alternet--2020-11-30--GOP congressman blasts his own party for spreading 'bizarre' conspiracy theories about the election

Earlier this year in Virginia , conservative Rep. Denver Riggleman lost a GOP primary challenge after being slammed by Christian fundamentalists for officiating a same-sex wedding .
Riggleman discussed the state of the Republican Party on Monday during an appearance on CNN , telling host Brianna Keilar that it is hard to ally himself with a party that demands such extreme purity tests and ca n't even acknowledge Joe Biden as president-elect .
Keilar asked Riggleman if he still considers himself a Republican , and the outgoing congressman responded , `` As far as considering myself a constitutional republican , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the state of the GOP , especially in Virginia , it 's very difficult to .
And Brianna , you know the problem with this is that we get caught up in tribes — and we 're so afraid to go away from the team .
And right now , I 'm tribeless… .
I refuse to join another tribe . ''
Riggleman went on to say , `` To be the first Republican to officiate a same-sex wedding — things like that — is why I got thrown out in a church @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's just how I 'm wired : to be outspoken . ''
Riggleman lost a primary challenge to fellow Republican Bob Good , who attacked him for not being socially conservative enough .
Good subsequently defeated Democrat Cameron Webb in the general election .
Riggleman stressed to Keilar that he refuses to kowtow to the extremes of the Republican Party , and he finds it ridiculous that many Republicans in Congress are afraid to publicly acknowledge Biden as president-elect .
`` If I ca n't sit here and spit facts for people — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ own shadow and of being part of a tribe that I do n't have the ability to say what I feel , I really do n't deserve to be sitting in the seat , '' Riggleman told told Keilar .
`` That 's how I feel about it… .
We 're having a new president ; I do n't know what the difficulty is , Brianna , to say that . ''

Earlier this year in Virginia, conservative Rep. Denver Riggleman lost a GOP primary challenge after being slammed by Christian fundamentalists for officiating a same-sex wedding. Riggleman discussed the state of the Republican Party on Monday during an appearance on CNN, telling host Brianna Keilar that it is hard to ally himself with a party that demands such extreme purity tests and can't even acknowledge Joe Biden as president-elect.
Keilar asked Riggleman if he still considers himself a Republican, and the outgoing congressman responded, "As far as considering myself a constitutional republican, I do. But as far as the state of the GOP, especially in Virginia, it's very difficult to. And Brianna, you know the problem with this is that we get caught up in tribes — and we're so afraid to go away from the team. And right now, I'm tribeless…. I refuse to join another tribe."
Riggleman went on to say, "To be the first Republican to officiate a same-sex wedding — things like that — is why I got thrown out in a church parking lot…. And I think that's just how I'm wired: to be outspoken."
Riggleman lost a primary challenge to fellow Republican Bob Good, who attacked him for not being socially conservative enough. Good subsequently defeated Democrat Cameron Webb in the general election.
Riggleman stressed to Keilar that he refuses to kowtow to the extremes of the Republican Party, and he finds it ridiculous that many Republicans in Congress are afraid to publicly acknowledge Biden as president-elect.
"If I can't sit here and spit facts for people — if I am so afraid of my own shadow and of being part of a tribe that I don't have the ability to say what I feel, I really don't deserve to be sitting in the seat," Riggleman told told Keilar. "That's how I feel about it…. We're having a new president; I don't know what the difficulty is, Brianna, to say that."


alternet--2020-11-30--Lawsuit targeting alleged money laundering through the Trump Organization moves forward: report

Moscow native Felix Sater , a real estate developer and former business associate of President Donald Trump known for his ties to the Russian mafia , has been accused of laundering millions of dollars in a lawsuit .
And on Monday , U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan allowed that lawsuit to move forward .
The money , according to the lawsuit , was stolen from BTA Bank in Kazakhstan , and Sater is accused of laundering it through Trump Organization properties .
In a 25-page opinion , Law & Crime reporter Adam Klasfeld reports , Nathan dismissed two counts of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ In this case , Kazakhstan 's largest city and a Kazakhstani bank seek to recover millions of dollars in stolen funds from those who allegedly helped the culprits launder them .
Felix Sater — the alleged ringleader of the money-laundering operation — along with his associate Daniel Ridloff and several business entities they control , move to dismiss . ''
According to Nathan , `` The court emphasizes that the Kazakh entities will need to adduce evidence showing the Sater defendants ' deceptive conduct and their justifiable reliance on that conduct in significantly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ production and of proof as the case progresses .
However , at this stage , the court concludes that it is not clear on the face of the complaint that their claims are untimely , and so , declines to dismiss any claims on that basis . ''
Klasfeld notes that the lawsuit `` stems from allegations of the systematic looting of Kazakhstan 's largest city , Almaty , and its bank in 2009 , '' adding that Nathan 's ruling `` does not mention Trump or his properties . ''
However , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ accuses Sater of helping the Almaty mayor 's son , Ilyas Khrapunov , launder stolen funds in at least five schemes throughout the United States , including through Trump Soho . ''
During the 2000s , Sater worked closely with the Trump Organization on some major real estate projects — including the construction of the Trump Soho ( which is now the Dominick ) in Downtown Manhattan .
In the Mueller Report , Sater is mentioned in connection with his efforts to broker a Trump Tower Moscow deal in 2015 and 2016 .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ with Ilyas to invest the stolen funds to develop a Trump Tower project in Russia , which Sater has claimed would have been a 'high-rise , high-end development that could make a significant amount of money . ''

Moscow native Felix Sater, a real estate developer and former business associate of President Donald Trump known for his ties to the Russian mafia, has been accused of laundering millions of dollars in a lawsuit. And on Monday, U.S. District Judge Alison Nathan allowed that lawsuit to move forward.
The money, according to the lawsuit, was stolen from BTA Bank in Kazakhstan, and Sater is accused of laundering it through Trump Organization properties.
In a 25-page opinion, Law & Crime reporter Adam Klasfeld reports, Nathan dismissed two counts of a six-count complaint and wrote, "In this case, Kazakhstan's largest city and a Kazakhstani bank seek to recover millions of dollars in stolen funds from those who allegedly helped the culprits launder them. Felix Sater — the alleged ringleader of the money-laundering operation — along with his associate Daniel Ridloff and several business entities they control, move to dismiss."
According to Nathan, "The court emphasizes that the Kazakh entities will need to adduce evidence showing the Sater defendants' deceptive conduct and their justifiable reliance on that conduct in significantly greater detail to meet their burdens of production and of proof as the case progresses. However, at this stage, the court concludes that it is not clear on the face of the complaint that their claims are untimely, and so, declines to dismiss any claims on that basis."
Klasfeld notes that the lawsuit "stems from allegations of the systematic looting of Kazakhstan's largest city, Almaty, and its bank in 2009," adding that Nathan's ruling "does not mention Trump or his properties." However, Klasfeld points out that the lawsuit "accuses Sater of helping the Almaty mayor's son, Ilyas Khrapunov, launder stolen funds in at least five schemes throughout the United States, including through Trump Soho."
During the 2000s, Sater worked closely with the Trump Organization on some major real estate projects — including the construction of the Trump Soho (which is now the Dominick) in Downtown Manhattan. In the Mueller Report, Sater is mentioned in connection with his efforts to broker a Trump Tower Moscow deal in 2015 and 2016.
The lawsuit alleges, "Sater conspired with Ilyas to invest the stolen funds to develop a Trump Tower project in Russia, which Sater has claimed would have been a 'high-rise, high-end development that could make a significant amount of money."


alternet--2020-11-30--Mitch McConnell has a playbook to destroy a Biden presidency — and it's already in the works

