alternet--2020-11-10--Here's how elections are actually stolen in Russia

by Regina Smyth , Indiana University and Sarah Oates , University of Maryland The 2020 election , in which Joe Biden is the projected winner , is not what a rigged election looks like .
Rigged elections are organized .
Vote counts certainly do n't play out in front of the country on television screens .
When it 's a decentralized , sprawling affair that is broadcast for many days and nights , you can be pretty sure it 's democracy .
If you want to know what stolen elections look like , look at Russia , where we have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
The early heyday of Russian democracy was very messy .
Just after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 , the Kremlin poured money and resources into a Western-looking pro-market party called Russia 's Choice .
Despite the money and help it got , the party failed spectacularly in the 1993 election .
Meanwhile , nationalists and Communists , parties with strong connections to voters and their beliefs , won their way into power through the elections .
But outcomes were unpredictable and the campaigns were chaotic .
How to steal an election @ @ @ @ @ @ @ regime systematically consolidated its domination over politics , turning elections from a democratic contest into a controlled system that delivered regime victories .
Russian elections are now state-directed performances that eliminate opposition .
Random targeted arrests and violence – especially against those who try to lead alternative political movements – are common .
Alexei Navalny , leader of a reform movement and now recovering from a poisoning , could tell us a lot about that .
So could Yegor Zhukov , a student blogger who was arrested and convicted of extremism and then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political actions .
Even eliminating viable opposition ca n't ensure certain victories at the polls .
To eliminate all risk , as Russia demonstrates , autocrats must take four additional steps : • Dominate the media message by controlling major news outlets through ownership , creating laws that stifle press freedom and repressing outspoken journalists .
• Assert control over local government officials who then ensure that voters turn out to support the regime .
• Build a vote tabulation process that allows ballot stuffing and falsified vote counts .
• Declare victory @ @ @ @ @ @ @ results .
Emerging from a decade of economic and political chaos in 2000 , President Vladimir Putin honed his electoral machine to do just that .
The Kremlin used its media control to project a dominant narrative in support of Putin .
He never campaigned for votes .
He appeared nightly on state television delivering new technology to hospitals or dedicating new monuments to Russia 's World War II victory .
All this creates the image of an unassailable leader and inevitable winner .
Together with legislative allies , the Kremlin changed electoral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dominance of the pro-Kremlin party .
Government officials , including governors and mayors who rely on the Kremlin to keep their jobs , also have developed informal practices to deliver victories .
For example , local officials demand that state workers in factories , hospitals and schools turn out to vote .
It 's common to insist that employees bring other voters with them or face losing their jobs .
These officials also put paid loyalists on buses to vote at several polling stations in a single day .
There is an unwritten @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the pro-Kremlin party , United Russia .
And they count behind closed doors , padding the vote as they go .
Kremlin tactics not possible in US How Russia 's leaders have rigged their elections is the opposite of the transparent and accountable vote tabulation that played out online and on television across the U.S. That open and deliberate process , both of counting and reporting the results , underscored that widespread electoral fraud is not feasible in the U.S .
In the United States , the opposition is protected by constitutional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Donald Trump is mostly limited to name-calling and slurs – inelegant , but not illegal .
Trump also must work within the legal system , filing lawsuits that have been largely unsuccessful so far .
The country 's democratic institutions held , regardless of the partisan tenor of the states or localities in which votes were being counted .
Despite pressure from the White House and the president 's vocal supporters , elected and appointed officials stood strong and played by the rules .
Even in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to allow early counting of an anticipated record number of mail-in ballots .
The extended post-Election Day counting that turned the vote from Trump to Biden gave the president an opening to call the results into question .
Yet , as numerous court cases have shown , the votes were carefully counted under the watch of observers from both parties and shown nationally on livestream feeds .
At the same time , media organizations made tough decisions to support electoral integrity , largely by not calling the election until the result was clear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Some networks switched off live coverage when a presidential press conference devolved into propaganda about fraud .
That deprived the presidential narrative of air .
Both steps are impossible in authoritarian states .
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So when President Trump makes claims about falsified ballots and a rigged election , we can imagine observers in the Kremlin shaking their heads and musing that Trump would n't even know where to start with that .
The difference in the two systems @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rely on a system of management honed over years .
In 2020 , the decentralized , 50-state electoral process in the U.S. worked in the face of challenges to democracy .
This is what a democratic election looks like – big and fat and a bit of a mess .
Regina Smyth , Professor of Political Science , Indiana University and Sarah Oates , Professor and Senior Scholar , Philip Merrill College of Journalism , University of Maryland This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license .
Read the @ @ @

by Regina Smyth, Indiana University and Sarah Oates, University of Maryland
The 2020 election, in which Joe Biden is the projected winner, is not what a rigged election looks like.
Rigged elections are organized. Vote counts certainly don't play out in front of the country on television screens. When it's a decentralized, sprawling affair that is broadcast for many days and nights, you can be pretty sure it's democracy.
If you want to know what stolen elections look like, look at Russia, where we have studied electionsand the media for decades.
The early heyday of Russian democracy was very messy. Just after the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, the Kremlin poured money and resources into a Western-looking pro-market party called Russia's Choice. Despite the money and help it got, the party failed spectacularly in the 1993 election. Meanwhile, nationalists and Communists, parties with strong connections to voters and their beliefs, won their way into power through the elections. But outcomes were unpredictable and the campaigns were chaotic.
How to steal an election, Russian-style
Over time, the Putin regime systematically consolidated its domination over politics, turning elections from a democratic contest into a controlled system that delivered regime victories.
Russian elections are now state-directed performances that eliminate opposition. Random targeted arrests and violence – especially against those who try to lead alternative political movements – are common. Alexei Navalny, leader of a reform movement and now recovering from a poisoning, could tell us a lot about that. So could Yegor Zhukov, a student blogger who was arrested and convicted of extremism and then beaten outside of his home for his political actions.
Even eliminating viable opposition can't ensure certain victories at the polls. To eliminate all risk, as Russia demonstrates, autocrats must take four additional steps:
Dominate the media message by controlling major news outlets through ownership, creating laws that stifle press freedom and repressing outspoken journalists. Assert control over local government officials who then ensure that voters turn out to support the regime. Build a vote tabulation process that allows ballot stuffing and falsified vote counts. Declare victory immediately and allow no questioning of the results.
Emerging from a decade of economic and political chaos in 2000, President Vladimir Putin honed his electoral machine to do just that. The Kremlin used its media control to project a dominant narrative in support of Putin. He never campaigned for votes. He appeared nightly on state television delivering new technology to hospitals or dedicating new monuments to Russia's World War II victory. All this creates the image of an unassailable leader and inevitable winner.
Together with legislative allies, the Kremlin changed electoral laws at every election to maintain the dominance of the pro-Kremlin party.
Government officials, including governors and mayors who rely on the Kremlin to keep their jobs, also have developed informal practices to deliver victories. For example, local officials demand that state workers in factories, hospitals and schools turn out to vote. It's common to insist that employees bring other voters with them or face losing their jobs. These officials also put paid loyalists on buses to vote at several polling stations in a single day.
There is an unwritten regulation that poll workers must be members of the pro-Kremlin party, United Russia. And they count behind closed doors, padding the vote as they go.
Kremlin tactics not possible in US
How Russia's leaders have rigged their elections is the opposite of the transparent and accountable vote tabulation that played out online and on television across the U.S. That open and deliberate process, both of counting and reporting the results, underscored that widespread electoral fraud is not feasible in the U.S.
In the United States, the opposition is protected by constitutional rights and strong democratic norms. President Donald Trump is mostly limited to name-calling and slurs – inelegant, but not illegal. Trump also must work within the legal system, filing lawsuits that have been largely unsuccessful so far.
The country's democratic institutions held, regardless of the partisan tenor of the states or localities in which votes were being counted. Despite pressure from the White House and the president's vocal supporters, elected and appointed officials stood strong and played by the rules.
The failure of electoral disinformation
Even in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, Republican-led legislatures in some swing states refused to allow early counting of an anticipated record number of mail-in ballots. The extended post-Election Day counting that turned the vote from Trump to Biden gave the president an opening to call the results into question.
Yet, as numerous court cases have shown, the votes were carefully counted under the watch of observers from both parties and shown nationally on livestream feeds.
At the same time, media organizations made tough decisions to support electoral integrity, largely by not calling the election until the result was clear – despite growing pressure to do so.
Some networks switched off live coverage when a presidential press conference devolved into propaganda about fraud. That deprived the presidential narrative of air. Both steps are impossible in authoritarian states.
[Deep knowledge, daily.Sign up for The Conversation's newsletter.]
So when President Trump makes claims about falsified ballots and a rigged election, we can imagine observers in the Kremlin shaking their heads and musing that Trump wouldn't even know where to start with that.
The difference in the two systems is stark. Rigged elections in Russia rely on a system of management honed over years. In 2020, the decentralized, 50-state electoral process in the U.S. worked in the face of challenges to democracy.
This is what a democratic election looks like – big and fat and a bit of a mess.
Regina Smyth, Professor of Political Science, Indiana University and Sarah Oates, Professor and Senior Scholar, Philip Merrill College of Journalism, University of Maryland
This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.


alternet--2020-11-10--'This is a five-alarm fire': Why this reporter is disturbed by the election messages on right-wing m

