truthout--2020-10-05--Dangerous Conspiracy Theories Like QAnon Have Taken Off in Anti-Abortion Circles

On January 7 , 2018 , Cheryl Sullenger , the senior vice president of the radical anti-choice protest group Operation Rescue , posted an entry on her organization ’ s website entitled , “ These people are SICK !
” # QAnon Takes on Planned Parenthood.
” The post included a statement from Operation Rescue president Troy Newman thanking the anonymous chan poster “ Q ” for linking approvingly to a Republican-led congressional investigation into bogus allegations that Planned Parenthood trafficked in baby parts for profit .
The investigation was sparked by an undercover operation by anti-choice activist David Daleiden @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a group Newman co-founded .
“ We are grateful to Q and the Trump Administration for taking the evidence against Planned Parenthood seriously and bringing it to the attention of an audience that may otherwise never have been exposed to the truth , ” Newman said .
“ We hope the QAnon exposure helps wake up Americans to the barbarity of abortion.
” In other posts , Sullenger elaborated on the conspiracy theory that Planned Parenthood traffics in human organs with the political protection of liberal philanthropist George Soros .
Sullenger gave Q @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to remarks by Susan Hirschmann , the executive director of the conservative Eagle Forum , presented during Ruth Bader Ginsburg ’ s 1993 Supreme Court confirmation hearings .
Hirschmann accuses Ginsburg of being in favor of child trafficking because of a report Ginsburg co-wrote for the federal government ; she was hired to review the federal code and flag everything sexist .
One obvious candidate was the Mann Act , also known as the White Slave Traffic Act , which criminalized taking women and girls ( but not men or boys ) across @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a catchall that punished consensual sex between adults .
Sullenger falsely claimed , citing Hirshmann , that Ginsburg sought to lower the age of consent to 12 years in order to facilitate sex trafficking .
Sullenger ’ s Twitter feed is full of references to Qanon , and the door swings both ways : On February 20 , Q linked to one of Sullenger ’ s tweet .
She commemorates this milestone in her Twitter bio , listing herself as “ Q ’ d # 3848 , ” a reference to the number @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who spends time in right-wing spaces has seen the proliferation of QAnon memes and hashtags like # WWG1WGA , # TrustThePlan , and # SaveOurChildren .
Most movement leaders prefer to tread carefully , though , reluctant to give a full-throated endorsement to an ideology the FBI has identified as a domestic terror threat .
It might seem odd that the president of a prominent anti-choice group would openly thank a fictional character at the heart of an explosive conspiracy theory .
But it starts to make sense when you understand the history @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that the religious right has played in developing and disseminating them — and how it all connects to the anti-abortion movement .
While it may be tempting to dismiss QAnon as the delusions of a radical fringe , Q is going mainstream .
Awareness of the conspiracy theory has surged during the pandemic .
An astonishing 56 percent of Republicans told Kos/Civiqs pollsters that QAnon is at least partly true .
Only 13 percent of Republicans and 72 percent of Democrats said the theory was completely false .
At least 24 Q-friendly congressional @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and many more are running as write-in candidates .
Most have no hope of winning , but Marjorie Taylor Greene is all but guaranteed to win her House race in Georgia ’ s 14th District , thanks in part to Trump ’ s endorsement .
To properly describe QAnon , one must paint a picture , ideally in the style of Rubens — full of lurid sex and graphic violence but styled to make base voyeurism feel like Christian virtue .
QAnon ’ s is a maximalist aesthetic — more is always @ @ @ @ @ @ @ : The three evil Houses of Rothschild , Soros , and Saud are the hidden motive forces of history .
Beneath the Houses , but still awesomely powerful , is a cabal of celebrity cannibal pedophiles that controls Hollywood and the media .
That celebrity cabal colludes with the Clintons , Joe Biden , Bill Gates , and the “ deep state.
” There are more layers .
Planned Parenthood trafficks in fetal tissue , under the protection of George Soros .
Bill Gates wants to put that fetal tissue in a COVID-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a hoax , or possibly caused by 5G .
As if that wasn ’ t horrific enough , antifa is setting forest fires on the West Coast , and Democratic officials are encouraging riots and scheming to steal the election .
Standing against these evil forces is Q , short for “ Q-Clearance Patriot.
” According to followers , Q is an intelligence official or a small group allied with Donald Trump in his war against the deep state and the cannibal pedophiles .
Q has ostensibly been communicating with the faithful through @ @ @ @ @ @ @ first 4chan , later 8chan , and finally 8kun .
These missives , known as “ Q-drops ” are usually brief dispatches filled with rhetorical questions , meaningless strings of symbols , and clues for unraveling the conspiracy .
Q promises that “ the Storm , ” in which Donald Trump will kill or imprison his enemies , is coming .
Q does not claim divine inspiration per se , but his prophecies are heavily laced with Christian scripture references .
The Rothschild-Soros elements and the Hollywood cannibal pedophile elements sound a lot @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the medieval antisemitic myth that Jews drain the blood of Christian children for ritual purposes , and the classic antisemitic text , the Protocols of the Elders of Zion , a bestselling early 20th-century forgery that was passed off as the secret machinations of a clique of Jewish leaders trying to take over the world .
After falsely predicting the imminent arrest of Hillary Clinton in 2017 , Q took a turn for the cryptic , churning out strings of meaningless symbols , insinuating rhetorical questions , and B-movie references .
These “ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ uninitiated and had to be decoded by legions of faithful researchers , known as “ bakers.
” Many bakers developed large audiences and offered their own divergent interpretations of what Q was really saying .
In recent months , Q has reasserted control over the narrative , stoking fear about chaos , violence , and the left — in terms that leave little room for interpretation .
So , why is Operation Rescue hyping QAnon , which , judging by Q ’ s body of work , is only casually interested in abortion @ @ @ @ @ @ @ right and more mainstream Republicans ever since evangelists and D.C. think-tankers bonded over the particulars of Bill Clinton ’ s penis .
These narratives are a tool that the religious right uses to mobilize support for the larger Republican political project .
QAnon is also attracting a new and suggestible audience , who represent a recruiting opportunity for anti-choice organizers .
The religious right was a leading purveyor of anti-Clinton conspiracy theories in the 1990s — and QAnon is an anti-Clinton conspiracy theory on hallucinogens .
“ Hillary Clinton will be arrested between @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Monday , ” claimed the very first Q-drop .
QAnon grew out of Pizzagate , the baseless theory that Hillary Clinton and the chair of her 2016 presidential campaign , John Podesta , were running a child sex-trafficking ring out of Comet Ping Pong , a family restaurant in Washington D.C. A huge cast of Trump campaign staffers , family members , and hangers-on hyped Pizzagate in the final days before the election .
Social movements need shared narratives , stories that explain who the group is and what it wants .
The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ‘ 90s developed these key storylines through right-wing newsletters , documentaries , and talk radio .
These myths illustrated what the right wing hated about Bill and Hillary Clinton : liberalism , self-indulgence , sexual deviance , and women ’ s liberation .
In telling these stories , promoters of anti-Clinton conspiracy theories cast themselves as defenders of the traditional family , chastity , and tradition .
In April 1994 , Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry ( who has since left the group ) launched the Loyal Opposition bus tour calling for Clinton @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seven Southern state capitals , where Terry gave speeches calling for investigations into the president ’ s crimes .
These accusations — like the baseless claim that the Clintons murdered their close friend Vince Foster , who had died by suicide a year earlier — appeared that year in a video , The Clinton Chronicles , directed by the late evangelical filmmaker Patrick Matrisciana .
The Chronicles popularized the concept of the “ Clinton body count , ” a list of people allegedly murdered by the first couple .
Some of the biggest @ @ @ @ @ @ @ support to the Clinton conspiracy cause : Pat Robertson promoted Vince Foster conspiracies on the 700 Club , and Jerry Falwell distributed tens of thousands of copies of The Clinton Chronicles .
Jeremiah Films , Matrisciana ’ s production company , also distributes the documentary Baby Parts for Sale , which hypes the false concept of “ live birth abortion.
” Produced in 2001 , the video features anti-choice activist Mark Crutcher , the man who pioneered the concept of “ spies for life ” — undercover activists infiltrating abortion clinics — and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2002 , Crutcher ’ s organization Life Dynamics Inc. accused Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation of “ operating an illegal pedophile protection racket ” based on stings in which a caller pretended to be a 13-year-old girl pregnant by a 22-year-old man .
Caryl Matrisciana , who was married to Patrick , was an evangelical architect of the Satanic Panic of the late ‘ 80s through the mid- ’ 90s , a time when evangelicals , therapists , and unscrupulous journalists , including Geraldo Rivera , convinced Middle America that daycare @ @ @ @ @ @ @ The blurb for Jeremiah Films ’ 1991 documentary Doorways to Satan claims that “ law enforcement agencies are unable to keep up with the increasing numbers of heinous , Satanically inspired crimes.
” During the Clinton years , the religious right also had plenty of support from mainstream Republican operatives in its bid to depict the president and the first lady as murderers for hire , drug smugglers , and worse .
One of the leading establishment Republican operatives to promote the Clinton conspiracies was Floyd G. Brown , who is better known @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” campaign ad and his central role in the Citizens United Supreme Court case .
In the ‘ 90s , Floyd edited the Clintonwatch newsletter , which trafficked in conspiracy theories .
Floyd went on to dominate Facebook with far-right fake news .
His Western Journal site amassed more than 36 million readers and followers , and three-quarters of a billion shares , likes , and clicks on the social network , according to the New York Times .
Brown ’ s career illustrates the longstanding interdependence of mainstream Republican politics , right-wing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Barack Obama ran for president , Brown produced a “ birther ” ad questioning whether Obama had been born in the United States .
Brown also served on the board of Joseph Farah ’ s WorldNetDaily , which became a nexus of birtherism and other conspiracy theories .
Like Trump confidante Christopher Ruddy of NewsMax , the fervidly anti-choice Joseph Farah made his name with Vince Foster conspiracy theories .
Many people remember Hillary Clinton denouncing a “ vast right-wing conspiracy , ” but few remember what she was actually talking about .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ 332-page White House report called “ The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce , ” which described how far-right think tanks popularized conspiracy theories that would otherwise be too sensational to get a hearing in prestigious national media outlets like the New York Times .
Right-wing think tank operatives would germinate these stories , often in newsletters or magazines like the American Spectator .
These tales would then migrate to indiscriminate online outlets like the Drudge Report .
Sometimes they ’ d be picked up by the British tabloids , where Wall Street Journal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of Congress would ultimately read the stories in the Journal and initiate investigations , which the newspapers of record would then happily cover .
Over a decade later , the Planned Parenthood sting came to prominence through a similar trajectory , with a few modern-day twists .
The Center for Medical Progress distributed the footage and commentary online and stoked the phony controversy until it attracted mainstream media attention ; congressional Republicans conferred mainstream credibility upon it by opening an investigation .
Then , in 2018 , a link to the investigation was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it with mystical significance to the faithful .
Trump also provides flashes of validation to the QAnon base , whether it ’ s retweeting the false claim that Joe Biden is a pedophile , or recently signing a “ born alive ” executive order that peddles in anti-choice tropes from the “ baby parts ” scandal .
Other anti-choice groups are also dabbling in conspiracy rhetoric .
The extremist anti-abortion group Operation Save America refers to the coronavirus outbreak as “ the Plandemic , ” a nod to the discredited independent documentary that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ social media groups .
OSA says it chose to hold an upcoming event in South Dakota because Gov .
Kristi Noem stood up to “ federal tyranny ” and the “ pandemic hoax ” by refusing to shut down the state .
OSA ties this to its “ doctrine of the lesser magistrate , ” which is an attempt to convince state and local officials , including sheriffs , to defy federal laws and Supreme Court rulings they deem immoral , including Roe v. Wade , gun laws , and gay rights legislation @ @ @ @ @ @ @ fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorism threat last year , warning that QAnon narratives “ tacitly support or legitimize violent action.
” Q doesn ’ t tell his followers to hurt people — he just accuses named individuals of heinous crimes , including pedophilia .
Lurid tales about pedophiles legitimize violence in many people ’ s minds , people who are already primed to believe in them , just as anti-choice rhetoric about baby murder legitimizes violence against abortion providers .
One follower murdered his neighbor , a mob boss , then @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his hand at a court hearing ; another armed himself with 900 rounds of ammunition before blocking the Hoover Dam bypass bridge with his homemade armored car .
An unemployed actor and wellness coach tried to burn down Comet Ping Pong in 2019 .
( Three years earlier , the restaurant had been the site of a Pizzagate-inspired armed raid by a man believing he was freeing trafficked children . )
In August , a woman rammed in her car into vehicles she suspected were being driven by pedophiles .
This month , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and harassed journalists based on the rumor that antifa was setting forest fires .
That ’ s all to say : Q-boosted rumors can get people with guns into the streets .
Operation Rescue and OSA are also openly trying to mobilize their followers : Operation Save America leader Jason Storms filmed himself in Kenosha , Wisconsin , extolling Kyle Rittenhouse as a hero just days after the teenager shot and killed two Black Lives Matter protesters .
Operation Save America is still trying to convince sheriffs to make up their own laws @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Q supporters believe that Trump ’ s final battle between good and evil is at hand .
With Trump refusing to commit to a peaceful transition of power and the Republican National Committee stepping up efforts to intimidate voters at the polls , the potential for violence is real .
The QAnon conspiracy is spreading throughout the right wing , and the anti-choice movement is no exception .
The ideology has already driven people to commit acts of real-life violence .
The history of anti-choice terrorism in this country shows what can happen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that they are defending innocents in a battle between pure good and ultimate evil .
QAnon is a powerful recruiting mechanism for the extreme right , seducing previously apolitical people into an emotionally charged ideology that validates any conspiratorial beliefs they already have and seeds new ones .
QAnon isn ’ t just a threat to reproductive rights — it ’ s a threat to the integrity of our democracy .
We can ’ t govern ourselves if we no longer inhabit the same reality .

