enemy to science and fact-based discourse and which attempted a coup d'état. The next time around they won't be so disorganized and inept. This hostility to democracy by one of the two ruling parties, supported by millions of Americans, many of whom were betrayed by Biden and the leaders of the Democratic Party, will not dissipate but grow, especially as the hammer of economic dislocation, including the looming evictions of millions of Americans, pummels the country.
The decades-long corporate assault on culture, journalism, education, the arts, universities and critical thinking has left those who speak this truth marginalized and ignored. These Cassandras, locked out of the national debate, are dismissed as unhinged and depressingly apocalyptic. The country is consumed by a mania for hope, which our corporate masters lavishly provide, at the expense of truth. It is this delusional hope that will doom us.
The Austrian writer Stefan Zweig, who with a handful of other writers and artists desperately tried to warn of the suicidal folly of World War I, wrote of what he called "the mental superiority of the defeated." His anti-war play Jeremiah, based on the Biblical prophet Jeremiah who issued warnings in vain, illustrated that those who face reality, however bitter, are able to endure and rise above it.
"Awaken, doomed city, that thou mayest save thyself," the prophet cries out in Zweig's play. "Awaken from your heavy slumbers, heedless ones, lest you be slain in sleep; awaken, for the walls are crumbling, and will crush you; awaken."
But the warnings from Jeremiah, called "the weeping prophet," were ignored and ridiculed. He was attacked for demoralizing the people. There were plots against his life. When the Babylonian army captured Jerusalem, Jeremiah, like Julian Assange, was in prison.
"I was always attracted to showing how any form of power can harden a human being's heart, how victory can bring mental rigidity to whole nations, and to contrasting that with the emotional force of defeat painfully and terribly ploughing through the soul," Zweig wrote in his memoir, "The World of Yesterday". "In the middle of war, while others, celebrating triumph too soon, were proving to one another that victory was inevitable, I was plumbing the depths of the catastrophe and looking for a way to emerge from them."
We cannot use the word hope if we refuse to face the truth. All hope rooted in self-delusion is fantasy. We must lift the filter from our eyes to see the danger before us. We must heed the warnings of our own prophets. We must destroy the centers of power that lure us and our children, like the Pied Piper of Hamelin, to certain doom. The walls, daily, are closing in around us. The radical evil we face is as real under Trump as it will be under Biden. And if this radical evil is not smashed, then the world ahead will be one of torment and mass death.
[Chris Hedges writes a regular original column for ScheerPost every two weeks. Click here to sign up for email alerts.]
Chris Hedges is a Pulitzer Prize–winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for fifteen years for The New York Times, where he served as the Middle East Bureau Chief and Balkan Bureau Chief for the paper. He previously worked overseas for The Dallas Morning News, The Christian Science Monitor, and NPR. He is the host of the Emmy Award-nominated RT America show On Contact.


alternet--2020-12-22--Robert Reich explains Joe Biden's biggest challenge

`` Life is going to return to normal , '' Joe Biden promised in a recent address to the nation .
He was talking about life after Covid , but he might as well have been making a promise about life after Trump .
But a return to `` normal '' would be disastrous .
We ca n't give in to the allure of `` normal '' – because normal is what got us here .
Normal led to Trump .
It 's not an exaggeration to say that the last four years have been traumatic for the nation .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ human rights violations , blatant racism , and maliciously incompetent response to the pandemic , people are understandably exhaling a sigh of relief .
But we ca n't return to `` normal '' because `` normal '' was four decades of stagnant wages and widening inequality when almost all economic gains went to the top .
The Republican Party 's core response has been stoking division and hate while suppressing the votes of communities of color .
And the Democratic Party abandoned the working class .
Another reason we ca n't go back @ @ @ @ @ @ @ led to our staggering Covid death toll and devastating economic fallout that have most brutally harmed lower-income Americans , especially communities of color .
That 's because normal in this case has been decades of systemic racism as well as shredded safety nets for everyone in need , the most expensive but least adequate healthcare system in the modern world , and a growing climate catastrophe that 's steadily undermining public health .
Unless these trends change , the pandemic and economic crisis America is experiencing will be nothing compared to what 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we could have Trumps as far as the eye can see .
The only way to avoid this is to fundamentally change course .
It 's a mistake to see this task as placating the progressive wing of the Democratic Party .
Fighting these systemic problems is not a matter of ideology .
It 's a matter of morality and common sense .
If we do n't address them now , they will be even more destructive in the years to come .
In other words – back-to-normal complacency would be deadly .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ restore America to sanity after four years of Trumpian chaos while at the same time offering bold solutions to the crises of our time .
Our task must be to ensure he finds the energy and political will to do so .