'This is a five-alarm fire': Why this reporter is disturbed by the election messages on right-wing media

Although some Republicans have congratulated President-Elect Joe Biden on his victory —including Sen. Mitt Romney , former President George W. Bush and former Florida Gov .
Jeb .
Bush — President Donald Trump is refusing to concede , claiming , without evidence , that he has been the victim of widespread voter fraud .
And according to CNN 's Brian Stelter , Trump 's supporters in the right-wing media are encouraging his false claims that he really won the election .
In an article published this week by CNN , Stelter explains , `` The reality is that Joe Biden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ) and his biggest promoters in the media are in denial about the election results , or are pretending to be .
And many Republican Party leaders are falling in line .
Today 's lies will have consequences tomorrow , because tens of millions of people are being exposed to this stuff through websites like Breitbart and shows like 'Tucker Carlson Tonight ' on Fox News . ''
It 's important to note that at Fox News and Fox Business , there is a separation between the hard news divisions and opinion hosts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Dobbs and Laura Ingraham .
Trump is furious that Fox News ' decision desk called Arizona for Biden on Election Day , but Carlson and Hannity have been promoting the conspiracy theory that the election was stolen from Trump through widespread voter fraud — even though there is no evidence to support that claim .
Stelter notes what his colleague at CNN , Oliver Darcy , had to say this week about the claim that Trump really won the election .
`` Right-wing media has a firm grip on the Republican Party , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and other prominent leaders are actively being encouraged to play along with this nonsense .
And the ones who do n't actively fuel the fire will likely be less likely to speak out over fear of facing the wrath of people like Hannity , Rush Limbaugh , etc .
This is a five-alarm fire . ''
Stelter also notes what Carlson said this week : `` We do n't know how many votes were stolen on Tuesday night .
We do n't know anything about the software that many say was rigged .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ to find out . ''
Hannity , according to Stelter , has been slamming the mainstream media for reporting legitimate election results —and others on the far right are joining him in that .
`` From Mark Levin to Ted Cruz , one of the Trump-might-have-won crowd 's main themes is that the major networks hastily called the election for Biden , '' Stelter writes .
`` It 's a farcical claim since we all waited five days to know the outcome and since the networks simply report on the results of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ sticking , nonetheless , and it is stoking right-wing rage against the media . ''

Although some Republicans have congratulated President-Elect Joe Biden on his victory —including Sen. Mitt Romney, former President George W. Bush and former Florida Gov. Jeb. Bush — President Donald Trump is refusing to concede, claiming, without evidence, that he has been the victim of widespread voter fraud. And according to CNN's Brian Stelter, Trump's supporters in the right-wing media are encouraging his false claims that he really won the election.
In an article published this week by CNN, Stelter explains, "The reality is that Joe Biden is the president-elect…. (But Trump) and his biggest promoters in the media are in denial about the election results, or are pretending to be. And many Republican Party leaders are falling in line. Today's lies will have consequences tomorrow, because tens of millions of people are being exposed to this stuff through websites like Breitbart and shows like 'Tucker Carlson Tonight' on Fox News."
It's important to note that at Fox News and Fox Business, there is a separation between the hard news divisions and opinion hosts like Carlson, Sean Hannity, Lou Dobbs and Laura Ingraham. Trump is furious that Fox News' decision desk called Arizona for Biden on Election Day, but Carlson and Hannity have been promoting the conspiracy theory that the election was stolen from Trump through widespread voter fraud — even though there is no evidence to support that claim.
Stelter notes what his colleague at CNN, Oliver Darcy, had to say this week about the claim that Trump really won the election.
"Right-wing media has a firm grip on the Republican Party," Darcy explained. "GOP senators and other prominent leaders are actively being encouraged to play along with this nonsense. And the ones who don't actively fuel the fire will likely be less likely to speak out over fear of facing the wrath of people like Hannity, Rush Limbaugh, etc. This is a five-alarm fire."
Stelter also notes what Carlson said this week: "We don't know how many votes were stolen on Tuesday night. We don't know anything about the software that many say was rigged. We don't know. We ought to find out."
Hannity, according to Stelter, has been slamming the mainstream media for reporting legitimate election results —and others on the far right are joining him in that.
"From Mark Levin to Ted Cruz, one of the Trump-might-have-won crowd's main themes is that the major networks hastily called the election for Biden," Stelter writes. "It's a farcical claim since we all waited five days to know the outcome and since the networks simply report on the results of the vote count. But the claim is sticking, nonetheless, and it is stoking right-wing rage against the media."


alternet--2020-11-10--Trump's final attempt to cling to power exposes a desperate and bitter man

Joe Biden has won .
He will be our next president .
Normally , the loser of the race would give a gracious concession speech , and accept the results .
That wo n't happen this time around , because Donald Trump is a pathological narcissist who will never admit defeat .
But there 's no legal requirement for the losing candidate to formally concede - it 's just another tradition Trump will choose to ignore .
He can bluster and protest all he wants , but like it or not , the Constitution and federal law establish a clear @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and when the new president takes office .
Here 's how that process normally plays out , how Trump might try to undermine it , and why he is unlikely to succeed .
The first date to look out for is December 8th .
After Election Day , states have until this date , called the `` safe harbor '' deadline , to resolve any election disputes .
Each state has a unique process outlined in its state constitution for this , and the federal deadline was created so that state electoral @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Next is December 14th .
This is when the electors meet in their states , and cast paper ballots for president and vice president .
And then governors certify the electors ' votes .
The governor sends these certified results to Congress by December 23rd .
On January 6th , 2021 , the newly sworn-in Congress meets in a joint session to officially accept each state 's Electoral College votes and count them .
This is normally a ceremonial event in which the already-settled results of the election are simply made official .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ ends .
Lastly , on January 20th , the president and vice president are inaugurated .
Normally , no one pays much attention to this process before Inauguration Day because it goes off without a hitch .
But we 've seen that Trump will do anything to hold onto power .
It 's important to know how and when he might try to undermine this process , and also understand how unlikely it is he 'll succeed .
Trump backers are trying to push Republican-controlled state legislatures to appoint their own slates of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ campaign has launched empty legal challenges to perfectly normal vote counts – trying to sow enough doubt to give the state legislatures political cover to appoint their own electors .
This is n't likely to happen .
It would be challenged as an unconstitutional power grab , since state legislatures have almost always deferred to the results of the state 's popular vote in assigning electoral votes .
And not to mention , it would spark massive public outrage .
Thankfully , it does n't look like Republican legislators in any of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ political capital defending a failed president , and some have even explicitly come out against this plan .
All this is to say , be patient , keep the faith , and do n't fall into Trump 's cry for attention .
We must see this for what it is : A final attempt of a desperate , bitter man to cling to power .
Joe Biden will be our next president .

This story first appeared a Robert Reich's blog.
Joe Biden has won. He will be our next president.
Normally, the loser of the race would give a gracious concession speech, and accept the results.
That won't happen this time around, because Donald Trump is a pathological narcissist who will never admit defeat. But there's no legal requirement for the losing candidate to formally concede - it's just another tradition Trump will choose to ignore.
He can bluster and protest all he wants, but like it or not, the Constitution and federal law establish a clear timeline of how electoral votes are processed, and when the new president takes office. Here's how that process normally plays out, how Trump might try to undermine it, and why he is unlikely to succeed.
The first date to look out for is December 8th. After Election Day, states have until this date, called the "safe harbor" deadline, to resolve any election disputes. Each state has a unique process outlined in its state constitution for this, and the federal deadline was created so that state electoral disputes don't drag on endlessly.
Next is December 14th. This is when the electors meet in their states, and cast paper ballots for president and vice president. And then governors certify the electors' votes.
The governor sends these certified results to Congress by December 23rd.
On January 6th, 2021, the newly sworn-in Congress meets in a joint session to officially accept each state's Electoral College votes and count them. This is normally a ceremonial event in which the already-settled results of the election are simply made official. This is when the presidential race formally ends.
Lastly, on January 20th, the president and vice president are inaugurated.
Normally, no one pays much attention to this process before Inauguration Day because it goes off without a hitch. But we've seen that Trump will do anything to hold onto power. It's important to know how and when he might try to undermine this process, and also understand how unlikely it is he'll succeed.
Trump backers are trying to push Republican-controlled state legislatures to appoint their own slates of Trump electors. That's why the campaign has launched empty legal challenges to perfectly normal vote counts – trying to sow enough doubt to give the state legislatures political cover to appoint their own electors.
This isn't likely to happen. It would be challenged as an unconstitutional power grab, since state legislatures have almost always deferred to the results of the state's popular vote in assigning electoral votes. And not to mention, it would spark massive public outrage.
Thankfully, it doesn't look like Republican legislators in any of the key swing states want to expend their political capital defending a failed president, and some have even explicitly come out against this plan.
All this is to say, be patient, keep the faith, and don't fall into Trump's cry for attention. We must see this for what it is: A final attempt of a desperate, bitter man to cling to power.
Joe Biden will be our next president.


alternet--2020-11-10--'It's an embarrassment': President-elect Biden scorches Trump for his refusal to concede

Three days after the Associated Press , CNN and other major media outlets reported that Joe Biden had an insurmountable lead in the Pennsylvania vote count and had been elected president of the United States , President Donald Trump still refused to concede .
He insisted that he was the real winner , and he claimed , without merit , that the election had been stolen from him through rampant voter fraud — even as his lawsuits based on these claims were repeatedly thrown out by courts .
On Tuesday at a press conference in Wilmington , Delaware , President-elect @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to concede , and he spoke his mind .
Biden told a reporter , `` I just think it 's an embarrassment , quite frankly… .
I think it will not help the president 's legacy . ''
The president-elect added , `` I know , from my discussions with foreign leaders thus far , that they are hopeful that the United States ' democratic institutions are viewed once again as being strong and enduring .
But I think at the end of the day , it 's all going to come to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ now and then , I hope that… .
the American people do understand that there has been a transition .
Even among Republicans who are people who voted for the president , I understand the sense of loss .
I get that .
But I think the majority of the people who voted for the president — a lot voted for him , a significantly smaller number , but a lot voted for him — I think they understand that we have to come together .
I think they 're ready to unite @ @

Three days after the Associated Press, CNN and other major media outlets reported that Joe Biden had an insurmountable lead in the Pennsylvania vote count and had been elected president of the United States, President Donald Trump still refused to concede. He insisted that he was the real winner, and he claimed, without merit, that the election had been stolen from him through rampant voter fraud — even as his lawsuits based on these claims were repeatedly thrown out by courts.
On Tuesday at a press conference in Wilmington, Delaware, President-elect Biden was asked about Trump's refusal to concede, and he spoke his mind.
Biden told a reporter, "I just think it's an embarrassment, quite frankly…. I think it will not help the president's legacy."
The president-elect added, "I know, from my discussions with foreign leaders thus far, that they are hopeful that the United States' democratic institutions are viewed once again as being strong and enduring. But I think at the end of the day, it's all going to come to fruition on January 20. And between now and then, I hope that…. the American people do understand that there has been a transition. Even among Republicans who are people who voted for the president, I understand the sense of loss. I get that. But I think the majority of the people who voted for the president — a lot voted for him, a significantly smaller number, but a lot voted for him — I think they understand that we have to come together. I think they're ready to unite."


alternet--2020-11-10--A vote for doom: Trump is defeated — but the state of chaos remains

In 2016 as now , he was the candidate of chaos .
Yes , he was a billionaire ( or wanna-be billionaire or in-hock billionaire , not to mention a liar , a cheat , and a scoundrel ) , but from the beginning he appealed to the forces of order in America that were also , as it happened , the forces of chaos .
Donald Trump entered the presidential sweepstakes , or to be completely accurate rode an escalator into it , from stage right .
In another universe , he could have entered from stage left and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ either way .
After all , there never really was a left , right , or center for the king of apprentices .
There was never anything but the imposing figure known as The Donald , the man of the hour , any hour , past , present , or future .
Whatever his political position of the moment , he reflected one thing above all : the underlying chaos and bad faith of a world of wealth , power , and ever-growing inequality , a world , as it happened , just @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he 's defeated , count on one thing : he 'll take as much of this country with him as he can .
If he has his way , when he finally decides to jump ship , money in hand , he 'll leave the rest of us at a vast mask-less rally with death running wild in our midst .
From the beginning , he was always the orange-faced , yellow-haired personification of chaos .
Now , just as the Republican Party did in 2016 , this country has taken on his @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the wake of the recent election , one obvious question is : Are we , too , scheduled for the ventilator of history ?
Do I sound extreme ?
I damn well hope so .
We 're in a gridlocked , post-election moment of previously unimaginable extremity in an increasingly over-armed , ever more divided country that used to be known as the `` last superpower '' on Planet Earth .
It matters ( but not enough ) that that aged Democratic centrist Joe Biden has taken the presidency and , if all @ @ @ @ @ @ @ make his way into the future White House .
Without a Senate majority , however , and with a reduced majority in the House , without the Democrats having taken a single state legislature from the Republicans , and with Donald Trump 's America still fully mobilized and ready for ... well , who knows what ... do n't count on good tidings ahead .
From the start , he was imperial America 's candidate of decline , even if few recognized it at the time .
Still , it should have been @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to me anyway -- that his trademark slogan , Make America Great Again , was nothing short of an admission that this `` exceptional , '' `` indispensable '' nation of ours , the greatest superpower in history ( or so this country 's politicians then liked to believe ) had , in fact , seen better times .
Donald Trump was then , and remains , a vengeful , preening peacock sent by god knows whom to make that reality obvious to one and all .
That was certainly true of the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ America that decided to embrace the billionaire bankuptee and reality TV host .
In a land of already staggering inequality , he was the one who would somehow give them back their lost status , their lost sense of American wellbeing and of a future that they could embrace for their children and grandchildren .
And if he did n't do that for them , he would at least be emotional payback when it came to all the loathed powers-that-be in Washington who had , they felt , taken them down His `` @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be known in the media , whom he abhorred , adored , and played like an accordion , embraced the man who , in the end , was guaranteed to leave them holding the bag without the slightest compunction .
In those years , they became his property , his very own apprentices , like the political party he also absorbed without a second thought .
When it came to that base , he became , after a fashion , their god or perhaps their demon , and so he remains today , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ he wo n't care if he ends up bankrupting them , leaves them in a ditch , or continues to rev them up at future rallies that , though they may spread death , leave him feeling whole and good and top of the line .
On the other hand , when Joe Biden , the definition of an old white man , finally limps into the Oval Office , he 'll represent a return to normalcy in Washington , the retrieval of an America that was .
The only problem : the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ excuse the repetition of a verb -- was an America in decline , even if its leaders did n't know it .
It was a country on course for a previously un-American version of inequality and so instability that once would have been unimaginable .
Who can doubt that Donald Trump himself was the personification of hell on Earth ?
He was the witch in the wardrobe .
He was a satanic art-of-the-dealer ( every deal , by definition , meant only for himself ) .
He was what this country vomited up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as a uniquely symbolic president .
From the moment he delivered that Inaugural Address of his on January 20 , 2017 , he would also be the personification of carnage .
And yes , goad me a little more , and believe me I could go on .
But you get the drift , right ?
And yet give Donald Trump the credit he deserves .
However intuitively , he grasped just where this country was and was going ( and , of course , how he could benefit from that ) .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ way no one else did .
He even understood how to run a campaign for -- instead of against -- a pandemic in a way that should have left him 20,000 leagues under the sea , not floating in a heated pool at Mar-a-Lago .
There could n't be a grimmer moral to the American story than this : he knew all of us so much better than we knew ourselves .
To so many Americans , he spoke what felt like reality itself .
It mattered not at all that he looked @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a con man in a great American tradition , or that he had stiffed the government with those tax returns he 'd never release .
After all , whatever he was , he was the genuine ( fraudulent ) thing in a world where increasing numbers of Americans already felt conned by the 1 % politics of a Washington that was filled with con artists of a different sort .
Now , despite the scads of lawyers he 's called into action to screw the works , Donald Trump has missed his chance @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Office and , as a result , rest assured , we 'll all be left holding the bag .
In the midst of the pandemic from hell -- do n't doubt it for a second -- this will be another kind of hell on earth .
Now , let 's look on the bright side , because at such a moment who wants to just read a screed of negativity ?
So here 's the good news : thanks to President Trump 's defeat in election 2020 ( however long it may take @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the world will go down more slowly , though how much more slowly remains to be seen .
After all , there was one factor in any Trump second term that was going to be unlike any other .
Though it may not seem like it to us , the rest of what we would have seen from a Trump second term -- autocratic behavior , raw racism , a red-hot version of nationalism ( white and otherwise ) , aggrieved masculinity , all amid the pandemic of the century -- would have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ history .
In that long tale , autocrats and nationalists of every grim kind have been a dime-a-dozen and even nightmarish pandemics anything but unknown .
Give it a decade , a century , a millennium , and it would be as if nothing had happened at all .
Who but the historians ( if they still exist ) would even remember ?
Unfortunately , that 's not true of one factor in election 2020 , though it played the most modest of roles in the campaign itself .
That was , of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the human heating of the planet through the never-ending release into the atmosphere ( and the oceans ) of greenhouse gasses from the burning of fossil fuels .
Certainly , since the coal-fired industrial revolution began in England in the eighteenth century , the warming of this planet has been sparked and fed by us humans , but it is not , in fact , part of human history .
It will operate on a timescale likely to leave that history in the dust .
Once released , and if not brought @ @ @ @ @ @ @ still possible ) , it 's a phenomenon that will stand , in the most devastating fashion imaginable , outside human history altogether .
Unlike any other Trumpian phenomenon , once it truly sets in , give it a decade , a century , even a millennium , and it will still be working to ensure that Earth , to one degree or another , becomes a distinctly unlivable planet for humanity .
It 's little short of passing strange -- you might actually call it suicidal -- that Donald Trump ( and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ would be quite so intent not just on ignoring or `` denying '' climate change , as is often charged , but on amplifying it by , in essence , actively setting this planet afire .
The president 's term for it was `` unleashing American Energy Dominance . ''
How strange , however , that his intent to destroy a habitable planet proved quite so popular , not once , but twice -- and who knows about a third time in 2024 ?
After all , a vote for Trump was , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
At some level , it was n't even complicated , but from a base that seemed to glory in those mask-less , chanting love fests for their One and Only , perhaps none of this should have been a surprise at all .
If Donald Trump has become something like a god to his supporters , then perhaps it 's worth asking what kind of a god would be quite so intent on setting fire to the planet ( and while he was at it murdering his own apprentices with Covid-19 ) @ @ @ @ @ @ @ him , in fact , as our very own boatman Charon on the river Styx , paddling us all to what someday could quite literally be a hell on Earth .
After all , I 'm writing this piece in New York City on a November day when it 's 74 degrees outside ( and , no , that 's not a misprint ) .
Yet another fierce tropical storm in a record year of them has drenched parts of Florida , a place that 's no longer a swing state but , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Meanwhile , parts of the West , having burned and smoked and flamed in a historic fashion across millions and millions of charred acres amid heat waves galore , are still smoldering ( though hardly noticed by anyone ) , and the world could n't be less together .
In a Senate controlled by Mitch McConnell , green new deals or two-trillion-dollar climate plans will become more fantastic than Donald Trump himself .
Still , with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at least partially running a deeply divided country in the midst @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's gone to hell , the pyromania will ease up somewhat .
Some modest steps might even be taken toward alternate forms of energy and some to save the environment , as well as a humanity in distress .
It wo n't be what 's needed , but it wo n't be a torch either and that 's the best thing to be said about our moment and why it truly mattered that Donald Trump was not reelected .
Now , return for a moment to 1991 , when that other superpower , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 's power brokers then ( including Joe Biden ) , believing themselves alone and powerful beyond imagining on Planet Earth , the inheritors of everything that had gone before , launched what would become disastrous forever wars , sure that this planet was theirs for the taking , even as history itself -- just imagine -- was ending .
Almost three decades later , that same last superpower is a democracy in decline , not to say chaos ; an imperial power in decline globally ; a military power that ca n't find @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as Congress , no matter the president , appropriates yet more funding for the military-industrial complex ) .
We have a 78-year-old man getting ready to inhabit the Oval Office and another 78-year-old preparing to oppose him in the Senate , while an 80-year-old runs the House .
Does n't this tell you something about a country swept away by a pandemic -- 100,000 or more cases a day -- and , despite assurances from Donald Trump , without a turnable `` corner '' in sight ?
And none of this would be @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to speak , if it were n't for climate change .
Admittedly , Covid-19 has turned this country into a kind of hell on Earth , having been left to roam in an unprecedented fashion by a killer president .
Cases are soaring , hospitals overwhelmed , deaths rising , and almost half of America ca n't think about anything but crowding together for presidential rallies , living mask-less lives , and `` opening '' the economy .
Trumpism has split America in two in a way that has n't been imaginable since @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Senate are likely to be in gridlock , the judicial system a partisan affair of the first order , the national security state a money-gobbling shadow empire , the citizenry armed to the teeth , racism rising , and life everywhere in an increasing state of chaos .
Welcome to the ( Dis ) United States .
Donald Trump led the way and , whatever he does , I suspect that this , for at least the time being , is still in some sense his world , not Joe Biden 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ like it or not , we were all his apprentices in a performance of destructive power of the first order that has yet to truly end .
Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of a history of the Cold War , The End of Victory Culture .
He runs TomDispatch and is a fellow of the Type Media Center .
His sixth and latest book is A Nation Unmade by War .
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook .
Check out the newest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ dystopian novel ( the second in the Splinterlands series ) Frostlands , Beverly Gologorsky 's novel Every Body Has a Story , and Tom Engelhardt 's A Nation Unmade by War , as well as Alfred McCoy 's In the Shadows of the American Century : The Rise and Decline of U.S .
Global Power and John Dower 's The Violent American Century : War and Terror Since World War II .