On January 7, 2018, Cheryl Sullenger, the senior vice president of the radical anti-choice protest group Operation Rescue, posted an entry on her organization’s website entitled, “These people are SICK!” #QAnon Takes on Planned Parenthood.” The post included a statement from Operation Rescue president Troy Newman thanking the anonymous chan poster “Q” for linking approvingly to a Republican-led congressional investigation into bogus allegations that Planned Parenthood trafficked in baby parts for profit. The investigation was sparked by an undercover operation by anti-choice activist David Daleiden of the Center for Medical Progress, a group Newman co-founded.
“We are grateful to Q and the Trump Administration for taking the evidence against Planned Parenthood seriously and bringing it to the attention of an audience that may otherwise never have been exposed to the truth,” Newman said. “We hope the QAnon exposure helps wake up Americans to the barbarity of abortion.” In other posts, Sullenger elaborated on the conspiracy theory that Planned Parenthood traffics in human organs with the political protection of liberal philanthropist George Soros.
Sullenger gave Q another shoutout after the conspiracy theorists linked to remarks by Susan Hirschmann, the executive director of the conservative Eagle Forum, presented during Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s 1993 Supreme Court confirmation hearings. Hirschmann accuses Ginsburg of being in favor of child trafficking because of a report Ginsburg co-wrote for the federal government; she was hired to review the federal code and flag everything sexist. One obvious candidate was the Mann Act, also known as the White Slave Traffic Act, which criminalized taking women and girls (but not men or boys) across state lines for “immoral purpose” a catchall that punished consensual sex between adults. Sullenger falsely claimed, citing Hirshmann, that Ginsburg sought to lower the age of consent to 12 years in order to facilitate sex trafficking.
Sullenger’s Twitter feed is full of references to Qanon, and the door swings both ways: On February 20, Q linked to one of Sullenger’s tweet. She commemorates this milestone in her Twitter bio, listing herself as “Q’d #3848,” a reference to the number of the breakthrough Q post.
Anyone who spends time in right-wing spaces has seen the proliferation of QAnon memes and hashtags like #WWG1WGA, #TrustThePlan, and #SaveOurChildren. Most movement leaders prefer to tread carefully, though, reluctant to give a full-throated endorsement to an ideology the FBI has identified as a domestic terror threat.
It might seem odd that the president of a prominent anti-choice group would openly thank a fictional character at the heart of an explosive conspiracy theory. But it starts to make sense when you understand the history of anti-Clinton conspiracy theories and the role that the religious right has played in developing and disseminating them — and how it all connects to the anti-abortion movement.
A Conspiracy Theory Goes Mainstream
While it may be tempting to dismiss QAnon as the delusions of a radical fringe, Q is going mainstream. Awareness of the conspiracy theory has surged during the pandemic. An astonishing 56 percent of Republicans told Kos/Civiqs pollsters that QAnon is at least partly true. Only 13 percent of Republicans and 72 percent of Democrats said the theory was completely false. At least 24 Q-friendly congressional candidates are on the ballot in November, and many more are running as write-in candidates. Most have no hope of winning, but Marjorie Taylor Greene is all but guaranteed to win her House race in Georgia’s 14th District, thanks in part to Trump’s endorsement.
To properly describe QAnon, one must paint a picture, ideally in the style of Rubens — full of lurid sex and graphic violence but styled to make base voyeurism feel like Christian virtue. QAnon’s is a maximalist aesthetic — more is always more. Here are the critical points: The three evil Houses of Rothschild, Soros, and Saud are the hidden motive forces of history. Beneath the Houses, but still awesomely powerful, is a cabal of celebrity cannibal pedophiles that controls Hollywood and the media. That celebrity cabal colludes with the Clintons, Joe Biden, Bill Gates, and the “deep state.”
There are more layers. Planned Parenthood trafficks in fetal tissue, under the protection of George Soros. Bill Gates wants to put that fetal tissue in a COVID-19 vaccine, even though the virus is a hoax, or possibly caused by 5G. As if that wasn’t horrific enough, antifa is setting forest fires on the West Coast, and Democratic officials are encouraging riots and scheming to steal the election.
Standing against these evil forces is Q, short for “Q-Clearance Patriot.” According to followers, Q is an intelligence official or a small group allied with Donald Trump in his war against the deep state and the cannibal pedophiles. Q has ostensibly been communicating with the faithful through cryptic posts on anonymous image boards: first 4chan, later 8chan, and finally 8kun. These missives, known as “Q-drops” are usually brief dispatches filled with rhetorical questions, meaningless strings of symbols, and clues for unraveling the conspiracy. Q promises that “the Storm,” in which Donald Trump will kill or imprison his enemies, is coming.
Q does not claim divine inspiration per se, but his prophecies are heavily laced with Christian scripture references. The Rothschild-Soros elements and the Hollywood cannibal pedophile elements sound a lot like the “blood libel,” the medieval antisemitic myth that Jews drain the blood of Christian children for ritual purposes, and the classic antisemitic text, the Protocols of the Elders of Zion, a bestselling early 20th-century forgery that was passed off as the secret machinations of a clique of Jewish leaders trying to take over the world.
After falsely predicting the imminent arrest of Hillary Clinton in 2017, Q took a turn for the cryptic, churning out strings of meaningless symbols, insinuating rhetorical questions, and B-movie references. These “crumbs” read like gibberish to the uninitiated and had to be decoded by legions of faithful researchers, known as “bakers.” Many bakers developed large audiences and offered their own divergent interpretations of what Q was really saying. In recent months, Q has reasserted control over the narrative, stoking fear about chaos, violence, and the left — in terms that leave little room for interpretation.
So, why is Operation Rescue hyping QAnon, which, judging by Q’s body of work, is only casually interested in abortion?
Taking Root in Politics
Conspiracy theories have united the religious right and more mainstream Republicans ever since evangelists and D.C. think-tankers bonded over the particulars of Bill Clinton’s penis. These narratives are a tool that the religious right uses to mobilize support for the larger Republican political project. QAnon is also attracting a new and suggestible audience, who represent a recruiting opportunity for anti-choice organizers.
The religious right was a leading purveyor of anti-Clinton conspiracy theories in the 1990s — and QAnon is an anti-Clinton conspiracy theory on hallucinogens. “Hillary Clinton will be arrested between 7:45 AM – 8:30 AM EST on Monday,” claimed the very first Q-drop. QAnon grew out of Pizzagate, the baseless theory that Hillary Clinton and the chair of her 2016 presidential campaign, John Podesta, were running a child sex-trafficking ring out of Comet Ping Pong, a family restaurant in Washington D.C. A huge cast of Trump campaign staffers, family members, and hangers-on hyped Pizzagate in the final days before the election.
Social movements need shared narratives, stories that explain who the group is and what it wants. The anti-Clinton conspiracy theories that flourished throughout the ‘90s developed these key storylines through right-wing newsletters, documentaries, and talk radio. These myths illustrated what the right wing hated about Bill and Hillary Clinton: liberalism, self-indulgence, sexual deviance, and women’s liberation. In telling these stories, promoters of anti-Clinton conspiracy theories cast themselves as defenders of the traditional family, chastity, and tradition.
In April 1994, Operation Rescue founder Randall Terry (who has since left the group) launched the Loyal Opposition bus tour calling for Clinton’s impeachment. The tour visited seven Southern state capitals, where Terry gave speeches calling for investigations into the president’s crimes. These accusations — like the baseless claim that the Clintons murdered their close friend Vince Foster, who had died by suicide a year earlier — appeared that year in a video, The Clinton Chronicles, directed by the late evangelical filmmaker Patrick Matrisciana. The Chronicles popularized the concept of the “Clinton body count,” a list of people allegedly murdered by the first couple.
Some of the biggest names in the religious right lent their support to the Clinton conspiracy cause: Pat Robertson promoted Vince Foster conspiracies on the 700 Club, and Jerry Falwell distributed tens of thousands of copies of The Clinton Chronicles.
Jeremiah Films, Matrisciana’s production company, also distributes the documentary Baby Parts for Sale, which hypes the false concept of “live birth abortion.” Produced in 2001, the video features anti-choice activist Mark Crutcher, the man who pioneered the concept of “spies for life” — undercover activists infiltrating abortion clinics — and inspired Daleiden’s work. In 2002, Crutcher’s organization Life Dynamics Inc. accused Planned Parenthood and the National Abortion Federation of “operating an illegal pedophile protection racket” based on stings in which a caller pretended to be a 13-year-old girl pregnant by a 22-year-old man.
Caryl Matrisciana, who was married to Patrick, was an evangelical architect of the Satanic Panic of the late ‘80s through the mid-’90s, a time when evangelicals, therapists, and unscrupulous journalists, including Geraldo Rivera, convinced Middle America that daycare centers were havens for satanic pedophiles. The blurb for Jeremiah Films’ 1991 documentary Doorways to Satan claims that “law enforcement agencies are unable to keep up with the increasing numbers of heinous, Satanically inspired crimes.”
During the Clinton years, the religious right also had plenty of support from mainstream Republican operatives in its bid to depict the president and the first lady as murderers for hire, drug smugglers, and worse. One of the leading establishment Republican operatives to promote the Clinton conspiracies was Floyd G. Brown, who is better known today for his racist “Willie Horton” campaign ad and his central role in the Citizens United Supreme Court case. In the ‘90s, Floyd edited the Clintonwatch newsletter, which trafficked in conspiracy theories.
Floyd went on to dominate Facebook with far-right fake news. His Western Journal site amassed more than 36 million readers and followers, and three-quarters of a billion shares, likes, and clicks on the social network, according to the New York Times.
Brown’s career illustrates the longstanding interdependence of mainstream Republican politics, right-wing media, and conspiracy theories. When Barack Obama ran for president, Brown produced a “birther” ad questioning whether Obama had been born in the United States. Brown also served on the board of Joseph Farah’s WorldNetDaily, which became a nexus of birtherism and other conspiracy theories. Like Trump confidante Christopher Ruddy of NewsMax, the fervidly anti-choice Joseph Farah made his name with Vince Foster conspiracy theories.
Many people remember Hillary Clinton denouncing a “vast right-wing conspiracy,” but few remember what she was actually talking about. She was referencing the findings of a 332-page White House report called “The Communication Stream of Conspiracy Commerce,” which described how far-right think tanks popularized conspiracy theories that would otherwise be too sensational to get a hearing in prestigious national media outlets like the New York Times. Right-wing think tank operatives would germinate these stories, often in newsletters or magazines like the American Spectator. These tales would then migrate to indiscriminate online outlets like the Drudge Report. Sometimes they’d be picked up by the British tabloids, where Wall Street Journal editors got story ideas. Republican members of Congress would ultimately read the stories in the Journal and initiate investigations, which the newspapers of record would then happily cover.
Over a decade later, the Planned Parenthood sting came to prominence through a similar trajectory, with a few modern-day twists. The Center for Medical Progress distributed the footage and commentary online and stoked the phony controversy until it attracted mainstream media attention; congressional Republicans conferred mainstream credibility upon it by opening an investigation. Then, in 2018, a link to the investigation was distributed in a Q drop, imbuing it with mystical significance to the faithful. Trump also provides flashes of validation to the QAnon base, whether it’s retweeting the false claim that Joe Biden is a pedophile, or recently signing a “born alive” executive order that peddles in anti-choice tropes from the “baby parts” scandal.
Other anti-choice groups are also dabbling in conspiracy rhetoric. The extremist anti-abortion group Operation Save America refers to the coronavirus outbreak as “the Plandemic,” a nod to the discredited independent documentary that found an audience of millions through QAnon social media groups. OSA says it chose to hold an upcoming event in South Dakota because Gov. Kristi Noem stood up to “federal tyranny” and the “pandemic hoax” by refusing to shut down the state. OSA ties this to its “doctrine of the lesser magistrate,” which is an attempt to convince state and local officials, including sheriffs, to defy federal laws and Supreme Court rulings they deem immoral, including Roe v. Wade, gun laws, and gay rights legislation.
Threat to Our Democracy
The FBI flagged QAnon and other fringe conspiracy theories as a domestic terrorism threat last year, warning that QAnon narratives “tacitly support or legitimize violent action.” Q doesn’t tell his followers to hurt people — he just accuses named individuals of heinous crimes, including pedophilia. Lurid tales about pedophiles legitimize violence in many people’s minds, people who are already primed to believe in them, just as anti-choice rhetoric about baby murder legitimizes violence against abortion providers.
One follower murdered his neighbor, a mob boss, then drew a large “Q” on his hand at a court hearing; another armed himself with 900 rounds of ammunition before blocking the Hoover Dam bypass bridge with his homemade armored car. An unemployed actor and wellness coach tried to burn down Comet Ping Pong in 2019. (Three years earlier, the restaurant had been the site of a Pizzagate-inspired armed raid by a man believing he was freeing trafficked children.) In August, a woman rammed in her car into vehicles she suspected were being driven by pedophiles. This month, armed vigilantes set up illegal road blocks and harassed journalists based on the rumor that antifa was setting forest fires. That’s all to say: Q-boosted rumors can get people with guns into the streets.
Operation Rescue and OSA are also openly trying to mobilize their followers: Operation Save America leader Jason Storms filmed himself in Kenosha, Wisconsin, extolling Kyle Rittenhouse as a hero just days after the teenager shot and killed two Black Lives Matter protesters. Operation Save America is still trying to convince sheriffs to make up their own laws.
With the election approaching, many Q supporters believe that Trump’s final battle between good and evil is at hand. With Trump refusing to commit to a peaceful transition of power and the Republican National Committee stepping up efforts to intimidate voters at the polls, the potential for violence is real.
The QAnon conspiracy is spreading throughout the right wing, and the anti-choice movement is no exception. The ideology has already driven people to commit acts of real-life violence. The history of anti-choice terrorism in this country shows what can happen when large numbers of people become convinced that they are defending innocents in a battle between pure good and ultimate evil.
QAnon is a powerful recruiting mechanism for the extreme right, seducing previously apolitical people into an emotionally charged ideology that validates any conspiratorial beliefs they already have and seeds new ones. QAnon isn’t just a threat to reproductive rights — it’s a threat to the integrity of our democracy. We can’t govern ourselves if we no longer inhabit the same reality.
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truthout--2020-10-05--Trump Is Deploying a Propaganda Campaign to Pretend He Has “Defeated” COVID

Four years ago , almost to the day , Donald Trump was on the campaign trail mocking Hillary Clinton ’ s bout of pneumonia and insisting that contracting such an illness rendered her too weak and unfit to be the president .
The campaign ran what was called by some the nastiest political ad ever , called “ Dangerous.
” It depicted Clinton as a doddering invalid who was so incapacitated she couldn ’ t handle foreign policy and national security .
It ’ s not news that Donald Trump is a crude and cruel piece of work , of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ recalling that ugly incident because it provided a window into his twisted psyche and the way he views his “ brand ” as being a virile strongman with superior genes .
One aspect of that brand is that he isn ’ t one of those losers who gets sick .
Perhaps the best way to understand exactly how Trump wants people to view him is to read the ludicrous letter he dictated to his New York physician , Dr. Jacob Bornstein , during the 2016 campaign , in which he described himself as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to the presidency , ” whose “ physical strength and stamina are extraordinary.
” Various reports have trickled out since we found out that Trump had tested positive for COVID-19 , revealing that at first he was in denial about having been exposed to the virus , so much so that he flew around the country , further exposing hundreds of his supporters and donors to it .
When he finally realized that he was sick , Trump reportedly got scared , asking his staff if he was “ going to go out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ friend of his from the New York real estate world who died of the disease last spring .
But just as Trump has admittedly “ downplayed ” the pandemic from the very beginning — spreading more disinformation than any other source , according to a recent study — he is now attempting to “ downplay ” his own illness by staging one amateurish propaganda stunt after another .
It would be downright amusing if the stakes weren ’ t so high , and if so many other people ’ s lives weren ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ we can ’ t state this as a scientific certainty , it certainly appears that the gathering in the White House Rose Garden to announce the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett on Sept. 26 was a “ super-spreader ” event .
There ’ s a long list of people who were in attendance and have since tested positive , and since it can take up to 14 days to show symptoms , there could still be more .
Trump ’ s reckless visit to his golf club fundraiser in New Jersey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the country last week , after he knew that his aide Hope Hicks was sick , could well have been another super-spreader event : More than 200 people were there .
It remains unclear whether Trump had been tested before his debate with Joe Biden last Tuesday .
He and his entourage showed up too late to be tested , refused to wear masks and were on the “ honor system ” when they all claimed they had tested negative that day .
The timeline strongly suggests that Trump had already been infected @ @ @ @ @ @ @ being forthcoming about his testing history .
So far , Biden has tested negative three times .
But until two weeks have passed , I don ’ t think anyone can feel reassured that Trump ’ s toxic aerosols didn ’ t make their way across the stage during his 90-minute primal scream session .
The Washington Post reports that even though the White House is clearly the site of a major COVID cluster , officials there didn ’ t bother to issue instructions to the staff until Sunday night — and even @ @ @ @ @ @ @ staffers should stay home and call their health care provider if they feel sick .
By all accounts , people are still working at the White House without masks and the CDC hasn ’ t started any official contact tracing .
According to the Wall Street Journal , Trump told people who had tested positive to keep it quiet and even his campaign manager , Bill Stepien , was kept in the dark as the virus ran unchecked through the White House .
Stepien has since tested positive and is quarantining at home @ @ @ @ @ @ @ mess in TrumpWorld , as usual .
But what isn ’ t so usual is the way the medical professionals are handling this .
It ’ s clear that Trump has been much sicker than anyone let on at first .
He required supplementary oxygen at least twice , needing oxygen and has been given cocktail of experimental therapeutic drugs .
All this is clearly threatening to his self-defined brand as the “ healthiest individual ever elected.
” Presenting that image is so important to Trump that he has apparently convinced Dr. Sean @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and a Navy officer ) , to throw his integrity away in press conferences that are such obvious cover-ups he ’ s tripping over his own tongue .
When questioned over his inconsistent reports about the status of the president ’ s health , Conley replied , “ I didn ’ t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction , ” which is such an absurd statement you almost feel sorry for him .
( Unless he really believes he could make Trump sicker by @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Trump is staging videos from the hospital , having pictures taken of him signing blank pieces of paper and giving the impression that he ’ s working in different rooms around the clock — when the metadata makes clear that the photos were taken within minutes of each other .
On Saturday night , his daughter posted this preposterous tweet : This propaganda is reaching Soviet levels of absurdity , except that instead of the party and the bureaucracy going to extreme lengths to hide the ill health of their leader , this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ running the cover-up .
And because it ’ s Trump , it ’ s an outrageous exercise in narcissism .
In his video on Saturday , he said : His fans are actually saying he led us into this battle against the virus by modeling the reckless and irresponsible behavior we should all be following : Apparently , Donald Trump has Made America Great Again by getting COVID-19 .

Four years ago, almost to the day, Donald Trump was on the campaign trail mocking Hillary Clinton’s bout of pneumonia and insisting that contracting such an illness rendered her too weak and unfit to be the president. The campaign ran what was called by some the nastiest political ad ever, called “Dangerous.” It depicted Clinton as a doddering invalid who was so incapacitated she couldn’t handle foreign policy and national security.
It’s not news that Donald Trump is a crude and cruel piece of work, of course. But it’s worth recalling that ugly incident because it provided a window into his twisted psyche and the way he views his “brand” as being a virile strongman with superior genes. One aspect of that brand is that he isn’t one of those losers who gets sick.
Perhaps the best way to understand exactly how Trump wants people to view him is to read the ludicrous letter he dictated to his New York physician, Dr. Jacob Bornstein, during the 2016 campaign, in which he described himself as potentially “the healthiest individual ever elected to the presidency,” whose “physical strength and stamina are extraordinary.”
Various reports have trickled out since we found out that Trump had tested positive for COVID-19, revealing that at first he was in denial about having been exposed to the virus, so much so that he flew around the country, further exposing hundreds of his supporters and donors to it. When he finally realized that he was sick, Trump reportedly got scared, asking his staff if he was “going to go out like Stan Chera,” an old friend of his from the New York real estate world who died of the disease last spring.
But just as Trump has admittedly “downplayed” the pandemic from the very beginning — spreading more disinformation than any other source, according to a recent study — he is now attempting to “downplay” his own illness by staging one amateurish propaganda stunt after another. It would be downright amusing if the stakes weren’t so high, and if so many other people’s lives weren’t hanging in the balance.
Although we can’t state this as a scientific certainty, it certainly appears that the gathering in the White House Rose Garden to announce the Supreme Court nomination of Amy Coney Barrett on Sept. 26 was a “super-spreader” event. There’s a long list of people who were in attendance and have since tested positive, and since it can take up to 14 days to show symptoms, there could still be more. Trump’s reckless visit to his golf club fundraiser in New Jersey to meet with donors from all over the country last week, after he knew that his aide Hope Hicks was sick, could well have been another super-spreader event: More than 200 people were there.
It remains unclear whether Trump had been tested before his debate with Joe Biden last Tuesday. He and his entourage showed up too late to be tested, refused to wear masks and were on the “honor system” when they all claimed they had tested negative that day. The timeline strongly suggests that Trump had already been infected, and the White House is not being forthcoming about his testing history. So far, Biden has tested negative three times. But until two weeks have passed, I don’t think anyone can feel reassured that Trump’s toxic aerosols didn’t make their way across the stage during his 90-minute primal scream session.
The Washington Post reports that even though the White House is clearly the site of a major COVID cluster, officials there didn’t bother to issue instructions to the staff until Sunday night — and even then, all they said was that staffers should stay home and call their health care provider if they feel sick. By all accounts, people are still working at the White House without masks and the CDC hasn’t started any official contact tracing. According to the Wall Street Journal, Trump told people who had tested positive to keep it quiet and even his campaign manager, Bill Stepien, was kept in the dark as the virus ran unchecked through the White House. Stepien has since tested positive and is quarantining at home.
So it’s a chaotic mess in TrumpWorld, as usual. But what isn’t so usual is the way the medical professionals are handling this. It’s clear that Trump has been much sicker than anyone let on at first. He required supplementary oxygen at least twice, needing oxygen and has been given cocktail of experimental therapeutic drugs. All this is clearly threatening to his self-defined brand as the “healthiest individual ever elected.”
Presenting that image is so important to Trump that he has apparently convinced Dr. Sean Conley, the White House physician (and a Navy officer), to throw his integrity away in press conferences that are such obvious cover-ups he’s tripping over his own tongue. When questioned over his inconsistent reports about the status of the president’s health, Conley replied, “I didn’t want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction,” which is such an absurd statement you almost feel sorry for him. (Unless he really believes he could make Trump sicker by telling the truth.)
Meanwhile, Trump is staging videos from the hospital, having pictures taken of him signing blank pieces of paper and giving the impression that he’s working in different rooms around the clock — when the metadata makes clear that the photos were taken within minutes of each other. On Saturday night, his daughter posted this preposterous tweet:
Nothing can stop him from working for the American people. RELENTLESS! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/2ZSat782qe — Ivanka Trump (@IvankaTrump) October 4, 2020
This propaganda is reaching Soviet levels of absurdity, except that instead of the party and the bureaucracy going to extreme lengths to hide the ill health of their leader, this time it’s the leader himself running the cover-up. And because it’s Trump, it’s an outrageous exercise in narcissism.
In his video on Saturday, he said:
This was something that happened, and it’s happened to millions of people all over the world, and I’m fighting for them. Not just in the U.S., I’m fighting for them all over the world.
His fans are actually saying he led us into this battle against the virus by modeling the reckless and irresponsible behavior we should all be following:
Greg Gutfeld is on Fox claiming that Trump flaunted COVID guidelines and “put himself on the line…for us” pic.twitter.com/r7K0SB1E56 — nikki mccann ramírez (@NikkiMcR) October 2, 2020
They’re already commemorating the great victory:
The White House Gift Shop is selling a “Donald J. Trump defeats Covid” commemorative coin. You can pre-order it now for $100. https://t.co/aPQ0vNRHB3 — Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) October 4, 2020
Apparently, Donald Trump has Made America Great Again by getting COVID-19.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
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truthout--2020-10-05--Public Outrage Spreads Over Trump’s Unnecessary and Risky “Joy Ride”

