TRUMP 10
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</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">SEE TRUMP 11 520
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">evil on pseudo populism and weaponization of law</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see impeach</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see sotu dog whistle xian</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see corona covid</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see covid bailout bill</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see covid 4</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">aha dark side inverse of transaction is retaliation</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">220 bak 420 capt html end "findings" </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; background-color: rgb(239, 243, 247);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">mma 9 22</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Then-President Donald Trump ordered Alex Azar, then his health and human services secretary, to immediately approve the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine as a coronavirus treatment because Fox News host Laura Ingraham had said it was effective, according to a new book.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump, an avid Fox viewer who regularly turned the network’s programming into White House policy, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/how-fox-news-convinced-trump-it-found-miracle-cure-coronavirus" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">became transfixed</a> by the drug after his trusted Fox hosts started talking it up in mid-March of 2020, as the novel coronavirus swept across the country. If hydroxychloroquine had worked as the COVID-19 miracle cure Fox claimed, it would have allowed Americans to swiftly return to normal life without fear of becoming seriously ill from the virus. Unfortunately, hydroxychloroquine is <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/theres-now-more-evidence-foxs-coronavirus-miracle-drug-doesnt-work" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">not an effective</a> <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-all-ignores-fda-pulling-authorizations-drugs-it-championed" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">coronavirus treatment</a>, according to <a href="https://www.infectiousdiseaseadvisor.com/home/topics/covid19/hydroxychloroquine-for-covid-19-in-outpatient-setting-not-supported-by-evidence/" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">numerous</a> <a href="https://www.science.org/content/article/three-big-studies-dim-hopes-hydroxychloroquine-can-treat-or-prevent-covid-19" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">studies</a> as well as U.S. and <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/questions-and-answers/item/coronavirus-disease-(covid-19)-hydroxychloroquine" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">international</a> <a href="https://www.ema.europa.eu/en/news/covid-19-reminder-risks-chloroquine-hydroxychloroquine" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">health</a> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/health-coronavirus-hydroxychloroquine-fr/eu-governments-ban-malaria-drug-for-covid-19-trial-paused-as-safety-fears-grow-idUSKBN2340A6" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">agencies</a>. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Peter Baker and Susan Glasser shed new light on the role Fox played in convincing Trump that hydroxychloroquine would be a COVID-19 “game changer” in their new book, <span style="box-sizing: border-box;">The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021</span>. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">They chronicle a phone call between Trump and Azar that took place on March 18, 2020, <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/timeline-how-trumps-fox-news-fixation-shaped-federal-coronavirus-response" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">two days</a> after Ingraham had praised the hydroxychloroquine’s potential during an <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/media/3860641" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">interview</a> with the Long Island lawyer Gregory Rigano, who championed the drug.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Laura says hydroxychloroquine works. It’s perfectly safe, so just approve it,” they write that Trump told Azar during the phone call. </b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">When Azar protested, the then-president told him, “Laura takes it. It’s safe,”</span> Baker and Glasser report. </font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I want it approved today. That’s an order,” he ultimately demanded, according to the book.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After Trump publicly touted hydroxychloroquine at a press briefing the day after his call with Azar, the <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/president-trumps-fox-obsession-reshaped-political-universe-2019" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">Fox-Trump feedback loop</a> went into full swing: Fox ran <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-news-has-promoted-hydroxychloroquine-nearly-300-times-two-week-period" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">hundreds of segments</a> talking up the drug’s benefits; Trump <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-needs-get-its-hosts-under-control-or-take-them-air" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">tweeted praise</a> of the drug in response to the coverage and <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/timeline-how-trumps-fox-news-fixation-shaped-federal-coronavirus-response" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">successfully pressured</a> health officials to issue guidance supporting the use of the drug as a coronavirus treatment; and Ingraham <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/foxs-laura-ingraham-reportedly-advised-trump-using-anti-malarials-coronavirus-cure" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">visited</a> the White House with two members of her “medicine cabinet” to meet with Trump and FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn and push for additional support for the treatment.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The federal government <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-all-ignores-fda-pulling-authorizations-drugs-it-championed" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">ultimately amassed</a> a stockpile of 66 million doses of a drug that is not effective in treating COVID-19 because Fox hosts told Trump that it worked and he believed them. Meanwhile, the network <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/fox-news/fox-mentioned-ivermectin-nearly-300-times-then-ignored-new-study-finding-drug-ineffective" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">moved on</a> to peddling ivermectin, another drug studies show is ineffective in treating COVID-19, while <a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/coronavirus-covid-19/fox-has-undermined-vaccines-nearly-every-day-last-six-months" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; transition: box-shadow 0.15s ease-in-out 0s; text-decoration-line: none; box-shadow: rgba(25, 118, 210, 0.5) 0px -1px 0px inset;">slandering</a> the actually effective COVID-19 vaccines. The results for Fox’s viewers have been devastating.</font></p></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">enemies list</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-family: utopia-std, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);">Power The Future Works With The Same Public Relations Firm That That</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Had To Drop A No-Bid Contract With The EPA After Its Ties To A Controversial Group That Harassed EPA Staff</span></span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-family: utopia-std, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-weight: bolder;">Power The Future’s Website Uses A Web Domain Registered By Defitecn Public Affairs. </span>“In other examples, environmental causes have been attacked by astroturf websites, linked to </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Definers Public Affairs</span><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);"> by common Google analytics codes. The They Cap You Pay website attacked proposed cap and trade (climate change-related) legislation in Oregon. Meanwhile, the Power the Future website – which again shares the same tracking code and was also registered using a Definers email address – claims that ‘We are the voice of energy workers pushing back on radical green groups and the ideologues who fund them.’” [Global Witness, </span><a href="https://www.globalwitness.org/en/blog/behind-trumps-border-wall-political-operatives-a-controversial-pr-firm-and-an-alleged-fake-news-site/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 600; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); outline: none; background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.35s ease 0s; font-family: aktiv-grotesk, sans-serif;"><span class="te" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px -0.225em; padding: 0px 0.15em; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; position: relative; display: inline-block; z-index: 9;">06/11/19</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);">]</span></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 25px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 18px; line-height: 27px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-family: utopia-std, serif; color: rgb(51, 51, 51);"><span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; font-weight: bolder;"><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);">Definers Public Affairs Had To Drop Its No-Bid EPA Contract After Its Ties To A</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> Republican Group That Sought To Identify EPA Staff Critical Of Donald Trump.</span></span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);"> “</span><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);">A consulting firm has pulled out of a federal contract to provide media monitoring services to the Environmental Protection Agency after it was disclosed that a lawyer among its top executives had been investigating agency employees critical of the Trump administration. Joe Pounder, the president of Definers Public Affairs, said in a statement on Twitter that his company’s $120,000 contract with the E.P.A., which it was awarded this month, had become a ‘distraction.’ The contract came under scrutiny because of the company’s links to<b> America Rising, a Virginia-based corporation and Republican political operation</b> with several offshoots that have investigated E.P.A. officials. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">One lawyer on the company’s staff, Allan Blutstein, sent a series of Freedom of Information Act requests to the E.P.A. asking for email correspondence by employees who had been publicly critical of the Trump administration’s management of the agency.<b>[FREEEEEEEDDDDOOOOOMMMMM!] </b></span><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);">[…] But agency employees — particularly those who had been targeted by America Rising after they raised questions about the management of Mr. Trump’s E.P.A. — said they were fearful the new contract might translate into increased surveillance of agency staff.” [</span><i style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat;">New York Times</i><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);">, </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/19/climate/epa-definers-public-affairs-contract.html" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: 600; color: rgb(51, 51, 51); outline: none; background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245); box-sizing: inherit; font-size: 16px; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; touch-action: manipulation; transition: all 0.35s ease 0s; font-family: aktiv-grotesk, sans-serif;"><span class="te" style="box-sizing: inherit; font-size: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px -0.225em; padding: 0px 0.15em; border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; background-repeat: no-repeat; position: relative; display: inline-block; z-index: 9;">12/19/17</span></a><span style="background-color: rgb(250, 248, 245);">]</span></p></div><div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">bizinsider, why back off? in general election he has to tack to center?</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump has also expressed the desire to ramp up the fossil-fuel production and re-start the Keystone pipeline process; both decisions that would be detrimental to the environment.</b></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>At the first presidential debate last September, Clinton brought up his wild claims about climate change.</div><div>
</div><div>This is how the exchange went down:</div><div>
</div><div>CLINTON: Some country is going to be the clean- energy superpower of the 21st century. <b>Donald thinks that climate change is a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese. I think it's real.</b></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">TRUMP: I did not. I did not. I do not say that.</span></div><div>
</div><div>CLINTON: I think science is real.</div><div>
</div><div>TRUMP: I do not say that.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Trump has since backed away from what he said, calling his words a "joke" and has even denied saying these things altogether. However, over the years Trump hasn't shied away from his skepticism about climate change, and he has referred to it as a hoax many times. A lot of these claims are on his Twitter feed.</b></div><div>
</div><div>This tweet is from January 2014.</div><div>
</div><div>—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 25, 2014</div><div>"NBC News just called it the great freeze — coldest weather in years. Is our country still spending money on the <b>GLOBAL WARMING HOAX?"</b></div><div>
</div><div>A few days later.</div><div>
</div><div>—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2014</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 0);">"Snowing in Texas and Louisiana, record setting freezing temperatures throughout the country and beyond. Global warming is an expensive hoa</span>x!"</div><div>
</div><div>—Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 29, 2014</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">"Give me clean, beautiful and healthy air — not the same old climate change (global warming) bullshit! I am tired of hearing this nonsense.</span>"</div><div>
</div><div><b>Last January he told Fox & Friends that climate change was merely a very expensive form of tax.</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">"A lot of people are making a lot of money. </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">I know much about climate change</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">. I'd be — received environmental awards.</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"> And I often joke that this is done for the benefit of China," he said. "</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Obviously, I joke. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">But this is done for the benefit of China, because China does not do anything to help climate change.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);"> They burn everything you could burn; they couldn't care less. They have very — you know, their standards are nothing. </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 51);">But they — in the meantime, they can undercut us on price. So it's very hard on our business."</b></div><div>
</div><div><b>In a speech on energy policy in North Dakota last May, Trump referred to "draconian climate rules" and attacked "all the job-destroying Obama executive actions, including the C<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">limate Action Plan."</span></b></div><div>
</div><div><b>"President Obama entered the United States into the Paris Climate Accords unilaterally and without the permission of Congress," he said. "This <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">agreement gives foreign bureaucrats control over</span> how much energy we use right here in America."</b></div><div>
</div><div>The fact that the new president of the US has repeatedly disagreed with the science is concerning, not just for the future of climate science, but for everyone that lives on earth. The USA is the second largest emitter of carbon dioxide, so if Trump makes decisions to make the situation even worse, we could all suffer. </div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">pompeo arms sales saudi</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-executive-order-directs-all-agencies-to-gut-business-regulations-amid-covid-19-the-corruption-is-on-full-display/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-executive-order-directs-all-agencies-to-gut-business-regulations-amid-covid-19-the-corruption-is-on-full-display/</a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see authoritarian 3</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/senators-and-legal-experts-speak-out-about-trumps-use-of-emergency-powers-report/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/senators-and-legal-experts-speak-out-about-trumps-use-of-emergency-powers-report/</font></a></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-sends-letter-threatening-permanent-freeze-of-us-funding-to-who-written-for-his-base-and-to-deflect-blame/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-sends-letter-threatening-permanent-freeze-of-us-funding-to-who-written-for-his-base-and-to-deflect-blame/</a></div><div>
</div><div>...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;"> </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">Trump on Monday </span><a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1262577580718395393" target="blank" style="font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">sent a four-page letter</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;"> to Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the World Health Organization, threatening to permanently freeze U.S. funding to the United Nations agency in the midst of a global pandemic that has made international cooperation </span><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/03/global-covid-19-cases-top-one-million-un-adopts-resolution-urging-intensified" target="blank" style="font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">as crucial as ever</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; font-size: 17px;">.</span></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump’s letter, which he posted to Twitter Monday night, repeats the president’s accusations that WHO is deferential to China and says that if the organization “does not commit to major substantive improvements within the next 30 days, I will make my temporary freeze of United States funding to the World Health Organization permanent and reconsider our membership in the organization.”</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The president also alleged that WHO ignored early warnings about the spread of the coronavirus and made “grossly inaccurate or misleading” claims about the virus. Observers noted that much of Trump’s critique of WHO’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/11/us/politics/coronavirus-trump-response.html" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">applies to the White House’s handling of the crisis</a>, which has been condemned as fatally slow and inadequate.</p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; font-size: 17px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); font-family: Cabin, sans-serif; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“This is a phenomenally damning letter—of the president’s own response,” <a href="https://twitter.com/svdate/status/1262583951975202819" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">tweeted</a> <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">HuffPost</em> White House correspondent S.V. Dáte. “All of those early dates? Late December and January? Were known to U.S. officials and relayed to Trump. Who did nothing.”...[lancet disputes]</p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 5/20</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">'<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/this-will-kill-you-fox-news-host-desperately-warns-viewers-of-danger-after-trump-say-hes-taking-hydroxychloroquine/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4; display: inline !important;">This will kill you!’: Fox News host desperately warns viewers of danger after Trump say he’s taking hydroxychloroquine</a></font></div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(136, 136, 136);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/cody-fenwick/" title="Posts by Cody Fenwick" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cody Fenwick</font></a></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fox News host Neil Cavuto rushed to warn viewers on Monday that despite President Donald Trump’s new claim that he is taking hydroxychloroquine to prevent the infection by the coronavirus, the…</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; font-style: italic;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5; font-style: italic;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/heres-a-non-exhaustive-list-of-people-who-paved-the-way-for-trump"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/heres-a-non-exhaustive-list-of-people-who-paved-the-way-for-trump</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); color: rgb(49, 49, 49);">While certainly not an exhaustive list, I thought it would be helpful to briefly summarize some of the people who paved the way for where we are today.</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a title="Lee Atwater" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Southern_strategy#Evolution(1970s_and_1980s)" target="blank" rel="external nofollow noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Lee Atwater</strong></a>: Along with others in the Nixon White House, implemented the Republican’s Southern Strategy (the early 1970s).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a title="Paul Weyrich" href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/02/17/christian-nationalists-found-the-leader-theyve-been-looking-for/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Paul Weyrich</strong></a>: Formed a coalition between Goldwater conservatives and Christian nationalists that became the base of the Republican Party (1980).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a title="Ronald Reagan" href="https://www.reaganfoundation.org/ronald-reagan/reagan-quotes-speeches/inaugural-address-2/" target="blank" rel="external nofollow noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Ronald Reagan</strong></a>: Proclaimed, “Government is not the solution to our problem, government is the problem” (1981).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a title="Newt Gingrich" href="https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2018/11/newt-gingrich-says-youre-welcome/570832/" target="blank" rel="external nofollow noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Newt Gingrich</strong></a>: Turned partisan battles into a bloodsport and wrecked Congress (the 1990s).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a title="Rupert Murdoch" href="https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/fox-news-channel-announced-20-years-ago" target="blank" rel="external nofollow noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Rupert Murdoch</strong></a>: Launched Fox News (1996).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a title="Grover Norquist" href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2015/02/01/a-walk-down-memory-lane-on-republican-obstruction/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Grover Norquist</strong></a>: Not only invented the anti-tax pledge but became the father of obstruction when he forecast that if a Democrat won the White House, Republicans would make it so that they couldn’t govern as a Democrat (2003).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a title="Mitch McConnell" href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/05/15/mitch-mcconnell-wants-to-get-rid-of-the-governing-process/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Mitch McConnell</strong></a>: Implemented Norquist’s plan of total obstruction and broke the Senate (2009-present).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a title="Supreme Court" href="https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/citizens-united-explained" target="blank" rel="external nofollow noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Supreme Court</strong></a>: In the <em style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Citizens United</em> case, ruled that corporations and other outside groups can spend unlimited money on elections (2010).</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That is how the GOP became the party of racists and Christian nationalists funded by the one percent with the goal of undermining the government. It is also what eventually put Donald Trump in the White House.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Democrats haven’t been all that successful in combating these moves. As the party that embraces both pluralism and the role of government in solving problems, simply adopting these GOP strategies is not an option.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">During Barack Obama’s second term, he gave an <a title="entire speech" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qPzgb8dUqp4&feature=emb_title" target="blank" rel="external nofollow noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; color: rgb(0, 191, 165); transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">entire speech</a> in Springfield, Illinois, focused on the steps we need to take as citizens to develop “a better politics.” His ideas are nothing new, but worth highlighting in this context.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; color: rgb(49, 49, 49); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1. “First is to take, or at least reduce, some of the corrosive influence of money in our politics.”....</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-administration-orders-halt-to-first-of-its-kind-covid-19-testing-at-home-project-backed-by-bill-gates/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-administration-orders-halt-to-first-of-its-kind-covid-19-testing-at-home-project-backed-by-bill-gates/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump administration has ordered an “innovative” and “first of its kind” at home coronavirus testing program that has the support of Bill Gates and other public health experts to cease, and it’s unclear why.</span></b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The program, as <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/15/us/coronavirus-testing-seattle-bill-gates.html" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The New York Times</a> and <a href="https://www.kuow.org/stories/landmark-seattle-area-covid-19-home-testing-project-halted-pending-federal-approval" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">NPR affiliate KUOW</a> report, is based in Seattle, Washington, and allowed residents to easily test for coronavirus. One of the program’s benefits is 43 percent of its more than 12,000 participants so far were asymptomatic. To date the program has identified dozens of previously-undetected COVID-19 cases.</font></p><div class="ncrm_ad_block story_page_incontent_p2" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="teadsNative" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The Seattle Coronavirus Assessment </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Network </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">(SCAN), operated by researchers from the Seattle Flu Study and Public Health – Seattle & King County, and had an “in-person technical adviser” from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, was authorized by the State of Washington.</span></b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“Please discontinue patient testing and return of diagnostic results to patients until proper authorization is obtained,” the FDA ordered, saying it had “concerns about safety and accuracy."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>SCAN’s researchers say they had, The Times reports, “submitted data validating both the safety and reliability of the swabs in home-based collection.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>One researcher not affiliated with the program called halting it “bizarre.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">It’s unclear if Bill Gates’ association with the project has any negative impact. Some far right conspiracy theorists among Trump’s base, including those protesting state stay-at-home policies, falsely claim Gates is developing a vaccine that contains a microchip to track those who get injected.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">President Donald Trump has been very concerned with the actual numbers attached to coronavirus cases and has made clear he wanted to keep the numbers low <a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2020/03/trump-knew-coronavirus-could-be-a-crisis-but-made-clear-lower-numbers-were-better-for-his-re-election-report/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">to help his re-election campaign</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He <a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2020/03/trump-we-dont-want-everybody-taking-the-coronavirus-test-its-totally-unnecessary/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">has said</a>, “we don’t want everybody taking this test,” referring to coronavirus testing. “It’s totally unnecessary. This will pass through and we’re going to be even stronger for it.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">On Thursday Trump said testing for coronavirus is “overrated,” and complained that the more tests are conducted, the more cases there are.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“When you test, you have a case,” <a href="https://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/2020/05/dumbest-man-on-the-planet-trump-hilariously-mocked-for-saying-if-we-didnt-do-any-testing-we-would-have-very-few-cases/" target="blank" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump said</a> in Allentown, Pennsylvania. “When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn’t do any testing we would have very few cases.”</b></font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/investigative-reporter-explains-how-trump-makes-the-secret-service-captive-customers-at-his-businesses-basically-the-buyer-and-the-seller-in-almost-1-million-of-gov-transactions/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/investigative-reporter-explains-how-trump-makes-the-secret-service-captive-customers-at-his-businesses-basically-the-buyer-and-the-seller-in-almost-1-million-of-gov-transactions/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-baffles-everyone-by-announcing-a-super-duper-missile-and-no-one-knows-what-he-meant/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-baffles-everyone-by-announcing-a-super-duper-missile-and-no-one-knows-what-he-meant/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">5/20 djt going after mueller/collusion, flynn, OBAMAGATE?! (unmask names, no one cd know one was flynn]</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/the-media-is-taking-the-bait-on-trumps-fake-scandal/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/the-media-is-taking-the-bait-on-trumps-fake-scandal/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/federal-judge-who-sentenced-roger-stone-to-prison-orders-trump-administration-to-turn-over-foiad-ukraine-emails/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/federal-judge-who-sentenced-roger-stone-to-prison-orders-trump-administration-to-turn-over-foiad-ukraine-emails/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/inside-trumps-brazen-plot-to-gut-social-security/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/inside-trumps-brazen-plot-to-gut-social-security/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trumps-flunkies-are-trying-to-scapegoat-anthony-fauci-but-we-all-know-whos-really-to-blame/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trumps-flunkies-are-trying-to-scapegoat-anthony-fauci-but-we-all-know-whos-really-to-blame/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/leaked-white-house-data-shows-infections-spiking-more-than-1000-in-rural-areas-that-backed-trump"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/leaked-white-house-data-shows-infections-spiking-more-than-1000-in-rural-areas-that-backed-trump</font></a></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">----</font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: abortion turned xian anti-gubmint; in 80's RR televangelists had TV programs/stations; Rove courted (organized) for Bush 43; now drollinger cabinet and GOTV network (AI/digital tracking?)<b>; scary overlap with militias?! patriot prayer</b></font></div><div><b times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> putin cozied up to? thus US xians gave him pass on collusion, plus if true delegitimizes trump, who delivers anti-abortion judge and SCOTUS w/ mcconnell</font></b></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/why-religious-freedom-stokes-coronavirus-protests-in-the-u-s/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/why-religious-freedom-stokes-coronavirus-protests-in-the-u-s/</a></font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/yale-philosopher-and-author-of-how-fascism-works-explains-why-the-pandemic-offers-trump-a-dangerous-opportunity-to-rule-by-decree/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/yale-philosopher-and-author-of-how-fascism-works-explains-why-the-pandemic-offers-trump-a-dangerous-opportunity-to-rule-by-decree/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">a moment of reckoning is here. America must have committed great wrongs to be <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/28/pulitzer-winner-chris-hedges-these-are-the-good-times--compared-to-whats-coming-next/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">afflicted with the coronavirus pandemic and Donald Trump</a> at the same time.</font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Authoritarians like Trump love disasters. Because they can only destroy and not create, <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/08/trumps-massive-betrayal-of-america-continues-as-mike-flynn-walks-free/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">authoritarians</a> use such moments of misery and fear to expand their power.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Donald Trump is announcing that fact when he proclaims himself to be a “war president.” Such language is not just the superficial trappings of Trump wrapping himself in the flag and using empty words about “sacrifice” and “bravery” and “heroism.” It is something far worse and more sinister. As a “war president,” <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/07/justice-department-drops-charges-against-former-trump-national-security-adviser-michael-flynn/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump is putting himself above the law</a> and proclaiming the country is in a state of emergency.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>I recently spoke with Yale University philosophy professor Jason Stanley, author of the books “<a href="https://amzn.to/2yKloET" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">How Fascism Works: </a><a href="https://amzn.to/2yKloET" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The Politics of Us and Them</a>” and “<a href="https://amzn.to/2SObby7" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">How Propaganda Works</a>.” He warns in this conversation that the coronavirus pandemic is an opportunity for the Trump regime to further advance its campaign against the Constitution, democracy, human rights, human dignity and freedom across all areas of American society.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stanley also explains how the <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/05/07/trumps-fake-protest-movement-authoritarian-stagecraft-meets-white-privilege/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">fake coronavirus “protests”</a> staged by Trump supporters in Michigan and other parts of the country exemplify the kinds of forces that have brought fascist and authoritarian movements to power, including Adolf Hitler and the Nazi regime.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Stanley explains that he sees America’s colleges and universities as key sites for teaching critical thinking and engaged citizenship — which is why gangster capitalists, neo-fascists and other right-wing forces are using the coronavirus pandemic as an excuse to further undermine the country’s system of higher education.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You can also <a href="https://radiopublic.com/the-truth-report-with-chauncey-de-GyorDQ/s1!dfce7" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">listen to my conversation with Jason Stanley on my podcast “The Truth Report”</a> or through the player embedded below....</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">bit ranty recap but he's not wrong</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/donald-trump-and-the-pandemic-wannabe-fascism-meets-neoliberal-capitalism-and-it-could-hardly-be-worse"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/donald-trump-and-the-pandemic-wannabe-fascism-meets-neoliberal-capitalism-and-it-could-hardly-be-worse</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/05/lincoln-project-capitalizes-on-trump-rage"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.opensecrets.org/news/2020/05/lincoln-project-capitalizes-on-trump-rage</font></a></div><div><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 21px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Lincoln Project, a super PAC launched by prominent anti-Trump Republicans, aired an ad this week on Fox News that trashes President Donald Trump over his response to COVID-19. Trump responded with a tweetstorm ripping the group and its members, with much of his ire directed at George Conway, husband of White House counselor Kellyanne Conway.
The super PAC has amassed a substantial war chest, but it has come under scrutiny for funneling money to its advisory board members and spending relatively little airing political ads to influence voters. The group also hides some of its vendors by stealthily paying subcontractors, making it difficult to follow the money. </font></p><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://opensecrets.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=aa7cf182bf7041258bb250f9d&id=85e3c5a1c0&e=44dfb36771" style="overflow-wrap: break-word;"><u><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Read More</font></u></a></span></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/the-travel-bans-that-failed/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">The travel bans that failed</font></a></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/joe-conason/" title="Posts by Joe Conason" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Joe Conason</a> </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">May 9, 2020</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Now that President Donald Trump has surrendered the United States to the coronavirus — without much available testing, except for himself and his White House cronies — the toll of…</font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">disband covid team blowback to reTOOLs 520</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trumps-refusal-to-wear-a-mask-isnt-just-vanity-its-a-manifestation-of-his-fascism/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trumps-refusal-to-wear-a-mask-isnt-just-vanity-its-a-manifestation-of-his-fascism/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This is another example of Trump’s </span><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/20/dont-fall-for-trumps-false-dichotomy-its-not-a-choice-between-human-lives-and-the-economy/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">false dichotomy</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> between saving the economy and fighting the virus. After all, the economy isn’t going to recover if millions are sick and people are afraid to leave their houses — and early evidence from the states that have tried to “reopen” their economies makes that clear. But there’s also good reason to believe that the Trump-Pence antipathy to wearing masks signals to something deeper and darker.</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Even before Trump started to make a big show out of not wearing a mask, it was common, at least in my South Philadelphia neighborhood, to see MAGA-hat-clad white men walking around without masks, delivering contemptuous sneers to the rest of us suckers who are covering our noses and mouths. Fox News host Laura Ingraham, in her friendly competition with fellow host Tucker Carlson to see who can be the most obnoxious, has started to demonize mask-wearing by claiming that <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/04/30/laura-ingraham-falsely-claims-urging-people-to-wear-masks-is-a-plot-to-sow-fear-and-intimidation/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">public health advisories are somehow a conspiracy</a> to sow “fear and intimidation.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">(Considering that mask-wearing to protect others took off in Asia long before Trump even ran for president, Ingraham’s conspiracy theory doesn’t possess even the most remote logical consistency.)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><div><p data-wc="69"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p><p data-wc="69"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">5/20</font></p><p data-wc="69"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p data-wc="69"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">omfg</font></p><p data-wc="69"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/on-putins-payroll-what-the-corrupt-move-to-drop-the-case-against-michael-flynn-really-means"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/on-putins-payroll-what-the-corrupt-move-to-drop-the-case-against-michael-flynn-really-means</font></a></p><p data-wc="69"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">dcj dc reptr</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In a major step toward establishing a Trump dictatorship, the Justice Department moved Thursday to drop the criminal case against confessed felon Michael Flynn, the retired Army general and secret foreign agent who was Trump’s first national security adviser.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Instead of seeking equal justice under law, an extraordinary court filing demonstrated that Trump has one standard of justice for his enemies and an entirely different one for his allies. The court action shows how fully Trump has turned our Justice Department into his personal protection agency.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The 108-page court filing is rife with falsehoods and tortured interpretations of established facts, a mendacious necessity since Flynn twice confessed to multiple crimes under oath in open court. It argues that the lies Flynn told FBI agents were not “material” to the case against him. The trial court judge has already dismissed that as nonsense.</font></p><blockquote style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 10px 20px 10px 24px; position: relative; line-height: 1.7; overflow: hidden; background-image: initial; background-position: initial; background-size: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-attachment: initial; background-origin: initial; background-clip: initial; border: none !important;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Flynn was secretly a well-paid agent of foreign interests while serving as Trump’s national security adviser.</font></p></blockquote><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>It also argues that there was no legitimate reason ever existed to investigate Flynn</b>, an astonishing claim since Flynn was secretly a well-paid agent of foreign interests while serving as Trump’s national security adviser. The claim is all the more remarkable because it is made by an ostensibly Republican administration after decades of Republican clamor about Russian spies and influence peddling.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Based on all this and more we can now reasonably refer to Trump’s </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Injustice Department.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump could have pardoned Flynn. “He was an innocent man,“ <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcfRCklTnWo" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump said in a bald-faced lie in front of video cameras Thursday afternoon</a>. “I’m very happy for General Flynn.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But a pardon would not have allowed Trump to mark his territory, signaling to any who dare challenge his assertions that he is above the law.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">From President to Dictator</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">By demonstrating unfettered control over our Justice Department, Trump has achieved a critical step required for a transition from a president with limited authority to de facto dictator.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The motion to drop the Flynn case fits <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2019/07/23/trump-falsely-tells-auditorium-full-teens-constitution-gives-him-right-do-whatever-i-want/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump’s fact-free declaration</a> last summer that “I have an Article II, where I have to the right to do whatever I want as president.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Our Constitution allows no such thing. You might think that Trump, who has been saying since 1987 that he should be president, would have read Article II, which is only 1,023 words. But either Trump never read Article II or he doesn’t care about the limits it places on him including the requirement that he “shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Attorney General William Barr—better and properly called Attorney Specific to Trump—lacks unilateral power to dismiss the case against Flynn. Dismissal requires court approval under <a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/rules/frcrmp/rule_48" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Rule 48(a) of the Federal Rules of Criminal Procedure</a>.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Admitted His Crimes</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><a href="https://www.vox.com/world/2017/3/9/14868680/trump-adviser-michael-flynn-foreign-agent-turkey-lobby" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Eminent lawyers stood beside Flynn when he confessed twice in open court to felonies</a>. He allocated to crimes for which charges were dropped in a plea deal. Given this robust record of criminality, the Injustice Department’s action raises obvious questions:</font></p><ul style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 50px; list-style: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Will Republican senators, notably lawyers Mitch McConnell, Lindsey Graham, Lamar Alexander and Ted Cruz, at long last stand up for the rule of law or continue as moral jellyfish – blind, spineless and floating aimlessly in the waves of chaos and corruption flowing from the Trump White House?</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Will Speaker Nancy Pelosi authorize House investigative hearings into Trump violating his oath to “faithfully execute” the duties of his office and endangering our national security?</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">If Trump persists with his refusal to cooperate with all House investigations, will Pelosi exercise the House’s Constitutional power to arrest recalcitrant witnesses, including Barr, and if appropriate to try them and upon conviction incarcerate them for contempt of Congress and other crimes?</font></li><li style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 7px; padding: 0px; list-style: square; position: relative; line-height: 1.7;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Will Joe Biden pledge that if elected his Justice Department will fully pursue the Russian connections to Trump and his campaign until we find out why Team Trump has worked so diligently to hide the truth?</font></li></ul><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Justice Department Turmoil</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The extraordinary court filing follows what must have been a ferocious, months-long fight inside Barr’s Injustice Department because <b>some career prosecutors resigned</b>from the case earlier to avoid sullying their reputations.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Thursday motion was signed only by Timothy Shea, a Barr protégé installed three months ago as acting United States Attorney for the District of Columbia.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Missing from the latest court papers were the signatures of Jocelyn Ballentine, an assistant prosecutor, and Brandon Van Grack, a veteran espionage case prosecutor. Van Grack resigned from the case in a one-sentence filing just moments before the motion to dismiss was submitted to Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of U.S. District Court.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Judge Sullivan can order Justice and its lawyers to explain these unusual actions. He could refuse to allow the case to be dropped or allow it, but with leave to refile the charges in the future. That would make Flynn vulnerable if Trump does not get a second term.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">On Putin’s Payroll</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Flynn and his company were on Putin’s payroll and worked for Turkish interests with deep ties to the Kremlin. Flynn was paid at least $680,000, some of which he lied about. At the time he was the president elect’s designated national security adviser.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">After the allocation, Judge Sullivan told Flynn “arguably you sold out your country.” (Trump, on Thursday, called Flynn “a hero.”)</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“All along, you were an unregistered agent of a foreign country while serving as the national security advisor to the president of the United States,” Sullivan told Flynn. “That undermines everything this flag over here stands for,” Sullivan said.</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“This is a very serious offense… A high ranking senior official of the government making false statements to the Federal Bureau of Investigation while in the White House, very serious crime.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">That the Trump administration would shield a secret foreign agent who was the White House intelligence chief shows how important it is to Trump that he keep Flynn in his fold.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Flynn made himself susceptible to blackmail by taking Russian money and lying about it, but it is not known if Flynn engaged in unquestionably traitorous conduct.</span></font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More Kremlin Connections</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Flynn case has its roots in Russian interference to help Trump win the 2016 election. So do other allies. Among these are the felony prosecutions of Roger Stone, Trump’s dirty tricks specialist, and campaign Manager Paul Manafort, a longtime foreign agent for dictators and Russian-speaking criminals and politicians.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump denies the Russians helped him become president. But America’s intelligence agencies, the bi-partisan chairs of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the 418-page Mueller report and emails from none other than Donald Trump Jr. all make clear the Kremlin helped Trump defeat Hillary Clinton. The only issue on which the facts are not complete was whether Trump was a passive beneficiary or he knowingly worked with the Kremlin, whether obliquely or hand-in-glove.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The president’s eldest son was told in writing in June 2016 that the Kremlin wanted to help his father become president. Trump Jr. replied enthusiastically “love it” and then met at Trump Tower with Kremlin agents</b><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">The son then lied and denied, telling both Fox News and ABC News that no such contact took place. More than a year later, as The New York Times was about to expose these lies, the namesake son released the damning emails.</span></b></font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Economic Collapse and Riots</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump has openly talked six times about <a href="https://theweek.com/speedreads/852099/trump-just-joked-about-being-president-life--6th-time" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">being president for life</a>. </b>When criticized for such assaults on American Constitutional principles, Trump lamely claimed he was joking. He also said last June that he anticipates that after completing the maximum of two terms his supporters will “<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-says-supporters-might-demand-that-he-serve-more-than-two-terms-as-president/2019/06/16/4b6b9ae2-9041-11e9-b570-6416efdc0803_story.html" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">demand that I stay longer</a>.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump campaigned on a promise to destroy our government, an issue that has disappeared from the news after getting almost no attention during his campaign.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3em; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‘Country Goes to Total Hell’</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That promise came after <a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2019/01/country-goes-hell-2014-video-shows-trump-bragging-crash-economy-get-way/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Trump told Fox News in 2014</a> how to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, aka Obamacare. “When the economy crashes, when the country goes to total hell, and everything is a disaster… you’ll have riots to go back to where we used to be when we were great,” he said.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On Wednesday, as the pandemic death toll surpassed 75,000 Americans he <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/05/06/trump-supreme-court-obamacare-240366" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">renewed his demand that the law be made history</a>. Repeal would leave at least 20 million Americans with no health insurance.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Just weeks after assuming office Trump held an unannounced meeting in the Oval Office with Russia’s foreign minister and Russian ambassador and a “photographer” for the Kremlin-owned Tass news agency. The Russians revealed the meeting. They also disclosed that Trump gave them “sources and methods” intelligence, which is closely guarded to protect human and technological assets.</font></p><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.3em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump Places Trust in Putin</font></h3><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In 2018 in Helsinki Trump declared that he trusts Putin fully, but not America’s intelligence agencies.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump has met alone with Putin and Putin subordinates through his presidency. He ripped up the notes of his translator after one meeting, a crime under federal law. He met alone with Putin for at least one lengthy conversation using Putin’s interpreter.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These actions demonstrate Trump’s disloyalty and unfitness to be president, yet Senate Republicans refused to hear testimony after the House impeached him last year. Senate Republicans then voted twice not to convict except for one vote by the 2012 Republican presidential nominee, Mitt Romney, now the junior senator from Utah.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This latest abuse of power to protect a criminal crony who was on Vladimir Putin’s payroll and a secret foreign agent is more than an impeachable offense. Trump, Barr and Shea also sent a clear message: Team Trump harbors no regard for the rule of law, the foundation of our liberties and democratic freedoms.</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/05/why-william-barr-wants-gop-stop-trying-destroy-obamacare/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/05/05/why-william-barr-wants-gop-stop-trying-destroy-obamacare/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 52o</font></div><div><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/a-damning-whistleblower-complaint-details-the-tragic-blunders-of-jared-kushners-coronavirus-task-force-report/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">damning whistleblower complaint details the ‘tragic’ blunders of Jared Kushner’s coronavirus task force: report</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/a-damning-whistleblower-complaint-details-the-tragic-blunders-of-jared-kushners-coronavirus-task-force-report/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/alex-henderson/" title="Posts by Alex Henderson" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Alex Hend</font></a></h3></div><div><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/fear-and-loathing-at-the-white-house-a-journey-into-the-heart-of-the-american-nightmare/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/fear-and-loathing-at-the-white-house-a-journey-into-the-heart-of-the-american-nightmare/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">hunter s t</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/how-trump-may-already-be-discrediting-a-covid-19-vaccination/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/how-trump-may-already-be-discrediting-a-covid-19-vaccination/</font></a></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">same day! COVID info</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/white-house-to-oust-dhhs-inspector-general-whose-report-drew-trump-fury/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">/white-house-to-oust-dhhs-inspector-general-whose-report-drew-trump-fury/</span></a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 520</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-administrations-serial-ig-purges-fuel-calls-for-anti-corruption-provisions-in-next-covid-19-package/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/trump-administrations-serial-ig-purges-fuel-calls-for-anti-corruption-provisions-in-next-covid-19-package/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/bombshell-report-reveals-trumps-careless-belief-early-on-that-covid-19-was-deep-state-conspiracy"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/05/bombshell-report-reveals-trumps-careless-belief-early-on-that-covid-19-was-deep-state-conspiracy</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CNN’s Jake Tapper did a special walking through the timeline of the COVID-19 crisis and the denial from President Donald Trump leading up to the middle of March.