In 2016 as now, he was the candidate of chaos. Yes, he was a billionaire (or wanna-be billionaire or in-hock billionaire, not to mention a liar, a cheat, and a scoundrel), but from the beginning he appealed to the forces of order in America that were also, as it happened, the forces of chaos. Donald Trump entered the presidential sweepstakes, or to be completely accurate rode an escalator into it, from stage right. In another universe, he could have entered from stage left and he wouldn't have given a damn either way.
After all, there never really was a left, right, or center for the king of apprentices. There was never anything but the imposing figure known as The Donald, the man of the hour, any hour, past, present, or future. Whatever his political position of the moment, he reflected one thing above all: the underlying chaos and bad faith of a world of wealth, power, and ever-growing inequality, a world, as it happened, just waiting to go down.
Now that he's defeated, count on one thing: he'll take as much of this country with him as he can. If he has his way, when he finally decides to jump ship, money in hand, he'll leave the rest of us at a vast mask-less rally with death running wild in our midst. From the beginning, he was always the orange-faced, yellow-haired personification of chaos. Now, just as the Republican Party did in 2016, this country has taken on his chaos as our own and, in the wake of the recent election, one obvious question is: Are we, too, scheduled for the ventilator of history?
Do I sound extreme? I damn well hope so. We're in a gridlocked, post-election moment of previously unimaginable extremity in an increasingly over-armed, ever more divided country that used to be known as the "last superpower" on Planet Earth. It matters (but not enough) that that aged Democratic centrist Joe Biden has taken the presidency and, if all goes faintly as previously expected, will make his way into the future White House. Without a Senate majority, however, and with a reduced majority in the House, without the Democrats having taken a single state legislature from the Republicans, and with Donald Trump's America still fully mobilized and ready for... well, who knows what... don't count on good tidings ahead.
The Personification of Carnage
From the start, he was imperial America's candidate of decline, even if few recognized it at the time. Still, it should have been obvious enough in 2016 -- it was to me anyway -- that his trademark slogan, Make America Great Again, was nothing short of an admission that this "exceptional," "indispensable" nation of ours, the greatest superpower in history (or so this country's politicians then liked to believe) had, in fact, seen better times.
Donald Trump was then, and remains, a vengeful, preening peacock sent by god knows whom to make that reality obvious to one and all. That was certainly true of the slice of white, heartland, working-class America that decided to embrace the billionaire bankuptee and reality TV host. In a land of already staggering inequality, he was the one who would somehow give them back their lost status, their lost sense of American wellbeing and of a future that they could embrace for their children and grandchildren. And if he didn't do that for them, he would at least be emotional payback when it came to all the loathed powers-that-be in Washington who had, they felt, taken them down
His "base," as they came to be known in the media, whom he abhorred, adored, and played like an accordion, embraced the man who, in the end, was guaranteed to leave them holding the bag without the slightest compunction. In those years, they became his property, his very own apprentices, like the political party he also absorbed without a second thought.
When it came to that base, he became, after a fashion, their god or perhaps their demon, and so he remains today, even in defeat. Of course, he won't care if he ends up bankrupting them, leaves them in a ditch, or continues to rev them up at future rallies that, though they may spread death, leave him feeling whole and good and top of the line.
On the other hand, when Joe Biden, the definition of an old white man, finally limps into the Oval Office, he'll represent a return to normalcy in Washington, the retrieval of an America that was. The only problem: the America that was -- if you'll excuse the repetition of a verb -- was an America in decline, even if its leaders didn't know it. It was a country on course for a previously un-American version of inequality and so instability that once would have been unimaginable.
Who can doubt that Donald Trump himself was the personification of hell on Earth? He was the witch in the wardrobe. He was a satanic art-of-the-dealer (every deal, by definition, meant only for himself). He was what this country vomited up from the depths of its disturbed innards as a uniquely symbolic president. From the moment he delivered that Inaugural Address of his on January 20, 2017, he would also be the personification of carnage.
And yes, goad me a little more, and believe me I could go on. But you get the drift, right?
And yet give Donald Trump the credit he deserves. However intuitively, he grasped just where this country was and was going (and, of course, how he could benefit from that). He understood its fault lines in a way no one else did. He even understood how to run a campaign for -- instead of against -- a pandemic in a way that should have left him 20,000 leagues under the sea, not floating in a heated pool at Mar-a-Lago.
There couldn't be a grimmer moral to the American story than this: he knew all of us so much better than we knew ourselves. To so many Americans, he spoke what felt like reality itself. It mattered not at all that he looked like, felt like, and was a con man in a great American tradition, or that he had stiffed the government with those tax returns he'd never release. After all, whatever he was, he was the genuine (fraudulent) thing in a world where increasing numbers of Americans already felt conned by the 1% politics of a Washington that was filled with con artists of a different sort.
Now, despite the scads of lawyers he's called into action to screw the works, Donald Trump has missed his chance for a second round in the Oval Office and, as a result, rest assured, we'll all be left holding the bag. In the midst of the pandemic from hell -- don't doubt it for a second -- this will be another kind of hell on earth.
A Vote for Doom
Now, let's look on the bright side, because at such a moment who wants to just read a screed of negativity? So here's the good news: thanks to President Trump's defeat in election 2020 (however long it may take to play out in court), the world will go down more slowly, though how much more slowly remains to be seen. After all, there was one factor in any Trump second term that was going to be unlike any other.
Though it may not seem like it to us, the rest of what we would have seen from a Trump second term -- autocratic behavior, raw racism, a red-hot version of nationalism (white and otherwise), aggrieved masculinity, all amid the pandemic of the century -- would have been just another passing chapter in human history. In that long tale, autocrats and nationalists of every grim kind have been a dime-a-dozen and even nightmarish pandemics anything but unknown. Give it a decade, a century, a millennium, and it would be as if nothing had happened at all. Who but the historians (if they still exist) would even remember?
Unfortunately, that's not true of one factor in election 2020, though it played the most modest of roles in the campaign itself. That was, of course, the phenomenon of climate change, the human heating of the planet through the never-ending release into the atmosphere (and the oceans) of greenhouse gasses from the burning of fossil fuels.
Certainly, since the coal-fired industrial revolution began in England in the eighteenth century, the warming of this planet has been sparked and fed by us humans, but it is not, in fact, part of human history. It will operate on a timescale likely to leave that history in the dust. Once released, and if not brought under some reasonable control (as is still possible), it's a phenomenon that will stand, in the most devastating fashion imaginable, outside human history altogether. Unlike any other Trumpian phenomenon, once it truly sets in, give it a decade, a century, even a millennium, and it will still be working to ensure that Earth, to one degree or another, becomes a distinctly unlivable planet for humanity.
It's little short of passing strange -- you might actually call it suicidal -- that Donald Trump (and the crew he brought to power) would be quite so intent not just on ignoring or "denying" climate change, as is often charged, but on amplifying it by, in essence, actively setting this planet afire. The president's term for it was "unleashing American Energy Dominance." How strange, however, that his intent to destroy a habitable planet proved quite so popular, not once, but twice -- and who knows about a third time in 2024?
After all, a vote for Trump was, in essence, a vote for doom. At some level, it wasn't even complicated, but from a base that seemed to glory in those mask-less, chanting love fests for their One and Only, perhaps none of this should have been a surprise at all.
If Donald Trump has become something like a god to his supporters, then perhaps it's worth asking what kind of a god would be quite so intent on setting fire to the planet (and while he was at it murdering his own apprentices with Covid-19)? Perhaps we need to think of him, in fact, as our very own boatman Charon on the river Styx, paddling us all to what someday could quite literally be a hell on Earth.
After all, I'm writing this piece in New York City on a November day when it's 74 degrees outside (and, no, that's not a misprint). Yet another fierce tropical storm in a record year of them has drenched parts of Florida, a place that's no longer a swing state but, like Mar-a-Lago, property of The Donald. Meanwhile, parts of the West, having burned and smoked and flamed in a historic fashion across millions and millions of charred acres amid heat waves galore, are still smoldering (though hardly noticed by anyone), and the world couldn't be less together.
In a Senate controlled by Mitch McConnell, green new deals or two-trillion-dollar climate plans will become more fantastic than Donald Trump himself. Still, with Joe Biden and Kamala Harris at least partially running a deeply divided country in the midst of a pandemic and an economy that's gone to hell, the pyromania will ease up somewhat. Some modest steps might even be taken toward alternate forms of energy and some to save the environment, as well as a humanity in distress. It won't be what's needed, but it won't be a torch either and that's the best thing to be said about our moment and why it truly mattered that Donald Trump was not reelected.
Now, return for a moment to 1991, when that other superpower, the Soviet Union, imploded. America's power brokers then (including Joe Biden), believing themselves alone and powerful beyond imagining on Planet Earth, the inheritors of everything that had gone before, launched what would become disastrous forever wars, sure that this planet was theirs for the taking, even as history itself -- just imagine -- was ending.
Almost three decades later, that same last superpower is a democracy in decline, not to say chaos; an imperial power in decline globally; a military power that can't find a winning war to fight (even as Congress, no matter the president, appropriates yet more funding for the military-industrial complex). We have a 78-year-old man getting ready to inhabit the Oval Office and another 78-year-old preparing to oppose him in the Senate, while an 80-year-old runs the House. Doesn't this tell you something about a country swept away by a pandemic -- 100,000 or more cases a day -- and, despite assurances from Donald Trump, without a turnable "corner" in sight? And none of this would be the end of the world, so to speak, if it weren't for climate change.
Admittedly, Covid-19 has turned this country into a kind of hell on Earth, having been left to roam in an unprecedented fashion by a killer president. Cases are soaring, hospitals overwhelmed, deaths rising, and almost half of America can't think about anything but crowding together for presidential rallies, living mask-less lives, and "opening" the economy.
Trumpism has split America in two in a way that hasn't been imaginable since the Civil War. The president and the Senate are likely to be in gridlock, the judicial system a partisan affair of the first order, the national security state a money-gobbling shadow empire, the citizenry armed to the teeth, racism rising, and life everywhere in an increasing state of chaos.
Welcome to the (Dis)United States. Donald Trump led the way and, whatever he does, I suspect that this, for at least the time being, is still in some sense his world, not Joe Biden's. He was the man and, like it or not, we were all his apprentices in a performance of destructive power of the first order that has yet to truly end.
Tom Engelhardt is a co-founder of the American Empire Project and the author of a history of the Cold War, The End of Victory Culture. He runs TomDispatchand is a fellow of the Type Media Center. His sixth and latest book is A Nation Unmade by War.
Follow TomDispatch on Twitter and join us on Facebook. Check out the newest Dispatch Books, John Feffer's new dystopian novel (the second in the Splinterlands series) Frostlands, Beverly Gologorsky's novel Every Body Has a Story, and Tom Engelhardt's A Nation Unmade by War, as well as Alfred McCoy's In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power and John Dower's The Violent American Century: War and Terror Since World War II.
Copyright 2020 Tom Engelhardt


