thenation--2020-10-06--How ICE Became a ‘Propaganda Machine’ for Trump

In June of 2018 , Talia Lavin , then a fact-checker for The New Yorker , found herself in an unusual position for a journalist : She personally became the target of a government agency .
She had come under the scrutiny of ICE ’ s Office of Public Affairs , the public face of the agency that played a central role in President Trump ’ s crackdown on undocumented migrants .
That role was increasingly earning the agency the ire of a growing movement , encompassing a range of opposition from faith groups to members of Congress .
A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , had gone so far as to draw parallels between the disturbingly poor conditions in ICE detention facilities and the concentration camps of the Holocaust .
When Lavin saw a tweet from ICE featuring one of its officials , Justin Gaertner , with a cross-shaped tattoo , she wondered if it was the Iron Cross familiar to Nazi iconography .
She posted a tweet comparing them .
When people began pointing out that it could be another symbol , like a Maltese cross , Lavin promptly removed the tweet .
But it was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ICE shot back .
It issued a press release , posted in a Twitter thread , mentioning Lavin by name .
The statement accused Lavin of “ baselessly slandering an American hero , ” whom it described as a combat-wounded Marine Corps veteran who ’ d had both legs amputated , and demanded an apology and retraction from both her and her employer .
Lavin recognizes she made a mistake , yet the question she raised was hardly outrageous ; even the FBI has warned of the presence of white supremacists in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ But Gaertner quickly became a cause célèbre for many on the right .
Almost immediately , Lavin received a flood of abusive messages , including anti-Semitic and misogynistic slurs .
The neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer published an article titled “ Greasy Fat K—e ‘ Fact Checker ; Talia Lavin Confuses War Hero ’ s Military Tattoo for ‘ Neo-Nazi Symbol.
’ ” Right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopolous used Paypal to send Lavin $ 14.88—alt-right shorthand combining a white supremacist slogan , the “ 14 words , ” with code for “ Heil Hitler @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his account .
The furious response would only grow after Fox News ’ s Laura Ingraham broadcast a segment referencing the ordeal , calling Lavin and another reporter , Lauren Duca , “ little journo terrorists , ” and demanding that Lavin be fired .
Within days , Lavin not only apologized ; she resigned from her position at The New Yorker , where she had worked for three years .
Today , Lavin is a freelance journalist .
“ That ’ s my Joker origin story of how I came to report @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told me .
She has now written a book on the subject .
Lavin takes issue with ICE ’ s claim that she had “ perpetuated ” any harmful allegations about Gaetner ’ s tattoo , pointing to the fact that she deleted her tweet so quickly that no copy publicly remains .
“ I was flung face-first into a vat of poison on the strength of a complete lie , ” she says .
In August 2019 , I filed a Freedom of Information Act ( FOIA ) request to find out @ @ @ @ @ @ @ scenes .
Following a Kafkaesque process in which ICE referred my request to the wrong department and failed to respond within 30 days as required , I sued the agency in federal court .
( Full disclosure : Lavin is a co-litigant in the case , having signed a privacy waiver in order to authorize documents pertaining to her to be disclosed to me . )
In October , ICE finally produced documents responsive to my request .
But my attorney , Beth Bourdon , was furious with the extent to which the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that were clearly subject to disclosure .
“ I expect law enforcement to take a liberal view of what qualifies for redaction when preparing documents for release under a FOIA request , ” said Bourdon , who filed the lawsuit on my behalf in the Middle District of Florida .
“ But the clear abuse of exemptions and the resulting absurdity of the redactions in the records ICE produced were stunning and enraging.
” After months of additional negotiations , we finally obtained less-redacted documents .
They evoke a deeply politicized and at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ’ s Trump ’ s recent rhetoric alleging a “ war on cops.
” In one instance , the documents reveal top ICE officials working together to dispatch federal agents to respond to what appears to be a single off-color tweet , about which they also released an intelligence report .
At first , ICE got to work trying to cast Gaertner in the best possible light .
As one of the e-mails released to us under FOIA shows , ICE Press Secretary Jennifer Elzea wrote on June 18 , “ I ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ name redacted ] so we can work something up about his [ Gaertner ’ s ] honorable service.
” But ICE was up to more than just a press release .
The documents obtained under FOIA reveal that ICE Public Affairs warned the leadership of one of ICE ’ s federal law enforcement divisions , Homeland Security Investigations ( HSI ) , about what it claimed was a credible threat to Gaertner ’ s life .
An e-mail from a redacted source says , “ As an FYI , Justin has let me @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and threatened because of all the threats on social media .
I have informed SAC and leadership.
” The only such tweet referenced in the correspondence was undoubtedly mean-spirited , reading , “ If Justin works for ICE , I wish whoever wounded him in combat would ’ ve finished the job.
” It does not , however , appear to be a threat .
Regardless , ICE pressed ahead , its assistant director of public affairs , Liz Johnson , notifying Acting Director Thomas Homan , along with the head of HSI @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his family were already dealing with some personal challenges , which are now being compounded by threatening messages they ’ re seeing posted online .
OPR and HSI are coordinating to provide support to him… ” “ HSI Tampa will be carefully assessing the twitter based threats and will take appropriate action , ” an HSI official replied .
“ Looping in AD [ Assistant Director ] Ip for C3 [ ICE Cyber Crimes Center ] support .
HSI Tampa will be submitting a SIR [ Significant Incident Report ] shortly.
” Incredibly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in motion by a tweet that ICE may not have ever seen .
When asked for Lavin ’ s original tweet , ICE Press Secretary Jennifer Elzea replied , “ I don ’ t have it at hand , but I ’ ll see if we can locate it .
I have the tweet where she mentions deleting it.
” While it ’ s normal for government public affairs offices to promote the agency ’ s mission and policies , they rarely single out private individuals—especially journalists .
Press releases typically adopt a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ layers of legal oversight they are required to pass through , particularly in regard to subjects considered politically sensitive .
This oversight would make it unlikely that ICE ’ s tweets about Lavin did not at least pass the desks of high-ranking officials .
“ It ’ s certainly unusual and unprofessional.… The tweet is definitely not a typical public affairs office product , ” said James Schwab , a former ICE Public Affairs officer , of ICE ’ s press release .
Schwab had served as a public affairs official for ICE @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 2018 over what he considered an extremely political swing within the agency .
“ It was awful , ” he told me .
“ It wasn ’ t public affairs anymore .
It was turning into a propaganda machine.
” According to Schwab , the incident may implicate an unspoken political hierarchy within the federal government .
“ ICE is the agency most aligned with the president and his administration , ” he said .
“ These types of ICE statements are often crafted or heavily influenced by presidential appointees at ICE headquarters.
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ under the Trump administration , “ statements that would garner a lot of attention were cleared by ICE HQ , then forwarded to a DHS spokesperson for approval .
Many times that approval included input from the White House , specifically from Stephen Miller.
” Miller is a senior adviser to Trump who has emerged as a key advocate within the administration for hard-line immigration policies .
Miller served as architect for the travel ban , the family separation policy ( under which undocumented children are separated from their parents ) , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the United States would admit .
While the documents obtained by The Nation do not mention Miller or any other White House official , Schwab stressed that ICE is careful not to put things in writing .
“ ICE is notorious for keeping shit out of e-mails , ” said Schwab .
This practice may have permeated all of the DHS .
In 2018 , Buzzfeed News reported that then–DHS Secretary John Kelly instructed an official to avoid memorializing their work in the form of e-mails , saying , “ FOIA is real @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and even federal court action on personal accounts is real.
” ( Ironically , BuzzFeed obtained the comment in response to a FOIA lawsuit . )
In spite of support from the top , paranoia has gripped ICE .
As I reported last year , ICE has supplemented its ordinary activities with “ Operation Frozen Shield , ” a series of enhanced security measures to protect against threats like active shooters .
The operation came in response to what then–Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan described in a memo as a “ trend of violence @ @ @ @ @ @ @ two examples : an armed attack on an ICE facility in Tacoma , Wash. , and one in San Antonio , Tex .
( No ICE employees were harmed in either incident . )
In June of this year , I reported that the Trump administration had quietly granted ICE greater secrecy privileges under a special “ Security Agency ” designation .
The designation , typically reserved for agencies engaged in highly sensitive work like the FBI and Secret Service , permits ICE to conceal identifying characteristics of personnel from public disclosure , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and salary information .
This designation applies not just to agents in the field but all ICE personnel .
ICE ’ s sister agency Customs and Border Protection ( CBP ) obtained the same designation and , as I reported in February , an agency memo cites as justification a single Twitter user who it says was posting publicly available information about ICE and CBP officials .
“ This past summer , CBP and DHS became aware of a Twitter user posting employee information commonly found in the OPM [ Office of Personnel @ @ @ @ @ @ @ information for Federal Employees , ” the memo stated .
“ The information posted on Twitter was considered by OPM to be public information , and is available through several Federal employee salary database search websites .
This is but one of the many examples of where the disclosure of CBP employees ’ information was harmful.
” Over the course of my FOIA lawsuit , the Justice Department has repeatedly pushed back on our attempts to obtain the names of involved personnel .
At the time of this writing , we are still @ @ @ @ @ @ @ more of the names involved in the correspondence .
Employee safety may not have been ICE ’ s only motive here .
In an e-mail attachment titled “ The power of social media , ” ICE describes the viral success of its tweets about Lavin .
“ A fact checker with the New Yorker shared a photo of an ICE employee that she found on the ICE Twitter account and falsely accused him of having a Nazi tattoo , ” it recounts .
“ This resulted in a false narrative being spread quickly @ @ @ @ @ @ @ takes pride in the visibility of ICE ’ s response , noting that “ approx .
2.8 million users saw the tweet thread.
” It goes on to mention several other high-traffic tweets from the ICE account .
Those about Lavin were the highest performing .