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the virus was spreading across the world, President Donald Trump believed that all of the warnings from his government were just more from the “deep state” trying to conspire against him and his presidency.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“His focus, much of it, was on the U.S. Senate,” said Tapper of Trump in January.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“In his view, it was the so-called deep state, people in government who were hell-bent on bringing him down,” said Mark Mazzetti, New York Times investigative reporter. “So, by the time the coronavirus pandemic really started to worsen in the United States and scientists and experts were telling him of the problem, he saw some of these people as just an extension of the deep state, and so that led to I think, some of the skepticism that he had towards the advice he was being given"</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump issued his China ban, but according to the report, public health experts said that Trump assumed it would take care of everything. He then took his foot off the gas for weeks, ignoring the virus and having political rallies throughout the country instead of focusing on the crisis.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Political correspondent Sara Murray explained that public health experts “really look with despair at those couple of weeks because they say whatever your feelings were on the travel ban at the time, it was a perfectly fine and reasonable step to take, and he bought himself a little bit of time, and then he just squandered it.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While the FDA acted quickly to issue test kits, they quickly found that the tests weren’t working. Precious time was wasted because the FDA blocked anyone else from creating a test.’</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“There was a test available from the world health organization, but the CDC did not choose to get it, and nobody inside the government asked outside labs to help,” said Tapper.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Dr. Sanjay Gupta said that it was clear in early February that there was human to human contact.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Warning stacked up health experts, but they all went ignored. When one Trump official crafted a memo about the crisis, the president became enraged that someone put something down on paper about the virus. In the notorious “Red Dawn” email chain on Feb. 9, the government health experts were calling for social distancing. It was five weeks later that Trump would finally agree to it. But on that same day, Trump’s team was giving a briefing to governors where they were saying it was a serious problem.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“They gave us a pretty detailed outline of what they felt was happening with this virus,” said Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R). “We knew this was going to be a serious crisis.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In early February, Trump was telling everyone that the virus was going to be down to zero cases in the United States, but behind the scenes, his experts were preparing for cases to go from 15 to millions.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">See clips of the special below:</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/heres-the-massive-lie-that-paved-trumps-way-to-the-presidency-and-how-to-defang-it">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/heres-the-massive-lie-that-paved-trumps-way-to-the-presidency-and-how-to-defang-it</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Truth-telling was suddenly for wusses. </span><a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2020/03/endangering-public-trump-lies-mount-as-coronavirus-spreads-across-united-states/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Bald-faced lying was but a tactic</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">, shrewdly used only by the boldest of men. Good manners, conventional norms, good government, even the very concept of law-abiding citizenship were accused (and found guilty) of turning the country into a humorless, over-regulated chicken coop paralyzed to the brink of suffocation by namby-pamby sensitivities.</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2017/10/white-house-staffers-knew-trump-didnt-contact-virtually-every-gold-star-family-and-scrambled-to-fix-it/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Enter the loudmouth hooligan hell-bent on cleaning up this mess</a>. He alone would refuse to gussy up his opinions. He alone would tell it to us straight.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He alone would speak the unvarnished truth.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And there you had it, in all its garish horror. The monster lie that got Trump elected President was that he alone could be trusted to tell the truth!</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.rawstory.com/2020/04/stop-lying-to-the-american-people-trump-buried-in-scorn-for-latest-press-briefing/" target="blank" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Reflect on that, and weep</a>....</font></p><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">huffpo</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">t<strong style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">RUMP INSISTS REPORTERS RETURN 'NOBLE' PRIZES</strong><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Trump launched another Twitter tirade against the media Sunday, slamming a days-old story about his lax work habits. Trump also called on reporters who wrote about Russia’s interference in the U.S. presidential election to return their “Noble” prizes. There are no Noble prizes for reported stories, nor are there Nobel Prizes. There are Pulitzer Prizes for journalism; there is a Nobel Prize for literature. That particular rant subsequently vanished. But hours later, Trump called his comments “sarcasm.” [</span><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://mail.huffpost.com/T/v400000171bb41983aa138e86e96c66058/e7cb9fd9e0934f970000021ef3a0bcc7/e7cb9fd9-e093-4f97-a8be-5b2a2975ba82?dU=v0G4RBKTXg2GveO8nI6Ye7aTtLlnVtiUDeTuYnTC-1zsA=&F=v0fUYvjHMDjRPMSh3tviDHXIoXcPxvDgUUCCPvXMWoX_0JoZLAZABQF0LySYROcP9FPi3eUsoXUi9w1VzsyA8F-SwQ3FwMCjFHejT8aAQMUkugASv9gVcmb9wmYFPAb4qvn4MwegJBczAzP-e-Qv-AxrSvIxdHiP2TsAY9yft30VzvB2GNLc_8i80xJiXcN3x-uM9PYa-mD9DIvY13tih_niFTQU0ExeGjF6qVlFViVlcOotlnhJww3FcmXd42MTqVONwOQQhXpPfp07yZU5SSRqQsz5aNPr7FQGK1UO87aEgzF_4_k8iraXgWumzYTfuf9gkAqVRr1gakLM-WjT6-28_oIzktSoIP7vBNW8_5K8zWnsys7cc4KFvm3WQyTrTjd6UjI_Iur5ojTfMIXhkIQ" style="outline: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); text-decoration-line: none !important;">HuffPost</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">]</span></font></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/how-the-covid-19-crisis-is-accelerating-a-global-shift-to-authoritarianism/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/how-the-covid-19-crisis-is-accelerating-a-global-shift-to-authoritarianism/</font></a></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>How the COVID-19 crisis is accelerating a <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">global</span> shift to authoritarianism</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by History News Network April 27, 2020...</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/historian-trump-isnt-fighting-science-hes-stealing-its-authority/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/historian-trump-isnt-fighting-science-hes-stealing-its-authority/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...These bills do not claim to fight against science. If they did, they would lose. Few parents want their children to miss out on learning about science. Instead, these bills confuse and distort the issue by pretending that non-mainstream views about evolution have equal intellectual credibility. They insist that their religious views have earned scientific legitimacy. As have creationists for over a century, today’s activists fight for science, for the right to call their ideas truly scientific. Then they offer those ideas to public schools as better science.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump is doing something similar and similarly harmful. When President Trump says his decisions will be based on a “hunch,” he is repeating the tactics of generations of creationists. It might sound at first like he is rejecting the need for scientific credentials or expertise. In fact, though, Trump is positioning himself as superior to those experts, not against them. Like creationists, Trump does not deride the authority of science itself. Instead, he portrays himself as the best arbiter of the meaning of scientific details, the perspicacious decider-in-chief.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For instance, just after his pronouncement that he had a “hunch” about the true nature of coronavirus, Trump explained that his hunch was</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">based on a lot of conversations with a lot of people that do this, because a lot of people will have this, and it’s very mild. They will get better very rapidly. They don’t even see a doctor.....</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">an 420</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-is-massively-indebted-to-a-major-state-owned-bank-in-china-report/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-is-massively-indebted-to-a-major-state-owned-bank-in-china-report/</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">an 420</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">t<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click1.e.alternet.org/lmjqnfhshyzrznccrdghhrhccdrcsjwlqyhzgmfjjnnn_bpblpzbzypgbczdgbzj.html?a=&b=4389&c=21989&d=2" style="text-decoration-line: none; border-collapse: collapse; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">rump calls US Postal Service a ‘joke’ as he demands four-fold price hike for customers</a></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/why-trump-is-so-eager-to-bring-back-professional-sports/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/why-trump-is-so-eager-to-bring-back-professional-sports/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-doesnt-know-how-to-be-president-so-hes-drafted-us-all-into-the-reality-tv-show-in-his-mind/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-doesnt-know-how-to-be-president-so-hes-drafted-us-all-into-the-reality-tv-show-in-his-mind/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump doesn’t know how to be president — so he’s drafted us all into the reality TV show in his mind</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Cody Fenwick April 24, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">After all this time, he still hasn’t figured out how to do the job.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump entered the White House as a political neophyte, and he’s shown perhaps the worst learning curve of any of his predecessors. Despite the fact that it feels as though the past three years of his presidency had enough news and revelations to fill several decades, the complex workings of the federal government remain an opaque mystery to the commander in chief, the man at the center of it all.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And it’s dreadful time to have a man so incompetent steering the ship of state. A public health crisis on the scale of COVID-19 is virtually unprecedented, and it requires all the skill and power that the administration has to offer to handle it well. We need health experts, diplomats, the military, emergency responders, manufacturers, universities, state governments, local leaders, spokespeople, the criminal justice system, foreign governments, international agencies and more all coordinated together working toward the suppression and destruction of the virus. It’s a monumental undertaking, and the president of the United States is the only person who can lead the pack. Even the most skilled of the president’s predecessors would strain under the challenge, but Trump doesn’t have a prayer.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, he’s barely even trying. He’s told states they’re on their own to get crucial medical supplies and to establish testing regimes, which will be essential to coming safely out of lockdown. He said he has total authority, but he wants to leave the big choices up to the states. We should think of the federal government only as a “backup,” he said.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He likely doesn’t have the ability to coordinate all the relevant actors, tap into the expertise of the administration, and craft a long-term strategy for fighting the pandemic and saving as much of the economy as possible. But regardless of whether he could do what is needed, it’s clear that he’s not interested in this hard work.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Instead, he wants the quick fix. That’s at least part of the reason why he latched on to the idea that hydroxychloroquine might be a miracle cure for COVID-19, despite a paucity of evidence (whether or not there were financial motives behind his advocacy for the drug will have to be determined at a later time). The urge for the quick fix is why he assumed the virus would never become a problem in the first place, that it would go away in April, that the lockdowns could end by Easter.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And on Thursday, this desire for the quick fix manifested itself in the most bizarre, dangerous, and self-parodic form yet. Trump suggested from the White House briefing room that UV light or heat might be used or applied to the body, perhaps internally, to treat the disease. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, looked simply bemused at the suggestion. Even more bizarrely, Trump suggested that scientists should investigate whether injecting humans with disinfectants could treat the illness, an obviously absurd and outright hazardous idea. To even suggest it on national television with the authority of the presidency is an act of blatant negligence.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I’m still stunned that he actually said it. If someone had a few days ago joked that Trump would suggest injecting household cleaners as his next potential treatment after hydroxychloroquine, it would have been brushed off as an over-the-top quip. But he actually said it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So why did he say it? What compels him to float such desperate ideas?</font></div><div><span style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">t</font></span></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Some of it is just an overabundance of ego. “I’m not a doctor, but I’m like a person that has a good… you know what,” Trump said after his unsolicited medical advice, pointing to his head.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But that’s not all of it. An egotistical president could simply build their own self-esteem by working hard to fight the pandemic and be seen as a strong leader in so doing. Many governors across the country are seeing their approval rates rise as they lead heir states through the crisis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Without the patience of the discipline to do what’s required, though, Trump reverts to what he knows best: reality TV. Journalist Marcy Wheeler pointed to one quote from Trump’s briefing where he perfectly encapsulated what he thinks he’s doing by promoting his every whim as a possible coronavirus panacea.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He referred a recently conducted study That evaluated the ability of sunlight and disinfectants to kill the virus — on surfaces and in the air, not in humans — saying that this is where he got his wild ideas.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“It’s just a suggestion, from a brilliant lab, by a very, very smart, perhaps brilliant, man,” Trump said. “He’s talking about sun, he’s talking about heat. And you see the numbers. So that’s it. That’s all I have. I’m just here to present talent. I’m here to present ideas. Because we want ideas to get rid of this thing.” [Emphasis added.</span>]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Wheeler noted: “He’s still running a Reality TV show.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And this is how things work on a reality TV show. Someone comes up with a wacky idea, somehow they make it work, they impress the judges, and they move on to the next round. On “The Apprentice,” Trump got to pick whichever contestant jumped through all the right hoops to be the winner. By the following episode, no one cared what came before — and it was on to the next wacky idea.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump ran his businesses this way, too. He moved from venture to venture, product to product. He ran casinos into the ground, he promoted a pyramid scheme, he slapped his name on a fake university. While many of these businesses fell through or went bankrupt, Trump kept gaining in fame, which he could always leverage into the next venture.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And now that’s the way he’s running the country. He says it’s all he has — try longshot ideas, see if they work (even when they obviously won’t work), move on to the next while manipulating the media. But of course, that’s not all he has. He has the federal government at his disposal, and he can work with Congress to expand his capability to fight the virus and the recession even further. And yet he’s been totally uninvolved. Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin has been the primary administration negotiator on Capitol Hill as Congress passed relief bills; the president’s biggest contribution was signing the legislation without a fight.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He won’t actually do the job of being president, but he’ll play one on TV. And because the electoral college favored him in 2016, and the Senate refused to remove him from his position in 2020, every American is forced to become a supporting character in the reality TV show of his mind.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/how-trump-it-ratcheting-up-his-dangerous-war-on-the-first-amendment/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/how-trump-it-ratcheting-up-his-dangerous-war-on-the-first-amendment/</font></a></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>How Trump is ratcheting up his dangerous war on the First Amendment</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Bill Blum / Independent Media Institute April 24, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump is at war with the First Amendment and the free press. The war is on full display nearly every day in his rage-filled press conferences on the COVID-19 pandemic, in which he regularly condemns the “fake news” media and bashes reporters who dare to ask the slightest probative questions about his handling of the ongoing public-health crisis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s war is also longstanding. And it is waged not only on television and in angry tweets and at campaign rallies (which have been put on hold because of the coronavirus), but also in courtrooms across the country in the form of defamation lawsuits designed to shame, silence and punish his critics.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The latest victim of the president’s intimidation-by-litigation strategy is TV station WJFW, an NBC affiliate located in Price County in the rural reaches of northern Wisconsin. On April 13, Trump’s principal reelection campaign committee—<b>Donald J. Trump for President, Inc., headquartered in New York City—sued the station in the county’s circuit court. The suit alleges that the station had libeled the campaign and harmed the reputation of the president by airing an anti-Trump attack ad produced by Priorities USA Action, a pro-Democratic Super PAC.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Entitled “Exponential Threat,” the ad features audio and video clips of Trump downplaying the severity of the virus and disavowing any responsibility for his administration’s slow and incompetent response to the virus overlaid against a graph displaying the exponential rise in the number of COVID-19 cases in the U.S. since January.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The lawsuit contends that the ad stitched together Trump’s statements about the virus in a false, misleading, deceptive and malicious manner to make it appear that he had called the virus a “hoax.” According to the complaint, Trump never termed the virus itself a hoax, but instead said at a rally in Charleston, South Carolina, on February 28, that the Democrats were perpetrating a hoax by politicizing his record on the virus.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The lawsuit comes on the heels of other recent threats made by the Trump campaign to take legal action against TV outlets in Florida, Michigan, Minnesota and Pennsylvania for broadcasting the same ad.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The president’s campaign committee has also been busy suing print media.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In March, the committee sued the Washington Post for defamation allegedly arising from opinion columns written by journalists Greg Sargent and Paul Waldman in June 2019 on the possibility of renewed foreign collusion in the 2020 election. And in February, Trump’s 2016 campaign committee sued the New York Times, claiming defamation stemming from an op-ed about Russian collusion written in March 2019 by Max Frankel, who had served as the paper’s executive editor from 1986-94.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sadly, the president’s latest round of defamation revenge is part of a pattern that dates back to his formative days as a real-estate developer and publicity-seeking huckster in New York City.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As detailed in a 2016 study published by the Media Law Resource Center, Trump filed his first major libel suit in 1984, when he took the Chicago Tribune and architecture columnist Paul Gapp to court, claiming that he had sustained $500 million in damages as a result of an article Gapp had written, maligning Trump’s plans to build a 150-story skyscraper in lower Manhattan. The case was dismissed the following year after the presiding judge determined Gapp’s article was a constitutionally protected expression of opinion.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Media Law Resource Center study also summarizes Trump’s failed defamation lawsuit against writer Timothy O’Brien and the Time Warner Book Group, Inc. Now a senior columnist with Bloomberg Opinion, O’Brien asserted in a 2005 book—TrumpNation: The Art of Being the Donald—that Trump wasn’t actually a billionaire. O’Brien’s estimate of Trump’s net wealth so rankled the future president that he demanded “a whopping $5 billion in damages.” Like the lawsuit against Gapp, the case was eventually dismissed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In addition, the study chronicles Trump’s case against comedian Bill Maher.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump targeted Maher in 2013 for a disparaging joke he told on NBC’s Tonight Show, in which he offered to donate $5 million to charity if Trump could prove he was not “the spawn of his mother having sex with an orangutan.” After Trump sent a copy of his birth certificate to Maher and the comedian refused to pay up, Trump sued Maher for breach of contract in California. Trump voluntarily withdrew the case eight months later, however. Although his then-spokesperson, Michael Cohen, told Politico that Trump planned to amend and renew the lawsuit, he never did.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Like most of Trump’s past defamation forays, the president’s latest round of defamation lawsuits seems destined to crash and burn. The cases will falter for one simple reason: they are utterly devoid of legal merit.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Under the Supreme Court’s landmark 1964 ruling in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan, criticism of public officials is entitled to stringent First Amendment protections. As the great liberal Justice William Brennan wrote for a unanimous court in Sullivan, the Constitution embodies our “profound national commitment to the principle that debate on public issues should be uninhibited, robust, and wide-open, and that it may well include vehement, caustic and sometimes unpleasantly sharp attacks…”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Public officials, Brennan instructed, must be precluded from recovering damages for allegedly defamatory statements related to official conduct unless they prove that the statements are made with “actual malice”—that is, that they are made with the knowledge that they are false or with “reckless disregard” of whether they are true or false.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In subsequent cases, the Supreme Court extended Sullivan’s “actual malice” holding to defamation lawsuits initiated by “public figures” and business entities that have obtained public-figure status, such as Trump’s political campaign committees.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sullivan is one of the Supreme Court’s most consequential decisions, providing the press with the safeguards needed to keep the public informed and hold the rich and powerful to account. Among the court’s current members, only Clarence Thomas has gone on record to suggest that Sullivan be reconsidered.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why, then, does the president persist? The answer, it appears, is purely political.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">At a rally in Fort Worth, Texas, in February 2016, Trump told a throng of cheering red-meat followers, “I think the media is among the most dishonest groups of people I’ve ever met. They’re terrible. … If I become president, oh, do they have problems. They’re going to have such problems.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And then he added, in a veiled reference to Sullivan:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“One of the things I’m going to do if I win, and I hope we do, and we’re certainly leading, is I’m going to open up our libel laws so when they write purposely negative and horrible and false articles, we can sue them and win lots of money. We’re going to open up those libel laws so that when the New York Times writes a hit piece, which is a total disgrace, or when the Washington Post, which is there for other reasons, writes a hit piece, we can sue them and win money instead of having no chance of winning because they’re totally protected.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As of now, the president is losing his war on the First Amendment and the free press. But as Trump’s improbable rise to power confirms, the future remains uncertain. If we have learned anything in the Trump era, it is that our constitutional rights can never be taken for granted.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Bill Blum is a retired judge and a lawyer in Los Angeles. He is a lecturer at the University of Southern California Annenberg School for Communication. He writes regularly on law and politics and is the author of three widely acclaimed legal thrillers: Prejudicial Error, The Last Appeal, and The Face of Justice.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This article was produced by the Independent Media Institute.</font></div></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">hamm and kelcy etp in bakken (tho might want to bleed out wildcat indep smaller?)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cf antonia juhaz bakken bailout? oil -40$ bakken, 200b$ debt; in 2008 oil 150$, many poor cty could not afford, helped trigger Gt Recession?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">coi corrupt an 420</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">continental mat'ls</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/company-with-trump-ties-secures-5-5-million-ppp-loan-while-many-small-businesses-struggle-for-assistance-report/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/company-with-trump-ties-secures-5-5-million-ppp-loan-while-many-small-businesses-struggle-for-assistance-report/</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trump is frantically trying to scapegoat immigrants — but his trollish attempt is laughable on its face</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>Amanda Marcotte / Salon</div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">penny drops</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 420</font></div><div><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-tries-to-reassure-our-beloved-seniors-after-polling-shows-hes-hemorrhaging-their-support/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump tries to reassure ‘our beloved seniors’ after polling shows he’s hemorrhaging their support</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-tries-to-reassure-our-beloved-seniors-after-polling-shows-hes-hemorrhaging-their-support/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">
</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-tries-to-reassure-our-beloved-seniors-after-polling-shows-hes-hemorrhaging-their-support/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000" /></a><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/david-badash/" title="Posts by David Badash" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">David Badash</a><span style="text-align: right;"> </span><span style="text-align: right;">/</span><span style="text-align: right;"> </span><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/the-new-civil-rights-movement/" title="Posts by The New Civil Rights Movement" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The New Civil Rights Mo</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h3></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">aha: djt schizo on china (or just trimming spasmotically given situation of minute 9eg public opinion or fox trump whisperers); all RW docs need enemy, so china chetaed currency mmanip his recycled 70 BS (to explain away their econ rise vs us loss mfg vs truth we subsidized offshore, and global cap'l 1% race to the bottom; his big claim he is master negit and will force better deal on china, hance trade war'tariff (force, transactional]; covid disaster force villify, but that's hard wired xeno; note 40K ppl came after travel ban china, so now 420 he has further cut immigration tho US NY(C) epicenter</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></font></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">corps no legal liability covid CoC an 420</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">several like this/ 420 an</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/stoking-divisions-and-driving-a-new-explosion-in-the-pandemic-republicans-think-they-can-win-through-sheer-chaos"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/stoking-divisions-and-driving-a-new-explosion-in-the-pandemic-republicans-think-they-can-win-through-sheer-chaos</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">digby no lnx</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">...</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">FreedomWorks, the instrumental force behind the Tea Party, “is holding weekly virtual town halls with members of Congress, igniting an activist base of thousands of supporters across the nation to back up the effort” led by right-wing commentator Stephen Moore. the Associated Press reported. Other right-wing groups vocally opposing shutdowns include Americans for Prosperity, an organization funded by the Koch brothers, and the conservative Heritage Foundation. There is even a connection to the family of Trump’s Secretary of Education, Betsy DeVos. As Michigan’s governor noted, the DeVos family foundation helped fund Facebook ads for this week’s protest.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Pro-gun activists have gotten in on the act as well. It’s an astroturf Tea Party reunion tour. If there’s one thing that riles up the right wing, it’s apparently the government trying to save lives.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">‘There’s no pandemic…Media’s the cancer’ — People across the U.S., many of whom are vocal Trump supporters, are protesting stay-at-home orders.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">COVID-19 has killed more than 37,000 people in America within the last 7 weeks. pic.twitter.com/2xtbPXfjz9</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">— NowThis (@nowthisnews) April 19, 2020</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trump has personally praised the protesters, as has Vice President Pence, even as they both pretend to care about their new guidelines for opening up the country.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">All of this seems odd, considering that common sense and all legitimate scientific advice says that prematurely letting our guard down will likely lead to a resurgence of the epidemic, which means shutting down the economy all over again, with even worse consequences. But there’s a method to their madness. As chaotic and dysfunctional as they are at governing, Trump and the Republicans are united on their electoral strategy. They’ve decided that opening up the economy as soon as possible is their ticket to re-election.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">According to Politico, conservatives are still convinced that a highly divisive strategy focused entirely on their base voters divisive, is the way to go, even in the midst of an unprecedented public health crisis:</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Trump-supported activists are protesting strict stay-at-home orders. Conservative groups’ internal polling in red-leaning and swing states show a significant uptick in Americans who favor reopening the country. A growing chorus of Republican lawmakers across the nation are on board.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">“If you don’t see something start to happen … you’re going to see a conservative revolt by our base,” said Adam Brandon, president of FreedomWorks, a conservative group which recently polled on reopening the economy. “The worst strategy for him is to keep things shut until August. Trump is basically going to win or lose his election right now, in the next month.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Yes, that would be the same FreedomWorks that is ginning up the protests, along with the other big money groups financed by the likes of Charles Koch. Big-money donors seem to have activated their astroturf groups to get people out in the streets to make sure that Trump feels the pressure from his beloved base to open up the economy. These donors care about preserving their power, privilege and profit margins, but Trump only cares about the November election. They are manipulating him, and his supporters, to make him believe that his ends are aligned with theirs.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Republicans in Congress are doing their part as well. The bill coming up for a vote this week to refill the small-business bailout fund is missing something vital that Democrats and governors of both parties have been begging for: help for state and local governments, many of which are in dire economic trouble and hamstrung by balanced-budget requirements.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">You might think that providing them with federal funds to keep the lights on would be a no-brainer. But according to Axios, Republicans will use this prospect as a cudgel to force states to reopen: “The thinking among some Trump administration officials is that many states should be reopening their governments soon and that additional funding could deter them from doing so.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">If anyone thinks that depriving aid won’t hurt Trump’s political enemies more than his allies, they still don’t understand how he plays this game. (There’s already evidence that more federal aid has gone to red states.) This may end up being the most destructive thing Trump has done, at least in economic terms.</font></font></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/matt-drudge-fires-back-with-brutal-fact-check-after-trump-mocks-conservative-website/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/matt-drudge-fires-back-with-brutal-fact-check-after-trump-mocks-conservative-website/</a></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/red-states-may-be-facing-a-perfect-storm-of-serious-illness-and-death-from-covid-19/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/red-states-may-be-facing-a-perfect-storm-of-serious-illness-and-death-from-covid-19/</a></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/governor-warns-trump-against-encouraging-supporters-to-disobey-the-law-on-lockdowns-words-can-be-fatal/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/governor-warns-trump-against-encouraging-supporters-to-disobey-the-law-on-lockdowns-words-can-be-fatal/</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Governor warns Trump against encouraging supporters to ‘disobey the law’ on lockdowns: ‘Words can be fatal’</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Matthew Chapman / Raw Story April 18, 2020</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Friday’s edition of CNN’s “Anderson Cooper 360,” Gov. Jay Inslee (D-WA) tore into President Donald Trump for his comments that Democratic states should be “liberated” from lockdown orders.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“Governor, you called the<b> president’s tweets saying liberate Minnesota, Michigan, Virginia, ‘dangerous’, ‘unhinged,'</b>” said Cooper. “You just heard him … I’m wondering what your reaction is.</span>”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Extreme disappointment, and frankly anger, because we’ve lost over 500 people in my state, and we know — there’s saying in automobile safety, that speed kills. Well, words can be fatal too.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“When you have a president of the United States openly, willfully, maliciously trying to encourage people not to abide by the law in these states — these orders are the law of these states — president of the United States willfully trying to inspire people to disobey and violate the law with potentially fatal consequences, is irresponsible, no other way to look at it,” continued Inslee. “<b>And what is doubly enraging to us, both Republicans and Democrats, the day before this president put out very clear guidelines based on substantial epidemiological evidence of his experts Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx</b> that had a lot of reason to it, saying we have to wrestle this virus down significantly before we let off pressure of social distancing.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“His own physicians saying this, his own guidelines that we’re pretty consistent with in state approaches, Republicans and Democrats,” added Inslee. “The next day, to say you should ignore that, is an outrage.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Watch below:</font></font></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/us-intel-on-threat-of-coronavirus-shared-with-israel-and-nato-in-november-report"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/us-intel-on-threat-of-coronavirus-shared-with-israel-and-nato-in-november-report</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an Israeli news report on Thursday revealed that the country was told in November by U.S. intelligence about the potential threat of the coronavirus—warnings that were also made to NATO and to the White House—a clear contradiction of Pentagon claims last week that no such report existed.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The smoking gun has arrived,” tweeted Joel Rubin, a former aide to the presidential campaign of Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The information reportedly came from U.S. intelligence monitoring of internal Chinese communications that revealed the potential danger of the outbreak before it was publicly known.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Times of Israel reported that U.S. intelligence agencies were aware of the disease as early as the second week of November and shared the information with President Donald Trump’s White House, NATO, and Israel. The U.S. administration did not deem the report “of interest” while Israeli officials discussed the possibility of the threat but ultimately took no action. What NATO’s response was to the report—if any—is thus far unknown....</font></font></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></div></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 420</font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">t<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-tries-to-blame-his-predecessors-for-his-covid-19-failures-but-they-actually-understood-the-value-of-public-health/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4; display: inline !important;">rump tries to blame his predecessors for his COVID-19 failures — but they actually understood the value of public health</a></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/nancy-letourneau/" title="Posts by Nancy LeTourneau" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Nancy LeTourneau</a><span style="text-align: right;"> </span><span style="text-align: right;">/</span><span style="text-align: right;"> </span><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/washington-monthly/" title="Posts by Washington Monthly" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Washington Mont</a></font></font></font></div><div><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see covod bill </font></font></font></p><p style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/how-the-republicans-are-stealing-everything-for-the-1-percent/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/how-the-republicans-are-stealing-everything-for-the-1-percent/</font></a></font></font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-white-house-ignores-bipartisan-group-of-senators-demanding-explanation-for-firing-of-former-intelligence-ig/</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</div><div>Trump White House ignores bipartisan group of senators demanding explanation for firing of former intelligence IG</div><div>Image via Gage Skidmore / Flickr.</div><div>Written by Alex Henderson April 15, 2020</div><div>Monday, April 13 was the deadline that a bipartisan group of eight senators set for an explanation of President Donald Trump’s firing of Michael Atkinson, who served as inspector general for the United States’ intelligence community. That deadline has passed, and journalist Jenna McLaughlin — in an article published in Yahoo News — explains that as of Tuesday, April 14, the Trump White House had yet to provide that explanation.</div><div>
</div><div>The eight senators, who included Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, sent Trump a letter on April 8 and asked him to explain, in detail, why he decided to fire Atkinson. And the senators, McLaughlin notes, wanted to make sure it was “not for reasons unrelated to (Atkinson’s) performance” as intelligence inspector IG.</div><div>
</div><div>McLaughlin reports that according to a spokesperson for Grassley’s office, a follow-up request was sent to the Trump White House on April 14 — and it also went unanswered.</div><div>
</div><div>In addition to Grassley, the letter was signed by two other Republicans (Sen. Susan Collins of Maine and Sen. Mitt Romney of Utah) and five Democrats (Sen. Dianne Feinstein of California, Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia, Sen. Gary Peters of Michigan, Sen. Ron Wyden of Oregon and Sen. Jon Tester of Montana).</div><div>
</div><div>Trump’s detractors, from liberals and progressives to Never Trump conservatives, have been highly critical of his decision to fire Atkinson — often pointing out the role that the former intelligence inspector general played in the Ukraine scandal.</div><div>
</div><div>In 2019, a whistleblower in the federal government complained about Trump’s now-infamous July 25 phone conservation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky — who Trump tried to pressure into investigating a political rival (former Vice President Joe Biden) and his son, Hunter Biden. Atkinson brought that complaint to the attention of Congress, and House Democrats voted to indict Trump on two articles of impeachment — asserting that Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine in exchange for political dirt on the Bidens. But Trump was later acquitted in an impeachment trial in the GOP-controlled Senate.</div><div>
</div><div>Trump fired Atkinson on April 3 — a firing that the president’s critics have been denouncing as an act of revenge.</div><div>
</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">t<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-scapegoats-the-world-health-organization-to-deflect-from-his-coronavirus-failures/" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4; display: inline !important;">rump scapegoats the World Health Organization to deflect from his coronavirus failures</a></font></div><div class="mag-post-box hentry" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 15px; padding: 0px 0px 15px; width: 374.545px; overflow: hidden; display: table; border-bottom: 1px solid rgb(236, 236, 236); background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="magcat-detail" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; text-align: right;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/david-badash/" title="Posts by David Badash" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">David Badash</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/the-new-civil-rights-movement/" title="Posts by The New Civil Rights Movement" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The New Civil Rights Movement</a></font></span></div></div></div><div class="mag-post-box hentry" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; width: 374.545px; overflow: hidden; display: table; border-bottom: none; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="magcat-thumb" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 20px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; float: left; position: relative; transition: opacity 0.3s ease 0s;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a class="penci-image-holder penci-lazy small-fix-size" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trumps-campaign-files-frivolous-lawsuit-against-tv-station-for-airing-attack-ad-slamming-his-coronavirus-response/" title="Trump’s campaign files frivolous lawsuit against TV station for airing attack ad slamming his coronavirus response" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; position: relative; width: 120px; background: url(" https="https" www.alternet.org="www.alternet.org" wp-content="wp-content" uploads="uploads" donald_trump_25953705015-780x516.jpg="Donald_Trump_25953705015-780x516.jpg" center="center" cover="cover" no-repeat="no-repeat" rgb="rgb" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" top="top" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden" /></font></div></div><div><a class="penci-image-holder penci-lazy small-fix-size" href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trumps-campaign-files-frivolous-lawsuit-against-tv-station-for-airing-attack-ad-slamming-his-coronavirus-response/" title="Trump’s campaign files frivolous lawsuit against TV station for airing attack ad slamming his coronavirus response" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; position: relative; width: 120px; background: url(" https="https" www.alternet.org="www.alternet.org" wp-content="wp-content" uploads="uploads" donald_trump_25953705015-780x516.jpg="Donald_Trump_25953705015-780x516.jpg" center="center" cover="cover" no-repeat="no-repeat" rgb="rgb" display="display" inline-block="inline-block" vertical-align="vertical-align" top="top" overflow="overflow" hidden="hidden"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></a></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trumps-campaign-files-frivolous-lawsuit-against-tv-station-for-airing-attack-ad-slamming-his-coronavirus-response"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trumps-campaign-files-frivolous-lawsuit-against-tv-station-for-airing-attack-ad-slamming-his-coronavirus-response</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>Trump campaign sues Wisconsin TV station over ad using his words on coronavirus</b></div><div>By Gage Skidmore from Peoria, AZ, United States of America - Donald Trump, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=52647057</div><div>Written by Alex Henderson April 14, 2020</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">President Donald Trump’s initial response to the coronavirus pandemic has been the subject of various attack ads, including one from the Lincoln Project (a group of Never Trump conservatives that includes attorney George Conway) and one from Priorities USA (a Democratic super PAC). The theme of those ads is that Trump hasfailed to take the coronavirus threat seriously. And in Wisconsin, Trump’s reelection campaign has filed a frivolous lawsuit against WJFW-TV (which airs NBC programming in North-Central Wisconsin) for airing the Priorities USA ad — calling it “false and defamatory,” claiming that the ad takes Trump’s words out of context.</span></div><div>
</div><div>The campaign filed the lawsuit on Monday, April 13 in Price County Circuit Court. The ad by Priorities USA, called “Existential Threat,” depicts a graph and timeline that uses actual statements Trump made in January and February — for example, “This is their new hoax” and “We have it totally under control.” A variety of Trump critics, from liberals and progressives to centrists to Never Trump conservatives, have been using these quotes to tar and feather Trump and demonstrate that he spent months downplaying the severity of coronavirus. But the Trump campaign, in its lawsuit against WJFW-TV, takes issue with the way Trump’s words “the coronavirus” and “this is their new hoax” are used together — arguing that the ad makes it sound like Trump was saying “the coronavirus, this is their new hoax” as a single sentence. However, the intonation in Trump’s voice makes it sound like two different statements made at different times: Trump’s tone of voice is much lower on “the coronavirus” than it is on “This is their new hoax.”</div><div>
</div><div>Law & Crime reporter Jerry Lambe explains, “<b>The tone and deflection of the speech between the first and second phrases is quite different, but the Trump campaign’s lawsuit suggests the text on the screen contains a comma to connect the phrases in a way which suggests they were uttered together.”</b></div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump’s “this is their new hoax” assertion was made at a South Carolina rally on February 28. Downplaying the threat that coronavirus posed in the U.S. — even though it had killed thousands of people in China — the president argued that Democrats were using coronavirus as a “hoax” just as they had used impeachment and the Ukraine scandal as a “hoax.” </span>Trump’s campaign is claiming that he was saying that Democrats were perpetrating a hoax, not that coronavirus itself was a hoax. But clearly, Trump was downplaying coronavirus’ severity and the threat that it posed in the U.S. — where, according to John Hopkins University in Baltimore and CNN’s coronavirus/Hopkins page, it had killed more than 23,600 people as of Tuesday morning, April 14.</div><div>
</div><div>In the lawsuit, Trump’s campaign argues that “Trump’s actual remarks demonstrate that he was specifically referring to the Democrats’ politicization of the coronavirus pandemic when he used the word ‘hoax.’”</div><div>
</div><div>Lambe also points out that although the lawsuit “refers to the defendant as WJFW-NBC,” it “is formally filed against Northland Television, LLC, the corporate owner of the local affiliate. The affiliate is not owned by NBC but broadcasts the network’s programming.”</div><div>
</div><div>The Lincoln Project’s attack ad, titled “Distraction,” is equally scathing. In that ad, anti-Trump conservatives tear apart the absurd claim that Trump, in January and February, was distracted from coronavirus because of his impeachment. That ad argues that when the World Health Organization (WHO) was warning that coronavirus was a “global health emergency,” Trump was too busy with “campaign rallies and golfing” to seriously address the crisis:</div><div>
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</div><div>Priorities USA has released an official response to the Wisconsin lawsuit, asserting, “This is pretty simple: Donald Trump doesn’t want voters to hear the truth, and he’s trying to bully TV stations into submission. The truth is that Trump ignored warnings from experts and his own team and downplayed the coronavirus even as it spread unchecked across the country and the world. Americans are now suffering as a result of his inaction. We will never stop airing the facts and holding the president accountable for his actions.”</div><div>