alternet--2020-11-10--Trump can't steal the election now — but Mitch McConnell sees it as a power grab

Donald Trump 's attempted coup started as a clown show .
Over the weekend as Joe Biden was declared the winner by the mainstream media , and then by the entire world , it morphed into an outright grift .
In a hilariously weird press conference outside a Philadelphia landscaping company on Saturday , Rudy Giuliani and other Trump flunkies — including a registered sex offender — pushed the idea that they could somehow invalidate Biden 's robust electoral victory .
On Twitter , Trump continued to hype the utterly false notion that there 's some pathway to invalidating opened @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has clearly lost , and somehow reverse the results of this election in the courts .
Trump was backed up , as usual , by his corrupt administration .
White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany , lied so boldly about the possibility of invalidating votes that even Fox News was forced to cut away and offer a fact check to viewers .
Attorney General Bill Barr , in a move to validate Trump 's evidence-free claims of voter fraud , told federal prosecutors they were free to open investigations into these baseless allegations @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the Senate — including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — are all over right-wing media , trying to hype Trump 's election lies .
Trump 's attempted coup , to be clear , has zero chance of working .
His election lawsuits are pathetic and keep getting thrown out , including by Republican judges .
All the whining about `` illegal '' voters — which is mostly code for voters whose skin color or political leanings are not to Trump 's taste — amounts to nothing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ about are already opened and counted .
At this point , the main purpose of all the false promises that the courts will invalidate the election appears to be money — the fine print on the solicitations for Trump 's `` legal defense fund '' makes clear that the money will mostly be used to pay down Trump 's campaign debts .
Since Election Day , more than 130 such emails begging for cash have gone out to gullible marks — sorry , I mean Republican voters .
Considering what a practiced con @ @ @ @ @ @ @ already working out how to leverage his fake victim status to squeeze his hapless supporters for more cash down the road .
The problem , unfortunately , is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has decided to back Trump 's play , as I predicted he would a year and a half ago .
In a repulsive speech in the Senate Monday , McConnell avoided actively endorsing Trump 's false accusations of fraud , but nonetheless put a gloss of legitimacy on the president 's fiction by saying that `` no states have @ @ @ @ @ @ @ something that does n't happen until December in any event — and that Trump is `` 100 % within his rights '' to pursue bogus allegations that the election was rigged .
Both claims are meant to sound reasonable , but are in fact deeply dangerous .
For one thing , McConnell implied there could be something shady about the presidential election , but affirmed the legitimacy of down-ballot elections , where Republicans did better than expected .
Problem is , these are literally the same ballots .
How can the same ballot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a congressional or Senate race , but a fake in the presidential race ?
It 's the same Mitch-style logic under which confirming a Supreme Court justice nominated by a Democratic president nine months before the next election is somehow unacceptable , but confirming a justice just days before the next election is perfectly fine , as long as a Republican president nominated that person .
Put more bluntly , it 's just bad faith .
Secondly , while Trump may technically have the right to file frivolous legal actions , the real @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right to deliberately undermine the clear verdict of the American electorate with a pack of ludicrous lies .
McConnell is using this rules-lawyering to avoid the real question , which is why he and other Republicans are refusing to stand up for the integrity of our democracy .
Some folks , like never-Trumper journalist Bill Kristol , have theorized that McConnell and other Republicans are backing Trump 's coup efforts not because they think Trump will succeed , but to humor the president 's injured ego .
I think that 's unlikely .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump from the beginning , and openly treats the president as a man-child to be exploited and discarded the second he 's no longer useful .
It 's highly doubtful he cares one bit about coddling Trump 's hurt fee-fees .
No , the real reason McConnell is doing this is simple : He does not believe in democracy , not really .
That 's why he has spent his entire stint as majority leader first refusing to seat Barack Obama 's nominees to the federal courts and then , the second Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at lightning speed .
McConnell sees the courts as a way for Republicans to stage an end-run around democracy , because judges can strike down democratically passed laws with no accountability to voters .
McConnell 's unwillingness to recognize duly elected Democratic leaders as legitimate only appears to have hardened .
That 's why he 's treating Trump 's efforts to invalidate this election as an opportunity .
It 's not that he thinks Trump 's clownish power-grab will succeed , although McConnell would certainly be delighted if he did .
It 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of fraud as a pretext he can use to undercut Biden even before he takes office — and in all likelihood to refuse to acknowledge Biden as a legitimate president once he does .
McConnell 's main goal with Biden , as it was with Obama , is to make a Democratic presidency look like a failure .
That means not just blocking major legislation , but also judicial nominations and quite possibly Cabinet appointments .
Trump 's fraud accusations wo n't even come close to allowing him to remain in office — @ @ @ @ @ @ @ excuse for McConnell to ruin Biden 's ability to govern .
Not is all lost .
McConnell is taking a big gamble here .
His increasingly open contempt for democracy could backfire .
In Georgia , which Biden has apparently won this year , has not one but two Senate runoff elections in January that will determine who holds the majority .
Republicans are clearly worried about losing those races , as evidenced by Gov .
Brian Kemp 's evident warnings that he will escalate the state 's voter suppression .
It 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ McConnell 's efforts to undercut the president-elect they voted for will punish him at the polls by taking away his Senate majority .
In the meantime , however , McConnell 's actions should not be downplayed or misunderstood .
He 's not in this to coddle Trump 's feelings or to spout pointless hot air .
He almost certainly does n't think Trump 's coup attempt will succeed , but is eyeballing a `` soft coup '' of his own , one in which he kneecaps Biden 's presidency well before Biden even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Andrew O'Hehir wrote on Monday , while Biden 's win was a relief , it `` can not resolve the crisis of democracy . ''
McConnell 's power play here is exhibit No .
1 .
Trump may be on his way out , but McConnell 's war on democracy is both cleverer and subtler more than anything Trump has ever tried .
Because of this , McConnell 's soft coup is far more likely to be successful .
Our best hope is that enough voters wake up and realize that democracy is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is disempowered , not just the orange reality-TV host currently at its head .