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In June of 2018, Talia Lavin, then a fact-checker for The New Yorker, found herself in an unusual position for a journalist: She personally became the target of a government agency. She had come under the scrutiny of ICE’s Office of Public Affairs, the public face of the agency that played a central role in President Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants. That role was increasingly earning the agency the ire of a growing movement, encompassing a range of opposition from faith groups to members of Congress. A Jewish activist group, Never Again Action, had gone so far as to draw parallels between the disturbingly poor conditions in ICE detention facilities and the concentration camps of the Holocaust. When Lavin saw a tweet from ICE featuring one of its officials, Justin Gaertner, with a cross-shaped tattoo, she wondered if it was the Iron Cross familiar to Nazi iconography. She posted a tweet comparing them. When people began pointing out that it could be another symbol, like a Maltese cross, Lavin promptly removed the tweet. But it was already too late.
The next day, ICE shot back. It issued a press release, posted in a Twitter thread, mentioning Lavin by name. The statement accused Lavin of “baselessly slandering an American hero,” whom it described as a combat-wounded Marine Corps veteran who’d had both legs amputated, and demanded an apology and retraction from both her and her employer. Lavin recognizes she made a mistake, yet the question she raised was hardly outrageous; even the FBI has warned of the presence of white supremacists in the ranks of US law enforcement. But Gaertner quickly became a cause célèbre for many on the right.
Almost immediately, Lavin received a flood of abusive messages, including anti-Semitic and misogynistic slurs. The neo-Nazi website The Daily Stormer published an article titled “Greasy Fat K—e ‘Fact Checker; Talia Lavin Confuses War Hero’s Military Tattoo for ‘Neo-Nazi Symbol.’” Right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopolous used Paypal to send Lavin $14.88—alt-right shorthand combining a white supremacist slogan, the “14 words,” with code for “Heil Hitler”—a stunt for which Paypal suspended his account. The furious response would only grow after Fox News’s Laura Ingraham broadcast a segment referencing the ordeal, calling Lavin and another reporter, Lauren Duca, “little journo terrorists,” and demanding that Lavin be fired. Within days, Lavin not only apologized; she resigned from her position at The New Yorker, where she had worked for three years. Today, Lavin is a freelance journalist.
“That’s my Joker origin story of how I came to report on the far right,” Lavin told me. She has now written a book on the subject. Lavin takes issue with ICE’s claim that she had “perpetuated” any harmful allegations about Gaetner’s tattoo, pointing to the fact that she deleted her tweet so quickly that no copy publicly remains. “I was flung face-first into a vat of poison on the strength of a complete lie,” she says. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
In August 2019, I filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to find out more about what had happened behind the scenes. Following a Kafkaesque process in which ICE referred my request to the wrong department and failed to respond within 30 days as required, I sued the agency in federal court. (Full disclosure: Lavin is a co-litigant in the case, having signed a privacy waiver in order to authorize documents pertaining to her to be disclosed to me.) In October, ICE finally produced documents responsive to my request. But my attorney, Beth Bourdon, was furious with the extent to which the agency had redacted or otherwise withheld records that were clearly subject to disclosure.
“I expect law enforcement to take a liberal view of what qualifies for redaction when preparing documents for release under a FOIA request,” said Bourdon, who filed the lawsuit on my behalf in the Middle District of Florida. “But the clear abuse of exemptions and the resulting absurdity of the redactions in the records ICE produced were stunning and enraging.”
After months of additional negotiations, we finally obtained less-redacted documents. They evoke a deeply politicized and at times paranoid atmosphere, redolent of President’s Trump’s recent rhetoric alleging a “war on cops.” In one instance, the documents reveal top ICE officials working together to dispatch federal agents to respond to what appears to be a single off-color tweet, about which they also released an intelligence report. Current Issue View our current issue
At first, ICE got to work trying to cast Gaertner in the best possible light. As one of the e-mails released to us under FOIA shows, ICE Press Secretary Jennifer Elzea wrote on June 18, “I’m waiting on the blurb from [name redacted] so we can work something up about his [Gaertner’s] honorable service.”
But ICE was up to more than just a press release. The documents obtained under FOIA reveal that ICE Public Affairs warned the leadership of one of ICE’s federal law enforcement divisions, Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), about what it claimed was a credible threat to Gaertner’s life. An e-mail from a redacted source says, “As an FYI, Justin has let me know he and his family feel unsafe and threatened because of all the threats on social media. I have informed SAC and leadership.”
The only such tweet referenced in the correspondence was undoubtedly mean-spirited, reading, “If Justin works for ICE, I wish whoever wounded him in combat would’ve finished the job.” It does not, however, appear to be a threat. Regardless, ICE pressed ahead, its assistant director of public affairs, Liz Johnson, notifying Acting Director Thomas Homan, along with the head of HSI, “Unfortunately, this employee and his family were already dealing with some personal challenges, which are now being compounded by threatening messages they’re seeing posted online. OPR and HSI are coordinating to provide support to him…”
“HSI Tampa will be carefully assessing the twitter based threats and will take appropriate action,” an HSI official replied. “Looping in AD [Assistant Director] Ip for C3 [ICE Cyber Crimes Center] support. HSI Tampa will be submitting a SIR [Significant Incident Report] shortly.”
Incredibly, this chain of events was set in motion by a tweet that ICE may not have ever seen. When asked for Lavin’s original tweet, ICE Press Secretary Jennifer Elzea replied, “I don’t have it at hand, but I’ll see if we can locate it. I have the tweet where she mentions deleting it.”
While it’s normal for government public affairs offices to promote the agency’s mission and policies, they rarely single out private individuals—especially journalists. Press releases typically adopt a formal tone, perhaps owing to the layers of legal oversight they are required to pass through, particularly in regard to subjects considered politically sensitive. This oversight would make it unlikely that ICE’s tweets about Lavin did not at least pass the desks of high-ranking officials.
“It’s certainly unusual and unprofessional.… The tweet is definitely not a typical public affairs office product,” said James Schwab, a former ICE Public Affairs officer, of ICE’s press release. Schwab had served as a public affairs official for ICE since the Obama administration, resigning in 2018 over what he considered an extremely political swing within the agency. “It was awful,” he told me. “It wasn’t public affairs anymore. It was turning into a propaganda machine.”
According to Schwab, the incident may implicate an unspoken political hierarchy within the federal government. “ICE is the agency most aligned with the president and his administration,” he said. “These types of ICE statements are often crafted or heavily influenced by presidential appointees at ICE headquarters.”
Schwab explained that during his time under the Trump administration, “statements that would garner a lot of attention were cleared by ICE HQ, then forwarded to a DHS spokesperson for approval. Many times that approval included input from the White House, specifically from Stephen Miller.”
Miller is a senior adviser to Trump who has emerged as a key advocate within the administration for hard-line immigration policies. Miller served as architect for the travel ban, the family separation policy (under which undocumented children are separated from their parents), and a crackdown on the number of refugees the United States would admit. While the documents obtained by The Nation do not mention Miller or any other White House official, Schwab stressed that ICE is careful not to put things in writing.
“ICE is notorious for keeping shit out of e-mails,” said Schwab. This practice may have permeated all of the DHS. In 2018, Buzzfeed News reported that then–DHS Secretary John Kelly instructed an official to avoid memorializing their work in the form of e-mails, saying, “FOIA is real and everyday here in the cesspool, and even federal court action on personal accounts is real.” (Ironically, BuzzFeed obtained the comment in response to a FOIA lawsuit.)
In spite of support from the top, paranoia has gripped ICE. As I reported last year, ICE has supplemented its ordinary activities with “Operation Frozen Shield,” a series of enhanced security measures to protect against threats like active shooters. The operation came in response to what then–Acting Secretary Kevin McAleenan described in a memo as a “trend of violence against our ICE officers,” referencing two examples: an armed attack on an ICE facility in Tacoma, Wash., and one in San Antonio, Tex. (No ICE employees were harmed in either incident.)
In June of this year, I reported that the Trump administration had quietly granted ICE greater secrecy privileges under a special “Security Agency” designation. The designation, typically reserved for agencies engaged in highly sensitive work like the FBI and Secret Service, permits ICE to conceal identifying characteristics of personnel from public disclosure, including name, job, title, and salary information. This designation applies not just to agents in the field but all ICE personnel. ICE’s sister agency Customs and Border Protection (CBP) obtained the same designation and, as I reported in February, an agency memo cites as justification a single Twitter user who it says was posting publicly available information about ICE and CBP officials.
“This past summer, CBP and DHS became aware of a Twitter user posting employee information commonly found in the OPM [Office of Personnel Management] Open Government releases of salary information for Federal Employees,” the memo stated. “The information posted on Twitter was considered by OPM to be public information, and is available through several Federal employee salary database search websites. This is but one of the many examples of where the disclosure of CBP employees’ information was harmful.”
Over the course of my FOIA lawsuit, the Justice Department has repeatedly pushed back on our attempts to obtain the names of involved personnel. At the time of this writing, we are still fighting in court to have ICE disclose more of the names involved in the correspondence.
Employee safety may not have been ICE’s only motive here. In an e-mail attachment titled “The power of social media,” ICE describes the viral success of its tweets about Lavin. “A fact checker with the New Yorker shared a photo of an ICE employee that she found on the ICE Twitter account and falsely accused him of having a Nazi tattoo,” it recounts. “This resulted in a false narrative being spread quickly throughout social media.” But the document takes pride in the visibility of ICE’s response, noting that “approx. 2.8 million users saw the tweet thread.” It goes on to mention several other high-traffic tweets from the ICE account. Those about Lavin were the highest performing.