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</div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">kush libtard in charge of ppe, stealing them from hosp?!</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-chose-to-do-nothing-for-weeks-now-were-in-a-crisis-with-thousands-of-deaths-and-no-end-in-sight/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-chose-to-do-nothing-for-weeks-now-were-in-a-crisis-with-thousands-of-deaths-and-no-end-in-sight/</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see blk lung</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/mitch-mcconnell-is-still-refusing-to-rein-in-trump-and-americans-are-paying-the-price-new-yorker"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/mitch-mcconnell-is-still-refusing-to-rein-in-trump-and-americans-are-paying-the-price-new-yorker</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Mitch McConnell is still refusing to rein in Trump — and Americans are paying the price: New Yorker</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Sarah K. Burris / Raw Story April 13, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">New Yorker reporter Jane Mayer explained that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is enabling President Donald Trump’s bad behavior at a time that Americans need a leader the most.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“On Thursday, March 12th, Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, could have insisted that he and his colleagues work through the weekend to hammer out an emergency aid package addressing the coronavirus pandemic,” she wrote. “Instead, he recessed the Senate for a long weekend and returned home to Louisville, Kentucky. McConnell, a seventy-eight-year-old Republican who is about to complete his sixth term as a senator, planned to attend a celebration for a protégé, Justin Walker, a federal judge who was once his Senate intern. McConnell has helped install nearly two hundred conservatives as judges; stocking the judiciary has been his legacy project.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Democrats were working with the White House’s Steve Mnuchin, and McConnell was needed for the next step. He was cracking jokes at an event halfway across the country during the crisis. It took McConnell 11 days to come up with a bill.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“McConnell, who is known as one of the wiliest politicians in Washington, soon reframed the narrative as a personal success story,” The New Yorker said. “In Kentucky, where he is running for reëlection, he launched a campaign ad about the bill’s passage, boasting, ‘One leader brought our divided country together.’</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> At the same time, he attacked the Democrats, telling a radio host that the impeachment of Trump had ‘diverted the attention of the government’ when the epidemic was in its early stages. In fact, several senators—including Tom Cotton, a Republican from Arkansas, and Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut—had raised alarms about the virus nearly two months before the Administration acted, whereas Trump had told reporters around the same time that he was “not concerned at all.” And on February 27th, some three weeks after the impeachment trial ended, McConnell had defended the Administration’s response, accusing Democrats of ‘performative outrage’ when they demanded more emergency funding.”</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The New Yorker explained that McConnell’s worship for Trump is really a kind of “cynical political genius.” He’s both protecting his caucus and covering himself in a deeply red state where Trump is more popular than even he is.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“When the pandemic took hold, the President’s standing initially rose in national polls, and McConnell and Trump will surely both take credit for the aid package in the coming months,” said the report. “Yet, as covid-19 decimates the economy and kills Americans across the nation, McConnell’s alliance with Trump is looking riskier. Indeed, some critics argue that McConnell bears a singular responsibility for the country’s predicament. They say that he knew from the start that Trump was unequipped to lead in a crisis, but because the President was beloved by the Republican base, McConnell protected him.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The report recalled that McConnell even blocked witnesses at the impeachment trial, which basically guaranteed that Trump would remain in office.’</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“There are a lot of people disappointed in him. He could have mobilized the Senate. But the Republican Party changed underneath him, and he wanted to remain in power,”</span> said David Hawpe, the former editor of the Louisville Courier-Journal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Columnist and journalism professor Al Cross called McConnell’s partnership with Trump “the most important political relationship in the country.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to The New Yorker, Cross “had hoped that McConnell would push back against Trump. After all, past Republicans have crossed party lines to defend democracy—from censuring Joe McCarthy to forcing the resignation of President Richard Nixon.”’</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“But Trump and McConnell have come to understand each other,” Cross said. “The President needs him to govern. McConnell knows that if their relationship fell apart it would be a disaster for the Republican majority in the Senate. They’re very different in many ways, but fundamentally they’re about the same thing—winning.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The extensive piece goes on to explain even more ways in which McConnell has sold his soul in further efforts to protect himself in what will likely be one of the most difficult elections of his career. Democrats are still fighting it out in a primary election, but the race has already seen more donations than any other in the country.<b> As the coronavirus creeps into the southern states, McConnell could end up in a desperate situation explaining why he hasn’t done enough while his state is suffering.</b></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">---</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/mitch-mcconnell-calls-trump-nuts-behind-his-back-and-even-compares-him-to-roy-moore-report/</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">drilled 420 there will be fraud? trump only claim 2020 was economy now tanked, so must blame dem govs</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-spent-easter-weekend-calling-friends-about-dr-fauci-as-white-house-allies-begin-smear-campaign-report"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-spent-easter-weekend-calling-friends-about-dr-fauci-as-white-house-allies-begin-smear-campaign-report</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump spent Easter weekend calling friends about Dr. Fauci as White House allies begin smear campaign: report</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Tom Boggioni / Raw Story April 13, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Daily Beast is reporting that Donald Trump hunkered down in the White House over the Easter weekend, watching cable news programs and calling friends and allies asking what they think of Dr. Anthony Fauci who has become, for many, the only reliable face on the White House coronavirus task force.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to the report, the president thinks he made the infectious disease expert a “star” by featuring him prominently during his almost daily press conferences and is reportedly looking for feedback.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“’What do you think of Fauci?’ the president repeatedly worked into his phone conversations over the past few days, the three sources said, as he pulsed his broader network of informal advisers, industry allies, and current staff on their opinions on the news of the day,” the Beast’s Asawein Suebsaeng reports. “At one point this weekend, Trump remarked that he’s made Fauci a ‘star’ and that barely anybody would have known who the doctor was were it not for the president putting him front and center in the administration’s coronavirus response, televised press briefings, and media strategy.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to one source, the president, “.. did not sound bitter about it, I wouldn’t say that. It just sounded like he thought it was worth a reminder.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>What may have set off the president was an appearance by the Fauci on CNN’s “State of the Union,” where, in a roundabout way,the doctor admitted that the White House dropped the ball on getting ahead of the COVID-19 pandemic that has already led to over 22,000 deaths in the U.S.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Fauci’s comments did not go over well with certain officials working in the White House or on the president’s campaign, according to multiple aides, or with Trump supporters who are publicly protective of the president and his image,” the report states. “‘ Dr. Fauci needs to be more careful choosing his words on #Coronavirus, & if he’s going to be critical, make clear what he personally could’ve done better,’ Jason Miller, a former senior Trump adviser, posted to Twitter on Sunday.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">According to the report, Miller was not the only critic of the doctor who is close to Trump and the White House, with Suebsaeng writing, “By Sunday afternoon, prominent Trump allies and surrogates were circulating links and documents showing how Fauci had been inconsistent or made faulty predictions about the virus in recent months, encouraging each other to share them or use them as talking points.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Of note, late Sunday the president retweeted a Twitter post that contained the hashtag: #Fire Fauci.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You can read more here.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/bombshell-nyt-expose-flags-8-key-exchanges-in-the-red-dawn-emails-detailing-trumps-faltering-response-to-coronavirus"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/bombshell-nyt-expose-flags-8-key-exchanges-in-the-red-dawn-emails-detailing-trumps-faltering-response-to-coronavirus</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">email thread by expert/drs in govt and unis</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/gop-governor-fact-checks-trumps-lie-about-states-not-needing-supplies-the-president-was-on-the-call/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="font-weight: normal;" color="#000000">GOP governor fact-checks Trump’s lie about states not needing supplies: ‘The president was on the call’</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/david-edwards/" title="Posts by David Edwards" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">David Edwards</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/raw-story/" title="Posts by Raw Story" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Raw Story</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Republican Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan on Sunday suggested that the president of the United States had not told the truth.</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trumps-horrendous-last-ditch-gambit-to-win-re-election-is-scary-as-hell/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trumps-horrendous-last-ditch-gambit-to-win-re-election-is-scary-as-hell/</font></a></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trumps-horrendous-last-ditch-gambit-to-win-re-election-is-scary-as-hell/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trumps-horrendous-last-ditch-gambit-to-win-re-election-is-scary-as-hell/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump’s horrendous last-ditch gambit to win re-election is scary as hell</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Amanda Marcotte / Salon April 10, 2020</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Thursday night, the access journalism team at the Washington Post published a piece declaring that Donald Trump intends to “reopen much of the U.S.” in May.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“The Trump administration is pushing to reopen much of the country next month,” Matt Zapotosky, Josh Dawsey, Jose A. Del Real and William Wan report, noting that Trump, behind “closed doors,” has “sought a strategy for resuming business activity by May 1.”</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is, needless to say, scary as hell. We’re nowhere near conquering the coronavirus epidemic and, thanks to Trump’s deliberate negligence — born from his desire to conceal the spread of the virus — we have nothing close to the testing capacity necessary to start letting people congregate safely again. Unsurprisingly, the article caused a lot of panic and anger, and reasonably so: There is nothing but downside to “reopening” the economy without a plan to control the spread of the virus.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But not to get too 11th-level chess about it, Trump — or at least his allies — probably aren’t serious about this. Instead, the chatter about “reopening” the economy is very likely more of a political gambit than a serious suggestion.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump and his allies know</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> he needs to come up with some argument why the economic devastation we’re facing is not his fault.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> (It is his fault.) More importantly, they’ll need someone else to blame</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This chatter about “reopening” is about laying the groundwork for that. Come fall, Trump will argue that he wanted to save the economy and get everybody back to work, but the <b>“deep state” wouldn’t let him. He’ll try to use this ruined economy as evidence that he should be re-elected to take on this supposed conspiracy of embedded liberal-socialist traitors.</b></span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There are a couple of reasons to believe this is more a political gambit than a serious suggestion. For one thing, Trump doesn’t actually have the power to “reopen” the economy, as national security expert Marcy Wheeler pointed out on Twitter. State governments control those, and while at least some red states will no doubt go along with any loony plan Trump rolls out, states like New York, California, Illinois and Massachusetts — which are critical to the economic well-being of the rest of the country — will not play along with a harebrained scheme that causes the already devastating pandemic roaring back to life.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There’s also the coronavirus itself. Even if Trump could wave his magic wand and “reopen” the economy, the rapid spread of COVID-19 would probably do as much, if not more, to wreck the economy as the weeks of quarantine did. Piles of bodies and overwhelmed hospitals are not good for the economy, generally speaking! And it’s not like people will suddenly revert to their previously normal lives when a dangerous disease is still spreading all around them.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Maybe Trump is dumb enough to believe that the economy is like a light you can just switch back on, and everything will then go back to the way it was before. But there are people around him — like Attorney General Bill Barr, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. — who, evil as they may be, understand that there’s no straightforward path “back to normal.” The millions of Americans who’ve become unemployed over the last three weeks won’t magically find new jobs, and recovery from the current economic devastation will be long and difficult</span>.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yet Mnuchin has been backing Trump up, saying that he believes the economy can be “reopened” as soon as next month. Barr, too, recently declared that current lockdown orders are “draconian” and suggested that some modified form of “social distancing” can be accomplished without telling “people to go home and hide under their bed.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Barr’s wild caricature of the current state of affairs — no one’s under the bed, and we’re all allowed to leave home for grocery shopping and exercise — hints at the fact that this rhetoric is more political than serious.</b> So is his disingenuous proposal for a version of “social distancing” that is somehow different than what people are currently doing. There is, of course, no such thing and Barr is, of course, blowing piping hot air.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On the propaganda front, we also have the folks at Fox News eagerly pushing this “reopen the economy” line. Some of them, like Sean Hannity, really are diddle-brained fools who don’t realize how bad that would be. But others, like Tucker Carlson, are probably intelligent enough to grasp that such a move would ruin both the economy and public health, and so are floating this as a cynical political ploy rather than an actual policy proposal.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Indeed, there’s no way around a deeply cynical theory of what’s happening here: Trump and his allies are exploiting access journalism, which speaks to the reader’s desire to feel like they have insider knowledge, to spread a </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">dishonest narrative</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That narrative is that Trump wants to “reopen” the economy and save everyone’s jobs, even though that’s impossible. And the goal is that when the economy continues to tank, Trump can paint himself as a victim of nefarious forces who thwarted him from making America great again.</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump wouldn’t actually benefit from “reopening” the economy, after all, and on some level he may understand that. It wouldn’t work the way he implies it would, and it would probably lead to even more economic devastation to go along with the public health catastrophe. But he certainly might benefit from sowing a narrative about how his heroic efforts to save us all were crushed by the oppressive forces of the “deep state.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There is no evidence that anyone at the White House or in the Republican Party in Congress is even engaging with the various proposed plans out there to reopen the economy. Their lack of interest in taking this seriously is a good sign they are not taking this seriously.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Viewed in this light, it’s likely that right-wing pundits are being deliberately provocative when they say, as Bill O’Reilly recently did, that many “people who are dying [of this virus], both here and around the world, were on their last legs anyway.”</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>The purpose of that is, in large part, to draw the outraged reaction from liberals that can then be characterized as “political correctness.” Conservatives can then cast themselves as hard-nosed realists who are being suppressed by oversensitive liberals who are willing to tank the economy in a hapless bid to save a handful of people who were going to die anyway.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This simply can’t be stated firmly enough: That’s a horrendous lie. It’s a false dichotomy to pit saving lives against saving the economy. For one thing, you can’t do the latter without doing the former;</b> the viral pandemic is hugely disruptive in and of itself, and not just because of the quarantine. For another, liberals appear to be the only people willing to do what it takes to save the economy, which is not some hasty “reopening,” but a major government stimulus program that pumps in as much money as needed (and then raising taxes the rich to recoup the losses).</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>But these provocations from O’Reilly and other conservatives who say they don’t mind letting people die to save the economy are surprisingly effective. They generate the desired outrage from liberals and, more important, they pull the focus away from the urgent discussion this country needs to have, which is about how to save lives and rebuild our economy.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">narrative about the “deep state” and “political correctness” is Donald Trump’s last-ditch re-election strategy</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Perversely, his false dichotomy between saving lives and saving the economy works better if it remains hypothetical, which is to say, if the economy isn’t “reopened.” That way, Trump can spin fantasies of how great things would have been if we had just listened to him, and claim that conditions only got worse because the snowflake liberals got their way. If he actually could “reopen” the economy, the widespread devastation would speak for itself. He benefits far more from leaving that as a fantasy than from making it a reality.</span></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/why-trumps-outlandish-beliefs-about-health-made-him-terrible-leader-during-a-pandemic/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/why-trumps-outlandish-beliefs-about-health-made-him-terrible-leader-during-a-pandemic/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Why Trump’s outlandish beliefs about health made him terrible leader during a pandemic</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald J. Trump welcomes members of the press to the State Dining Room Monday, January 14, 2019, where the 2018 NCAA Football National Champions, the Clemson Tigers, will be welcomed with food from Domino’s, McDonald’s, Wendy’s and Burger King. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Nancy LeTourneau / Washington Monthly April 10, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">There are some things we knew about Donald Trump since before he was elected that have pretty much been forgotten. But I’ve been reminded of them while we watch him attempt to lead the national response to a pandemic.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Apparently Trump has always been a germaphobe. As such, some of the recommendations from public health experts about dealing with coronavirus should come naturally to him. For example, in The Art of the Comeback, he said that “I happen to be a clean hands freak. I feel much better after I thoroughly wash my hands, which I do as much as possible.” That is why he referred to the custom of handshaking as “one of the curses of American society.” His distaste for handshaking came up again during the Ebola crisis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald J. Trump</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@realDonaldTrump</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Something very important, and indeed society changing, may come out of the Ebola epidemic that will be a very good thing: NO SHAKING HANDS!</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">798</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">10:14 AM - Oct 4, 2014</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">1,210 people are talking about this</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We don’t know how often Trump washes his hands these days, but the whole idea of avoiding handshakes went out the window a while ago.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">CNN</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The farewell handshake between President Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron lasted about 25 seconds http://cnn.it/2uqtIWy </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Most bizarrely, Trump uses his germaphobia to justify his love of fast foods.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>His simplistic palate is a function of his desire for cleanliness. “One bad hamburger, you can destroy McDonald’s,” he explained to CNN’s Anderson Cooper earlier this year. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I’m a very clean person</span>. I like cleanliness, and I think you’re better off going there than maybe someplace that you have no idea where the food’s coming from. It’s a certain standard.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That helps explain things like this.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Laura Figueroa Hernandez</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@Laura_Figueroa</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Fast food spread at the White House for North Dakota State University Football Team. Big Macs and Chick-Fil-A.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to Michael Wolff, Trump’s love of McDonalds is also rooted in another phobia.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump “had a longtime fear of being poisoned, one reason why he liked to eat at McDonald’s — nobody knew he was coming and the food was safely premade,” Wolff reports.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When it comes to unhealthy habits, even more disturbing than his love of fast food is Trump’s belief that exercise will kill you. In their book Trump Revealed, Michael Kranish and Marc Fisher wrote that “Trump believed the human body was like a battery, with a finite amount of energy, which exercise only depleted.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When these bizarre beliefs were first reported, it was done in a lighthearted manner because back then, no one really believed that he would become president. There is still a bit of catharsis in pointing and laughing at the idiot who occupies the Oval Office.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But right now things are deadly serious. The man who is currently leading our national response to a pandemic has a long history of dreaming up outlandish theories to justify his behavior. We’ve certainly seen that happen once or twice over the last three years, haven’t we?</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see roy cohn for full txt</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/sadism-crime-and-a-love-of-lies-what-3500-lawsuits-reveal-about-trumps-true-nature/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/sadism-crime-and-a-love-of-lies-what-3500-lawsuits-reveal-about-trumps-true-nature/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sadism, crime and a love of lies: What 3,500 lawsuits reveal about Trump’s true nature</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by History News Network April 11, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American presidents before Donald Trump had some record of public achievement in politics, government or the military before they were elected. Donald Trump lacked any of those credentials, but brought his astounding history of involvement in thousands of lawsuits to the nation’s highest office. This trove of cases from more than 45 years reflects Trump’s contempt for ethical standards and for the US Constitution and the rule of law, the foundation of American democracy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As a perennial litigant, Trump weaponized the law to devastate perceived enemies, to consolidate power, to frustrate opposing parties, as former federal prosecutor and acclaimed author James D. Zirin illuminates in his compelling and disturbing history of Trump’s use and abuse of the law, Plaintiff in Chief: A Portrait of Trump in 3,500 Lawsuits (All Points Books)....</font></div></div><div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" 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face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">James D. Zirin: He has continued and I think he will continue. And I think the rule of law has been seriously undermined.</span></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Our democracy has been seriously compromised because the framers of the Constitution never thought the system would work this way. Republican senators deserve part of the blame because of their need to retain power or whatever, they did not respect the oath they took to be fair and impartial judges of the facts and the law, but instead voted along party lines to acquit him.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Robin Lindley: Trump said sometime in the 90s, as you note in your book, that <b>“I love to have enemies.</b>” I think most of us wouldn’t feel that way and it seems pathological to me. What did you think when you found that quote from him? </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">James D. Zirin: Most politicians are controversial and have political enemies. I think Trump relishes that perhaps more than others and he loves to attack them personally. We know Biden is “Sleepy Joe” and Elizabeth Warren is “Pocahontas” and Bernie Sanders is “Crazy Bernie.” He has nicknames for everyone and he revels in trashing them rather than addressing the merits of anything they propose.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Robin Lindley: The mentality of an eight-year-old bully, it seems. You write that Trump’s experience in lawsuits reflects “his inmost ulterior motivation.” This comes out in your responses, but could you sum up your sense of his character, motivation, and morality based on your extensive research?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">James D. Zirin: His virulent combination of anti-science, anti-law, ignorance, irrational conspiracy theorizing, instability, narcissism and vindictiveness has led us to national catastrophe. If he is re-elected, I fear for the republic and the American people.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Robin Lindley: As you demonstrate, Trump is an anomaly in terms of the adversarial system. Do you have anything to add on his abuse of legal process? </div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>James D. Zirin: Look, the adversary system is the crown jewel of our legal system. We got it from the British.</b> The idea is that you had lawyers on both sides who were partisan, who were like the Knights Templar who rode into battle on behalf of somebody or other in the Middle Ages. That has been the best way of getting at the truth. In contrast, in civil law countries like France or Germany, the judge conducts the inquiry. The judge might ask questions of the lawyers, but the lawyers don’t develop the evidence on both sides.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>But adversary doesn’t mean enemy.</b> What Trump has demonstrated is that we have a great legal system and we all have the benefit of it. But there are also limitations for the law and those limitations can be exploited by someone determined to beat the system, and that’s what Trump has done.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Robin Lindley. Thank you, Mr. Zirin and congratulations on your groundbreaking and compelling book on the life of Donald Trump through the perspective of his thousands of lawsuits. It’s been an honor to talk with you.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">This article was originally published at History News Network</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-is-working-behind-the-scenes-to-cripple-any-investigations-before-the-november-election-columnist"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-is-working-behind-the-scenes-to-cripple-any-investigations-before-the-november-election-columnist</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" /><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font 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420</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div><b>What if Trump wins?</b></div><div><b>
</b></div><div>President Donald J. Trump returns to the Oval Office following a White House Coronavirus Task Force coronavirus update briefing Sunday, March 29, 2020, at the White House. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)</div><div>Written by The Washington Monthly April 10, 2020</div><div>
</div><div>For many people, the prospect of what might happen if Donald Trump wins a second term is too awful to contemplate. But, as we are witnessing with the coronavirus, not contemplating scenarios that have at least some chance of happening is a grave mistake. Indeed, it’s a mistake that helped elect Trump in the first place.</div><div>Ideally, the press corps would be hard at work exploring this question. Alas, it is not. In the thousands of presidential campaign stories that have been published this year, you will be hard pressed to find much reporting or informed speculation about what policies Trump might pursue if he’s reelected, or what the consequences might be if he were successful in enacting them. That’s not because such things aren’t knowable in advance. If that were the problem, political reporters wouldn’t have spent the last six months gaming out which candidates were, say, likely to win which primaries. The real reason campaign journalists don’t do this kind of work is that it’s not what they’re trained to do—and, perhaps, it’s not what most people want to read.</div><div>
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</div><div>We think our readers are different. So we gathered a distinguished group of area experts and beat reporters. We told them to imagine that, come November of 2020, Trump wins the Electoral College and the balance of power in Congress remains unchanged; Republicans hold the Senate and Democrats hold the House. Then, we asked them to think through the hitherto unthinkable: What will Trump aim to do, and what could he realistically get away with, if given another four years in power? —The Editors</div><div>
</div><div>Can The Liberal World Order Survive Another Four Years of Trump?</div><div>Probably not. Here’s why.</div><div>What Would a Second Trump Term Do to the Federal Bureaucracy?</div><div>An EPA stocked with climate change deniers. A Surgeon general sympathetic to anti-vaxxers. It could get grim.</div><div>How Trump Could Take Away Obamacare With a Second Term</div><div>After packing the courts, the president’s use of executive authority will be more effective.</div><div>How Trump Would Gut the Social Safety Net With a Second Term</div><div>There’s a backdoor tactic the administration would use to weaken programs that help the poor.</div><div>How Trump Could Dismantle Workers’ Rights with Another Four Years</div><div>In just his first term, he’s been a fairly effective union buster.</div><div>Trump’s Second Term Immigration Agenda</div><div>Will anyone be allowed into America?</div><div>Can Civil Rights and Civil Liberties Survive a Second Trump Term?</div><div>It’s a proposition better left untested.</div><div>Why a Second Trump Term Will Not Be a Horror Movie</div><div>Let’s hope it doesn’t happen. But if it does, we won’t be helpless.</div><div>Support the Washington Monthly </div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">aha djt conflicted b/c action on covid means it's real and he failed before; but then pivot to wartime prez who took quick (xeno) action to shut down flight from china? jared want pvtiz rx supply chain, and fla got all it asked for , but still only invoke dpa as retaliation ~ 3m?! via tucker? kush said sell to foreigners</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/ex-ethics-director-under-trump-says-the-president-is-in-the-late-stage-of-an-authoritarian-coup/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/ex-ethics-director-under-trump-says-the-president-is-in-the-late-stage-of-an-authoritarian-coup/</a></font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">djt sez he arranged truce betw russia and saudi</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">RUS guest: $2 trill bailout = cost of GNP that wd help poor ppl color and transform to grn economy</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">paywall</font></p><p><a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-pledges-support-for-embattled-oil-industry-11585952507"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-pledges-support-for-embattled-oil-industry-11585952507</font></a></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">trump Pledges Support for Embattled Oil Industry</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The president promised sector leaders the government would help revive the industry during a much anticipated White House meeting Friday.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By Timothy Puko and Christopher M. Matthews</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Updated April 3, 2020 6:40 pm ET</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">WASHINGTON—President Trump promised oil-industry leaders the government would help revive the sector during a much anticipated White House meeting Friday.</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Chief executives of Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. and leaders of seven other energy companies joined the president as the new coronavirus pandemic slows the economy and ravages the energy business. Dwindling demand has helped to halve crude prices since January and more than 70 U.S. oil companies, already heavy with debt, are at risk of bankruptcy, energy analytics...</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">TO READ THE FULL STORY</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-is-preparing-the-ground-for-a-totalitarian-dictatorship-but-we-can-stop-him/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-is-preparing-the-ground-for-a-totalitarian-dictatorship-but-we-can-stop-him/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">... see salon</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s motives at this point are, for want of a better word, sinister. He appears to be using the playbook of Vladimir Putin and Viktor Orban, readying the ground for an election that will have two candidates but only one possible outcome. What we are seeing in Trump’s nightly lies and obfuscations and denunciations of Democrats and the media is the beginnings of a Trumpian totalitarianism.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He has seized control of the political debate using his nightly virus press conferences, which are more frequent and last longer than his political rallies. He is gaining control over the media in his choices of whose questions he accepts, taking questions from friendly outlets and belittling outfits like NBC, CNN and PBS. (The New York Times and the Washington Post have stopped sending reporters to the briefings, covering them from outside the press room.) He has gone against rules agreed to by the White House Correspondents’ Association by allowing the alleged “reporter” from the OANN network to attend every briefing while representatives of other news organizations have to cycle in and out on a schedule set by rules according to social distancing needs.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-fires-people-for-telling-the-truth-president-blasted-for-dead-of-night-decision-to-fire-intel-watchdog/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-fires-people-for-telling-the-truth-president-blasted-for-dead-of-night-decision-to-fire-intel-watchdog/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">fauci nat'l stay at home</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/bernie-sanders-calls-for-boldest-legislation-in-history-to-halt-spiraling-covid-19-catastrophe/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Sanders calls for ‘boldest legislation in history’ to halt spiraling Covid-19 catastrophe</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/common-dreams/" title="Posts by Common Dreams" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Common Dreams</font></a></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday released his demands for six key priorities that he said must be included in the next round of federal economic relief for suffering Americans as…</font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">coi on covid relief, deutsche</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-berates-woman-reporter-for-very-nasty-tone-in-misogynistic-screed/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">trump berates woman reporter for ‘very nasty tone’ in misogynistic screed</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/david-badash/" title="Posts by David Badash" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">David Badash</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/the-new-civil-rights-movement/" title="Posts by The New Civil Rights Movement" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The New Civil Rights Movement</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump unleashed a venomous attack on yet another reporter.</font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">OMFG WAG THE DOG IRAN VENEZ</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/journalist-mehdi-hasan-on-trumps-iran-warmongering-what-kind-of-maniac-risks-such-a-war-in-the-middle-of-a-global-pandemic/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/journalist-mehdi-hasan-on-trumps-iran-warmongering-what-kind-of-maniac-risks-such-a-war-in-the-middle-of-a-global-pandemic/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Journalist Mehdi Hasan on Trump’s Iran warmongering: ‘What kind of maniac risks such a war in the middle of a global pandemic?’</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams April 2, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Iranian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday called for an immediate halt to “warmongering during the coronavirus outbreak” as U.S. forces reportedly deployed Patriot missiles to Iraq and President Donald Trump warned—without presenting a shred of evidence—that Tehran is planning a “sneak attack” on American troops in the region.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Warning that heightened U.S. military activity in Iraq could lead to further “instability and disaster” in the Middle East, Iran’s Foreign Ministry said the Trump administration should “respect the wishes of the Iraqi people and government and leave the country.” The Pentagon insisted in a statement that the Patriot missiles were mobilized for purely defensive purposes.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Common Dreams reported, Trump on Wednesday threatened Iran with a “very heavy price” if it attacks “U.S. troops and/or assets” in the region, ignoring pleas from advocacy groups and the United Nations for a global ceasefire and international cooperation against the novel coronavirus, which has devastated the U.S. and Iran and is spreading quickly in Iraq.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s tweet came just over an hour after he attended an intelligence briefing with U.S. national security officials.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a tweet of his own late Wednesday, Iran’s top diplomat Javad Zarif urged Trump “not to be misled by usual warmongers.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Unlike the U.S.—which surreptitiously lies, cheats, assassinates—Iran only acts in self-defense,” said Zarif. “Iran starts no wars, but teaches lessons to those who do.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The New York Times reported last week that the Pentagon has issued a directive ordering “military commanders to plan for an escalation of American combat in Iraq” and “prepare a campaign to destroy an Iranian-backed militia group that has threatened more attacks against American troops.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Some top officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Robert C. O’Brien, the national security adviser, have been pushing for aggressive new action against Iran and its proxy forces—and see an opportunity to try to destroy Iranian-backed militia groups in Iraq as leaders in Iran are distracted by the pandemic crisis in their country,” according to the Times.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In response to the Times report, The Intercept‘s Mehdi Hasan urged the U.S. public to “beware of Trump using the coronavirus as a cover for war with Iran.”</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/this-is-the-real-reason-trump-is-finally-admitting-the-coronavirus-will-kill-many-americans/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/this-is-the-real-reason-trump-is-finally-admitting-the-coronavirus-will-kill-many-americans/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">2.2 makes 100k kia a win?!</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">despite massive covid fail 5 pt bump in polls? (govs got much more)</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-is-playing-the-media-with-his-grave-and-grim-new-tone-for-some-absurd-reason-it-seems-to-be-working/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/trump-is-playing-the-media-with-his-grave-and-grim-new-tone-for-some-absurd-reason-it-seems-to-be-working/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump is playing the media with his ‘grave’ and ‘grim’ new tone. For some absurd reason, it seems to be working</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Laura Clawson / Daily Kos April 1, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump continues to play the media and the media continues to be willing to be played. Every time he puts on his serious face and admits what he denied for so long about the seriousness of the novel coronavirus, he gets another round of headlines that help him erase months of disastrous denial of the scale of what we face.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Tuesday’s press briefing was more of the same. It was an event that veteran Trump fact-checker Daniel Dale described as having “featured a dishonest overall narrative—a Trump effort to cast himself as the leader who stood strong against the faction that downplayed the severity of the virus,” in addition to “a barrage of specific false claims” that drew the coverage he was looking for from reporter after reporter.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Trump sounding different today. Scale of death appears to have changed his tone, at least,” The New York Times’ Eric Lipton tweeted</b>. According to CNN’s John Harwood, it was “the most effective job of communicating President Trump has done during this crisis.” From ABC News’ Karen Travers: “The tone at this White House coronavirus task force briefing feels different than all prior COVID-19 briefings: grave, sober, grim, realistic.” And so on.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The New York Times also offered a full-length example of the form. Though the article acknowledges many of the times Trump downplayed the crisis, the sentence reporter Peter Baker chose to tweet was from the Trump-has-changed genre: “The grim-faced president who appeared in the White House briefing room for more than two hours on Tuesday evening beside charts showing death projections of hellacious proportions was coming to grips with a reality he had long refused to accept.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Also, we learn, it was “the starkest such effort he has made to prepare the country for the expected wave of disease and death.” The starkest such effort, or a belated attempt to memory-hole his weeks of active denial? Baker acknowledges the weeks of denial, but is credulous—in true Times political coverage style—about the reason for it. <b>Trump is worried about reelection. He’s moving the goalposts to redefine his failure as a success. </b>And when talking about his made-for-the-media tone shift as a real thing, it’s not enough to point to evidence of the ways Trump led us to this disastrous point. Reporters have to be willing to go further. This White House is carefully constructing the latest big lie and coverage of it has to show it for what it is, or the media is failing us more badly than it did in 2016.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">CAFE smash crisis</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/trump-to-announce-his-most-disastrous-environmental-policy-so-far/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/trump-to-announce-his-most-disastrous-environmental-policy-so-far/</font></a></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/trump-has-filled-the-government-with-his-corrupt-lackeys-spoiler-that-hasnt-worked-out-well-for-the-rest-of-us/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/trump-has-filled-the-government-with-his-corrupt-lackeys-spoiler-that-hasnt-worked-out-well-for-the-rest-of-us/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div><b>Trump has filled the government with his corrupt lackeys. Spoiler: That hasn’t worked out well for the rest of us</b></div><div>
</div><div>Written by <b>Heather Digby Parton </b>/ Salon March 27, 2020</div><div>
</div><div>In February of 2017, in the very early days of the Trump administration, Steve Bannon, then the White House strategic adviser, appeared at the annual gathering of the Conservative Political Action Committee and described the new administration’s three “lines of thought.” The first had to do with sovereignty or “America First.” The second was what he called “economic nationalism” ( Trump’s trade war).<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> And the third he called “the deconstruction of the administrative state.”</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At the time it was assumed that this meant deregulation, a long-held goal of the conservative movement, by another name. And in fact the Trump administration has taken a wrecking ball to environmental and workplace regulation, mostly under the radar. Even the coronavirus pandemic has been used as an opportunity to drastically reduce regulations on pollution.</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But whatever Bannon may have thought, “deconstruction of the administrative state” wasn’t part of any ideological “line of thought,” because Donald Trump doesn’t think that way. What it really meant was the degradation and delegitimization of the nonpolitical career officials who run the federal government on a daily basis. This had nothing to do with some theoretical commitment to small government. It was all about a commitment to Donald Trump.</span></div><div>
</div><div>These officials, whether in the intelligence community, the Department of Justice, the Pentagon, the EPA, Homeland Security or the State Department, are all tasked with seeing that rules, norms, regulations and laws are followed and impartial facts and data are produced so the government and the private sector can make rational decisions. They had to be marginalized in order to protect this inept, impulsive, narcissistic president, who had no understanding of how government works and no knowledge of what his job entailed.</div><div>
</div><div><b>Trump’s allies have been relentless in their mission. The turnover in the first three years of this administration has been staggering.</b> When agency heads weren’t forced to leave because of blatant corruption they were pushed out ignominiously for anything from perceived personal slights to jealousy over too much positive attention from the press to differences over his reckless policy decisions. And he has most often decided not to name permanent replacements but to leave “acting” heads in charge, ostensibly because he likes the flexibility. The truth is that he has taken to placing unqualified cronies in important jobs who probably couldn’t get Senate approval, and leaving a large number of jobs unfilled.</div><div><b>
</b></div><div><b>This has left the Justice Department in a state of near-mutiny under the leadership of top Trump henchman Bill Barr, while the intelligence community tries to avoid telling Trump anything he doesn’t want to hear and the State Department is staffed by people who have no idea what American foreign policy is from one day to the next. </b>But I think most Americans assumed that the workings of the federal public health agencies would be beneath the notice of the president and would therefore hum along without much interference. That turns out to be wrong too, and for obvious reasons. The agencies are interlocking, and if one is being undermined they all are.The New York Times recently reported that Trump’s propensity for hiring loyalists without experience and leaving many positions unfilled has made the response to the coronavirus pandemic erratic and incompetent at all levels of government. </div><div>
</div><div>At Homeland Security, 20 senior positions are either vacant or filled by acting officials, including acting secretary Chad Wolf, who appeared completely clueless in a recent Senate hearing. Workers in the Department of Veterans Affairs had to order medical supplies from Amazon because their leaders are so inexperienced in disasters they didn’t plan ahead for patients at VA hospitals during the pandemic.And if you’re wondering what went wrong at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, ProPublica reported on Thursday that from the beginning that agency was in total chaos trying to deal with the pandemic, a crisis that is specifically in its wheelhouse. It wasn’t just that the tests they developed didn’t work or that they inexplicably refused to use the test German scientists had developed for the World Health Organization. The agency was failing at its most basic function.:</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Feb. 13, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention sent out an email with what the author described as an “URGENT” call for help. The agency was struggling with one of its most important duties: keeping track of Americans suspected of having the novel coronavirus. It had “an ongoing issue” with organizing — and sometimes flat-out losing — forms sent by local agencies about people thought to be infected. The email listed job postings for people who could track or retrieve this paperwork.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>Trump has insisted over and over again that no one could have predicted that something like this, which of course is complete nonsense. The Obama administration had set up a pandemic team within the National Security Council, which ran potential scenarios for the incoming administration in January of 2017 as part of a legally required transition exercise.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Roughly two-thirds of the Trump representatives who attended that meeting are no longer serving in the administration anyway, another example of how the huge turnover has contributed to the botched response. In any case, former national security adviser John Bolton disbanded the team when he joined the White House, so there is hardly anyone around who would have benefited from those briefings anyway.</span></div><div>
</div><div><b>But according to Politico, the Obama folks left a “playbook” behind that outlined everything the new administration needed to know to begin the coordination of the various agencies and distribution of materials as well as other helpful guidance. Apparently, that guidance was thrown onto a shelf somewhere, and has been gathering dust ever since.</b></div><div>
</div><div>None of that is surprising. When Trump was asked at one of his White House coronavirus campaign rallies if he’d called any of the former presidents for advice, he replied that he thinks he’s doing an incredible job and said, “I don’t think I’m going to learn much.”</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On Thursday, he blamed the Obama administration for his own lack of preparation, garnering this response:</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">https://twitter.com/JeremyKonyndyk/status/1243299159890894854</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump’s habit from the beginning has been to fire anyone who follows the law or science if he feels that threatens him in any way. So this Washington Post story about the “cadre of right-wing news sites” who are agitating for the firing of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases chief Dr. Anthony Fauci is all too predictable, considering Trump’s track record. They object to Fauci’s insistence that the data and the course of the virus must determine when the guidelines for social distancing can be lifted. Why? Because he is “an agent of the ‘deep state’ that Trump has vowed to dismantle.” Of course.</span></div><div>
</div><div>And so the administrative state continues to be deconstructed, one dead American at a time.</div><div>
</div><div>
</div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/03/14/815039722/trump-steps-in-to-help-oil-industry-facing-its-own-coronavirus-crisis"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.npr.org/2020/03/14/815039722/trump-steps-in-to-help-oil-industry-facing-its-own-coronavirus-crisis</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">he tried to play it like shrewd bottom feed strat but actually bailout to frakkers?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">npr 3/14?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...Oil <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">prices bounced back a bit after President Trump said the Department of Energy would buy crude for the nation's strategic petroleum reserve.</span></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"We're going to fill it right to the top," Trump said Friday in a wide-ranging news conference at the White House. He said it will save taxpayers "billions and billions of dollars" while helping an industry that's been reeling.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While oil prices increased nearly 5% after Friday's announcement, that was just a fraction of the amount they lost earlier in the week.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In South Texas, Rudy Martinez immediately experienced the effects of the past week's <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/03/08/813439501/saudi-arabia-stuns-world-with-massive-discount-in-oil-sold-to-asia-europe-and-u-" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">collapse in crude oil prices</a>.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"I actually have a little man camp and these guys are on the way out because they lost contracts," says Martinez, who has eight rooms he rents to out-of-town oilfield workers in Karnes City, Texas.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">"The workers get their per-diem and I charge them $100 a person [per week]. Actually I'd like to charge them a little more than that, but now that it's tapered off, it's hard to charge them that because they can't pay it," he says.</font></p><aside id="ad-backstage-wrap" aria-label="advertisement" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="ad-backstage-News_National" class="ad-backstage" data-ad-config="{" network="network" site="site" default="default" n6735.npr="n6735.NPR" mobile="mobile" n6735.nprmobile="n6735.NPRMOBILE" zone="zone" news_national="News_National" targets="targets" testserver="testserver" false="false" ispodcastepisode="isPodcastEpisode" storyid="storyId" agg="agg" location="location" backstage="backstage" deferred="deferred" isbetweencontent="isBetweenContent" true="true" isaggsponsorship="isAggSponsorship" borderclass="borderClass" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; clear: both; text-align: center;" /></aside><div id="res815169302" class="bucketwrap internallink insettwocolumn inset2col " style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 27px 15px; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; float: right; width: 330.438px; clear: right; z-index: 1; background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="bucket img" style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border-width: 1px 0px 0px; border-top-style: solid; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: initial; border-top-color: rgb(224, 224, 224); border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: initial; border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; overflow: hidden;"><div class="bucketblock" style="box-sizing: content-box; margin: 0px 0px 0px 80px; padding: 9px 11px 9px 17px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; min-height: 62px;"><h3 style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.27273; vertical-align: baseline; -webkit-font-smoothing: antialiased;"><a href="https://www.npr.org/series/812054919/the-coronavirus-crisis" data-metrics="{" category="category" story="Story" to="to" action="action" click="Click" internal="Internal" link="Link" label="label" https="https" www.npr.org="www.npr.org" series="series" the-coronavirus-crisis="the-coronavirus-crisis" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; -webkit-font-smoothing: subpixel-antialiased;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">The Coronavirus Crisis</font></a></h3></div></div></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Back when the oil business was really booming in Karnes City, Martinez says he could charge up to $2000 a week per person.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This is one small example of what declining oil prices mean for the rural communities that depend on the oil business. And there's a lot at stake for the U.S., the world's largest producer of crude oil.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Oil prices had been falling out of fears the coronavirus epidemic threatened world economic growth. Demand was also down as large gatherings were canceled and people started staying home to avoid getting sick.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Then prices plunged after <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/03/08/813439501/saudi-arabia-stuns-world-with-massive-discount-in-oil-sold-to-asia-europe-and-u-" style="box-sizing: border-box; -webkit-tap-highlight-color: transparent; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none;">Saudi Arabia and Russia</a> failed to agree on production cuts and instead entered a price war last Sunday. In a stunning reversal, Saudi Arabia said it would actually boost oil production and offer a massive discount for its customers.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px 0px 1.17647em; padding: 0px 15px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.70588; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 680px; position: static; float: none; width: auto;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">U.S. oil companies, especially smaller ones, are now looking to make deep cuts. Industry analysts warn of possible bankruptcies, especially if oil remains where it's fallen to, in the $30 per barrel range. Companies operating in Texas's Eagle Ford Shale need prices between $40 to $60 a barrel to remain profitable....</font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/wartime-president-trump-has-found-his-2020-strategy-posing-as-the-real-thing-on-television/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/wartime-president-trump-has-found-his-2020-strategy-posing-as-the-real-thing-on-television/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‘Wartime President’ Trump has found his 2020 strategy — posing as the real thing on television</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald J. Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence and members of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, delivers remarks at a coronavirus update briefing Sunday, March 15, 2020, in the James S. Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)]</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Bob Cesca / Salon March 24, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Like every other petty con man, from back-alley hustlers to Wall Street fraudsters, Donald Trump is a thief and he’ll always be a thief. Now the president is clearly stealing from the George W. Bush playbook in one particularly awful way. Specifically, Trump appears to be desperately envious of Bush’s approval polls after the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, to the point of recently declaring himself to be a war president in the face of the global COVID-19 pandemic. And it could absolutely get him re-elected.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As of the past several days, Trump’s been marketing COVID-19 as an “invisible enemy.</b>” He can’t stop repeating the bellicose platitude that America is at war against the virus, even though he spent the first two months of this catastrophe telling us it was no big deal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Yet during the Sunday edition of the Trump Show, the president said, “In a true sense we’re at war.</b>” <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">On top of not understanding the definition of “war” or “true,” Trump is also struggling to present himself with a patina of unity and cooperation (which he and his people routinely contradict with obnoxious cracks and tweets about his political opponents), while conspicuously thanking “first responders,” as in the days and weeks following 9/11.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The lead-up to the Iraq war in 2002 and early 2003 saw the Republicans pick up seats in Congress, while Bush was handily re-elected in 2004 due primarily to being a war president — that whole “don’t change horses midstream” yarn. Trump is starving for some of that adoration now, and he’ll steal whatever he needs to steal in order to get it. Why? It’s what he does, and it’s because he knows that if he loses in November, there’s a reasonable chance he’ll be indicted for one or more crimes. The stakes for the president, as well as Donald Jr., Eric, Ivanka and Jared Kushner, couldn’t be greater. If winning means recycling the Bush-Cheney approach from the war on terrorism, he’ll do it. He’ll do anything.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Just in case American voters don’t particularly buy into the notion of a faceless microorganism as a terrorist-like villain, the administration is sending out the word that the human enemy in this alleged war is China. <b>Breitbart News and Donald Trump Jr. are accusing China of spreading disinformation about the virus — and even accusing the World Health Organization of being on China’s payroll.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>So if you’re keeping score, the COVID-19 virus is Trump’s al-Qaida, while China is Trump’s Taliban and/or Iraq. </b>In fact, I keep expecting Trump, during one of his daily Trump Show episodes, to crumple up a photo of COVID-19, throw it onto the ground, grab the nearest bullhorn and announce, “I can hear you, and the coronavirus will hear from all of us soon!” Cue the Lee Greenwood anthem.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In truth, this is a “war” in the same way Trump University was a “college.