Donald Trump's attempted coup started as a clown show. Over the weekend as Joe Biden was declared the winner by the mainstream media, and then by the entire world, it morphed into an outright grift. In a hilariously weird press conference outside a Philadelphia landscaping company on Saturday, Rudy Giuliani and other Trump flunkies — including a registered sex offender — pushed the idea that they could somehow invalidate Biden's robust electoral victory. On Twitter, Trump continued to hype the utterly false notion that there's some pathway to invalidating openedand counted ballots in various states he has clearly lost, and somehow reverse the results of this election in the courts.
Trump was backed up, as usual, by his corrupt administration. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, lied so boldly about the possibility of invalidating votes that even Fox News was forced to cut away and offer a fact check to viewers. Attorney General Bill Barr, in a move to validate Trump's evidence-free claims of voter fraud, told federal prosecutors they were free to open investigations into these baseless allegations. And the usual opportunistic sleazeballs in the Senate — including Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas and Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina — are all over right-wing media, trying to hype Trump's election lies.
Trump's attempted coup, to be clear, has zero chance of working. His election lawsuits are pathetic and keep getting thrown out, including by Republican judges. All the whining about "illegal" voters — which is mostly code for voters whose skin color or political leanings are not to Trump's taste — amounts to nothing, since the votes he's complaining about are already opened and counted. At this point, the main purpose of all the false promises that the courts will invalidate the election appears to be money — the fine print on the solicitations for Trump's "legal defense fund" makes clear that the money will mostly be used to pay down Trump's campaign debts. Since Election Day, more than 130 such emails begging for cash have gone out to gullible marks — sorry, I mean Republican voters. Considering what a practiced con artist Trump is, he's probably already working out how to leverage his fake victim status to squeeze his hapless supporters for more cash down the road.
The problem, unfortunately, is that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has decided to back Trump's play, as I predicted he would a year and a half ago.
In a repulsive speech in the Senate Monday, McConnell avoided actively endorsing Trump's false accusations of fraud, but nonetheless put a gloss of legitimacy on the president's fiction by saying that "no states have yet certified their election results" — something that doesn't happen until December in any event — and that Trump is "100% within his rights" to pursue bogus allegations that the election was rigged.
Both claims are meant to sound reasonable, but are in fact deeply dangerous.
For one thing, McConnell implied there could be something shady about the presidential election, but affirmed the legitimacy of down-ballot elections, where Republicans did better than expected. Problem is, these are literally the same ballots. How can the same ballot be legitimate one when it comes to a congressional or Senate race, but a fake in the presidential race?
It's the same Mitch-style logic under which confirming a Supreme Court justice nominated by a Democratic president nine months before the next election is somehow unacceptable, but confirming a justice just days before the next election is perfectly fine, as long as a Republican president nominated that person. Put more bluntly, it's just bad faith.
Secondly, while Trump may technically have the right to file frivolous legal actions, the real question here is whether he has the right to deliberately undermine the clear verdict of the American electorate with a pack of ludicrous lies. McConnell is using this rules-lawyering to avoid the real question, which is why he and other Republicans are refusing to stand up for the integrity of our democracy.
Some folks, like never-Trumper journalist Bill Kristol, have theorized that McConnell and other Republicans are backing Trump's coup efforts not because they think Trump will succeed, but to humor the president's injured ego.
I think that's unlikely. McConnell has barely hidden his contempt for Trump from the beginning, and openly treats the president as a man-child to be exploited and discarded the second he's no longer useful. It's highly doubtful he cares one bit about coddling Trump's hurt fee-fees.
No, the real reason McConnell is doing this is simple: He does not believe in democracy, not really.
That's why he has spent his entire stint as majority leader first refusing to seat Barack Obama's nominees to the federal courts and then, the second Trump was in office, stuffing the bench at lightning speed. McConnell sees the courts as a way for Republicans to stage an end-run around democracy, because judges can strike down democratically passed laws with no accountability to voters.
McConnell's unwillingness to recognize duly elected Democratic leaders as legitimate only appears to have hardened. That's why he's treating Trump's efforts to invalidate this election as an opportunity. It's not that he thinks Trump's clownish power-grab will succeed, although McConnell would certainly be delighted if he did. It's that McConnell sees Trump's false accusations of fraud as a pretext he can use to undercut Biden even before he takes office — and in all likelihood to refuse to acknowledge Biden as a legitimate president once he does.
McConnell's main goal with Biden, as it was with Obama, is to make a Democratic presidency look like a failure. That means not just blocking major legislation, but also judicial nominations and quite possibly Cabinet appointments. Trump's fraud accusations won't even come close to allowing him to remain in office — but they sure do make a lovely excuse for McConnell to ruin Biden's ability to govern.
Not is all lost. McConnell is taking a big gamble here. His increasingly open contempt for democracy could backfire. In Georgia, which Biden has apparently won this year, has not one but two Senate runoff elections in January that will determine who holds the majority. Republicans are clearly worried about losing those races, as evidenced by Gov. Brian Kemp's evident warnings that he will escalate the state's voter suppression. It's certainly conceivable that Georgia voters angered by McConnell's efforts to undercut the president-elect they voted for will punish him at the polls by taking away his Senate majority.
In the meantime, however, McConnell's actions should not be downplayed or misunderstood. He's not in this to coddle Trump's feelings or to spout pointless hot air. He almost certainly doesn't think Trump's coup attempt will succeed, but is eyeballing a "soft coup" of his own, one in which he kneecaps Biden's presidency well before Biden even takes the oath.
As Salon's Andrew O'Hehir wrote on Monday, while Biden's win was a relief, it "cannot resolve the crisis of democracy." McConnell's power play here is exhibit No. 1. Trump may be on his way out, but McConnell's war on democracy is both cleverer and subtler more than anything Trump has ever tried. Because of this, McConnell's soft coup is far more likely to be successful. Our best hope is that enough voters wake up and realize that democracy isn't safe until the entire Republican Party is disempowered, not just the orange reality-TV host currently at its head.


alternet--2020-11-10--'At what point is this treason?' Pompeo’s claim there will be a ‘smooth transition to a 2nd Trump ad

'At what point is this treason?' Pompeo’s claim there will be a ‘smooth transition to a 2nd Trump administration’ draws furor

With President-elect Joe Biden ahead of President Donald Trump by at least 4.2 million in the vote count after flipping @ @ @ @ @ states that Trump won in 2016 , Democrats as well as some conservatives are calling @ @ @ @ @ which he is refusing to do , vowing to fight the election results in court @ @ @ @ @ him of a victory .
When Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was asked if he @ @ @ @ @ transition to a Biden Administration , he responded , `` There will be a smooth @ @ @ @ @ Administration . ''
And Twitter is going wild with reactions .
Here are some of @ @ @ @ @ outrageous statement :

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alternet--2020-11-10--Georgia Republicans are engaged in brutal infighting over ‘orchestrated’ push to discredit state's e

Georgia Republicans are engaged in brutal infighting over ‘orchestrated’ push to discredit state's election results