thenation--2020-10-06--Voter Suppression Is a Crime

Voter Suppression Is a Crime

Deliberate efforts to suppress the vote in battleground states were not taken seriously enough in 2016 .
Only after the damage was done did law enforcement officials begin to pay proper attention to the outright lies and crude calculations that were employed in attempts to derail democracy in Detroit and other urban centers .
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is not about to let it happen again in 2020 .
Nessel ’ s throwing the book at those who attempt to undermine voting rights in the run-up to this year ’ s presidential election .
Her aggressive approach should serve @ @ @ @ @ @ @ local prosecutors nationwide .
Last week , Nessel charged a pair of prominent political operatives—Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl—for allegedly attempting to discourage voters from participating in the November election by creating and funding a voter-suppression scheme targeted at Detroit and other areas with substantial African American populations .
Biden Needs to Stop Talking Down Bernie Sanders and Medicare for All Hillary Clinton Warned Us We Had to Get Serious About the Supreme Court As part of the scheme , recorded robocalls amplified President Trump ’ s lies about voting by mail , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ voters about being “ finessed into giving your private information to the man ” and urging them to “ beware of vote by mail.
” “ The caller , who claims to be associated with an organization founded by Burkman and Wohl , falsely tells people that mail-in voting , in particular , will allow personal information to become part of a special database used by police to track down old warrants and by credit card companies to collect outstanding debts , ” said Nessel ’ s office .
“ The caller also @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and Prevention will use the information to track people for mandatory vaccines .
However , none of that is true.
” Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson labeled the robocall scheme “ an unconscionable , indefensible , blatant attempt to lie to citizens about their right to vote , ” and said when it was revealed in August , “ The call preys on voters ’ fear and mistrust of the criminal justice system—at a moment of historic reckoning and confrontation of systemic racism and the generational trauma that results—and twists it into @ @ @ @ @ @ @ people from voting .
The Attorney General and I will use every tool at our disposal to dispel this false rhetoric and seek justice on behalf of every voter who was targeted and harmed by this vicious attempt at voter suppression.
” That ’ s an appropriate response , considering the record from 2016 .
Along with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania , Michigan was one of the trio of states where extremely narrow wins by Donald Trump allowed the Republican to claim an Electoral College majority despite losing the national popular vote by 2.9 @ @ @ @ @ @ @ have been multiple reports linking voter-suppression efforts by foreign and domestic operatives to turnout declines in Detroit , Milwaukee , Philadelphia , and other urban centers .
As New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said during last year ’ s Democratic presidential debate in Detroit , “ We lost the state of Michigan because everybody from Republicans to Russians were targeting the suppression of African American voters .
We need to say that.
” Booker argued , “ We need to have a campaign that is ready for what ’ s coming : an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in our coalition , which is black women.
” Democrats have stepped up their game in Detroit and other cities .
But this is about more than partisan political warfare .
There has to be a official response that recognizes voter suppression as a crime .
Nessel , who was elected in 2018 as an outspoken champion of voting rights , gets this .
She rejects the casual approach that too many law enforcement officials have taken in the past to voter suppression .
“ Any effort to interfere with , intimidate or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with swift and severe consequences , ” the attorney general said .
“ This effort specifically targeted minority voters in an attempt to deter them from voting in the November election .
We ’ re all well aware of the frustrations caused by the millions of nuisance robocalls flooding our cell phones and landlines each day , but this particular message poses grave consequences for our democracy and the principles upon which it was built .
Michigan voters are entitled to a full , free and fair election in November and my office @ @ @ @ @ @ @ jeopardize that.
” Nessel ’ s serious about those swift and severe consequences .
Burkman and Wohl have each been charged with : • One count of conspiracy to commit an election law violation , a five-year felony ; • One count of using a computer to commit the crime of election law—intimidating voters , a seven-year felony ; and • Using a computer to commit the crime of conspiracy , a seven-year felony .
Nessel has embraced Secretary of State Benson ’ s call for “ zero tolerance for anyone who would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to vote.
” Zero tolerance for voter suppression should be the national standard .
Unfortunately , Trump Attorney General William Barr is on the wrong side of this issue .
The Guardian identifies Barr as “ Trump ’ s most powerful ally in undermining the election , ” explaining , “ The US attorney general has not only embraced the president ’ s false claims , he ’ s also spread misinformation of his own.
” So it falls to state attorneys general , and to local prosecutors , to charge and prosecute @ @ @ @ @ @ @ They should not hesitate .
If criminals break the law as part of an assault on democracy , lock ’ em up .