President-elect Joe Biden has often stressed that during his many years in the U.S. Senate , he frequently worked with Republicans — including Sen. John McCain of Arizona and President Ronald Reagan — and getting things done along bipartisan lines .
But liberal Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent has a warning for the former vice president : Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has no interest in meeting him half way and will do everything he can to undermine Biden 's presidency .
`` We know that if he remains majority leader , Mitch McConnell will work to cripple the Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ politics of a miserable recovery , '' Sargent warns in his column this week .
`` We saw him do this for years , mostly as minority leader , during the last Democratic presidency . ''
McConnell was consistently hostile to President Barack Obama during his eight years in the White House , but the Kentucky Republican was especially bad after Republicans obtained a majority in the Senate with the 2014 midterms and he became Senate majority leader .
Whether McConnell will be Senate majority leader or Senate minority leader in 2021 will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Senate races that will be decided in runoff elections in January .
The incumbent Republicans , Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Sen. David Perdue , are both far-right Trump supporters .
If their Democratic challengers prevail — Jon Ossoff against Perdue , the Rev .
Raphael Warnock against Loeffler — Democrats would obtain a narrow majority in the Senate .
Ossoff , during an interview , stressed to Sargent that McConnell has no interest in having a productive relationship with Biden after he is sworn in as president on January 20 .
`` If @ @ @ @ @ @ @ going to block the kind of relief package that we need , '' Ossoff told Sargent .
`` And that means not just short-term , direct economic relief , but also , the kind of infrastructure jobs/clean energy program necessary to support long-term recovery .
This paralysis of our government in the midst of a crisis is untenable .
People are suffering , and they want government to work . ''
Biden will inherit some daunting challenges as president — not only a pandemic , but also , all of the economic problems @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore , COVID-19 has killed more than 1.4 million people worldwide — including over 267,000 in the United States .
And many medical experts are saying that those numbers could become much worse by the time Biden moves into the White House .
Sargent notes , `` By blocking a big stimulus , McConnell can do a lot of damage .
The coronavirus ' spikes everywhere are requiring new health measures and a pullback from economic activity — only this time , previously passed federal aid programs are drying @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a large aid package , when McConnell plainly calculated it would boost GOP electoral prospects .
This fall , when he appeared to think another big stimulus could n't save President Trump and his members balked at more spending , he opposed a second round . ''
Another way in which McConnell will try to hurt Biden 's presidency , if he remains Senate majority leader , is by blocking Biden 's judicial nominees .
In 2016 , McConnell would n't even consider Obama 's Supreme Court nominee , Judge Merrick Garland — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Senate majority leader blocked Obama 's nominees for the lower federal courts .
McConnell would do the same thing with Biden , and according to Politico 's Marianne Levine , some GOP senators would be just as obstructive .
Sen. Sen. Josh Hawley , a Missouri Republican , told Politico , `` I imagine they 'll have a tough time just because I 'm not going to vote for people who I think are , to use my words , 'judicial imperialists . '
But maybe he 'll surprise me if ( Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knows , maybe he 'll send up nominees who are constitutionalists and textualists .
I kind of doubt it . ''
Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota , meanwhile , told Politico , `` The good news is that we 've done a good job — and we 're not done , as you know — filling the vacancies that there are on the appellate courts to minimize the opportunity for more liberals on it . ''
Democratic Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin is expecting the worst when it comes to how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Biden 's judicial nominees , telling Politico , `` If the last two years of the Obama administration were any indication , they 'll freeze them out .
Hope springs eternal , but I believe in history . ''
Sargent wraps up his Post column by emphasizing that if Loeffler and Perdue are victorious in the runoffs in Georgia and McConnell continues to oversee a Republican Senate majority , the last thing Biden 's administration should expect is a spirit of bipartisan compromise .
`` A Republican victory in Georgia… .
would also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the election 's outcome illegitimate as a successful political tactic , '' Sargent writes .
`` That 's yet another way the stakes of these runoffs are so high — along with whether we get an ambitious governmental response to the profound crises we face . ''

President-elect Joe Biden has often stressed that during his many years in the U.S. Senate, he frequently worked with Republicans — including Sen. John McCain of Arizona and President Ronald Reagan — and getting things done along bipartisan lines. But liberal Washington Post columnist Greg Sargent has a warning for the former vice president: Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has no interest in meeting him half way and will do everything he can to undermine Biden's presidency.
"We know that if he remains majority leader, Mitch McConnell will work to cripple the Biden presidency by saddling him with the terrible politics of a miserable recovery," Sargent warns in his column this week. "We saw him do this for years, mostly as minority leader, during the last Democratic presidency."
McConnell was consistently hostile to President Barack Obama during his eight years in the White House, but the Kentucky Republican was especially bad after Republicans obtained a majority in the Senate with the 2014 midterms and he became Senate majority leader.
Whether McConnell will be Senate majority leader or Senate minority leader in 2021 will depend on what happens in two U.S. Senate races that will be decided in runoff elections in January. The incumbent Republicans, Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Sen. David Perdue, are both far-right Trump supporters. If their Democratic challengers prevail — Jon Ossoff against Perdue, the Rev. Raphael Warnock against Loeffler — Democrats would obtain a narrow majority in the Senate.
Sargent explains:
If Republicans win one or both runoffs, Ossoff says, continued GOP control of the Senate will mean relentless obstruction of incoming President Joe Biden's agenda. That means a much more grueling economic recovery, a less-coordinated response to the coronavirus' latest rampage and a death knell for popular policies such as expanded health care and infrastructure investments. In short, unless Democrats win both runoffs — giving them control — it will mean far more economic misery, far more illness and death, and badly diminished prospects for long-term national revival.
Ossoff, during an interview, stressed to Sargent that McConnell has no interest in having a productive relationship with Biden after he is sworn in as president on January 20.
"If McConnell controls the Senate, he's going to block the kind of relief package that we need," Ossoff told Sargent. "And that means not just short-term, direct economic relief, but also, the kind of infrastructure jobs/clean energy program necessary to support long-term recovery. This paralysis of our government in the midst of a crisis is untenable. People are suffering, and they want government to work."
Biden will inherit some daunting challenges as president — not only a pandemic, but also, all of the economic problems the pandemic has caused. According to Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, COVID-19 has killed more than 1.4 million people worldwide — including over 267,000 in the United States. And many medical experts are saying that those numbers could become much worse by the time Biden moves into the White House.
Sargent notes, "By blocking a big stimulus, McConnell can do a lot of damage. The coronavirus' spikes everywhere are requiring new health measures and a pullback from economic activity — only this time, previously passed federal aid programs are drying up. Last spring, Republicans backed a large aid package, when McConnell plainly calculated it would boost GOP electoral prospects. This fall, when he appeared to think another big stimulus couldn't save President Trump and his members balked at more spending, he opposed a second round."
Another way in which McConnell will try to hurt Biden's presidency, if he remains Senate majority leader, is by blocking Biden's judicial nominees. In 2016, McConnell wouldn't even consider Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Judge Merrick Garland — and on top of that, the Senate majority leader blocked Obama's nominees for the lower federal courts.
McConnell would do the same thing with Biden, and according to Politico's Marianne Levine, some GOP senators would be just as obstructive.
Sen. Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, told Politico, "I imagine they'll have a tough time just because I'm not going to vote for people who I think are, to use my words, 'judicial imperialists.' But maybe he'll surprise me if (Biden) is indeed the president. Who knows, maybe he'll send up nominees who are constitutionalists and textualists. I kind of doubt it."
Republican Sen. Kevin Cramer of North Dakota, meanwhile, told Politico, "The good news is that we've done a good job — and we're not done, as you know — filling the vacancies that there are on the appellate courts to minimize the opportunity for more liberals on it."
Democratic Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin is expecting the worst when it comes to how McConnell and other Senate Republicans will treat Biden's judicial nominees, telling Politico, "If the last two years of the Obama administration were any indication, they'll freeze them out. Hope springs eternal, but I believe in history."
Sargent wraps up his Post column by emphasizing that if Loeffler and Perdue are victorious in the runoffs in Georgia and McConnell continues to oversee a Republican Senate majority, the last thing Biden's administration should expect is a spirit of bipartisan compromise.
"A Republican victory in Georgia…. would also validate the GOP's use of declaring the election's outcome illegitimate as a successful political tactic," Sargent writes. "That's yet another way the stakes of these runoffs are so high — along with whether we get an ambitious governmental response to the profound crises we face."


alternet--2020-11-30--Iran blames Israel for the assassination of its top nuclear scientist

Iran held a state funeral today for Mohsen Fakhrizadeh , a top nuclear scientist who was assassinated while driving on @ @ @ @ @ on Friday .
Iran accused Israel of orchestrating the killing , which Iran says may @ @ @ @ @ automatic remote-controlled machine gun placed inside an empty vehicle .
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said @ @ @ @ @ proper time .
Many analysts say the assassination of the Iranian scientist was designed to @ @ @ @ @ Joe Biden to rejoin the landmark 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran , which President Trump @ @ @ @ @

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alternet--2020-11-30--GOP Sen. Kelly Loeffler is trying to win over Black voters — and it's 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--2020-11-30--The Trump coup is a total failure — here's why it's still ongoing