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Based on recent history alone, Trump knows that too many of us, the sucker demographic, will eat up his chocolate-fountain of nonsense with a giant Trump-branded ladle. It doesn’t matter whether this is an actual war. Trump has to package himself as the bone-spurred generalissimo, wrapping himself in commander-in-chief powers, because while he understands very little about the so-called enemy, he at least understands that Americans tend to re-elect presidents who fight and win wars.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>We don’t need to worry that Trump will actually launch a fighting war against China. He’s too much of a coward for that. In this case, though, he doesn’t have to. This is nothing more than a PR war. </b>All he needs to do is to declare China to be the enemy, repeat and repeat, then declare victory and stage a victory parade. At least 40 percent of us will suck it down like Trump Vodka. It’ll all happen, irrespective of whether COVID-19 cases are on the decline. In fact, the president is already talking about lifting some of the isolation orders when his randomly-designated 15-day period is over, potentially worsening the spread of the virus. Reality, in this non-war war, is totally irrelevant, just as it’s been totally irrelevant since Inauguration Day.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">At risk of burying the lede, the X-factor in Trump’s war plan, as it was during the lead-up to the invasion and occupation of Iraq, once again involves the cable news networks — yes, all of them — as well as the news divisions of the four major broadcast networks. News directors across the TV dial are, for reasons that confound logic, gifting the president with free airtime, live, every single day, to spread disinformation and brag about his self-proclaimed heroism and the fighting of a war he denied even existed a few weeks ago.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>To be clear, the big four broadcast networks, including ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox (proper), are interrupting regular programming to do this. It’s not just the cable networks.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It would be one thing if these news conferences were delivering actual news, but a good 90 percent of the Trump Show is nothing but gratuitous fluffing of the president’s brittle ego; Trump inventing non-facts about medicine and the virus, such as urging people to use untested meds; and, of course, a few minutes in which the pre-pandemic Rally Trump appears, complete with “Chinese virus” dog-whistles and the like, reassuring his bigoted fanboys that their TV-crush is still there for them.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course the TV news people know this, and they’re letting him get away with it by continuing to air these ass-kissing sessions like actual news. It’s not news, and airing it live needs to stop, now. Remember those empty-podium shots during the 2016 election, the ones that preceded the live airing of Trump’s rallies nearly every day? It’s happening all over again, now, during this election cycle. This is how Trump will win again.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A few weeks ago, I mentioned the electoral model formulated by political scientist Rachel Bitecofer, who has forecast that 2020 will be another wave election for the Democrats, barring any “shocks to the system.” Well, system? Meet shocks </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">— every day for at least an hour, while American TV viewers, locked in their homes as captive audiences, are fed bucketloads of Trump agitprop and rah-rah patriotic warmongering directed against a virus, televised live from the White House. Almost as much as the virus and the economic calamity it’s manifesting, we should be deeply concerned about this particular “shock to the system” and the way it’s fueling Trump’s re-election campaign.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These televised press conferences are extended free-of-charge campaign commercials. Nothing more.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The cruel and obvious irony here is that the alleged “enemy of the people” could help to re-elect the man who’s responsible for calling them that.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I used to believe it was valuable to show Trump for who he is: an unrepentant ghoul who, over this past weekend, gleefully mocked Mitt Romney for being in quarantine (so much for unity and cooperation). Unfortunately, I was wrong to assume that American television viewers — some of whom are wrestling strangers for toilet paper — were sophisticated enough to smell a clown-faced rat. I was also wrong to assume that cable news people wouldn’t repeat their participation in the run-up to Iraq or their empty-podium mistakes from 2016, and yet here we are again. As I wrote last week, it’s like Groundhog Day, over and over and over.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>A non-war war to rally around, and a handful of TV networks to broadcast it, could be more than enough to overcome Trump fatigue, and could easily overwhelm this year’s edition of an electoral “blue wave</b>.” The semi-hopeful news is that Trump’s spent the last five years relentlessly trolling and demonizing anyone who isn’t a sworn disciple in his whine-and-rage cult, so it’s unlikely he’ll ever accumulate the kind of popular support George W. Bush received after 9/11. But he doesn’t need to. All he needs are a few thousand extra votes in several swing states — enough to game the Electoral College yet again — and our descent into fascist idiocracy will be dramatically <b>accelerated</b>, thanks in part to Donald Trump’s unwitting accomplices in TV news.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">----</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">never waste a crisis? // dis cap'lism?</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/donald-trump-is-exploiting-the-coronavirus-pandemic-to-advance-truly-disgraceful-union-busting-effort/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/donald-trump-is-exploiting-the-coronavirus-pandemic-to-advance-truly-disgraceful-union-busting-effort/</font></a></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump is exploiting the coronavirus pandemic to advance ‘truly disgraceful’ union-busting effort</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Union workers and supporters cheer at a "Build it Here" rally Monday, Nov. 18, 2013, in downtown Seattle. The Washington State Labor Council called for the rally, saying it wanted to show Boeing and state leaders it supports Machinists union members who voted last week to reject contract concessions Boeing said it needed to build the new 777X in Washington. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams March 20, 2020</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump is not letting the global coronavirus pandemic stand in the way of his administration’s assault on what’s left of organized labor in the United States.</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In fact, as the New York Times reported Friday, the Trump administration is actively using the outbreak as a pretext to ram through union-busting policies and other right-wing agenda items that would likely draw closer scrutiny and public outrage under normal circumstances.</font></b></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" margin-top="margin-top" px="px" margin-bottom="margin-bottom" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The White House, under the guise of its coronavirus response, is quietly advancing policies that President Trump has long advocated, from tougher border controls to an assault on organized labor to the stonewalling of congressional oversight,” the Times reported. “Administration officials insist that such long-sought policies are necessary to stem the outbreak. But opportunism is clearly in play.”...</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/a-weak-man-with-delusions-of-competence-trump-buried-for-lying-his-way-through-the-daily-pandemic-press-conferences"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/a-weak-man-with-delusions-of-competence-trump-buried-for-lying-his-way-through-the-daily-pandemic-press-conferences</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‘A weak man with delusions of competence’: Trump buried for lying his way through the daily pandemic press conferences</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Tom Boggioni / Raw Story March 21, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In a brutally blunt piece for the New York Times, columnist Jennifer Senior went scorched earth on Donald Trump for his lie-filled performances in the now daily press briefings on the coronavirus pandemic — suggesting the media call them what they are: presidential “propaganda.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Following a day when the combative Trump attacked NBC reporter Peter Alexander for merely asking what he could say to the public that is living in fear of the pandemic, Senior said enough is enough.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“In a time of global emergency, we need calm, directness and, above all, hard facts. Only the opposite is on offer from the Trump White House. It is therefore time to call the president’s news conferences for what they are: propaganda,” she wrote. “We may as well be watching newsreels approved by the Soviet Politburo. We’re witnessing the falsification of history in real time. When Donald Trump, under the guise of social distancing, told the White House press corps on Thursday that he ought to get rid of 75 to 80 percent of them — reserving the privilege only for those he liked — it may have been chilling, but it wasn’t surprising. He wants to thin out their ranks until there’s only Pravda in the room.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">According to the columnist, Trump’s press conferences are full of bluster and lies and stand in stark contrast with those being held by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D-NY).</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For many, Friday’s contentious press conference should be the tipping point for most journalists.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“At his Thursday news conference, a discussion of chloroquine and other experimental therapies formed the core of his remarks, when those drugs and therapies are untested and unproven and, in some cases, won’t be ready for several months, as NBC’s Peter Alexander pointed out the following day,” she recalled. “‘What do you say to Americans who are scared?’ Alexander pressed. ‘I say that you’re a terrible reporter,’ Trump answered. Only a liar — and a weak man with delusions of competence — would be so unnerved by the facts.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Most dangerous of all is Trump’s insistence that things are fine, or will be shortly, that they’ll be stronger and better and greater than ever. We don’t have any evidence that this is true, and the president finds any suggestion to the contrary quite rud</b>e. When a journalist pointed out to him on Thursday that the economy had all but ground to halt, Trump cut him off,” she explained. “Here’s the truth: Things might be hard — unfathomably hard — for months, perhaps even north of a year. Anyone who’s reading or listening to other sources of news besides the president knows that. It takes sensitivity and strength and intelligence to speak truthfully to the public about imminent hardship, the prospect of enduring pain.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Then came the Cuomo comparison.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I listen to Cuomo, who says the same thing. His news conference on Friday was about the practical things, knowing the entire state — country, globe — had just taken a precipitous slide down Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, with food, shelter and safety now topmost on many people’s minds. No one can evict you for 90 days. We’re getting hospital beds. We’re recruiting doctors and nurses in training to fight this fight, and we’re coaxing medical professionals out of retirement,” she wrote. “Then he spoke from the heart. One of his daughters was in quarantine. ‘To tell you the truth, I had some of the best conversations with her that I’ve ever had,’ Cuomo said. She was alone for two weeks. ‘We talked about things in depth that we didn’t have time to talk about in the past,’ he continued, ‘or we didn’t have the courage or the strength to talk about in the past — feelings I had, about mistakes I had made along the way that I wanted to express my regret and talk through with her.'”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“He was expressing fallibility. Imagine that,” she concluded.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">You can read the whole piece here.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">3/17 pompeo ups sntions on iran?! release americans, fund terror</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/how-little-trump-cares-for-workers-and-how-much-he-values-corporate-swamp-monsters-is-now-on-full-display/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/how-little-trump-cares-for-workers-and-how-much-he-values-corporate-swamp-monsters-is-now-on-full-display/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">How little Trump cares for workers — and how much he values corporate swamp monsters — is now on full display</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by David Cay Johnson / DC Report, Raw Story March 17, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">This article was paid for by Raw Story subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump pandemic response stimulus plan, shown first to Senate Republicans, proposes $100 billion for workers. The thin gruel Trump’s team proposes recalls famous 1980 Boston Globe headline mocking President Jimmy Carter: More Mush from the Wimp.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump may have finally realized the coronavirus pandemic is real, but he hasn’t a clue about the price in lost wages, not to mention lost lives, that Americans workers will pay for his lethargic incompetence.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Workers would get maybe $100 billion, corporations $850 billion. Airlines would get $50 billion, half as much as workers, Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin told Senate Republicans.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">While $100 billion sounds like a big number, its bupkis compared to the scope of the job loss problem.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">American workers gross about $150 billion per week, IRS Table 1.4 shows.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Distribute $100 billion equally to the 168 million or so people who earn from $1 to more than $100 million in annual wages and it’s not enough to replace a week’s wages.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Restricting help to the bottom half of workers, who made just under $33,000 in 2018, wouldn’t be much better. Trump’s plan would not even replace two weeks of pay to the more than 83 million low-paid workers.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump said Monday that he expected the pandemic to continue into July and August. That would be 24 weeks, not two.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>We’ve already seen the Federal Reserve jump in with help for Wall Street,</b> where the large spoons with which bankers used to take in welfare have been replaced with giant buckets.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Fed slashed bank borrowing rates to as little as zero while offering to trade as much as $700 billion in cash for other securities to ensure financial firms can cover their obligations. Heaven forbid the bankers set aside enough reserves to cover a rainy day or a pandemic.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Bankers first, American workers last is not a Trump era creation. But it is promoted with gusto. And it contradicts the core promise on which Trump beguiled almost 63 million people into casting ballots for him.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump was all about “the forgotten men and women” of America, both as a candidate and in his inaugural address.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In accepting the Republican nomination for president in July 2016 Trump declared, “The forgotten men and women of our country — people who work hard but no longer have a voice: I am your voice.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">That promise died as soon as he left the Capitol for the White House.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The man who tried to con us with his absurd claim that coronavirus was a hoax, a “foreign virus,” and that the initial first 15 coronavirus cases in America would soon be zero, and who insisted over the weekend that virus was “under tremendous control” doesn’t have a clue.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Many Americans will die because of his incompetence and denial of reality.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For the majority who survive, even with state jobless benefits, which most workers don’t qualify for, Trump’s economic stimulus is itself a hoax.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Its money aplenty for the swamp monsters Trump promised to slay and starvation wage replacement for their prey.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So maybe instead of “More Mush from the Wimp,” the smart headline would be: Trump Feeds Workers to the Swamp Monsters.</font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see knee jerk</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">mma 320</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">2018, <b>Donald Trump</b> and then-national security adviser <b>John Bolton</b> fired the “entire pandemic response chain of command” implemented by former President Barack Obama following the 2014 Ebola crisis</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">. Broadcast news programs on ABC, CBS, and NBC </span><a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://click.e.mediamatters.org/?qs=e927f96fa742d8b2720fa322512c1f0c2d28445b8a91c36585eedff80ccd28718905fe753269eee77832739643ebd3a8e823f1031d97663f" title="have ignored" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">have ignored</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> the firings. In fact, Democratic presidential candidates were the only people to mention the firings -- so in practice, these networks are turning Trump's incompetence and irresponsibility into a partisan issue.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">=</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;">everything is a transaction? tried to buy Greenland?</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/depraved-trump-offered-german-scientists-large-sum-for-exclusive-us-rights-to-coronavirus-vaccine-german-government-confirms/">
</a></span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: currentcolor none medium; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/depraved-trump-offered-german-scientists-large-sum-for-exclusive-us-rights-to-coronavirus-vaccine-german-government-confirms/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/depraved-trump-offered-german-scientists-large-sum-for-exclusive-us-rights-to-coronavirus-vaccine-german-government-confirms/</a></span></font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/how-the-kushner-family-is-cashing-in-on-covid-19"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/how-the-kushner-family-is-cashing-in-on-covid-19</font></a></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/trump-promised-to-bring-back-manufacturing-in-pennsylvania-he-didnt-but-will-it-cost-him/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/trump-promised-to-bring-back-manufacturing-in-pennsylvania-he-didnt-but-will-it-cost-him/</a></font></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 320</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">w<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/we-need-to-plan-now-in-case-trump-loses-in-november-but-refuses-to-leave-the-white-house/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4; display: inline !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">e need to plan now in case Trump loses in November — but refuses to leave the White House</a></font></p><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/thom-hartmann/" title="Posts by Thom Hartmann" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Thom Hartmann</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/independent-media-institute/" title="Posts by Independent Media Institute" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Independent Media Institute</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Constitution provides a couple of mechanisms for Trump to lose the 2020 election—both the popular vote and the Electoral College—and still hold the office of president for a second term. It’s…</font></p></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/as-coronavirus-pandemic-sweeps-the-globe-trump-authorizes-new-bombing-campaign-in-the-middle-east"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/as-coronavirus-pandemic-sweeps-the-globe-trump-authorizes-new-bombing-campaign-in-the-middle-east</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>As coronavirus pandemic sweeps the globe, Trump authorizes new bombing campaign in the Middle East</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams March 13, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Authorized by President Donald Trump, U.S. forces late Thursday carried out a wave of airstrikes across Iraq purportedly targeting an Iran-linked militia that the Pentagon claims was behind a rocket attack that killed two American servicemembers earlier this week.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The airstrikes risk sparking yet another dangerous escalation of military tensions between the U.S. and Iran at a uniquely perilous moment: Both nations are struggling to contain and combat the novel coronavirus, with Iran hit particularly hard by the pandemic as it works to muster adequate medical resources while in the vice grip of Trump administration sanctions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Trump White House, meanwhile, is under fire for bungling its response the the outbreak and failing to devote sufficient government resources to fighting COVID-19, which has infected over 1,400 people in the United States—a number that experts say is likely to rise dramatically in the coming days as the disease spreads and the remarkably slow rate of testing picks up speed.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“This moment is the last three decades of U.S. foreign policy in miniature: spare nothing for war and military dominance and find little to spare for true threats like climate change and pandemic disease,” tweeted Stephen Wertheim, deputy director of research and policy at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), a 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, noted Thursday that “the annual Pentagon budget is $738,000,000,000.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is 1.5% the size,” Sanders tweeted. “If we can find money on bombs and missiles to kill people, we can damn well afford to protect everyone’s health and take care of each other.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">A senior Trump administration official told the Washington Post late Thursday that the president directed U.S. forces to bomb five Kataib Hezbollah weapons facilities with the stated goal of reducing the group’s “ability to carry out future attacks.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Kataib Hezbollah is the same Iran-linked militia group that the Trump administration blamed—falsely, according to Iraqi officials—for a rocket attack last December that the White House used as a justification to assassinate Iranian Gen. Qassem Soleimani with a drone strike in Baghdad, a move that nearly sparked an all-out war</b>.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It is not clear whether there were any casualties from the latest round of U.S. airstrikes in Iraq. Harakat al-Nujaba, a separate Iran-backed militia, “accused the United States of hitting militia and Iraqi army headquarters, as well as a civilian airport,” the Post reported.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“In the middle of a global pandemic—while people across the country quarantine in fear and struggle to pay their rent—Trump is bailing out fossil fuel corporations and bombing the Middle East,” tweeted Michael Galant, senior communications associate with advocacy group Win Without War. “It’s all laid bare. For everyone to see.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Assal Rad</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@AssalRad</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Remember escalation w/#Iran is Trump’s manufactured crisis.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Stories from #Italy & Iran describe fight against #CODVID19 like war. All hands on deck needed. This is when we’re reminded of real crisis & global challenges. We need diplomacy & cooperation now more than ever.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?????? https://twitter.com/katekizer/status/1238130441359679492 …</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Kate Kizer ??</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@KateKizer</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">escalating into a direct conflict with Iran is the last thing the U.S., Iran, and the world needs right now. https://twitter.com/JackDetsch_ALM/status/1238128480581234691 …</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Ryan Costello, policy director with the National Iranian American Council, said in a statement late Thursday that “without a radical change in U.S. policy, we risk repeating the escalatory cycle, threatening to plunge the region in yet another conflict and sucking the U.S. into another endless war.”</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Fortunately, Congress just sent a bipartisan resolution to the president’s desk clarifying that he does not have authority to start a war with Iran and urging him to withdraw troops in hostilities with Iran,” Costello said, referring to the War Powers Resolution passed by the House Wednesday. “Rather than ignore Congress and the American people’s wishes on war and peace, he should sign the resolution and urgently seek diplomacy to put the war threat on ice.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/trumps-taliban-deal-falls-apart-and-republicans-are-taking-notice/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/trumps-taliban-deal-falls-apart-and-republicans-are-taking-notice/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/blinded-by-greed-financial-reporter-examines-deutche-banks-distrubing-relationship-with-donald-trump"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/blinded-by-greed-financial-reporter-examines-deutche-banks-distrubing-relationship-with-donald-trump</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">i tend to avoid, but this sum:</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/here-are-7-brutal-comments-from-experts-about-donald-trumps-mental-stability"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/here-are-7-brutal-comments-from-experts-about-donald-trumps-mental-stability</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/here-are-7-ridiculous-and-disturbing-moments-from-trumps-visit-to-the-cdc"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/here-are-7-ridiculous-and-disturbing-moments-from-trumps-visit-to-the-cdc</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">see imperial prez ~ checks and BALANCE</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/prominent-republicans-mock-trumps-legal-claims-in-supreme-court-brief-and-blow-up-presidents-absolute-immunity-claim/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/prominent-republicans-mock-trumps-legal-claims-in-supreme-court-brief-and-blow-up-presidents-absolute-immunity-claim/</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/donald-trumps-war-on-food/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/donald-trumps-war-on-food/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump’s war on food</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Ali Noorani / Washington Monthly March 6, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump’s approach to immigration policy—particularly to legal immigration–stands in between you and your favorite burger.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last year, the administration announced the United States would resettle a maximum of 18,000 refugees over the course of fiscal year 2020, the lowest limit since the program started four decades ago and a 40 percent drop from 2019. Then, in January, the administration expanded the travel ban to suspend immigrant visas for people from Eritrea, Myanmar, Kyrgyzstan, and Nigeria, and to restrict diversity visas for citizens of Sudan and Tanzania.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">These actions—coupled with myriad other moves to build a “virtual wall” that keeps newcomers out of the country — will intensify an already significant drop in legal immigration: 940,877 people obtained lawful permanent residence in fiscal year 2018, compared to 1,063,280 in fiscal year 2016, an 11.5 percent decrease.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So, what do hamburgers have to do with this? A lot, it turns out.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>More often than not, immigrants are the conduit between the lettuce in the field, the cow in the pasture, and that burger on your plate. </b>They are crucial contributors on farms in California and Idaho, and in beef-processing factories in Nebraska. In many cases, they’re the ones picking, processing, and preparing your food, and ultimately delivering it to your table. In fact, almost three-quarters of farmworkers are foreign-born. Half of the workers on dairy farms are immigrants—another important consideration if you like cheese on your patty.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Earlier this year, I was in Storm Lake, Iowa—population 13,000. I had the opportunity to sit with staff at the Tyson plant that processes pigs for markets around the world. One of the workers, Abel Saengchanpheng, came there as a Laotian refugee and was born in a camp in Thailand. Along with his Hispanic, Asian, African, and white co-workers, Abel makes Storm Lake—a town where 29 percent of residents are foreign-born—a stronger community. Downtown Storm Lake thrives because of Latino-owned stores like the Better Day Café and, as a result, local leadership addresses the best of all problems facing rural America: growth. If you take immigrants and their families out of the equation, the town starts to suffer.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Case in point: Look at the Tyson Fresh Meats plant in Perry, Iowa</b>—population 7,500. Once a thriving workplace, it might not meet demand now due to a shortage of available workers, according to local press reports.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Refugees from Eritrea and Myanmar—two countries included in Trump’s new entry ban—are frequent hires at Tyson’s Perry plant. Of the 1,368 workers Tyson employs there, 800 arrived as refugees.</span></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In essence, we see a tale of two towns in rural America, putting food on our tables: One is thriving because of a diversity of foreign-born labor. The other town is worried about its future because its pipeline of foreign-born talent has been shut down by the Trump administration.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In Iowa alone, refugee- and immigrant-owned businesses contribute $4 billion to the state every year, and immigrant households pay nearly $522 million in local and state taxes. These hardworking people in the meatpacking, agricultural, manufacturing, and other industries stem the tide of population loss, keeping communities afloat, and add to the cultural vitality of Iowa and other states.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That matters right now, as cities attract more and more people from the heartland—hastening a demographic crisis in rural America. For instance, in Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested dozens of undocumented immigrants in 2018, companies are struggling to hire. Two states away, in Indiana, immigrants are responsible for 25 percent of the state’s population growth since 2000.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In short, the strength and dynamism that immigrants and refugees bring to rural America—and our agricultural sector—is at risk.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Which brings us back to your hamburger.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A new MSNBC Show, “What’s Eating America”—executive produced by chef and humanitarian José Andrés—explores “immigration, the food industry, and more by examining the stories of people working to raise, process, and harvest what we eat.” As Andrés explains, many Americans, including our president, don’t seem to understand that immigrants and refugees are integral to our food system.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Every time Trump takes action to limit immigration or makes a derogatory comment about immigrants, farm owners and CEOs at food processing plants hear the message. They prepare for a shrinking workforce, lowered production targets, and slimmer profits.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>The reality, however, is what President Trump’s acting chief of staff, Mick Mulvaney, recently admitted: Our country is “desperate” for immigrants to “fuel economic growth.” When it comes to the food we eat, immigrants aren’t a part of the equation in the United States—they are the equation.</b></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Ali Noorani is the Executive Director of the National Immigration Forum, host of the Only In America podcast, and author of There Goes the Neighborhood: How Communities Overcome Prejudice and Meet the Challenge of American Immigration.</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/why-is-trump-trying-to-kill-a-small-agency-with-a-big-impact-on-public-safety/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/why-is-trump-trying-to-kill-a-small-agency-with-a-big-impact-on-public-safety/</font></a></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">320 an</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">t<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/03/trump-admits-hell-be-cutting-entitlements-but-heres-what-he-really-revealed/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4; display: inline !important; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">rump admits he’ll be ‘cutting’ entitlements — but here’s what he really revealed</a></font></p><p><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/cody-fenwick/" title="Posts by Cody Fenwick" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cody Fenwick</font></a></span></p><p><span style="text-align: right; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></span></p><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-at-2-13-an-hour-this-waitress-makes-too-much-money/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump: At $2.13 an hour, this waitress makes too much money</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/david-cay-johnston/" title="Posts by David Cay Johnston" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">David Cay Johnston</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/dc-report/" title="Posts by DC Report" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">DC Report</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">A big reason for slow growth is that while cash piles up for those at the top, most struggle to make ends meet.</font></p></div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">trump did not replace disease team, budget cuts cdc 16%</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
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</font></div><div><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/top-trump-economic-advisor-slammed-for-claiming-coronavirus-contained-after-cdc-warns-of-spread/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Top Trump economic advisor slammed for claiming coronavirus ‘contained’ after CDC warns of spread</font></a></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/david-badash/" title="Posts by David Badash" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">David Badash</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/the-new-civil-rights-movement/" title="Posts by The New Civil Rights Movement" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">The New Civil Rights Movement</a> </span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">February 26, 2020</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Larry Kudlow, President Donald Trump’s top economic advisor, is falsely claiming the U.S. has “contained” the coronavirus, literally minutes after reports broke that the CDC is warning of a spread of the deadly virus that has killed 2600 people, mostly in China.</font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trumps-trip-to-india-fluffed-by-another-right-wing-strongman/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump’s trip to India: Fluffed by another right-wing strongman</font></a></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/heather-digby-parton/" title="Posts by Heather Digby Parton" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Heather Digby Parton</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/salon/" title="Posts by Salon " class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Salon </a></span> <span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">February 26, 2020</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump had a great time being hosted by Hindu nationalist Narendra Modi: Just another strongman yanking his chain.</font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/what-will-democrats-do-if-trump-and-pence-refuse-to-leave-office/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/what-will-democrats-do-if-trump-and-pence-refuse-to-leave-office/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see c de v</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/how-trump-betrayed-his-promise-to-protect-and-fight-for-american-workers/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/how-trump-betrayed-his-promise-to-protect-and-fight-for-american-workers/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">see working class</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-lashes-out-at-a-fox-news-host-who-dared-to-talk-to-a-critic-of-the-president/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-lashes-out-at-a-fox-news-host-who-dared-to-talk-to-a-critic-of-the-president/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">cavuto</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">np lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump lashes out at a Fox News host who dared to talk to a critic of the president</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement February 21, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump may or may not have had something to do with last year’s sudden resignation of Shepard Smith, a Fox News anchor he often targeted who had regularly criticized him, and it seems his starting another campaign targeting another Fox News anchor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Neil Cavuto hosts several shows on Fox News and Fox Business and is senior vice president and managing editor at the business channel.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cavuto, on rare occasions, criticizes the president or invites on guests who do. It’s far from an everyday occurrence, but a recent conservative pundit, A.B. Stoddard, caught Trump’s eye — and ire — and he’s gunning for a fight and a firing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald J. Trump</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@realDonaldTrump</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">So @TeamCavuto has very bad ratings on @foxnews with his Fake guests like A.B.Stoddard and others that still haven’t figured it all out. Will he get the same treatment as his friend Shepherd Smith, who also suffered from the ratings drought?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">71.6K</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">9:34 AM - Feb 21, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">30.2K people are talking about this</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Note how Trump makes clear he wants Cavuto gone, asking if he will “get the same treatment as his friend Shepherd Smith.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump is using his usual formula, claiming someone’s ratings are bad, or a media outlet is “failing,” or losing money, regardless of facts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In 2018 Cavuto all but decimated Trump:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Last night at his rally Trump spewed vitriol against Cavuto and Smith.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Breaking911</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@Breaking911</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump slams Fox News’ Neil Cavuto and former anchor Shepard Smith </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Embedded video</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since his impeachment acquittal Trump was been on the warpath, firing administration officials who testified against him. Earlier Friday it was reported Trump rehired a fired administration official, his former body man, and promoted him to head the White House personnel office. Johnny McEntee’s first act was to target for purging all executive branch employees across all government agencies who are “Never-Trumpers.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/top-election-security-official-who-briefed-lawmakers-on-latest-russian-meddling-targeted-for-ouster-by-trump-white-house"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/top-election-security-official-who-briefed-lawmakers-on-latest-russian-meddling-targeted-for-ouster-by-trump-white-house</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-has-already-joked-about-defying-2020-election-results-heres-what-could-happen-if-he-refuses-to-concede/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-has-already-joked-about-defying-2020-election-results-heres-what-could-happen-if-he-refuses-to-concede/</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/01/28/why-does-trump-love-to-hang-with-bottom-feeders-crooked-lawyers-and-porn-stars/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.salon.com/2020/01/28/why-does-trump-love-to-hang-with-bottom-feeders-crooked-lawyers-and-porn-stars/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...<strong style="box-sizing: border-box;">You take a really a deep dive into Trump's bottom-feeding world. What made you want to write a book about all of the characters in Trump World?</strong></font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">We felt that once we had broken the stories of Karen McDougal, who was paid off for Trump by the publisher of the National Enquirer, and then Stormy Daniels who was paid off by Michael Cohen, Trump's lawyer. How did this happen? How do you have a president who has one guy paying off a porn star and another guy paying off a Playboy model? We decided to look back and see what the pattern was here, going back decades, of how Trump had people surrounding him who were just kind of willing to do his dirty work for him. That's how we came up with the idea of writing "The Fixers." It's the seamy underbelly of the Trump presidency. It's a world that most people probably don't know about, but where you have muckrakers, paparazzi, porn stars and all this, and they helped him refine the tactics that he took to The White House.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In the bigger picture, is it a coincidence Donald Trump is surrounded by all these shady characters? Or is this who he finds himself most comfortable around?</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">I don't think it's a coincidence because it goes back to Roy Cohn, who was his lawyer. The first fixer in our book was a mob lawyer, and he helped Trump game the political system in the '70s when he was coming up as a developer. Trump uses these types of people to do his dirty work, things that he doesn't want to do himself, and that most people, if they have good judgment, would not do so. Then you look at what has happened in the White House where he's trying to pressure Jim Comey to protect him. He wants Jeff Sessions to not recuse himself. He's a line-crosser, right? But he wants other people to cross those lines for him, so that he can try to keep his hands clean. It really does take us to where we are now with impeachment, right? Because he had Rudy Giuliani doing this for him in Ukraine. Trump obviously is at the center of impeachment, but Rudy is the fixer who did it.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It sounds like Trump is the Walter White of it all. He's pushing people to break bad and some of the bad ones are already morally ambiguous, let's be blunt. Some of them, like James Comey, he was trying to push to be bad, to be morally ambiguous, to not care about the law or ethics at all, and do what he wants.</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Yeah, it was harder for him in The White House to find peace, because some of these are professional people who had careers before they ever met Donald Trump. But when he was in business he was Donald Trump, he was the Donald, he was a reality star. Michael Cohen owns taxi medallions, he's a personal injury lawyer and he comes from Long Island, so getting to work for Donald Trump was this tremendous honor for him and he would do whatever Trump wanted, and he suspended his judgment. He said that "The Art of the Deal" is the only book he's ever read twice. I mean, that's the kind of person that he was.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Let's talk more about Roy Cohn, the infamous mafia lawyer. How much do you think he's inspired Trump?</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He set the model for how Trump operated throughout the decades. When somebody confronts you, you have an opponent, you just attack mercilessly, you never admit that you're wrong. You just keep saying what you want to be true, you make your own reality. I mean, these are the things that we see Donald Trump doing today. Roy Cohn was doing that for him in the '70s and the '80s. And for instance, we've heard from Michael Cohen about how Trump wanted him to exaggerate his wealth. I mean, we know Trump has exaggerated his wealth and Roy Cohn was doing that with him, with the Forbes list to try to make him seem more wealthy and important by creating the myth of Donald Trump. So that's all hearkens back to Roy.</font></p><div id="salon_in_article_rev_content" style="box-sizing: border-box; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div id="rc-widget-4df0c6" data-rc-widget="" data-widget-host="habitat" data-endpoint="//trends.revcontent.com" data-widget-id="117439" style="box-sizing: border-box;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Never admit you're wrong, declare complete victory, this is Trump. This the guy we're dealing with right now, the "perfect phone call" guy. He's the only guy in the world that scores his phone calls like they're perfect. Bill Clinton apologized after being impeached by the House. He said, "I made a mistake." Donald Trump doubles and triples down.</font></strong></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">That's what most people don't realize. This is something that has been going on for decades and it's part of how Trump made it to the presidency by using these tactics. But then he does dispose of these people if they get in trouble. If they become no longer useful to him, then he gets rid of them. Roy Cohn got sick with AIDS and Trump became embarrassed or didn't want to deal with him. He steers cases to other lawyers instead of Cohn. Cohn was very loyal, so he didn't publicly complain about it, but privately he would say, "Donald has ice in his veins."</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump is at Mar-a-Lago right before New Year's in 2017 and he's sitting around with a bunch of people and he's mocking Cohn. He says, "The last time Roy was here with AIDS, right before he died, then afterward I had to fumigate all the dishes and the silverware." One day Trump he can be nice and praising somebody and the next day he can be incredibly mean and cold-hearted.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 20px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another character you focus on in the book is David Pecker. Tell us about Pecker, who had a long relationship with Donald Trump and played a role in helping Trump way before he ran for president in 2016....</font></strong></p><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/a-travesty-and-a-disgrace-trump-quietly-issues-memo-that-could-abolish-union-rights-for-750000-federal-workers"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/a-travesty-and-a-disgrace-trump-quietly-issues-memo-that-could-abolish-union-rights-for-750000-federal-workers</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">‘A travesty and a disgrace’: Trump quietly issues memo that could abolish union rights for 750,000 federal workers</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Union workers and supporters cheer at a "Build it Here" rally Monday, Nov. 18, 2013, in downtown Seattle. The Washington State Labor Council called for the rally, saying it wanted to show Boeing and state leaders it supports Machinists union members who voted last week to reject contract concessions Boeing said it needed to build the new 777X in Washington. (AP Photo/Elaine Thompson)</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Common Dreams February 22, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“This administration will not stop until it takes away all workers’ rights to form and join a union.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump on Thursday quietly issued a memo granting Defense Secretary Mark Esper the power to abolish collective bargaining rights for the Defense Department’s 750,000 civilian workers, a move unions decried as part of the administration’s far-reaching assault on organized labor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE) condemned the memo, which was published in the Federal Register (pdf) Thursday, as “a travesty and a disgrace.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The administration’s divide-and-conquer strategy with respect to organized labor is as disgusting as it is shameful.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">—American Federation of Government Employees</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The memo argues that a unionized Defense Department workforce could pose a threat to “national security” and that, if necessary, collective bargaining rights at the department should be scrapped in the interest of “protecting the American people.”...</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/republicans-who-screamed-about-dictator-obama-nervously-stand-by-as-trump-declares-himself-above-all-law/" rel="bookmark" title="Republicans who screamed about ‘dictator’ Obama nervously stand by as Trump declares himself above all law" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.4; display: block;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight" background-color="background-color" rgb="rgb" color="color" important="important"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Republicans who screamed about ‘dictator’ Obama nervously stand by as Trump declares himself above all law</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/financial-writer-explains-why-trumps-proposed-federal-budget-would-be-an-economic-calamity-possibly-pushing-the-us-to-the-brink-of-a-recession/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/financial-writer-explains-why-trumps-proposed-federal-budget-would-be-an-economic-calamity-possibly-pushing-the-us-to-the-brink-of-a-recession/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Financial writer explains why Trump’s proposed federal budget would be an ‘economic calamity’ — possibly pushing the US to ‘the brink of a recession’</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Alex Henderson February 20, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">239</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Whoever the Democratic Party ends up nominating for the 2020 presidential election — whether it’s Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg or someone else — President Donald Trump will no doubt be campaigning aggressively on the state of the U.S. economy, claiming that a second Trump term would be synonymous with prosperity and economic growth. But liberal/progressive writer Michael Linden, in a February 20 op-ed for CNN Business’ website, offers a long list of reasons why he believes that the federal budget Trump is proposing would be an “economic calamity.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s proposed budget, according to Linden, is “full of outdated ideas that would instantly weaken the economy and undermine our ability to grow and prosper over time.” For example, Linden notes, Trump “proposes massive immediate cuts to the kinds of public services, protections and health care that help propel short-term economic growth by supporting demand for goods and services.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Just last quarter,” Linden observes, “the government was contributing the most to GDP than at any other point since the end of the Great Recession. President Trump’s budget would reverse that, withdrawing critical support at a time when growth has already slowed. The cuts are so deep, so massive and so poorly targeted that they could be large enough to even push us to the brink of a recession.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The CNN Business contributor goes on to point out that “overall economic activity grew by only 2.1% over the last year. Well, Trump’s budget includes roughly $958 billion in total cuts in the first four years. That amounts to about 1% shaved off of total gross domestic product right there.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Deep cuts to social programs, Linden emphasizes, don’t promote economic growth — they harm it.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Programs like Medicaid, food stamps and tax credits for low-income families tend to permeate throughout local economies most effectively, and those are exactly the resources that President Trump’s budget envisions cutting to the tune of about $335 billion in the next four years,” Linden explains. “These cuts could reduce overall economic activity by another .3% to .4%. Put it all together, and Trump’s plan would slash the overall economic growth rate down to well under 1% over the next few years — putting us right on the edge of outright economic contraction.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the things liberal presidents of the past understood — including President Franklin Delano Roosevelt in the 1930s and 1940s and President Lyndon B. Johnson in the 1960s — is that when the American middle class prospers and has more money to spend, that money goes into the U.S. economy. 2020 presidential hopefuls Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren clearly understand those principles of New Deal and Great Society economics.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump’s proposed federal budget, Linden contends, fails to recognize the vital role that “workers and consumers” play in the economy.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Workers and consumers are what drive growth and prosperity,” Linden asserts. “When workers have the support and investment they need to do their best work, they innovate, create and do more with less time and fewer resources. When consumers have money in their pockets, they drive demand for goods and services and induce businesses to invest in the future…. Trump’s budget slashes at those very foundations: education, health care, research and development.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/were-staring-into-the-abyss-unhinged-trump-rally-in-colorado-highlights-stakes-of-2020-election/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/were-staring-into-the-abyss-unhinged-trump-rally-in-colorado-highlights-stakes-of-2020-election/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">20k only half could get in? vs bernie 11k? preivew of 202? bash greta time man of year</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-is-trying-to-break-a-2016-promise-about-the-social-safety-net/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">Trump is trying to break a 2016 promise about the social safety net</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" /></font></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Medicaid, Medicare and Social Security are among the most popular federal programs out there. A 2019 Pew Research poll showed majorities across all parties and demographics opposing cuts to Social…</font></p></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">220 40 mos jail, tho djt doing a bunch of pardons and wants to 86 doj input on that.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" 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lnx</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>
</div><div>Judge in Roger Stone case knocks Trump admin for reducing sentencing guidelines</div></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">jeez grenell DNI authorit</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/heres-why-trumps-incessant-vendetta-against-obama-is-a-losing-proposition/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" color="#000000">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/heres-why-trumps-incessant-vendetta-against-obama-is-a-losing-proposition/</font></a></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Here’s why Trump’s incessant vendetta against Obama is a losing proposition</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Image via Wikipedia.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Nancy LeTourneau / Washington Monthly February 19, 2020</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Barack Obama took advantage of an anniversary on Monday to poke at one of the lies being repeated by his successor.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Barack Obama</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@BarackObama</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Eleven years ago today, near the bottom of the worst recession in generations, I signed the Recovery Act, paving the way for more than a decade of economic growth and the longest streak of job creation in American history.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Since his administration began, Trump has attacked Obama’s record of job creation and touted his own. Perhaps long-time readers here at the Washington Monthly will enjoy the fact that I intend to expose that lie based on information provided by Steve Benen and Kevin Drum. Here’s Benen:</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As we discussed after the release of the latest report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, Trump has now been in office for three full years (36 months), and during that time, the economy has created 6.56 million jobs. In the final full three years of Obama’s presidency, the economy created 8.08 million jobs.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Of course, Drum put the specifics into a chart.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It will surprise no one that data means nothing to Trump.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Donald J. Trump</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">@realDonaldTrump</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Did you hear the latest con job? President Obama is now trying to take credit for the Economic Boom taking place under the Trump Administration. He had the WEAKEST recovery since the Great Depression, despite Zero Fed Rate & MASSIVE quantitative easing. NOW, best jobs numbers....</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As the saying goes, Obama has taken up residence in Trump’s head—rent-free.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jonathan Chait recently documented another way that Trump’s efforts to undo Obama’s legacy are failing.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">One of the Obama administration’s most effective climate initiatives was tightened regulations of auto emissions, which will reduce carbon emissions by billions of tons. Trump, of course, is trying to roll it back. The good news is that he is almost certainly too incompetent to pull it off in his first term.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">When regulatory agencies write new rules, they have to follow some fairly complicated legal procedures, which often have to hold up under judicial scrutiny. Historically, agencies win about 80 percent of the time against legal challenges. But Trump’s regulations lose about 90 percent of the time, because his administration is staffed with incompetent hacks.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The courts will soon be fighting over Trump’s plan to weaken auto-emission standards. Trump is highly likely to lose, because, as two new reports show, the incompetence of his regulators reached almost mind-boggling proportions.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The reports Chait referred to come from an article by Robinson Meyer that details how the Trump administration’s attempt to kill the auto-emission standards has been a “complete debacle” and one from Coral Davenport predicting a dead end for Trump’s efforts.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What also caught my eye was the fact that Trump’s regulations (or attempts to roll back Obama’s regulations) have failed in court about 90 percent of the time. That number comes from the Institute for Policy Integrity, which has been tracking this administration’s record in the courts. Of the 70 cases they have followed, Trump has won four and lost 66. As Chait points out, typically federal agencies have won about 80 percent of the time, so this administration’s record is worse than abysmal.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In writing about the effort to roll back Obama’s fuel-efficiency standards, Davenport identified the problem.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In January, administration staff members appointed by President Trump sent a draft of the scaled-back fuel economy standards to the White House, but six people familiar with the documents described them as “Swiss cheese,” sprinkled with glaring numerical and spelling errors (such as “Massachusettes”), with 111 sections marked “text forthcoming.”</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The cost-benefit analysis showed that consumers would lose more money than they would gain. And, because the new auto pollution rule lacks the detailed technical analyses required by law, the regulations would be unlikely to withstand court challenges…</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"> </font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">More basic issues holding up the regulations point to another problem: the skeleton crew of inexperienced political appointees who are heading the drafting process may not be up to a job that would usually be handled by career federal workers with decades of expertise.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">As Chait rightfully suggested, Trump’s actual goal of humiliating Obama can’t be included in the analysis. So his incompetent staff are left with trying to manipulate the numbers and the science, which don’t support the president’s goals.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">For Trump, things like math, science, and expertise are anathema. His only concern is to prop up his own narcissistic ego and demean anyone he views as a threat. That is why Trump’s vendetta against Obama’s legacy will always be a losing proposition. His incompetence overshadows his malevolence.</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Nancy LeTourneau is a contributing writer for the Washington Monthly. Follow her on Twitter @Smartypants60.</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">wm barr on tv ~ djt tweets/interfere, but he said he can do whatever as he is chief law enforcement officer ("actually" means lying)</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">bunch of pardons, one by funder, rod b gov, said had not thot about roger stone</font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">220 dn bernie mike lee utah chris m?</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2020/2/14/headlines/senate_passes_resolution_limiting_trump_s_war_powers_authority">https://www.democracynow.org/2020/2/14/headlines/senate_passes_resolution_limiting_trump_s_war_powers_authority</a></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">220 an</font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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</div><div><b>Nations are rejecting the president’s foreign policy puffery as autocrats ditch Trump and embrace China</b></div><div>
</div><div>Written by Washington Monthly February 18, 2020</div><div>
</div><div>Venezuela is a bipolar nation in the eyes of the world. More than 50 countries recognize the government of interim President Juan Guaidó. The rest of the world — most significantly Russia and China — continue to support and strengthen the grip of President Nicolás Maduro.</div><div>
</div><div>It’s bad enough that the Trump administration has been all bark and no bite, trying to flip the failed Latin American state’s leadership with tough rhetoric and State of the Union ovations. What’s worse is that America under its current leadership has shown that there are neither significant consequences nor consequential actions that can be taken when a foreign country snubs Washington in favor of Moscow or Beijing.</div><div>
</div><div>The latest nation to reject President Trump’s foreign policy puffery? The former American colony and current conflict-ridden country of the Philippines.</div><div>
</div><div><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Flattery is not foreign policy, and Trump’s fan-boy attitude towards Rodrigo Duterte has not convinced the populist Filipino leader that Manila’s future and his personal power are assured by remaining allied with the United States. Instead, he has chosen to throw in his lot with Xi Jinping and the promise posed by China as a regionally rising economic superpower.</span></div><div>
</div><div>This is not only bad news for America’s strategic rebalancing in the Pacific and for regional security. It is really bad news for those other Southeast Asian nations looking around their neighborhood and trying to figure out how to balance their economic and security interests against their long-standing American trading and security alliance partners.Any way you look at this, Duterte’s move is big. On Tuesday, Duterte let the United States know that he was dumping the 69-year-old treaty alliance that allowed American forces to remain and train in the Philippines.</div><div>
</div><div>It’s not just the carrot of Chinese capital that has attracted Duterte to Beijing. The Philippine president feels insulted and justifies turning away from the United States by saying “America is very rude” to Filipino friends accused of human-rights violations.</div><div>
</div><div>Human rights, however, have never been a priority for the Trump administration. POTUS arrived in the White House ready and willing to toss democratic principles, values, norms and rules in the dumpster.</div><div>
</div><div>Duterte has it all wrong.</div><div>
</div><div>Trump is a true ally who embraces Duterte’s autocratic rhetoric. Trump envies Duterte’s dictatorial style and tough-guy approach to law enforcement and politics. Trump entered office encouraging American law enforcement to use extrajudicial measures —whether slamming perps heads into cop-car roofs or encouraging the illegal actions of Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio. The latest outrage is Trump’s admiration for summary death penalties for drug dealers.</div><div>
</div><div>Duterte has encouraged vigilantism by everyone from civilians to police to government forces. His approach has been to give a pass to anyone who kills a suspected drug user or dealer. He flaunts his own tough-guy credentials by bragging about personally killing criminals. He waves around guns to prove his seriousness and reinforce his power.</div><div>
</div><div>Trump has tried to court Duterte’s loyalty to — and love for — America. POTUS practices a populism aligning his personal leadership style with Duterte’s. Despite the anti-charm offensive, and regardless of the two countries’ clearly shared interests, the Philippine leader just bet his country’s future on the People’s Republic of China.</div><div>
</div><div>In effect, long-standing military relations have just been reversed, and America has been told to go home.</div><div>
</div><div>The U.S.-Philippine relationship has never really been smooth. Duterte still harbors resentment for a 1906 Moro massacre so fierce and unjust that it drew the attention of Samuel Clemens—Mark Twain. Volcanoes and tightening American budgets in the 1990s shut down Clark Air Base. Entire Filipino communities that relied on employment and business from U.S. bases suddenly were out of luck.</div><div>
</div><div>The two countries’ relationship survived the Marcos regime and the destructive Mt. Pinatubo volcano. In fact, the Yellow Revolution that overthrew full-fledged dictator Ferdinand Marcos brought to power an Aquino family boasting deep American training and credentials. Corazon Aquino felt both grateful and indebted to the United States for supporting the overthrow of the Marcos regime and the successful transition to a civilian-led and functional electoral democracy.</div><div>
</div><div>The bad news? Philippine’s successor democracy gave voters the conditions to sweep into office the tough-talking populist politician Duterte in 2016.</div><div>
</div><div>Philippine democracy is now threatened, in part, because China is happy to support reliable autocratic leaders and because Trump’s feckless and personality-driven foreign policy toward Asia has alienated and pushed away Manila. The Trump administration’s foreign policy lacks strategic coherence. Instead, it favors super-summitry and presidential high-fives.</div><div>
</div><div>From Manila to Caracas, rightist and leftist leaders calculate which allies will serve them best and where to place their bets. Throwing off perceived post-colonial American shackles for neo-colonial Chinese chains is a bad choice. Unfortunately for the West and democracy, both Venezuela and the Philippines have wagered against Trump’s America.</div><div>
</div></div><div><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">an 220</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">For Republicans in Trump’s cover-up, it was all about the money</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Susan Collins image via MSNBC.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Written by Joan McCarter / Daily Kos February 18, 2020</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">In the latest Daily Kos/Civiqs poll, fully 60% of Americans disapprove of how the U.S. Senate conducted Donald Trump’s impeachment trial. The behavior of Senate Republicans following that trial probably won’t get many cheers, either. The three most closely watched Republicans during the trial, those who pretended to be open-minded and committed to doing their jobs, have all popped up in the last few days with slathering praise for the Trump administration which let loose all the money once the trial was done. It turns out the issue wasn’t the threat of heads on pikes at all. It was all about the bribes.</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander tweeted to thank Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Trump for the investment of “$9 million in Tennessee to provide and improve high-speed broadband infrastructure projects for 3,744 rural households, 31 businesses and 41 farms.”</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Sen. Lisa Murkowski had Transportation Secretary and Moscow Mitch spouse Elaine Chao to thank for “a $20M Port Infrastructure Development Program grant to the Port of Alaska to help offset the 1st phase costs of the Port’s desperately-needed modernization program, enabling safe, cost-effective, & reliable Port operations.” That’s a whole 1% of the estimated cost for the port. Was it worth a vote to keep the worst president ever to sit in the Oval Office?</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">You know, of course, who else is getting in on the action:</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Sen. Susan Collins</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">@SenatorCollins</font></p><p><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">Great news! 19 Housing Authorities in Maine have been awarded more than $9.5 million to preserve & modernize affordable housing units that serve individuals with disabilities & low-income individuals and families.https://www.collins.senate.gov/newsroom/senator-collins-announces-more-9500000-maine-housing-authorities …</font></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" /></p><p><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New 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</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">border, fed chair ...</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">dirty trick ohio AA rev</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">truscott</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/were-slipping-further-into-fascism-as-trump-indulges-all-his-worst-instincts-with-the-help-of-his-toadies/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/were-slipping-further-into-fascism-as-trump-indulges-all-his-worst-instincts-with-the-help-of-his-toadies/</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>We’re slipping further into fascism as Trump indulges all his worst instincts — with the help of his toadies</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks at the 2020 National Prayer Breakfast Thursday, Feb. 6, 2020, at the Washington Hilton in Washington, D.C. (Official White House Photo by Joyce N. Boghosian</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Lucian K. Truscott IV / Salon February 15, 2020</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>There will come a time when we look back on this week as the moment in our history when we finally understood that we have a man as president who is acting like a fascist dictator. Just look at the headlines from one day’s New York Times alone: “Alarm in Capital as Axes Swing in Growing Post-Acquittal Purge,” “Justice Dept. Acts to Ease Sentence for a Trump Ally.</b>” If either one of those headlines had run on the front page of a major American newspaper before now, not to mention both of them at once, we would have believed as a people, as a citizenry, that we were facing a national crisis. But this week? Wednesday was just another day in Donald Trump’s America.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The day before that, in what became known as the “Tuesday night massacre,” all four prosecutors in the case against Trump’s longtime friend and political bad boy Roger Stone had resigned in protest of the intervention by Trump and his attorney general, William Barr, to reduce the sentence recommended by the Department of Justice in Stone’s conviction for lying to congressional committees and tampering with witnesses.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">All of this followed closely the “Friday night massacre” of last week, when Trump fired two of the impeachment witnesses against him, Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman of the National Security Council and Gordon Sondland, ambassador to the European Union.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But two “massacres” in a row was just the beginning. By mid-week, Trump was suggesting that Army officials with court-martial authority over Vindman should “take a look at” punishing him for testifying at the impeachment hearing. On Thursday, the New York Times front page trumpeted, “U,S. Lawyers Fear Removal of a Guardrail: Sone Case Stirs Worry of What’s to Come.” And by Friday morning, a panel of legal pundits on MSNBC were worrying about what would happen when Trump didn’t merely step in to help allies like Stone but actually began prosecuting his political foes.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Folks, let’s not mince words: This is the kind of stuff we read about happening in dictatorships like Russia and North Korea and Iran. And yes, it’s the kind of rule by strong-arm fiat that was practiced by Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Before this week, I would have thought it an exaggeration to compare Trump’s frequent rallies to the infamous Nuremberg rallies Hitler held during the1930s. No longer. Trump’s rallies are unnervingly close to those held in Nuremberg. The MAGA hat has become a kind of Trumpian Nazi helmet. The denunciations of hated minorities are the same. As is his insane bellowing before a crowd screaming its slavish obeisance.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Let’s just stop for a moment and consider the angry chants of “Lock her up,” first directed at Hillary Clinton, now at Nancy Pelosi. </b>What do Trump’s cheering crowds want his Democratic opponents locked up for? Neither of those women has faced criminal charges, much less been convicted of any crime. Neither is even under investigation for corruption or alleged criminal behavior. But that doesn’t matter to Trump and his rally crowds. This stuff has been going on for so long, it’s clear that they actually do want them locked up. When Trump stands before his screaming fans, raising his arms and smiling, it’s obvious he does, too. To call for the imprisonment of political opponents without trial is not playing with rhetoric for effect. It’s not political gimmickry. It’s not cute. It’s not funny. It’s not clever. Let’s say out loud what it is: It’s pure fascism, plain and simple.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The man who stands before those rallies and encourages such idolatry isn’t merely running for president. He is calling, directly and without apology, for the kind of obedience and loyalty demanded by dictators. He is commanding worship and submission. It must be why he attracts so completely the support of evangelical Christians. He truly is the false idol their Bible warned them against. They have fallen for him in the same way the most conspicuously devout worshipers commit sins. The inevitability of Trump and his evangelical masses is jaw-dropping, and yes, biblical.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">By the end of the week, we had the practically comic spectacle of Attorney General Barr scolding Trump publicly for his tweets in an interview with ABC News, saying they “make it impossible for me to do my job.” Within hours, Trump replied — by tweet, naturally enough — that he has the “legal right” to tell Barr what to do in a criminal case, “but I have so far chosen not to!”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Which given the events of the rest of the week is a little bit like reassuring the “Lock her up” minions at his rallies, “Just wait.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">It’s hard to put a finger on the worst thing Trump has done since taking office, but right up there is the complete destruction of the idea that the person in the Oval Office is the president of all the people. He isn’t. He doesn’t want to be. If you didn’t vote for him, if you’re not out there wearing a MAGA hat and screaming at his rallies, you’re a non-person. If your state didn’t go for him in the 2016 election, forget about it. Just ask California, or Puerto Rico, still waiting for federal assistance after natural disasters. Or ask New York, which Trump is now extorting like a domestic Ukraine, by <b>denying New Yorkers access to the “Trusted Traveler” program unless the state “stop all of its unnecessary lawsuits & harrassment” [sic]....</b></font></font></font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">hookers fr jesus</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-admin-grant-to-christian-supporters-ignites-twitter-firestorm-over-taxpayer-funded-religious-coercion/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-admin-grant-to-christian-supporters-ignites-twitter-firestorm-over-taxpayer-funded-religious-coercion/</a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-thinks-authoritarian-executions-stop-drug-use-but-hes-totally-wrong/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-thinks-authoritarian-executions-stop-drug-use-but-hes-totally-wrong/</a></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/critics-of-blackwater-mercenary-erik-prince-fear-ag-barr-will-quash-doj-case-against-him-report/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/critics-of-blackwater-mercenary-erik-prince-fear-ag-barr-will-quash-doj-case-against-him-report/</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Critics of Blackwater mercenary Erik Prince fear AG Barr will ‘quash’ DOJ case against him: report</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Alex Henderson February 12, 2020</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">U.S. Attorney General William Barr has been consistently protective of President Donald Trump and his allies, and according to Law & Crime reporter Colin Kalmbacher, one of those allies might be Erik Prince — brother of Betsy DeVos (secretary of education in the Trump Administration) and former head of the infamous private security firm Blackwater.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Kalmbacher reports that the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) is “reportedly in the 11th hour of its decision-making process on whether to charge professional mercenary Erik Prince with the crime of lying to Congress amid the Russia probe in 2017.”<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Prince’s critics, Kalmbacher notes, allege that he gave false testimony to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 “when discussing his meetings with a Russian banker in the Seychelles Islands” earlier that year. Prince described that meeting as a “chance” encounter and told House Intelligence members that he was not acting on Trump’s behalf, but his critics allege that he was.</span></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>One of Prince’s most vocal critics is Rep. Adam Schiff, the California Democrat who now chairs the House Intelligence Committee (which was in Republican hands back in 2017 during Prince’s testimony)</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Schiff alleges that former special counsel Robert Mueller’s final report for the Russia investigation demonstrates that Prince made “false statements” that “hindered the Committee’s ability to fully understand and examine foreign efforts to undermine our political process and national security.”</span></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In a letter to Barr, Schiff asserted, “As the (Mueller) Report makes clear, evidence obtained by the special counsel…. differs materially from Mr. Prince’s testimony, under oath, before the Committee on November 30, 2017. The Report reveals that Mr. Prince’s testimony before the Committee was replete with manifest and substantial falsehoods that materially impaired the Committee’s investigation.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Schiff added, “In particular, Mr. Prince’s testimony about his January 11, 2017 meeting in the Seychelles with Kirill Dmitriev, the chief executive officer of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund, differs from the (Mueller) Report in (several) material respects.”</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">But despite Schiff’s allegations against Prince, Kalmbacher reports, the case has “long languished for unclear reasons. And now that prosecutors are getting into position…. to potentially charge Prince, critics of Trump and Barr are largely unconvinced the case will move forward.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">On February 11, Prince critic Harry Litman (a Washington Post writer and former federal prosecutor) tweeted, “Prince plainly lied. We are really getting upriver here.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Another Prince critic, Dr. Dena Grayson (who ran for Congress as a Democrat) tweeted that the DOJ has been “weighing” charges of lying to Congress against Prince but noted the possibility that “Barr quashes it.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">a little context here too: Prince plainly lied. we are really getting upriver here. https://t.co/fts8iTbka2</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Harry Litman (@harrylitman) February 11, 2020</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">??DOJ is weighing CRIMINAL charges against @BetsyDeVosED’s brother Erik Prince for arms trafficking & LYING to Congress about his secret #Seychelles meet with a close Putin adviser to establish a secret backchannel with #Russia????.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Until Barr quashes it.??https://t.co/2qMdHVNJjg</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">— Dr. Dena Grayson (@DrDenaGrayson) February 11, 2020</font></font></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/conservative-writer-details-how-evidence-cant-penetrate-the-delusional-trumpian-bubble/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/conservative-writer-details-how-evidence-cant-penetrate-the-delusional-trumpian-bubble/</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-lashes-out-with-a-dangerous-lie-at-the-federal-judge-overseeing-roger-stones-case/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-lashes-out-with-a-dangerous-lie-at-the-federal-judge-overseeing-roger-stones-case/</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump lashes out with a dangerous lie at the federal judge overseeing Roger Stone’s case</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald J. Trump waves as he disembarks Marine One at Joint Base Andrews, Md. Thursday, Jan. 9, 2020, and is escorted to Air Force One by U.S. Air Force personnel. (Official White House Photo by Tia Dufour)</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Cody Fenwick February 12, 2020</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump lashed out Tuesday night at Amy Berman Jackson, a federal judge who has overseen several key cases that arose from former Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. She is currently presiding over the case against longtime Trump friend Roger Stone, who is due to be sentenced soon after being found guilty of lying to Congress and attempting to impede its Russia investigation.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>In response to a tweet naming Jackson, Trump tweeted: “Is this the Judge that put Paul Manafort in SOLITARY CONFINEMENT, something that not even mobster Al Capone had to endure? How did she treat Crooked Hillary Clinton? Just asking!”</b></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Judge Jackson did send Manafort to prison ahead of his trial in the summer of 2018, finding that he had violated the terms of his release. But judges do not determine the conditions prisoners are kept in; those decisions are made by the prisons and jails that house inmates.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">And despite his lawyer’s claims that Manafort was in solitary confinement, prosecutors described his conditions as far more accommodative than is usually imagined when the term is invoked. As Vox reported, a filing from Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team said his conditions included:</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Manafort “is not confined to a cell”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Between 8:30 am and 10 pm, Manafort “has access to a separate workroom at the jail to meet with his attorneys and legal team”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He has “his own bathroom and shower facility”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He has “his own personal telephone,” which he can use more than 12 hours a day</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Those calls are limited to 15 minutes each, but when they cut off, he can just call the person back immediately</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He’s made nearly 300 phone calls in the last three weeks</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He has a personal laptop he can use in his unit to review materials and prepare for his trial</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He was provided an extension cord to let him use his laptop in either his unit or his workroom</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He’s not allowed to send emails, but he “has developed a workaround” for even that — his legal team brings in a laptop, he drafts the emails on that laptop, and they send them out after they leave.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">He’s being treated like a “VIP,” according to his own account on a monitored phone call.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Jackson noted at one hearing that Manafort was later moved to another jail in Alexandria, Virginia, because of his team’s complaints. CNN explained:</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">She said Manafort “realized the tactic had backfired immediately.” He was in a self-contained (“VIP”) suite in Northern Neck, Jackson added.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“I’m not going to split hairs over whether the word solitary was accurate because he had a room of his own,” Jackson said.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">What Manafort’s detention quarters looks like now: Now he’s in protective confinement, not technically solitary. He has a window, radio, newspapers and view of TV. He’s released for a few hours a day to walk around and be with other people</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“Mr. Manafort, I don’t want to belittle or minimize the discomforts of prison for you. It’s hard on everyone, young and old, rich or poor,” she said.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">In short, Trump’s attack on Jackson was a lie.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">It was also extremely dangerous. Jackson’s high-profile cases have already left her vulnerable to public threats; Stone himself posted a disturbing image of the judge ahead of his trial. And Trump’s efforts to attack a judge online are at least an order of magnitude worse. His fans have been known to target the subjects of his public rebukes before, most notably in the case of Cesar Sayoc, who sent pipe bombs to Trump’s perceived enemies. The fact that he is tossing out such inflammatory attacks ahead of his friend’s sentencing in another extreme assault on the rule of law.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Cody Fenwick is a senior editor at AlterNet. He writes about politics, media and science. Follow him on Twitter @codytfenwick.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-says-he-has-the-absolute-tight-to-tell-the-justice-department-what-to-do/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-says-he-has-the-absolute-tight-to-tell-the-justice-department-what-to-do/</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump says he has the ‘absolute tight’ to tell the Justice Department what to do</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement February 11, 2020</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump says he has the “absolute right” to direct the Dept. of Justice in who and how it prosecutes, but claims that he didn’t, despite his furious tweet overnight attacking the DOJ and calling prosecutors’ sentencing recommendation of Roger Stone a “miscarriage of justice.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Trump also called the 7 to 9 year recommendation of jail time for Stone, his ally, confidant, and former campaign advisor, an “insult to our country.” Trump often conflates himself and the nation, as if he is the country.</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Saying he did not speak to anyone at DOJ Trump then said, “I’d be able to do it if I wanted I have the absolute right to do it.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Calling the sentencing recommendation “ridiculous” Trump added, “I thought the whole prosecution was ridiculous.”</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“That was a horrible abberition,” he concluded, apparently meaning “aberration.”</font></font></font></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/the-roger-stone-debacle-is-a-true-crisis-and-the-house-must-force-bill-barr-to-testify/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/the-roger-stone-debacle-is-a-true-crisis-and-the-house-must-force-bill-barr-to-testify/</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Roger Stone debacle is a true crisis — and the House must force Bill Barr to testify</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Daily Kos February 11, 2020</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by Hunter</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This cannot go on. Three top prosecutors (which may turn into four) in the Roger Stone case have now withdrawn after Attorney General William Barr’s Department of Justice ordered them to revise their guideline-based recommendations on Stone’s sentencing. This happened the morning after Donald Trump tweeted that he “cannot allow” the prosecutors’ recommended sentencing of Stone, an ally and key stonewaller in the Robert Mueller investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russian government hacking in the 2016 elections.</b></font></font></font></div></div></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/the-roger-stone-debacle-is-a-true-crisis-and-the-house-must-force-bill-barr-to-testify/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/the-roger-stone-debacle-is-a-true-crisis-and-the-house-must-force-bill-barr-to-testify/</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">The Roger Stone debacle is a true crisis — and the House must force Bill Barr to testify</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">Written by Daily Kos February 11, 2020</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">by Hunter</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><b>This cannot go on. Three top prosecutors (which may turn into four) in the Roger Stone case have now withdrawn after Attorney General William Barr’s Department of Justice ordered them to revise their guideline-based recommendations on Stone’s sentencing. This happened the morning after Donald Trump tweeted that he “cannot allow” the prosecutors’ recommended sentencing of Stone, an ally and key stonewaller in the Robert Mueller investigation of the Trump campaign’s ties to Russian government hacking in the 2016 elections.</b></font></font></font></div></div></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"></font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trumps-acquittal-and-the-stunning-history-of-an-intentionally-undemocratic-us-senate/"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trumps-acquittal-and-the-stunning-history-of-an-intentionally-undemocratic-us-senate/</font></a></font></font></div><div><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">
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style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">see scary end times ppp</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/obama-was-unprepared-for-trump-and-the-gops-total-has-abandonment-of-the-rule-of-law-wapo-editor/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/obama-was-unprepared-for-trump-and-the-gops-total-has-abandonment-of-the-rule-of-law-wapo-editor/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/white-house-targeting-of-truth-tellers-is-turning-the-intelligence-community-into-a-crowd-of-cowards/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/white-house-targeting-of-truth-tellers-is-turning-the-intelligence-community-into-a-crowd-of-cowards/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">revenge witch hunt authoritarian</font></div><div style=""><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">---</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">QS kill in sotu, but no cas --> headaches --> 50 tbi?! he said isis defunct when his kurd fail let 100's out of prison?!</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">an 220</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/bombshell-report-finds-iraqi-officials-doubt-trumps-basis-for-escalating-to-the-brink-of-war/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/bombshell-report-finds-iraqi-officials-doubt-trumps-basis-for-escalating-to-the-brink-of-war/</font></a></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>‘Bombshell’ report finds Iraqi officials doubt Trump’s basis for escalating to the brink of war</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">President Donald J. Trump, joined by Vice President Mike Pence, senior White House advisors and senior military personnel, delivers remarks during a national televised address Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2020, from the Cross Hall of the White House, responding to the retaliatory missile strikes against U.S. military and coalition forces in Iraq on Tuesday by the Islamic Republic of Iran. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams February 7, 2020</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">In a “bombshell” revelation that calls into question one of the Trump administration’s stated justifications for assassinating Iranian Gen. Qasem Soleimani—a move that nearly sparked a region-wide military conflict—Iraqi intelligence officials told the New York Times that they believe <b>ISIS, not an Iran-linked militia, was likely responsible for the Dec. 27 rocket attack that killed an American contractor at an airbase near Kirkuk, Iraq.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The Times reported Thursday that “Iraqi military and intelligence officials have raised doubts about who fired the rockets… saying they believe it is unlikely that the militia the United States blamed for the attack” was responsible.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">“All the indications are that it was Daesh</span>,” Brigadier General Ahmed Adnan, the Iraqi chief of intelligence for the federal police at the K-1 air base, told the Times, using the Arabic acronym for ISIS. “We know Daesh’s movements.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The Trump administration has not released a single piece of evidence showing that the Iraqi militia Khataib Hezbollah, which has ties to Iran, was responsible for the attack on K-1. The group has denied carrying out the attack.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The U.S. responded to the rocket attack days later with deadly airstrikes on Khataib Hezbollah targets in Iraq and Syria,</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> setting off a dangerous escalatory spiral that brought Iran and the U.S. to the brink of war.</span></b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>On Jan. 2, the U.S. assassinated Soleimani with a drone strike in Baghdad ordered by President Donald Trump. Following the assassination, which was widely condemned as an act of war, the U.S. Department of Defense issued a statement claiming without evidence that Soleimani “orchestrated attacks on coalition bases in Iraq over the last several months—including the attack on December 27th—culminating in the death and wounding of additional American and Iraqi personnel.”</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">But Iraqi officials told the Times that “based on circumstantial evidence and long experience in the area where the attack took place,” there is good reason to be skeptical about U.S. claims that Khataib Hezbollah was behind it.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">As the Times reported:</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The rockets were launched from a Sunni Muslim part of Kirkuk Province notorious for attacks by the Islamic State, a Sunni terrorist group, which would have made the area hostile territory for a Shiite militia like Khataib Hezbollah.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Khataib Hezbollah has not had a presence in Kirkuk Province since 2014.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Islamic State, however, had carried out three attacks relatively close to the base in the 10 days before the attack on K-1. Iraqi intelligence officials sent reports to the Americans in November and December warning that ISIS intended to target K-1, an Iraqi air base in Kirkuk Province that is also used by American forces…</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">These facts all point to the Islamic State, Iraqi officials say.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“We as Iraqi forces cannot even come to this area unless we have a large force because it is not secure,” Brig. Gen. Adnan said of the area from which the rocket attack was launched. “How could it be that someone who doesn’t know the area could come here and find that firing position and launch an attack?”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">In response to the Times report, Jamal Abdi, president of the National Iranian American Council, tweeted: “Al-Qaeda attacked the U.S. on 9/11 and we went to war with Iraq. If this report is true, ISIS attacked the U.S. and we nearly went to war with Iran.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Sina Toossi</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">@SinaToossi</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">This is huge: Iraqi military & intelligence officials say it’s highly unlikely that a rocket attack that killed an Iraqi-American contractor in early January—& led to an escalation cycle that almost started a war—was carried out by an Iran-allied militia.https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/06/world/middleeast/iraq-iran-hezbollah-evidence.html …</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Iraqi soldiers at the K-1 base, which was struck by rockets on Dec. 27.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Was U.S. Wrong About Attack That Nearly Started a War With Iran?</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Iraqi military and intelligence officials have raised doubts about who fired the rockets that started a dangerous spiral of events.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">nytimes.com</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">184</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">3:57 PM - Feb 6, 2020</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">119 people are talking about this</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">CODEPINK</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">@codepink</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"><b>The US almost started WWIII based on questionable evidence.</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">After all of the violence in the Middle East following the attack on US bases, #Iraqi officials are now questioning the US's claim that the #Iran-backed militia Khataib Hezbollah are to blame. https://buff.ly/31CpWqT </font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Iraqi soldiers at the K-1 base, which was struck by rockets on Dec. 27.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Was U.S. Wrong About Attack That Nearly Started a War With Iran?</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Iraqi military and intelligence officials have raised doubts about who fired the rockets that started a dangerous spiral of events.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">nytimes.com</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">47</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">1:15 PM - Feb 6, 2020</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">44 people are talking about this</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">U.S. officials insisted to the Times that they have “solid evidence” showing that Khataib Hezbollah carried out the attack, but they have not released any of this evidence to the public or to Iraqi officials.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“We have requested the American side to share with us any information, any evidence, but they have not sent us any information,” Lt. Gen. Muhammad al-Bayati, chief of staff for former Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, told the Times.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Ilan Goldenberg, Middle East security director at the Center for a New American Security think tank, tweeted that the U.S. Congress “must ask questions about this and get the intel.”</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Responsible Statecraft managing editor Benjamin Armbruster agreed.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“Congress needs to investigate ASAP,” Armbruster tweeted.</font></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman">ref seidel</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><a href="https://religiondispatches.org/amid-reality-tv-gimmicks-and-xenophobic-rhetoric-trumps-sotu-appeals-to-evangelicals/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://religiondispatches.org/amid-reality-tv-gimmicks-and-xenophobic-rhetoric-trumps-sotu-appeals-to-evangelicals/</font></a></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">since late December, 2019, when retiring editor-in-chief of Christianity Today Mark Galli published his infamous “Trump Should Be Removed from Office” editorial, there’s been a great deal of buzz in the pundit class over whether Trump, after a highly publicized impeachment trial, needs to be concerned with possible defections in his white evangelical base. From an analytical standpoint, the buzz is mere noise, horse race politics nonsense from people who don’t understand that most white evangelicals have long since come to regard CT as “too liberal.” As John Stoehr observed on RD back in December, “It’s not going to change much.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And, what many failed to notice or recall, is that the editorial itself was entirely milquetoast, attacking only Trump’s “gross immorality and ethical incompetence,” while agreeing with Trump-supporting evangelicals that “his Supreme Court nominees, his defense of religious liberty, and his stewardship of the economy” are among “the president’s positives.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Although this editorial was never going to make a dent in the unflagging support Trump counts on from his white evangelical base, he seems to have been scared enough by the furor around it to start ramping up his evangelical outreach. It’s probably no coincidence that Trump recently became the first U.S. president to address the radical anti-choice “March for Life” event in person.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Given that the vast majority of white evangelicals, America’s single most right-wing demographic, are Christian nationalists, we should have expected a substantial presence of Christian nationalist rhetoric in yesterday’s State of the Union Address, along with coded nods to specific evangelical concerns about abortion, schooling, and “religious freedom.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Indeed, all these elements were present in a speech packed chock-full of “lies, damned lies, and statistics,” along with reality-show gimmicks including a surprise reunion of Trump guest Amy Williams and her husband, Sgt. 1st Class Townshend Williams, and<b> awarding the Presidential Medal of Freedom to right-wing radio charlatan Rush Limbaugh, whose advanced lung cancer diagnosis does nothing to erase his substantial contributions to the destruction of America’s information ecosystem.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Trump’s appreciation for post-truth bluster and militarism are certainly among the characteristics that endear him to the Christian Right. And while he remains most in his element with the jingoistic rhetoric of borders, “heroes,” economic protectionism, and “criminal” immigrants, over the last few years Trump has become visibly more comfortable using language that more directly appeals to the conservative, mostly white evangelicals and radical traditionalist Catholics who represent his base, and with whom he has surrounded himself.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">To those with “eyes to see,” Trump’s first clear appeal to the Christian Right came in his use of the phrase “failing government schools” in the midst of his calling for the expansion of “school choice” voucher policies. As a few observers on Twitter pointed out, notably religious studies professor Julie Ingersoll, the pejorative term “government schools” is a hallmark of <b>Christian Reconstructionism, </b>a radical theocratic ideology whose exponents believe that public education should be abolished in favor of homeschooling and/or Christian schools.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As Ingersoll’s research demonstrates, such ideas have been mainstreamed in evangelicalism precisely through the spread of Christian schooling and the deregulation of homeschooling, thanks to Christian Reconstructionist influence on curricula.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">julie ingersoll</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">@julieingersoll</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Trump calls public schools "government schools," a dog whistle to evangelicals and an indication of wide-ranging influence of Christian reconstructionism #SOTU @C_Stroop @profagagne</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">389</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">6:43 PM - Feb 4, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">206 people are talking about this</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Chrissy in the Dumbest Dystopia</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">@C_Stroop</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"> · Feb 4, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Replying to @cutrightest @julieingersoll</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">They’re not exactly the same thing but Christian Reconstructionism is very racist. But I guess the rhetoric is older:</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">https://t.co/3ng03XqUNY https://twitter.com/julieingersoll/status/1224899037117272065?s=21 …</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">julie ingersoll</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">@julieingersoll</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">I suspect #<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Rushdoony</span> got it from J. Gresham Machen in the 20s. https://twitter.com/C_Stroop/status/1224898284491173888 …</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">julie ingersoll</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">@julieingersoll</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>I'd say that<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> Rushdoony </span>brought the language into modern popular Evangelical usage as he developed the "biblical" defense of Christian education and the rejection of public education.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">15</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">7:40 PM - Feb 4, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">See julie ingersoll's other Tweets</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump’s subsequent appeals to his white evangelical base were more obvious. </b>Right after touting the confirmation of new federal judges on his watch, including “two brilliant new Supreme Court Justices, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh,” the president boasted about his administration’s “defense of religious liberty, [which] includes the Constitutional right to pray in public schools.” While this right has never in fact been contested, it’s a longstanding evangelical tactic to disingenuously conflate the constitutional ban on school-sponsored prayer with the generic “prayer in schools,” which makes for a more effective rallying cry to agitate the faithful.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">From here, Trump launched into a bizarrely manic description of what “we” do in America, rhetoric that reinforces the authoritarian urge to define “the nation” or “the people” in a way that excludes othered groups:</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">In America, we do not punish prayer. We do not tear down crosses. We do not ban symbols of faith. We do not muzzle preachers and pastors. In America, we celebrate faith. We cherish religion. We lift our voices in prayer, and we raise our sights to the Glory of God!</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Few Americans would disagree with the first four sentences, all of which, with certain caveats, represent clearly protected First Amendment freedoms. (If, for example, the proverbial cross happens to be located in a public space that doesn’t permit equal representation to other faiths, then yes, the cross might be removed according to the Constitution.)</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The last three sentences, however, are a different matter, as they’re clearly meant to define America as a religious nation to the exclusion of non-believers. And, given the proximity of these statements to Trump’s invocation of crosses, it’s no stretch to read these sentences as defining America as a specifically Christian nation.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump’s awkward transition from this Christian nationalist rhetoric to invoking the Second Amendment’s “right to keep and bear arms” may seem out of place to some observers. As I’ve argued previously, however, the coziness of God and guns makes perfect sense to Trump’s Christian Right base.</span> Likewise, Trump’s subsequent lines on “manifest destiny,” “frontiers,” and defeating terrorism are red meat for Christian nationalists (if rather bizarrely thrown together with assertions that America will send the first woman to the moon and be the first nation to plant a flag on Mars).</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump drove his speech to a close with more secularized and—despite references to Frederick Douglass and Harriet Tubman—racist nationalist appeals to “pioneers,” “settl[ing] the New World,” and “the beautiful, beautiful Alamo.” This language of “national greatness,</b>” it’s worth noting, may be regarded as the expression of a type of political religion, an essentially secular expression that Christian nationalists nevertheless embrace enthusiastically. In the end, for those worried about attacks on the separation of church and state and about the unwavering support for Trump among white evangelicals, the 2020 State of the Union will do little to assuage these concerns.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Bio</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Latest Posts</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">fake@gmail.com'</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Chrissy Stroop</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">A prominent ex-evangelical writer, speaker, and advocate, Chrissy Stroop is (with Lauren O’Neal) coeditor of the essay anthology Empty the Pews: Stories of Leaving the Church. A senior correspondent for Religion Dispatches, her work has appeared in Dame Magazine, Foreign Policy, Playboy, Political Research Associates, and other outlets, including peer-reviewed academic journals. Holding a Ph.D. in modern Russian history from Stanford University, Stroop is a Senior Research Associate with the University of Innsbruck’s Postsecular Conflicts project. In 2019 Chrissy came out as a transgender woman and began her journey of medical transition. She resides in Portland, Oregon.</font></div></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">emolument (zelensky points out staying in trump hotel on (infamous?) phone call]</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-charging-secret-service-650-per-room-per-night-to-protect-him-at-his-golf-courses"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-charging-secret-service-650-per-room-per-night-to-protect-him-at-his-golf-courses</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">total loyalty or attack thornberry</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/ex-lawmaker-horrified-by-transformation-of-never-trump-republicans-into-presidential-loyalists-whats-happening-now-is-dangerous"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/ex-lawmaker-horrified-by-transformation-of-never-trump-republicans-into-presidential-loyalists-whats-happening-now-is-dangerous</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">steve israel</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">(tears up sotu text, manifesto of misinformation
</font><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-uses-national-prayer-breakfast-to-slams-pelosi-for-praying-for-him/"><font face="Times New Roman">trump uses National Prayer Breakfast to slam Pelosi for praying for him</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta"><span class="author-italic author vcard"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/travis-gettys/" title="Posts by Travis Gettys" class="author url fn" rel="author">Travis Gettys</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/raw-story/" title="Posts by Raw Story" class="author url fn" rel="author">Raw Story</a></font></span></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content"><p><font face="Times New Roman">President
Donald Trump attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Sen. Mitt Romney
for justifying their impeachment actions on religious grounds.</font></p></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/white-house-responds-to-acquittal-by-floating-vengeance-threat-at-adam-schiff/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/white-house-responds-to-acquittal-by-floating-vengeance-threat-at-adam-schiff/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">...White House is out with a first official response to the Senate’s refusal to remove Donald Trump from office. It is mostly the usual claims of “witch hunt” and “full validation” and “exoneration” and a burping out of Trump’s supposed “victories” and accomplishments. It refers to Sen. Mitt Romney only as “one failed Republican presidential candidate.”
But this section is the most noteworthy:
Rep. Adam Schiff lied to Congress and the American people with a totally made up statement about the president’s phone call. Will there be no retribution?
Is that a threat? How could it not be considered one?
While attributed to the still-possibly fictional “press secretary” Stephanie Grisham, these are clearly Trump’s own words. He wrote this. And it does not appear (Susan Collins’ imagination notwithstanding) that this White House has taken anything from the exposure of Trump’s extortion, other than a new zealousness for “retribution” against Dear Leader’s critics.
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">day after impeach ended?!