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Deliberate efforts to suppress the vote in battleground states were not taken seriously enough in 2016. Only after the damage was done did law enforcement officials begin to pay proper attention to the outright lies and crude calculations that were employed in attempts to derail democracy in Detroit and other urban centers.
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel is not about to let it happen again in 2020.
Nessel’s throwing the book at those who attempt to undermine voting rights in the run-up to this year’s presidential election. Her aggressive approach should serve as a model for attorneys general and local prosecutors nationwide.
Last week, Nessel charged a pair of prominent political operatives—Jack Burkman and Jacob Wohl—for allegedly attempting to discourage voters from participating in the November election by creating and funding a voter-suppression scheme targeted at Detroit and other areas with substantial African American populations. More From John Nichols A GOP Debate Without Trump Is the Definition of Pointlessness August 11, 2023 A Win for Abortion Rights, a Win for Democracy: Ohio Voters Reject Issue 1 August 9, 2023 The Biggest Threat to Donald Trump Could Be the Constitution Itself August 4, 2023
As part of the scheme, recorded robocalls amplified President Trump’s lies about voting by mail, with a warning to voters and potential voters about being “finessed into giving your private information to the man” and urging them to “beware of vote by mail.”
“The caller, who claims to be associated with an organization founded by Burkman and Wohl, falsely tells people that mail-in voting, in particular, will allow personal information to become part of a special database used by police to track down old warrants and by credit card companies to collect outstanding debts,” said Nessel’s office. “The caller also deceptively claims the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will use the information to track people for mandatory vaccines. However, none of that is true.”
Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson labeled the robocall scheme “an unconscionable, indefensible, blatant attempt to lie to citizens about their right to vote,” and said when it was revealed in August, “The call preys on voters’ fear and mistrust of the criminal justice system—at a moment of historic reckoning and confrontation of systemic racism and the generational trauma that results—and twists it into a fabricated threat in order to discourage people from voting. The Attorney General and I will use every tool at our disposal to dispel this false rhetoric and seek justice on behalf of every voter who was targeted and harmed by this vicious attempt at voter suppression.”
That’s an appropriate response, considering the record from 2016. Along with Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, Michigan was one of the trio of states where extremely narrow wins by Donald Trump allowed the Republican to claim an Electoral College majority despite losing the national popular vote by 2.9 million ballots. Since 2016, there have been multiple reports linking voter-suppression efforts by foreign and domestic operatives to turnout declines in Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia, and other urban centers. As New Jersey Senator Cory Booker said during last year’s Democratic presidential debate in Detroit, “We lost the state of Michigan because everybody from Republicans to Russians were targeting the suppression of African American voters. We need to say that.” Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Current Issue View our current issue
Booker argued, “We need to have a campaign that is ready for what’s coming: an assault especially on the highest-performing voter group in our coalition, which is black women.”
Democrats have stepped up their game in Detroit and other cities.
But this is about more than partisan political warfare. There has to be a official response that recognizes voter suppression as a crime.
Nessel, who was elected in 2018 as an outspoken champion of voting rights, gets this. She rejects the casual approach that too many law enforcement officials have taken in the past to voter suppression.
“Any effort to interfere with, intimidate or intentionally mislead Michigan voters will be met with swift and severe consequences,” the attorney general said. “This effort specifically targeted minority voters in an attempt to deter them from voting in the November election. We’re all well aware of the frustrations caused by the millions of nuisance robocalls flooding our cell phones and landlines each day, but this particular message poses grave consequences for our democracy and the principles upon which it was built. Michigan voters are entitled to a full, free and fair election in November and my office will not hesitate to pursue those who jeopardize that.”
Nessel’s serious about those swift and severe consequences. Burkman and Wohl have each been charged with:
One count of violating election law—intimidating voters, a five-year felony;
One count of conspiracy to commit an election law violation, a five-year felony;
One count of using a computer to commit the crime of election law—intimidating voters, a seven-year felony; and
Using a computer to commit the crime of conspiracy, a seven-year felony.
Nessel has embraced Secretary of State Benson’s call for “zero tolerance for anyone who would seek to deceive citizens about their right to vote.”
Zero tolerance for voter suppression should be the national standard.
Unfortunately, Trump Attorney General William Barr is on the wrong side of this issue. The Guardian identifies Barr as “Trump’s most powerful ally in undermining the election,” explaining, “The US attorney general has not only embraced the president’s false claims, he’s also spread misinformation of his own.”
So it falls to state attorneys general, and to local prosecutors, to charge and prosecute people who engage in voter suppression. They should not hesitate. If criminals break the law as part of an assault on democracy, lock ’em up.


thenation--2020-10-06--Will 2020 Be Trump’s Bay of Pigs?

Will 2020 Be Trump’s Bay of Pigs?