"Life is going to return to normal," Joe Biden promised in a recent address to the nation. He was talking about life after Covid, but he might as well have been making a promise about life after Trump.
But a return to "normal" would be disastrous. We can't give in to the allure of "normal" – because normal is what got us here. Normal led to Trump.
It's not an exaggeration to say that the last four years have been traumatic for the nation. After Trump's abuses of power, human rights violations, blatant racism, and maliciously incompetent response to the pandemic, people are understandably exhaling a sigh of relief.
But we can't return to "normal" because "normal" was four decades of stagnant wages and widening inequality when almost all economic gains went to the top.
The Republican Party's core response has been stoking division and hate while suppressing the votes of communities of color. And the Democratic Party abandoned the working class.
Another reason we can't go back to normal is that "normal" led to our staggering Covid death toll and devastating economic fallout that have most brutally harmed lower-income Americans, especially communities of color.
That's because normal in this case has been decades of systemic racism as well as shredded safety nets for everyone in need, the most expensive but least adequate healthcare system in the modern world, and a growing climate catastrophe that's steadily undermining public health.
Unless these trends change, the pandemic and economic crisis America is experiencing will be nothing compared to what's to come. And after Biden, we could have Trumps as far as the eye can see.
The only way to avoid this is to fundamentally change course.
It's a mistake to see this task as placating the progressive wing of the Democratic Party. Fighting these systemic problems is not a matter of ideology. It's a matter of morality and common sense.
If we don't address them now, they will be even more destructive in the years to come.
In other words – back-to-normal complacency would be deadly. Joe Biden's great challenge is to restore America to sanity after four years of Trumpian chaos while at the same time offering bold solutions to the crises of our time.
Our task must be to ensure he finds the energy and political will to do so.


alternet--2020-12-22--'It's all over': Televangelist Pat Robertson says a 'very erratic' Trump lives in an 'alternative re

'It's all over': Televangelist Pat Robertson says a 'very erratic' Trump lives in an 'alternative reality'

Rev .
Pat Robertson , a fixture of right-wing evangelical commentary and one of President Donald Trump 's longtime supporters @ @ @ @ @ will be president and urged Trump to accept that fact .
The outgoing president , @ @ @ @ @ in an alternate reality '' and `` is very erratic , '' in footage posted @ @ @ @ @ Robertson said to Trump , `` You 've had your day and it 's time @ @ @ @ @ and added that Trump should not try to run again in 2024 , something he @ @ @ @ @ Trump won overwhelming majorities of white evangelical voters both times he ran for president .
@ @ @ @ @ component of his coalition and critical to the GOP 's viability in elections .

Rev. Pat Robertson, a fixture of right-wing evangelical commentary and one of President Donald Trump's longtime supporters, declared that Joe Biden will be president and urged Trump to accept that fact.
The outgoing president, said Robertson, "lives in an alternate reality" and "is very erratic," in footage posted by Right Wing Watch. Robertson said to Trump, "You've had your day and it's time to move on" — and added that Trump should not try to run again in 2024, something he has been reportedly considering.
Trump won overwhelming majorities of white evangelical voters both times he ran for president. They have been a reliable component of his coalition and critical to the GOP's viability in elections.
Watch below: