rawstory--2020-09-26--‘Insult to every family’: Experts say Trump’s bogus healthcare ‘plan’ doesn’t actually do anything

Trump , who repeatedly failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act despite years of promises , claimed on Thursday that “ Obamacare is no longer Obamacare ” after Republicans tossed the individual mandate penalty .
He made the comment while rolling out his “ America First Health Plan , ” which The Washington Post noted was not actually a “ plan.
” “ We ’ ve really become the health-care party — the Republican Party , ” Trump claimed during a speech in Charlotte , N.C. “ But nobody knows it.
” The first executive order declares protecting patients with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” of the U.S .
But protections for pre-existing conditions were previously enshrined into law through Obamacare , legislation which the Trump administration is currently pushing to overturn in court after failing to do so in Congress .
“ The historic action I ’ m taking today includes the first-ever executive order to affirm it is the official policy of the United States government to protect patients with pre-existing conditions , ” Trump claimed on Thursday , despite trying to overturn the law which actually established those protections .
“ We ’ re @ @ @ @ @ @ @ putting it down in a stamp , ” Trump added , even though it was already “ official ” in a law which has been on the books for a decade .
Julie Rovner , the chief Washington correspondent at Kaiser Health News , pointed out that Trump ’ s executive order would do nothing if the Obamacare lawsuit backed by his administration succeeds .
The health care news outlet Stat News described Trump ’ s speech as “ empty rhetoric , ” which would neither “ improve the quality of Americans ’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ The speech and executive order stood as a tacit admission that Trump had failed to keep his 2016 promise to replace his predecessor ’ s signature achievement with a conservative alternative , ” Washington Post reporter Toluse Olorunnipa wrote .
“ Unable to repeal the law , Trump appeared open to simply rebranding it.
” The other executive order directs Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar to explore ways to address surprise medical bills if Congress does not act by Jan. 1 .
Stat News reporter Lev Facher noted that @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to work with Congress ” on the issue .
“ I am not sure how/why these are executive orders , ” New York Times health care reporter Margot Sanger-Katz tweeted .
“ They are requests for legislation.
” Along with the executive orders , Trump promised millions of seniors would receive $ 200 coupons toward the cost of prescription drugs .
Trump claimed that the coupons would be sent to 33 million Medicare beneficiaries “ in the coming weeks , ” but the White House has not released any details about the president @ @ @ @ @ @ @ how it would actually be funded — or if it is even legal .
A White House official told Bloomberg News that the money would come from a “ demonstration program Medicare uses to test new payment systems ” and be offset by savings from price cuts Trump ordered for medications bought by the Medicare program .
Stat News noted that the order has not been implemented , and the savings “ do not currently exist.
” A top pharmaceutical lobby group told Bloomberg that it had already rejected the administration ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ patients , and drug companies are not aware of Trump ’ s plan for funding the program .
Stat News described the “ plan , ” which would come with a $ 6.6 billion price tag , as a “ political ploy to curry favor with seniors.
” Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko argued that it was a straight up “ bribe ” for seniors , a key Republican voting bloc .
Trump also teased a comprehensive health care reform plan , though he offered no actual details .
Speaker of the House Nancy @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s “ bogus executive order ” was not “ worth the paper it ’ s signed on.
” “ It is an insult to every family with someone with a pre-existing condition that President Trump thinks he can get away with this farce while he races a justice onto the Supreme Court to strike down the life-saving protections enshrined into law by the Affordable Care Act , ” she said in a statement .
“ For his entire administration , President Trump has used every tool and every chance he gets to weaken @ @ @ @ @ @ @ pre-existing conditions .
If President Trump cared at all about people with pre-existing conditions , he would drop his lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act in the middle of a pandemic.
” “ President Trump is lying to you about his ‘ executive order , ' ” Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer , D-N.Y. added .
“ Protections for pre-existing conditions are the law .
The threat to these protections is from President Trump and the Republicans suing to end them .
”

Trump, who repeatedly failed to repeal the Affordable Care Act despite years of promises, claimed on Thursday that "Obamacare is no longer Obamacare" after Republicans tossed the individual mandate penalty. He made the comment while rolling out his "America First Health Plan," which The Washington Post noted was not actually a "plan."
"We've really become the health-care party — the Republican Party," Trump claimed during a speech in Charlotte, N.C. "But nobody knows it."
The first executive order declares protecting patients with pre-existing conditions to be the "policy" of the U.S. But protections for pre-existing conditions were previously enshrined into law through Obamacare, legislation which the Trump administration is currently pushing to overturn in court after failing to do so in Congress.
"The historic action I'm taking today includes the first-ever executive order to affirm it is the official policy of the United States government to protect patients with pre-existing conditions," Trump claimed on Thursday, despite trying to overturn the law which actually established those protections.
"We're making that official. We're putting it down in a stamp," Trump added, even though it was already "official" in a law which has been on the books for a decade.
Julie Rovner, the chief Washington correspondent at Kaiser Health News, pointed out that Trump's executive order would do nothing if the Obamacare lawsuit backed by his administration succeeds.
"This. Requires. Legislation," she tweeted.
The health care news outlet Stat News described Trump's speech as "empty rhetoric," which would neither "improve the quality of Americans' health care or lower its cost."
"The speech and executive order stood as a tacit admission that Trump had failed to keep his 2016 promise to replace his predecessor's signature achievement with a conservative alternative," Washington Post reporter Toluse Olorunnipa wrote. "Unable to repeal the law, Trump appeared open to simply rebranding it."
The other executive order directs Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar to explore ways to address surprise medical bills if Congress does not act by Jan. 1.
Stat News reporter Lev Facher noted that the order was merely a "plan to work with Congress" on the issue.
"I am not sure how/why these are executive orders," New York Times health care reporter Margot Sanger-Katz tweeted. "They are requests for legislation."
Along with the executive orders, Trump promised millions of seniors would receive $200 coupons toward the cost of prescription drugs. Trump claimed that the coupons would be sent to 33 million Medicare beneficiaries "in the coming weeks," but the White House has not released any details about the president's plan. It is unclear how it would actually be funded — or if it is even legal.
A White House official told Bloomberg News that the money would come from a "demonstration program Medicare uses to test new payment systems" and be offset by savings from price cuts Trump ordered for medications bought by the Medicare program. Stat News noted that the order has not been implemented, and the savings "do not currently exist."
A top pharmaceutical lobby group told Bloomberg that it had already rejected the administration's request to provide discount cards for Medicare patients, and drug companies are not aware of Trump's plan for funding the program.
Stat News described the "plan," which would come with a $6.6 billion price tag, as a "political ploy to curry favor with seniors." Democratic strategist Adam Parkhomenko argued that it was a straight up "bribe" for seniors, a key Republican voting bloc.
Trump also teased a comprehensive health care reform plan, though he offered no actual details.
Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said Trump's "bogus executive order" was not "worth the paper it's signed on."
"It is an insult to every family with someone with a pre-existing condition that President Trump thinks he can get away with this farce while he races a justice onto the Supreme Court to strike down the life-saving protections enshrined into law by the Affordable Care Act," she said in a statement. "For his entire administration, President Trump has used every tool and every chance he gets to weaken or rip away protections for people with pre-existing conditions. If President Trump cared at all about people with pre-existing conditions, he would drop his lawsuit to overturn the Affordable Care Act in the middle of a pandemic."
"President Trump is lying to you about his 'executive order,'" Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y. added. "Protections for pre-existing conditions are the law. The threat to these protections is from President Trump and the Republicans suing to end them."


rawstory--2020-09-26--Senate Dems blast ‘corrupt’ nomination of Amy Coney Barrett: ‘This entire process is illegitimate’

President Donald Trump on Saturday nominated Judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the United States Supreme Court — and Democrats were livid .
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer ( D-NY ) linked the nomination to the Affordable Care Act and the COVID-19 pandemic .
“ A vote for Judge Amy Coney Barrett is a vote to eliminate health care for millions in the middle of a pandemic , ” Schumer wrote .
“ Democrats are fighting for Americans ’ health care.
” Sen. Dianne Feinstein ( D-CA ) , the ranking member on the Senate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ coming so close to the election .
“ No Supreme Court vacancy has been filled this close to a presidential election .
The Senate shouldn ’ t consider any nominee until the American people have spoken and the next president has been inaugurated , ” Feinstein wrote .
Sen. Richard Blumenthal ( D-CT ) , who is the Senate ’ s most experienced prosecutor , said , “ I will refuse to treat this process as legitimate and will not meet with Judge Amy Coney Barrett.
” Here ’ s what other Senate @ @ @ @ @ @ @