Just two weeks before the 2016 election , Donald Trump traveled to Miami to accept the endorsement of the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association .
Speaking at a museum in Little Havana dedicated to the paramilitary invasion , he blasted the Obama administration ’ s normalization of relations with Cuba and lauded those he called “ true freedom fighters ” in the audience .
His efforts to pander to the hard-line Cuban American community seemed a long shot ; Trump trailed Hillary Clinton by 3.3 points in the Florida polls , and news reports at the time indicated he was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cuba .
But on November 8 , Trump won the state and its critical 29 Electoral College votes by a narrow margin of 1.2 points , paving his way to the White House .
With Florida once again a crucial swing state , it comes as no surprise that Trump has reached out , once again , to the invasion veterans .
On September 23 , he invited some two dozen aged members of the 2506 Brigade—the name of the CIA-led invasion force—to the White House to hear the candidate they have again @ @ @ @ @ @ @ very soon ” rid the hemisphere of the Cuban revolution .
“ I canceled the Obama-Biden sellout to the Castro regime , ” Trump reminded the vets as he took the opportunity to level new sanctions on Cuba .
“ I am announcing that the Treasury Department will prohibit US travelers from staying at properties owned by the Cuban government .
We ’ re also further restricting the importation of Cuban alcohol and Cuban tobacco.
” Trump is certainly not the first incumbent to troll for Cuban American votes in a bid for @ @ @ @ @ @ @ policy as a form of political patronage has been a staple of almost every US presidential campaign since the 1959 revolution .
But to advance his presidential prospects , Trump is now sacrificing fundamental rights of US citizens—the freedom to pick their places of lodging when they travel ; attend the music , book , or cigar festivals of their choice ; and purchase the souvenirs they want to bring home—on the altar of electoral politics .
At the same time , he is squeezing Cuba ’ s economy in a cruel and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ as the island nation , like so many other countries , desperately struggles to recover from the costly Covid-19 pandemic .
In the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution , Fidel Castro famously nationalized the tourist industry , at the time dominated by American mobsters such as Meyer Lansky , Lucky Luciano , and Santo Trafficante .
Since then , the Cuban state has maintained full or majority ownership in Cuba ’ s hotels , rendering all of them off-limits to US citizens under Trump ’ s new sanctions .
But to assure that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ disallowed by their own government , on September 23 the State Department issued a “ Cuba Prohibited Accommodations List.
” The list contains the names and addresses of 433 places of lodging , among them some of the most iconic places in the tourism business—the Hotel Nacional , the Riviera , the Melia Cohiba , and the Capri .
The list also identifies dozens of smaller boutique hotels and even private homes ( casitas ) that the US government has determined belong to current or former Cuban government officials or their relatives and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ More on Cuba and Covid-19 Cuba ’ s Welcome to a Covid-19-Stricken Cruise Ship Reflects a Long Pattern of Global Humanitarian Commitment Cuba Has Sent 2,000 Doctors and Nurses Overseas to Fight Covid-19 To be sure , US travelers can still legally visit Cuba and can still stay at many other private homes across the island , more than 36,000 of which are easily accessed through Airbnb .
But the new prohibitions on hotel lodgings create considerable obstacles for larger delegations and groups that travel to Cuba for educational tours such as those @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , and The Nation magazine .
Trump ’ s sanctions will also inhibit US citizens from traveling to the island to organize , participate in , or attend professional meetings and events such as music and film festivals and sports competitions .
Under the Obama administration , travel to Cuba for those purposes was conducted under a general license .
Now , travelers will have to apply for a specific license from the Treasury Department ’ s Office of Foreign Assets Control—an onerous process that empowers administration officials to provide travel permission on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Mike Pompeo justified the crackdown on travel as an effort to “ deprive the Cuban regime of the resources it uses to oppress the Cuban people.
” But the sanctions will directly penalize whole sectors of hospitality workers—taxi drivers , guides , musicians , waiters , maids , busboys , and cooks among them—whose livelihoods , and families , depend on the influx of US visitors and the generous tips they leave behind .
Moreover , a significant reduction in the approximately 1 million US travelers who have annually visited the island after @ @ @ @ @ @ @ engagement ” policy will undercut the entire Cuban private sector , which has dramatically expanded as the tourist traffic has grown .
“ It ’ s sickening to hear Trump and the likes of Senator Marco Rubio present this move as intended to benefit the Cuban people , ” says Christopher Baker , a veteran travel guide who regularly leads photography , motorcycle , and educational tours to Cuba .
“ The reality is that this is as beneficial to the Cuban people as a slap in the face.
” With Cuba ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to combat the pandemic , these new sanctions will have little significance for the foreseeable future .
“ Trump ’ s October sanctions are obviously timed to influence Cuban American voters in Florida , ” points out American University scholar William LeoGrande , “ but as long as the pandemic is preventing travel to Cuba , their impact is more symbolic than substantial.
” Trump appeared mindful of that fact as he addressed the Bay of Pigs veterans .
“ A lot of things are going on right now that I can ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ will be soon , ” he told them , hinting at more sanctions to come before the election .
Already , the administration has acted on the president ’ s promise .
On September 28 , Secretary Pompeo announced that the State Department ’ s “ Cuba Restricted List ” —yet another prohibition list that identifies Cuban businesses off-limits to US citizens and companies—would be expanded to include a Cuban debit card company called American International Services .
For many Cubans struggling to survive during the pandemic , the AIS debit card has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ them to receive remittances from US relatives that can then be directly spent , using the AIS card , at special dollar stores to purchase food , appliances , and other goods in Cuba .
The move is just the latest , but unlikely the last , administration attack on an estimated $ 3.7 billion in annual remittances from Cuban Americans to their relatives—a flow of funds that has underwritten the growth of the Cuban private sector and sustained hundreds of thousands of Cubans as the pandemic has created the worst economic crisis @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
With Cuba ’ s airports still closed , preventing remittances from being hand-carried to the island , the State Department ’ s new restrictions leave Cuban Americans with few options to provide humanitarian relief to their relatives—a cutoff that will have dire repercussions for the lives and livelihoods of countless Cuban families .
“ We unequivocally denounce the Trump administration ’ s decision on Monday to erect yet another obstacle for those sending remittances to family members in Cuba , ” seven leading policy and advocacy groups , among them the Center @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Cuba Study Group , the Washington Office on Latin America , and Cuba Educational Travel , stated last week .
“ Prohibiting family members from supporting one another amid a pandemic and food shortage in Cuba , and closing remittance channels without securing a viable alternative , is cruel and runs contrary to American values.
” As the election approaches , President Trump is gambling that the hard-liners who will be turned out to the Florida polls by his fostering pain and suffering in Cuba will outnumber the Cuban Americans concerned about the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ island that it turns off .
The political appeal of his administration ’ s punitive policies will certainly be addressed if Trump and Joe Biden hold the second presidential debate—a town-hall-style gathering with questions from the audience , now scheduled for October 15—in Miami .
( Depending on the president ’ s progress in recovering from his coronavirus infection , the debate will likely be reconfigured as a virtual meeting or postponed—although only a day after leaving Walter Reed hospital , Trump tweeted , “ I am looking forward to the debate on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in Miami .
It will be great !
” ) Biden will come prepared to argue that the Obama administration ’ s history-making effort to normalize relations with Cuba , which included opening the door to travel and lifting all restrictions on remittances , significantly advanced both US interests and the interests of the Cuban people .
He will remind Florida ’ s Cuban American community that Obama ’ s engagement policy facilitated their access to , and support for , their families on the island—in clear contrast to Trump ’ s policies @ @ @ @ @ @ @ remittances and are designed to separate families and impoverish the Cuban populace .
But Trump will likely resort to the bluster and blarney he shared with the 2506 Brigade veterans at the White House when he compared the Bay of Pigs invasion to his efforts to win reelection .
“ We will honor your courage with my administration ’ s determination to defeat communism and socialism .
And we will do that in our country too .
We ’ re in the process of doing it right now , ” he told them @ @ @ @ @ @ @ with great force.
” It will be left to voters to remind the president of who won and who lost at the Bay of Pigs , and that the invasion remains not only an internationally repudiated episode of US aggression but also a dramatic symbol of its abject failure .