Although President-elect Joe Biden was unable to flip Texas as some Democrats were hoping — Trump carried that state by 6 % — he had a lead over President Donald Trump in another light red state : Georgia .
The Associated Press , as of Tuesday , November 10 at 1 p.m. eastern time , has Biden ahead by almost 13,000 in Georgia 's vote count .
Some Trump loyalists are making the baseless claim that Biden is ahead in Georgia because of widespread voter fraud — and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that there 's nasty infighting among Georgia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in disarray ' — that was the three-word response from Senate Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff late Monday to the extraordinary infighting that 's divided the Georgia GOP over President Donald Trump 's effort to taint Joe Biden 's victory , '' according to AJC reporters Jim Galloway , Patricia Murphy , Greg Bluestein and Tia Mitchell .
Georgia has had two U.S. Senate races in 2020 , and both of them are going to runoffs that wo n't be decided until January 5 , 2021 .
The AJC reporters explain , `` This @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Republicans united behind U.S. Sens .
Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue for a pair of January 5 runoffs that could decide control of the Senate .
Instead , the two senators leveled unfounded claims of a disastrous 'embarrassment ' of an election at fellow Republicans who oversaw last week 's vote — and called for the resignation of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger .
It was a brazen effort to appease Trump , who has falsely claimed electoral fraud despite no evidence of any wrongdoing as he and his supporters try to discredit @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the AJC reporters , have been `` tweeting attacks at Raffensperger , '' and Republican Sen. Doug Collins of Georgia is `` leading Trump 's effort to recount Georgia 's race and he called for several steps , including a hand-count of every ballot cast in each county due to 'widespread allegations of voter irregularities ' but offered no evidence to back that up . ''
Collins said , `` We can — and we will — petition for this in court after statewide certification is completed if the secretary of state @ @ @ @ @ @ @ hopeful he will preemptively take this action today to ensure every Georgian has confidence in our electoral process . ''
Meanwhile , Georgia House Speaker David Ralston is weighing in on calls for Raffensperger to resign , saying , `` Until we get a little more proof of fraud or irregularities , I 'm not sure that 's the appropriate remedy . ''
Mike Boyce , Republican chairman of Cobb County , Georgia , has jumped in as well .
Boyce said , `` I think it 's also important , that as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have a transition in grace , that we acknowledge the voice of the people , we hear them and we move on .
I hope that this message gets loud and clear to our national and our state leaders , that this transition in grace is part of the election process . ''

Although President-elect Joe Biden was unable to flip Texas as some Democrats were hoping — Trump carried that state by 6% — he had a lead over President Donald Trump in another light red state: Georgia. The Associated Press, as of Tuesday, November 10 at 1 p.m. eastern time, has Biden ahead by almost 13,000 in Georgia's vote count. Some Trump loyalists are making the baseless claim that Biden is ahead in Georgia because of widespread voter fraud — and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution is reporting that there's nasty infighting among Georgia Republicans over that claim.
"'Republicans in disarray' — that was the three-word response from Senate Democratic candidate Jon Ossoff late Monday to the extraordinary infighting that's divided the Georgia GOP over President Donald Trump's effort to taint Joe Biden's victory," according to AJC reporters Jim Galloway, Patricia Murphy, Greg Bluestein and Tia Mitchell.
Georgia has had two U.S. Senate races in 2020, and both of them are going to runoffs that won't be decided until January 5, 2021.
The AJC reporters explain, "This was supposed to be the week that Republicans united behind U.S. Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue for a pair of January 5 runoffs that could decide control of the Senate. Instead, the two senators leveled unfounded claims of a disastrous 'embarrassment' of an election at fellow Republicans who oversaw last week's vote — and called for the resignation of Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger. It was a brazen effort to appease Trump, who has falsely claimed electoral fraud despite no evidence of any wrongdoing as he and his supporters try to discredit Biden."
Trump supporters, according to the AJC reporters, have been "tweeting attacks at Raffensperger," and Republican Sen. Doug Collins of Georgia is "leading Trump's effort to recount Georgia's race and he called for several steps, including a hand-count of every ballot cast in each county due to 'widespread allegations of voter irregularities' but offered no evidence to back that up."
Collins said, "We can — and we will — petition for this in court after statewide certification is completed if the secretary of state fails to act, but we are hopeful he will preemptively take this action today to ensure every Georgian has confidence in our electoral process."
Meanwhile, Georgia House Speaker David Ralston is weighing in on calls for Raffensperger to resign, saying, "Until we get a little more proof of fraud or irregularities, I'm not sure that's the appropriate remedy."
Mike Boyce, Republican chairman of Cobb County, Georgia, has jumped in as well. Boyce said, "I think it's also important, that as part of this process, that we have a transition in grace, that we acknowledge the voice of the people, we hear them and we move on. I hope that this message gets loud and clear to our national and our state leaders, that this transition in grace is part of the election process."


alternet--2020-11-10--It's time to call out Mitch McConnell's treason

Despite being polarized , Americans really do agree on the fundamentals .
Is the president above the law ?
No .
Does every citizen have a right to vote ?
Yes .
Should powers be separated ?
Yes .
Are checks and balances good ?
Yes .
Should people be free to worship as they wish ?
Yes .
Are the people the ultimate sovereign ?
Yes .
And so on .
Theory is n't the same as practice , obviously , but even so , there 's only one correct answer to fundamental political questions .
If there were @ @ @ @ @ @ @ differences of opinion—we would not be members of a political community whose outlines were established long ago .
We would be part of another kind of political community , one none of us would recognize as familiar , legitimate or good .
Our nation would be something else .
It would not be America .
These fundamentals and the outlines of our political community that were derived from them constitute a contract among and between citizens and noncitizens .
We agree to them , consciously or subliminally , because if we did not @ @ @ @ @ @ @ union we all actually participate in .
We 'd be in something else that does not exist .
In the run-up to Election Day , CNN 's Jake Tapper urged counting of every vote .
He was not violating the norms of journalism .
He was not taking a position .
With respect to voting , there 's no position to take .
Counting every vote is what we do .
If we do not count every vote , we are not America .
Very few things in this country are either-or , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ are .
They are , because they must be .
They must be , because we want them to be .
We want them to be , because we are America .
The president and the Republican leaders are failing the test of fundamentals .
Should they recognize as legitimate the outcome of a lawful democratic process ?
The only answer is yes .
That 's the only correct answer , because either the American people are sovereign or they are not .
If they are not , we do not live in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ yes indicates unwillingness to participate in the union as it stands .
Anything less than an immediate yes indicates a certain softness of dedication to the US Constitution and the republic .
Yet Donald Trump , and now Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republican Party , are refusing to recognize Joe Biden 's victory .
I 'm told this is theater .
I 'm told this is about fundraising .
Campaign debts must be paid , after all .
I trust some of this is true .
I also trust history @ @ @ @ @ @ @ denied the reality of his defeat .
( Biden has now eclipsed Ronald Reagan 's share of the popular vote , 50.8 percent to 50.7 .
It is the highest for a challenger since Franklin Roosevelt beat Herbert Hoover in 1932 .
And the counting continues . )
No president has ever refused to concede in the face of a mathematical certainty .
To my knowledge , no political party has ever gotten behind an incumbent 's effort to steal an election .
That effort will fail .
( I say `` will @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of dread as you are . )
The president 's legal scheme has so far floundered .
Every one of his suits has been thrown out , because there 's no evidence of voter fraud on the scale he 's alleging .
On the off-chance of one of these lawsuits getting to the US Supreme Court , I 'm guessing the conservative justices there will buy themselves legitimacy by dismissing the case outright .
Accusations can work in politics , less in court .
As GOP Sen. John Cornyn said : `` In @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have to come up with some facts and evidence . ''
But even in failure , the president and the Republicans will have accomplished something .
( It will benefit the GOP , of course , not the president ; Trump will face legal scrutiny the minute he 's out of office . )
They will have succeeded in three things .
One , establishing doubt in Biden 's legitimacy .
Two , establishing the groundwork for obstructing his agenda .
More important , though , is three .
They will have deepened @ @ @ @ @ @ @ background of Republican discourse .
Democrats do n't count .
Anything they do , whether criticizing Republicans or beating them by a landslide in national elections , deserves any reaction up to and including murder .
In a very real sense , the Republicans are constituting a nation inside this nation , a confederacy of the mind and spirit to be made real so `` real Americans '' chosen by God can dominate the whole in God 's name .
They are constituting a separate and unequal system inside the one everyone else @ @ @ @ @ @ @ small minority is privileged over a majority bound by law but not protected by it .
They are , ultimately , on the path toward suicide .
When parasites kill their hosts , they kill themselves , too .
The most extreme view among pundits is that the Republicans wo n't recognize Joe Biden 's legitimacy .
That 's not extreme enough .
They are creating a beachhead inside the United States from which to continue covert civil warfare against the United States .
The Republicans are committing treason literally , yet they @ @ @ @ @ @ @ accepting the outcome of a lawful democratic process were a matter of opinion .
Wrong .
There 's only one correct answer to that fundamental question .
Anything less than fully accepting the people 's will is desiring an America that will never exist .