"I just want to go back to Giuliani for a second, since you know these characters all so well," said anchor Joy Reid. "I want to read you what The New York Times — there was an opinion piece by one of his biographers, Andrew Kirtzman and David Holly what they wrote about Rudy has become. They wrote this. 'Faced with the political irrelevance and collapsing client base that would accompany Mr. Trump's defeat, in 2020, he seemingly made a Faustian bargain, working to undermine democracy in order to save his career.' I feel like it was a few years before that. What do you make of the fact that the RICO guy is now the RICO defendant?"
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
"Well, it's Shakespearean in its dimensions, because Rudy was an evangelist about the rule of law in a very draconian way," said O'Brien. "And he used RICO, I think, to great effect, as we all know to go after the mob. The argument being that you could never touch the people at the head of the mob families, because they were very good at insulating their own actions from their minions who went out there, soldiers out on the street, who did the crimes. Rudy said, it was very important to attach what lower-level people did to the people orchestrating the schemes. Shades of Donald Trump much later. Everybody who has been pulled up in the January 6th investigation has complained that they came there because Trump asked them to come here. They thought they were doing what they had been told to do, and yet Trump wasn't being held accountable."
"The argument against RICO being used by Fani Willis to go after Trump is then that it's overreach," continued O'Brien. "That it should only go after organized crime. But the statute is meant to go against organized criminal conspiracies, not necessarily just conspiracies that Italian mobsters were targeted for. And in that context, one of Giuliani's biggest cases in addition to the commission case targeting the mobsters was Wall Street. He brought down Drexel Burnham. He targeted Michael Milken, he cited the person in the financial web involving insider trading and financial fraud. He himself recognized that RICO wasn't a statute that should only be used against people we traditionally call organized criminals. Fani Willis, as you noted in your opening, has also adapted it to target other people, including drug dealers. And so, I think that the idea that this thing that he created has now come around and snapped him up is both ironic but overdue because he sold himself out and he sold himself out to Trump."
"It's a reminder how easily Trump corrupts people in his orbit, but he can only corrupt them if they're corruptible," O'Brien added. "And Rudy, for all of his finger-wagging over the years at people of color for being street criminals, mobsters and many others for not following the rule of law, has now shown he's just as base and just as craven as any number of the people he once prosecuted."
Watch the video below or at the link here.


rawstory--2020-09-26--A Biden win will likely strip Mitch McConnell of all his power: CNN

According to CNN polling analyst Harry Enten , should Joe Biden win the election on Nov. 3rd it will likely be part of a Democratic tidal wave that will also flip to the Senate to Democratic control — and strip current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell ( R-KY ) of his power .
Citing polls in which GOP incumbents are tied or trailing their Democratic opponents , Enten noted that Biden holds leads in those states and his popularity could sweep the down-ticket Democrats into the office too , handing Democrats control of the Senate to go along with the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in control .
According to the analyst , “ 2020 could be shaping up to be a winner-take-all situation .
Given the lineup of seats up in the Senate , chances are Democrats will take the Senate if former vice president Joe Biden takes the presidency.
” Adding that at this moment , less than 40 days before the election , Democrats already look poised to become the majority party controlling the Senate , Enten said Republicans have plenty to worry about .
Taking into account the fact that newly-elected Vice President Kamala @ @ @ @ @ @ @ 50-50 Senate , Enten suggested that Republicans are looking at minority status after the new Senate is seated under a President Biden .
“ Biden is doing much better in the five states where the Democrats look best positioned to pick up Senate seats than he is in Alabama .
In fact , he is ahead in all five of those states , save maybe Iowa where different polling averages disagree on who the leader is , ” he wrote .
“ All told , with maybe the exception of Iowa , every @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has the Democratic Senate candidate ahead.
” Enten went on to state the down-ticket candidates –in this highly polarized election — are more than ever “ tied to the hip to their party ’ s nominee for president then since at least 1980.
” “ There is certainly some ability for Senate candidates to differentiate themselves from the top of the ticket , but not anywhere near as much as there used to be .
This could help to explain at least partially why few Republican senators are opposing Trump ’ s move @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on the bench before the election , ” he wrote before warning , “ There ’ s just not much to be gained by going against the President.
” You can read more here .

According to CNN polling analyst Harry Enten, should Joe Biden win the election on Nov. 3rd it will likely be part of a Democratic tidal wave that will also flip to the Senate to Democratic control -- and strip current Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) of his power.
Citing polls in which GOP incumbents are tied or trailing their Democratic opponents, Enten noted that Biden holds leads in those states and his popularity could sweep the down-ticket Democrats into the office too, handing Democrats control of the Senate to go along with the House where they are expected to remain in control.
According to the analyst, "2020 could be shaping up to be a winner-take-all situation. Given the lineup of seats up in the Senate, chances are Democrats will take the Senate if former vice president Joe Biden takes the presidency."
Adding that at this moment, less than 40 days before the election, Democrats already look poised to become the majority party controlling the Senate, Enten said Republicans have plenty to worry about.
Taking into account the fact that newly-elected Vice President Kamala Harris would be the tie-breaker in a 50-50 Senate, Enten suggested that Republicans are looking at minority status after the new Senate is seated under a President Biden.
"Biden is doing much better in the five states where the Democrats look best positioned to pick up Senate seats than he is in Alabama. In fact, he is ahead in all five of those states, save maybe Iowa where different polling averages disagree on who the leader is," he wrote. "All told, with maybe the exception of Iowa, every single state where Biden is leading also has the Democratic Senate candidate ahead."
Enten went on to state the down-ticket candidates --in this highly polarized election -- are more than ever "tied to the hip to their party's nominee for president then since at least 1980."
"There is certainly some ability for Senate candidates to differentiate themselves from the top of the ticket, but not anywhere near as much as there used to be. This could help to explain at least partially why few Republican senators are opposing Trump's move to put a new Supreme Court justice on the bench before the election," he wrote before warning, "There's just not much to be gained by going against the President."
You can read more here.


rawstory--2020-09-26--Colin Powell ally calls on House to begin ‘immediate’ impeachment hearings on Bill Barr

Appearing on MSNBC on Saturday Morning with Ali Velshi , former Colin Powell chief of staff Lawrence Wilkerson said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ( D-CA ) should immediately begin impeachment hearings against Attorney General Bill Barr .
After discussing Donald Trump ’ s threat to not strep down peacefully should he lose in November , Wilkerson turned his ire on Barr who has been accused of acting like the president ’ s personal attorney .
Addressing Trump ’ s riling up his base with accusations of election theft , Wilkerson said , “ This is a very , very dicey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ and I don ’ t think he ’ s smart enough to realize that he is creating it to the extent that he is.
” ‘ We ’ re back in a period where a lot of the things that happened in that very torturous period that led to our Civil War seem eerily like what ’ s happening today , ” he continued .
“ And I agree with what was just said about Attorney General Barr .
If I were the Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi , I ’ d @ @ @ @ @ @ @ He ’ s no attorney general — he ’ s not even a good lawyer .
He ’ s a dangerous threat to this country .
”

"You mentioned the concept of accountability and how it is not something that Donald Trump is particularly familiar with," said anchor Alex Wagner. "I wonder what you think of the peril that he keeps putting himself in, legally speaking, by lashing out at prosecutors. Targeting judges. Speaking badly about the very people who will determine his fate. And being, effectively, not threatened, but potentially forced to pay a price for that in the form of a trial date that has moved, or a fine, or even the possibility of being incarcerated while he awaits trial. Do you think that there is anything at this point that could force Donald Trump to stop the vitriol and to stop the tweets and the rants? Or is he going to push it as far as he possibly can?"
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
"The short answer is no, he is not going to be able to stop himself," said Mary Trump. "There has been a really interesting shift over the last few months or couple of years. the way in which he is presenting himself in social media, the kind of attacking nature, and the aggressiveness, that used to be a strategy for him."
"You know, he used to throw temper tantrums strategically to get his way," she continued. "It is not strategy anymore."
"He is literally doing what he has done in other contexts, which is pushing the envelope to see how much he could get away with, which obviously, until this time, has been everything," she added. "But, the unconscious fear, terror, and especially if you have a fear of humiliation is so strong, that he cannot course correct and realize that what he's always done is, this time, not going to get him what he wants. In fact, quite the opposite."
Watch the video below or at the link.


rawstory--2020-09-28--‘Art of the Deal’ co-author calls ‘worthless’ Donald Trump the ‘biggest tax fraud in IRS history’

Tony Schwartz , who co-authored The Art of the Deal , explained that President Donald Trump is not only the worst businessman he ’ s also the “ biggest tax fraud in IRS history.
” Speaking to CNN ’ s Anderson Cooper on Sunday in the wake of a New York Times bombshell report , Schwartz accused the president of “ running a criminal enterprise.
” He noted that it was discouraging to hear political commentators say that they don ’ t think that this news will impact the election because his supporters won ’ t consider it a big @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the $ 300 million that Trump got from his father starting as young as three years old so that his father could hide money much in the same way the president does now .
Some of the money he “ inherited ” it is now known Trump stole from his brother ’ s daughter , Mary Trump .
“ The thing is that what you have here is the middle of Trump ’ s vulnerability , ” said Schwartz .
“ He equates his personal worth , whatever amount of worth he thinks @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worth , and what ’ s so clear here is that he is a horrible businessman .
Just as he ’ s been a terrible president .
So , I think from the point of view , for example , of Biden in this debate to poke at Trump ’ s obvious financial ineptitude , what he is good at being.
” Schwartz also noted that it ’ s important to note that the one thing is “ really , really good at is cheating.
” “ Even the people who run big @ @ @ @ @ @ @ big criminal enterprises usually get tracked down eventually , ” said Schwartz .
“ This is what ’ s happening here.
” See the interview below :

Tony Schwartz, who co-authored The Art of the Deal, explained that President Donald Trump is not only the worst businessman he's also the "biggest tax fraud in IRS history."
Speaking to CNN's Anderson Cooper on Sunday in the wake of a New York Times bombshell report, Schwartz accused the president of "running a criminal enterprise."
He noted that it was discouraging to hear political commentators say that they don't think that this news will impact the election because his supporters won't consider it a big deal.
The Times report walks through the $300 million that Trump got from his father starting as young as three years old so that his father could hide money much in the same way the president does now. Some of the money he "inherited" it is now known Trump stole from his brother's daughter, Mary Trump.
"The thing is that what you have here is the middle of Trump's vulnerability," said Schwartz. "He equates his personal worth, whatever amount of worth he thinks he has deep down with his net worth, and what's so clear here is that he is a horrible businessman. Just as he's been a terrible president. So, I think from the point of view, for example, of Biden in this debate to poke at Trump's obvious financial ineptitude, what he is good at being."
Schwartz also noted that it's important to note that the one thing is "really, really good at is cheating."
"Even the people who run big John Gotti and the others who run big criminal enterprises usually get tracked down eventually," said Schwartz. "This is what's happening here."
See the interview below:


rawstory--2020-09-27--Trump has been writing off money he gave to Ivanka by calling her a ‘contractor’: bombshell report

President Donald Trump ’ s taxes are being reported by the New York Times revealing ways in which his daughter Ivanka has been getting millions from her father and avoiding paying the proper amount of tax on it .
The report detailed that Trump has tried to write-off things like family vacations while claiming to be a billionaire with nearly half a billion dollars in debt .
Gift taxes are when a living person gives over $ 15,000 to a person , and Trump has given Ivanka much more than that .
But to get around it , he calls @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ” which she declares as “ income.
” She ’ s also had nearly $ 100,000 in fees for her hair and makeup paid by the president for years .
“ Mr .
Trump has written off as business expenses costs — including fuel and meals — associated with his aircraft , used to shuttle him among his various homes and properties , ” said the Times .
“ Likewise , the cost of haircuts , including the more than $ 70,000 paid to style his hair during ‘ The Apprentice.
’ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ off at least $ 95,464 paid to a favorite hair and makeup artist of Ivanka Trump.
” In her public filings , Ivanka Trump said she was paid through TTT Consulting , LLC , which she indicated previously was giving “ consulting , licensing , and management services for real estate projects.
” It ’ s one of many companies connected to the Trump family under the tame TTT or TTTT .
“ Like her brothers Donald Jr. and Eric , Ms. Trump was a longtime employee of the Trump Organization and an @ @ @ @ @ @ @ companies that licensed or managed hotel and resort properties , ” the report said .
“ The tax records show that the three siblings had each drawn a salary from their father ’ s company — roughly $ 480,000 a year , jumping to about $ 2 million after Mr. Trump became president — though Ms. Trump no longer receives a salary .
What ’ s more , Mr. Trump has said the children were intimately involved in negotiating and managing his projects .
When asked in a 2011 lawsuit deposition whom he @ @ @ @ @ @ @ his licensing deals , he named only Ivanka , Donald Jr. and Eric.
” While Trump ’ s taxes don ’ t show the funds that he gave to Ivanka specifically , she reported payments from “ consulting ” totaling $ 747,622 .
It matches the number exactly that Trump wrote off as “ consulting , ” which he wrote off of his taxes .

Nearly all of the brains in the Smithsonian's possession were taken without the consent of the deceased persons or their relatives for the collection of Aleš Hrdlička—a eugenicist who served as curator of the Smithsonian's physical anthropology division—who sought to prove that white people are superior to people of other races.
As Dungca and Healy noted:
Most of the brains were removed upon death from Black and Indigenous people and other people of color. They are part of a collection of at least 30,700 human bones and other body parts still held by the Natural History Museum, the most-visited museum within the Smithsonian. The collection, one of the largest in the world, includes mummies, skulls, teeth, and other body parts, representing an unknown number of people.
The remains are the unreconciled legacy of a grisly practice in which bodies and organs were taken from graveyards, battlefields, morgues, and hospitals in more than 80 countries. The decadeslong effort was financed and encouraged by the taxpayer-subsidized institution. The collection, which was mostly amassed by the early 1940s, has long been hidden from view.
The Post located the descendants of Mary Sara, an Indigenous Sami woman whose brain was removed and sent to the Smithsonian after she died of tuberculosis in Seattle in 1933. Her preserved brain remains in the institute's collection. Mary Sara's relatives had no idea that her brain had been taken.
"It's a violation against our family and against our people," said Fred Jack, who is married to one of Sara's cousins. "It's kind of like an open wound... We want to have peace and we'll have no peace because we know this exists, until it's corrected."
The Smithsonian also hired two researchers to study and implement the ethical return of the brains and other remains.
"At the Smithsonian, we recognize certain collection practices of our past were unethical," wrote Bunch. "What was once standard in the museum field is no longer acceptable. We acknowledge and apologize for the pain our historical practices have caused people, their families, and their communities, and I look forward to the conversations this initiative will generate in helping us perform our cutting-edge research in a manner that is ripe with scholarship and conforms to the highest ethical standard."
In an interview with the Post, Bunch said that "I know that so much of this has been based on racist attitudes, that these brains were really people of color to demonstrate the superiority of white brains, so I understand that is just really unconscionable."
"And I think it's important for me as a historian to say that all the remains, all the brains, need to be returned if possible, [and] treated in the best possible way," he added.
However, the Post report claims the Smithsonian has "lagged in its efforts to return the vast majority of the remains" to their rightful recipients, with the institute so far having repatriated just four of the 268 brains in its possession.
Some of the brains in Hrdlicka's collection came from Filipinos who died after they were brought to the United States—which had recently conquered the Philippines from Spain—to be put on display in what critics have called a "human zoo" during the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis.
The National Museum of the Philippines responded to the Post report in a statement welcoming the Smithsonian's repatriation efforts.
Some of the Filipino victims' brains were incinerated after their deaths. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, who is Kankanaey Igorot Filipino and a former U.N. special rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous peoples, explained the importance of keeping the remains of deceased people whole.
"For Indigenous people, it's not just an issue, of course, of a violation of their rights," she told the Post. "It's also an issue of spiritual consideration."
This has long been an issue. The decapitated and preserved heads of Native Americans killed during the genocidal U.S. conquest of North America were labeled "specimens of natural history" and shipped off to the Smithsonian as far back as the 1870s, when the pseudoscience of phrenology—the study of human skulls to discern or predict mental traits of different races—was still in vogue.
Some people said they will remain troubled by the harm done to their ancestors even after their remains are returned. Lena Lauth, the granddaughter of 10-year-old Tlingit boy from Alaska whose brain was taken, asked, "How could they hold a child's brain for 70 years, and know who he is?"
"It was my grandma's pain," Lauth told the Post, "and now that she's gone, it's my pain."


rawstory--2020-09-27--Trump wrote off a mansion for a family vacation from his taxes: taxes show

Among the revelations from the New York Times are that President Donald Trump has dodged paying taxes for 10 out of the past 15 years .
Exceptions include a few years in which the self-described billionaire paid just $ 750 in taxes .
“ The tax data examined by The Times provides a road map of revelations , from write-offs for the cost of a criminal defense lawyer and a mansion used as a family retreat to a full accounting of the millions of dollars the president received from the 2013 Miss Universe pageant in Moscow , ” the report @ @ @ @ @ @ @ considered business expenses , even if the family is working for you .
“ Mr .
Trump ’ s U.S. payment , after factoring in his losses , was roughly equivalent , in dollars not adjusted for inflation , to another presidential tax bill revealed nearly a half-century before , ” said the Times .
The report recalled former President Richard Nixon ’ s tax returns in 1973 , where he only paid $ 792.81 in 1970 on an income of about $ 200,000 .
At the time , people were furious at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s a main reason that presidents and candidates ultimately made their tax returns available for people to see .

Now the CA Bar is using the Fulton County indictment as further evidence why he shouldn't be allowed to practice law. It filed an addition to the case, further arguing that abatement was inappropriate and that Eastman knew the criminal charges were coming.
"The State Bar maintains its opposition to abatement of these proceedings, as most of the grounds set forth in the State Bar's Aug. 10, 2023, Opposition still apply. While it is no longer uncertain whether respondents will be indicted on criminal charges, and many of the allegations in the Fulton County indictment are related to the issues in the State Bar case, the prejudice to the State Bar and the public interest in resolving the State Bar case weigh in favor of completing the trial.
"The Fulton County criminal case against respondent could take years to resolve," the filing continues, "particularly given the number of co-defendants. As the State Bar noted in the Opposition, respondent knew that he faced possible criminal charges related to the conduct alleged in the NDC, including in Fulton County, but he chose to proceed with his State Bar trial without moving for abatement. Now, halfway through the trial, the State Bar would be highly prejudiced by delaying the completion of trial and a decision in this case for what could be several years. Delaying the further presentation of evidence also risks loss of evidence."
Eastman joins Rudy Giuliani, Sidney Powell, Jeff Clark and Ken Chesebro in facing various disciplinary panels to address their respective involvement in the attempt to overthrow the 2020 election.
Eastman joins 18 others accused of co-conspiring with Trump in Georgia. He is specifically accused of sending an email to co-defendant Robert David Cheeley, "unindicted co-conspirator Individual 8, whose identity is known to the grand jury, and (Georgia state Sen. Brandon Beach) that stated that the Trump presidential elector nominees in Georgia needed to meet on Dec. 14, 2020, sign six sets of certificates of vote, and mail them 'to the President of the Senate and to other officials.' This was an overt act in furtherance of the conspiracy.," said the indictment.
The California Bar Association filing explained that, “The burden on the State Bar of postponing the remainder of the trial for an indefinite period of time, possibly several years, outweighs the burden on respondent in completing the trial."


rawstory--2020-09-27--Trump and his movement are evil — and it’s time to say it clearly

Most Americans have heard ( or asked ) some version of the following questions during the last four years .
Will Donald Trump and his movement ever stop ?
Answer : No .
They are winning .
Where are the principled and “ good ” Republicans ?
Why won ’ t they stop Donald Trump ?
Why won ’ t they speak out ?
There are none left , or at least not enough to make a difference .
This article first appeared in Salon .
Don ’ t Donald Trump and the other Republicans have a conscience ?
They @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ enemy ” —meaning liberals , progressives , the Democratic Party in general and anyone else they do not see as “ real Americans ” — is the only goal that matters .
Is there no bottom to Donald Trump and the Republican Party ’ s cruelty ?
No .
Cruelty and pain are weapons that advance their agenda .
How could this happen in the greatest country on earth ?
By many measures America is not the greatest country on Earth .
The myth of American exceptionalism helped to spawn Trumpism .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ of law ?
Surely the institutions will save us !
Such quaint notions do not matter to Donald Trump and the Republican Party in their quest for total and unlimited power .
“ Democracy ” is but a means to an end .
America ’ s political and social institutions are brittle .
Trump and his movement simply exploited problems that have long been present .
Americans , by and large , are good people .
Why is this all happening ?
How can they go along with it all ?
Tens of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ simply do not care about democracy or “ the institutions.
” Approximately 20 percent of Americans are strong authoritarians .
Many tens of millions are white supremacists and racists .
Likewise , tens of millions of Americans support putting nonwhite migrants and refugees in Trump ’ s concentration camps .
There is wide support among this segment of the population for Donald Trump and the Republican Party .
It is disappointing , but not surprising , that so many Americans still have these questions even at this stage in the Age of Trump @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is understandable .
The Trump regime and the right-wing media have systematically ( and successfully ) attacked reality and truth itself .
Many Americans are vulnerable to such a campaign because of a public school system which , for the most part , does not teach critical thinking , responsible citizenship and civil literacy .
Learned helplessness works through a culture of distraction , fear , social atomization , alienation and loneliness to deter collective action .
There is a lack of faith in the country ’ s social and political institutions .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ pandemic that has killed at least 200,000 people and all but destroyed our economy , many Americans are just struggling to survive and exist .
In total , the American people know something is very wrong in the Age of Trump .
But most Americans are unable to move from anger , despair and rage to mass collective action .
While many Americans feel hopelessly lost in TrumpWorld , political pundits and other members of the chattering class ought to know better and do better , in terms of the questions they ask @ @ @ @ @ @ @ public .
It is a self-evident and obvious fact that Donald Trump is a neo-fascist who is systematically attacking American democracy , the rule of law and the country ’ s social and political institutions in an effort to stay in power indefinitely .
Through its allies , enforcers , sycophants , servants and camp followers , the Trump regime shows this to be true almost every day .
They have made it clear that Donald Trump has no intention of leaving office .
They view any election where Trump does not defeat @ @ @ @ @ @ @ seeking to suppress the votes of Black people , younger people and others who are most likely to support the Democratic Party .
They are threatening violence against the Democratic Party , its leaders and its voters .
In fact , political violence by Trump supporters and other members of the far right is increasing .
They view a free press as “ the enemy of the people ” and believe that journalists and reporters who dare to tell the truth about Trump and his movement should be targeted with violence , imprisoned @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg , the Trump regime has become even bolder in its obvious attacks on American democracy and freedom .
Trump and his mouthpieces have explicitly said that Ginsburg must be replaced immediately to ensure a right-wing supermajority on the court — and of course to award Trump the presidency if there are any “ irregularities ” on Election Day .
The Trump regime has declared Democratic-governed cities such as New York , Seattle , and Portland , Oregon , to be “ anarchist jurisdictions.
” The apparent implication @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to invasion by Trump and Barr ’ s “ federal police ” and loyal militia movements , and treated as enemy territory to be subjugated .
Trump ’ s allies are reportedly moving forward with a plot to subvert the people ’ s will in key battleground states by having Republican governors and legislatures disregard the vote and appoint electors loyal to Donald Trump .
Writing at the Atlantic , Barton Gellman outlines the scheme : Such a move would almost certainly end up with the Supreme Court or the House of Representatives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ favor , no matter how many votes were cast for Joe Biden and the Democrats .
Attorney General William Barr and other people close to Trump have suggested that the American people exercise their civil rights by protesting what would be a de facto coup then the U.S. military and other forces will be used against under the rarely-invoked Insurrection Act of 1807 .
Barr has also threatened to charge protesters with sedition , which defined as “ the act of inciting revolt or violence against a lawful authority with the goal of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , Trump again told reporters that he would not commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he is defeated on Election Day .
He said : “ We ’ re going to have to see what happens… .
Get rid of the ballots , there won ’ t be a transfer , they ’ ll be a continuation.
” Instead of speaking in clear , declarative statements about the Trump regime and American fascism , too many members of the Fourth Estate and other public voices continue to ask questions to which @ @ @ @ @ @ @ worst offenders can be put into three categories .
The “ hope-peddlers ” will always find some way to spin harsh realities into a potential victory or hopeful possibility for the Democratic Party and the American people .
They also believe that somehow the “ better angels ” will take over the Republican Party , thus saving the country .
The stenographers of current events are supposedly committed to “ balance ” and “ fairness.
” They are the purveyors of “ both-sides-ism ” and horserace journalism .
As a group , the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ responsible for normalizing Donald Trump and American fascism .
There are those who are stuck in an endless cycle of perpetual outrage , shock and surprise .
These voices act surprised by the Trump regime ’ s newest offense , as though it were somehow unexpected rather than a continuation of an obvious pattern with hundreds of prior examples .
Why do the hope-peddlers , the stenographers and the shock brigade behave as they do ?
They are afraid of what is happening to American society , and do not know what to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a deep belief in American exceptionalism and an inbred faith that “ it can ’ t happen here ” — that fascism and authoritarianism are ills that only afflict other countries .
They are wedded to the status quo and their role in the American political system as it exists .
To question the health of that system and its long-term viability leads to existential questions about one ’ s vocation and other life choices .
They are wedded to being part of an elite class .
Again , to criticize the system @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s role in it .
Moreover , to become too much a truth-teller risks exile from a system in which one are deeply invested .
They hold onto old myths and folk wisdom about American democracy , a responsible and informed citizenry , and the collective wisdom and virtue of the American people .
To admit that America has fully become a pathocracy and kakistocracy under Trump would lead to profound cognitive dissonance .
They exist in their own political reality online and elsewhere , one in which they largely communicate with people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ who share similar values and beliefs .
Perhaps the greatest failing of the hope-peddlers , the stenographers and the shock brigade is a deep reluctance or outright refusal to use clear , moral language to describe the current state of politics in America .
Donald Trump is evil .
His movement and what it represents are also evil .
Trump has shown himself to be evil in many ways and on numerous occasions .
Most notably , he admitted earlier this year to journalist Bob Woodward that he knew the coronavirus pandemic would @ @ @ @ @ @ @ in the United States .
Instead of taking appropriate action to stop such a tragedy , the president chose instead to lie about the pandemic publicly and persistently , and to encourage behavior that would actually cause death , for his perceived personal and political gain .
Philosopher Susan Neiman , one of the world ’ s leading experts on evil , said this about Donald Trump in a conversation with Salon last year : Donald Trump meets every single criterion for using the word evil — and he keeps meeting it every @ @ @ @ @ @ @ should be used with caution .
I believe that many people , particularly a certain type of liberal centrist , were put off by the way in which George W. Bush was described as being evil .
I also argue that Bush is evil and I explored this in my book “ Moral Clarity.
” Unfortunately , the description of “ evil ” has been so overused that many people just believe that it is a type of name-calling .
I disagree .
When we relinquish the use of language like “ evil @ @ @ @ @ @ @ weapons that we have in the hands of the people who are least equipped to use them .
But I do understand the caution and anxiety about using that language .
Given the way that Trump ’ s supporters and the broader right-wing movement in America works , I am unsure if describing Trump as being evil would actually bring any clarity to the conversation .
That does not mean that accurate language for describing Trump and what he represents should be avoided .
In a recent email , Neiman offered this further @ @ @ @ @ @ @ American media and other political observers will not publicly state that Donald Trump and his movement are evil — because that then demands they do something about it .
One important function of this inability to see American fascism in its proper historical and global context , as both a moral and political crisis , is that it is often discussed as something that is “ coming ” or “ on the horizon ” or “ imminent , ” instead of as something that is already here .
Regardless of what happens on @ @ @ @ @ @ @ its followers will still be with us , and will continue to advance a neofascist agenda in this country .
In the near future and well beyond that , historians and other researchers will ask members of the Fourth Estate and the American political class many questions , to which we do not yet have complete answers .
Did you understand what Donald Trump represented ?
Why did you not sound the alarm and tell the truth much earlier ?
Was it willful ignorance , terror , fear or something else ?
Did @ @ @ @ @ @ @ save you ?
When you finally understood that your choices would not save you from the forces of Trumpism , what did you do ?
The hope-peddlers , stenographers and those on the hamster wheel of surprise and shock , as well as others of their ilk , should start working on their answers now .