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Just two weeks before the 2016 election, Donald Trump traveled to Miami to accept the endorsement of the Bay of Pigs Veterans Association. Speaking at a museum in Little Havana dedicated to the paramilitary invasion, he blasted the Obama administration’s normalization of relations with Cuba and lauded those he called “true freedom fighters” in the audience. His efforts to pander to the hard-line Cuban American community seemed a long shot; Trump trailed Hillary Clinton by 3.3 points in the Florida polls, and news reports at the time indicated he was exploring investments in the hotel industry in Cuba. But on November 8, Trump won the state and its critical 29 Electoral College votes by a narrow margin of 1.2 points, paving his way to the White House.
With Florida once again a crucial swing state, it comes as no surprise that Trump has reached out, once again, to the invasion veterans. On September 23, he invited some two dozen aged members of the 2506 Brigade—the name of the CIA-led invasion force—to the White House to hear the candidate they have again endorsed promise that his administration would “very soon” rid the hemisphere of the Cuban revolution. “I canceled the Obama-Biden sellout to the Castro regime,” Trump reminded the vets as he took the opportunity to level new sanctions on Cuba. “I am announcing that the Treasury Department will prohibit US travelers from staying at properties owned by the Cuban government. We’re also further restricting the importation of Cuban alcohol and Cuban tobacco.”
Trump is certainly not the first incumbent to troll for Cuban American votes in a bid for reelection; the cynical use of Cuba policy as a form of political patronage has been a staple of almost every US presidential campaign since the 1959 revolution. But to advance his presidential prospects, Trump is now sacrificing fundamental rights of US citizens—the freedom to pick their places of lodging when they travel; attend the music, book, or cigar festivals of their choice; and purchase the souvenirs they want to bring home—on the altar of electoral politics. At the same time, he is squeezing Cuba’s economy in a cruel and malicious attempt to starve its citizens, as the island nation, like so many other countries, desperately struggles to recover from the costly Covid-19 pandemic.
In the aftermath of the Cuban Revolution, Fidel Castro famously nationalized the tourist industry, at the time dominated by American mobsters such as Meyer Lansky, Lucky Luciano, and Santo Trafficante. Since then, the Cuban state has maintained full or majority ownership in Cuba’s hotels, rendering all of them off-limits to US citizens under Trump’s new sanctions. But to assure that US citizens can easily identify the locations disallowed by their own government, on September 23 the State Department issued a “Cuba Prohibited Accommodations List.” The list contains the names and addresses of 433 places of lodging, among them some of the most iconic places in the tourism business—the Hotel Nacional, the Riviera, the Melia Cohiba, and the Capri. The list also identifies dozens of smaller boutique hotels and even private homes (casitas) that the US government has determined belong to current or former Cuban government officials or their relatives and are, therefore, “prohibited.” Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann More on Cuba and Covid-19 Covid-19: Cuba Deserves Relief From US Sanctions Peter Kornbluh Cuba’s Welcome to a Covid-19-Stricken Cruise Ship Reflects a Long Pattern of Global Humanitarian Commitment Peter Kornbluh Cuba Has Sent 2,000 Doctors and Nurses Overseas to Fight Covid-19 Ed Augustin
To be sure, US travelers can still legally visit Cuba and can still stay at many other private homes across the island, more than 36,000 of which are easily accessed through Airbnb. But the new prohibitions on hotel lodgings create considerable obstacles for larger delegations and groups that travel to Cuba for educational tours such as those led by National Geographic, Road Scholar, and The Nation magazine. Trump’s sanctions will also inhibit US citizens from traveling to the island to organize, participate in, or attend professional meetings and events such as music and film festivals and sports competitions. Under the Obama administration, travel to Cuba for those purposes was conducted under a general license. Now, travelers will have to apply for a specific license from the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control—an onerous process that empowers administration officials to provide travel permission on a case-by-case basis.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo justified the crackdown on travel as an effort to “deprive the Cuban regime of the resources it uses to oppress the Cuban people.” But the sanctions will directly penalize whole sectors of hospitality workers—taxi drivers, guides, musicians, waiters, maids, busboys, and cooks among them—whose livelihoods, and families, depend on the influx of US visitors and the generous tips they leave behind. Moreover, a significant reduction in the approximately 1 million US travelers who have annually visited the island after the Obama administration adopted its “positive engagement” policy will undercut the entire Cuban private sector, which has dramatically expanded as the tourist traffic has grown. “It’s sickening to hear Trump and the likes of Senator Marco Rubio present this move as intended to benefit the Cuban people,” says Christopher Baker, a veteran travel guide who regularly leads photography, motorcycle, and educational tours to Cuba. “The reality is that this is as beneficial to the Cuban people as a slap in the face.”
With Cuba’s tourism trade all but shut down to combat the pandemic, these new sanctions will have little significance for the foreseeable future. “Trump’s October sanctions are obviously timed to influence Cuban American voters in Florida,” points out American University scholar William LeoGrande, “but as long as the pandemic is preventing travel to Cuba, their impact is more symbolic than substantial.” Trump appeared mindful of that fact as he addressed the Bay of Pigs veterans. “A lot of things are going on right now that I can’t tell you about, but I will be soon,” he told them, hinting at more sanctions to come before the election. Current Issue View our current issue
Already, the administration has acted on the president’s promise. On September 28, Secretary Pompeo announced that the State Department’s “Cuba Restricted List”—yet another prohibition list that identifies Cuban businesses off-limits to US citizens and companies—would be expanded to include a Cuban debit card company called American International Services. For many Cubans struggling to survive during the pandemic, the AIS debit card has become an indispensable financial lifeline, allowing them to receive remittances from US relatives that can then be directly spent, using the AIS card, at special dollar stores to purchase food, appliances, and other goods in Cuba.
The move is just the latest, but unlikely the last, administration attack on an estimated $3.7 billion in annual remittances from Cuban Americans to their relatives—a flow of funds that has underwritten the growth of the Cuban private sector and sustained hundreds of thousands of Cubans as the pandemic has created the worst economic crisis since the collapse of the Soviet Union. With Cuba’s airports still closed, preventing remittances from being hand-carried to the island, the State Department’s new restrictions leave Cuban Americans with few options to provide humanitarian relief to their relatives—a cutoff that will have dire repercussions for the lives and livelihoods of countless Cuban families. “We unequivocally denounce the Trump administration’s decision on Monday to erect yet another obstacle for those sending remittances to family members in Cuba,” seven leading policy and advocacy groups, among them the Center for Democracy in the Americas, the Cuba Study Group, the Washington Office on Latin America, and Cuba Educational Travel, stated last week. “Prohibiting family members from supporting one another amid a pandemic and food shortage in Cuba, and closing remittance channels without securing a viable alternative, is cruel and runs contrary to American values.”
As the election approaches, President Trump is gambling that his policy of pain toward Cuba will turn out enough hard-liners to outnumber the Cuban Americans turned off by the suffering he has brought to their loved ones on the island. The political appeal of his administration’s punitive policies will certainly be addressed if Trump and Joe Biden hold the second presidential debate—a town-hall-style gathering with questions from the audience, now scheduled for October 15—in Miami. (Depending on the president’s progress in recovering from his coronavirus infection, the debate will likely be reconfigured as a virtual meeting or postponed—although only a day after leaving Walter Reed hospital, Trump tweeted, “I am looking forward to the debate on the evening of Thursday, October 15th in Miami. It will be great!”)
Biden will come prepared to argue that the Obama administration’s history-making effort to normalize relations with Cuba, which included opening the door to travel and lifting all restrictions on remittances, significantly advanced both US interests and the interests of the Cuban people. He will remind Florida’s Cuban American community that Obama’s engagement policy facilitated their access to, and support for, their families on the island—in clear contrast to Trump’s policies, which have blocked both travel and remittances and are designed to separate families and impoverish the Cuban populace.
But Trump will likely resort to the bluster and blarney he shared with the 2506 Brigade veterans at the White House when he compared the Bay of Pigs invasion to his efforts to win reelection. “We will honor your courage with my administration’s determination to defeat communism and socialism. And we will do that in our country too. We’re in the process of doing it right now,” he told them, “and we are meeting it with great force.”
It will be left to voters to remind the president of who won and who lost at the Bay of Pigs, and that the invasion remains not only an internationally repudiated episode of US aggression but also a dramatic symbol of its abject failure.