A number of health experts have condemned President Trump ’ s decision over the weekend to use the presidential motorcade to greet supporters outside the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as he received treatment for COVID-19 , calling it inappropriate and unsafe , particularly for Secret Service agents that were forced to ride along with him .
The reckless attempt by the president to convey strength to voters may backfire , as majorities in a number of polls have faulted Trump for not taking the pandemic seriously even after he received a positive diagnosis for COVID-19 , which has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to a number of his most ardent and loyal base of supporters from within his presidential SUV , where many agents were sitting in close proximity to him .
A number of health experts , including James Phillips , an attending physician at Walter Reed , decried the action , noting that the move carried a risk of COVID-19 transmission between persons within the vehicle .
“ That Presidential SUV is not only bulletproof , but hermetically sealed against chemical attack , ” Phillips said in a tweet on Sunday .
“ The @ @ @ @ @ @ @ high as it gets outside of medical procedures.
” He further blasted Trump for the decision to greet the supporters at the risk of the agents .
“ The irresponsibility is astounding .
My thoughts are with the Secret Service forced to play ” along with the photo op , Phillips added .
Robert Wachter , chairman of the department of medicine at the University of California , San Francisco , noted that , if we ’ re to believe reports that Trump ’ s condition is improving , the drive itself wasn @ @ @ @ @ @ @ However , to those who were in the vehicle with the president — the “ joy ride , ” as Wachter put it — placed agents in significant danger .
“ The Secret Service agents take a vow to protect him , but they don ’ t take a vow to be protected from him , and I think he is putting them at absolutely unnecessary risk , ” Wachter added .
However , Michael Baker , an epidemiologist from the University of Otago in New Zealand , said that Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been allowed , given the types of medications he was taking that indicate he may be sicker than he ’ s letting on .
“ A patient who is sick enough to be admitted to hospital and treated with strong medications like dexamethasone should not be leaving hospital for a non-essential drive prior to their discharge , ” Baker told CNBC .
“ Traveling in a car with several staff members while still in isolation also poses a risk of infecting those other exposed passengers .
There was no obvious justification for this @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the only ones expressing criticism over the president exposing his illness unnecessarily to Secret Service agents .
Former and current agents , too , expressed disdain for the action .
“ Where are the adults ?
” one former agent said to The Washington Post .
A current Secret Service agent , speaking anonymously to avoid retribution from the White House , appeared to agree that Trump ’ s decision to drive around the hospital , forcing agents to be in the car with him , was callous .
“ He ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” that agent said .
The president appears to be obsessed with appearing strong while being treated for the disease , even going so far as to demand to leave the hospital early , according to some sources .
But this latest publicity stunt might not be received well by voters , who , as recent polling demonstrates , do not seem very sympathetic to Trump ’ s recent diagnosis .
An ABC News/Ipsos poll that was released mere hours before Trump ’ s cruise in front of Walter Reed found that 72 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ take “ the appropriate precautions ” regarding ensuring he was keeping himself safe from COVID-19 .
That same percentage also said Trump did not take the “ risk of contracting the virus seriously enough ” either .
The poll also found that 64 percent of Americans disapprove of his response to coronavirus , similar to where Trump polled on the question before he tested positive for the disease .
A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll had similar findings , with 57 percent of voters saying they disapproved of Trump ’ s response to coronavirus .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ after the president ’ s diagnosis was made public , found that Trump ’ s Democratic challenger for president , Joe Biden , was faring better in the run-up to the election , ahead of Trump by a margin of 51 percent to 41 percent , an increase of 1 to 2 points versus Biden ’ s lead in recent weeks .

A number of health experts have condemned President Trump’s decision over the weekend to use the presidential motorcade to greet supporters outside the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center as he received treatment for COVID-19, calling it inappropriate and unsafe, particularly for Secret Service agents that were forced to ride along with him.
The reckless attempt by the president to convey strength to voters may backfire, as majorities in a number of polls have faulted Trump for not taking the pandemic seriously even after he received a positive diagnosis for COVID-19, which has killed nearly 215,000 Americans.
Trump waved to a number of his most ardent and loyal base of supporters from within his presidential SUV, where many agents were sitting in close proximity to him.
A number of health experts, including James Phillips, an attending physician at Walter Reed, decried the action, noting that the move carried a risk of COVID-19 transmission between persons within the vehicle.
“That Presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against chemical attack,” Phillips said in a tweet on Sunday. “The risk of COVID19 transmission inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures.”
He further blasted Trump for the decision to greet the supporters at the risk of the agents.
“The irresponsibility is astounding. My thoughts are with the Secret Service forced to play” along with the photo op, Phillips added.
Robert Wachter, chairman of the department of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, noted that, if we’re to believe reports that Trump’s condition is improving, the drive itself wasn’t particularly harmful to him. However, to those who were in the vehicle with the president — the “joy ride,” as Wachter put it — placed agents in significant danger.
“The Secret Service agents take a vow to protect him, but they don’t take a vow to be protected from him, and I think he is putting them at absolutely unnecessary risk,” Wachter added.
However, Michael Baker, an epidemiologist from the University of Otago in New Zealand, said that Trump’s drive around Walter Reed should not have been allowed, given the types of medications he was taking that indicate he may be sicker than he’s letting on.
“A patient who is sick enough to be admitted to hospital and treated with strong medications like dexamethasone should not be leaving hospital for a non-essential drive prior to their discharge,” Baker told CNBC. “Traveling in a car with several staff members while still in isolation also poses a risk of infecting those other exposed passengers. There was no obvious justification for this action.”
Health experts weren’t the only ones expressing criticism over the president exposing his illness unnecessarily to Secret Service agents. Former and current agents, too, expressed disdain for the action.
“Where are the adults?” one former agent said to The Washington Post.
A current Secret Service agent, speaking anonymously to avoid retribution from the White House, appeared to agree that Trump’s decision to drive around the hospital, forcing agents to be in the car with him, was callous. “He’s not even pretending to care now,” that agent said.
The president appears to be obsessed with appearing strong while being treated for the disease, even going so far as to demand to leave the hospital early, according to some sources. But this latest publicity stunt might not be received well by voters, who, as recent polling demonstrates, do not seem very sympathetic to Trump’s recent diagnosis.
An ABC News/Ipsos poll that was released mere hours before Trump’s cruise in front of Walter Reed found that 72 percent of Americans felt Trump did not take “the appropriate precautions” regarding ensuring he was keeping himself safe from COVID-19. That same percentage also said Trump did not take the “risk of contracting the virus seriously enough” either.
The poll also found that 64 percent of Americans disapprove of his response to coronavirus, similar to where Trump polled on the question before he tested positive for the disease.
A separate Reuters/Ipsos poll had similar findings, with 57 percent of voters saying they disapproved of Trump’s response to coronavirus. The Reuters/Ipsos poll, which took place after the president’s diagnosis was made public, found that Trump’s Democratic challenger for president, Joe Biden, was faring better in the run-up to the election, ahead of Trump by a margin of 51 percent to 41 percent, an increase of 1 to 2 points versus Biden’s lead in recent weeks.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.


truthout--2020-10-05--GOP COVID Patients Receive Care They’d Deny Others. Time for Medicare for All.

The case for Medicare for All was once again made by the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic , Sen. Ed Markey tweeted on Sunday , after Republican politicians were able to check themselves into hospitals shortly after announcing they had tested positive for Covid-19 .
Markey noted that throughout the coronavirus pandemic , in which more than 7.4 million cases have been detected and more than 209,000 people in the U.S. have died , people have attempted to get care at hospitals after testing positive and showing worsening symptoms , only to be turned away and “ told only to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” “ Now politicians are checking into hospitals as a ‘ precaution.
’ Healthcare should be a right , not a privilege , ” Markey wrote .
“ We need Medicare for All.
” The senator ’ s statement came a day after former New Jersey Gov .
Chris Christie , a member of the president ’ s debate prep team this past week , announced he was checking himself into Morristown Medical Center after testing positive on Saturday .
“ While I am feeling good and only have mild symptoms , due @ @ @ @ @ @ @ this is an important precautionary measure , ” Christie tweeted .
Christie ’ s announcement angered social media users whose own family members had been denied admission at hospitals even as their symptoms grew more severe earlier this year , as medical centers faced severe shortages of personal protective equipment ( PPE ) — and as the Trump administration seized shipments of the supplies and claimed the federal government was not responsible for ensuring healthcare workers were equipped to combat the pandemic .
“ How many lives of 207,000+ lost could ’ ve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ PPE they needed ?
” wrote one critic .
“ The surge ventilators they desperately requested ?
How many parents , children , wives , husbands would still be here if they could ’ ve gotten early care ‘ out of an abundance of caution ? '
” Others noted that under the for-profit healthcare system in which insurance companies decide whether a patient ’ s treatments and hospital stays are medically necessary and should be covered or if the person should have to pay out of pocket , the vast majority of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ decide to go to the hospital — or often , even to a doctor ’ s office — as a precautionary measure .
“ Mystifying that people think this kind of class system in healthcare is worth fighting to preserve , ” tweeted journalist Steve Lubetkin .
The details of the president ’ s condition , and how far into the illness he is , remained murky on Sunday after a press conference the previous day in which his physician , Dr. Sean Conley , suggested Trump had first been diagnosed with Covid-19 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ night .
After Trump on Sunday released a video of himself at Walter Reed Medical Center , where he ’ s been since late Friday , saying he was feeling “ much better , ” his medical team reported that his oxygen levels had dropped to 93 % , below normal range and to the level that doctors generally consider a severe case of Covid-19 .
The president was reportedly given the steroid dexamethasone on Sunday as well as the experimental drug remdesivir .
Dexamethasone has been shown to help patients with severe @ @ @ @ @ @ @ where Trump contracted the coronavirus is unknown , but the ceremony he hosted last Saturday at the White House to celebrate his nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court has been called a “ super-spreader ” event , after at least eight people in attendance have tested positive for Covid-19 in recent days .
The White House is reportedly overseeing contact tracing of the event , where more than 100 people gathered both indoors and outdoors , social distancing was not observed , and few people wore face coverings @ @ @ @ @ @ @ summarized the last week in Trump ’ s presidency , during which the New York Times also reported on his failure to pay taxes for 10 of the 15 years preceding his term , and that he paid just $ 750 in 2016 and 2017 .
“ The moral of the story is , he lied to you for months and encouraged you to live recklessly during a pandemic , and when it got to him he received every top tier treatment and medication to ensure his survival while your friends and family @ @ @ @ @ @ @ writer Travon Free .
“ Remember that on Nov 3rd .
”

Under the for-profit health care system, the vast majority of Americans are in no position to simply go to the hospital.
The case for Medicare for All was once again made by the consequences of the coronavirus pandemic, Sen. Ed Markey tweeted on Sunday, after Republican politicians were able to check themselves into hospitals shortly after announcing they had tested positive for Covid-19.
Markey noted that throughout the coronavirus pandemic, in which more than 7.4 million cases have been detected and more than 209,000 people in the U.S. have died, people have attempted to get care at hospitals after testing positive and showing worsening symptoms, only to be turned away and “told only to come back when they could not breathe.”
“Now politicians are checking into hospitals as a ‘precaution.’ Healthcare should be a right, not a privilege,” Markey wrote. “We need Medicare for All.”
The senator’s statement came a day after former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a member of the president’s debate prep team this past week, announced he was checking himself into Morristown Medical Center after testing positive on Saturday.
“While I am feeling good and only have mild symptoms, due to my history of asthma we decided this is an important precautionary measure,” Christie tweeted.
Christie’s announcement angered social media users whose own family members had been denied admission at hospitals even as their symptoms grew more severe earlier this year, as medical centers faced severe shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE) — and as the Trump administration seized shipments of the supplies and claimed the federal government was not responsible for ensuring healthcare workers were equipped to combat the pandemic.
Truly cannot put into words the rage I feel when I hear Chris Christie has checked himself into hospital “out of an abundance of caution.” How many have died because they are told not to use hospitals’ scarce resources until they are literally at death’s door? — 𝙹𝚞𝚕𝚒𝚎 (@resisterhood) October 3, 2020
All these politicians checking in to hospitals as a “precaution” is amazing to me because when my mom, a healthcare worker, had suspected COVID, they told her to only come back if she needed a ventilator. — Alisha Rai (@AlishaRai) October 3, 2020
My mom was sick for 6 weeks, could barely get up and feed herself, and never even close to being admitted. These privileged fucks. — Christina Lauren⁷ ᴮᴱ (@ChristinaLauren) October 4, 2020
“How many lives of 207,000+ lost could’ve been saved if hospitals had had the PPE they needed?” wrote one critic. “The surge ventilators they desperately requested? How many parents, children, wives, husbands would still be here if they could’ve gotten early care ‘out of an abundance of caution?'”
Others noted that under the for-profit healthcare system in which insurance companies decide whether a patient’s treatments and hospital stays are medically necessary and should be covered or if the person should have to pay out of pocket, the vast majority of Americans are in no position to simply decide to go to the hospital — or often, even to a doctor’s office — as a precautionary measure.
Since when do hospitals just let people walk up and check themselves in as a precaution? They…don’t. And no insurance company would pay for it. They’d order the patient to go home and refuse to reimburse the hospital at all. https://t.co/9kqtJXRkMC — Kurt “Mask Up, Vote Early” Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) October 3, 2020
My daughter’s doctor admitted her to the hospital because they were afraid she’d go septic. The insurance just denied coverage because they didn’t think she was sick enough. Now, these politicians are checking themselves in “as a precaution”? I hate everything. — Andrew Kinsey (@KinseyAndrew) October 3, 2020
“Mystifying that people think this kind of class system in healthcare is worth fighting to preserve,” tweeted journalist Steve Lubetkin.
The details of the president’s condition, and how far into the illness he is, remained murky on Sunday after a press conference the previous day in which his physician, Dr. Sean Conley, suggested Trump had first been diagnosed with Covid-19 last Wednesday, rather than late Thursday night. After Trump on Sunday released a video of himself at Walter Reed Medical Center, where he’s been since late Friday, saying he was feeling “much better,” his medical team reported that his oxygen levels had dropped to 93%, below normal range and to the level that doctors generally consider a severe case of Covid-19. The president was reportedly given the steroid dexamethasone on Sunday as well as the experimental drug remdesivir. Dexamethasone has been shown to help patients with severe coronavirus cases.
The time and place where Trump contracted the coronavirus is unknown, but the ceremony he hosted last Saturday at the White House to celebrate his nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the U.S. Supreme Court has been called a “super-spreader” event, after at least eight people in attendance have tested positive for Covid-19 in recent days. The White House is reportedly overseeing contact tracing of the event, where more than 100 people gathered both indoors and outdoors, social distancing was not observed, and few people wore face coverings.
On Twitter, journalist Anand Giridharadas summarized the last week in Trump’s presidency, during which the New York Times also reported on his failure to pay taxes for 10 of the 15 years preceding his term, and that he paid just $750 in 2016 and 2017.
He hosted a super-spreader event to honor a justice who would have the government control your body but refuse the duty to care for it, and when the virus he helped go around came around, he availed of the healthcare he would deny others, financed by the taxes he refuses to pay. pic.twitter.com/Oi0rwMG2Xo — Anand Giridharadas (@AnandWrites) October 4, 2020
“The moral of the story is, he lied to you for months and encouraged you to live recklessly during a pandemic, and when it got to him he received every top tier treatment and medication to ensure his survival while your friends and family died alone,” wrote comedian and writer Travon Free. “Remember that on Nov 3rd.”
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
This piece was reprinted by Truthout with permission or license. It may not be reproduced in any form without permission or license from the source.


truthout--2020-10-05--For Black Panthers, Radicalization Entailed Self-Transformation