Most Americans have heard (or asked) some version of the following questions during the last four years.
Will Donald Trump and his movement ever stop? Answer: No. They are winning.
Where are the principled and "good" Republicans? Why won't they stop Donald Trump? Why won't they speak out? There are none left, or at least not enough to make a difference.
This article first appeared in Salon.
Don't Donald Trump and the other Republicans have a conscience? They do not. Power and vanquishing the "enemy" —meaning liberals, progressives, the Democratic Party in general and anyone else they do not see as "real Americans" — is the only goal that matters.
Is there no bottom to Donald Trump and the Republican Party's cruelty? No. Cruelty and pain are weapons that advance their agenda.
How could this happen in the greatest country on earth? By many measures America is not the greatest country on Earth. The myth of American exceptionalism helped to spawn Trumpism.
What about the Constitution and the rule of law? Surely the institutions will save us! Such quaint notions do not matter to Donald Trump and the Republican Party in their quest for total and unlimited power. "Democracy" is but a means to an end. America's political and social institutions are brittle. Trump and his movement simply exploited problems that have long been present.
Americans, by and large, are good people. Why is this all happening? How can they go along with it all? Tens of millions of Americans, at least, simply do not care about democracy or "the institutions." Approximately 20 percent of Americans are strong authoritarians. Many tens of millions are white supremacists and racists. Likewise, tens of millions of Americans support putting nonwhite migrants and refugees in Trump's concentration camps. There is wide support among this segment of the population for Donald Trump and the Republican Party.
It is disappointing, but not surprising, that so many Americans still have these questions even at this stage in the Age of Trump. In some ways, such confusion is understandable.
The Trump regime and the right-wing media have systematically (and successfully) attacked reality and truth itself.
Many Americans are vulnerable to such a campaign because of a public school system which, for the most part, does not teach critical thinking, responsible citizenship and civil literacy. Learned helplessness works through a culture of distraction, fear, social atomization, alienation and loneliness to deter collective action. There is a lack of faith in the country's social and political institutions.
In a season of death from a pandemic that has killed at least 200,000 people and all but destroyed our economy, many Americans are just struggling to survive and exist.
In total, the American people know something is very wrong in the Age of Trump. But most Americans are unable to move from anger, despair and rage to mass collective action.
While many Americans feel hopelessly lost in TrumpWorld, political pundits and other members of the chattering class ought to know better and do better, in terms of the questions they ask and the answers they offer to the public.
It is a self-evident and obvious fact that Donald Trump is a neo-fascist who is systematically attacking American democracy, the rule of law and the country's social and political institutions in an effort to stay in power indefinitely.
Through its allies, enforcers, sycophants, servants and camp followers, the Trump regime shows this to be true almost every day.
They have made it clear that Donald Trump has no intention of leaving office. They view any election where Trump does not defeat Joe Biden as illegitimate. They are seeking to suppress the votes of Black people, younger people and others who are most likely to support the Democratic Party. They are threatening violence against the Democratic Party, its leaders and its voters. In fact, political violence by Trump supporters and other members of the far right is increasing. They view a free press as "the enemy of the people" and believe that journalists and reporters who dare to tell the truth about Trump and his movement should be targeted with violence, imprisoned or worse.
With the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the Trump regime has become even bolder in its obvious attacks on American democracy and freedom. Trump and his mouthpieces have explicitly said that Ginsburg must be replaced immediately to ensure a right-wing supermajority on the court — and of course to award Trump the presidency if there are any "irregularities" on Election Day.
The Trump regime has declared Democratic-governed cities such as New York, Seattle, and Portland, Oregon, to be "anarchist jurisdictions." The apparent implication is that these cities are potentially subject to invasion by Trump and Barr's "federal police" and loyal militia movements, and treated as enemy territory to be subjugated.
Trump's allies are reportedly moving forward with a plot to subvert the people's will in key battleground states by having Republican governors and legislatures disregard the vote and appoint electors loyal to Donald Trump.
Writing at the Atlantic, Barton Gellman outlines the scheme:
According to sources in the Republican Party at the state and national levels, the Trump campaign is discussing contingency plans to bypass election results and appoint loyal electors in battleground states where Republicans hold the legislative majority. With a justification based on claims of rampant fraud, Trump would ask state legislators to set aside the popular vote and exercise their power to choose a slate of electors directly. The longer Trump succeeds in keeping the vote count in doubt, the more pressure legislators will feel to act before the safe-harbor deadline expires.
Such a move would almost certainly end up with the Supreme Court or the House of Representatives deciding the election in Trump's favor, no matter how many votes were cast for Joe Biden and the Democrats.
Attorney General William Barr and other people close to Trump have suggested that the American people exercise their civil rights by protesting what would be a de facto coup then the U.S. military and other forces will be used against under the rarely-invoked Insurrection Act of 1807. Barr has also threatened to charge protesters with sedition, which defined as "the act of inciting revolt or violence against a lawful authority with the goal of destroying or overthrowing it."
On Wednesday, Trump again told reporters that he would not commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he is defeated on Election Day. He said: "We're going to have to see what happens.... Get rid of the ballots, there won't be a transfer, they'll be a continuation."
Instead of speaking in clear, declarative statements about the Trump regime and American fascism, too many members of the Fourth Estate and other public voices continue to ask questions to which they should know the answers.
The worst offenders can be put into three categories.
The "hope-peddlers" will always find some way to spin harsh realities into a potential victory or hopeful possibility for the Democratic Party and the American people. They also believe that somehow the "better angels" will take over the Republican Party, thus saving the country.
The stenographers of current events are supposedly committed to "balance" and "fairness." They are the purveyors of "both-sides-ism" and horserace journalism. As a group, the stenographers of current events are perhaps most responsible for normalizing Donald Trump and American fascism.
There are those who are stuck in an endless cycle of perpetual outrage, shock and surprise. These voices act surprised by the Trump regime's newest offense, as though it were somehow unexpected rather than a continuation of an obvious pattern with hundreds of prior examples.
Why do the hope-peddlers, the stenographers and the shock brigade behave as they do? They are afraid of what is happening to American society ,and do not know what to do about it.
They still maintain a deep belief in American exceptionalism and an inbred faith that "it can't happen here" — that fascism and authoritarianism are ills that only afflict other countries.
They are wedded to the status quo and their role in the American political system as it exists. To question the health of that system and its long-term viability leads to existential questions about one's vocation and other life choices.
They are wedded to being part of an elite class. Again, to criticize the system is to criticize oneself and one's role in it. Moreover, to become too much a truth-teller risks exile from a system in which one are deeply invested.
They hold onto old myths and folk wisdom about American democracy, a responsible and informed citizenry, and the collective wisdom and virtue of the American people. To admit that America has fully become a pathocracy and kakistocracy under Trump would lead to profound cognitive dissonance.
They exist in their own political reality online and elsewhere, one in which they largely communicate with people of their same social and political class who share similar values and beliefs.
Perhaps the greatest failing of the hope-peddlers, the stenographers and the shock brigade is a deep reluctance or outright refusal to use clear, moral language to describe the current state of politics in America.
Donald Trump is evil. His movement and what it represents are also evil.
Trump has shown himself to be evil in many ways and on numerous occasions. Most notably, he admitted earlier this year to journalist Bob Woodward that he knew the coronavirus pandemic would likely kill hundreds of thousands of people in the United States. Instead of taking appropriate action to stop such a tragedy, the president chose instead to lie about the pandemic publicly and persistently, and to encourage behavior that would actually cause death, for his perceived personal and political gain.
Philosopher Susan Neiman, one of the world's leading experts on evil, said this about Donald Trump in a conversation with Salon last year:
Donald Trump meets every single criterion for using the word evil — and he keeps meeting it every day. Evil is a word that should be used with caution. I believe that many people, particularly a certain type of liberal centrist, were put off by the way in which George W. Bush was described as being evil. I also argue that Bush is evil and I explored this in my book "Moral Clarity." Unfortunately, the description of "evil" has been so overused that many people just believe that it is a type of name-calling. I disagree. When we relinquish the use of language like "evil" we are leaving the strongest linguistic weapons that we have in the hands of the people who are least equipped to use them. But I do understand the caution and anxiety about using that language. Given the way that Trump's supporters and the broader right-wing movement in America works, I am unsure if describing Trump as being evil would actually bring any clarity to the conversation. That does not mean that accurate language for describing Trump and what he represents should be avoided.
In a recent email, Neiman offered this further warning:
If any moral judgment commands agreement today, it's the claim that Auschwitz — the Nazi concentration camp that has become shorthand for the mass murder of men, women and children because of their ethnic heritage — was evil. But fascism didn't begin with Auschwitz; it began with a series of attacks on the rule of law and the media that tested the German public's readiness to accept them. Anyone who has followed the news over the past several years has seen how Trump and his enablers have increasingly tested our capacity for outrage by undermining one moral principle after the next. Their determination to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat is only the latest example. Should they succeed, and win a second term by whatever means, there would be little to reign in full-fledged fascism. And Americans who are now contemplating moving abroad should know that what happens in the U.S. affects the whole world; there will be few places to escape Trump's influence.
Most members of the mainstream American media and other political observers will not publicly state that Donald Trump and his movement are evil — because that then demands they do something about it.
One important function of this inability to see American fascism in its proper historical and global context, as both a moral and political crisis, is that it is often discussed as something that is "coming" or "on the horizon" or "imminent," instead of as something that is already here.
Writing at Bloomberg, Francis Wilkinson explains:
Americans who think the coming election is their last chance to save the republic from authoritarianism — Americans, until recently, like me — are almost certainly wrong. Authoritarianism is already here, and what Americans will decide in November is whether it will grow more deeply entrenched. According to a new report, the U.S. is undergoing "substantial autocratization" — so much so that only one in five similarly damaged democracies has been able to reverse such decline. President Donald Trump's administration is consuming democratic capacity at about the same pace that wildfire has been destroying the West. The White House has been a source of lies since Trump's presidency began. Since his impeachment and acquittal by Senate Republicans, his transgressions have grown more aggressive, while being more aggressively supported by the departments of Justice and Homeland Security — together the equivalent of a mighty Security Ministry — both of which are controlled by men who share Trump's disregard for rule of law … The threat perception this time is not a political luxury, an ideological trifle afforded by a functioning democratic system. The threat is now firmly lodged inside the fortress of American power.
Regardless of what happens on Election Day in November, Trumpism and its followers will still be with us, and will continue to advance a neofascist agenda in this country.
In the near future and well beyond that, historians and other researchers will ask members of the Fourth Estate and the American political class many questions, to which we do not yet have complete answers.
Did you understand what Donald Trump represented?
Why did you not sound the alarm and tell the truth much earlier?
Was it willful ignorance, terror, fear or something else?
Did you really believe that such choices would save you?
When you finally understood that your choices would not save you from the forces of Trumpism, what did you do?
The hope-peddlers, stenographers and those on the hamster wheel of surprise and shock, as well as others of their ilk, should start working on their answers now.