thenation--2020-10-06--We Have a Covidiot in the White House

We Have a Covidiot in the White House

Since Friday morning ’ s wee-hours announcement that Trump ’ s evasion of Covid-19 safety guidelines had finally caught up with him , and that he was himself now suffering from the disease he has for so long downplayed , Number 45 ’ s health has dominated the news .
That ’ s not surprising , given the magnitude of the moment .
After all , what happens if , say , an international crisis—such as the border skirmish now picking up steam between Armenia and Azerbaijan—tips into full-scale war , drawing in regional powers such as Turkey ( a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ makes the call on America ’ s role in such a crisis , if Trump is still holding presidential powers but happens to be delirious with a high fever and can ’ t catch his breath ?
The 25th Amendment makes clear that if a president is incapacitated , he will hand over decision-making power to the vice president .
If he is incapacitated but unable to make that decision—if , say , he has been taking powerful steroids and has become too manic or otherwise unstable to govern , as Trump ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ be the case—the vice president and a majority of cabinet leaders can make that decision for him .
But what happens if an incumbent presidential candidate pulls out of the race for reelection—or dies—after votes have already been cast , as indeed many have ?
The Constitution provides no easy answer for that dilemma .
Trump in the Debate : None Dare Call It Treason Trump Threatens America : Reelect Me , or Else More broadly , what happens when a president , ignoring basic public health precautions such as mask-wearing and social-distancing @ @ @ @ @ @ @ top echelons of government ?
And how can the Senate move forward in confirming a new Supreme Court justice when at least three members , in the wake of the celebration announcing Amy Coney Barrett ’ s nomination , are now suffering from Covid-19 ?
What is the appropriate polemical response when a man who has constantly sabotaged and mocked basic public health regulations , consistently downplayed the severity of a pandemic that he knew was lethal , tweeted to armed supporters to “ liberate ” states from public health measures , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ rallies , gets sick ?
And how should journalists then cover the drive-by that Trump staged outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Sunday evening , a photo-op perhaps even more egregious than Trump ’ s clear-a-path-at-all-costs photo-op in Washington at the height of the George Floyd protests ?
Maybe we should just quote one of the attending physicians at the hospital , who tweeted that the drive was an act of “ insanity ” that put the Secret Service staff who accompanied him inside the hermetically sealed vehicle at high risk @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Maybe we should start referring to him as Typhoid Trumpy .
Given all this , it ’ s entirely appropriate that the last few iterations of the news cycle have been dominated by the parsing of every medical statement , every inconsistency ( was he diagnosed late Thursday night , as the White House claims , or on Wednesday , as his doctor seems to have suggested ? )
.
And what on earth was he doing holding fundraisers and meetings if he knew he was contagious ?
If that was the case @ @ @ @ @ @ @ knowingly putting others in harm ’ s way , acting in the manner of a sociopathic .
Temporarily living life again without the nonstop soundtrack of Trumpian Noise—the tweets momentarily muted , at least until Monday ’ s fusillade , the barrage of Fox interviews on pause , the bilious rally speeches canceled—we could listen for a moment to the sounds of a calm , early autumn silence .
In this silence , the political temperature dropped a degree or two .
It felt , if only for a moment , as if @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , the grip of a president who refuses to guarantee a peaceful transition if he loses the election , and who gives debate-stage shout-outs to fascist street-fighters who are itching to use violence against his political enemies .
Of course , that silence , the sense of calm taking hold once more , was an illusion .
Given that Election Day is now less than a month away , there are many other Signals beyond the medical updates .
There is , for example , the extraordinary executive order by Texas Governor Greg @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ballot drop box in each of the state ’ s counties .
Ostensibly done to protect the integrity of the ballots , in reality this order makes it extremely hard for Texas residents far from drop-off sites—especially poorer residents reliant on public transit , or without the time and money to drive long distances—to cast votes in this manner .
It is , in short , a brazen voter-suppression tactic .
Meanwhile , in Pennsylvania , Republicans , who control the legislature , have already taken steps to create a commission to investigate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ so not because of genuine problems with the vote but as preparation for a dirty political-legal maneuver to invalidate large numbers of ballots if the race in the Keystone State is close .
In other words , they are creating a committee in search of a problem , one that will have subpoena and investigative power against key election agencies even as the vote and vote count are ongoing .
This is precisely the road map that Barton Gellman detailed recently in his Atlantic article explaining how the Trump team is strategizing coup-like @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Electoral College loss by Trump .
I have no idea how Trump ’ s illness will play out , but I do know this : With the election now upon us , we can not become so distracted by the daily health bulletins or clumsily staged optics ( such as Trump ’ s signing of a blank piece of paper inside the hospital , intended to show that he was hard at work ) that we forget the broader stories of the moment .
There ’ s too much happening , too much @ @ @ @ @ @ @ focus now .