On Sunday morning , Donald Trump let loose with what may be his most unhinged performance yet — which is really saying something — of his extended effort to pretend the election was stolen from him by President-elect Joe Biden .
In a 45-minute interview on Fox News with host Maria Bartiromo , which was more like an uninterrupted dramatic monologue , Trump unloaded an absolute truckload of lies .
He lied about ballots and voting machines , claiming that millions of fake votes were recorded .
He suggested the FBI was `` involved '' in the imaginary conspiracy against @ @ @ @ @ @ @ came up '' with the coronavirus vaccines , a claim that is utterly ludicrous but will be swallowed without complaint by all the people who still mock Al Gore for claiming to have `` invented '' the internet — which Gore never actually said .
What 's especially weird about this whole situation is that Trump is doubling down on these false claims in the face of an epic failure to get his attempted coup off the ground .
The recount that Trump demanded in Wisconsin — although his campaign only paid for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ — not only affirmed Biden 's win in that state , but increased the president-elect 's total by 87 votes .
Meanwhile , Trump 's losing streak in the courts only got worse over the weekend , with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissing one Trump lawsuit with prejudice ( meaning he ca n't sue again regarding this matter ) and another suit failing in the Third Circuit federal appeals court .
`` Voters , not lawyers , choose the president , '' federal judge Stephanos Bibas — a Trump appointee !
— wrote @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yet , Trump continues to invite more humiliation .
He continued to rant on Twitter , promising , `` We have some big things happening in our various litigations on the Election Hoax . ''
( Whoever he means by `` we , '' they do not . )
Worse yet , Trump has an army of liars at his disposal : The right-wing punditry , spread out across radio , TV and the internet , is largely bolstering these utterly false claims that the election was `` rigged '' and that Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ steal the White House .
There are multiple reasons for this .
Trump 's black hole of an ego makes it impossible for him to admit he lost the election , first of all .
Most right-wing pundits are increasingly consumed by an authoritarian ideology that 's opposed to democracy , and they view these lies as a good way to undermine public trust .
Republican politicians are eager to delegitimize Biden 's presidency , and also to lay the groundwork for more voter suppression tactics .
By falsely accusing Democrats of cheating @ @ @ @ @ @ @ cover for their real-life cheating .
But as is usually the case with right-wing politics in the 21st century , a lot of this is about money .
Trump 's voting base is a sea of suckers .
He and the various grifters who make up most of the right-wing media are eager to drain those suckers dry .
Stoking anger over the lost election and feeding people 's fantasies about stealing it is , by all appearances , a cash bonanza .
On Sunday , New York Times media columnist Ben Smith @ @ @ @ @ @ @ CEO of the Trump-tastic website and TV network Newsmax .
As the headline suggests — `` The King of Trump TV Thinks You 're Dumb Enough to Buy It '' — the profile is not a flattering one .
Instead , it depicts Ruddy is knowingly pumping out lies about the election , because doing so is dramatically increasing ratings and traffic , and making him a fortune .
Ruddy claimed he 's justified in spreading misinformation for cash , insisting to Smith that the rest of the media also hypes lies and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's example of this , however , is `` this Russian hoax theory , '' which is neither a hoax nor a theory , but a substantial scandal that , in a healthier political environment , would have led to Trump 's removal from office years ago . )
Ruddy is far from the only one who sees a lucrative opportunity in peddling lies to America 's would-be brownshirts about Trump 's glorious assault on democracy — disingenuously packaged as `` stop the steal '' , since all things with the right are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ succeed .
As Media Matters documented last week , a hive of right-wing grifters are blitzing their followers by email , demanding they turn over their grandkids ' college fund to this effort to overturn the election results .
Charlie Kirk , Alex Jones , Candace Owens and many other right-wing parasites are hammering their lists of subscribers and supporters with pitches like , `` Will you help me fight with President Trump and ensure only legal votes are counted ?
Rush $ 25 right here , '' and `` One thing is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and there is a lot of it that still needs [ to be ] exposed , '' all for the low , low price of $ 25 ( or more ) .
Of course , the biggest grifter is Trump himself , who has been sending his followers dozens of emails a week , begging for cash and promising that it will be used to stop the `` Radical Left and Fake News Media , '' who `` will do whatever it takes to try to STEAL the White House . ''
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ are full of lies about how their donation will somehow be improved a thousandfold , through mechanisms that are not explained .
Where 's the money going ?
It 's not being lavishly spent on this go-nowhere fight to snatch Biden 's victory away , that 's for sure .
For instance , a statewide recount of Wisconsin was expected to cost Trump $ 8 million .
Instead of paying full price , however , the campaign chose to recounting two counties for $ 3 million .
This penny-pinching has an obvious purpose @ @ @ @ @ @ @ money raised away from his failed coup attempt into a leadership PAC that he can use as a slush fund , just as he did with the Trump Foundation in years past .
Far from being able to `` increase your impact by 1000 % , '' as the emails promise , the money donated will likely go towards Trump traveling and throwing himself a bunch of parties for the next few years .
No one should shed a tear for the fools being parted from their money , especially since said fools @ @ @ @ @ @ @ aimed at ending free and fair elections .
Nonetheless , this entire grifting empire is a big problem , because the end result of all this profiteering is that our democracy is being undermined .
As Trump and his buddies cash in , their reckless rhetoric is encouraging their followers to grow ever more hateful towards the rest of Americans — the majority of Americans — who continue to believe in democracy .
As Heather Digby Parton wrote Monday at Salon , `` standard conservative victimhood is changing into something else with Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ convince tens of millions of people there is a conspiracy to disenfranchise them . ''
This narrative is already being used to justify illegal and fascistic power grabs and election cheating .
We 're already seeing signs of it in the way Georgia 's Republican donor base has been haranguing politicians in that state to do more to help Trump steal the election .
That wo n't work for Trump , at least not this time around , it could certainly lay the groundwork for pushing out the few remaining honest Republicans in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ keeping Black voters from the polls .
It 's also ramping up the aggression of some of the more unsavory people in the Trump base .
In Raleigh , North Carolina , this weekend , there was an ugly demonstration by a group of Trump supporters insisting that his lies about the election were true .
The rally was flush with Proud Boys , who wore insignia declaring their eagerness for violence and yelled at counter-protesters that they wanted to `` exterminate '' them .
This kind of baseless anger suggests that it @ @ @ @ @ @ @ if , there 's another terrorist attack by a Trump fanboy .
There 's little chance of Trump or his enablers letting up between now and Inauguration Day , which is still more than seven weeks away .
There 's clearly too much money to be made by endlessly promising Trump voters that they 're on the verge of stealing this election from Biden , and that another $ 25 is all it will take to get Trump a second term .
Apparently , not even the routine humiliation of losing court battles @ @ @ @ @ @ @ train — not as long as the American right is still composed of a bunch of suckers .

On Sunday morning, Donald Trump let loose with what may be his most unhinged performance yet — which is really saying something — of his extended effort to pretend the election was stolen from him by President-elect Joe Biden. In a 45-minute interview on Fox News with host Maria Bartiromo, which was more like an uninterrupted dramatic monologue, Trump unloaded an absolute truckload of lies. He lied about ballots and voting machines, claiming that millions of fake votes were recorded. He suggested the FBI was "involved" in the imaginary conspiracy against him. He even said he "came up" with the coronavirus vaccines, a claim that is utterly ludicrous but will be swallowed without complaint by all the people who still mock Al Gore for claiming to have "invented" the internet — which Gore never actually said.
What's especially weird about this whole situation is that Trump is doubling down on these false claims in the face of an epic failure to get his attempted coup off the ground. The recount that Trump demanded in Wisconsin — although his campaign only paid for a recount in two overwhelmingly Democratic counties — not only affirmed Biden's win in that state, but increased the president-elect's total by 87 votes. Meanwhile, Trump's losing streak in the courts only got worse over the weekend, with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court dismissing one Trump lawsuit with prejudice (meaning he can't sue again regarding this matter) and another suit failing in the Third Circuit federal appeals court.
"Voters, not lawyers, choose the president," federal judge Stephanos Bibas — a Trump appointee! — wrote in deciding the latter case.
And yet, Trump continues to invite more humiliation. He continued to rant on Twitter, promising, "We have some big things happening in our various litigations on the Election Hoax." (Whoever he means by "we," they do not.)
Worse yet, Trump has an army of liars at his disposal: The right-wing punditry, spread out across radio, TV and the internet, is largely bolstering these utterly false claims that the election was "rigged" and that Trump will somehow prevail in his efforts to steal the White House.
There are multiple reasons for this. Trump's black hole of an ego makes it impossible for him to admit he lost the election, first of all. Most right-wing pundits are increasingly consumed by an authoritarian ideology that's opposed to democracy, and they view these lies as a good way to undermine public trust. Republican politicians are eager to delegitimize Biden's presidency, and also to lay the groundwork for more voter suppression tactics. By falsely accusing Democrats of cheating, in other words, Republicans create cover for their real-life cheating.
But as is usually the case with right-wing politics in the 21st century, a lot of this is about money. Trump's voting base is a sea of suckers. He and the various grifters who make up most of the right-wing media are eager to drain those suckers dry. Stoking anger over the lost election and feeding people's fantasies about stealing it is, by all appearances, a cash bonanza.
On Sunday, New York Times media columnist Ben Smith published a profile of Chris Ruddy, CEO of the Trump-tastic website and TV network Newsmax. As the headline suggests — "The King of Trump TV Thinks You're Dumb Enough to Buy It" — the profile is not a flattering one. Instead, it depicts Ruddy is knowingly pumping out lies about the election, because doing so is dramatically increasing ratings and traffic, and making him a fortune.
Ruddy claimed he's justified in spreading misinformation for cash, insisting to Smith that the rest of the media also hypes lies and bullshit to make money. (Ruddy's example of this, however, is "this Russian hoax theory," which is neither a hoax nor a theory, but a substantial scandal that, in a healthier political environment, would have led to Trump's removal from office years ago.)
Ruddy is far from the only one who sees a lucrative opportunity in peddling lies to America's would-be brownshirts about Trump's glorious assault on democracy — disingenuously packaged as "stop the steal", since all things with the right are projection — and how it will ultimately succeed.
As Media Matters documented last week, a hive of right-wing grifters are blitzing their followers by email, demanding they turn over their grandkids' college fund to this effort to overturn the election results.
Charlie Kirk, Alex Jones, Candace Owens and many other right-wing parasites are hammering their lists of subscribers and supporters with pitches like, "Will you help me fight with President Trump and ensure only legal votes are counted? Rush $25 right here," and "One thing is clear: the fraud was happening everywhere, and there is a lot of it that still needs [to be] exposed," all for the low, low price of $25 (or more).
Of course, the biggest grifter is Trump himself, who has been sending his followers dozens of emails a week, begging for cash and promising that it will be used to stop the "Radical Left and Fake News Media," who "will do whatever it takes to try to STEAL the White House." (More projection!) The emails are full of lies about how their donation will somehow be improved a thousandfold, through mechanisms that are not explained.
Where's the money going? It's not being lavishly spent on this go-nowhere fight to snatch Biden's victory away, that's for sure. For instance, a statewide recount of Wisconsin was expected to cost Trump $8 million. Instead of paying full price, however, the campaign chose to recounting two counties for $3 million.
This penny-pinching has an obvious purpose: It allows Trump to reroute the money raised away from his failed coup attempt into a leadership PAC that he can use as a slush fund, just as he did with the Trump Foundation in years past. Far from being able to "increase your impact by 1000%," as the emails promise, the money donated will likely go towards Trump traveling and throwing himself a bunch of parties for the next few years.
No one should shed a tear for the fools being parted from their money, especially since said fools imagine they're funding an authoritarian coup aimed at ending free and fair elections. Nonetheless, this entire grifting empire is a big problem, because the end result of all this profiteering is that our democracy is being undermined. As Trump and his buddies cash in, their reckless rhetoric is encouraging their followers to grow ever more hateful towards the rest of Americans — the majority of Americans — who continue to believe in democracy.
As Heather Digby Parton wrote Monday at Salon, "standard conservative victimhood is changing into something else with Trump's crusade to delegitimize the election and convince tens of millions of people there is a conspiracy to disenfranchise them."
This narrative is already being used to justify illegal and fascistic power grabs and election cheating. We're already seeing signs of it in the way Georgia's Republican donor base has been haranguing politicians in that state to do more to help Trump steal the election. That won't work for Trump, at least not this time around, it could certainly lay the groundwork for pushing out the few remaining honest Republicans in power and passing more policies targeted at keeping Black voters from the polls.
It's also ramping up the aggression of some of the more unsavory people in the Trump base. In Raleigh, North Carolina, this weekend, there was an ugly demonstration by a group of Trump supporters insisting that his lies about the election were true. The rally was flush with Proud Boys, who wore insignia declaring their eagerness for violence and yelled at counter-protesters that they wanted to "exterminate" them. This kind of baseless anger suggests that it's a matter of when, not if, there's another terrorist attack by a Trump fanboy.
There's little chance of Trump or his enablers letting up between now and Inauguration Day, which is still more than seven weeks away. There's clearly too much money to be made by endlessly promising Trump voters that they're on the verge of stealing this election from Biden, and that another $25 is all it will take to get Trump a second term. Apparently, not even the routine humiliation of losing court battles and recounts will slow down the grift train — not as long as the American right is still composed of a bunch of suckers.