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trumps-treasury-department-is-now-helping-a-hunter-biden-probe-while-furiously-protecting-the-president/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trumps-treasury-department-is-now-helping-a-hunter-biden-probe-while-furiously-protecting-the-president/</a>
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">AA key to dem win 2020</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-faces-backlash-over-super-bowl-ad-on-alice-marie-johnson-that-completely-ignored-the-long-road-ahead-for-criminal-justice-reform/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-faces-backlash-over-super-bowl-ad-on-alice-marie-johnson-that-completely-ignored-the-long-road-ahead-for-criminal-justice-reform/</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div class="mag-header" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/trump-faces-backlash-over-super-bowl-ad-on-alice-marie-johnson-that-completely-ignored-the-long-road-ahead-for-criminal-justice-reform/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font face="Times New Roman">trump faces backlash over Super Bowl ad on Alice Marie Johnson that completely ignored the long road ahead for criminal justice reform</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/alex-henderson/" title="Posts by Alex Henderson" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><font face="Times New Roman">Alex Henderson</font></a></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">Alice Marie Johnson has become a symbol of everything that’s terrible about the War on Drugs and mass incarceration in the United States: before President Donald Trump granted her a…</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump faces backlash over Super Bowl ad on Alice Marie Johnson that completely ignored the long road ahead for criminal justice reform</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">English: A tearful Alice Johnson, who was serving a mandatory life sentence without parole in a nonviolent drug case and was granted clemency by President Donald J. Trump in June of 2018, gestures toward President Trump from the special guests gallery Tuesday, Feb. 5, 2018, during the State of the Union Address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C. Johnson is accompanied (to her left) by Jared Kushner, advisor to the President, and his wife, Ivanka Trump, the President's eldest daughter. (Official White House Photo by Andrea Hanks)</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Alex Henderson February 3, 2020</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">Alice Marie Johnson has become a symbol of everything that’s terrible about the War on Drugs and mass incarceration in the United States: before President Donald Trump granted her a pardon, she was serving a life sentence in federal prison for a nonviolent drug offense. In a commercial broadcast during the Super Bowl on Sunday, Trump bragged about his role in Johnson’s release. But articles published in Law & Crime and the Daily Beast point out that Trump still has a long way to go when it comes to criminal justice form in the U.S.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump’s ad asserted, “Politicians talk about criminal justice reform; President Trump got it done. Thousands of families are being reunited.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Johnson’s case was brought to Trump’s attention by Kim Kardashian, who is married to hip-hop star and outspoken Trump supporter Kanye West. Kardashian lobbied for Johnson’s release, and because she was in the federal prison system rather than a state prison, Trump had the power to grant her a pardon.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">I promised to restore hope in America. That includes the least among us. Together, let’s KEEP AMERICA GREAT!</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Text TRUMP to 88022 if you liked our Super Bowl ad!</b> pic.twitter.com/Lgjt53B7QX</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 2, 2020</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">Two Super Bowls ago I was sitting in a prison cell.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">Today I am a free woman and my story was featured in a Super Bowl Ad.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">I will spend the rest of my life fighting for the wrongly and unjustly convicted!</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">God Bless America! pic.twitter.com/CGSyk54O37</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">— Alice Marie Johnson (@AliceMarieFree) February 3, 2020</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Legal writer Alberto Luperon, in an article for Law & Crime, notes that in the ad, Trump “brought up a case that had nothing to do with ‘criminal justice form’ in any meaningful sense of the word…. To date, Johnson is one of 24 people to get clemency during the Trump Administration. Was it ‘criminal justice reform?’ No, it was a use of the regular ol’ pardon power. She is out of prison because her sentence was commuted, not as a result of changes to the criminal justice system.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">Luperon points out that law professor Joyce White Vance (a former federal prosecutor) has stressed that Johnson’s case is merely the tip of the iceberg. On Sunday, Vance tweeted, “<b>Alice Johnson is one person who won early release because celebrities brought her to Trump’s attention. She deserved it. But there are thousands more like her in prison. We need a real pardon process that works fairly. We need real criminal justice reform. Don’t be fooled.”</b></font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Nonetheless, Luperon does give Trump some credit, asserting that he “absolutely does have a comprehensive institutional victory under his belt when it comes to criminal justice reform.… It’s called the First Step Act. Trump signed it into law in December 2018, months after Johnson’s sentence was commuted. It was a rare bipartisan victory for an administration characterized by controversy. Among other things, the law increased the amount of good time credit for many kinds of federal inmates, prohibited the use of restraints on pregnant women, and eased criminal punishments on certain kinds of drug offenders.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">Alice Johnson is one person who won early release because celebrities brought her to Trump’s attention. She deserved it. But there are thousands more like her in prison. We need a real pardon process that works fairly. We need real criminal justice reform. Don’t be fooled. https://t.co/rx9TVXRqeI</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">— Joyce Alene (@JoyceWhiteVance) February 3, 2020</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">Journalist Emma Tucker, in a Daily Beast article, notes that Trump’s ad has received some negative reactions on Twitter. For example, Rep. Bakari Sellers of South Carolina tweeted, “That ad was offensive AF….. The ‘I freed a Negro’ ad.” And journalist Judd Legum tweeted that pardoning Johnson was only one act — not full-fledged criminal justice reform. Legum posted, “Interesting that this ad makes it seem like Johnson was released because of criminal justice reform but it had nothing to do with that. Trump granted her clemency after being lobbied by Kim Kardashian.”</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">...</font></p><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-the-transgressor-the-psychological-appeal-of-leaders-who-break-the-rules-130247">https://theconversation.com/trump-the-transgressor-the-psychological-appeal-of-leaders-who-break-the-rules-130247</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">interesting long v short, me v we: limit immigrant will hurt economy</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trumps-most-lasting-legacy-analyst-reveals-the-presidents-worst-mistake-in-economic-policy/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trumps-most-lasting-legacy-analyst-reveals-the-presidents-worst-mistake-in-economic-policy/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">...Admitting fewer immigrants generally means less economic growth, since labor force growth is an important element of economic growth,” Anderson explains. “It is economic growth that improves the standard of living in a nation. Using the public charge rule to reduce legal immigration means lower long-term economic growth may be Donald Trump’s most lasting legacy.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Anderson backs up his assertions by citing data from Macroeconomic Advisers as well as economists at Oxford University. Macroeconomic Advisers’ Joel Prakken, Anderson notes, has estimated that cutting legal immigration in half in the U.S. would reduce the country’s rate of economic growth by about 12.5%. And Oxford economists, Anderson observes, have said that the majority of economic gains the U.S. enjoyed from 2011-2016 would have been wiped out without immigration</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Anderson also points out that Ruchir Sharma, chief global strategist for Morgan Stanley, has cited immigration as an importance source of economic growth....</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/republicans-want-to-either-rule-america-or-destroy-it-for-everyone-else-political-scientist"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/02/republicans-want-to-either-rule-america-or-destroy-it-for-everyone-else-political-scientist</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Republicans want to either rule America — or destroy it for everyone else: political scientist</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Tom Boggioni / Raw Story February 2, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">In a scorching column for the Daily Beast, David Rothkopf writes that the refusal of the Republican-controlled Senate to agree to hear witnesses in the impeachment trial of the Donald Trump is one of the darkest moments in U.S. history — ranking up with the start of the Civil War.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Getting right to the point, he wrote, “Jan. 31, 2020, was the worst day for democracy in America since April 12, 1861, when South Carolina forces opened fire on Fort Sumter. Both days represented a moment when an old guard representing a dying way of life placed their own survival ahead of that of the United States and our Constitution,” before adding, “It is an irony that the GOP was founded as an anti-slavery party, a harbinger of the changes to come in the mid-19th century, and today has become a reactionary force surviving by stoking fears of the massive U.S. social transformation that is already well underway.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Focusing on the Senate impeachment trial that is expected to culminate with the acquittal of the president along party lines, he explained, “What took place in the Senate on Friday when it voted not to hear witnesses in the trial of Donald Trump— when witnesses such as John Bolton were available who could corroborate his guilt—may have been the most damaging blow of all. Because this decision effectively ensured that Trump would not only be acquitted of crimes he certainly committed, it also ensured a number of key points made by Trump and his defenders would in months and years to come be supported by the precedent of the momentous Senate action. These include a virtual ratification of the idea that anything a president might do to win reelection would be acceptable.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The columnist goes on to state that the Republican Party fears the rising tide of change in the country so they are hell-bent are destroying all norms in a desperate attempt to hold onto power in a deeply divided country.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“Now they know it is not only OK for them to try put a thumb on the scale of the U.S. elections but that the president and the senate of the United States will ensure they are protected if they do it,” he wrote. “The desperate GOP, seeing the clock running out on their brand of racism- and ignorance-fueled, aging white male-based power, will compound the above with renewed efforts to suppress the vote during the months ahead. Who is going to stop them? The courts they have packed? The Department of Justice? The president and the Republican Party that are rooting for their success?”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“This election is likely to be the most at risk to foreign and domestic meddling and distortion in modern history,” he continued. ” t is clear that the GOP will stop at nothing, use every legal or semi-legal trick in the book and then, when they run out of those, they will move on, as the president did, to the illegal—and the GOP will seek to find new ways to forgive or even endorse that behavior.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“Where they can undermine the law and the Constitution to advance their own narrow interests they will continue to do that, without regard for the lasting damage they are doing—because for them there is only now. For them, tomorrow is the enemy and certain defeat,” he concluded.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">You can read the whole piece here (subscription required).</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">stipulated post aquittal freakouts ~ democ</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/american-fascist-the-u-s-is-a-failing-democracy-and-the-peddlers-of-hope-are-lying-to-us/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/american-fascist-the-u-s-is-a-failing-democracy-and-the-peddlers-of-hope-are-lying-to-us/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">c d v quite good</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">amanda m</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/how-trump-has-brought-the-entire-republican-party-to-the-point-of-no-return/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/how-trump-has-brought-the-entire-republican-party-to-the-point-of-no-return/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/investigators-interview-irs-whistleblower-who-warned-of-meddling-in-audit-of-trump-or-pence-report/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/investigators-interview-irs-whistleblower-who-warned-of-meddling-in-audit-of-trump-or-pence-report/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">mofo re wind</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trump-administration" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">Trump administration</a> announced plans Thursday to formally weaken protections for millions of migratory <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/birds" target="self" style="text-decoration-color: rgb(82, 149, 70); overflow-wrap: break-word; line-height: 1.5;">birds</a>.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">an 120 not paul k</font></div><div><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/nobel-prize-winning-economist-heres-why-trump-is-just-wrong-to-claim-his-economic-policies-help-the-middle-class/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font style="font-weight: normal;" face="Times New Roman">Nobel Prize-winning economist: Here’s why Trump is ‘just wrong’ to claim his economic policies help the middle class</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/nobel-prize-winning-economist-heres-why-trump-is-just-wrong-to-claim-his-economic-policies-help-the-middle-class/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font style="font-weight: normal;" face="Times New Roman">
</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/nobel-prize-winning-economist-heres-why-trump-is-just-wrong-to-claim-his-economic-policies-help-the-middle-class/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;" /><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/alex-henderson/" title="Posts by Alex Henderson" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;"><font style="font-weight: normal;" face="Times New Roman">Alex Hen</font></a></h3></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">omfg land mines 120, </font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/absolutely-horrific-trump-reportedly-prepares-to-roll-back-restrictions-on-use-of-landmines/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/absolutely-horrific-trump-reportedly-prepares-to-roll-back-restrictions-on-use-of-landmines/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">‘Absolutely horrific’: Trump reportedly prepares to roll back restrictions on use of landmines</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams January 31, 2020</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>President Donald Trump is reportedly preparing to roll back established constraints on the U.S. military’s ability to use landmines overseas despite the weapons’ long history of killing and maiming civilians around the world.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">CNN, citing multiple anonymous Defense Department officials, reported Thursday that the Trump administration is expected to loosen landmine restrictions in the coming days by rescinding a 2014 order by former President Barack Obama that limited U.S. landmine use to the Korean Peninsula.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“President Obama’s policy brought the U.S. policy closely in line with the obligations of the 1997 Mine Ban Treaty,” Jody Williams, an anti-war activist who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1997 for her work to ban landmines, told Common Dreams in an email. “Mr. Trump’s policy rollback is a step toward the past, like many of his other decisions, and sends exactly the wrong message to those working to rid the world of the scourge of landmines.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">More than 160 nations have ratified the Mine Ban Treaty, also known as the Ottawa Treaty, which prohibits the stockpiling, production, and use of landmines. The United States is one of just 32 U.N. member states that have not ratified the treaty.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“The beauty of the treaty is that it has established a new norm and even countries outside the treaty felt the stigma related to landmines and changed policies, even if they didn’t join the treaty,” said Williams. “Mr. Trump’s landmine move would be in line with all of his other moves to undercut arms control and disarmament in a world much in need of them. The landmine ban movement will do what it has always done with governments that still remain outside the Mine Ban Treaty—push back and continue the push to universalize the treaty—including the U.S.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The Landmine and Cluster Munition Monitor, a non-governmental research initiative, estimated in a November 2019 report that 130,000 people were killed by landmines between 1999 and 2018. The majority of the deaths were civilians.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">According to CNN, the Trump administration’s new policy will place the authority to use landmines in the hands of “commanders of the U.S. military’s combatant commands, usually a four-star general or admiral, such as the commanders of U.S. Africa Command and U.S. Central Command which oversee operations on the African continent and the Middle East respectively.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“The new policy… is expected to permit the operational use of landmines only if they have a 30-day self-destruction or self-deactivation feature,” CNN reported. “The new policy would also allow for the development, production, and procurement of landmines only if they have these features.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The decision to rescind the Obama administration’s 2014 policy was recommended following a Pentagon review launched in 2017 by then-Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“So horrific that after decades of international efforts to rid the world of landmines, Trump is about to ‘make landmines great again’ by loosening restrictions on their use,” Medea Benjamin, co-founder of anti-war group CodePink, told Common Dreams.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Advocacy group Public Citizen echoed that reaction on Twitter.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“Is this what Make America Great Again means? Who in their right mind can justify this?” the group asked. “Landmines have a long history of killing and wounding civilians and are banned by more than 160 countries. Absolutely horrific.”</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><p class="yiv3129815998headline3" style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" margin="margin" padding="padding"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click1.e.alternet.org/qwghfjdydbntnfrrtvsddtdrrvtrygpchbdnsmjshddd_hvbqvfmfzvcmnbfhhfw.html?a=&b=3613&c=21989&d=2" style=""><font face="Times New Roman">‘Apologia for authoritarianism’: Legal analysts slam Trump lawyer for arguing president can do whatever he wants to boost reelection chances</font></a></p><p style="font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" color="color" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" padding="padding"><font face="Times New Roman"> </font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">"They are saying that abuses of power in order to…</font></p></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">omg geo-fencing</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/the-real-reason-trump-holds-so-many-rallies-is-deeply-disturbing-and-could-be-weaponized-against-him/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/the-real-reason-trump-holds-so-many-rallies-is-deeply-disturbing-and-could-be-weaponized-against-him/</font></a></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">bibi indicted, elections in march? djt impeached</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/it-is-a-war-plan-trump-netanyahu-deal-decried-as-shameful-attack-on-palestinian-rights"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/it-is-a-war-plan-trump-netanyahu-deal-decried-as-shameful-attack-on-palestinian-rights</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">‘It is a war plan’: Trump-Netanyahu deal decried as shameful attack on Palestinian rights</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">President Donald J. Trump delivers remarks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu Tuesday, Jan. 28, 2020, in the East Room of the White House to unveil details of the Trump administration’s Middle East Peace Plan. (Official White House Photo by Shealah Craighead)]</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Julia Conley / Common Dreams January 28, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Human rights advocates condemned U.S. President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s “annexation plan” for large swaths of Palestinian territory as the two leaders on Tuesday presented what they termed a “peace deal” for Israel and Palestine.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Critics joined Palestinian leaders in rejecting the premise of the so-called “vision for peace,” which was drafted by the White House and Netanyahu without the input of Palestinians.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The resulting plan is “shameful and disingenuous,” tweeted Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.).</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">They could have guaranteed justice, and brought everyone into this peace deal.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Instead these two embattled heads of state, impeached and indicted, have a “ just us” peace deal.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">It’s shameful and disingenuous! https://t.co/THIniOEv8B</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 28, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The plan aims to expand and make official Israeli control of Palestinian territories while assuring Palestine that it will be afforded “a pathway to a future state”—but one that will have no military of its own and in which Israel will maintain security control over some areas.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“This is not a peace plan,” tweeted Yousef Munayyer, executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights. “It is a war plan.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">This is not a peace plan, it is a war plan.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">A war on peace</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">A war on justice</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">A war on freedom</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">A war on equality</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">A war on Palestinian existence</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">— (((YousefMunayyer))) (@YousefMunayyer) January 28, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“It’s stunning that Donald Trump doesn’t know that this is insulting to Palestinians,” tweeted James Zogby, founder of the Arab American Institute.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">It’s stunning that @realDonaldTrump doesn’t know that this is insulting to Palestinians. It’s not a “state” it’s a “Bantustan.” Palestinians lose more land w/out sovereignty & independence. Israel gets more land & keeps settlements. It’s Trump’s plan to try to legalize illegality https://t.co/RDE6iJ0krf</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">— James J. Zogby (@jjz1600) January 28, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“This plan is simply a rubber stamp for the Israeli government’s continuing violations of international law, separate-and-unequal policies, land grabs, and human rights abuses against the Palestinian people,”</b> said the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights in a statement. “Any attempt to address the Israeli-Palestinian issue that does not begin and end with the full acknowledgment of the Palestinian right to self-determination, freedom, justice, and equality is a non-starter.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Major points within the deal include:</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Jerusalem will be established as Israel’s “undivided” capitol, undermining Palestinians’ aim to recognize East Jerusalem as their capitol;</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">the recognition of the majority of Israeli settlements in occupied Palestine;</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">the recognition of the Jordan Valley, which makes up a third of the occupied West Bank, as part of Israel; and</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">the refusal by Israel to grant Palestinians the “right to return” to their homes lost in the Six-Day War and other conflicts.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Palestinians in occupied territories held protests on Tuesday ahead of the deal’s announcement. Larger demonstrations are planned for Wednesday.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“I am not against peace, but what is being talked about is not peace,” Ahmed Shafiq, a student in Gaza, told The Guardian. “Peace is not imposed on people.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The so-called “peace deal” amounts to “an endorsement of Israel’s aggression, allowing it to take over whatever Palestinian lands it wants and punishing the victims for daring to object to having their homeland stolen,” said Omar Baddar, deputy director of the Arab American Institute, in a short video the group released.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Want to know why this “ultimate deal” is a sham & a disgrace that will never lead to peace? @OmarBaddar explains:#DealOfTheCentury #Apartheid pic.twitter.com/1k9Ig0q9ND</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">— Arab American Instit. (@AAIUSA) January 28, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">A map released showing Trump and Netanyahu’s vision for the future of Palestine resembled “a Native American reservation” more than a sovereign state, said entrepreneur Shahed Amanullah.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">This doesn’t look like a state. It looks like a Native American reservation. https://t.co/ZwHMt0L0V7 pic.twitter.com/S2gO5gdV4t</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">— Shahed Amanullah (@shahed) January 28, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“This is not a peace plan,” tweeted Omar. “It is theft. It is erasure.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Munayyer of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights called on Americans and the international community to reject Trump’s attempt to “whitewash the apartheid reality alongside his Israeli partners-in-war-crimes.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“The only suitable response from people of conscience is to reject this effort and demand immediate accountability for Israel’s denial of Palestinian rights,” Munayyer said. “The separate-and-unequal reality the Israeli government has imposed on Palestinians, with the support of the U.S., flies in the face of the values Americans claim to uphold. Freedom, justice, and equality for Palestinians is the only way forward.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), whose parents immigrated to the U.S. from occupied Palestine, slammed Trump and Netanyahu for releasing the plan as both are facing re-election campaigns and legal battles.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“It’s fitting that the Trump-Netanyahu plan was released by a forever impeached president on the same day that Netanyahu was indicted for corruption,” Tlaib tweeted. “This political stunt gets us no closer to peace or justice.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">It’s fitting that the @realDonaldTrump–@netanyahu “plan” was released by a forever impeached President on the same day that Netanyahu was indicted for corruption.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">This political stunt gets us no closer to peace or justice. As a member of Congress, I consider it a non-starter. https://t.co/PIYYZ75PWc</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">— Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (@RepRashida) January 28, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“This is a political ploy by both leaders to distract from their abuse of power, designed to help Netanyahu win the election in less than six weeks,” Emily Meyer, co-founder of Jewish progressive group If Not Now, said in a statement. “The plan itself is a plan for permanent Israeli military occupation and control, not a plan for peace. It is simply a continuation of Trump’s strategy since entering office: to disenfranchise Palestinians and deny their rights, their agency, and even their identity.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">djt also has problem w/ uppity woman m kelley blood from everywhere, NPR bonus</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trump-praises-pompeos-swear-filled-rant-to-an-npr-reporter-i-think-you-did-a-good-job-on-her/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trump-praises-pompeos-swear-filled-rant-to-an-npr-reporter-i-think-you-did-a-good-job-on-her/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p><font face="Times New Roman"></font></p><p class="yiv4077907340headline3" style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click1.e.alternet.org/bdpbqszvztdydqmmyjfzzyzmmjymvgcnbtzdfpsfbjlc_epdsrqpqfrbpddbsdsq.html?a=&b=3579&c=21989&d=2" style=""><font face="Times New Roman">Shameful assault on press freedom’: Mike Pompeo denounced for ‘insulting and contemptuous’ statement lashing out at NPR reporter</font></a></p><p style="font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" color="color" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" padding="padding"><font face="Times New Roman"> </font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Secretary of State Mike Pompeo lashed out at NPR reporter…</font></p><p class="yiv4077907340headline3" style="" times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" margin="margin" px="px" padding="padding"><a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="http://click1.e.alternet.org/ylccgpvyvzmnmgttnfqvvnvttfntykbwczvmqspqcfqq_epdsrqpqfrbpddbsdsq.html?a=&b=3579&c=21989&d=2" style=""><font face="Times New Roman">Trump hits NPR with veiled threat after Pompeo blow-up with reporter over Ukraine</font></a></p><p style="font-family: Georgia, " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" serif="serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" font-style="font-style" italic="italic" color="color" rgb="rgb" margin="margin" padding="padding"><font face="Times New Roman"> </font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump issued a veiled threat against National Public…</font></p><p style="margin: 10px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"> </font></p><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/gop-lawmakers-incite-outrage-as-they-push-trump-to-intensify-attacks-on-women-with-global-gag-rule/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/gop-lawmakers-incite-outrage-as-they-push-trump-to-intensify-attacks-on-women-with-global-gag-rule/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">trumpista base held tgether by evil fox trinity: hanty, ingraham and tucker
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</font><div><font face="Times New Roman">aha 1/20 promote primary, evil pending; trump only hope to stay in power, so pander to end times homo trans phobia, 1st anti-abortion march; 2x whammy b/c smash and grab anti BO voodoo tax cut to oligarch and corps
</font><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/get-rid-of-her-recording-reportedly-shows-trump-fuming-about-fired-ambassador/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/get-rid-of-her-recording-reportedly-shows-trump-fuming-about-fired-ambassador/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trumps-shocking-and-deeply-disturbing-foreign-conflicts-of-interest-detailed-in-explosive-new-report"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trumps-shocking-and-deeply-disturbing-foreign-conflicts-of-interest-detailed-in-explosive-new-report</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump’s ‘shocking and deeply disturbing’ foreign conflicts of interest detailed in explosive new report</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Brad Reed / Raw Story January 20, 2020</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Even though President Donald Trump has been impeached for his efforts to shake down the Ukrainian government to investigate his political opponents, Democrats in Congress are still working on uncovering information about Trump’s unprecedented conflicts of interests with foreign governments.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">A new report from Politico shows just how deep Trump’s foreign conflicts of interest go, and they show multiple potential violations of the Constitution’s so-called emoluments clause that bars the president from taking payments from foreign governments.</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Among the conflicts include <b>“state-owned companies in China, Saudi Arabia and South Korea” </b>that are building Trump resorts, as well as countries that “are constructing roads and donating public land for new developments” at Trump properties. The report cites recently disclosed documents showing that “the Trump administration authorized foreign governments to rent condos in Trump World Tower in New York.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">”</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The Trump administration and the Trump Organization have been infamously uncooperative with congressional investigations and have instead taken a strategy of dragging things out through the courts for as long as possible.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Nonetheless, Congressional Democrats remain determined to get to the bottom of the president’s shady foreign dealings.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“The level of this is shocking and deeply disturbing,”<b> Rep. David Cicilline (D-RI)</b>, tells Politico. “This president has a habit of doing things out in the open, which are completely improper or even illegal and somehow … the average person thinks, ‘Well, if he’s doing it out in the open it must be OK; I must not completely understand the rules.’ But it’s not.”</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/you-cannot-expect-anything-but-fascism-pedagogy-theorist-explains-how-trump-legitimated-a-culture-of-lying-cruelty-and-a-collapse-of-social-responsibility/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/you-cannot-expect-anything-but-fascism-pedagogy-theorist-explains-how-trump-legitimated-a-culture-of-lying-cruelty-and-a-collapse-of-social-responsibility/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">see post-truth</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trumps-top-russia-expert-placed-on-administrative-leave-and-escorted-from-the-white-house-report/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trumps-top-russia-expert-placed-on-administrative-leave-and-escorted-from-the-white-house-report/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">andrew peek, going to davos</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">120 2 on AN</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" /><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font 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</div><div>Trump’s legal team is a wretched hive of scum and villainy</div><div>Official White House Photo by D. Myles Cullen</div><div>Written by Martin Longman / Washington Monthly January 17, 2020</div><div>
</div><div>From time immemorial, port cities have been “wretched hives of scum and villainy,” so why should spaceports be any different? That was the theory behind Mos Eisley, home of the famous bar scene in the original Star Wars. And why should Trump’s International Hotel in Washington, D.C. be any different? It’s a gathering place for every kind of crook and scoundrel. As Lev Parnas told Rachel Maddow, “It was like a breeding ground at the Trump hotel.”</div><div>
</div><div>And why should Trump’s legal defense team not follow suit?</div><div>
</div><div>
</div><div>President Donald Trump’s defense team for his Senate impeachment trial will include former independent counsel Ken Starr, who investigated President Bill Clinton, and famed defense attorney Alan Dershowitz, sources familiar with the president’s legal strategy told NBC News Friday.</div><div>
</div><div>Also joining the team is Robert Ray, who succeeded Starr as Clinton special counsel, and Pam Bondi, the former Florida attorney general who joined the White House in November to help manage the messaging around impeachment, the sources said.</div><div>
</div><div>Villainy may be in the eye of the beholder, but the stench of scum is hard to ignore.</div><div>
</div><div>Kenneth Starr is a completely disgraced man, after bringing Baylor University into total disrepute:</div><div>
</div><div>Starr was ousted as president of Baylor University and then resigned as chancellor in 2016 amid an investigation into claims he and school officials mishandled allegations of sexual assault by football players.</div><div>
</div><div>An independent investigation found that under Starr’s leadership the school actively discouraged “some complainants from reporting or participating in student conduct processes and in one instance constituted retaliation against a complainant for reporting sexual assault.”</div><div>
</div><div>Dershowitz has been credibly accused of taking advantage of the services of Jeffrey Epstein’s underage sex slavery empire.</div><div>
</div><div>“I kept my underwear on during the massage… I don’t like massages particularly.”</div><div>
</div><div>— Alan Dershowitz, via Skype, trying to explain why he was in an alleged sex trafficker’s house but was only massaged by an “old, old Russian woman” and had no clue what was going on in the rest of the house. Dershowitz also said: “Were there young women in another part of the house giving massages when I wasn’t around? I have no idea of that.”</div><div>
</div><div>Bondi is a poster girl for public corruption. Further, the worst of the accusations against her actually involves the person she’s supposed to defend in the impeachment trial.</div><div>
</div><div>Bondi was serving as Florida’s attorney general when allegations began to arise that Trump University was a fraud. On the one hand, she publicly said she’d look into it. On the other, she privately asked Trump to fund her reelection campaign. Trump obliged, illegally using his charitable organization to do it. Bondi promptly dropped the investigation into Trump University, and both parties defended the whole arrangement. Then they denied it had been an arrangement at all, with Trump claiming that he had actually donated the money to another organization with a similar name. But that organization never received any money, and Trump was fined by the IRS and his charitable organization was shut down.</div><div>
</div><div>More recently, Bondi has used her access to the president to rake in money from Qatar as a lobbyist. She also appears to disturbingly tight with the Scientologists.</div><div>
</div><div>Then there is Robert Ray. He’s another piece of work.</div><div>
</div><div>The former federal prosecutor who succeeded Kenneth W. Starr as independent counsel in the Whitewater investigation has been charged with stalking his ex-girlfriend, police said.</div><div>
</div><div>Robert W. Ray surrendered to police Thursday. He was ordered to appear in court at a later date and released, police said.</div><div>
</div><div>A complaint filed by Ray’s ex-girlfriend says he e-mailed, called and visited her against her wishes after their relationship ended.</div><div>
</div><div>There are many possible ways to respond to Trump’s choice of defenders.</div><div>
</div><div>Monica Lewinsky</div><div>@MonicaLewinsky</div><div>this is definitely an “are you fucking kidding me?” kinda day.</div><div>
</div><div>As far as I know, Bondi has never been closely associated with sexual misconduct or assault, but I think she’d fit in at the Star Wars cantina just fine. As it is, her lobbying firm regularly sends its clients to Trump’s D.C. hotel.</div><div>
</div><div>Maybe these are the only people who are morally compromised enough to see some advantage in arguing for the president’s innocence, but I hope the House Managers remember to bring their lightsabers to the proceedings.</div><div>
</div><div>Speaking of which, maybe Ponda Baba was an innocent victim and Obi-Wan Kenobi was wrong to cut off his hand. I’m sure Alan Dershowitz would be willing to make that argument.</div></div><div style=""><div style=""><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"> =</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/i-made-a-lot-of-bankers-look-very-good-trump-lets-the-mask-slip-as-wall-street-titans-get-32-billion-tax-windfall/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/i-made-a-lot-of-bankers-look-very-good-trump-lets-the-mask-slip-as-wall-street-titans-get-32-billion-tax-windfall/</font></a></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>‘I made a lot of bankers look very good’: Trump lets the mask slip as Wall Street titans get $32 billion tax windfall</b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Jon Queally / Common Dreams January 17, 2020</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“I made a lot of bankers look very good,” President Donald Trump boasted this week just before it was reported Thursday that the nation’s six largest banks alone have received an estimated $32 billion windfall thanks to Republican tax cuts.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The figures were generated by Bloomberg News after reviewing the 2019 profits earnings of JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Goldman Sachs, and Morgan Stanley.</font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>By looking at the banks’ earnings in relation to effective tax rates that dropped from 20% to 18% last year—and comparing that to the 30% average they paid prior to the tax cut bill passed by Republicans and signed by Trump at the end of 2017—the analysis showed just how well the Wall Street giants have fared even as they <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">cut back their work forces approximately 1,200 people over the same time period.</span></b></font></p><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“The tax savings have spurred the banks to record profit,” Bloomberg‘s Yalman Onaran reported. “The six firms posted $120 billion in net income for 2019, inching past 2018’s mark. They had never surpassed $100 billion before the tax cuts.</b>”</font></p></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">...[ask for thx]</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">120 aha</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">kind of scary 6 drivers to war:</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">1) BO remark there's just a penchant/bias for it in DC</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">2) red calf dominionist lunacy 3 p's?!</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">3) general islamophobia, but boosted by bannon clash of of BS</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">terrorism fear/hyped, vote gop to keep you safe/nat'l security traf BS ploy now breaking down?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">4) djt accuse BO of wag the dog war, so projection, plus IMPEACHMENT</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">5? legit fear of iran hegemony? why do we care? oil? straits of H?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">7 saudi pals want it kush? mbs?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">120 icn</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">t<a rel="nofollow" target="blank" href="https://insideclimatenews.us2.list-manage.com/track/click?u=7c733794100bcc7e083a163f0&id=f35a306209&e=06876ede6b" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: " helvetica="helvetica" neue="neue" arial="arial" verdana="verdana" sans-serif="sans-serif">rump Moves to Erase Climate Change from Environmental Reviews</span></a></font></div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: inherit;">BY: MARIANNE LAVELLE</font></span><br style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" helvetica="helvetica" neue="neue" sans-serif="sans-serif">Critics say he’s undermining a bedrock environmental protection law that established the federal government’s duty as "trustee of the environment for succeeding generations."</span></font><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/fascism-scholar-if-trump-wins-again-america-will-be-ready-for-full-on-authoritarian-rule/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/fascism-scholar-if-trump-wins-again-america-will-be-ready-for-full-on-authoritarian-rule/</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Fascism scholar: If Trump wins again, America will be ‘ready for full-on authoritarian rule’</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Chauncey DeVega / Salon January 13, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Last week, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that Congress will soon send its articles of impeachment for Donald Trump to the Senate, where Republicans are determined to acquit him on all charges, including abuse of power, obstruction of Congress, and encouraging foreign powers to interfere in the 2020 presidential election.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">No evidence or witnesses will persuade the Senate majority to reach a conclusion consistent with the obvious facts that Donald Trump should be impeached, convicted and removed from office. The Constitution’s mandate that a impeachment should involve an impartial trial and a fair hearing of evidence and witnesses has no meaning in TrumpWorld.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The Republican Party is now a wholly owned subsidiary of Trump’s regime and an expression of his personal will and power. To that end,<b> Trump has promised financial support to the Republican senators who will soon be voting at his trial.</b> It has also been reported that Trump ordered the execution of Iranian Maj. Gen. Qassem Soleimani in order to ensure that Republican senators would support his acquittal.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">In essence, Donald Trump pays political blood money to his supporters. This is more evidence of Trump’s political thuggery and mobster-style behavior that is unbefitting an American president.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Like other dictators, authoritarians, autocrats and political thugs, Donald Trump believes he is above the law. With the support of Attorney General William Barr, this appears increasingly true.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The obscenities continue.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump has suggested he is “the chosen one” and God’s messenger on earth. White Christian evangelicals believe this to be true and have pledged themselves to his cult.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Writing at USA Today, historian John Fea described the first event of Trump’s “Evangelicals for Trump” campaign, which occurred in Florida two weeks ago:</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">His evangelical supporters loved every minute of it. That night, <b>Christians who claim to be citizens of the Kingdom of God went to church, cheered the depraved words of a president and warmly embraced his offer of political power.</b> Such a display by evangelicals is unprecedented in American history.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">I usually get angry when members of my tribe worship at the feet of Trump. This time, I just felt sad.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump and his allies label Democrats, liberals, progressives and anyone else opposing him as traitors and enemies of the United States. The most recent example: at a rally last Thursday in Toledo, Trump said that Democrats were “vicious horrible people.”</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">None of this should be surprising. Trump is following the authoritarian’s playbook almost to the letter in his assault on American democracy, the Constitution and the rule of law. The question is not whether Donald Trump is an authoritarian and would-be dictator but rather whether anything or anyone is capable of stopping him.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">I recently spoke with historian Ruth Ben-Ghiat in an effort to better understand where America is on its road to fascism and authoritarianism in this fourth year of Trump’s regime.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Ben-Ghiat is a professor of history and Italian studies at New York University and an expert in fascism and authoritarianism. She is the author of “Italian Fascism’s Empire Cinema” and other books. Her opinion essays and other writing have been featured by CNN, the Washington Post, The New Yorker and the Atlantic.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">This conversation has been edited for clarity and length. You can also listen to my full conversation with Ruth Ben-Ghiat through the player embedded below.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">As you watch the Trump regime’s ongoing authoritarian assault on America, how do you feel?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">I feel very resolute. It is very important not to feel helpless and desperate. In a funny way, I’m not frustrated with the Trump supporters because I understand how the process works. Of course, I’m very upset that there are in fact Trump supporters and I have zero sympathy towards them. But once individuals bond to an authoritarian leader it is a process, like a train that has already departed the station. It is very hard to stop and is well underway.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">How is this constant state of temporary hope and then inevitable disappointment impacting the American people? For example, Trump has been impeached. Yet now he will be acquitted by his servants in the Republican Party. The American people are in a manic state because of Trump’s regime.</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">This is all happening a little bit at a time. Surveying the history of authoritarianism, only in a military coup do you really have an instant change. A person leaves the house in the morning and five hours later they are living in a dictatorship and there is mass violence. But otherwise, even Mussolini and Hitler took many years to get into power.</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The shoe drops slowly, and it is hard for many people to discern what is really happening.</span> This is especially true when there are multiple things happening at one time. For example, William Barr and his attacks on the rule of law and how he is part of this right-wing Christian counterrevolution in America. Yes, Trump is impeached, and that is a type of pushback against him and his forces. What judges are doing to slow down Trump’s agenda is very important too. It is very important to not give up because that is what authoritarians want the public to do.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Authoritarian leaders want you to believe that resistance is futile and that you should just give up. If we give up and resign ourselves to the conclusion that impeaching Trump is not going to have an effect, then he has won. Impeachment is extremely important because it will be on the record, marked in the history books as opposition to Trump and his agenda.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Three years into Trump’s regime, why are so many Americans still in a state of denial about this crisis?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">They have no reference point for what is going on in America right now. Providing that reference point is one of the things that motivates my work. Many people are also scared. Many people in the news media are afraid to really engage the fact that Trump is an authoritarian because if they do so then reality becomes too threatening, and therefore they would have to take a different stance publicly.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Is this a lack of historical context and knowledge? Is it cowardice?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">As I said earlier, only in a military coup do we really see sudden change in a society. Most people are not trained to recognize what is going on with Trump’s authoritarian agenda. If these leading media voices admit that they are living in the middle of a fascist, authoritarian takeover, then what are they going to do about it? Compare the United States to Hong Kong. Those incredible human beings are out there in the streets in Hong Kong day after day, month after month, because they know really well what the stakes are. </span>The American people either do not understand those facts or they do not want to inconvenience themselves and disrupt their lives. That lack of mass protest and resistance is also an indictment of a particular American way of life where people are overly comfortable and take too many things for granted about their culture and democracy and their own lives.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Applying your historical framework and expertise about fascism and authoritarianism, what are Donald Trump and his regime an example of?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump is an example of someone who comes up in history, and the way forward has been prepared for him, in this instance by the Tea Party and the Republican Party.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The road was already prepared for Trump by eight years of Barack Obama and how that created a type of mass anger and rage and panic among many white people. People like Donald Trump appear in history and their role is to undo social and political progress. Trump is a figure who is trying to undo everything that Barack Obama stood for and accomplished.</b> But of course, historical figures such as Donald Trump add something new. Trump comes in and he has a “movement.” Trump does not have a political party. At first, Trump said that he was above politics. This is another common thread among authoritarians.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">When we say that Trumpism is a “movement,” what specifically do we mean? </font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump said, “This isn’t a party, it’s movement.” Trump did this to excite his potential followers and get their loyalty. At a traditional Republican convention or campaign rally, there are not loyalty oaths. There are not MAGA hats. <b>All successful movements have rituals and symbols. Donald Trump is a marketer. He knows that symbols and rituals and having a movement is how you get people excited. Nobody is excited to show up for the Republican Party. But the Tea Party? Donald Trump? MAGA? That is something different. There are actually people who are addicted to Donald Trump’s rallies</b>. They are following a movement. Of course that movement has now taken over the Republican Party — and Trump transcends the GOP.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Trump is establishing what is known as “personalist rule.” This can happen in failing democracies and in actual authoritarian states. Personalist rule is a process wherein the state comes to revolve around the personal agendas and needs of the ruler. This includes the need to defend the ruler’s corruption. To defend the ruler from the law and judicial processes and investigative journalists. Another indicator of personalist rule is when the leader’s personal obsessions, such as Trump’s wall, begin to monopolize and overtake other policies. This would not be possible and sustainable without the leader’s supporters coalescing in a movement.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">There is an obsession in the mainstream news media with Trump’s “white working class” supporters. In that reporting, one of the repeated narratives is that those people feel some type of kinship with him. Somehow, in their delusional minds, Trump’s supporters believe that a supposed billionaire is actually like them. He is “oppressed” and “victimized,” as they are. The premise is absurd. But why is it so compelling for some people? </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>That is the personality cult. For Trump’s rule to work — as with Putin and other autocrats and authoritarians — the leader must be both an everyman and a superman</b>.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> The leader is a populist in the sense that he speaks the “language of the people.” Almost all of these types of leaders have a <b>sense of humor where they make crude jokes that get people to laugh. Politically incorrect jokes. Their humor is corrosive, of course. But the jokes work in showing that these types of leaders are very much of the people. Donald Trump uses a fourth-grade vocabulary. He is also very visual. He performs with his body. Yet Donald Trump is a billionaire, and supposedly a great success. The combination of all those traits is very attractive to his followers. “He’s a super success story. He’s done this, he’s done that.”</b></span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Consider the expression “TrumpWorld.” It is an accurate description. The goal of Trump and his allies is to colonize society and the media 24/7. To achieve that goal, they need attention and to<b> get inside people’s heads. This is TrumpWorld. Authoritarian leaders also present themselves as victims of coups or other attacks by their enemies. This makes them look vulnerable. These types of leaders talk about emotion in their speeches. Trump does this. He’s always talking about “love” and “hate,” relative to his friends, enemies and rivals. This makes Trump’s followers bond to him because they feel very emotional and want to take care of their leade</b>r. This is a very successful strategy by authoritarian leaders like Donald Trump.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Part of the power of the Trump cult is how he promises to be their savior, protector, friend and father figure. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">It is no accident that during the impeachment process Donald Trump has said that he is going to stay in office for 28 years. Of course, that is not physiologically possible. But what matters is the fantasy, because Trump is terrified right now. Leaders of that type create fortresses around themselves in a million ways. They do this with flatterers, lackeys and family. Authoritarian leaders like Trump do not want to hear any criticism. They also want and need total control over people because that settles the anxiety.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump does this in other ways as well. He does not have permanent appointees. This means they do not have to be confirmed by the Senate. Authoritarian leaders are actually terrified and brittle people inside. That is why they retreat inward. Donald Trump will not take any real questions from the news media. The authoritarian leader’s ego will not permit any questions, and the longer they stay in charge the worse it gets for a country because they lose all sense of reality.</span> Leaders like Donald Trump make bad decisions, such as starting wars. One of the things that scares me the most is that Donald Trump is extremely destructive. Authoritarian leaders like Donald Trump delight in being destructive. Sometimes such people are also self-destructive.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">How does authoritarianism impact people’s sense of time and history?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Part of the experience is the anxiety of the minute. <b>Twitter </b>facilitates this because it is not just how many people check the news, but also journalists drip out news stories in the form of small tweets.<b> This is not just one presentation of a story and the facts. It is not like reading the front page of a newspaper and getting the whole narrative at once.</b> Twitter is a filter for information and experience that is constantly changing. People lose perspective on what is important and what is not.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Our capacity for discernment goes down and our anxiety goes up. Everything is made to feel urgent</b>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Yet the more time people spend on Twitter the less time they are doing anything about Donald Trump and the crisis</span>.<b> Twitter is just an example of this problem. But it is the prime example because it is an unhelpful mechanism psychologically, emotionally and politically because it’s like a mass venting session without much real world impact.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">How should we understand the ways that Trump and his movement conflate their love for him with loyalty to the country and what it means to be a “real American”? </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The civil service has been purged and ruined under the Trump administration. The civil service makes government work. The State Department is a particularly sad example. </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Career civil servants have been purged because of ideological tests. This can take the form of leader loyalty — which is an ideology of loyalty. It could mean Trump removing experts who know that climate change is real. Civil rights as well. For example, <b>The Department of Health and Human Services under Trump now has a “civil rights office” devoted to the “rights” of right-wing Christian evangelicals who believe their freedom is violated by doctors who agree to perform abortions</b>. The state has been hollowed out. Expertise is gone and ideology rules. The state, the government bureaucracy and civil service are now just a vehicle for the authoritarian leader’s goals.</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The end goal is for Trump, Barr, the Republican Party and the conservative movement more generally is to have their own secret police. I keep returning to the question of civil disobedience, protest and corporeal politics as a response to this threat to democracy. Are the American people just cowardly? Have they already surrendered? Is the news media just afraid of the truth? Calm my nerves — or not — about the Trump’s regime’s plans to have political police and other enforcers.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">This brings up the question of madness versus method. One of the objections that gets leveled at people who offer these types of analyses about Trump and authoritarianism is, “No, Trump’s just impulsive.” He’s not mentally ill. He may have some dementia, but he knows exactly what he’s doing. Trump’s spokespeople have been very clear that Trump wants his own intelligence and security services.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Such goals are part of the counterrevolution that has been slowly chipping away at democratic institutions, norms and laws under Trump and the Republican Party. Trump is going after the country’s trust in the FBI and intelligence services. All the relevant structures of government that could obstruct what Trump wants to do are being chipped away. What Trump has been doing up to this point is not at all an accident in that regard.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>It takes a lot of time to prepare the public for such an outcome. It requires information and psychological warfare. Trump is very expert in those areas. Chip away at reality and objectivity, and then the public is ready for full-on authoritarian rule. The Nazis knew this very well. </b>The public must be shaped and prepared. This is what Goebbels excelled at. The Russians excel at it. Once the public is shaped and prepared, the authoritarian regime can do what it wants.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">What is the Trump regime preparing the American people for?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Not only Trump, but many other people around him, including Republican elected officials, have been speaking like authoritarian thugs. They say things such as, “Hillary Clinton needs to be executed.” That is how fascists speak. Making such threats is a type of trial balloon. If Trump wins in 2020, those trial balloons of fascist threats will be able to be made real. Even with all the horrible things that Trump has said and done, his popularity remains stable. Trump’s followers have not deserted him. The 2020 presidential election is almost a referendum and a mandate for Donald Trump to finally do what he’s been threatening to do all along.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">What were some moments when the rise of Trumpism, and what feels like a type of inevitability and path dependency, could have been stopped?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">This is called “gatekeeping.” Authoritarian leaders and their movements are very clear about being violent. Authoritarians always tell you what they are going to do. It’s just that the American people are not ready to hear it. We do not want to hear the truth that Donald Trump is not kidding with his violent threats and promises. When Trump would not release his tax returns, that was a damning signal of how imperiled America is and was. When Trump said he could shoot someone on the street without losing any followers, that was another moment where I knew we were stuck on a very dangerous path. No American presidential candidate in modern history has threatened to murder someone as part of his campaign. Such behavior is what political thugs do.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">The Republican Party’s leaders and other influential voices could have prevented the corruption of the system by this violent outsider. That was one path. The other path was and is to accept Donald Trump fully and claim he’s your savior sent from God. That is the path America is now on.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">What comes next with Donald Trump in 2020 and the presidential election?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>Exacerbation of the polarization. The goal is to leave people so confused about the truth that they are more and more dependent on Trump while also being increasingly disaffected. Trump may capitalize on some horrible event happening to the United States. </b>Donald Trump has made some very scary declarations that the way to unite a country is through some catastrophe. Trump says that he hopes such a horrible thing does not happen but that is the way a leader can unite the county. Donald Trump has stripped anti-terrorism programs of their resources. He has defunded many national security programs that combat terrorism. If a calamity took place, Donald Trump would use it to declare martial law or some type of ongoing national emergency.