As a new generation rises up against racist police and vigilante violence , organizers are thinking through how to build a mass movement that fully engages the most marginalized .
Useful lessons can be found in the history of the Black Panther Party , if one reaches beyond the imagery of leather jackets and shotguns .
Susie Day ’ s new book , The Brother You Choose , offers a wealth of insights into how the Black Panthers were able to transform individual disaffection into collective revolutionary organizing practices that survived the demise of the Black Panther Party itself .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of two members of the Baltimore Panthers , Eddie Conway and Paul Coates .
In 1971 , Conway was wrongfully convicted of murdering a police officer and sentenced to life plus 30 years behind bars .
Coates did not know Conway well but vowed to support him , changing the course of both their lives .
In The Brother You Choose , both men speak in their own voices as they discuss their lives , their political work and their friendship .
In an afterword , Coates ’ s son , the writer @ @ @ @ @ @ @ meant to grow up in a Panther home and to regularly visit Conway in prison .
In Conway and Coates ’ s story lies a lesson for the left on the long work of individual transformation .
Both men are the products of their involvement with a revolutionary organization that transformed their senses of who they were , of the kind of society they lived in and of what they needed to do about it .
The movement made them , and they , in turn , raised the consciousness of countless others @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Today , the revolution seems more like an unfolding process than a single event .
The crucial task of politicizing the dispossessed remains central to that process .
As a child , Conway became aware of the economic inequalities that marked Baltimore ’ s racial divides .
He was angry but didn ’ t know it .
He got involved in petty crime ; on some level , he believed stealing from white kids wasn ’ t stealing but taking back what had been stolen .
Coates grew up with his father .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ six was evicted and lived in a pickup truck for a few weeks .
Coates wanted to be a John Wayne character , jumping out of planes wearing a Special Forces beret .
Conway also looked to the military for a stable job once he had become a father .
Stationed in Europe and developing a sideline in marijuana distribution , he was cut off from the burgeoning Black militancy back home .
“ America , ” he thought then , “ was the best thing that ever happened to the world.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ taken from Day ’ s book . )
Then one day in 1967 , on the front page of the military newspaper was an Army personnel carrier on the streets of Newark , New Jersey , pointing its machine gun at a group of Black women on a street corner .
As Conway says , “ I woke up.
” He never put on his uniform again .
Reading the Panthers ’ newspaper back in Baltimore led him to join the movement .
Coates , too , developed a growing awareness in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
He joined the Panthers in 1969 .
“ Cold-up criminals ” joined the Party , Coates remembers , but “ could any revolutionary group be other than that ?
” What ’ s noteworthy is that the Panthers sometimes “ changed the criminals so they stopped feasting on their own people.
” The rage at the injustice of poverty that had earlier expressed itself in individual acts of theft could , in the Panthers , take the form of collective , cooperative action .
Conway helped start a food co-op that provided @ @ @ @ @ @ @ People ’ s Health Clinic was established and , in the basement of a community center , hungry children were given free breakfasts .
What distinguished these projects from regular community work was the revolutionary ideology that the Panthers inculcated .
Members were expected to be aware of not only the Black struggle in the U.S. but also struggles in Angola , South Africa , Vietnam and Puerto Rico .
“ I really believed there was going to be a revolution next week .
The Black Panthers gave me that belief , ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that experience and not be individually transformed .
While rejecting the military itself , Coates and Conway brought some of their military-derived skills into the Party .
Conway trained the local Panthers in first aid and weapons , instilling a sense of discipline .
“ If you want to serve breakfast in the morning to a hundred children , you can ’ t be partying all night long , ” he says .
For Coates , the sense of mutual commitment he drew , in part , from the military was redirected into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and I are in this thing together and you tell me you got my back covered , I ’ m not worried about my back .
And you don ’ t worry ; I got your back .
It ’ s just basic honesty.
” Unknown to both men at the time was the extent to which multiple government agencies were running covert operations to destroy the Panthers .
Susie Day notes the FBI “ played an outsized role in the formation of the Baltimore Panther Party , and was to misshape most @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” What the federal government seemed to want , she writes , was a “ virtual Panther-to-prison pipeline.
” False charges of murdering police officers were the usual means of achieving this and would , Conway later wrote , “ take the place of the mythological rape of white women as the basis for the legal lynching of Black men.
” In April 1970 , Conway was arrested in Baltimore and charged with organizing and participating in the shootings of two police officers , one of whom was killed .
Coates and Conway @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the system that they expected the weakness of the case to be proven in court .
“ They had a jail-cell informant , who was their strongest evidence , ” said Coates .
“ Who ’ s going to believe that shit ?
I thought our case was good.
” Conway likewise thought “ all this shit ain ’ t gon na stand up .
How they gon na lock somebody up with no evidence , no witnesses , and keep him in jail ?
They can ’ t do that.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ exactly that : Conway was convicted and sentenced to life plus 30 years .
It was a pattern repeated across the nation .
“ There were Black Panther Parties in thirty-seven states , ” Conway recalls .
“ In eighteen months , the government basically wiped out the Panther Party in twenty-five of those states.
” While the California leadership of the Panthers was thrown into crisis , Coates , who had narrowly escaped prosecution himself , took on the role of campaigning for Conway ’ s release , solidifying a decades-long friendship @ @ @ @ @ @ @ commitment .
“ It was always a matter of me and Eddie and then the world , ” says Coates .
“ You can see that if you understand the Panther Party has never left me.
” Inside the prison system , Conway redeployed the organizing practices he had absorbed in the Panthers .
A remarkable succession of mobilizations was launched : to clean up the prison , to establish a library , and to install telephones and more televisions .
A survival program was developed for people placed in solitary confinement so @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A labor union for Maryland prisoners was organized to raise wages for prison labor .
It was about to get recognized by the local district of the service employees ’ union when prison guards carried out a midnight raid and placed the organizers on lockdown .
Even a prisoner ’ s newsletter was created .
Working with Conway on the outside , Coates created a book publishing operation as a way to get political books to his friend in prison to distribute .
That led to the idea of a bookstore and a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Black Classic Press is still going strong , specializing in republishing early Black self-trained historians and publishing the novelist Walter Mosley .
In 2014 , after 44 years in the prison system , Conway was finally released .
A hearing convened in response to a decision in another case , Unger v. State of Maryland , ruled that his jury had been given improper instructions .
He was one of 193 people serving life sentences in Maryland to walk free .
In “ this business-as-usual country , which daily disappears countless anonymous lives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ faithfulness and defiance can bring people back.
” Conway cautions against romanticizing the Black Panthers .
“ To look at the Panthers and think it was a beautiful thing is OK .
But know that underneath , there was pain and suffering and sorrow and poverty and hunger and all the rest.
” He adds : “ When we organized in the late ’ 60s and ’ 70s , we organized because conditions were really bad .
That ’ s why the Panthers came into being .
Fifty years later , conditions are @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Paul Coates ’ s story points to is that radical politics requires more than finding like-minded people to organize ; it requires finding another person in yourself .
In working to transform society , the individual must also be transformed .
Because would-be radicals are products of the very society they seek to overturn , only by first erasing the imprints of that society on themselves can they hope to be part of building anything truly new .
That involves juxtaposing a pessimistic realism about one ’ s present self with a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Political movements that aim to raise consciousness have to connect with people at a visceral psychic level while also uplifting them intellectually .
To be politicized is more than being aware of social injustice ; it is about changing who one is and what one does .
Bringing about this kind of personal growth is slow , emotional work .
For that reason , it is tempting to avoid it altogether .
The more the left is peopled by college graduates , the easier it is to believe that social media and higher @ @ @ @ @ @ @ individuals instead of organized movements .
This confuses organized consciousness-raising with access to information or formal education and encourages a gentrification of the left .
The radical movements that have emerged recently , culminating in the mobilizations this year against police violence , are asking how the most dispossessed and the most exploited can be politicized .
If we are to make the U.S. left into a force capable of organizing beyond its current comfort zones , a useful history to study is that of the Black Panther Party .
The Panthers set @ @ @ @ @ @ @ of the Black dispossessed and built out of this reputedly unpromising social base a well-organized and richly politicized movement — even if its achievements were temporary and riddled with contradictions .