alternet--2020-11-30--ICE expelled group of children under Stephen Miller policy just minutes after judge blocked it

A federal judge 's ruling earlier this month blocking the Stephen Miller-led public health policy that the Trump administration has used to quickly kick out children should have immediately stopped the expulsion of a group of 33 kids who sat on a flight bound for Central America that same day .
Should have .
Instead , officials continued on with the flight .
BuzzFeed News reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement claims that agents did n't know about the ruling , which came shortly before the flight took off for Guatemala .
It 's hard to believe that ICE was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a policy that 's already expelled children at least 13,000 times , or that a ruling was coming .
I guess they do n't carry phones or walkie talkies .
It 's also hard to believe ICE when it has a history of lying to both the courts and us .
ICE claims that agents became aware of Judge Emmet Sullivan 's ruling only after they 'd landed in Guatemala , but instead of keeping these children in custody and turning right back around for the U.S. , they left them , BuzzFeed @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that they are leaving the kids there and that they did not immediately bring them back , '' Migration Policy Institute analyst Sarah Pierce said in the report .
ICE 's clear rush to expel these 33 children could now result in officials being forced to return them to the U.S. ( which is what should happen ) .
`` Pratheepan Gulasekaram , a professor at Santa Clara University Law School , said ICE 's repeated issues in court under the Trump administration could play a factor in this case if Sullivan assesses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the report continued .
`` Federal court judges have complained that they were lied to by officials in cases involving immigration policy during the Trump administration . ''
This Centers for Disease Control and Protection policy using the novel coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to deny children seeking asylum their rights and quickly expel them from the U.S. has been outright evil .
Experts at the agency reportedly pressed back on it at first , saying there was no valid public health reason for such an order .
That 's correct .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , soon-to-be-former vice president Mike Pence went to go bully agency director Robert Redfield , who caved .
Pro-life , my ass .
Sullivan 's ruling this month subsequently blocked the policy , with advocates calling it `` an important step in restoring the rights of unaccompanied children at the border . ''
That 's what is supposed to happen—when ICE bothers to follow court rulings and the law .
`` This agency is run by terrible human beings , '' immigration attorney Charles Kuck tweeted .
`` FWIW , these officials knew @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The plane left anyway . ''

A federal judge's ruling earlier this month blocking the Stephen Miller-led public health policy that the Trump administration has used to quickly kick out children should have immediately stopped the expulsion of a group of 33 kids who sat on a flight bound for Central America that same day. Should have. Instead, officials continued on with the flight.
BuzzFeed News reports that Immigration and Customs Enforcement claims that agents didn't know about the ruling, which came shortly before the flight took off for Guatemala. It's hard to believe that ICE wasn't aware of an impactful decision stopping a policy that's already expelled children at least 13,000 times, or that a ruling was coming. I guess they don't carry phones or walkie talkies. It's also hard to believe ICE when it has a history of lying to both the courts and us.
ICE claims that agents became aware of Judge Emmet Sullivan's ruling only after they'd landed in Guatemala, but instead of keeping these children in custody and turning right back around for the U.S., they left them, BuzzFeed News continues. "It is unconscionable that they are leaving the kids there and that they did not immediately bring them back," Migration Policy Institute analyst Sarah Pierce said in the report.
ICE's clear rush to expel these 33 children could now result in officials being forced to return them to the U.S. (which is what should happen).
"Pratheepan Gulasekaram, a professor at Santa Clara University Law School, said ICE's repeated issues in court under the Trump administration could play a factor in this case if Sullivan assesses whether they violated his order," the report continued. "Federal court judges have complained that they were lied to by officials in cases involving immigration policy during the Trump administration."
This Centers for Disease Control and Protection policy using the novel coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to deny children seeking asylum their rights and quickly expel them from the U.S. has been outright evil. Experts at the agency reportedly pressed back on it at first, saying there was no valid public health reason for such an order. That's correct.
But under pressure from noted white supremacist Miller, soon-to-be-former vice president Mike Pence went to go bully agency director Robert Redfield, who caved. Pro-life, my ass. Sullivan's ruling this month subsequently blocked the policy, with advocates calling it "an important step in restoring the rights of unaccompanied children at the border."
That's what is supposed to happen—when ICE bothers to follow court rulings and the law. "This agency is run by terrible human beings," immigration attorney Charles Kuck tweeted. "FWIW, these officials knew Judge Sullivan was issuing this order. The plane left anyway."


alternet--2020-11-30--Listen: Supreme Court hearing gets awkward as conservative Alito runs roughshod over chief justice R

Listen: Supreme Court hearing gets awkward as conservative Alito runs roughshod over chief justice Roberts

President Trump is pressing the U.S. Supreme Court to allow him to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census count — a move that goes against more than 200 years of practice where non-citizen residents , even those in the U.S. illegally , were among those counted .
While questioning New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood , conservative Justice Samuel Alito said that the prospect of submitting two documents , one detailing census numbers of every person inside the U.S. and another detailing numbers that exclude undocumented immigrants inside the U.S. `` seems like a totally meaningless formality . ''
`` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the sense that this is the moment in the process when judicial intervention can operate , '' Underwood replied , adding that the court can tell President Trump what is `` lawful to use in his report to Congress . ''
Later in the exchange , Chief Justice John Roberts signaled to Alito that his time was up and attempted to hand over the floor to Justice Sonia Sotomayor , but Alito ignored Roberts and insisted on moving on to his second point .
Listen to the exchange in the video below :

President Trump is pressing the U.S. Supreme Court to allow him to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census count — a move that goes against more than 200 years of practice where non-citizen residents, even those in the U.S. illegally, were among those counted.
While questioning New York Solicitor General Barbara Underwood, conservative Justice Samuel Alito said that the prospect of submitting two documents, one detailing census numbers of every person inside the U.S. and another detailing numbers that exclude undocumented immigrants inside the U.S. "seems like a totally meaningless formality."
"It's not a meaningless formality in the sense that this is the moment in the process when judicial intervention can operate," Underwood replied, adding that the court can tell President Trump what is "lawful to use in his report to Congress."
Later in the exchange, Chief Justice John Roberts signaled to Alito that his time was up and attempted to hand over the floor to Justice Sonia Sotomayor, but Alito ignored Roberts and insisted on moving on to his second point.
Listen to the exchange in the video below:


alternet--2020-11-30--Trump pummeled for claiming 'I'm not fighting for me' after losing 39 election cases

President Donald Trump kicked off Monday morning by insisting his spewing daily lies about a `` rigged '' election and @ @ @ @ @ service to the voters , not to himself .
Trump lost the election by more @ @ @ @ @ 74 Electoral College votes .
And he has provided zero evidence of fraud .
`` @ @ @ @ @ me , I 'm fighting for the 74,000,000 million [ sic ] people ( not @ @ @ @ @ that were `` tossed '' ) , a record for a sitting President , who @ @ @ @ @ Currently , President-elect Joe Biden is beating President Trump 80.1 million votes to 73.9 million @ @ @ @ @ to 471 % .
But as elections expert and Democratic attorney Marc Elias writes , @ @ @ @ @ of 40 cases :

President Donald Trump kicked off Monday morning by insisting his spewing daily lies about a "rigged" election and refusing to concede is in service to the voters, not to himself.
Trump lost the election by more than six million votes and 74 Electoral College votes. And he has provided zero evidence of fraud.
"I'm not fighting for me, I'm fighting for the 74,000,000 million [sic] people (not including the many Trump ballots that were "tossed"), a record for a sitting President, who voted for me!"
Trump also managed to write "74 million" wrong.
Currently, President-elect Joe Biden is beating President Trump 80.1 million votes to 73.9 million votes, or 51.1% to 471%.
But as elections expert and Democratic attorney Marc Elias writes, Trump has lost 39 out of 40 cases:
Trump was quickly pummeled on social media.


alternet--2020-11-30--International lawyers drafting plan to hold governments, corps accountable for 'widespread destructi

International lawyers drafting plan to hold governments, corps accountable for 'widespread destruction' of ecosystems

An expert panel of top international and environmental lawyers have begun working this month on a legal definition of `` ecocide '' with the goal of making mass ecological damage an enforceable international crime on par with war crimes , crimes against humanity , and genocide .
Assembled by the Stop Ecocide Foundation at the request of several Swedish parliamentarians , the initiative to criminalize the destruction of ecosystems at the global level has already garnered support from European countries as well as small island nations highly vulnerable to rising sea levels .
The drafting panel is co-chaired by Philippe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ College London , and Justice Florence Mumba , a former judge at the International Criminal Court ( ICC ) .
The November 20 launch date of the project coincided with the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders , where the terms `` crimes against humanity '' and `` genocide '' were coined .
`` The time is right , '' Sands said recently at an event commemorating the Nuremberg trials , `` to harness the power of international criminal law to protect our global environment . ''
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ against humanity ' and 'genocide ' were spoken for the first time , in Nuremberg 's Courtroom 600 , '' Sands added , `` and my hope is that this group will be able to draw on experience since that day to forge a definition that is practical , effective , and sustainable , and that might attract support to allow an amendment to the ICC Statute to be made . ''
Charles Jalloh , a professor at Florida International University and member of the United Nations International Law Commission who is on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of ecocide , said that `` states should use all tools at their disposal , including their criminal law power at the national and international levels , to protect our shared global environment and to bring the most responsible perpetrators to justice . ''
The Stop Ecocide Foundation noted that the concept of criminalizing ecocide `` has been steadily gaining traction in recent months since small island states Vanuatu and the Maldives called for 'serious consideration ' of it at the ICC 's annual assembly '' in December 2019 .
According to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has actively promised to champion the idea , '' and the Belgian government has also `` pledged diplomatic action to support it . ''
As The Guardian reported Monday , the ICC `` has previously promised to prioritize crimes that result in the 'destruction of the environment , ' 'exploitation of natural resources , ' and the 'illegal dispossession ' of land . ''
`` An ICC policy paper in 2016 said it was not formally extending its jurisdiction but would assess existing offenses , such as crimes against humanity , in a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Yet `` there have been no formal investigations or charges of this type so far . ''
Panel member Pablo Fajardo , the Goldman prize-winning Ecuadorian lawyer who challenged Chevron for polluting the Amazon rainforest , said that this `` great legal vaccum that exists globally '' results in `` crimes ... committed against nature , against life ... go [ ing ] unpunished , '' even though `` these crimes take their toll on humanity . ''
`` We see ... systemic , widespread , and deliberate destruction of the environment @ @ @ @ @ @ @ panelist Christina Voigt , a professor at the University of Oslo and expert in climate change law .
A newly defined crime of ecocide , she added , `` could not only bring those responsible to justice , but also more importantly prevent further destruction . ''
As The Guardian pointed out , `` one challenge for the drafting panel would be to define at what point an ecocide offense would come into force .
Chopping down a single tree on a village green would not be sufficient . ''
Jojo Mehta , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told The Guardian that `` it would have to involve mass , systematic , or widespread destruction '' of the world 's ecosystems .
`` We are probably talking about Amazon deforestation on a huge scale , deep sea bottom trawling , or oil spills , '' she said .
`` We want to place it at the same level as atrocities investigated by the ICC . ''
Mehta explained that `` in most cases ecocide is likely to be a corporate crime . ''
`` Criminalizing something at the ICC means that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ incorporate it into their own national legislation , '' she added .
`` That means there would be lots of options for prosecuting [ offending corporations ] around the world . ''
Preparatory work is now underway , and the panel plans to deliver a draft of a legally enforceable definition of ecocide in early 2021 .

An expert panel of top international and environmental lawyers have begun working this month on a legal definition of "ecocide" with the goal of making mass ecological damage an enforceable international crime on par with war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide.
Assembled by the Stop Ecocide Foundation at the request of several Swedish parliamentarians, the initiative to criminalize the destruction of ecosystems at the global level has already garnered support from European countries as well as small island nations highly vulnerable to rising sea levels.
The drafting panel is co-chaired by Philippe Sands QC, a professor at University College London, and Justice Florence Mumba, a former judge at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The November 20 launch date of the project coincided with the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the Nuremberg trials of Nazi leaders, where the terms "crimes against humanity" and "genocide" were coined.
"The time is right," Sands said recently at an event commemorating the Nuremberg trials, "to harness the power of international criminal law to protect our global environment."
"Seventy five years ago, 'crimes against humanity' and 'genocide' were spoken for the first time, in Nuremberg's Courtroom 600," Sands added, "and my hope is that this group will be able to draw on experience since that day to forge a definition that is practical, effective, and sustainable, and that might attract support to allow an amendment to the ICC Statute to be made."
Charles Jalloh, a professor at Florida International University and member of the United Nations International Law Commission who is on the panel drafting a legally robust definition of ecocide, said that "states should use all tools at their disposal, including their criminal law power at the national and international levels, to protect our shared global environment and to bring the most responsible perpetrators to justice."
The Stop Ecocide Foundation noted that the concept of criminalizing ecocide "has been steadily gaining traction in recent months since small island states Vanuatu and the Maldives called for 'serious consideration' of it at the ICC's annual assembly" in December 2019. According to the group, French President Emmanuel Macron "has actively promised to champion the idea," and the Belgian government has also "pledged diplomatic action to support it."
As The Guardian reported Monday, the ICC "has previously promised to prioritize crimes that result in the 'destruction of the environment,' 'exploitation of natural resources,' and the 'illegal dispossession' of land."
"An ICC policy paper in 2016 said it was not formally extending its jurisdiction but would assess existing offenses, such as crimes against humanity, in a broader context," The Guardian continued. Yet "there have been no formal investigations or charges of this type so far."
Panel member Pablo Fajardo, the Goldman prize-winning Ecuadorian lawyer who challenged Chevron for polluting the Amazon rainforest, said that this "great legal vaccum that exists globally" results in "crimes... committed against nature, against life... go[ing] unpunished," even though "these crimes take their toll on humanity."
"We see... systemic, widespread, and deliberate destruction of the environment without any obvious consequences," said panelist Christina Voigt, a professor at the University of Oslo and expert in climate change law. A newly defined crime of ecocide, she added, "could not only bring those responsible to justice, but also more importantly prevent further destruction."
As The Guardian pointed out, "one challenge for the drafting panel would be to define at what point an ecocide offense would come into force. Chopping down a single tree on a village green would not be sufficient."
Jojo Mehta, chair of the Stop Ecocide Foundation, told The Guardian that "it would have to involve mass, systematic, or widespread destruction" of the world's ecosystems.
"We are probably talking about Amazon deforestation on a huge scale, deep sea bottom trawling, or oil spills," she said. "We want to place it at the same level as atrocities investigated by the ICC."
Mehta explained that "in most cases ecocide is likely to be a corporate crime."
"Criminalizing something at the ICC means that nations that have ratified it have to incorporate it into their own national legislation," she added. "That means there would be lots of options for prosecuting [offending corporations] around the world."
Preparatory work is now underway, and the panel plans to deliver a draft of a legally enforceable definition of ecocide in early 2021.


alternet--2020-11-30--Larry Hogan slammed for endorsing Georgia's Loeffler and Perdue in bid for ‘moderation and compromis

Larry Hogan slammed for endorsing Georgia's Loeffler and Perdue in bid for ‘moderation and compromise’

Maryland Gov .
Larry Hogan has been praised by many centrist Democrats and Never Trump conservatives as one of the more sensible Republicans — someone who acknowledges how dangerous COVID-19 is , promotes social distancing measures , acknowledges Joe Biden as president-elect and refuses to indulge President Donald Trump 's baseless claims of widespread voter fraud .
This week , however , Hogan is coming under fire for endorsing two far-right GOP senators in Georgia who most definitely are not moderate : Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Sen. David Perdue .
In an op-ed published by the Washington Examiner on November @ @ @ @ @ @ @ favor of `` divided government '' as well as `` moderation and compromise '' — writing that because the United States will have a Democratic president and a Democrat-controlled House of Representatives in 2021 , it 's important for Republicans to maintain their Senate majority .
Whether Republicans will or wo n't be able to hold their Senate majority will be determined by whether or not Loeffler and Perdue prevail in Georgia 's Senate runoff elections in January .
`` As a Republican governor in a deep-blue state , I know first-hand how @ @ @ @ @ @ @ '' Hogan writes .
`` In 2014 , I ran for governor because I was fed up with career politicians in my state who had unchecked power to raise taxes and destroy our economy .
But I 've also seen how a balanced government can deliver results .
Over the past six years , I worked with a Democratic legislature to create the biggest economic turnaround in America by cutting taxes and regulations , reducing the cost of healthcare , and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure . ''
Hogan argues , `` I believe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Do we want a one-party monopoly in Washington , or do we want to send a message to our federal leaders that no one party has all the answers or all the power ?
Do we want two years of divisive , toxic battles over packing the Supreme Court , abolishing the Senate filibuster , and pushing the Green New Deal — or do we want to take these destructive proposals off the table ?
… .
I urge Georgians to uphold America 's mandate for moderation and compromise by voting to keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ U.S .
Senate . ''
But as many Twitter users have been pointing out , Loeffler and Perdue are far from moderate .
Both of them are hardcore Trump supporters who are calling for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger , a Republican , to resign because he is resisting Trump 's claims of widespread voter fraud and has said that Biden won Georgia fair and square .
Twitter user @ TidePOdz noted that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is hardly the essence of `` moderation '' : Here are some more responses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Loeffler :

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan has been praised by many centrist Democrats and Never Trump conservatives as one of the more sensible Republicans — someone who acknowledges how dangerous COVID-19 is, promotes social distancing measures, acknowledges Joe Biden as president-elect and refuses to indulge President Donald Trump's baseless claims of widespread voter fraud. This week, however, Hogan is coming under fire for endorsing two far-right GOP senators in Georgia who most definitely are not moderate: Sen. Kelly Loeffler and Sen. David Perdue.
In an op-ed published by the Washington Examiner on November 30, Hogan makes an argument in favor of "divided government" as well as "moderation and compromise" — writing that because the United States will have a Democratic president and a Democrat-controlled House of Representatives in 2021, it's important for Republicans to maintain their Senate majority. Whether Republicans will or won't be able to hold their Senate majority will be determined by whether or not Loeffler and Perdue prevail in Georgia's Senate runoff elections in January.
"As a Republican governor in a deep-blue state, I know first-hand how one-party monopoly can wreak terrible consequences," Hogan writes. "In 2014, I ran for governor because I was fed up with career politicians in my state who had unchecked power to raise taxes and destroy our economy. But I've also seen how a balanced government can deliver results. Over the past six years, I worked with a Democratic legislature to create the biggest economic turnaround in America by cutting taxes and regulations, reducing the cost of healthcare, and rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure."
Hogan argues, "I believe the choice facing Georgians becomes clear. Do we want a one-party monopoly in Washington, or do we want to send a message to our federal leaders that no one party has all the answers or all the power? Do we want two years of divisive, toxic battles over packing the Supreme Court, abolishing the Senate filibuster, and pushing the Green New Deal — or do we want to take these destructive proposals off the table?…. I urge Georgians to uphold America's mandate for moderation and compromise by voting to keep David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler in the U.S. Senate."
But as many Twitter users have been pointing out, Loeffler and Perdue are far from moderate. Both of them are hardcore Trump supporters who are calling for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, to resign because he is resisting Trump's claims of widespread voter fraud and has said that Biden won Georgia fair and square.
Twitter user @TidePOdz noted that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is hardly the essence of "moderation":
Here are some more responses to Hogan's endorsement of Perdue and Loeffler:


alternet--2020-11-30--Georgia Republicans turn on GOP Gov. Brian Kemp: He ‘will be primaried’

Georgia Republicans were already unhappy with Gov .
Brian Kemp , and his refusal to interfere in President Donald Trump 's election loss may have been the last straw .
Trump claims credit for Kemp 's election win two years ago , but he and other Republicans have withdrawn their support after the governor has declined to get involved in the president 's efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in Georgia and other states , reported The Daily Beast .
`` [ Kemp ] will be primaried , '' said Kay Godwin , the chair of the Pierce @ @ @ @ @ @ @ praying we get the right one this time . ''
Some Republicans in the state remain irked that Kemp appointed Kelly Loeffler to an open Senate seat last year instead of Rep. Doug Collins ( R-GA ) , and the dual runoff elections Jan. 4 to decide both of the state 's Senate seats has inflamed intra-party tensions .
`` You should have done something , '' said former state GOP chair Rusty Paul .
`` That 's the mindset people have right now , that [ Kemp ] should have been more @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to be in .
That 's the same tough position that [ Sen. David ] Perdue and Loeffler find themselves in . ''
`` Georgia is such a competitive state right now that simply winning the primary is n't enough anymore , '' Paul added .
`` You 've got to have your eyes focused on the general election .
You ca n't go out and primary the governor and take him down , or the secretary of state or another incumbent , and just assume … that you 're going to be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump supporters in Georgia believe Kemp should have called a special legislative session to make changes to absentee voting , or somehow deny certification of Biden 's win , and there 's a movement afoot to remove him from office before 2022 .
`` We are committed to his removal , '' says one anti-Kemp website that does not reveal its funder .
`` Recall ?
Impeachment ?
Primarying him ? ''
Many Georgia Republicans buy into the president 's baseless fraud allegations , and they 're waiting for Kemp to validate them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and see how all this plays out , '' said Scott Jay , chair of the Newton County GOP .
`` I 'll vote based upon actions , upon results .
He can show me solid results in a conservative manner moving forward , he may regain my vote . ''

Georgia Republicans were already unhappy with Gov. Brian Kemp, and his refusal to interfere in President Donald Trump's election loss may have been the last straw.
Trump claims credit for Kemp's election win two years ago, but he and other Republicans have withdrawn their support after the governor has declined to get involved in the president's efforts to overturn his loss to Joe Biden in Georgia and other states, reported The Daily Beast.
"[Kemp] will be primaried," said Kay Godwin, the chair of the Pierce County GOP. "Just hoping and praying we get the right one this time."
Some Republicans in the state remain irked that Kemp appointed Kelly Loeffler to an open Senate seat last year instead of Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA), and the dual runoff elections Jan. 4 to decide both of the state's Senate seats has inflamed intra-party tensions.
"You should have done something," said former state GOP chair Rusty Paul. "That's the mindset people have right now, that [Kemp] should have been more engaged. That's a tough position to be in. That's the same tough position that [Sen. David] Perdue and Loeffler find themselves in."
"Georgia is such a competitive state right now that simply winning the primary isn't enough anymore," Paul added. "You've got to have your eyes focused on the general election. You can't go out and primary the governor and take him down, or the secretary of state or another incumbent, and just assume … that you're going to be successful in the general election."
Trump supporters in Georgia believe Kemp should have called a special legislative session to make changes to absentee voting, or somehow deny certification of Biden's win, and there's a movement afoot to remove him from office before 2022.
"We are committed to his removal," says one anti-Kemp website that does not reveal its funder. "Recall? Impeachment? Primarying him?"
Many Georgia Republicans buy into the president's baseless fraud allegations, and they're waiting for Kemp to validate them.
"I will have to wait and see how all this plays out," said Scott Jay, chair of the Newton County GOP. "I'll vote based upon actions, upon results. He can show me solid results in a conservative manner moving forward, he may regain my vote."


alternet--2020-11-30--The rich are getting richer and everyone else is getting poorer. That is exactly the plan

The reason everybody is so angst-ridden about the economy is because we all have the wrong idea about what it is supposed to do and how it 's supposed to work .
Most of us have a quaint , 19th century idea about free markets and all that up-by-the-bootstraps Horatio Alger stuff .
You know , work hard , play by the rules , keep your nose clean , and you 'll do well .
That is certainly the cultural myth our society bathes us in .
But that 's not how things actually work .
It 's the dissonance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how they really work that causes our perplexity and angst , and rage .
It is also that dissonance that has been so deftly manipulated by Donald Trump and given rise to Trumpism .
Forty years ago , around 1980 , the uber-wealthy decided they wanted to get their money out of the economy .
There was too much political turmoil ( Vietnam , Watergate ) , too much economic turbulence ( Arab oil embargos , stagflation ) , and too high of a cost of production ( high wages , environmental and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take their money somewhere where they could pay people 1/20th what they paid here ( less than $ 1 an hour ) , where there were no environmental or labor laws , where the workforce was plentiful , hungry , and docile , and where politicians could be bought cheap .
So , they engineered a controlled demolition of the U.S. economy .
The plan had two elements .
In the first part , they began systematically de-industrializing what had been the mightiest economy in the history of the world—the same economy that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the greatest industrial enterprise ever undertaken .
They dismantled tens of thousands of factories , creating what became known as the `` Rust Belt . ''
They literally sent factory designs to east Asia , rebuilt them , and when they were ready to go , flipped the switch , shut down here , and opened up there .
The consequences were devastating .
Tens of millions of white , working-class factory workers were put out of work , losing their high-paying jobs .
Forever .
With nothing to replace them .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ a once-glorious industrial past , bywords for decline .
Think Detroit , Pittsburgh , Cleveland , Cincinnati , Milwaukee , Buffalo , Toledo , and more .
The data tell the story .
In 1980 , manufacturing accounted for about 22 % of the U.S. economy .
By 2012 , just 30 years later , it contributed only 12 % , an astonishingly rapid decline in historical terms , effectively a controlled demolition .
The U.S. trade deficit , where we buy more from other countries than we sell , went from $ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rounding error—to what looks to be almost $ 1 trillion this year .
That is money that is sent directly out of the country to buy other countries ' goods .
$ 1 trillion .
The second element of the controlled demolition of the economy was that the U.S. embarked on a plan to shift massive shares of U.S. income and wealth from the working and middle classes to the already wealthy .
This is what was called `` supply side economics . ''
It was Ronald Reagan 's signature economic policy when @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The mythical story was that if we all gave more of our money to the already wealthy , they would invest it for us and the resulting economic boom would more than pay back the transfer , even after taxes and inflation .
It sounded too good to be true .
It was .
Taxes on the highest income brackets were lowered from 71 % to 38 % , essentially cut in half .
Importantly , there was no requirement that the beneficiaries actually invest their new-found gains in the U.S .
So @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them in the those east-Asian countries that were the beneficiaries of the deindustrialization discussed above .
In the first full year under Reagan 's plan , the economy shrunk by 2.1 % , the greatest shrinkage since the Great Depression .
Factory workers were out of work , so they were n't paying taxes .
And , because the wealthy were paying so much fewer taxes , the government did n't have enough income to cover its expenses .
It had to make up the difference by borrowing .
That is what is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Jimmy Carter 's last budget deficit was $ 78 billion .
Reagan 's first full-year budget deficit , after his supply side tax cuts were put in place , was $ 128 billion , a 64 % increase .
The next year , 1983 , the deficit exploded again , to $ 208 billion , another 63 % increase .
By 1992 , when Reagan 's vice president , George H.W .
Bush finished office , the deficits were running $ 300 billion a year .
Of course , annual deficits accumulate into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ office in 1981 , the national debt ( the accumulation of all the annual deficits since the country began ) was $ 1 trillion .
In 1993 , just 12 years later , when George H.W .
Bush left office , it was $ 4 trillion .
Think about that .
Over 204 years , paying off the costs of the American Revolution , the War of 1812 , the Civil War , building out the entire continent , fighting World War I , surviving the Great Depression , fighting and winning World @ @ @ @ @ @ @ part of the Cold War , the country only had to borrow $ 1 trillion .
Then , in the next 12 years , years of peace and prosperity , that debt quadrupled , to $ 4 trillion .
These deficits and this debt benefit the very wealthy , because it is they who fund them , who loan the money to the government , at interest , that it has to borrow because it ca n't pay its bills from the taxes it 's no longer bringing in .
As with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exactly the plan : to benefit the wealthiest people in the world .
Today , average working-class wages , adjusted for taxes and inflation , are the same as they were in the 1970s .
For a stark comparison , average incomes in China are up more than 10 FOLD over the same period .
This is why the U.S. has massive civil tension among its people and record distrust of the government while the people of China are ferociously loyal to their government .
The annual trade deficit—that money we ship out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ do n't make anymore—is on track to exceed $ 1 trillion this year .
That 's $ 1 trillion taken straight off the top of what would otherwise be available national income , and shipped abroad .
The national debt has exploded beyond belief , to over $ 27 trillion .
This year 's increment , the annual budget deficit , will exceed $ 4 trillion .
That 's four times as much as was incurred in the first 204 years of the country , combined .
This is not a picture of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ years , the government has had to run average budget deficits of $ 675 billion a year just to keep the holes in the economy plugged .
Otherwise , it would have fallen into recession , or depression .
And the borrowing is going vertical .
This is a tremendous boon to the very wealthy because , as mentioned above , it is they who loan the government all that money .
And importantly , they do so at higher interest rates because when anything is in higher demand , in this case @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up .
The price of borrowed money is the interest rate .
But wait , it gets better—or worse—depending on whether you are a borrower or a lender .
Higher interest rates in one part of the economy mean higher rates in all of the economy , because the pool of loanable funds is essentially the same pool for all .
That means that when budget deficits rise , the interest rates on mortgages , credit cards , automobiles , student loans—anything bought on borrowed money—goes up , too .
This is a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still more money to the already wealthy , but with the appearance that it 's an arms-length private transaction , between borrowers and lenders , involving interest rates .
What does all of this add up to ?
For the four decades between 1940 and 1980 , the share of national income that went to the top 10 % of income earners was remarkably stable , around 34 % .
This included those decades that are generally regarded as `` the golden age of capitalism '' But in the four decades since 1980 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 10 % has skyrocketed to 47 % , a breathtaking upward shift in national income to those who are already the richest .
The upward distribution of wealth over the same period is actually even greater .
It 's a cliché , but like so many cliches , it is grounded in reality .
The rich are getting richer and everyone else is getting poorer .
That is exactly the plan , and the plan is working exactly as intended .
In fact , it is accelerating , as every new crisis becomes @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more and more of the nation 's wealth into the coffers of the already wealthy .
Inequality is reaching feudal proportions , where very few own almost everything , and everyone else is crushed under the wheel of engineered destitution .
This directly degrades democracy , because since it costs so much to run for office , office seekers pay attention to those who can write big checks .
Have you written a $ 50,000 check to an office seeker lately ?
No ?
Again , that is exactly the plan .
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because you ca n't help fund their expensive campaigns .
But write a big check and you 'd be amazed at how fast the doors fly open .
Two last , quick words on the politics of this all .
Donald Trump has been stunningly successful for the very wealthy which is part of the reason they have backed him .
He passed massive tax cuts that accelerated the upward transfer of wealth .
But that is actually the lesser part of what makes him so valuable to the wealthy .
The far @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the rage of the dispossessed , downwardly-mobile working class from the economic system that has caused their distress—those intentional policies mentioned above—to the altogether bogus factor of race .
This has shielded the wealthy from being held accountable for having engineered and built an economy that has intentionally shafted the vast majority of its own citizens .
The mainstream media has been altogether complicit in this deception , focusing , laser-like , on the racist dimensions of Trump 's issuances , but almost never on the much more legitimate economic origins of his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ understandable because the mainstream media is owned by the very wealthy .
They use it to condition cultural awareness of vital issues in ways that benefit them , like when they laundered the idiocy of supply side economics as some kind of divination come down from the mountain on stone tablets that would save the country .
The second political point is that we would be worse than naïve , even worse than stupid if we imagine that Joe Biden is going to do anything at all about this .
We would be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ doyens , the stewards , the consiglieres of the neo-liberal order described here .
He has spent almost five decades servicing the interests of the very wealthy who put him in power and kept him there and recalled him to service when it became apparent that Trump 's utility had been exhausted .
They did n't use to call him `` The Senator from MasterCard '' for nothing .
Biden is already discovering that there 's not enough in the coffer to afford the kind of stimulus needed to simply feed people , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ small businesses stay alive , to help schools reopen .
But watch , he 'll find plenty of money for weapons makers , for the Federal Reserve to buy the garbage debt of over-leveraged corporations , money for hospital chains and pharmaceutical companies , and for banks , and for all the members of the neo-feudal aristocracy that he helped build and who are our new masters .
The economy is working exactly as it is intended to work , the way it has been designed to work , to benefit the wealthy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ problem for the mass of the rest of us is that we did n't get the memo .

The reason everybody is so angst-ridden about the economy is because we all have the wrong idea about what it is supposed to do and how it's supposed to work.
Most of us have a quaint, 19th century idea about free markets and all that up-by-the-bootstraps Horatio Alger stuff. You know, work hard, play by the rules, keep your nose clean, and you'll do well. That is certainly the cultural myth our society bathes us in.
But that's not how things actually work. It's the dissonance between how we imagine things work and how they really work that causes our perplexity and angst, and rage. It is also that dissonance that has been so deftly manipulated by Donald Trump and given rise to Trumpism.
Forty years ago, around 1980, the uber-wealthy decided they wanted to get their money out of the economy. There was too much political turmoil (Vietnam, Watergate), too much economic turbulence (Arab oil embargos, stagflation), and too high of a cost of production (high wages, environmental and labor protections).
They wanted to take their money somewhere where they could pay people 1/20th what they paid here (less than $1 an hour), where there were no environmental or labor laws, where the workforce was plentiful, hungry, and docile, and where politicians could be bought cheap.
So, they engineered a controlled demolition of the U.S. economy. The plan had two elements.
In the first part, they began systematically de-industrializing what had been the mightiest economy in the history of the world—the same economy that had almost single-handedly won World War II, the greatest industrial enterprise ever undertaken. They dismantled tens of thousands of factories, creating what became known as the "Rust Belt." They literally sent factory designs to east Asia, rebuilt them, and when they were ready to go, flipped the switch, shut down here, and opened up there. The consequences were devastating.
Tens of millions of white, working-class factory workers were put out of work, losing their high-paying jobs. Forever. With nothing to replace them. Major cities became hollowed out hulks of a once-glorious industrial past, bywords for decline. Think Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Cincinnati, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Toledo, and more. The data tell the story.
In 1980, manufacturing accounted for about 22% of the U.S. economy. By 2012, just 30 years later, it contributed only 12%, an astonishingly rapid decline in historical terms, effectively a controlled demolition. The U.S. trade deficit, where we buy more from other countries than we sell, went from $19 billion in 1980—pretty close to a rounding error—to what looks to be almost $1 trillion this year. That is money that is sent directly out of the country to buy other countries' goods. $1 trillion.
The second element of the controlled demolition of the economy was that the U.S. embarked on a plan to shift massive shares of U.S. income and wealth from the working and middle classes to the already wealthy. This is what was called "supply side economics." It was Ronald Reagan's signature economic policy when he ran for president in 1980.
The mythical story was that if we all gave more of our money to the already wealthy, they would invest it for us and the resulting economic boom would more than pay back the transfer, even after taxes and inflation. It sounded too good to be true. It was.
Taxes on the highest income brackets were lowered from 71% to 38%, essentially cut in half. Importantly, there was no requirement that the beneficiaries actually invest their new-found gains in the U.S. So, they didn't. They invested them in the those east-Asian countries that were the beneficiaries of the deindustrialization discussed above.
What happened?
In the first full year under Reagan's plan, the economy shrunk by 2.1%, the greatest shrinkage since the Great Depression. Factory workers were out of work, so they weren't paying taxes. And, because the wealthy were paying so much fewer taxes, the government didn't have enough income to cover its expenses. It had to make up the difference by borrowing. That is what is called a "budget deficit."
Jimmy Carter's last budget deficit was $78 billion. Reagan's first full-year budget deficit, after his supply side tax cuts were put in place, was $128 billion, a 64% increase. The next year, 1983, the deficit exploded again, to $208 billion, another 63% increase. By 1992, when Reagan's vice president, George H.W. Bush finished office, the deficits were running $300 billion a year.
Of course, annual deficits accumulate into the national debt. When Reagan took office in 1981, the national debt (the accumulation of all the annual deficits since the country began) was $1 trillion. In 1993, just 12 years later, when George H.W. Bush left office, it was $4 trillion. Think about that.
Over 204 years, paying off the costs of the American Revolution, the War of 1812, the Civil War, building out the entire continent, fighting World War I, surviving the Great Depression, fighting and winning World War II, and winning the better part of the Cold War, the country only had to borrow $1 trillion. Then, in the next 12 years, years of peace and prosperity, that debt quadrupled, to $4 trillion.
These deficits and this debt benefit the very wealthy, because it is they who fund them, who loan the money to the government, at interest, that it has to borrow because it can't pay its bills from the taxes it's no longer bringing in. As with the deindustrializing of the economy, this was exactly the plan: to benefit the wealthiest people in the world.
Today, average working-class wages, adjusted for taxes and inflation, are the same as they were in the 1970s. For a stark comparison, average incomes in China are up more than 10 FOLD over the same period. This is why the U.S. has massive civil tension among its people and record distrust of the government while the people of China are ferociously loyal to their government.
The annual trade deficit—that money we ship out of the country to buy things we don't make anymore—is on track to exceed $1 trillion this year. That's $1 trillion taken straight off the top of what would otherwise be available national income, and shipped abroad. The national debt has exploded beyond belief, to over $27 trillion. This year's increment, the annual budget deficit, will exceed $4 trillion. That's four times as much as was incurred in the first 204 years of the country, combined. This is not a picture of economic vibrancy.
For the past forty years, the government has had to run average budget deficits of $675 billion a year just to keep the holes in the economy plugged. Otherwise, it would have fallen into recession, or depression. And the borrowing is going vertical.
This is a tremendous boon to the very wealthy because, as mentioned above, it is they who loan the government all that money. And importantly, they do so at higher interest rates because when anything is in higher demand, in this case, borrowed money, its price goes up. The price of borrowed money is the interest rate. But wait, it gets better—or worse—depending on whether you are a borrower or a lender.
Higher interest rates in one part of the economy mean higher rates in all of the economy, because the pool of loanable funds is essentially the same pool for all. That means that when budget deficits rise, the interest rates on mortgages, credit cards, automobiles, student loans—anything bought on borrowed money—goes up, too. This is a stealth way for the government to transfer still more money to the already wealthy, but with the appearance that it's an arms-length private transaction, between borrowers and lenders, involving interest rates.
What does all of this add up to?
For the four decades between 1940 and 1980, the share of national income that went to the top 10% of income earners was remarkably stable, around 34%. This included those decades that are generally regarded as "the golden age of capitalism"
But in the four decades since 1980, the share of the same top 10% has skyrocketed to 47%, a breathtaking upward shift in national income to those who are already the richest. The upward distribution of wealth over the same period is actually even greater.
It's a cliché, but like so many cliches, it is grounded in reality. The rich are getting richer and everyone else is getting poorer. That is exactly the plan, and the plan is working exactly as intended. In fact, it is accelerating, as every new crisis becomes a new pretext for ladling more and more and more of the nation's wealth into the coffers of the already wealthy.
Inequality is reaching feudal proportions, where very few own almost everything, and everyone else is crushed under the wheel of engineered destitution. This directly degrades democracy, because since it costs so much to run for office, office seekers pay attention to those who can write big checks. Have you written a $50,000 check to an office seeker lately? No? Again, that is exactly the plan. They don't want to hear from you because you can't help fund their expensive campaigns. But write a big check and you'd be amazed at how fast the doors fly open.
Two last, quick words on the politics of this all. Donald Trump has been stunningly successful for the very wealthy which is part of the reason they have backed him. He passed massive tax cuts that accelerated the upward transfer of wealth. But that is actually the lesser part of what makes him so valuable to the wealthy.
The far greater part is that he has re-directed the rage of the dispossessed, downwardly-mobile working class from the economic system that has caused their distress—those intentional policies mentioned above—to the altogether bogus factor of race. This has shielded the wealthy from being held accountable for having engineered and built an economy that has intentionally shafted the vast majority of its own citizens.
The mainstream media has been altogether complicit in this deception, focusing, laser-like, on the racist dimensions of Trump's issuances, but almost never on the much more legitimate economic origins of his base's rage. This is perfectly understandable because the mainstream media is owned by the very wealthy. They use it to condition cultural awareness of vital issues in ways that benefit them, like when they laundered the idiocy of supply side economics as some kind of divination come down from the mountain on stone tablets that would save the country.
The second political point is that we would be worse than naïve, even worse than stupid if we imagine that Joe Biden is going to do anything at all about this. We would be deceitful. Biden is one of the doyens, the stewards, the consiglieres of the neo-liberal order described here. He has spent almost five decades servicing the interests of the very wealthy who put him in power and kept him there and recalled him to service when it became apparent that Trump's utility had been exhausted. They didn't use to call him "The Senator from MasterCard" for nothing.
Biden is already discovering that there's not enough in the coffer to afford the kind of stimulus needed to simply feed people, to keep them housed, to help small businesses stay alive, to help schools reopen. But watch, he'll find plenty of money for weapons makers, for the Federal Reserve to buy the garbage debt of over-leveraged corporations, money for hospital chains and pharmaceutical companies, and for banks, and for all the members of the neo-feudal aristocracy that he helped build and who are our new masters.
The economy is working exactly as it is intended to work, the way it has been designed to work, to benefit the wealthy and to crush everybody else. The problem for the mass of the rest of us is that we didn't get the memo.


alternet--2020-11-30--European Court of Human Rights green-lights youth climate lawsuit

What has been described as possibly `` the most important case ever tried by the European Court of Human Rights '' cleared a significant hurdle Monday when the international body ordered more than 30 European governments to respond to a historic youth-led lawsuit seeking to force political leaders to take ambitious action against the existential climate emergency .
`` The states—the EU27 plus Norway , Russia , Switzerland , the U.K. , Turkey , and Ukraine—are obliged to respond by February 23 to the complaints of the plaintiffs , who say governments are moving too slowly to reduce the greenhouse @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , '' The Guardian reported Monday morning .
Twelve-year-old André Oliveira , one of six plaintiffs in the landmark case , said in a statement that `` it gives me lots of hope to know that the judges in the European Court of Human Rights recognize the urgency of our case . ''
`` But what I 'd like the most would be for European governments to immediately do what the scientists say is necessary to protect our future , '' said Oliviera .
`` Until they do this , we will keep @ @ @ @ @ @ @ . ''
Filed by four children and two young adults from Portugal in early September—just weeks after the country recorded its hottest July in nine decades—the first-of-its-kind lawsuit alleges that European nations are committing human rights violations by refusing to take sufficient action against the climate crisis .
Citing the `` importance and urgency of the issues raised , '' the European Court of Human Rights granted the youth-led case priority status , a move the plaintiffs and their supporters celebrated as a crucial victory .
`` As only a tiny minority of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Human Rights are fast-tracked and communicated this development is highly significant , '' said Dr. Gearóid Ó Cuinn , director of Global Legal Action Network ( GLAN ) , an advocacy group backing the plaintiffs .
`` This is an appropriate response from the court given the scale and imminence of the threat these young people face from the climate emergency . ''

What has been described as possibly "the most important case ever tried by the European Court of Human Rights" cleared a significant hurdle Monday when the international body ordered more than 30 European governments to respond to a historic youth-led lawsuit seeking to force political leaders to take ambitious action against the existential climate emergency.
"The states—the EU27 plus Norway, Russia, Switzerland, the U.K., Turkey, and Ukraine—are obliged to respond by February 23 to the complaints of the plaintiffs, who say governments are moving too slowly to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are destabilizing the climate," The Guardian reported Monday morning.
Twelve-year-old André Oliveira, one of six plaintiffs in the landmark case, said in a statement that "it gives me lots of hope to know that the judges in the European Court of Human Rights recognize the urgency of our case."
"But what I'd like the most would be for European governments to immediately do what the scientists say is necessary to protect our future," said Oliviera. "Until they do this, we will keep on fighting with more determination than ever."
Filed by four children and two young adults from Portugal in early September—just weeks after the country recorded its hottest July in nine decades—the first-of-its-kind lawsuit alleges that European nations are committing human rights violations by refusing to take sufficient action against the climate crisis.
Citing the "importance and urgency of the issues raised," the European Court of Human Rights granted the youth-led case priority status, a move the plaintiffs and their supporters celebrated as a crucial victory.
"As only a tiny minority of cases filed with the European Court of Human Rights are fast-tracked and communicated this development is highly significant," said Dr. Gearóid Ó Cuinn, director of Global Legal Action Network (GLAN), an advocacy group backing the plaintiffs. "This is an appropriate response from the court given the scale and imminence of the threat these young people face from the climate emergency."