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Chauncey DeVega is a politics staff writer for Salon. His essays can also be found at Chaunceydevega.com. He also hosts a weekly podcast, The Chauncey DeVega Show. Chauncey can be followed on Twitter and Facebook.</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/reporters-should-stop-treating-trump-and-his-advisors-as-credible-sources/" rel="bookmark" title="Reporters should stop treating Trump and his advisors as credible sources" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.4; display: block;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight"><font face="Times New Roman">Reporters should stop treating Trump and his advisors as credible sources</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">see for pol</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trump-has-never-been-anti-war-if-you-understand-the-history-of-gop-foreign-policy-hes-always-been-just-another-republican/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trump-has-never-been-anti-war-if-you-understand-the-history-of-gop-foreign-policy-hes-always-been-just-another-republican/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">...Having said that, there is still a crucial difference between our isolationist and interventionist eras — as well as a way of understanding how Donald Trump, for all his efforts to depicting himself as something new on the foreign policy scene, is just a continuation of the status quo that has existed for the last century or so.</font></div><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 17px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">1. Republican foreign policy was isolationist from the party’s founding through the 1890s...</font></strong></p><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">guts NEPA xl</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-environment-infrastructure-review-2644664081.html"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-environment-infrastructure-review-2644664081.html</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-environment-infrastructure-review-2644664081.html" style="%22opacity:1%3Bfill:%2315a5ea%3B%22" data:image="data:image" svg="svg" xml="xml" csvg="Csvg" height="%2213%22" width="%2213%22" version="%221.1%22" cg="Cg" transform="%22translate%28-36.467808%2C-258.39005%29%22%3E" cpath="Cpath" d="%22m40.55%2C263.9c0-0.6213%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C1.864%2C0.6213%2C3.107%2C1.864%2C3.728%2C3.728%2C0%2C0%2C0%2C0.6213-0.6213%2C0.6213-1.243-1.864-1.864-2.485-3.728-3.728z%22/%3E" c="C" g="g" e="E" background-position="background-position" right="right" center="center" background-size="background-size" initial="initial" background-repeat="background-repeat" no-repeat="no-repeat" repeat="repeat" background-attachment="background-attachment" background-origin="background-origin" background-clip="background-clip" padding-right="padding-right" px="px" font-size="font-size" xmlns="%22http://www.w3.org/2000/svg%22" xmlns:cc="%22http://creativecommons.org/ns%23%22" xmlns:data="data" xmlns:dc="%22http://purl.org/dc/elements/1.1/%22%3E" xmlns:rdf="%22http://www.w3.org/1999/02/22-rdf-syntax-ns%23%22">'No Other President Has Had the Gall': Environmental Groups Balk as Trump Proposes Major Rollback of Infrastructure Review Process</a> 1/20.</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">1/9/20 NEPA rollback</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">omfg</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.democracynow.org/2020/1/10/headlines/trump_seeks_to_exempt_large_projects_from_some_environmental_review"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.democracynow.org/2020/1/10/headlines/trump_seeks_to_exempt_large_projects_from_some_environmental_review</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px"><font face="Times New Roman"> Trump is proposing changing the nation’s oldest environmental law to exempt large infrastructure projects, such as pipelines and power plants, from environmental review. If enacted, the changes would exempt agencies from considering the cumulative environmental impacts of projects, which could include studying the climate crisis.</font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman">sort of a ctr-eg of his gener'l MO to stay general, frosh-esque BS/guessing :many ppl are saying, we are looking into...</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman">or maybe b/c called on BS/lack of evidence, they make it up?</font></div><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/the-evolution-of-a-trump-lie-how-we-got-from-imminent-attack-to-four-embassies-in-9-fact-free-steps/" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; outline: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/the-evolution-of-a-trump-lie-how-we-got-from-imminent-attack-to-four-embassies-in-9-fact-free-steps/</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The evolution of a Trump lie: How we got from ‘imminent attack’ to ‘four embassies’ in 9 fact-free steps</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Mark Sumner / Daily Kos January 12, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Sometimes deception generates a “tangled web,” other times just a hilarious mess. But Donald Trump’s war-triggering assassination and post-drone strike rationalizations show two things: one is how clumsily Trump shifts his lies from day to day, the other is how Mike Pompeo and Fox News hurry along in Trump’s wake, trying to paper over irrational statements with a thin veneer of claims that all fall apart on even the most cursory examination.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">This isn’t even how a little lie spawned a big one. This lie started big and it stayed that way. The only thing that really grew was how obviously Pompeo and others were willing to throw away any pretense of integrity to make it seem that Trump had a passing grasp on the facts. By week’s end, America got to see how Pompeo’s I-can’t-help-smirking-when-I-lie grin had grown larger than the Joker’s.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">1) Donald Trump was not supposed to assassinate Qassem Soleimani. Military planners presented it to Trump as the “far out” option under the silly assumption he would take a more reasoned approach.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>2) What those planners weren’t considering wasn’t just Trump’s disdain for reason, but his need to make a big gesture toward Iran to secure the support of Republican senators in his upcoming impeachment trial.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">3) So the mission went forward, with a pretense of “improving safety,” even though killing the Iranian general made the situation across the whole Middle East immediately, and obviously less secure.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">4) After initially stating that Soleimani was calling back to Tehran for authorization on a plan that threatened hundreds of Americans, Mike Pompeo continually shifted the target and tried to confuse “imminent attack” with retribution for things that were already past.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">5) When Congress finally got a chance to be briefed on the so-called intelligence behind the attack, even Republicans were shocked at the inability of the White House to produce anything to support their actions in the <b>“worst briefing ever”.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">6) Then, days after the attack and stinging from complaints by Republicans in House and Senate, Trump dropped [as in animal droppings] the idea that<b> Soleimani had been plotting “to blow up the U.S. embassy” into an interview, while providing absolutely no evidence</b>.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">7) With that new claim on the board, Pompeo hurried to not only try to support Trump’s claim by giving a long list of possible targets, including “embassies,” but flat-out lied by saying Congress had been told about the embassy threat in the briefing — which was quickly contradicted by those in attendance.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>8) Trump expanded on his freshly-generated claim</b> at his rally, telling those in attendance that “Soleimani was … looking very seriously at our embassies, and not just the embassy in Baghdad,” forcing Pompeo to ramp up his lies to match Trump’s latest claims.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">9) Trump reaches into his bag of nonsense to come up with the idea that s<b>pecifically four embassies were under threat by Soleimani.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Your move, Pompeo. And it goes without saying that, at every step along the line, Fox News has been not just cheering on Trump’s latest claim, but out in front, making suggestions that Trump is underplaying the real threat and that only more attacks can bring peace.</font></div></div><div><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman"> =</font></p></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">ref 1</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b><font face="Times New Roman">The <span times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large" font-style="font-style" inherit="inherit" font-variant-ligatures="font-variant-ligatures" font-variant-caps="font-variant-caps" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" em="em">Christianization of U.S. Foreign Policy</span></font></b></div><div class="article-title" data-reactid="119" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><h2 class="article-subhead" data-reactid="122" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0.87em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 400; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.45; vertical-align: baseline;"><span data-reactid="123" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="Times New Roman">Behind President Trump's Twitter theatrics, there's a growing theme to American diplomacy.</font></span></h2></div><div class="article-meta" data-reactid="124" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><font face="Times New Roman" /><h3 class="article-byline" data-reactid="125" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.4em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; 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class="author-list author-list-all author-list-inline" data-reactid="126" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New 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face="Times New Roman" /><font face="Times New Roman" /><font face="Times New Roman" /><font face="Times New Roman" /><font face="Times New Roman" /><span data-reactid="127" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">By </span><span class="author-list-item" data-reactid="128" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" /><a class="author-kathryn-joyce author-link" itemprop="author" title="Kathryn Joyce" href="https://newrepublic.com/authors/kathryn-joyce" data-reactid="129" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: 700; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; text-transform: uppercase;">KATHRYN JOYCE</a><span class="author-list-comma" data-reactid="130" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" /></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div></h3><h5 class="article-date" data-reactid="131" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 1em; padding: 0px 0px 0px 1em; border-width: 0px 0px 0px 1px; border-top-style: initial; border-right-style: initial; border-bottom-style: initial; border-left-style: solid; border-top-color: initial; border-right-color: initial; border-bottom-color: initial; border-left-color: rgb(215, 210, 204); border-image: initial; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline-block;"><time property="dc:date dc:created" itemprop="datePublished" content="2019-03-25" datetime="2019-03-25" data-reactid="132" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">March 25, 2019</time></h5></div><div class="article-meta" data-reactid="124" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; position: relative; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/153387/christianization-us-foreign-policy"><font face="Times New Roman">https://newrepublic.com/article/153387/christianization-us-foreign-policy</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Last <span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em;"> </span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em;">Thursday, Donald Trump</span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em;"> </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/us/politics/golan-heights-trump.html" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">announced</a><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em;">, via Twitter, a radical shift in foreign policy, saying it was time to recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the occupied territory of Golan Heights, seized from Syria in 1981. As international headlines quickly pointed out, the tweet contradicted both international law and a UN resolution; seemed a transparent gift to embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, just weeks before he faces re-election amid a corruption scandal; and cheered Israeli conservatives hoping to have Israeli control of the West Bank recognized as well. Upon hearing the news, NBC</span><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em;"> </span><a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/trump-lends-helping-hand-netanyahu-campaign-trail-n986046?cid=sm_npd_ms_tw_bw" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">reported</a><span style="font-style: inherit; font-variant-ligatures: inherit; font-variant-caps: inherit; font-weight: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em;">, Netanyahu hugged U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was visiting Israel as part of a five-day tour of the Middle East. Less discussed was the way in which the tweet capped off a week showcasing the Trump administration’s favored relationship with American evangelicals.</span></font></div><div class="article-text-wrap" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1160px; max-width: 1160px; letter-spacing: -0.1px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="article-text-grid" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px -10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><aside id="recirc-0" class="recirc-most-popular pull-right pull-small" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 98.3281px 20px 10px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; 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text-decoration-line: none; background-image: none; background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; display: block;"><span class="article-recirc-link-text" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; pointer-events: none;"><font face="Times New Roman">America Has Never Cared About Sacred Sites</font></span></a></li></ol></div></aside><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><font face="Times New Roman">The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN), among Pompeo’s traveling press team, sat down with the secretary in Jerusalem, and breathlessly <a href="http://www1.cbn.com/cbnnews/israel/2019/march/exclusive-secretary-of-state-pompeo-to-news-god-raised-up-trump-like-he-raised-up-queen-esther" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">reported</a> something quite different from the mainstream press’s legalistic coverage: that Trump might just be “a modern-day Esther, poised to defend Israel and save the Jewish people.”<span style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" /></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><font face="Times New Roman">To convince U.S. evangelicals to overlook Trump’s personal failings, the president has previously been compared to Persian King Cyrus, a nonbeliever in the Bible who nonetheless became an instrument for fulfilling God’s will, conquering Babylon and allowing Jews to return to Israel. The comparison has also resonated elsewhere: Last March, an Israeli organization <a href="https://www.vox.com/identities/2018/3/5/16796892/trump-cyrus-christian-right-bible-cbn-evangelical-propaganda" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">minted</a> a coin pairing images of Cyrus and Trump, while Netanyahu underscored the comparison in a Washington, D.C., speech thanking Trump for moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem.<span style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" /></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><font face="Times New Roman">Pompeo’s statement elevated the stakes, referring to the biblical story of Queen Esther, who used her beauty and wiles to prevent a massacre of Persian Jews—a feat commemorated in the annual Jewish holiday of Purim, also celebrated last Thursday. Netanyahu, too, declared Trump’s tweet “a miracle of Purim.”<span style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" /></font></p></div></div><div class="full-width inserted-dfp ad-container-0" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px calc(-50vw + 50%); padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 100vw; max-width: none; clear: both; letter-spacing: -0.1px;"><div class="article-text-wrap" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1160px; max-width: 1160px; letter-spacing: -0.1px;"><div class="article-text-grid" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px -10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Republicans have ventured the comparison before, with both <a href="https://prospect.org/article/sarah-palin-anointed" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">Sarah Palin</a> and <a href="https://therevealer.org/god-save-the-queen/" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">George W. Bush</a>. The story of Esther, journalist Sarah Posner has <a href="https://prospect.org/article/pastor-strangelove" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">observed</a>, has long been used by<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> Christian Zionists—evangelicals who believe the return of Christ depends on an apocalyptic scenario in which Jews return to Israel, and convert to Christianity—to argue for an invasion of Iran.</span></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; font-style: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">For Trump, it’s a particularly audacious comparison. “Esther’s story is that of a young Jewish woman in the ‘harem’ of the Persian king, and through her wit, grace, and charm ends up as queen—and able to avert the bloodlust of an antisemitic minister,” Steven Gardiner, an anthropologist and senior research analyst at Political Research Associates, wrote to me via email. “In other words, Esther was a woman placed in the terrifying and untenable position of sexual servitude, but nonetheless managed to save her people. No one less resembles that position than Donald Trump.</font></p><div class="article-body" itemprop="articleBody" data-reactid="138" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: normal;"><div class="sidebar-and-content-body" data-reactid="139" style="font-style: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; display: inherit; position: relative; width: 1160px; max-width: 1160px;"><div class="content-body" data-reactid="146" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="article-text-wrap" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1160px; max-width: 1160px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="article-text-grid" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px -10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><font face="Times New Roman">Much ink has already been spilled over the bargain Christian leaders in the United States made regarding Trump, backing a candidate with a highly questionable personal life in exchange for Supreme Court seats. Less noticed is how the Trump administration, particularly when it comes to foreign policy under the deeply religious supervision of Mike Pompeo and Vice President Mike Pence, continually pitches itself to the Christian Right.</font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><font face="Times New Roman">Last Monday, just before his departure to the Middle East, Secretary Pompeo held a press call about international religious freedom. Domestically, the Trump administration has chiefly interpreted religious freedom as a matter of exemptions to laws protecting LGBTQ people and women’s healthcare, or efforts to lift restrictions on churches’ political campaigning. Internationally, religious freedom has meant a laser-like focus on Christian persecution, with scant attention to the plight of any other religious minorities: The October <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/pastor-andrew-brunson-meets-trump-after-release-detention-turkey-n919811" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">release</a> of North Carolina pastor Andrew Brunson, detained for two years in Turkey on terrorism charges, was one high-profile victory.</font></p></div></div><div class="full-width inserted-dfp ad-container-0" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px calc(-50vw + 50%); padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 100vw; max-width: none; clear: both;"><div class="article-text-wrap" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1160px; max-width: 1160px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="article-text-grid" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px -10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">M</span><b>onday’s call excluded the entire State Department press corps, restricting participation to a small group of “faith-based” media outlets</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">. When an invitation was accidentally sent to a member of the mainstream press and then rescinded, bringing the exclusive briefing </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/18/politics/state-department-faith-outlets-briefing/index.html" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">to light</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;">, the department doubled down, refusing to provide a transcript of the call or a list of its participants, and arguing that, as a roundtable discussion targeted at “audience-specific media,” it wasn’t subject to normal transparency practices.</span></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><font face="Times New Roman">Journalists as well as former State Department spokesperson John Kirby were appalled. “These officials are public servants,” Kirby <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2019/03/18/politics/state-department-faith-outlets-briefing/index.html" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">told</a> CNN. “What they say—in its entirety—is inherently of public interest.” Particularly, he added, on a topic as “universally relevant as religious freedom in the Middle East.”<span style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;" /></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><font face="Times New Roman">One of the media organizations on the call, <a href="https://religionnews.com/2019/03/19/pompeo-all-faiths-will-have-something-to-say-on-forthcoming-peace-plan/" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">Religion News Service</a> (not itself a faith-based publication, but a secular outlet that covers the religion beat), reported a partial list of other participants, including the Jewish wire service Jewish Telegraphic Agency; the center-right Jewish magazine <i style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">Algemeiner</i>; the evangelical <i style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">World Magazine</i>; and two Catholic publications, <i style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">America </i>magazine and the newspaper of the Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City.</font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><font face="Times New Roman">Notably missing from this line-up were any Muslim media organizations, remarkable given the call’s reported inclusion of the administration’s soon-to-be-released Israel-Palestine peace plan.</font></p></div></div><div class="full-width inserted-dfp ad-container-0" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px calc(-50vw + 50%); padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 100vw; max-width: none; clear: both;"><div class="article-text-wrap" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1160px; max-width: 1160px;"><div class="article-text-grid" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px -10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><hr class="section-break" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; letter-spacing: -0.005em; margin-top: 1.5em; margin-bottom: 1.5em; line-height: 1.55; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; height: 1em; border: 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Monday’s call wasn’t the first time that Pompeo’s department has privileged faith-based media over mainstream reporters. Last July, just ahead of the department’s first-ever “</span><a href="https://www.christianpost.com/news/first-ever-state-department-ministerial-on-religious-freedom-more-than-talk-pompeo.html" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">ministerial for international religious freedom</a><span style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">,” as </span><i style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">New York Times</i><span style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> religion reporter Elizabeth Dias </span><a href="https://twitter.com/elizabethjdias/status/1020326909404696576" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">noted</a><span style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> on Twitter, Pompeo had sit-down interviews with four evangelical news outlets, including the </span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN),</b><span style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">before a press conference call where evangelical publications </span><i style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">World Magazine</i><span style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> and </span><i style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Christianity Today</i><span style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> were picked first for questions, and mainstream newspapers, including </span><i style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The New York Times</i><span style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> and </span><i style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Washington Post</i><span style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, were only invited to pose questions at the end of the call</span><span style="font-weight: inherit;">. And evangelical figures have also had enhanced access to policy decisions. In early March, the administration hosted a meeting with evangelical leaders—including prominent (and deeply </span><a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/13/politics/hagee-jeffress-us-embassy-jerusalem/index.html" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">controversial</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;">) Christian Zionist leaders like Pastor John Hagee—to “hear any concerns and red lines” they might have on a potential Israeli-Palestinian peace plan, </span><a href="https://www.axios.com/trump-kushner-middle-east-peace-plan-evangelicals-5337c4f7-0f91-489c-baad-7799f63baed7.html" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">according</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> to an Axios source, and to reassure them that any plan would protect Israeli interests.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>CBN</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;">’s sit-down with Mike Pompeo was only the latest episode in the network’s close relationship with the Trump administration—one that, as Al Jazeera </span><a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/programmes/listeningpost/2018/11/chosen-trump-christian-broadcasting-network-181103072226078.html" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">argued</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> last fall, is just as mutually beneficial as the better-known link to Fox & Friends, but is often overlooked as a part of the administration’s effective state media because of the niche audience it targets. CBN’s audience, and its interests, both help explain the administration’s policy moves and may exert influence on them, appealing to a president known for being easily swayed by flattery.</span></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><font style="" face="Times New Roman"><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">CBN’s stated mission is to ready the U.S. “for the coming of Jesus Christ.</b><span style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">” To that end, it focuses heavily on Middle East issues.</span><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> It airs the weekly program Jerusalem Dateline, and regularly features guests like Joel Rosenberg, the author of a series of Middle East-set evangelical apocalyptic or political thriller novels and </span><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/26/magazine/mike-pompeo-translates-trump.html" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">a member of Pompeo’s inner circle</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">, who has helped broker interviews between the Secretary and the network. Earlier this month, Rosenberg </span><a href="http://www1.cbn.com/video/I7C031319_JoelRosenberg/author-rosenberg-previews-the-persian-gamble" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">appeared</a><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> on CBN to discuss his latest work of</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">fiction, <i style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">The Persian Gamble,</i> which posits that Iran used U.S. money to buy North Korean nukes. Rosenberg said he’d recently explained the book’s plot to </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">President Trump.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> “How do you know that’s not happening already?” Trump apparently replied.</span></b><span style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></font></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The steady undercurrent to CBN’s focus is the Christian Zionist conviction that the return of Christ depends on a specific scenario involving the return of Jews to Israel. <span style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;">It’s a belief that Pompeo seems to share, having </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/11/trump-administration-evangelical-influence-support" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">told</a><span style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"> a Kansas church audience in 2015 to keep fighting “until the rapture.”</span></b></font></p></div></div><div class="full-width inserted-dfp ad-container-0" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0px 0px calc(-50vw + 50%); padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 100vw; max-width: none; clear: both; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="article-text-wrap" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1160px; max-width: 1160px;"><div class="article-text-grid" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px -10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline;"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: inherit;">Even amid an administration stacked with evangelical staffers and </span><a href="https://www.au.org/church-state/october-2018-church-state/cover-story/all-the-presidents-men-and-women-members-of" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">advisors</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;">, Pompeo stands out. As former CIA director he described the “</span><b>war on terror” as a <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/11/23/mike-pompeo-religious-war/" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">holy war</a> and <a href="https://www.aclu.org/blog/religious-liberty/free-exercise-religion/senators-must-hold-mike-pompeo-accountable-his" target="blank" rel="nofollow" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">said</a> the U.S. “worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.”</b><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> He now readily </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jan/11/trump-administration-evangelical-influence-support" target="_blank" rel="nofollow" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration-line: none; background-image: linear-gradient(0deg, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 49%, rgb(0, 0, 0) 50%, rgb(0, 0, 0)); background-size: 2px 2px; background-repeat: repeat-x; background-position: 0px 97.5%; text-shadow: rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.03em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.05em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) 0.09em 0px, rgb(255, 255, 255) -0.075em 0px;">tells</a><span style="font-weight: inherit;"> audiences about how he keeps a Bible open on his State Department desk to remind him of God’s truth. One of the driving motivators of Pompeo’s State Department increasingly seems to be what Gardiner calls “well-documented beliefs in the prophetic necessity of the establishment of a ‘Greater Israel’ in order to usher in the End Times”—hardly a stabilizing central principle in an era of nuclear risk. Meanwhile, holding “separate interviews with religious broadcasters,” Gardiner pointed out, means “reaching the white evangelicals who are the single most unwavering part of the voting base of an embattled president.”</span></font></p><p style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 1.5em 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-variant: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.55; vertical-align: baseline; letter-spacing: -0.005em; text-rendering: optimizelegibility; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><font face="Times New Roman">It’s easy to get distracted by the secular spectacle of Trump’s manic Twitter feed, filled with arbitrary bits of outrage or lavish praise, depending on whichever leader has flattered him lately. But as last week showed, better than others, there’s a more disciplined administrative force at work behind the scenes, crafting an intensely ideological foreign policy.</font></p></div></div></div></div></div><footer class="article-footer-wrap" data-reactid="147" style="font-weight: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px auto 3rem; padding: 0px; border: 0px; font-variant-numeric: inherit; font-variant-east-asian: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; width: 1160px; clear: both; max-width: 1160px; letter-spacing: normal; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="article-author-bio" data-reactid="148" style="font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px -10px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: flex; flex-flow: row wrap;"><div class="bio-body" data-reactid="149" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 1.5em 0px 0px 196.656px; padding: 0px 10px; border: 0px; font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: 1.4; vertical-align: baseline; flex: 0 0 66.6667%; flex-direction: column; width: 786.656px; max-width: 66.6667%;"><div class="bio-text" data-reactid="150" style="font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline;"><p style="font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px 0.7em 0px 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; display: inline;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-style: inherit;">Kathryn Joyce is a contributing editor at</span> <span style="font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The New Republic </span>and author of<span style="font-variant: inherit; font-weight: inherit; font-stretch: inherit; line-height: inherit; box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"> The Child Catchers: Rescue, Trafficking and the New Gospel of Adoption</span></font></p></div></div></div></footer></div></div><div style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="font-weight: inherit; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="mag-header" style="font-style: inherit; box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 19px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; letter-spacing: 1px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trump-privately-admits-he-killed-suleimani-under-pressure-from-upcoming-impeachment-trial-report/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump privately admits he killed Suleimani ‘under pressure’ from upcoming impeachment trial: report</font></a></h3><div class="grid-post-box-meta mag-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 7px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/igor-derysh/" title="Posts by Igor Derysh" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Igor Derysh</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/salon/" title="Posts by Salon " class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Salon</a></font></span></div></div><div class="mag-excerpt entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.5;"><font face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump privately told associates that his upcoming impeachment trial factored heavily into his decision to kill top Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, The Wall Street Journal reports. “Trump, after the…</font></p></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trump-assassinated-soleimani-to-gain-favor-with-key-gop-senators-vital-to-supporting-him-during-impeachment-trial-wsj/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trump-assassinated-soleimani-to-gain-favor-with-key-gop-senators-vital-to-supporting-him-during-impeachment-trial-wsj/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump assassinated Soleimani to gain favor with key GOP senators vital to supporting him during impeachment trial: WSJ</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Written by David Badash / The New Civil Rights Movement January 10, 2020</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">It has long been said that President Trump only acts in his own self-interest, not the nation’s. And while in recent days President Trump has described the Iranian general he assassinated, Qasem Soleimani, as a “sadistic mass murderer,” and lambasted his predecessors for not having killed him earlier, the truth is few Americans had ever heard of Soleimani before his death, and not once had Trump, at least publicly, ever mentioned his name.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">So why was he assassinated, and why now?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The administration and President Trump on and off have claimed there was an “imminent threat” of an attack against the U.S. personnel or U.S. Armed Forces. Vice President Mike Pence on Thursday insisted any evidence to support that claim is far too sensitive to share, even with top members of Congress, sworn to secrecy, in a classified briefing.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Numerous reports put Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, an end-times Christian extremist who believes the Middle East is a hotbed of Biblical proportions, as the driving force behind the killing of Soleimani.</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“We will continue to fight these battles,” Pompeo said in 2015, insisting there is a “never-ending struggle” until “the rapture.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">But like all things Trump, it boils down to self-protection and self-interest.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The Wall Street Journal published a deep dive Thursday night, headlined, “Trump’s New National Security Team Made Fast Work of Iran Strike.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>And buried in the center of the article, dozens of paragraphs in, is the devastating revelation that President Trump ordered the assassination of a top Iranian general to gain favor with key Republicans whose support is vital to winning his impeachment trial:</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Mr. Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial in the Senate, associates said.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Some have just started to weigh in on the grotesque news.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Michelangelo Signorile</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">@MSignorile</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Let’s be clear re: this WSJ story:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump assassinated Soleimani based on no imminent threat to please GOP Senators who were pressuring him & who he needed re: impeachment.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Terribly corrupt and, well, impeachable. https://twitter.com/JoeSudbay/status/1215636962079657984 …</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Joe Sudbay</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">@JoeSudbay</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">So, yeah, it was about impeachment --> "Trump, after the strike, told associates he was under pressure to deal with Gen. Soleimani from GOP senators he views as important supporters in his coming impeachment trial in the Senate, associates said" https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-new-national-security-team-made-fast-work-of-iran-strike-11578619195 … via @WSJ</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Dennis Mersereau</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">@wxdam</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">It takes until the 29th paragraph in this story to mention that Trump told people his looming impeachment trial was a factor in his greenlighting the strike against Soleimani.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"> https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-new-national-security-team-made-fast-work-of-iran-strike-11578619195 …</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump’s New National Security Team Made Fast Work of Iran Strike</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">White House advisers were cohesive and less inclined than their predecessors to push back against the president’s wishes. They also were less likely to consult in advance with others, including...</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">wsj.com</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="font-family: " times="Times" new="New" roman="Roman" font-size="font-size" large="large"><font face="Times New Roman">ets</font></span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Eric Columbus</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">@EricColumbus</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">And there it is. https://www.wsj.com/articles/trumps-new-national-security-team-made-fast-work-of-iran-strike-11578619195 …</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">ref see xian above</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/01/07/pompeo-aligns-u-s-foreign-policy-with-the-christian-zionists/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://washingtonmonthly.com/2020/01/07/pompeo-aligns-u-s-foreign-policy-with-the-christian-zionists/</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/heres-how-trump-weaponizes-crackpot-ideas-to-maintain-a-firm-grip-on-his-maga-base"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/heres-how-trump-weaponizes-crackpot-ideas-to-maintain-a-firm-grip-on-his-maga-base</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Here’s how Trump weaponizes crackpot ideas to maintain a firm grip on his MAGA base</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Alex Henderson January 10, 2020</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>If President Donald Trump is reelected in November, it won’t be because the majority of Americans share his views, but because of his ability to fire up his MAGA base, whip them into a frenzy, address their grievances and get them to the polls in large numbers</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. Trump, journalist Michael Kruse explains in a Politico article headlined “Trump’s Art of the Seal,” knows and understands his audience — and one of the things that has kept that audience excited is his ability to take fringe ideas, get them discussed in mainstream venues and weaponize them.</span></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Trump has inspired widespread discussion of crackpot conspiracy theories ranging from birtherism (the racist claim that President Barack Obama was really born in Kenya instead of the U.S.) to the CrowdStrike theory — a belief that it was Ukraine, not Russia, that interfered in the 2016 presidential election. It was Trump’s pursuit of the CrowdStrike theory, Kruse explains, that led to him being impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives.</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">During President Barack Obama’s first term, Kruse explains, Trump’s “proto-political operation was essentially a two-man team” consisting of veteran GOP operative </span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);">Roger Stone and his protégé Sam Nunberg</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">.</span></b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“One of Nunberg’s self-appointed tasks was to help Trump understand what the masses on the right really wanted, and one way he did that was by listening to </font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Mark</font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 153, 0);" face="Times New Roman">Levin’</font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">s increasingly popular radio show</font><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">,” Kruse recalls. “The people who were tuning in most intently to Levin, Nunberg thought, were the people most likely to vote for Trump if he launched an actual bid.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Nunberg, according to Kruse, helped Trump realize that the far-right Tea Party movement was as angry at the GOP establishment as it was at Democrats.</b></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>“The Tea Party, in the estimation of Levin and his listeners, didn’t start as a reaction to the liberal outrages of President Barack Obama — it started as a reaction to what they viewed as the inconsistently hardline conservative policies of President George W. Bush,” Kruse observes. “Amnesty for immigrants, for instance? An absolute no-go.”</b></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">As Trump’s movement grew, Kruse notes, it didn’t do so by appealing to conservative intellectuals.</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“For the better part of the past half-century, Trump, 73, has extracted from an array of similar sources — from the New York Post’s dishy Page Six to the toxicity of Twitter to far-right websites and lowbrow TV — a knack for knowing what people want. Not all people, but many people.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Poll after poll has demonstrated that Trump is unpopular with the majority of Americans. But among his hardcore MAGA base, he is still quite popular. And Kruse wraps up his Politico article by describing the stranglehold Trump maintains on the Republican Party in 2020.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“If Trump began his political ascent as a follower — cannily co-opting ideas that resonated with a certain segment of the electorate — in doing so, he clearly has proceeded to forge a following of his own,” Kruse explains. “He has become a leader of those who are willing to be led in this way, solidifying lockstep support from the agenda-setting base of his party as well as its kingpins and figureheads, who parrot him the way he once did Levin.”</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">ref</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><a href="https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/01/10/donald-trump-art-of-the-steal-096841"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2020/01/10/donald-trump-art-of-the-steal-096841</font></a></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">POLITICO</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx many</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump’s Art of the Steal</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">How Donald Trump rode to power by parroting other people’s fringe ideas, got himself impeached for it—and might prevail anyway.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">By MICHAEL KRUSE</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">01/10/2020 05:09 AM EST</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Michael Kruse is a senior staff writer for POLITICO.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Sometime soon, Donald Trump, the third president in the history of the United States to be impeached, is expected to face a trial in the Senate, charged with abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Traced back to its roots, this is a crisis entirely of his own creation: He came across a sketchy scrap of information, a debunked piece of Russian propaganda relating to Ukraine, and he saw it as something he could use, to help himself and to hurt an opponent. He latched onto it, pumped it up, and passed it along.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Anyone wondering how the president could make this kind of mistake has missed something important about Trump’s rise. For as long as he has been in politics—in fact, for longer—he has been a ruthlessly effective practitioner of the art of parroting others’ most provocative, salacious ideas. “There are a lot of people that think …” “That’s what I heard …” “Some people even say …” His gossipy M.O. was a staple of his campaign, propelling his historic victory, but it also has driven the scandal that has consumed his presidency—“I would like you to find out what happened with this whole situation with Ukraine, they say CrowdStrike,” he said on the now well-known call last July with President Volodymyr Zelensky.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">If what he was referencing sounded kind of like a dodgy talk radio rant, that’s not an accident. It’s a deliberate tactic, one that Trump was developing, and exploiting, from the moment he first seriously started to consider a run for the White House.</font></div><div><b><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>In the early to middle part of the previous decade, Trump’s proto-political operation was essentially a two-man team—there was Roger Stone, now a felon, and there was Stone’s protégé, Sam Nunberg.</b> One of Nunberg’s self-appointed tasks was to help Trump understand what the masses on the right really wanted. And one way he did that was by listening to Mark Levin’s increasingly popular radio show. The people who were tuning in most intently to Levin, Nunberg thought, were the people most likely to vote for Trump if he launched an actual bid. “Donald Trump,” Nunberg told me, meaning his candidacy, meaning his victory, “would never have happened without Mark Levin.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">[Billionaire real estate developer Donald Trump, left, walks to the Federal Courthouse in Newark, N.J., with Roger Stone, the director of Trump's presidential exploratory committee Monday, Oct. 25, 1999, for the swearing-in of Trump's sister as a federal appeals court judge. In a prelude to his possible presidential bid, Trump quit the Republican Party Monday and joined New York's wing of the Reform Party setting the stage for a possible presidential nomination battle with Pat Buchanan.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump, photographed in Oct. 1999, with Roger Stone, the director of his presidential exploratory committee, walking behind him. | AP Photo]</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Nunberg’s frequent emails to Trump, sent via an assistant in Trump’s office and which have not been reported on before, were accounts of the many grievances that animated Levin and his listeners.<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Union members resented union leaders. Republican rank and file loathed Republican elites. The Tea Party, in the estimation of Levin and his listeners, didn’t start as a reaction to the liberal outrages of President Barack Obama—it started as a reaction to what they viewed as the inconsistently hard-line conservative policies of President George W. Bush. Amnesty for immigrants, for instance? An absolute no-go. Trump, Nunberg stressed when we talked, didn’t want to be told what to say, but Nunberg nonetheless made his pitch for him as an insurgent outsider: “</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">This is all marketing and </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">you’re a great product … in a new type of market,”</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> he said he told Trump. “Help me help you sell gold to these people that normally buy gold.”</span></b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump started listening to the show.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“He would call me up sometimes,” Nunberg recalled. “‘Oh, did you just hear what Levin said?’”</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>For the better part of the past half-century, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump, 73, has extracted from an array of similar sources—from the New York Post’s dishy Page Six to the toxicity of Twitter to far-right websites and lowbrow TV—a knack for knowing what people want. </span>Not all people but many people. And not what they say they want, but what they really want. Ostentatious and aspirational glitz. Plain talk to the point of crude talk. Conflict.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Employees, executives, aides and others who’ve known <b>Trump well say he’s not a book-reader so much as a room-reader, “sucking in information that he finds valuable,” grabbing “nuggets” that he thinks can help him get what he covets, which is some slurry of wealth, attention, respect and power. “A creature of feel,”</b>the late strategist Pat Caddell described him to me in the summer of 2018, “a visceral stimulus creature”—who could repackage what he took in and sell it back to the hoi polloi.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">In 2010, for example, he recognized a lightning-rod issue torquing emotions and jumped right in, gleaning buzz for himself with his offer to purchase the site of the so-called “<b>Ground Zero Mosque”—which alerted him to the potential potency of anti-Obama birtherism</b>, which paved the way for his anger-girded, fear-mongering presidential candidacy. <b>Trump is in this way less a thinker and more a megaphone, an amplifier of the ideas of others, the value of those ideas in his mind based not on veracity so much as utility. Which is another way of saying he’s not so much a leader as he is a follower. Perhaps the ultimate follower. Trump is the Follower of the Free World.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">[Top: People protest a mosque construction near Ground Zero during a New York City Landmarks Commission vote in 2010. Bottom: A copy of President Barack Obama's long form birth certificate sits on a reporter's lap in the White House Briefing Room on April 27, 2011, after the administration released the document following extended criticism by those who did not believe he was born in the United States.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Top: People protest a mosque construction near Ground Zero during a New York City Landmarks Commission vote in 2010. Bottom: A copy of President Barack Obama's long form birth certificate sits on a reporter's lap in the White House Briefing Room on April 27, 2011, after the administration released the document following extended criticism by those who did not believe he was born in the United States. | Getty Images]</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“Donald was never a CEO. He was a brand manager—you know, how do I appeal to the masses?” former Trump publicist Alan Marcus told me recently. “It’s like Elmer Gantry. It’s the carnival barker. It’s what every pitchman has always done. Tell the people what they want to hear.”</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Taking the information he wants or needs,” former Trump casino exec Jack O’Donnell said.</span></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“Whether it’s true or not,” former Trump Organization exec Barbara Res said.</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Taking it in. Sending it out. Over and over. Again and again.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">This, regardless of whatever else it is or means, is a remarkable and undeniable talent: hoovering others’ ideas, making them his, and in doing <b>so growing a following uniquely his own that far exceeds the size of the even considerable original audience.</b> <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">AMP</span> It’s what got him elected. In some ways, too, it’s what got him impeached.</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“There’s no question,” presidential historian Doug Brinkley told me last week. “He just trolls around and looks for weird stories that grab his attention, and he figures, ‘I know the American psyche, and this’ll grab their attention,’ and he throws it out there.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">But effective as cherrypicking and amplifying the most emotionally and politically useful tidbits has been for Trump throughout his life, it has proved an uneasy fit when practiced from the inside of an office that is supposed to represent the accumulated knowledge and official position of the entire U.S. government. In some sense, the entire impeachment process is a collision between Trump’s magnification of random, unverified rumors and an official regime of fact and process. The outcome will determine more than whether Trump is removed from office. <b>It may well establish a new standard for what our government defines as true.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Speedy with job-site arithmetic but dismissive of academics, whom he considered weak and effete, Fred Trump Sr. of Queens, N.Y., bestowed upon his middle son and eventual heir not just extravagant riches but an anti-elitist, expertise-averse worldview. At New York Military Academy, at Fordham University in the Bronx and then the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, classmates have said, a young Donald Trump was a “disinterested,” skyscraper-doodling student, “loath to really study much,” <b>game to “bluff his way through.”</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">But the fact that he wasn’t a scholar didn’t mean that he was stupid, according to people who worked with or watched him closely over the decades of his professional existence.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">[Donald Trump (L), owner of the New Jersey Generals of the U.S. Football League, said his league’s $1.32 billion antitrust suit against the National Football League will crack “one of the great monopolies in the is country.” At right is his attorney Roy Cohn.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump and his attorney Roy Cohn in October, 1984. | Getty Images]</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“If he’s willing to listen, he’s a quick learner,” Res said.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“A quick study,” biographer Gwenda Blair concurred.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“Donald just absorbs, absorbs, absorbs,” former Trump Organization executive Louise Sunshine said. “He can extract so much information from his awareness of his surroundings and of the world around him.”</font></div><div><b><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></b></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Starting in the 1970s, he learned, of course, how to fight dirty and win from his antagonistic attorney and mentor, Roy Cohn</b>.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>In the ’80s, he learned from Stone</b>, and from watching George Steinbrenner, Ed Koch and Ronald Reagan, too. Steinbrenner, the bombastic owner of the New York Yankees, led as a loner. His secretary frequently could be heard saying, “Mr. Steinbrenner, Trump on line 2”.</span> Koch won three terms as the mayor of New York in part “by playing the kibitzer,” wrote Martin Shefter, “the brash fellow who has an opinion on everything.” The formula for success, Koch thought, was relatively uncomplicated: Get attention to get votes. “And you can only do that,” he once said, “by being bigger than life. It’s theatrics.” Staging news conference after news conference, Koch packed the way he talked with superlatives, “best this” and “best that.” Reporters joked about having to join gyms just to keep up with him. But he seldom left them wanting for material. He called foes “wackos” and “kooks.” He called the city council “a gaggle of clowns.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>Reagan, meanwhile, won the Oval Office in one way not dissimilar to Koch’s path to Gracie Mansion—by winning over blue-collar, disaffected Democrats, who sought “safety” in the face of the changing, increasingly diverse society surrounding them.</b> Reagan spent the decade blurring the lines between politics and entertainment, wondering at times how anybody could be an effective president without having been an actor first.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">For Trump, the “visceral stimulus creature,” Steinbrenner, Koch and Reagan provided daily tutorials of sorts. And while his political affiliations were elastic and his overall ideology embryonic, Trump demonstrated early his acumen for tearing pages from proven playbooks and giving them his own signature twists—with blaring full-page newspaper ads in the late ’80s, criticizing American foreign policy and calling for the death penalty for (the innocent) Central Park Five. <b>AA</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">[Top: At the June 1978 launching ceremony of the new New York Hyatt Hotel/Convention facility that will be built on the site of the former Commodore Hotel are, from left: Donald Trump, Mayor Ed Koch, Gov. Hugh Carey and Robert T. Dormer, executive vice president of the Urban Development Corp. Bottom right: President Reagan shakes hands with Donald Trump at a White House reception for members of the Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies Foundation. Bottom left: New York Yankees manager Billy Martin, standing, meets developer Donald Trump at Municipal Stadium in West Palm Beach in March 1988. Seated with Trump are his son Donald, 10, with a ball given to him by Martin, and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Top: At the June 1978 launching ceremony of the new New York Hyatt Hotel/Convention facility that will be built on the site of the former Commodore Hotel are, from left: Donald Trump, Mayor Ed Koch, Gov. Hugh Carey and Robert T. Dormer, executive vice president of the Urban Development Corp. Bottom right: President Reagan shakes hands with Donald Trump at a White House reception for members of the Friends of Art and Preservation in Embassies Foundation. Bottom left: New York Yankees manager Billy Martin, standing, meets developer Donald Trump at Municipal Stadium in West Palm Beach in March 1988. Seated with Trump are his son Donald, 10, with a ball given to him by Martin, and Yankees owner George Steinbrenner. | AP/Ronald Reagan Presidential Library/Getty]</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>And in the ’90s, Trump learned from watching Ross Perot run for president (and lose) and Jesse Ventura run for governor of Minnesota (and win). “The nutty billionaire and the wrestler,</b>” he called them, according to Stone. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">He watched <b>Newt Gingrich weaponize words</b> in the political arena in a new and virulent manner, labeling Democrats “traitors” and “sick,” urging his fellow Republicans to do the same. He watched the rise of<b> partisanship on cable TV, MSNBC on the left, Fox News on the right, and the spiking clamor for conservative talk radio—from 240 all-talk stations in the country in 1987 to 900 in ’92 to 1,130 in ’95. Rush Limbaugh, the trailblazer, the precursor to somebody like Mark Levin, railed away about “feminazis” and “commie-libs”—and his listeners loved it. “He’s saying what I think,” they thought.</b></span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">And Trump in 2011 seized on what people, some people—misguided, bigoted or both—thought about the country’s <b>first black president. The birtherism</b> campaign he began to wage was the distillation of his scattershot but resolute education as the kibitzer, the gossip hound, the insurgent outsider, the nascent politician, the feeder off the fever swamps. The follower.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“I’m starting to wonder</b> myself whether or not he was born in this country,” he said on Fox News in March of that year.</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“He doesn’t have a birth certificate,” he told talker<b> Laura Ingraham</b> two days later.<b> “Somebody told me …”</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“A lot of people do not think </b>it was an authentic certificate,” he said on CNN in 2012, long after the White House released Obama’s “long form” birth certificate.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">[Mark Levin speaks, with President Donald Trump behind him, during a ceremony to present the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former Attorney General Edwin Meese, in the Oval Office of the White House, Tuesday, Oct. 8, 2019, in Washington.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Mark Levin speaks during a ceremony at the White House in 2019. | Alex Brandon/AP Photo]</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“Was it a birth certificate<b>? </b>You tell me,” he told ABC News in 2013. <b>“Some people say </b>that was not his birth certificate.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>That same year, Nunberg arranged for Trump to make his Levin show debut,</b> preparing a memo “to familiarize Mr. Trump with Mark Levin,” he wrote—deploying tried-and-true ways to pique Trump’s interest. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Nunberg emphasized Levin’s ratings history (“In the first 18 months on the air, the program jumped to #1 in the time slot”), the company he kept (considers<b> Sean Hannity “his best friend”), </b>his reach (books Liberty and Tyranny and Ameritopia: The Unmaking of America sold more than a million copies, Nunberg noted), and his compensation </span>(“a reported annual salary of $12.5 million a year”). Nunberg mentioned, too, that what he said on the air often was disseminated on a variety of <b>websites like TheRightScoop.com</b>. <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">People, in other words, “some people,” “many people,” “a lot of people,” were listening to what Levin was saying.</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Armed with this advance work, the memo as well as the emails, Trump fit in well with Levin.</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> In addition to<b> shilling for the upcoming season of “The Celebrity Apprentice”—“Trace Adkins, La Toya Jackson, Dennis Rodman”</b>—Trump delivered to Levin’s listeners what they wanted—which essentially was … Levin’s ideas, studiously collected by Nunberg, consumed by Trump and regurgitated back to the host.</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“If the Republicans are going to win,” Trump said, “they’re going to have to</span><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> break away from the Karl Roves of the world and, frankly, get more involved—you know, the Tea Party, these people are great. I’ve done some speeches in front of the </b><b style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Tea Party. </b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">They are great Americans, they love this country, they work so hard, and they have been so mistreated by … the liberal media. … They truly are not treated with proper respect.”</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>And he landed especially hard on immigration and any notions of amnesty for undocumented immigrants.