Part of the Series Progressive Picks
As a new generation rises up against racist police and vigilante violence, organizers are thinking through how to build a mass movement that fully engages the most marginalized. Useful lessons can be found in the history of the Black Panther Party, if one reaches beyond the imagery of leather jackets and shotguns.
Susie Day’s new book, The Brother You Choose, offers a wealth of insights into how the Black Panthers were able to transform individual disaffection into collective revolutionary organizing practices that survived the demise of the Black Panther Party itself. The book centers on the lifelong comradeship of two members of the Baltimore Panthers, Eddie Conway and Paul Coates. In 1971, Conway was wrongfully convicted of murdering a police officer and sentenced to life plus 30 years behind bars. Coates did not know Conway well but vowed to support him, changing the course of both their lives. In The Brother You Choose, both men speak in their own voices as they discuss their lives, their political work and their friendship. In an afterword, Coates’s son, the writer Ta-Nehisi Coates, reflects on what it meant to grow up in a Panther home and to regularly visit Conway in prison.
In Conway and Coates’s story lies a lesson for the left on the long work of individual transformation. Both men are the products of their involvement with a revolutionary organization that transformed their senses of who they were, of the kind of society they lived in and of what they needed to do about it. The movement made them, and they, in turn, raised the consciousness of countless others through their organizing and publishing work. Today, the revolution seems more like an unfolding process than a single event. The crucial task of politicizing the dispossessed remains central to that process.
As a child, Conway became aware of the economic inequalities that marked Baltimore’s racial divides. He was angry but didn’t know it. He got involved in petty crime; on some level, he believed stealing from white kids wasn’t stealing but taking back what had been stolen. Coates grew up with his father. At one point, the family of six was evicted and lived in a pickup truck for a few weeks.
Coates wanted to be a John Wayne character, jumping out of planes wearing a Special Forces beret. Conway also looked to the military for a stable job once he had become a father. Stationed in Europe and developing a sideline in marijuana distribution, he was cut off from the burgeoning Black militancy back home. “America,” he thought then, “was the best thing that ever happened to the world.” (All quotes in this article are taken from Day’s book.)
The Brother You Choose by Susie Day Haymarket Books
Then one day in 1967, on the front page of the military newspaper was an Army personnel carrier on the streets of Newark, New Jersey, pointing its machine gun at a group of Black women on a street corner. As Conway says, “I woke up.” He never put on his uniform again. Reading the Panthers’ newspaper back in Baltimore led him to join the movement. Coates, too, developed a growing awareness in the military, mainly through reading Black literature. He joined the Panthers in 1969.
“Cold-up criminals” joined the Party, Coates remembers, but “could any revolutionary group be other than that?” What’s noteworthy is that the Panthers sometimes “changed the criminals so they stopped feasting on their own people.”
Susie Day’s new book, The Brother You Choose, offers a wealth of insights into how the Black Panthers were able to transform individual disaffection into collective revolutionary organizing practices.
The rage at the injustice of poverty that had earlier expressed itself in individual acts of theft could, in the Panthers, take the form of collective, cooperative action. Conway helped start a food co-op that provided low-cost groceries to the community. A People’s Health Clinic was established and, in the basement of a community center, hungry children were given free breakfasts. What distinguished these projects from regular community work was the revolutionary ideology that the Panthers inculcated. Members were expected to be aware of not only the Black struggle in the U.S. but also struggles in Angola, South Africa, Vietnam and Puerto Rico. “I really believed there was going to be a revolution next week. The Black Panthers gave me that belief,” says Coates. No one could have that experience and not be individually transformed.
While rejecting the military itself, Coates and Conway brought some of their military-derived skills into the Party. Conway trained the local Panthers in first aid and weapons, instilling a sense of discipline. “If you want to serve breakfast in the morning to a hundred children, you can’t be partying all night long,” he says. For Coates, the sense of mutual commitment he drew, in part, from the military was redirected into radical politics: “So if you and I are in this thing together and you tell me you got my back covered, I’m not worried about my back. And you don’t worry; I got your back. It’s just basic honesty.”
Unknown to both men at the time was the extent to which multiple government agencies were running covert operations to destroy the Panthers. Susie Day notes the FBI “played an outsized role in the formation of the Baltimore Panther Party, and was to misshape most of Eddie Conway’s adult life.” What the federal government seemed to want, she writes, was a “virtual Panther-to-prison pipeline.” False charges of murdering police officers were the usual means of achieving this and would, Conway later wrote, “take the place of the mythological rape of white women as the basis for the legal lynching of Black men.”
In April 1970, Conway was arrested in Baltimore and charged with organizing and participating in the shootings of two police officers, one of whom was killed. Coates and Conway still had enough of a lingering belief in the system that they expected the weakness of the case to be proven in court. “They had a jail-cell informant, who was their strongest evidence,” said Coates. “Who’s going to believe that shit? I thought our case was good.” Conway likewise thought “all this shit ain’t gonna stand up. How they gonna lock somebody up with no evidence, no witnesses, and keep him in jail? They can’t do that.”
It turned out that they could do exactly that: Conway was convicted and sentenced to life plus 30 years. It was a pattern repeated across the nation. “There were Black Panther Parties in thirty-seven states,” Conway recalls. “In eighteen months, the government basically wiped out the Panther Party in twenty-five of those states.” While the California leadership of the Panthers was thrown into crisis, Coates, who had narrowly escaped prosecution himself, took on the role of campaigning for Conway’s release, solidifying a decades-long friendship based on long-term mutual political and personal commitment. “It was always a matter of me and Eddie and then the world,” says Coates. “You can see that if you understand the Panther Party has never left me.”
Inside the prison system, Conway redeployed the organizing practices he had absorbed in the Panthers. A remarkable succession of mobilizations was launched: to clean up the prison, to establish a library, and to install telephones and more televisions. A survival program was developed for people placed in solitary confinement so they would have soap and toothpaste. A labor union for Maryland prisoners was organized to raise wages for prison labor. It was about to get recognized by the local district of the service employees’ union when prison guards carried out a midnight raid and placed the organizers on lockdown. Even a prisoner’s newsletter was created.
Working with Conway on the outside, Coates created a book publishing operation as a way to get political books to his friend in prison to distribute. That led to the idea of a bookstore and a printing press. Paul Coates’s Black Classic Press is still going strong, specializing in republishing early Black self-trained historians and publishing the novelist Walter Mosley.
In Conway and Coates’s story lies a lesson for the left on the long work of individual transformation.
In 2014, after 44 years in the prison system, Conway was finally released. A hearing convened in response to a decision in another case, Unger v. State of Maryland, ruled that his jury had been given improper instructions. He was one of 193 people serving life sentences in Maryland to walk free. In “this business-as-usual country, which daily disappears countless anonymous lives,” writes Day, “sometimes faithfulness and defiance can bring people back.”
Conway cautions against romanticizing the Black Panthers. “To look at the Panthers and think it was a beautiful thing is OK. But know that underneath, there was pain and suffering and sorrow and poverty and hunger and all the rest.” He adds: “When we organized in the late ’60s and ’70s, we organized because conditions were really bad. That’s why the Panthers came into being. Fifty years later, conditions are ten times worse.”
What Eddie Conway and Paul Coates’s story points to is that radical politics requires more than finding like-minded people to organize; it requires finding another person in yourself. In working to transform society, the individual must also be transformed. Because would-be radicals are products of the very society they seek to overturn, only by first erasing the imprints of that society on themselves can they hope to be part of building anything truly new. That involves juxtaposing a pessimistic realism about one’s present self with a sense of hope about future possibilities.
Political movements that aim to raise consciousness have to connect with people at a visceral psychic level while also uplifting them intellectually. To be politicized is more than being aware of social injustice; it is about changing who one is and what one does. Bringing about this kind of personal growth is slow, emotional work. For that reason, it is tempting to avoid it altogether. The more the left is peopled by college graduates, the easier it is to believe that social media and higher education can do the work of radicalizing individuals instead of organized movements. This confuses organized consciousness-raising with access to information or formal education and encourages a gentrification of the left.
The radical movements that have emerged recently, culminating in the mobilizations this year against police violence, are asking how the most dispossessed and the most exploited can be politicized. If we are to make the U.S. left into a force capable of organizing beyond its current comfort zones, a useful history to study is that of the Black Panther Party. The Panthers set themselves the task of raising the consciousness of the Black dispossessed and built out of this reputedly unpromising social base a well-organized and richly politicized movement — even if its achievements were temporary and riddled with contradictions.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.


truthout--2020-10-06--Trump Halts Work on New Stimulus Bill, Says It Will Resume After He’s Reelected

President Donald Trump has ordered his team of negotiators to end talks with Democrats in Congress regarding the possibility of passing a new stimulus package related to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic .
“ I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when , immediately after I win , we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business , ” Trump said .
In a series of tweets tied to his announcement , the president encouraged Republicans in the Senate to instead focus on confirming his nominee for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democrats , specifically Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi , for pushing a stimulus deal that cost more than he was willing to spend , suggesting that it was the reason why talks broke down , and claiming that party leaders had wanted to “ bailout poorly run , high crime , Democrat States.
” Pelosi responded to Trump in a statement , casting blame on him for refusing “ to put money in workers ’ pockets , unless his name is printed on the check.
” “ President Trump showed his true @ @ @ @ @ @ @ expense of the country , with the full complicity of the GOP Members of Congress , ” Pelosi said .
Trump ’ s halting of negotiations came on the same day that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that more economic stimulus was needed .
Moving forward without a stimulus , Powell said on Tuesday , could “ lead to a weak recovery , creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses.
” He stressed that the worries the president had expressed — of spending too much in the stimulus bill — were minimal @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seem , for now , to be smaller , ” Powell said .
“ Even if policy actions ultimately prove to be greater than needed , they will not go to waste .
The recovery will be stronger and move faster if monetary policy and fiscal policy continue to work side by side to provide support to the economy until it is clearly out of the woods.
” Millions of Americans are in desperate need of economic aid , as they remain jobless as a result of the economic impact of the coronavirus @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all workers who had lost their jobs earlier this year due to the crisis have yet to find work .
Russell Weaver , director of research at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations Buffalo Co-Lab , explained last month that failure to provide relief to struggling households across the country could have a negative ripple effect for the rest of the economy .
“ Lower consumer spending will mean lower sales tax revenues for state and local governments , and lower revenues for many private sector businesses , large and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that , without a stimulus plan , either in the form of extra unemployment insurance payments or additional direct income to households , “ additional job losses are possible if appropriate actions are not taken to stimulate the economy.
” Americans by-and-large are supportive of additional stimulus payments to households , similar to the $ 1,200 payment per adult that was approved of in the spring .
According to polling from Gallup published in early September , 70 percent of Americans back another round of stimulus payments , with just 17 percent opposed @ @ @ @

Without a new stimulus, there may be “unnecessary hardship for households and businesses,” Fed Chair Jerome Powell said.
President Donald Trump has ordered his team of negotiators to end talks with Democrats in Congress regarding the possibility of passing a new stimulus package related to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
“I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business,” Trump said.
In a series of tweets tied to his announcement, the president encouraged Republicans in the Senate to instead focus on confirming his nominee for the Supreme Court. He also criticized Democrats, specifically Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, for pushing a stimulus deal that cost more than he was willing to spend, suggesting that it was the reason why talks broke down, and claiming that party leaders had wanted to “bailout poorly run, high crime, Democrat States.”
Pelosi responded to Trump in a statement, casting blame on him for refusing “to put money in workers’ pockets, unless his name is printed on the check.”
“President Trump showed his true colors: putting himself first at the expense of the country, with the full complicity of the GOP Members of Congress,” Pelosi said.
Trump’s halting of negotiations came on the same day that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said that more economic stimulus was needed. Moving forward without a stimulus, Powell said on Tuesday, could “lead to a weak recovery, creating unnecessary hardship for households and businesses.”
He stressed that the worries the president had expressed — of spending too much in the stimulus bill — were minimal.
“The risks of overdoing it seem, for now, to be smaller,” Powell said. “Even if policy actions ultimately prove to be greater than needed, they will not go to waste. The recovery will be stronger and move faster if monetary policy and fiscal policy continue to work side by side to provide support to the economy until it is clearly out of the woods.”
Millions of Americans are in desperate need of economic aid, as they remain jobless as a result of the economic impact of the coronavirus pandemic. As much as half of all workers who had lost their jobs earlier this year due to the crisis have yet to find work.
Russell Weaver, director of research at the Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations Buffalo Co-Lab, explained last month that failure to provide relief to struggling households across the country could have a negative ripple effect for the rest of the economy.
“Lower consumer spending will mean lower sales tax revenues for state and local governments, and lower revenues for many private sector businesses, large and small,” Weaver said, adding that, without a stimulus plan, either in the form of extra unemployment insurance payments or additional direct income to households, “additional job losses are possible if appropriate actions are not taken to stimulate the economy.”
Americans by-and-large are supportive of additional stimulus payments to households, similar to the $1,200 payment per adult that was approved of in the spring. According to polling from Gallup published in early September, 70 percent of Americans back another round of stimulus payments, with just 17 percent opposed to the idea.
Tired of reading the same old news from the same old sources? So are we! That’s why we’re on a mission to shake things up and bring you the stories and perspectives that often go untold in mainstream media. But being a radically, unapologetically independent news site isn’t easy (or cheap), and we rely on reader support to keep the lights on.
If you like what you’re reading, please consider making a tax-deductible donation today. We’re not asking for a handout, we’re asking for an investment: Invest in a nonprofit news site that’s not afraid to ruffle a few feathers, not afraid to stand up for what’s right, and not afraid to tell it like it is.
Copyright © Truthout. May not be reprinted without permission.