rawstory--2020-09-27--Trump attempted to exploit his father’s growing dementia to save himself from financial ruin: report

According to a detailed report at the Washington Post , in 1990 Donald Trump was facing personal bankruptcy and overwhelming financial demands from his first wife so he attempted to manipulate his father — whose mental health was in severe decline — to turn over his fortune , thereby shutting out the other Trump siblings .
The result , the report states , was years of enmity among the children of 85-year-old Fred Trump .
According to the report , “ creditors threatened to force him into personal bankruptcy , and his first wife , Ivana , wanted ‘ a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” which led the future president to send “ an accountant and a lawyer to see his father , Fred Trump Sr. , who was told he needed to immediately sign a document changing the will according to his son ’ s wishes , according to depositions from family members.
” The report notes that at the time of the meeting , Fred Trump was in declining mental health and would “ soon be diagnosed with cognitive problems , such as being unable to recall things he was told 30 minutes earlier or @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the report , Trump ’ s sister , Maryanne Trump Barry was asked by her father to look at the request and she , in turn , gave the documents to her husband John Barry who had experience as an estate lawyer .
“ I show it to John , and he says , ‘ Holy sh*t. ’ It was basically taking the whole estate and giving it to Donald , ” Maryanne Trump Barry later said .
That , the report states , set off a war within the family that continues @ @ @ @ @ @ @ niece , Mary Trump , now suing her uncle .
The report notes that Donald might have lied during a deposition about the money grab by saying , “ he had no idea his father was suffering from dementia , saying his father was ‘ very , very sharp ’ at the time .
But medical records and accounts by two of his siblings indicate the elder Trump ’ s cognitive abilities were already declining.
” The Post reports , “ Fred Trump Sr. was formally diagnosed with ‘ early stages of dementia @ @ @ @ @ @ @ were disclosed in a 2000 court case brought by Mary Trump and others seeking a larger inheritance from the elder Trump ’ s estate.
” You can read more here .

According to a detailed report at the Washington Post, in 1990 Donald Trump was facing personal bankruptcy and overwhelming financial demands from his first wife so he attempted to manipulate his father -- whose mental health was in severe decline -- to turn over his fortune, thereby shutting out the other Trump siblings.
The result, the report states, was years of enmity among the children of 85-year-old Fred Trump.
According to the report, "creditors threatened to force him into personal bankruptcy, and his first wife, Ivana, wanted 'a billion dollars in a divorce settlement," which led the future president to send "an accountant and a lawyer to see his father, Fred Trump Sr., who was told he needed to immediately sign a document changing the will according to his son’s wishes, according to depositions from family members."
The report notes that at the time of the meeting, Fred Trump was in declining mental health and would "soon be diagnosed with cognitive problems, such as being unable to recall things he was told 30 minutes earlier or remember his birth date."
According to the report, Trump's sister, Maryanne Trump Barry was asked by her father to look at the request and she, in turn, gave the documents to her husband John Barry who had experience as an estate lawyer.
"I show it to John, and he says, ‘Holy sh*t.’ It was basically taking the whole estate and giving it to Donald,” Maryanne Trump Barry later said.
That, the report states, set off a war within the family that continues to this day with Trump's niece, Mary Trump, now suing her uncle.
The report notes that Donald might have lied during a deposition about the money grab by saying, "he had no idea his father was suffering from dementia, saying his father was 'very, very sharp' at the time. But medical records and accounts by two of his siblings indicate the elder Trump’s cognitive abilities were already declining."
The Post reports, "Fred Trump Sr. was formally diagnosed with 'early stages of dementia,' according to medical records that were disclosed in a 2000 court case brought by Mary Trump and others seeking a larger inheritance from the elder Trump’s estate."
You can read more here.


rawstory--2020-09-28--Trump’s megalomaniacal ego is ripping the country apart: Robert Reich

What is America really fighting over in the upcoming election ?
No particular issue .
Not even Democrats versus Republicans .
The central fight is over Donald J Trump .
Before Trump , most Americans weren ’ t especially passionate about politics .
But Trump ’ s MO has been to force people to become passionate about him – to take fierce sides for or against .
And he considers himself president only of the former – whom he calls “ my people.
” Trump came to office with no agenda except to feed his monstrous ego .
He has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ has fueled him .
Its adoration sustains him .
So does the antipathy of his detractors .
Presidents usually try to appease their critics .
Trump has gone out of his way to offend them .
“ I do bring rage out , ” Trump unapologetically told journalist Bob Woodward in 2016 .
In this way , he has turned America into a gargantuan projection of his own pathological narcissism .
His entire re-election platform is found in his use of the pronouns “ we ” and “ them.
” “ We ” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Nation .
“ They ” hate him .
In late August , near the end of his somnolent address on the South Front of the White House accepting the Republican nomination , Trump extemporized : “ The fact is , we ’ re here – and they ’ re not.
” It drew a standing ovation .
At a recent White House news conference , a CNN correspondent asked if he condemned the behavior of his supporters in Portland , Oregon .
In response , Trump charged : “ Your supporters , and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ a young gentleman.
” In Trump ’ s eyes , CNN exists in a different country : Anti-Trump Nation .
So do the putative rioters and looters of “ Biden ’ s America.
” So do the inhabitants of blue states whose state and local tax deductions Trump eliminated in his tax overhaul .
So do those who live in the “ Democrat cities , ” as he calls them , whose funding he ’ s trying to cut .
California is a big part of Anti-Trump Nation .
He wanted to reject @ @ @ @ @ @ @ because he was so rageful that people in the state of California didn ’ t support him , ” said former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor .
New York is the capital of Anti-Trump Nation , which probably contributed to Trump “ playing down ” the threat of Covid-19 last March , when its virulence seemed largely confined to that metropolis .
Even now , Trump claims the US rate of Covid-19 deaths would be low “ if you take the blue states out.
” That ’ s untrue @ @ @ @ @ @ @ point .
For Trump , blue states don ’ t count because they ’ re part of Anti-Trump Nation .
To Trump and his core enablers and supporters , the laws of Trump Nation authorize him to do whatever he wants .
Anti-Trump Nation ’ s laws constrain him , but they ’ re illegitimate because they are made and enforced by the people who reject him .
So Trump ’ s call to the president of Ukraine seeking help with the election was “ perfect.
” It was fine for Russia to @ @ @ @ @ @ @ it ’ s fine for it to do so again .
And of course the Justice Department , Postal Service , and Centers for Disease Control should help him win reelection .
They ’ re all aiding Trump Nation .
By a similar twisted logic , Anti-Trump Nation is dangerous .
Hence , says Trump , the armed teenager who killed two in Kenosha , Wisconsin acted in “ self-defense , ” yet the suspected killer of a right-winger in Portland deserved the “ retribution ” he got when federal marshals gunned him @ @ @ @ @ @ @ loses the election , Trump will not accept the result because it would be the product of Anti-Trump Nation , and Trump isn ’ t the president of people who would vote against him .
As he recently claimed , “ the only way we ’ re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.
” In the warped minds of Trump and his acolytes , this could lead to civil war .
Just last week he refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power .
His consigliere Roger @ @ @ @ @ @ @ law ” if he loses .
Michael Caputo , assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services , warns “ the shooting will begin ” when Trump refuses to stand down .
Civil war is unlikely , but the weeks and perhaps months after Election Day will surely be fraught .
Even if Trump is ultimately forced to relinquish power , his core adherents will continue to view him as their leader .
If he retains power , many if not most Americans will consider his presidency illegitimate @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s megalomaniacal ego will prevail : America will have come apart over him , and Trump Nation will have seceded from Anti-Trump Nation .

What is America really fighting over in the upcoming election? No particular issue. Not even Democrats versus Republicans.
The central fight is over Donald J Trump.
Before Trump, most Americans weren't especially passionate about politics. But Trump's MO has been to force people to become passionate about him – to take fierce sides for or against. And he considers himself president only of the former – whom he calls "my people."
Trump came to office with no agenda except to feed his monstrous ego. He has never fueled his base. His base has fueled him. Its adoration sustains him.
So does the antipathy of his detractors. Presidents usually try to appease their critics. Trump has gone out of his way to offend them. "I do bring rage out," Trump unapologetically told journalist Bob Woodward in 2016.
In this way, he has turned America into a gargantuan projection of his own pathological narcissism.
His entire re-election platform is found in his use of the pronouns "we" and "them." "We" are people who love him, Trump Nation. "They" hate him.
In late August, near the end of his somnolent address on the South Front of the White House accepting the Republican nomination, Trump extemporized: "The fact is, we're here – and they're not." It drew a standing ovation.
At a recent White House news conference, a CNN correspondent asked if he condemned the behavior of his supporters in Portland, Oregon. In response, Trump charged: "Your supporters, and they are your supporters indeed, shot a young gentleman."
In Trump's eyes, CNN exists in a different country: Anti-Trump Nation.
So do the putative rioters and looters of "Biden's America." So do the inhabitants of blue states whose state and local tax deductions Trump eliminated in his tax overhaul. So do those who live in the "Democrat cities," as he calls them, whose funding he's trying to cut.
California is a big part of Anti-Trump Nation. He wanted to reject its request for aid battling wildfires "because he was so rageful that people in the state of California didn't support him," said former Department of Homeland Security chief of staff Miles Taylor.
New York is the capital of Anti-Trump Nation, which probably contributed to Trump "playing down" the threat of Covid-19 last March, when its virulence seemed largely confined to that metropolis. Even now, Trump claims the US rate of Covid-19 deaths would be low "if you take the blue states out." That's untrue, but it's not the point. For Trump, blue states don't count because they're part of Anti-Trump Nation.
To Trump and his core enablers and supporters, the laws of Trump Nation authorize him to do whatever he wants. Anti-Trump Nation's laws constrain him, but they're illegitimate because they are made and enforced by the people who reject him.
So Trump's call to the president of Ukraine seeking help with the election was "perfect." It was fine for Russia to side with him in 2016, and it's fine for it to do so again. And of course the Justice Department, Postal Service, and Centers for Disease Control should help him win reelection. They're all aiding Trump Nation.
By a similar twisted logic, Anti-Trump Nation is dangerous. Hence, says Trump, the armed teenager who killed two in Kenosha, Wisconsin acted in "self-defense," yet the suspected killer of a right-winger in Portland deserved the "retribution" he got when federal marshals gunned him down.
It follows that if he loses the election, Trump will not accept the result because it would be the product of Anti-Trump Nation, and Trump isn't the president of people who would vote against him. As he recently claimed, "the only way we're going to lose this election is if the election is rigged."
In the warped minds of Trump and his acolytes, this could lead to civil war. Just last week he refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power. His consigliere Roger Stone urges him to declare "martial law" if he loses. Michael Caputo, assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, warns "the shooting will begin" when Trump refuses to stand down.
Civil war is unlikely, but the weeks and perhaps months after Election Day will surely be fraught. Even if Trump is ultimately forced to relinquish power, his core adherents will continue to view him as their leader. If he retains power, many if not most Americans will consider his presidency illegitimate.
So whatever happens, Trump's megalomaniacal ego will prevail: America will have come apart over him, and Trump Nation will have seceded from Anti-Trump Nation.


rawstory--2020-09-28--Trump supporters who took hydroxychloroquine for COVID could be denied health insurance if GOP kills

Trump supporters who took hydroxychloroquine for COVID could be denied health insurance if GOP kills Obamacare

One of the bizarre reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic was President Donald Trump continually pushing supporters to take Hydroxychloroquine Sulfate @ @ @ @ @ the drug could successfully treat coronavirus , Trump began pushing it regardless — even after @ @ @ @ @ the drug could harm patients .
The people who took the drug , including the @ @ @ @ @ denied health insurance .
Larry Levitt , the executive vice president for health policy at @ @ @ @ @ noted that patients who had taken Hydroxychloroquine Sulfate used to receive automatic “ medication denials @ @ @ @ @ Affordable Care Act during the Obama administration .
This means , if Trump ’ s @ @ @ @ @ in overturning the Affordable Care Act , Republicans who listened to Trump may have a @ @ @ @ @ the individual market .

One of the bizarre reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic was President Donald Trump continually pushing supporters to take Hydroxychloroquine Sulfate.
While there never evidence the drug could successfully treat coronavirus, Trump began pushing it regardless -- even after his own agencies issued warnings the drug could harm patients.
The people who took the drug, including the president himself, could be denied health insurance.
Larry Levitt, the executive vice president for health policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation, noted that patients who had taken Hydroxychloroquine Sulfate used to receive automatic "medication denials" before Democrats passed the Affordable Care Act during the Obama administration.
This means, if Trump's Department of Justice is successful in overturning the Affordable Care Act, Republicans who listened to Trump may have a hard time buying insurance in the individual market.


rawstory--2020-09-30--Trump blasted for ‘avalanche of lying’ in brutal takedown by CNN fact-checker

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale provided a brutal dose of reality after President Donald Trump constantly mislead Americans with his false claims during the first 2020 general election presidential debate .
CNN ’ s Wolf Blitzer introduced Dale by recapping that , in his opinion , “ clearly this debate was an embarrassment for the United States of America — a clear embarrassment.
” “ How much was fact ?
” Blitzer asked .
“ How much was false ?
” “ Well , it depended Wolf on who we were listening to , ” Dale replied .
“ I think @ @ @ @ @ @ @ journalists to say when both sides are not alike — and they were not alike tonight , ” he explained .
“ We had an avalanche of lying from President Trump , ” he continued .
“ Biden , conversely , made at least a couple false or misleading claims , but honestly , he was largely accurate.
” “ There were times during this debate , Wolf , when President Trump ’ s every line — specifically on mail voting — almost every single thing he said during that concluding section of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ noted .
“ And the other thing that stood out to me , Wolf , was these were largely false claims the president has made before .
These weren ’ t one-time slips or gaffes or errors — these have been fact-checked and he keeps saying them and they ’ re still wrong , ” Dale concluded .

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale provided a brutal dose of reality after President Donald Trump constantly misled Americans with his false claims during the first 2020 general election presidential debate.
CNN's Wolf Blitzer introduced Dale by recapping that, in his opinion, "clearly this debate was an embarrassment for the United States of America -- a clear embarrassment."
"How much was fact?" Blitzer asked. "How much was false?"
"Well, it depended Wolf on who we were listening to," Dale replied.
"I think it's important for us as journalists to say when both sides are not alike -- and they were not alike tonight," he explained.
"We had an avalanche of lying from President Trump," he continued. "Biden, conversely, made at least a couple false or misleading claims, but honestly, he was largely accurate."
"There were times during this debate, Wolf, when President Trump's every line -- specifically on mail voting -- almost every single thing he said during that concluding section of the debate was inaccurate," Dale noted.
"And the other thing that stood out to me, Wolf, was these were largely false claims the president has made before. These weren't one-time slips or gaffes or errors -- these have been fact-checked and he keeps saying them and they're still wrong," Dale concluded.


rawstory--2020-10-01--Ted Cruz blocks pre-existing conditions bill — two days after saying his party would always protect

Ted Cruz blocks pre-existing conditions bill — two days after saying his party would always protect them

On Monday , Sen. Ted Cruz ( R-TX ) told CNBC that there was no question the Republican Party was going to take care of people with pre-existing health conditions if the Supreme Court invalidates the Affordable Care Act .
“ Every Republican agrees we ’ re going to protect pre-existing conditions , ” said Cruz .
“ 100 out of 100 senators agree we ’ re going to protect pre-existing conditions regardless of what happens with Obamacare.
” Just two days later , he moved to block a Senate amendment sponsored by a colleague , Sen. Thom Tillis ( @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that .
Both Cruz and Tillis have repeatedly voted to repeal the ACA , including for the controversial 2017 repeal legislation .
However , in recent months , Republicans have been increasingly on the defensive as Democrats slam them for trying to undo the health care law , whose provisions are wildly popular with voters — spurred on by the upcoming Supreme Court fight to confirm Amy Coney Barrett , who has written law articles critical of previous court decisions upholding the law .
Tillis is uniquely vulnerable to the criticism , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ battle .
Democrats have their own competing and stronger legislation to protect the coverage , which will be voted on in coming days .

On Monday, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) told CNBC that there was no question the Republican Party was going to take care of people with pre-existing health conditions if the Supreme Court invalidates the Affordable Care Act.
“Every Republican agrees we’re going to protect pre-existing conditions,” said Cruz. “100 out of 100 senators agree we’re going to protect pre-existing conditions regardless of what happens with Obamacare.”
Just two days later, he moved to block a Senate amendment sponsored by a colleague, Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), that would do exactly that.
Both Cruz and Tillis have repeatedly voted to repeal the ACA, including for the controversial 2017 repeal legislation.
However, in recent months, Republicans have been increasingly on the defensive as Democrats slam them for trying to undo the health care law, whose provisions are wildly popular with voters — spurred on by the upcoming Supreme Court fight to confirm Amy Coney Barrett, who has written law articles critical of previous court decisions upholding the law. Tillis is uniquely vulnerable to the criticism, as he is locked in a tight re-election battle.
Democrats have their own competing and stronger legislation to protect the coverage, which will be voted on in coming days.


rawstory--2020-09-30--Fox News’ Chris Wallace admits he lost control of Trump-Biden debate: It went ‘completely off the tr

Fox News’ Chris Wallace admits he lost control of Trump-Biden debate: It went ‘completely off the tracks’

Speaking to the New York Times this Wednesday , Fox News anchor and moderator of the first 2020 presidential debate , Chris Wallace , expressed regret over how the event descended into an out-of-control scene with both candidates repeatedly talking over each other .
According to Wallace , the debate was a “ terrible missed opportunity.
” “ I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did , ” he said .
Wallace admitted that he didn ’ t anticipate President Trump flouting the debate ’ s rules .
“ I ’ ve read some @ @ @ @ @ @ @ think , Well , gee , I didn ’ t jump in soon enough , ” Wallace said .
“ I guess I didn ’ t realize — and there was no way you could , hindsight being 20/20 — that this was going to be the president ’ s strategy , not just for the beginning of the debate but the entire debate.
” “ I ’ m a pro .
I ’ ve never been through anything like this , ” he added .
“ If I didn ’ t try @ @ @ @ @ @ @ which I don ’ t know that I ever really did — then it was going to just go completely off the tracks , ” he said .
Read Wallace ’ s full interview over at The New York Times .

Speaking to the New York Times this Wednesday, Fox News anchor and moderator of the first 2020 presidential debate, Chris Wallace, expressed regret over how the event descended into an out-of-control scene with both candidates repeatedly talking over each other.
According to Wallace, the debate was a "terrible missed opportunity."
“I never dreamt that it would go off the tracks the way it did,” he said.
Wallace admitted that he didn't anticipate President Trump flouting the debate’s rules.
“I’ve read some of the reviews, I know people think, Well, gee, I didn’t jump in soon enough,” Wallace said. “I guess I didn’t realize — and there was no way you could, hindsight being 20/20 — that this was going to be the president’s strategy, not just for the beginning of the debate but the entire debate.”
“I’m a pro. I’ve never been through anything like this," he added.
“If I didn’t try to seize control of the debate — which I don’t know that I ever really did — then it was going to just go completely off the tracks,” he said.
Read Wallace's full interview over at The New York Times.


rawstory--2020-09-30--Trump campaign scrubs Brad Parscale from their website after police arrest

In the wake of reports surrounding the police arrest and apparent suicide attempt of former Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale , the Trump campaign is quietly disappearing Parscale from its website , the Daily Beast reports .
“ Since Tuesday , the campaign has removed a video of Parscale from the homepage of its ‘ Army for Trump ’ election monitoring operation , ” the Beast ’ s Lachlan Markay writes .
“ It also deleted a page on the main campaign website featuring a video of Parscale and Lara Trump , the president ’ s daughter-in-law and senior campaign @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , billed as a Q & A on the state of the campaign , has also been removed from YouTube .
Those deletions were first flagged on Twitter by the writer Jeryl Bier.
” Parscale was campaign manager for Trump until he was replaced by former White House political director Bill Stepien in July .
Police say this Sunday Parscale ’ s wife called 9-11 to report that he was threatening to commit suicide and had loaded a firearm in front of her .
She also claims he physically assaulted her .
A @ @ @ @ @ @ @ “ stealing ” up to $ 40 million from President Trump ’ s campaign and $ 10 million from the Republican National Committee , but a spokesperson for the Trump campaign denies Parscale is facing an internal investigation .
Read the full report over at The Daily Beast .

POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
Still, Ron DeSantis refuses to expand Medicaid, even though 93 percent of the cost is covered with money from Washington, DC. It’s the principle of the thing, apparently: he’s one of 11 red state governors who believes that working poor people simply shouldn’t get health coverage. After all, they didn’t have the good sense to be born into a wealthy family!
Michael, 30, lives in Orlando and has asthma, but running his little business buying and selling used furniture hasn’t earned him enough to cover his medical bills and to pay rent. He recently got an eviction notice, telling the Florida Health Justice Project:
“I was given a list of homeless shelters to choose from but I hope it doesn’t come to that.”
Ron DeSantis is just fine with this. Cruelty is his trademark.
Violence, hate, bigotry, and cruelty are the four cardinal points of fascism. Compassion and concern for the greater good, for the poor and weak, for the victims of fate and accident have no place in the fascist world.
Historians and political observers have been predicting that America would get our very own Mussolini ever since the days of Barry Goldwater. And there’s been no shortage of candidates: bribe-taking Nixon; Central American fascist-loving Reagan; Gitmo torturing and war-lying Bush; and, of course, Trump.
But with Ron DeSantis, we may finally be facing an all-American politician who has Mussolini’s guile, ruthlessness, and willingness to see people die to advance his political career, all while being smart and educated enough to avoid the easily satirized buffoonishness of Trump.
Mussolini was a famously short man who strutted with his muscular chest pushed out and his chin jutted forward, just like DeSantis, who Trump says is musclebound, likes to do.
Both men were socially awkward, craved power, lacked empathy, displayed casual cruelty, sucked up to the wealthiest men in the nation, and demonized opposition politicians — literally calling or implying their fellow citizens are “the enemy” (a favorite trick of Hitler and Orbán, as well) — to encourage their followers to support them or entertain the rhetoric of violence and threats of violence to achieve political ends.
Miriam, a single parent of two young children, discovered a lump in her breast but postponed visiting the doctor for months because she had no health insurance with her job as a housekeeper.
Finally, she realized the potential gravity of her situation.
“I needed to live to be there for my children,” she said.
She got treatment through the charity ward of a hospital, but even that treatment came with a cost of $2,183. She slipped behind in the $200 monthly payments when her job vanished with the pandemic and now she’s struggling to pay the $1783 she still owes in co-payments from her treatments. She’s been sent to collection and is living in fear of what’s next when the court finally comes after her.
Ron DeSantis is just fine with this. Cruelty is his trademark.
George Washington, in his Farewell Address, warned us of the possible rise of politicians like DeSantis who would suggest other Americans are enemies of the nation’s values, who would exaggerate policy differences in war-like terms, and who would ascribe the most evil of motives and intentions to simple political opponents.
“The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism.”
But it wasn’t just that calling other politicians enemies or attributing evil motivations to them produced dissension and could tear a society apart, although those concerns were at the top of Washington’s mind.
He also knew that such rhetoric was the platform from which a literal strongman could arise in America, destroying the democracy he’d fought the Revolutionary War to create:
“But this leads at length to a more formal and permanent despotism,” he told the nation. “The disorders and miseries which result gradually incline the minds of men to seek security and repose in the absolute power of an individual; and sooner or later the chief of some prevailing faction, more able or more fortunate than his competitors, turns this disposition to the purposes of his own elevation, on the ruins of public liberty.”
Such a warlike approach to politics, Washington said, could only lead in one direction:
“It agitates the community with ill-founded jealousies and false alarms, kindles the animosity of one part against another, foments occasionally riot and insurrection.”
Such rhetoric, Washington argued, produces:
“A fire not to be quenched, it demands a uniform vigilance to prevent its bursting into a flame, lest, instead of warming, it should consume.”
It’s been 225 years since George Washington uttered those words. And now we’re here.
Hipolito, the father of four, is worried about his life’s partner, the mother of their children.
“My wife has been in pain for weeks now but we can’t afford to find out why,” Hipolito told the Florida Health Justice Project. “I swear, I’m very afraid. She is pale and suffering every day.”
He notes that his wife hasn’t visited the doctor because their family can’t afford the expense when they must also house, feed, and clothe their kids on his job as a cook.
Ron DeSantis is just fine with this. Cruelty is his trademark.
Arresting black men for voting, terrifying them and ruining their lives while making sure they all get paraded in chains before the cameras.
Threatening public school teachers with prison for simply teaching history.
Lying about medical science regarding vaccines to suck up to the Trump base, resulting in fewer Floridians being protected from a disease that is killing literally hundreds of Americans every day.
Using rhetoric that feeds bigotry and hate against gay, lesbian, and trans people.
Intimidating the college board so they strip the Black Lives Matter movement out of their advanced placement African-American Studies curriculum.
Lying to asylum-seekers to get them on a plane to Martha’s Vineyard as a stunt to elevate his own political fortunes.
Ron DeSantis is just fine with all of this. Cruelty is his trademark.
Ignoring the health and safety of his state’s citizens, DeSantis led Florida into a veritable Covid Armageddon, letting (as of January 16th) 84,176 of his citizens die from the disease. As former FDA commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb told CBS’ Face The Nation:
“They let the virus spread largely unchecked in terms of personal mitigation. People weren't wearing masks. They weren't encouraged to wear masks. Vaccination was encouraged for the elderly population, but not widely… So they made policy choices, and the consequence was an infection that largely engulfed most parts of the state.”
After this orgy of death and disease, at the end of 2021 about 12 percent of Florida’s population — almost 2.6 million — still lacked any form of medical insurance because of DeSantis’ refusal to expand Medicaid for low-income people.
And now as many as 2 million more Floridians will join the ranks of the uninsured in the coming months.
Ron DeSantis is just fine with this. Cruelty is his trademark.


rawstory--2020-10-02--Hope Hicks’ maskless travel on Air Force One triggers speculation of White House outbreak

White House aide Hope Hicks has tested positive for COVID-19 after traveling with President Donald Trump , according to multiple @ @ @ @ @ traveled aboard Air Force One with President Donald Trump to Minnesota and Ohio this week @ @ @ @ @ reported by Bloomberg ’ s Jennifer Jacobs and was confirmed by New York Times correspondent @ @ @ @ @ people close to Hicks were told that she is experiencing symptoms of the disease , @ @ @ @ @ ’ s some of what people were saying about the reports :

"Joyce, these direct messages, doesn't it seem out of character for Donald Trump?" the host asked. "He is very well known, he does not use email, he does not text, he does not like to sign his name. Very well known for no paper trail. Did Donald Trump fall into the trap that the rest of us do? Which is sloppy texting?"
POLL: Should Trump be allowed to run for office?
Vance responded, "It is intriguing, because trump notoriously doesn't text. He knows not believe a paper trail. Trump and his employees have articulated that he does not do that. Likely, what happened here, it did not occur to him that there might come a time where the Justice Department would be able to access his account here, and see what was going on behind the scenes on his Twitter account."
She added that "this is something prosecutors do for instance when they access email accounts. You can look at drafts, interactions between people, in this case with Trump, you can see if it was actually Trump who logged in, or someone else. You can determine that from geolocation. So a lot of really fascinating evidence, information that the former president left behind, and is likely simply because he failed to realize the government could ultimately access it."
Watch below or click the link here.


rawstory--2020-10-02--White House aide Hope Hicks tests positive for COVID — and had traveled directly with Trump

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