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“I watched last night,” he continued, referring to Obama’s State of the Union that year, “as <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Senator McCain and everybody were jumping up and down, you know, applauding—I never saw him move so fast, you know, nice guy, but he jumped up—and was applauding as soon as the immigration became a part of the discussion, a part of the speech.”</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“Immigration,” Trump said, “will be the next thing, based on what I’m watching.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Trump and Levin wrapped up by exchanging compliments.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“I’m extremely impressed with what you’re doing,” Levin said.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“You just have a great show,” Trump said. “I’m always listening.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">“Donald Trump,” Levin told his listeners after Trump signed off.<b> “</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>See that, folks? Very solid. Very conservative. To the right of the Republican establishment. Strong supporter of the Tea Party. </b>I’m telling you. I’ve been watching this. I’ve been listening. People have been sending me his tweets.”</span></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">There was a reason for that. “He’s putting stuff out there,” Nunberg told me of Trump’s tweets at the time, some of which Nunberg was suggesting, “that sounds like Mark Levin.” </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">FEEDBACK </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">LITERALLY</span></b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">In the few months before his interview with Levin:</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Donald J. Trump</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">@realDonaldTrump</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Obama weak on immigration. All words, no action. He's been Prez 4 years.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">197</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">6:12 PM - Oct 16, 2012</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">987 people are talking about this</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Donald J. Trump</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">@realDonaldTrump</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Obama is laughing at Karl Rove & all the losers who spent hundreds of millions of dollars and didn’t win one race, including the big one!</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">63</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">1:05 PM - Dec 3, 2012</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">349 people are talking about this</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">And in the few months after:</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Donald J. Trump</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">?</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">@realDonaldTrump</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Whether you like it or not, Bush also gave us Obama!</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">54</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">8:12 AM - Jun 27, 2013</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Twitter Ads info and privacy</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">190 people are talking about this</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">This ear-to-the-proverbial-ground political ramp-up wasn’t limited to Levin and talk radio. It was around this time as well that Trump began to give more and more talks on the pre-presidential hustings, GOP chicken dinners in places like Iowa and New Hampshire.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>He talked to Pat Caddell about what he was picking up on the trail. </b>“He would put forth his position or his feelings, and he would judge the level of the response to it, and that helped him organize, I suppose to whatever degree it was organized, his views about issues,” Caddell told me in 2018. “Things he said that didn’t go over disappeared. Things that did stayed.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Twitter, too, increasingly served a similar purpose.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“He glommed onto it like it was an oxygen source,</b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">” Caddell explained. “And he would tweet what he believed, and people would retweet or answer or whatever, and it was kind of his ongoing focus group.”</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“He loved it,” Nunberg said. “He doesn’t trust the political people who do the focus groups.” Instead: “<span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">What are we getting the most retweets on?”</span></b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">In 2014 and ’15—well before Trump came down the escalator and announced his intention to run—<b>Nunberg sent Trump nearly daily updates of snippets of news and possible topics and wordings for tweets. At the tops of the documents he showed the number of Trump’s Twitter followers ticking up</b> (a snapshot from December of 2014: 2,751,488 … 2,753,548 … 2,757,190 …) and the number of days left until the GOP primary debate at the Reagan library and the Iowa caucuses and the New Hampshire primaries ticking down.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">A month into the presidential campaign, after the Vietnam-avoiding Trump insulted McCain by saying he was “not a war hero” and that he liked people “who weren’t captured,” he refused to apologize. That, Nunberg said, partly was because of what he had internalized by listening to Levin. Nunberg told Trump it was going to help him. (It certainly didn’t hurt him.) “He said, ‘Why?’” Nunberg said. “And I said, <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>‘Because our people despise John McCain.</b> They despise the fact that McCain hides behind his military record to shit on Republicans and you can’t criticize him on anything because of his military record. I said, ‘John McCain—he is hated almost as much as Barack Obama on talk radio.’ … I said, ‘He might as well be Barack Obama on talk radio.’”</span></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Talk radio led the way. Trump followed.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>Theoretically, Trump could have changed.</b> As successful as this pattern of behavior had been in the years preceding his run and during the campaign itself—he was, after all, elected president—Trump could have adjusted once he took office, <b>having at his disposal, suddenly and quite unexpectedly, the world’s preeminent intelligence-gathering apparatus.</b> But no—sticking to “that gossip kind of mentality,” said O’Donnell, the casino exec, <b>Trump has continued to mine Twitter, plucking what he wants, “very comfortable with half thoughts,” “always looking for tidbits of information that he can use to his advantage.”</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“He sees the ones that are the most popular,” former Fox News anchor Eric Bolling, identified by Time as someone who speaks regularly to Trump, told the magazine in June of 2018, “and getting the most [of the] zeitgeist, most attention on social media.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">And then? The last and most important piece of this by now almost rote process?</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"><b>“He repeats it,</b></span>” Bolling said.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">[BEDMINSTER TOWNSHIP, NJ - NOVEMBER 20: (L to R) President-elect Donald Trump and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani shake hands following their meeting at Trump International Golf Club, November 20, 2016 in Bedminster Township, New Jersey. Trump and his transition team are in the process of filling cabinet and other high level positions for the new administration. </font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">President-elect Donald Trump and former New York City mayor Rudy Giuliani shake hands at Trump International Golf Club in New Jersey, days after the election in Nov. 2016. Giuliani would go on to become President Trump's personal attorney. | Drew Angerer/Getty Images]</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>And for as long as he’s occupied the Oval Office, Trump’s been thinking about Ukraine. </b>“Ukraine,” Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said a couple months back, “has always been problematic, from Day One. He’s <b>heard a lot </b>about Ukraine from a lot of people.” He’s<b><u> heard about it, according to reports, from Rudy</u></b>Giuliani, from his <b>favored right-wing media outlets, from Vladimir Putin.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">He started spreading it almost immediately.AMP</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“I heard</b> it’s owned by a very rich Ukrainian,” he said of CrowdStrike, incorrectly, in an interview with The Associated Press in April of 2017. <b>“That’s what I heard.”</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">Officials have insisted to the president the CrowdStrike conspiracy is just that. He has not heeded their counsel.</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">It’s what led to the call with Ukraine’s Zelensky that led to the series of events that led to his impeachment. “The server,” Trump said, “<b>they say</b> Ukraine has it.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“It’s combustible because <b>Trump’s only looking for news stories and information that suits his persona, that build his persona up,” </b>Brinkley, the presidential historian, told me last week. “And by doing that he is following the trolls down an ugly path.”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">There are those who predict Trump’s tendencies will ultimately undo him. Thomas Bossert, who was Trump’s first homeland security adviser, logged a warning on a Sunday morning <span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">last fall</span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">. </span>“If he continues to focus on that white whale,” Bossert said of Trump’s questionable Ukraine theory, “it’s going to bring him down.”</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">But it is hard to see that happening now. It’s virtually assured that Trump’s impeachment will end not with his ouster but with an acquittal by the Republican-controlled Senate. This purported ordeal could even be a boost. In fundraising, and in some polling, it already has been. And come November, he absolutely could win again. And if that happens,<b> Trump in some sense would possess more power than any president ever—subjected to the gravest constitutional check, then given by voters another four years.</b></font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">If Trump began his political ascent as a follower, cannily co-opting ideas that resonated with a certain segment of the electorate, in doing so he clearly has proceeded to forge a following of his own. He has become a leader of those who are willing to be led in this way—solidifying lockstep support from the agenda-setting base of his party as well as its kingpins and figureheads, who parrot him the way he once did Levin. </span><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The result: </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">a crescendoing feedback loop, </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">in which followers are leaders and leaders are followers, perpetuating ideas based on what works rather than what’s real.</span></b></font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“One of the sacred principles in U.S. history has been that presidents are supposed to tell the public the truth,” Brinkley said. “So this is a new kind of Republican that refuses to ever admit culpability or a mistake and is <b>willing to destroy not just institutions but fact-based thinking, empirical thinking.</b>” Trump? “He doesn’t care whether it’s true or not true, whether it destroys somebody or not—there’s no morality into it. It’s just a strange, weird bit of information—‘and it helps me, and I’m going to <b>propagate it.’</b>”</font></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div></div><div><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">grift</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/investors-balked-at-trumps-plan-to-personally-make-2-million-per-room-leasing-government-building-wsj/">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/investors-balked-at-trumps-plan-to-personally-make-2-million-per-room-leasing-government-building-wsj/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div style=""><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style=""><h3 class="magcat-titlte entry-title" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" color="color" rgb="rgb" background-color="background-color" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/the-vilification-of-enemies-is-all-that-matters-in-trumps-gop/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; display: block; letter-spacing: 0px; line-height: 1.4;"><font face="Times New Roman"> vilification of enemies is all that matters in Trump’s GOP</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/the-vilification-of-enemies-is-all-that-matters-in-trumps-gop/" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; 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Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/nancy-letourneau/" title="Posts by Nancy LeTourneau" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Nancy LeTourneau</a><span style="text-align: right;"> </span><span style="text-align: right;">/</span><span style="text-align: right;"> </span><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/washington-monthly/" title="Posts by Washington Monthly" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="text-decoration-line: none; outline: none; text-align: right; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Washington Mont</a></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></h3></div><div style=""><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></font></font></font></font></font></p></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trump-actually-does-have-a-strategy-for-iran-and-its-deeply-disturbing/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/trump-actually-does-have-a-strategy-for-iran-and-its-deeply-disturbing/</font></a></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">wa mo for pol</font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">threatens to hit 52 sites (one for each hostage) cultural ? he thinks this increases tough guy threat/pose? not JUST mil? [a bomb list kyoto?]</font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/world-war-iii-trends-as-hawks-rejoice-at-trump-decision-to-assassinate-iranian-military-leader/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/world-war-iii-trends-as-hawks-rejoice-at-trump-decision-to-assassinate-iranian-military-leader/</font></a></font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>‘World War III’ trends as hawks rejoice at Trump decision to assassinate Iranian military leader</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams January 3, 2020</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As peace advocates voiced alarm at the very real prospect of all-out conflict with Iran following the assassination Thursday night of that country’s top military leader on orders from U.S. President Donald Trump, war hawks who have had their crosshairs trained on Iran for years enthusiastically celebrated Trump’s decision—and even suggested the president should go further by targeting the nation’s oil refineries.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“To the Iranian government: If you want to stay in the oil business leave America and our allies alone and stop being the largest state sponsor of terrorism in the world,” tweeted Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), a longtime supporter of regime change in Iran.</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Republican Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.), Tom Cotton (Ark.), Jim Risch (R.-Idaho), and Ben Sasse (Neb.) joined the chorus of applause, hailing Trump for taking “decisive action.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trita Parsi, executive vice president at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, tweeted in response to the torrent of praise that “hawks are celebrating [Qassem] Soleimani’s assassination not because they believe it weakened Iran. Or the IRGC. Or that Iran will lose in Iraq. But because they believe we have passed an irreversible point of escalation.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“From here, war is unavoidable, they believe,” Parsi added. “And celebrate.”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The likely unlawful U.S. assassination of Soleimani—and the jingoistic applause it provoked—led many to express fears of a global conflict, briefly catapulting “World War III” to the top of Twitter’s trending list. Trump, for his part, simply tweeted an image of an American flag following the strike:</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Donald J. Trump</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">?</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">@realDonaldTrump</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Trump’s decision to kill Soleimani, as well as at least six others, with a drone strike in Baghdad came after the Pentagon threatened Iran with preemptive action in response to supposed indications it was planning attacks on U.S. forces in the region.</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Though the Pentagon did not offer a shred of evidence that Soleimani or militia groups were planning attacks, corporate media outlets dutifully echoed the Trump administration’s line, leading some commentators to see parallels with the buildup to the Bush administration’s 2003 invasion of Iraq.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">“I don’t see any way to stop what is coming, war from the Mediterranean to the Indus and harsh repression in the U.S. that may vitiate the 2020 election,” said Barnett Rubin of the Center on International Cooperation. “This is the test for the Democrats: have our leaders learned anything since 2003? I fear the answer.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Observers warned the U.S. assassination of Soleimani, on top of the Trump administration’s violation of the nuclear accord last year and other aggressive actions, effectively foreclosed the possibility of peaceful negotiations with Iran.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Whatever happens next, understand and never stop pointing out that Donald Trump walked into office with no crisis with Iran,” said Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War. “He then filled his cabinet with warmongers, walked away from a multilateral diplomatic accord, and purposefully engaged in ‘maximum pressure.’ He owns this.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei quickly vowed “harsh retaliation” in response to Soleimani’s assassination, and Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif accused the U.S. of committing “an act of state terrorism.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Amid fears of revenge attacks, the State Department on Friday urged U.S. citizens to leave Iraq immediately.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Trump’s Iran policy has been seeking to incite war with Iran since he reneged on the nuclear deal in May 2018,” said Sina Toossi, senior research analyst with the National Iranian American Council. “If a war breaks out, the blame lies squarely with this disastrous policy and its proponents.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>“Trump thinks he got his Bin Laden moment in an election year,” Toossi added. “In reality, he’s made the worst strategic mistake by an American leader since the Iraq invasion. The consequences will be felt for years to come.”</b></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/donald-trump-and-the-embarrassment-gap-in-american-politics/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/donald-trump-and-the-embarrassment-gap-in-american-politics/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Donald Trump and the ’embarrassment gap’ in American politics</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Joshua Holland / Raw Story January 4, 2020</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">This article was paid for by AlterNet subscribers. Not a subscriber? Try us and go ad-free for $1. Prefer to give a one-time tip? Click here.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Welcome to another edition of What Fresh Hell?, Raw Story’s roundup of news items that might have become controversies under another regime, but got buried – or were at least under-appreciated – due to the daily firehose of political pratfalls, unhinged tweet storms and other sundry embarrassments coming out of the current White House.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">We often talk about various cleavages in the American polity. In partisan politics, there’s a significant gender-gap and an educational gap that has become far more pronounced since the emergence of Trumpism. We talk about racial politics, the urban-rural divide and the chasm between working people and the wealthy.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">But in an era when crackpot authoritarianism is on the rise around the world, it may be the embarrassment gap that most sharply divides those who love and loathe Donald Trump. Whether you find Trump’s buffoonery utterly disgraceful or a sign of authenticity may mark our central political divide today.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">This was thrown into relief last month, when the White House released a rambling letter Trump had written to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi protesting his impeachment. Jonathan Chait described it like this:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">If you worked in print media, you became accustomed to receiving long, unhinged letters from agitated members of the general public. Often these letters tied together facts, pseudo-facts, paranoid insinuations, dramatic though false legal interpretations, unconventional punctuation, and occasionally, threats. It is at this point unsurprising, though still quite unsettling, to read one of these letters from the hand of the president of the United States.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The document wasn’t just remarkable for its incoherence. What made it truly striking was that it wasn’t one of Trump’s dumb tweets–it was an official document that had presumably been lawyered and proofread and discussed among Trump’s senior advisors. And they then released it to the public with no sense of shame.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">As is often the case these days, the Fox News set welcomed the letter as a sign of Trump getting tough with Democrats and pushing back against the Derp Deep State, while much of “blue” America recoiled at the idea that the kind of simpleton who’d write and then choose to make such a missive public holds the nuclear codes.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>That was the embarrassment gap in a nutshell. One camp of Americans finds it utterly humiliating that a goofy former reality TV star leads the country—a laughingstock to the rest of the world who requires briefings heavy with pictures and light on text and can’t string together a coherent sentence</b>, much less a cogent argument. We cringe at his silly tweets and random capitalization and are appalled that someone so obviously lacking basic knowledge of the world outside his little bubble has gotten this far. We find his penchant for referring to himself in the third person and his compulsive lying about even the most insignificant things to be a source of shame for the country.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The other sees in those same traits a</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);"> genuineness </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">that is more important to than a president* knowing what he or she is doing. They see an everyman—a guy who reminds them of their uncle or old football coach. We see Trump’s appalling misogyny as a sign of his narcissism and unearned sense of privilege, while they perceive it as the </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">mark of a real, red-meat-eating manly-man</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">. They see in Trump a living, breathing rebuke of all the smarty-pants eggheads who look down on them.</span></b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The embarrassment gap is obviously a proxy for other cleavages in our society. Being appalled at his disdain for reading and inability to write clear, grammatical English is at least tangentially related to the education gap that’s been a feature of his public image. It’s also a reflection of media polarization—if you consume mostly conservative media, you have a very different picture of Trump’s political skills than you would if your news diet were more balanced. And it’s tangentially related to the right’s habitual anti-governmentalism. If you believe that public service is easy and trivial and that most people who work for the government are incompetents, then your standards for public service are naturally going to be low.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">On some level, Trump’s most dedicated fans must have at least a sense of how embarrassing he is to those outside their movement. The rise of QAnon—the moronic conspiracy-cult that sees Trump as some combination of Machiavelli and James Bond deftly pulling unseen strings of government behind the scenes—is at least in part a response to those of us who call out his clownishness. After all, could a moron who won the sperm lottery and then parlayed his inheritance into power through relentless self-promotion be the architect of a top-secret scheme to save America from baby-eating pedophiles?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>With that, let’s move on to the first roundup of the new year.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump is claiming that E. Jean Carroll, who accused him of raping her, can’t sue him for defaming her in a New York court because the allegedly defamatory statements were made in DC.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">According to Bloomberg…</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Carroll’s lawyer Roberta Kaplan said Trump is misstating the law around personal jurisdiction to avoid having to turn over documents in the case, which a judge ordered him to start doing.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“When E. Jean’s case was filed, Donald Trump maintained a home in New York, was registered to vote in New York, paid taxes in New York, and had been sued in New York on numerous occasions — including since 2016 — without any objection,” Kaplan said in an email. “Tellingly, as his papers make clear, what this motion is really about is a transparent effort to avoid discovery at all costs in a case involving a sexual assault.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The Trump foreign policy doctrine–“do as much stupid shit as possible”–is paying off in North Korea just as it is with Iran.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>North Korea’s leader, Kim Jong-un, said his country no longer felt bound by its self-imposed moratorium on testing nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles, its official media reported on Wednesday, the strongest indication yet that the country could soon resume such tests…</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">North Korea has not conducted a long-range missile test or a nuclear test in more than two years. Mr. Kim had announced his moratorium at a time when he hoped negotiations with the United States — and his budding personal relationship with President Trump — would prompt the United States to begin lifting crippling sanctions.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Mr. Trump, who has met Mr. Kim three times, has often cited the North’s restraint as a major diplomatic achievement.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
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</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>We knew that Trump’s 2017 tax scam was a massive give-away to big businesses and his donors and family, but according to The New York Times, it was much worse than we knew at the time</b>. That’s because such laws are “carried out by federal agencies that first must formalize them via rules and regulations,” and “the process of writing the rules, conducted largely out of public view, can determine who wins and who loses.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Starting in early 2018, senior officials in President Trump’s Treasury Department were swarmed by lobbyists seeking to insulate companies from the few parts of the tax law that would have required them to pay more. The crush of meetings was so intense that some top Treasury officials had little time to do their jobs…</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Thanks in part to the chaotic manner in which the bill was rushed through Congress — a situation that gave the Treasury Department extra latitude to interpret a law that was, by all accounts, sloppily written — the corporate lobbying campaign was a resounding success.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">As a result, “the federal government may collect hundreds of billions of dollars less over the coming decade than previously projected.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Let’s not become inured to Trump’s authoritarianism.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Jonathan Chait (again):</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Trump has made two major attempts (so far) to use his power to intimidate and control independent media.<b> The second attempt was his intervention to deny Amazon a $10 billion Pentagon contract as retribution against the Washington Post. The first was ordering the Justice Department to block an AT&T merger, </b>in order to punish CNN. And while the courts ultimately stymied the latter move, Trump is attempting to keep up public pressure on AT&T and its ownership of CNN.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Or the grifting.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>WaPo reported that, “of the 1,075 days on which he has been president, he has visited Mar-a-Lago or a Trump Something-or-other on 331 of them, 31 percent of the time.” On each of those occasions, Trump pockets a bundle of tax-payer cash to house staff and security.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>“Erik Prince, a major Republican donor and founder of controversial security firm Blackwater,</b> has been referred to the U.S. Treasury Department for possible sanctions violations tied to his recent trip to Venezuela for a meeting with a top aide of President <b>Nicolas Maduro,</b>” according to the AP.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">WaPo also reported that Rudy Giuliani was involved in a back-channel negotiation with Maduro that would “reopen resource-rich Venezuela to business.” The effort, according to the report, “provides another example of how Giuliani used his private role to insert himself into foreign diplomacy, alarming administration officials confused about whose interests he was representing.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Speaking of idiocracy, The Daily Beast reported this week that when some junior staffer at the U.S. mission to the European Union liked a tweet by Chelsea Clinton that was critical of Trump, it set off an international manhunt by regime officials determined to ferret out the identity of the perpetrator. According to the report, talk of the offending “like” reached the West Wing and “the micromanaging [that resulted] is still causing headaches for staffers and officials at top American outposts who are trying to navigate the task of pleasing both the State Department and the White House simultaneously—a mission that at times requires two completely different strategies, those sources said.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>We want to note a few stories about the abuses of power for which Trump is being impeached</b> lest they get lost in the turmoil in Iraq.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The New York Times:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The Trump administration disclosed on Friday that there were 20 emails between a top aide to President Trump’s acting chief of staff and a colleague at the White House’s Office of Management and Budget discussing the freeze of a congressionally mandated military aid package for Ukraine.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">But in response to a court order that it swiftly process those pages in response to a Freedom of Information Act, or FOIA, lawsuit filed by The New York Times, the Office of Management and Budget delivered a terse letter saying it would not turn over any of the 40 pages of emails — not even with redactions.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“All 20 documents are being withheld in full,” wrote Dionne Hardy, the office’s Freedom of Information Act officer.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">WaPo:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Just Security’s Kate Brannen was able to view unredacted emails in which the Office of Management and Budget and the Defense Department discussed the withholding of military aid. </b>The big new takeaway is that there was significant concern within the Pentagon about the legality and sustainability of the hold. Despite that, according to one email from top OMB official Michael Duffey on Aug. 30, there was “clear direction from POTUS to continue to hold.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The even bigger takeaway, though, may be how much this fact was obscured. The emails were previously released in redacted form, but many of the redaction choices are puzzling and even suspicious. The redactions include repeated references to legal problems with withholding the aid, basic questions about that subject, and warnings that waiting until too late in the fiscal year (which ended Sept. 30) might mean that some of the funds would never get to Ukraine.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">And then there’s this tibit, from The Daily Beast…</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>Paul Manafort said he used Fox News host Sean Hannity to receive backchannel messages from President Donald Trump</b> while prosecutors investigated him for financial crimes… Manafort described Hannity as a close friend and “certainly a backchannel” to Trump, saying that he understood Hannity was in communication with the president.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">*</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The wildfires that have set large swaths of Australia ablaze have killed an estimated half-billion animals and “could change the country forever.” Norway recorded a 66-degree day this week that marked the highest temperature in January on record. And this disaster has barely registered in the American press:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Horrific #ClimateChange emergency now unfolding in #<b>Jakarta, where officials say ‘this is not ordinary rain’.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">21 dead so far, 30,000 evacuated.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Do keep on saying it’s ‘just weather’ though. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">One day, there’ll be trials for climate criminals.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> #Indonesiapic.twitter.com/qcDZtFJC8x</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">— Brendan May (@bmay) January 2, 2020</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Meanwhile, <b>The NYT reports that “federal agencies would no longer have to take climate change into account when they assess the environmental impacts of highways, pipelines and other major infrastructure projects,</b> according to a Trump administration plan that would weaken the nation’s benchmark environmental law.”</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">And according to the WaPo, the EPA “is pushing ahead with [that and other] sweeping changes to roll back environmental regulations despite sharp criticism from a panel of scientific advisers, most of whom were appointed by President Trump.”</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The changes would weaken standards that govern waterways and wetlands across the country, as well as those that dictate gas mileage for U.S. automobiles. Another change would restrict the kinds of scientific studies that can be used when writing new environmental regulations, while a fourth would change how the EPA calculates the benefits of limiting air pollutants from coal-fired power plants.</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">Three of the four draft reports, posted online Tuesday, suggest that the administration’s proposals conflict with established science. They were prepared by members of the EPA’s Scientific Advisory Board, a panel of experts created by Congress in 1978 to review the agency’s scientific methods.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The planet requires Trump’s defeat this November.</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" /><div><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New Roman"><font face="Times New 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an</font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></font></div><div>..Trump ranted that his indicted and imprisoned associates were the victims of the “crime of the century” in an early morning Twitter rant.</div><div>
</div><div>The president, who’s still vacationing at his Mar-A-Lago resort, wailed about his associates who’ve been prosecuted for various crimes since his election and attacked the “filthy” law enforcement officers who busted them.</div><div>
</div><div><b>“A lot of very good people were taken down by a small group of Dirty (Filthy) Cops,</b> politicians, government officials, and an investigation that was illegally started & that SPIED on my campaign,” Trump tweeted.</div><div>
</div><div>“The Witch Hunt is sputtering badly, but still going on (Ukraine Hoax!),” he added. “If this had happened to a Presidential candidate, or President, who was a Democrat, everybody involved would long ago be in jail for<b> treason </b>(and more), and it would be considered the CRIME OF THE CENTURY, far bigger and more sinister than Watergate!”</div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><div class="header-list-style" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative;"><h2 class="entry-title grid-title" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/01/fact-checker-reveals-trump-stole-credit-from-obama-with-1-outrageous-lie-56-times-in-2019/" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman">Fact checker reveals Trump stole credit from Obama with 1 outrageous lie 56 times in 2019</font></a></h2><div class="grid-post-box-meta" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 12px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="author-italic author vcard" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/travis-gettys/" title="Posts by Travis Gettys" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Travis Gettys</a> / <a href="https://www.alternet.org/author/raw-story/" title="Posts by Raw Story" class="author url fn" rel="author" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: color 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer;">Raw Story</a></span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">January 1, 2020</span></font></div></div><div class="item-content entry-content" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 18px 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><p style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 1.8;"><font face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump has repeatedly lied about a veterans bill that was actually signed by his predecessor. The president claimed credit for giving veterans a new health care option in…</font></p></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/the-press-finally-tried-and-failed-to-stand-up-to-trump"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/the-press-finally-tried-and-failed-to-stand-up-to-trump</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>The press finally tried—and failed—to stand up to Trump</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Eric Boehlert / Daily Kos December 31, 2019</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">With Donald Trump becoming the first American president to be impeached in his first term, while holed up in the White House tweeting endless attacks around the clock like some internet troll, 2019 should have been the year the Beltway media finally shed its signature timidity and forcefully stood up to him. This should have been the year the press worked up the courage to disband the pointless protocols newsroom had established for covering Trump (he’s not a “liar,” he’s not a “racist”), and simply started telling the hard truths about him. <b>And while there were some welcome flashes of truth-telling, especially surrounding the Ukraine scandal and the impeachment, for the most part the D.C. press still hasn’t signaled that’s it’s ready, or willing, to take the necessary steps needed to cover Trump.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">There continues to be a collective reluctance to grapple with today’s difficult reality. Unfamiliar with covering authoritarian regimes or how to respond to them, many news outlets remain committed to treating Trump’s spectacle as a reality TV show.</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Trump remains the most deeply radical player in American politics, yet the press corps is still trying to cover him as a traditional political figure, which means if the president of the United States makes some sort of public statement on a pressing issue of the day, you quote him under the assumption that he’s telling the truth and not just making stuff up. But he’s not, and he is. </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Trump in 2019 continued to benefit from press coverage that obediently pretended that he’s an honest broker. Wash, rinse, repeat. This, while Trump maintains his dangerous campaign to paint the press as the “enemy of the people.”</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Oddly committed to<b> normalizing </b>Trump by scrubbing off his hateful and dangerous rough edges, many in the Beltway press continue to play a strange game in which they refuse to describe what they clearly see in front of them. Whether it’s the fear of Trump Twitter attacks or the nearly five-decade-long GOP campaign to demonize the “liberal media,” newsrooms today nearly uniformly refuse to address the mounting, obvious signs that Trump is a deeply unstable man. Journalists watch Trump hole up in the White House spamming Twitter on some weekends with hundreds of illogical posts and then politely look away.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Incredibly, as I noted in August, this represented one 48-hour period in 2019:</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">He quoted a rabid conspiracy theorist radio host who declared that Israeli Jews love Trump as if he were the “King of Israel” and “the second coming of God,” while Trump himself accused American Jews of “great disloyalty” if they voted for Democrats. He attacked the prime minister of Denmark (“nasty”) because she will not sell him Greenland and she mocked the very idea as “absurd.” He suggested he might serve more than two terms in office. He slurred his words while reading a speech off a teleprompter. He accused journalists of trying to ruin the U.S. economy. He claimed Google had “manipulated” millions of votes in Hillary Clinton’s favor during the 2016 election. He suggested giving himself a Medal of Honor. He said doctors in El Paso, Texas, left their operating rooms mid-surgery in order to greet him during his visit there following a local gun massacre. And he referred to the NRA as if it were a co-equal branch of the federal government.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Compared to all previous American presidents, that would have easily surpassed the irrational missteps they made during an entire time in office. For Trump, it was just his vacation week. Yet the press remains consistently timid in dealing with Trump’s blatantly unstable behavior. Newsrooms today nearly uniformly refuse to address the mounting, obvious signs that Trump remains a deeply troubled man.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>
</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>What does it mean for the most powerful leader in the free world to be acting in a bizarre and often seemingly schizophrenic fashion? </b>And how is every administration official who appears on television not immediately and repeatedly asked whether Trump is mentally fit to hold office, and whether he poses a danger to this country? If the same journalists watched a foreign leader behaving as erratically as Trump does, that would be the first question they posed to officials.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The fact that a sitting president has unleashed so many bizarre public performances, punctuated by so many incomprehensible non sequiturs, means his stability and capacity ought to be questioned—and it ought to be a constant news story. But it’s still not.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Of course, 2019 was the year that White House press briefings were officially canceled.</b> In a move that once would have been considered an unthinkable act by any White House, the Trump team simply pulled the plug, leaving White House reporters with extremely limited access to officials who are willing to answer even the simplest questions about the administration’s policies and agenda. In the face of that drastic action, news outlets took no collective action in response. They could have used their clout to send a powerful message if they had pulled their reporters out and signaled they weren’t going to be used as props for the press charades the White House plays.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="" face="Times New Roman"><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Instead, reporters dutifully gathered outside the White House to shout questions at Trump during his so-called “Chopper Talk” sessions</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);"> </span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">as he approached the presidential helicopter on the White House grounds. The controlled chaos of those sessions, where reporters yell simplistic questions, allows Trump to pick and choose reporters at random, and to ignore questions he doesn’t like. He’s also immune from follow-up questions and is free once again to lie indiscriminately, without being held accountable. All of which cable news outlets air in its entirety under the guise of “news.”</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="" face="Times New Roman"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">And that’s when the press wasn’t being willingly duped in 2019 by Trump’s team, and especially his attorney general, William Barr. In a signature press failure for the year, reporters for days played along with Department of Justice propaganda about the Mueller report and how it had supposedly exonerated Trump. But the only person claiming that at the time was Barr, who wouldn’t allow reporters to see the full report.</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Undeterred, journalists simply took Barr’s untrustworthy four-page press release and treated that as the full report. The New York Times rushed to report that Trump had been exonerated and that Mueller’s conclusions had provided Trump with a “powerful boost” toward re-election. Reminder: Nobody at the Times had read a single page of the Mueller report. News outlets everywhere scrambled to produce pro-Trump headlines based on Barr’s propaganda: “Mueller finds no conspiracy” (The Washington Post), “Mueller finds no Trump-Russia conspiracy” (The New York Times), “Mueller finds no Trump-Russia conspiracy” (Politico), “Mueller doesn’t find Trump campaign conspired with Russia” (The Wall Street Journal), “Mueller finds no Trump collusion, leaves obstruction open” (Associated Press).</span></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">They all soon discovered the obvious reality: Trump and his team had simply lied about the contents of the Mueller report, hoping (knowing?) that the press would fall for the false spin, which too many outlets did.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The key to covering Trump isn’t some deep mystery for news organizations, and it doesn’t require much sacrifice. It simply demands honesty and a willingness to be clear about what’s happening in this country. Sadly, that was lacking in 2019.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Eric Boehlert is a veteran progressive writer and media analyst, formerly with Media Matters and Salon. He is the author of Lapdogs: How the Press Rolled Over for Bush and Bloggers on the Bus. You can follow him on Twitter @EricBoehlert.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
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</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a data-ga-action="Home Headlines: Headline" href="https://www.democracynow.org/2019/12/31/headlines/nyt_top_officials_failed_to_convince_trump_to_release_withheld_ukraine_aid" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration-line: none; border: 0px; background-color: rgb(241, 242, 243);" helvetica="Helvetica" neue="Neue" arial="Arial" sans-serif="sans-serif" font-size="font-size" px="px" font-weight="font-weight" text-align="text-align" center="center"><font face="Times New Roman"><span class="caps" style="box-sizing: border-box;">NYT</span>: Top Officials Failed to Convince Trump to Release Withheld Ukraine Aid</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">dn </font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">=</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/the-evangelical-meeting-that-convinced-trump-he-is-the-chosen-one-and-why-i-believe-it-to-be-true/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/the-evangelical-meeting-that-convinced-trump-he-is-the-chosen-one-and-why-i-believe-it-to-be-true/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/trumps-defenders-must-be-voted-out-to-protect-the-constitution/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/trumps-defenders-must-be-voted-out-to-protect-the-constitution/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">editorial</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">deutche ivanka jared epstein?</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/heres-why-congress-wants-to-look-inside-the-bank-that-fronted-donald-trump-2-billion/">https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/heres-why-congress-wants-to-look-inside-the-bank-that-fronted-donald-trump-2-billion/</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/trump-retweets-the-deletes-article-outing-name-of-alleged-ukraine-whistleblower/" rel="bookmark" title="Trump retweets — the deletes — article outing name of alleged Ukraine whistleblower" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight" color="color" rgb="rgb" important="important" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.4; display: block;"><font face="Times New Roman">trump retweets — the deletes — article outing name of alleged Ukraine whistleblower</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/trump-runs-the-country-just-like-his-bankrupted-businesses-the-national-debt-is-skyrocketing-while-economic-growth-lags-behind/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/trump-runs-the-country-just-like-his-bankrupted-businesses-the-national-debt-is-skyrocketing-while-economic-growth-lags-behind/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Trump runs the country just like his bankrupted businesses: The national debt is skyrocketing while economic growth lags behind</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Written by<b> DC Report December 29, 2019</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“How do you impeach a president who has created the greatest Economy in the history of our Country?” Donald Trump tweeted in September. Trump has repeatedly claimed big economic benefits from his presidency. And this claim undergirds a lot of Trump’s popular support.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">But the truth is that Trump is a failure economically, both in his business career and in his actions as president. It is time to connect the dots of Trump’s economic failures—in a way that everyone understands.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">A powerful way to communicate Trump’s true economic legacy is to brand him as “Bankrupter-in-Chief Trump.” This is the real bottom line of Trump’s business career, and it is what he is actually doing to the country and to individual Americans. To drive home this message, “Bankrupter-in-Chief Trump” should be repeated after each new Trump claim, policy, action and report that illustrates this message—until most Americans understand this as Trump’s true legacy.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The country’s economic resources are being wasted, while its future economic health is endangered.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump campaigned on the promise of eliminating the federal debt within eight years, but what his economic policies have actually been doing is bankrupting the country. The U.S. government’s budget deficit ballooned to almost $1 trillion in 2019, which is nearly a 50 percent increase during Trump’s time in office.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Debt to Top $4.1 Trillion</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump’s overall contribution to the national debt, for the bills he has signed into law, is projected to top $4.1 trillion, according to the nonpartisan Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget. The largest portion of this increase is coming from Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations, which are projected to boost the nation’s debt by $1.8 trillion, according to this group’s analysis.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump promised this his economic policies would lead to growth in the economy of between 3 and 4 percent per year, but the reality is that the economy has been growing at barely 2 percent over the past year. And the average economic growth since Trump took office has been a little more than 2.25 percent per year. The promised benefits from the massive tax cut have not materialized, and in fact the United States has now had two consecutive quarters of negative investment growth.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Not only are Trump’s tax cuts not boosting business investment as promised, but they are also bankrupting the country’s economic future. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projects that deficits will remain massive each year going forward until the total federal government debt reaches nearly 100 percent of the country’s GDP (gross domestic product): “Under current law, the federal government is projected to borrow an additional $13.6 trillion from the end of 2018 through 2029, boosting debt held by the public to $29.3 trillion.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Squandered Stimulus</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The country’s ability to weather economic downturns has also been compromised because the tools of economic stimulus needed to pull the country out of a recession have already been squandered at a time when they were not needed. The country’s economic resources are being wasted with minimal benefit, while its future economic health is endangered.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Another of Trump’s great promises was that he would eliminate the U.S. trade deficit. Here again, Trump’s performance has been disastrous. Far from declining, the U.S. trade deficit is now running some 40 percent above the level it was running when Trump first assumed office.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump points to the rise in stock prices as evidence that his economic policies are working. But the truth is that stock prices have increased during Trump’s presidency at about half the pace that they increased during President Obama’s first three years in office.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Bankrupting Individual Americans</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump administration policies are leading to bankruptcy for large numbers of Americans. Farmers have been hit especially hard. Farm bankruptcies grew to the highest level since 2011, according to the American Farm Bureau Federation.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>“Farm debt in 2019 is projected to be a record-high $416 billion,</b>” the Farm Bureau reported in October, while farm income is 29 percent lower than in the record year of 2013.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">And this is happening despite the Trump administration directing nearly $30 billion to farmers in bailout programs, which, along with other disaster aid and insurance indemnities, now accounts for nearly 40 percent of farmers’ income. And a lot of that aid has yet to actually reach farmers.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump promised that his tax cuts for the wealthy and for corporations would lead to more jobs and higher wages for all Americans. But here again, Trump has not delivered on his promises.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>Tax Cuts an ‘Enormous Flop’</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“From a purely economic standpoint, the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 has been an enormous flop,” writes Michael Linden, executive director of the Groundwork Collaborative. Average U.S. job creation per month has actually declined in the nearly two years since the law passed. And wage growth has been only a small fraction of what the White House promised.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">During his campaign and in his inaugural address, Trump promised to protect the “forgotten man and woman.” He has actually been doing just the opposite by systematically dismantling many protections for individual consumers, protections for individual investors, protections for people preparing for retirement and protections for other Americans.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“The Trump administration is probably the most anti-investor and consumer protection administration in decades, if not ever,” said Dennis Kelleher, president and CEO of Better Markets, an investor and consumer watchdog group.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Not only have protections for individual Americans been stripped from regulations and policies, but enforcement of remaining laws and regulations has also plummeted. The result, concludes Public Citizen, is that while Trump “once asserted that he was ‘not going to let Wall Street get away with murder,’ he now is allowing industry after industry to get away with just about anything.” This, too, will cause bankruptcies for large numbers of individual Americans.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump also wants to take away access to health insurance for millions by undoing the Affordable Care Act. This would be especially damaging to those with pre-existing conditions, many of whom could not buy health insurance before that law took effect. And if Trump succeeds in undermining the Affordable Care Act, this would cause financial ruin to many more people, given that medical issues and costs are the number one reason Americans file for bankruptcy.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>A Career of Business Bankruptcies</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump cultivates a mythology that he has been tremendously successful in business. The reality is that public records show that six times Trump filed Chapter 11 bankruptcies for his companies. Yes, not once, not twice, but six times! And even in cases where Trump was able to avoid bankruptcy, there were many business failures. For example, “Trump defaulted on the debt of his airline, Trump Shuttle, turning it over to U.S. Airways.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The full extent of Trump’s failures in business has been largely hidden by this refusal to release his tax returns. But The New York Times was able to obtain tax information from 1985 to 1994 and these records revealed $1.17 billion in business losses in these 10 years alone.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">“In fact, year after year, Mr. Trump appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer,” The Times concluded, comparing his losses to publicly available IRS information. These revelations led to newspaper and magazine headlines like this one: “As a Businessman, Trump Was the Biggest Loser of All.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">How was Trump able to stay in business despite many bankruptcies and losing so much money? The answer is that Trump was able to structure his deals so that he was losing other people’s money—that of banks, bond investors, governments and others—more than his own money.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Passing Losses to Others</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">[pix Trump and his failed airline. ]</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">In other words, Trump was passing financial losses to those who supported him. Not surprisingly, this led many banks and other financial institutions to stop providing financing to Trump.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style=""><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">The principal exception has been Deutsche Bank of Germany: “Over the past two decades, it was the only mainstream financial institution consistently willing to do business with Mr. Trump, who had a history of defaulting on loans. The bank lent him a total of more than $2 billion, about $350 million of which was outstanding when he was sworn in as president.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">This is the same bank that was fined $630 million in 2017 by American and British banking regulators in connection with “around $10 billion in suspicious trades being <b>laundered out of Russia.”</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">It’s not just banks that have failed to receive payments due from Trump. Hundreds of small businesses, individual contractors, laborers and other ordinary Americans have alleged that Trump has not paid them.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Numerous reports have documented these claims, such as this USA Today story: “Hundreds allege Donald Trump doesn’t pay his bills.” And this Wall Street Journal article, “Donald Trump’s Business Plan Left a Trail of Unpaid Bills.”</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Then there is Trump University, which Trump shut down after he settled two class-action lawsuits and a civil lawsuit accusing him of cheating thousands of Americans out of millions of dollars through what many called a “sham.” Unfortunately, some of the 7,000 potential beneficiaries of the $25 million lawsuit settlement passed away before receiving any refund, such as Boyce Chair of Springfield, N.J., who lost $34,995 on so-called mentorship program tuition.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">The bottom line is that just as Trump bankrupted business-after-business and built his fortune by passing debt and losses from his failing enterprises on to others, so too is Trump today bankrupting the country and passing the debt and losses from his failing economic policies on to ordinary Americans and to future generations.</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Steven Piersanti is a senior editor at Berrett-Koehler Publishers, a leading independent publisher of books that promote positive change at all levels—individual, organizational and societal. Before founding Berrett-Koehler in 1992, he was CEO of Jossey-Bass Publishers. He is seeking collaborators to expand and communicate themes of this article in various ways.</font></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">an 1219</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/trump-runs-the-country-just-like-his-bankrupted-businesses-the-national-debt-is-skyrocketing-while-economic-growth-lags-behind/" rel="bookmark" title="Trump runs the country just like his bankrupted businesses: The national debt is skyrocketing while economic growth lags behind" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight" color="color" rgb="rgb" important="important" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.4; display: block;"><font face="Times New Roman">Trump runs the country just like his bankrupted businesses: The national debt is skyrocketing while economic growth lags behind</font></a><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/trump-runs-the-country-just-like-his-bankrupted-businesses-the-national-debt-is-skyrocketing-while-economic-growth-lags-behind/" rel="bookmark" title="Trump runs the country just like his bankrupted businesses: The national debt is skyrocketing while economic growth lags behind" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight" color="color" rgb="rgb" important="important" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.4; display: block;"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">w<a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/why-trumps-embrace-of-eddie-gallagher-is-so-dangerous/" rel="bookmark" title="Why Trump’s embrace of Eddie Gallagher is so dangerous" open="Open" sans="Sans" sans-serif="sans-serif" letter-spacing="letter-spacing" px="px" font-weight="font-weight" display="display" inline="inline" important="important" color="color" rgb="rgb" style="box-sizing: border-box; outline: none; margin: 0px 0px 6px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; transition: all 0.3s ease 0s; cursor: pointer; line-height: 1.4;">hy Trump’s embrace of Eddie Gallagher is so dangerous</a></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">an 1219</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">==</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/how-trumps-trade-war-hurt-the-very-individuals-it-was-supposed-to-help/"><font face="Times New Roman">https://www.alternet.org/2019/12/how-trumps-trade-war-hurt-the-very-individuals-it-was-supposed-to-help/</font></a></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">no lnx</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman"><b>How Trump’s trade war hurt the very individuals it was supposed to help</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Written by Sarah Toce / Salon December 30, 2019</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">President Donald Trump’s trade war raised prices for consumers and hurt the manufacturing industry, according to a report from economists on the Federal Reserve Board.</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“The first comprehensive estimates” of the trade war’s effect on American manufacturers show that the tariffs have hurt the industry more than they helped, wrote Aaron Flaaen and Justin Pierce, two senior economists at the Federal Reserve’s Industrial Output Section.</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">“We find that U.S. manufacturing industries more exposed to tariff increases experience relative reductions in employment as a positive effect from import protection is offset by larger negative effects from rising input costs and retaliatory tariffs,” the report said.</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div><font style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);" face="Times New Roman"><b>In short, the economists concluded that the tariffs gave a “small boost” to manufacturers, which was “offset by larger drags from the effects” of rising costs and retaliatory tariffs.</b></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">
</font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman">Mother Jones summarized the main findings in a handy chart:</font></div></div></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">...</font></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div></div>