Since Friday morning’s wee-hours announcement that Trump’s evasion of Covid-19 safety guidelines had finally caught up with him, and that he was himself now suffering from the disease he has for so long downplayed, Number 45’s health has dominated the news.
That’s not surprising, given the magnitude of the moment. After all, what happens if, say, an international crisis—such as the border skirmish now picking up steam between Armenia and Azerbaijan—tips into full-scale war, drawing in regional powers such as Turkey (a NATO member) and Russia? Who makes the call on America’s role in such a crisis, if Trump is still holding presidential powers but happens to be delirious with a high fever and can’t catch his breath?
The 25th Amendment makes clear that if a president is incapacitated, he will hand over decision-making power to the vice president. If he is incapacitated but unable to make that decision—if, say, he has been taking powerful steroids and has become too manic or otherwise unstable to govern, as Trump’s tweet-storm on Monday suggests may already be the case—the vice president and a majority of cabinet leaders can make that decision for him.
But what happens if an incumbent presidential candidate pulls out of the race for reelection—or dies—after votes have already been cast, as indeed many have? The Constitution provides no easy answer for that dilemma. More Signal:Noise Trump in the Debate: None Dare Call It Treason Sasha Abramsky Trump Threatens America: Reelect Me, or Else Sasha Abramsky
More broadly, what happens when a president, ignoring basic public health precautions such as mask-wearing and social-distancing, becomes a super-spreader, infecting the top echelons of government? And how can the Senate move forward in confirming a new Supreme Court justice when at least three members, in the wake of the celebration announcing Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination, are now suffering from Covid-19?
What is the appropriate polemical response when a man who has constantly sabotaged and mocked basic public health regulations, consistently downplayed the severity of a pandemic that he knew was lethal, tweeted to armed supporters to “liberate” states from public health measures, and held vast indoor, crowded, maskless rallies, gets sick? And how should journalists then cover the drive-by that Trump staged outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Sunday evening, a photo-op perhaps even more egregious than Trump’s clear-a-path-at-all-costs photo-op in Washington at the height of the George Floyd protests? Maybe we should just quote one of the attending physicians at the hospital, who tweeted that the drive was an act of “insanity” that put the Secret Service staff who accompanied him inside the hermetically sealed vehicle at high risk of getting the virus from Trump? Maybe we should start referring to him as Typhoid Trumpy. Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann Popular "swipe left below to view more authors"Swipe → The Evisceration of a Public University The Evisceration of a Public University Lisa M. Corrigan The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks The Patronizing Moralism of David Brooks Chris Lehmann “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash “The Blind Side” Was Always Trash Dave Zirin How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection How the “Brooks Brothers Riot” Set the Stage for Insurrection Chris Lehmann
Given all this, it’s entirely appropriate that the last few iterations of the news cycle have been dominated by the parsing of every medical statement, every inconsistency (was he diagnosed late Thursday night, as the White House claims, or on Wednesday, as his doctor seems to have suggested?). And what on earth was he doing holding fundraisers and meetings if he knew he was contagious? If that was the case, he was not simply inept but knowingly putting others in harm’s way, acting in the manner of a sociopathic. Current Issue View our current issue
Temporarily living life again without the nonstop soundtrack of Trumpian Noise—the tweets momentarily muted, at least until Monday’s fusillade, the barrage of Fox interviews on pause, the bilious rally speeches canceled—we could listen for a moment to the sounds of a calm, early autumn silence. In this silence, the political temperature dropped a degree or two. It felt, if only for a moment, as if the vise on American democracy had eased, the grip of a president who refuses to guarantee a peaceful transition if he loses the election, and who gives debate-stage shout-outs to fascist street-fighters who are itching to use violence against his political enemies.
Of course, that silence, the sense of calm taking hold once more, was an illusion.
Given that Election Day is now less than a month away, there are many other Signals beyond the medical updates. There is, for example, the extraordinary executive order by Texas Governor Greg Abbott to shut down all but one ballot drop box in each of the state’s counties. Ostensibly done to protect the integrity of the ballots, in reality this order makes it extremely hard for Texas residents far from drop-off sites—especially poorer residents reliant on public transit, or without the time and money to drive long distances—to cast votes in this manner. It is, in short, a brazen voter-suppression tactic.
Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, Republicans, who control the legislature, have already taken steps to create a commission to investigate the election. They’re doing so not because of genuine problems with the vote but as preparation for a dirty political-legal maneuver to invalidate large numbers of ballots if the race in the Keystone State is close. In other words, they are creating a committee in search of a problem, one that will have subpoena and investigative power against key election agencies even as the vote and vote count are ongoing.
This is precisely the road map that Barton Gellman detailed recently in his Atlantic article explaining how the Trump team is strategizing coup-like end-runs around a popular or even an Electoral College loss by Trump.
I have no idea how Trump’s illness will play out, but I do know this: With the election now upon us, we cannot become so distracted by the daily health bulletins or clumsily staged optics (such as Trump’s signing of a blank piece of paper inside the hospital, intended to show that he was hard at work) that we forget the broader stories of the moment. There’s too much happening, too much on the line, to lose our focus now.


thenation--2020-10-06--Step One Is Turning Out the Vote. Step Two Is Protecting It.

It is hard to believe that the first presidential debate was just one week ago .
That night , President @ @ @ @ @ confidence : He made unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud , urged his supporters to engage @ @ @ @ @ box , and refused to say that he would accept the results of the election @ @ @ @ @ , Trump ’ s positive coronavirus test has heightened the chaos .
What happens while @ @ @ @ @ campaign ?
What about future debates ?
Will Trump demand voting be delayed ( again @ @ @ @ @ supporters do if he becomes fully indisposed on or before Election Day ?
No matter @ @ @ @ @ demand a full and fair election .
The Constitution holds the answer to some of @ @ @ @ @ Constitutional lawyers have laid out various scenarios for how the election would move forward , @ @ @ @ @ .
And Election Day can not be moved without the approval of Congress—including a Democratic @ @ @ @ @ text of Katrina ’ s column here .

EDITOR’S NOTE: Each week we cross-post an excerpt from Katrina vanden Heuvel’s column at the WashingtonPost.com. Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.
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It is hard to believe that the first presidential debate was just one week ago. That night, President Trump worked to undermine voter confidence: He made unsubstantiated claims about voter fraud, urged his supporters to engage in intimidation at the ballot box, and refused to say that he would accept the results of the election. In the days since, Trump’s positive coronavirus test has heightened the chaos. What happens while the president is unable to campaign? What about future debates? Will Trump demand voting be delayed (again)? What will his supporters do if he becomes fully indisposed on or before Election Day?
No matter what happens, we should demand a full and fair election.
The Constitution holds the answer to some of the questions being raised. Constitutional lawyers have laid out various scenarios for how the election would move forward, should the president become incapacitated. And Election Day cannot be moved without the approval of Congress—including a Democratic House.
Read the full text of Katrina’s column here.


thenation--2020-10-06--Why Trump Doesn’t Wear a Mask

Why Trump Doesn’t Wear a Mask

“ As any woman can tell you , the masks smear makeup .
The president is afraid of makeup stains @ @ @ @ @ smears on his photographed face.
” —letter to The New York Times from Sarah Crichton @ @ @ @ @ that what he ’ s fearing Is gobs of orange makeup smearing ?
Could that @ @ @ @ @ view That wearing masks is up to you ?
And why he mocks as sissies @ @ @ @ @ mouth and nose , So even some not in his base Now emulate his unmasked @ @ @ @ @ many die so he Can keep his visage blemish-free .

This article appears in the October 19/26, 2020 issue.
“As any woman can tell you, the masks smear makeup.
The president is afraid of makeup stains on his mask
and unsightly smears on his photographed face.”
—letter to The New York Times from Sarah Crichton
So, could it be that what he’s fearing
Is gobs of orange makeup smearing?
Could that be why he takes the view
That wearing masks is up to you?
And why he mocks as sissies those
Who cover up the mouth and nose,
So even some not in his base
Now emulate his unmasked face?
A shame so many die so he
Can keep his visage blemish-free.