Despite being polarized, Americans really do agree on the fundamentals. Is the president above the law? No. Does every citizen have a right to vote? Yes. Should powers be separated? Yes. Are checks and balances good? Yes. Should people be free to worship as they wish? Yes. Are the people the ultimate sovereign? Yes. And so on.
Theory isn't the same as practice, obviously, but even so, there's only one correct answer to fundamental political questions. If there were other correct answers—if these questions hinged on differences of opinion—we would not be members of a political community whose outlines were established long ago. We would be part of another kind of political community, one none of us would recognize as familiar, legitimate or good. Our nation would be something else. It would not be America.
These fundamentals and the outlines of our political community that were derived from them constitute a contract among and between citizens and noncitizens. We agree to them, consciously or subliminally, because if we did not, we wouldn't participate in the union we all actually participate in. We'd be in something else that does not exist.
In the run-up to Election Day, CNN's Jake Tapper urged counting of every vote. He was not violating the norms of journalism. He was not taking a position. With respect to voting, there's no position to take. Counting every vote is what we do. If we do not count every vote, we are not America. Very few things in this country are either-or, right or wrong, but fundamental questions are. They are, because they must be. They must be, because we want them to be. We want them to be, because we are America.
The president and the Republican leaders are failing the test of fundamentals. Should they recognize as legitimate the outcome of a lawful democratic process? The only answer is yes. That's the only correct answer, because either the American people are sovereign or they are not. If they are not, we do not live in a representative democracy. Anything less than yes indicates unwillingness to participate in the union as it stands. Anything less than an immediate yes indicates a certain softness of dedication to the US Constitution and the republic. Yet Donald Trump, and now Mitch McConnell and the rest of the Republican Party, are refusing to recognize Joe Biden's victory.
I'm told this is theater. I'm told this is about fundraising. Campaign debts must be paid, after all. I trust some of this is true. I also trust history, though. No president has ever denied the reality of his defeat. (Biden has now eclipsed Ronald Reagan's share of the popular vote, 50.8 percent to 50.7. It is the highest for a challenger since Franklin Roosevelt beat Herbert Hoover in 1932. And the counting continues.) No president has ever refused to concede in the face of a mathematical certainty. To my knowledge, no political party has ever gotten behind an incumbent's effort to steal an election.
That effort will fail. (I say "will" but honestly I'm as full of dread as you are.) The president's legal scheme has so far floundered. Every one of his suits has been thrown out, because there's no evidence of voter fraud on the scale he's alleging. On the off-chance of one of these lawsuits getting to the US Supreme Court, I'm guessing the conservative justices there will buy themselves legitimacy by dismissing the case outright. Accusations can work in politics, less in court. As GOP Sen. John Cornyn said: "In the end, they're going to have to come up with some facts and evidence."
But even in failure, the president and the Republicans will have accomplished something. (It will benefit the GOP, of course, not the president; Trump will face legal scrutiny the minute he's out of office.) They will have succeeded in three things. One, establishing doubt in Biden's legitimacy. Two, establishing the groundwork for obstructing his agenda. More important, though, is three. They will have deepened an assumption already at work in the background of Republican discourse. Democrats don't count. Anything they do, whether criticizing Republicans or beating them by a landslide in national elections, deserves any reaction up to and including murder.
In a very real sense, the Republicans are constituting a nation inside this nation, a confederacy of the mind and spirit to be made real so "real Americans" chosen by God can dominate the whole in God's name. They are constituting a separate and unequal system inside the one everyone else recognizes as legitimate, in which a small minority is privileged over a majority bound by law but not protected by it. They are, ultimately, on the path toward suicide. When parasites kill their hosts, they kill themselves, too.
The most extreme view among pundits is that the Republicans won't recognize Joe Biden's legitimacy. That's not extreme enough. They are creating a beachhead inside the United States from which to continue covert civil warfare against the United States. The Republicans are committing treason literally, yet they're being afforded respect, as if accepting the outcome of a lawful democratic process were a matter of opinion. Wrong. There's only one correct answer to that fundamental question. Anything less than fully accepting the people's will is desiring an America that will never exist.


alternet--2020-11-10--Eric Trump told Minnesotans to get out and vote. Today — a week after the election

What do you do when you 're a crime family and all your kids are Fredos ?
You fail .
A lot .
Of course , we all know Eric has the cognitive ability of a below-average glue-huffing Sea-Monkey , but that does n't mean it still is n't hilarious when he screws up .
This morning , Eric tweeted — and then quickly deleted — this : Well , Minnesota DID get out and vote ... last week ... and they opted to defenestrate his father 's ocher arsehole .
Naturally , Twitter was only too happy to point @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump has often bragged ( falsely , of course ) about hiring only the best people .
At the same time , he apparently sires the worst .
In fact , he 's like a gravity well of incompetence , as anyone who moves beyond the event horizon of his inner circle has to be super-dumbfuckish , or a relative , or both to survive for very long .
It 's the Trump way .
And it wo n't change .
Luckily , they have to go back to fucking up their business @ @ @ @ @ @ @ object to that .

What do you do when you're a crime family and all your kids are Fredos? You fail. A lot.
Case in point: Eric Trump
Of course, we all know Eric has the cognitive ability of a below-average glue-huffing Sea-Monkey, but that doesn't mean it still isn't hilarious when he screws up.
This morning, Eric tweeted — and then quickly deleted — this:
Well, Minnesota DID get out and vote ... last week ... and they opted to defenestrate his father's ocher arsehole.
Naturally, Twitter was only too happy to point out Eric's gaudy gormlessness.
Donald Trump has often bragged (falsely, of course) about hiring only the best people. At the same time, he apparently sires the worst. In fact, he's like a gravity well of incompetence, as anyone who moves beyond the event horizon of his inner circle has to be super-dumbfuckish, or a relative, or both to survive for very long.
It's the Trump way. And it won't change. Luckily, they have to go back to fucking up their business now. And I certainly won't object to that.


alternet--2020-11-10--'The DOJ is not Trump's toy': Legal experts warn Bill Barr's election fraud probe teeters on 'unlawf

'The DOJ is not Trump's toy': Legal experts warn Bill Barr's election fraud probe teeters on 'unlawful political interference'

Although President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris enjoy a decisive lead in the 2020 presidential race — defeating President Donald Trump by more than 4.2 million votes and flipping Pennsylvania , Wisconsin and other battleground states that Trump won in 2016 — Trump is refusing to concede and making the baseless claim that he was robbed of a victory by widespread voter fraud .
Now , Attorney General William Barr is indulging Trump 's conspiracy theory and asking the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a voter fraud investigation .
And legal experts are speaking out , some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Matt Naham , in Law & Crime , explains , `` The Wall Street Journal reported that Barr sent a memo… .
to U.S. attorneys on Monday empowering them to investigate 'substantial allegations ' of voting irregularities .
According to the Journal , the memo says prosecutors ' investigations 'may be conducted if there are clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities that , if true , could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual state . '
There has been no evidence in any of the Trump campaign 's @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Ross Garber , an expert on election law and adjunct assistant professor at Tulane Law School in New Orleans , told Law & Crime that `` election fraud investigations are usually conducted by state officials . ''
According to Garber , `` While the Department of Justice has an established and long-standing role in protecting voting rights and conducting related inquiries , the president 's unsubstantiated allegations understandably lead to skepticism .
I 'm also skeptical , but will reserve judgment . ''
Former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi told Law & Crime , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not Trump 's toy — and Barr should not act like the president 's binky .
Just when we thought that the most politically compliant attorney general in modern times would go quietly into the night , Bill Barr rises from his bunker and shocks us again . ''
Attorney Bradley P. Moss , known for his expertise on national security , is vehemently critical of Barr , telling Law & Crime , `` This is getting rather dangerously close to the line of unlawful political interference by the Justice Department .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the conduct of our elections , and there is no indication that the various quixotic lawsuits being filed in the states ca n't resolve this issue just fine without intervention by DOJ .
Hopefully , this is simply more 'election theater ' by AG Barr to assuage the president 's fragile ego than anything else . ''
Here is what legal experts have been tweeting about the voter fraud investigation that Barr is calling for :

Although President-elect Joe Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris enjoy a decisive lead in the 2020 presidential race — defeating President Donald Trump by more than 4.2 million votes and flipping Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and other battleground states that Trump won in 2016 — Trump is refusing to concede and making the baseless claim that he was robbed of a victory by widespread voter fraud. Now, Attorney General William Barr is indulging Trump's conspiracy theory and asking the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct a voter fraud investigation. And legal experts are speaking out, some of them criticizing Barr vehemently.
Reporter Matt Naham, in Law & Crime, explains, "The Wall Street Journal reported that Barr sent a memo…. to U.S. attorneys on Monday empowering them to investigate 'substantial allegations' of voting irregularities. According to the Journal, the memo says prosecutors' investigations 'may be conducted if there are clear and apparently-credible allegations of irregularities that, if true, could potentially impact the outcome of a federal election in an individual state.' There has been no evidence in any of the Trump campaign's lawsuits to support election-altering fraud."
Ross Garber, an expert on election law and adjunct assistant professor at Tulane Law School in New Orleans, told Law & Crime that "election fraud investigations are usually conducted by state officials."
According to Garber, "While the Department of Justice has an established and long-standing role in protecting voting rights and conducting related inquiries, the president's unsubstantiated allegations understandably lead to skepticism. I'm also skeptical, but will reserve judgment."
Former federal prosecutor Gene Rossi told Law & Crime, "(The) Justice Department is not Trump's toy — and Barr should not act like the president's binky. Just when we thought that the most politically compliant attorney general in modern times would go quietly into the night, Bill Barr rises from his bunker and shocks us again."
Attorney Bradley P. Moss, known for his expertise on national security, is vehemently critical of Barr, telling Law & Crime, "This is getting rather dangerously close to the line of unlawful political interference by the Justice Department. The federal government has very little role in the conduct of our elections, and there is no indication that the various quixotic lawsuits being filed in the states can't resolve this issue just fine without intervention by DOJ. Hopefully, this is simply more 'election theater' by AG Barr to assuage the president's fragile ego than anything else."
Here is what legal experts have been tweeting about the voter fraud investigation that Barr is calling for: