David Ignatius writes for the Washington Post. He recently wrote an alarming column about Trump’s last gasp effort to overturn the election results and possibly attempt a coup. Recall that he ousted the top leadership of the pentagon to install sycophants. What does he have planned?
Not to be alarmist, but we should recognize that the United States will be in the danger zone until the formal certification of Joe Biden’s election victory on Jan. 6, because potential domestic and foreign turmoil could give President Trump an excuse to cling to power.
This threat, while unlikely to materialize, is concerning senior officials, including Republicans who have supported Trump in the past but believe he is now threatening to overstep the constitutional limits on his power. They described a multifaceted campaign by die-hard Trump supporters to use disruptions at home and perhaps threats abroad to advance his interests.
The big showdown is the Jan. 6 gathering of both houses of Congress to formally count the electoral college vote taken on Dec. 14, which Biden won 306 to 232. The certification should be a pro forma event, but a desperate Trump is demanding that House and Senate Republicans challenge the count and block this final, binding affirmation of Biden’s victory before Inauguration Day.
Trump’s last-ditch campaign will almost certainly fail in Congress. The greater danger is on the streets, where pro-Trump forces are already threatening chaos. A pro-Trump group called “Women for America First” has requested a permit for a Jan. 6 rally in Washington, and Trump is already beating the drum: “Big protest in D.C. on January 6th. Be there, will be wild!”
Government officials fear that if violence spreads, Trump could invoke the Insurrection Act to mobilize the military. Then Trump might use “military capabilities” to rerun the Nov. 3 election in swing states, as suggested by Michael Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser. Trump “could take military capabilities and he could place them in those states and basically rerun an election,” Flynn told Newsmax in a Dec. 17 interview.
The Pentagon would be the locus of any such action, and some unusual recent moves suggest pro-Trump officials might be mobilizing to secure levers of power. Kash Patel, chief of staff to acting defense secretary Christopher C. Miller, returned home “abruptly” from an Asia trip in early December, according to Fox News correspondent Jennifer Griffin. Patel didn’t explain, but in mid-December Trump discussed with colleagues the possibility that Patel might replace Christopher A. Wray as FBI director, one official said. Wray remains in his job.
Another strange Pentagon machination was the proposal Miller floated in mid-December to separate the code-breaking National Security Agency from U.S. Cyber Command, which are both currently headed by Gen. Paul Nakasone. That proposal collapsed because of bipartisan congressional opposition.
But why did Trump loyalists suggest the NSA-Cyber Command split in the first place? Some officials speculate that the White House may have planned to install a new NSA chief, perhaps Ezra Cohen-Watnick, the young conservative recently installed to oversee Pentagon intelligence activities.
With firm control of the NSA and the FBI, the Trump team might then disclose highly sensitive information about the origins of the 2016 Trump Russia investigation. Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe tried to release this sensitive intelligence before the election, despite protests from intelligence chiefs that it would severely damage U.S. national security. Trump retreated under pressure from then-Attorney General William P. Barr, among others. Trump’s final weeks in office will also be a tinder box because of the danger of turmoil abroad. Iranian-backed militias fired more than 20 rockets last Sunday at the U.S. Embassy compound in Baghdad, with around nine hitting the compound but inflicting no American casualties. The United States sent intense, high-level messages to Tehran, public and private, warning against any further provocation. The toughest was a Dec. 23 tweet from Trump warning: “If one American is killed, I will hold Iran responsible. Think it over.” State Department and Pentagon officials say Trump’s retaliatory threat is real.
Another potential flash point is just a week away. Jan. 3 marks the first anniversary of the U.S. targeted killing of Quds Force commander Maj. Gen. Qasem Soleimani and Iraq militia leader Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis. Any new violence could ignite a quick cycle of escalation that could bring direct conflict between the United States and Iran during Trump’s final weeks in office.
The heroes in preserving the United States’ hopes of a stable democratic transition, perhaps ironically, have been some courageous, principled Republicans: judges in state and federal courts, including Supreme Court justices nominated by Trump; secretaries of state and other election monitors; a disappointingly small handful of GOP senators and members of Congress, and even a few members of Trump’s inner circle like White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, who is said to have resisted some of Trump’s disruptive plans. They have all stood up in different ways for the rule of law.
Trump won’t succeed in subverting the Constitution, but he can do enormous damage over the next weeks. Before Jan. 6, a delegation of senior Republicans should visit him at the White House and insist, emphatically: Biden has won. This must stop.
Please, get over Trump and worry about the problems that we are facing. You can’t blame him forever for years of poor leadership. Find a new scapegoat so you don’t have to accept any responsibility for anything.
Ha, ha, ha, thanks for the laugh. Yes, we can blame Trump for his actual words, deeds, his actions, his tweets and his twisted fulminations which encourage maniacs and armed goons to resort to violence and insurrection. We all want to be over Trump but in case you hadn’t noticed, he has NOT CONCEDED YET!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And is threatening to overturn the election. Whether we like it or not, Trump is a part of US history and will be in future histories of the US. Trump tried to turn this country into an authoritarian oligarchy, a la Putin.
I got a laugh, too, out of your snowflake hysterics over Trump. Election is over. Biden is in. Let’s move forward and find someone else to blame— like Biden!!!
I suggest you let Trump and his sycophants know that you have declared the election won by Biden. They don’t seem to know it.
Well, for four years now, Trump has been promising “in a couple of weeks” his “big, beautiful healthcare plan” that is “so much better than Obamacare.”
Trump on Covid, healthcare, and so much else: the man with no plan and the tan in the can.
Of course, when referring to cadet bone spurs, I am using the term “man” VERY loosely.
What ridiculous retoric……..bet you had to work on that lol! At least the people backing honest government that respects our Constitution are not afraid to be present. We are not going to be ‘respectful’ to a bunch of bullies and thugs. Why don’t you take a moment and read those few pages of heavyweight material called the Constitution? Or are you also trying to bury it?
Cindy,
I have. Dry bad news for you. Trump has NEVER read the Constitution. He claimed that Article 2 gives the President the power to do whatever he wants.
That’s not true.
Just another lie.
I know the Constitution quite well, Cindy. But clearly these traitors, if they do know it, have no respect for it.
That’s rhetoric, with an h, btw. But this happens in posts, these covfefes. Ofc, they happen to IQ45 a little more often than they do to educated, knowledgeable persons not suffering from severe mental illness.
e.g., Malignant Narcissistic Personality Disorder
BTW, Cindy, a little news for IQ45, President Trump, the nonreader, and for Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, and the other traitors. From the 12th Amendment to the Constitution:
The Electors shall meet in their respective states, and vote by ballot for President and Vice-President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same state with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as President and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice-President, and they shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all persons voted for as Vice-President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to the President of the Senate;— The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall then be counted;—The person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of Electors appointed
Nowhere does it say that the Vice President can decide on his own whether to accept the Electors or to throw them out and replace them with ones to his own liking.
Toni Criscuolo One of the “problems that we are facing” is the kind of thinking that is evident in your note. Also, your timing is a bit off: “Forever”? In case you didn’t notice, Trump’s not even out of office yet? And BTW, in concrete terms, the country itself won’t “get over Trump” for a very long time, indeed . . . regardless of his followers’ ignorance (ahem) and regardless of the desires of those like me who just want to see the back of him.
On a lighter note, just because some are paranoid about Trump, doesn’t mean he isn’t trying to blow up the country before he leaves. CBK
Ignore the trolls. They will go away if left unfed.
LisaM (HA!) Thanks, . . . I needed that. CBK
We’ll be living with Trumpism through his court appointments for years to come.
I tremble to think of the “free exercise of religion” decisions that lie ahead.
The Supreme Court has already ruled that states cannot restrict the numbers of people who assemble to pray in the midst of a pandemic because it restricts their religious rights.
One person will win the right to beat his wife because that’s what his religion requires.
Another will win the right to refuse service to black people because that’s what his religion requires.
We have long had a viable balance between freedom of religion and freedom from religion.
That balance is in for a severe jolt over the next 30 years.
Religious rights will “trump” other rights.
Perfect!
Alex Cole (@acnewsitics) Tweeted:
Follow me on instagram for MAGA craziness https://t.co/N8TBETOJCK
Good discussion, but the balance was tipped in favor of freedom OF (Christian) religion when Ike stuck “under God” in the Pledge. Most folks living today have taken that pledge many, many times. No, it’s not controlling, but yes it is a coercion of children and their teachers. One teacher I know says that she says “La de dah,” in place of “under God,” and I’m sure others say other things, or leave it out. I share your hope that we don’t take more steps to limit our freedom from religion.
Jack,
Sorry to say but the three Trump appointees to the Supreme Court are determined to make freedom for religious views triumph over public health, civil rights, and every other area where conflict might arise.
The Court ruled that a baker can refuse to bake a wedding cake for a gay couple if his religion is opposed to their marriage.
What happens when a man says he should be able to beat his wife, because wife beating is part of his religion?
Or when someone refuses to serve black customers because their religion says that the races must remain apart?
The Court also ruled that churches and other houses of worship do not have to obey public health rules limiting the number of people in their space at the same time.
They will become super spreaders.
To: toni c
YES WE CAN (sound familiar)
Yes, we CAN blame the president for everything… most of which is unprecedented in three centuries of U.S history and of which the effects will take decades to heal.
In February, 2020 if someone announced: A foreign enemy is going to KILL 330,000 Americans by Christmas, what president would ignore that? (I could stop there)
BLAME HIM for Not squelching a pandemic that has 2020 as the deadliest year in U.S. History.
What president would chastise military leaders, ignore advice from hundreds of seasoned both-sides-of-the-aisles and non-partisan experienced leaders, dismiss scientific experts, and do nothing to prevent attacks after the first blast?
BLAME HIM for teargassing non-violent protesters; making a mockery of the Bible for a photo-op; validating the KKK, neo-nazis, white supremacists, and closet racists as “good (on both sides)”; accepting the endorsement of David Duke, the proud boys, and conspiracy theorists; proclaiming to “save the suburbs” from non-white residency; and lining the pockets of his rich cronies and corporations who provided no new job or did a thing to restore the cities.
BLAME HIM for admitting he takes “no responsibility” for a response to the pandemic; blaming everyone else for his egregious actions and negligent inactions; and blaming and attacking someone in every, EVERY set of remarks, tweets, “speeches” and comments.
BLAME HIM for baiting and challenging armed angry anti-government protesters to march on State Houses; for not denouncing threats of violence and planned attacks of Governors and local, elected leaders; and celebrating gun-toting threats by home (mansion) owners when peaceful protests entered their private neighborhood;
BLAME HIM withdrawing the United States from international peace, climate research, world health research, and other international organizations and accords; for diminishing the United States as a world leader, world power, and world influencer; and instilling fear in every immigrant coming to the U.S. not only for safety but to attend college and join our ranks of scientific and medical researchers.
The list goes on and on – and these are NOT NORMAL. The most extremist of Presidents – conservative or liberal – came no where close to his attacks on and the destruction of the Preamble, The Bill of Rights, respect for law, principles of diplomacy and democracy, and humane and human rights.
And, you are writing on an education blog, one that advocates what is right and good for every child and educator (not some, every). So add to the list “BLAME HIM for modeling mocking individuals with disabilities, releasing crooks and liars and best pals from prison, validating racism, demeaning women, accepting no responsibility for actions that would get a high school kid expelled, denying science, withholding billions of dollars of aid because 10 military bases were losing the names of confederate treasonous leaders, and modeling that misbehavior is to be ignored or applauded.
There are many more reasons to “blame Trump.”
Among them: undermining respect for elections; treating women as sex objects for his pleasure (he who ‘grabs them by the p—-“; attacks the free press as the “enemy of the people” (a phrase previously used by real dictators); writes Tweets, watches TV, and plays golf while Americans suffer and die.
Historians will find nothing good to say about this past four years.
Trump was a laughing stock for decades in NYC, where he was known as a playboy, a narcissist, and an attention-seeker.
Remember he warned us that the 2016 election was “rigged”? That was to set up his excuse for losing.
He owes a huge debt of thanks to James Comey.
I agree with this assessment entirely, and would add one more item: the factor of autocratic indifference (accounting for so much of Trump’s golfing mania and inattention), as explained by journalist Masha Gessen, who knows a thing or two about autocrats and their callousness.
Have you considered counseling for your rage issues? It seems like a lot of hate against one person. YES he is a tremendous power and commands respect due to his common sense and intellegiance……but even I do not believe even HE is capable of all this destruction you accuse him of. Try counseling, seems like a good outlet for you snowFLAKES. Best of luck!
Cindy “YES he is a tremendous power and commands respect due to his common sense and intellegiance…” (sic) Oh, sheesh . . . for a minute I thought you were talking about Trump. Whew.
BTW, who WERE you talking about? CBK
Note to Cindy: Trump is a serial liar and fraud. He commands no respect. No world leader respects him. They think he is a bad joke and a total fool.
“his common sense and intellegiance”
This is the man who thought that injecting disinfectants was a great idea, who couldn’t name a single verse from the Bible, who thought that Alabama was on the East Coast, who believed that stealth planes were actually invisible, who praised the Continental Army for capturing the airports, who suggested that we should nuke hurricanes, who blamed California wildfires on not sweeping the forests, who claimed that windmills cause cancer, who thought that Denmark might be interested in selling Greenland to us, who is notorious for his Toddler English. The word “common” has another definition: unrefined, vulgar, trashy. In that sense, yes, his “sense” is common indeed.
I admire your editorial restraint. 🙂
Thank you, Speduktr.
Whenever Trump speaks before an audience of foreign leaders, they actually LAUGH AT HIM. He’s an utter fool, and the whole world knows it.
Hard to see how sending in the military in the US doesn’t cause some kind of hoarding or stock market drop. What’s Trump’s plan, the siege of Harrisburg?
Ted I don’t know what Trump’s plan is (if there is one). But I do know this: those who are responsible for the Nation had better be ready with several “plan B” scenarios. Knowing Trump, . . . who knows? But I’m reminded of the U.S. Military early in WWII who planned for everything they could think of about what to expect from the Japanese . . . except for kamikazi attacks. CBK
It’s done. Look ahead; not backwards. I think you leftists are scared because you know that Biden/Harris have no clue what to do to move our country forward. COVID has killed all over the world and many countries are facing death and upticks in a mutated virus but it is only Trump’s fault? All the nations were caught unprepared. Can we just move ahead with some ideas of how to fix our country. You just still want to hate. There will be no coup. You know there was fraud because there is always fraud in every election at every level. Everything cannot be the fault of 4 years of Trump. I think the hysterics of supposedly educated people here is sad, indeed. Name-calling and insults— you’re supposed to be teachers? role models? grow up- accept the election and move ahead. Jesus— you won and you STILL can’t get over it??? You’re STILL whining???
I assure you that Biden and Harris have far better ideas about how to move our country forward than Trump, who is an empty suit without a brain or a heart.
Unlike Donald, Biden and Harris have brains, heart, experience, and competence. They have surrounded themselves with qualified people, not sycophants.
They will not step aside and say that whatever happens is not their responsibility.
They will not forego leadership. We will no longer be a headless, heartless and rudderless nation that cares for nothing other than the stock market.
Please let Trump know that the election is over and he lost.
Toni, Toni, Toni Yes, I’m a teacher and I know distorted text and a closed mind when I see one. CBK
Toni Criscuolo:mYou know there was fraud because there is always fraud in every election at every level.
That isn’t true. Trump says this to justify the fact that he lost the election.
I like Diane’s suggestion, “Tell Trump that he lost the election.”
Dr. Mary Trump returned to The View to give her take on her uncle, Donald Trump‘s constant lies about voter fraud since losing the 2020 election. Mary, a psychologist, said she believes that the president will never concede to President-elect Joe Biden, as losing is seen as a “weakness” in the Trump family. “It’s impossible for Donald to believe that he lost,” Mary told the co-hosts on the December 3 episode. “He’s never had to be in a situation in which he can’t somehow turn that loss into a win.”
Several actual cases of voter fraud were identified in Pennsylvania.
All of the frauds were Trump voters.
In this case, a man cast votes on behalf of deal relatives: For Trump!
https://www.inquirer.com/news/bruce-bartman-election-fraud-delaware-county-20201221.html
GET OVER IT?
Are you “over” 9/11?
Are you “over” VietNam?
Katrina?
Columbine? Newtown? Las Vegas? Oklahoma City?
How many people have to die to put in the it’s okay to “get over it” category.
Is the McCain family “over” the president’s gross disrespect?
Are the women “over” his NDAs?
Is the disabled reporter “over” the visual humiliation by this man?
Is the military “over” him calling POWs losers?
Are the family and colleagues and most Americans “over” the president’s absence at John Lewis’s memorials and stating “good people on both sides” of the bridge the Honorable Mr. Lewis was beaten on
The more I read comments like these the more I understand Jim Jones.
“ALL NATIONS WERE UNPREPARED.”
That’s c*#p!
In December, China announced albeit brief that there was a virus in Wuhan that was being transmitted by healthy people. Hence Covid-19 (as in 2019 – not because it happened 18 times before as the WH declared).
In January, Dr. Li wrote extensively in Wuhan, was censored, and later died of the disease.
In February, the first US case appeared in Washington State.
If you want to applaud the president’s ONE action, banning travel from China, go for it. Since then he not only DID NOTHING – he made it worse.
He was NOT CAUGHT OFF GUARD in March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December and last Friday.
Stop rationalizing and stop the naïve “move forward” crud.
You think it’s all about “gee, you won and gee, he lost.” NO!
DO YOU READ the responses to your posts?
Fraud in every election? Yeh, they found about 10 incidents of single voters trying to vote twice in this election. 50 Courts including the Supreme Court threw out his phony claims. He still spews lies.
This is not name calling or insults. THESE ARE FACTS and things he has said and done ON TAPE – openly – and with a big grin on his face.
Wait, What? What you said. CBK
What about the boxes and boxes of pre-marked ballots that mysteriously appeared in the counting places? And what about the video-documented cases of vote counts being “transferred” from Trump to Biden, on national TV???
Completely fraudulent. You criminals just deny it but you know the truth. Biden STOLE THIS ELECTION WHOLESALE!!!!!!!!!! And it will not stand.
Phil Wagner If that was legitimate evidence–meaning it really did happen–why didn’t the lawyers bring it to court? And if they did, do you think all of those judges who threw out all of those cases, some of which were Trump appointees, rejected good evidence because they were ALL politically motivated?
Really? CBK
There are few leftists on this blog. Don’t confuse liberals with the left.
I am not a radical or a leftist. I am a liberal.
Oh, Dienne! Now that is the deepest cut of all! LMAO!
Now, Dienne, could you please come up and lead us all in a few verses of the Internationale?
C’est l’éruption de la fin!
For the record? I don’t identify as a leftist. That said, one needn’t be a leftist to find Donald Trump a social, personal, political and economic catastrophe.
Just sayin’.
I think it is extreme to keep obsessing about Trump, rather than looking ahead. I have no confidence that the Dems or Reps have a plan to bring us forward so it is a diversion to keep foaming at the mouth over a president who is on the way out..
Where’s the great plans of the Dems now that they are in the White House? Who is being named to cabinet??— the same old tired corporate pawns. You are fooling yourself if you think just removing one person solves everything or anything.
Toni,
I don’t think that the election of Biden “solves everything,” but it will solve something. It will replace fools, sycophants, idiots, racists, and people intent on destroying the federal government with thoughtful, intelligent, responsible and experienced people. That is a HUGE improvement. Instead of putting people who want to eliminate “environmental protection” in charge of the EPA, Biden has appointed someone who actually wants to protect the environment. Imagine that! Instead of putting someone in charge of the Interior Department who wants to turn our national parks into sites for drilling oil wells and for fracking, Biden has appointed someone who wants to preserve our natural heritage. Isn’t that amazing! Instead of appointing a billionaire who loves religious schools and despises public schools in charge of the Department of Education, he has appointed an actual public school educator. That’s a real change, don’t you agree? One more big change: Biden won’t toady up to Putin and Kim and other dictators. He will rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and the World Health Organization. He will stop insulting our European friends and reach out to them. That’s a huge change.
What Diane said! xoxoxo
Toni Criscuolo. Are you a teacher of US History in public school?
Tony C: when you used the phrase “you leftists” you showed your hand. Arguments without facts need labels. Stick to facts. As a historian, I would suggest that history shows that there has never been a culture that “got over” feeling wronged.
Deep in the history of reformation France, the St Bartholemew’s Day massacre was an incident where one group killed thousands of Hugenots. My sister-in-law, growing up in post World War II France, learned the tale through a story. A people never quits feeling wronged.
Trust lies at the base of representative government. No one who undermines someone’s trust in the system is ever forgotten. Historians continue to re-interpret the big stories of American history precisely because each person sees a different narrative that defines who we are and who we want to be.
If you really wanted us to “move forward,” you would be worried about peaceful transfer of power. We should all worry about that every time a transition takes place. When will the American Republic become the American Empire? When will we have to beat back our Ceasar?
It’s Caesar….
I think there comes a point where we have to move forward but I believe that there are those whose purposes are served to constantly look back and be aggrieved and a mad desire to just be right all the time. The concerns about the Trump Administration have be catastrophized so that there can be no thought given to how to fix what was wrong and find a right path. No attention to anything that may have been right for us. This is the ploy of extremists on both the left and the right. Your wish to see everyone in black and white as a monolithic “other” is much too simplistic for these times. Your glee to pin the label of “conservative” or “rightist” or whatever on me shows how little you are prepared to move forward. You don’t want to get over something? Then don’t, but could you let the rest of us move ahead? Diane Ravitch has let this conversation veer completely away from education and into just bashing of the previous administration— it is partisan , it is simplistic, and it feeds into the terror that some are feeling about everything. I have confidence that our Republic can survive this– why don’t you all? Is it because you sense that that both parties are more the same than different and they do not know what to do other than line their own pockets and the pockets of their friends? I am sick to death of both parties! They are leading us astray and if the teachers can’t even see this; then I WILL BE concerned for the future of my country.
Sydney, Australia was closed down to the rest of Australia after ONLY 129 became infected. How many Americans are infected and the governors of those states do nothing…following the leadership of FREEDOM put out by Trump.
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-55471235
Toni C Why do you keep talking like Trump is “over”? He’s NOT DONE YET. Read the headlines even today (duh). Thanks for the advice. I’m sure it’s well-meaning. But no thanks.
My guess is that many (maybe you?) are so embarrassed about having supported Trump, that they just want to bury it QUICK! in a “past” that is not even past yet . . . which in my view is just more of the same delusional thinking we’ve seen all along. I would suggest that they find their way back to reality.
The state of the parties is another question altogether. (We do have Hitler as a cautionary tale . . . the party apparatus that was present during his early time.) My view is that changing parties, structures, or names only avoids the more concrete human problems of biases, corruption, and short-sightedness . . . we just end up moving the same corrupt junk into another organization albeit with a “new” and different name. And btw, we don’t need any more disruptions at present. CBK
Toni,
It’s my blog and I post what I want. If the blog offends you, don’t read it.
I’ve never lived in a nation with a president who longed to be a fascist dictator. That matters to me.
“Your glee to pin the label of “conservative” or “rightist” or whatever on me shows how little you are prepared to move forward.”
Aren’t you the one who referred to the posters on this blog as “you leftists” earlier?
Mr. Criscuolo, this organization of concerned attorneys has been compiling a list of the extremely dangerous undertakings that the Trump maladministration is carrying out RIGHT NOW. The evil that men do lives after them,
https://www.law.nyu.edu/centers/state-impact/midnight-watch
It’s a long, long list, and it totally refutes the argument you are making.
Vlad’s Agent Orange, Moscow’s Asset Governing America is CURRENTLY doing a lot of damage, and we shall be living with the damage he has done for a long, long time. Lord knows how much he has compromised our national security. And RIGHT NOW, he is undermining the faith in the democratic system of those in his base base and continuing to undermine faith in journalism with his continual lies about “fake news.”
All of this imperils us as a nation.
Vlad and his buddies must be chuckling in the Kremlin right now. Their enormous investment in the Idiot paid off handsomely. The damage is incalculable and includes hundreds of thousands of Americans who died but didn’t have to.
cx: this organization of concerned Attorneys General
Biden says Trump’s refusal to concede is “incredibly damaging” and “totally irresponsible”
I do not think Trump will stop as long as he has even a few enablers in Congress, in his administration, and those he appointed to run departments of the federal government like the DOD.
With that said, if it comes down to Trump making one final attempt to overthrow the government with a coup by invoking the Insurrection Act to mobilize the military, Trump will have one last obstacle, the U.S. military’s officer core starting with the Joint Chiefs.
In August, The Military Times published “Trump’s popularity slips in latest Military Times poll — and more troops say they’ll vote for Biden”
“The splits between officer and enlisted views within the poll are notable. More than 59 percent of officers said they have a poor view of the president, with more than half saying they strongly disapprove.
“Among enlisted respondents, 47 percent said they have an unfavorable view, and nearly 39 percent a favorable view. Enlisted views of Trump’s performance in office have consistently been more favorable than those of officers in the poll over the last four years.”
https://www.militarytimes.com/news/pentagon-congress/2020/08/31/as-trumps-popularity-slips-in-latest-military-times-poll-more-troops-say-theyll-vote-for-biden/
Just because Trump’s appointed loyalists in the DOD order the military to do something doesn’t mean the officers will obey, because they do not have to obey the president when it comes to their oath, which is similar to the same Oath George Washington took when he became the first president.
“I ___, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; that I take this obligation freely, without any mental reservation or purpose of evasion; and that I will well and faithfully discharge the duties of the office on which I am about to enter. So help me God.”
https://www.army.mil/values/officers.html
Where in that Oath does it say that officers must blindly obey the president tor his appointed loyalists if those officers think those orders are a threat to the U.S. Constitution?
And that is what the Top US general told Congress, that the military will play a role in the 2020 election.
“The Constitution and laws of the US and the states establish procedures for carrying out elections, and for resolving disputes over the outcome of elections … I do not see the US military as part of this process,” Milley said in a letter released on Friday responding to questions from two members of the House Armed Services Committee.
“In the event of a dispute over some aspect of the elections, by law U.S. courts and the U.S. Congress are required to resolve any disputes, not the U.S. Military,” Milley added.
“I believe deeply in the principle of an apolitical U.S. military,” Milley wrote.
https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/28/politics/milley-2020-election/index.html
How many officers would Trump have to fire to find the first one that would be loyal to him and not the U.S. Constitution, and would the troops obey that officer?
It seems New Zealand was well-prepared. Their leader announced a total lockdown & sealed the borders (which are still sealed). The tourism industry has suffered, but the people of New Zealand have not…because they had a real leader in charge. NZ has a population (6/20) of 5,084,300; to date, they have had 2,144 cases, w/2,069 recovered & 25 deaths; 48 cases reported between 12/13-12/26. In comparison, So. Carolina, state population of 5,148,714–298,000 cases; 5,173 deaths; Alabama: 4,903,185 pop., 348,000 cases, 4,712 deaths; Minnesota: 5,639,632 population, 410,000 covid cases, 5,219 deaths. Telling…
& this: a reporter asked a British doctor if he thinks we in the “U.S. should be concerned” about the new, faster spreading strain of the virus. (I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help but laugh at the stupidity of that question.)
He fairly blasted out, “YES, we should all be VERY concerned!” Of course, other countries closed their borders. NOT the U.S. (Gov. Cuomo had a fit, & rightly so.) it45 was too busy concentrating on how to not be not reelected, & also how to win its golf game.
Oh, yes, the U.S. finally closed the border to all U.K. flights yesterday or the day before?
But–since then–France has now found the new strain.
WHO is STILL the U.S. President?! How many more will be sickened & die due to it45’s latest blunder?
Rest assured, if it bothers to even address the people, it45 will Tweet, “But i stopped the China flu! I closed the borders to China!”
Trump has obviously made the pandemic worse than it would have been had we had someone with a respect for science in office.
But i must say that Trump is not completely to blame for how bad things are in the US.
A large swath of the American public that undoubtedly includes many Democrats simply don’t take the pandemic seriously.
Some of my siblings and their children who are adamant Trump critics continue to do highly risky things like go to restaurants and gyms, despite my telling them of the dangers.
Many Americans seem to believe it won’t affect them.
Just look at the millions of people who traveled on airlines during the holidays, despite the pleas of Fauci and others to stay home.
We really are a nation of idiots.
You’re right, SDP.
Idiots & selfish people, as well.
Speaking of IDIOTS and selfish [stupid] people, the Tea Party Daily says the election hasn’t been decided yet. This has already gone before the Supreme Court. There is no evidence of fraud is what I think.
…………………………………….
Conservative Confidence In A Strong And Thriving Nation
Never before has America seen such a controversial and dramatic presidential election. Sure, there have been a few that topped the record books, but I think we have to admit, none can compare to that of 2020.
We knew it would be different from the get-go, what with the novel COVID pandemic being on the loose and all. But I doubt anyone could have quite guessed it would turn out this way.
And by “turn out,” I mean still somewhat undecided .
Here we are about a month past the election, and it seems we are no closer to learning the truth of who our rightful president should be. And we are quickly running out of time, which is precisely why some have suggested that the matter be brought before the Supreme Court.
As our highest court, wouldn’t it make sense just to let them decide who our president should be?
We’d like to know what you think.
Do you feel the Supreme Court should decide the 2020 election?
Let us know by taking
our national poll today.
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Who knew there were so many civic illiterates?
Diane “Who knew there were so many civic illiterates?”
Would it be “conspirator-theoristy” to suggest that political ignorance of the electorate has been a part of the plan of neo-liberals, religious zealots, and corporatologists for several decades now? “Keep the slaves busy feeding their families, protecting their employment, and remaining overwrought by their work to pay attention while the whole ship was going down.” Like the good horses in “Animal Farm.”
Also, many educators, especially in the humanities fields (including history and philosophy) have been feeling the whole-person rug being pulled out from under education, us, and our students for a very long time, but were scattershot about it; we were unbelieving that it could be so (No! doesn’t EVERYONE want ALL the children to understand their political situation, like we do?!) and, even if we understood its reach, we didn’t have the collective voice or power to do anything about it except shout from the sidelines while we made an abbreviated living, and while the bells and whistles of STEM, Gates, oligarchs, racists, and “reformers” went by in the parade. Or perhaps, we really were too busy doing what we knew was good, but didn’t catch on to the overview . . to see the counter-educational (civics, etc.) movement as long-term, deliberate, and concerted . . . as with ALEC and other oligarchical groups.
If so, then teachers are at fault only if we keep our heads buried in the sand. CBK
Toni
I repeat: If someone told you in February that an attack was being planned on the United States that would kill 330,000 Americans – and the president not only did nothing, he joked about it and dismissed experts with evidence – do you think it would be worthwhile to “look backwards” at that for a while?
No other president or radical, left or right, has put the Constitution, the United States, and decency at risk as this man has.
You say “move on.”
I say: Where are the cracks in the system that allows one person, ONE, almost topple our system of government and principles upon which it was founded?
If 70 million people think this guy’s issues are no big deal, then we’ve got bigger problems ahead.
Obviously you’ve never taught. Here’s Education 101 for you.
What do you want kids to know and be able to do?
How will you teach it so they learn it?
How will you know if they learned it or not?
WHAT DO YOU DO IF THEY DIDN”T LEARN IT? (hint, go back and find out why)
Or if you did, maybe the author of “The Geranium On The Windowsill Just Died But Teacher You Went Right On” had teachers like you in mind.
Heck, why did we bother with The Warren Commission, The FBIs 4 volumes on Columbine, The 9/11 Commission Report? Why look back? Fewer people died in those incidents than those killed by Covid (after the president had his one proud moment – stopping flights from China)
You think this blog has shifted to being about the president and politics and not education. There are still columns about reading, testing, professionalism, innovation and other topics – yes – not as many.
Right now talking about the Reading Wars is like rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
Wait, What? You commented to TONI: “You think this blog has shifted to being about the president and politics and not education.”
If TONI thinks focusing on politics on this blog diverts away from education then, like so many others, he reveals that he doesn’t understand the relationship of education to its political base . . . in this case for democracy, its even more important.
TONI: Think of the politics-TO-education relationship as you would the relationship of the foundations of a house TO its rooms, roof, walls, etc.
If you don’t “get” that relationship, then you will continue to think WE are off-the-mark on this blog in talking about the current president and political issues.
And BTW that’s the same problem with so many so-called “reformers.” They exhibit a view that sees everything under the sun as capitalistic and so as transactional-only. So they go about their work as if public institutions are in competition with profit-making corporations (for them, the only possible view, of course) and so must be turned into for-profit corporations or erased from the culture. Such thinking is not only ignorant and short-sighted, it leads to delusion and, in the long run if not the short, is dangerous.
Toni might want to try a little re-think. Just a suggestion. CBK
Diane Ravitch is the undisputed de facto leader of the Counterdeformation in US education. But she is also a citizen who loves her country, and like many of us, she is disturbed by some 40 percent of the country being willing to join a fascist cult of personality in the form of Glorious Leader Who Shines More Orange than Does the Sun. To be silent at a time like this, Mr. Criscuolo, would be Vichy complicity,
Trump is still pushing the idea of investigating voter fraud. What an demented IDIOT.
But Mr. Trump has been laser-focused on getting Congress to investigate “the very substantial voter fraud which took place,” an assertion he has repeated contrary to considerable evidence
McConnell suggests Senate may consider $2,000 stimulus checks, along with voter security and tech protections.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, on Tuesday sidestepped a push to increase stimulus checks to $2,000, saying instead that the Senate would “begin a process” to consider bigger payments, along with two of President Trump’s other demands: protecting election security and removing some legal protections for technology companies.
Mr. McConnell did not elaborate further on how exactly the Senate would move to consider Mr. Trump’s demands, which the president made on Sunday after finally agreeing to sign a $900 billion stimulus package and government spending bill into law. Mr. Trump had held the package hostage for days, insisting that lawmakers triple the direct payments to $2,000 from $600, remove a legal shield for companies like YouTube and Facebook and investigate ”very substantial voter fraud.”
The president relented only after Republican lawmakers persuaded him to sign the legislation, saying on Sunday that he had been promised Congress would take up his demands.
Mr. McConnell’s remarks came as a growing number of Republican senators voiced support for the larger checks, and as pressure mounted on the Senate to vote on the measure.
Calling for an immediate vote, Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the minority leader, attempted to pass the measure to increase the size of the checks using a procedural tactic that allows senators to advance legislation unless another senator objects. Mr. McConnell blocked the measure.
“Senate Democrats strongly support $2,000 checks. Even President Trump supports $2,000 checks,” Mr. Schumer said. “There’s one question left today: Do Senate Republicans join with the rest of America in supporting $2,000 checks?”
But Mr. McConnell’s decision to link all of Mr. Trump’s demands together could doom any chance of passage. While Democrats all support larger checks, they are unlikely to endorse a hasty overhaul of the legal shield currently in place for social media companies, especially measures put forward by Republican senators aimed at confronting what they believe is anti-conservative bias.
Democrats are also likely to resist anything that could be seen as trying to undermine the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, as Mr. Trump has suggested. Mr. McConnell, who has privately urged his members not to object to the election results when Congress meets on Jan. 6 to ratify them, portrayed the president’s request as “exploring further ways to protect the sanctity of American ballots.” But Mr. Trump has been laser-focused on getting Congress to investigate “the very substantial voter fraud which took place,” an assertion he has repeated contrary to considerable evidence…
Carolmalaysia Leave it to Mitch McConnell to play politics with the well-being of the American people. It seem he cannot even THINK in terms other than transactional. He’s just like Trump in that regard . . . he just keeps heaping dirt on the cake. CBK
As we write: there are election protection experts looking at McConnell’s #s in KY, & the #s don’t add up: “BUSTED? Why the Numbers Behind Mitch McConnell’s Re-Election Don’t Add Up”–
https://www.rawstory.com/2020/12/why-the-numbers-behind-mitch-mcconnells-re-election-dont-add-up/
Very interesting…
I thought there was no voter fraud.
I have no idea other than by following the vast majority of reports by people who know what they are talking about. Then again, I have not seen evidence that anyone has challenged results where Republicans won. I do wonder why anomalous voting patterns in Kentucky have not been examined by election judges from both parties (or whoever should be examining these results). As far as has been reported, any alleged anomalies have so far been rejected through recounts where Republicans have been doing the challenging. I assume someone has to challenge results; why the Democrats haven’t done so in Kentucky I don’t know.
Aaannnnddd–mentioning again–lindsay graham has been awfully quiet (except, maybe, on the golf course) lately. Staying under the radar because, perhaps (hopefully) he’ll face sedition charges for interfering w/the GA elections?
This is off topic, but is of concern to anyone who is a teacher.
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3:41 p.m.: About 2,000 CPS staff members due back at school Monday asked for COVID-19 accommodations. Most were denied.
Seven thousand teachers and staff are due to report to Chicago Public Schools buildings Monday, but the district has denied accommodations or leave to the majority of educators who applied — particularly those who said a household member is vulnerable to COVID-19.
A CPS spokeswoman Tuesday said the district will provide weekly COVID-19 testing for those who live with high-risk household members and is working to provide exemptions to employees who serve as primary caregivers for individuals with a medical condition.
But a lawyer for the Chicago Teachers Union, which has repeatedly criticized the district’s reopening plan and threatened “collective action,” said the numbers show that many educators are being forced to choose between their safety and livelihood and that many cannot afford to sacrifice their jobs. Most of those permitted to take leave are doing so without pay, CTU Deputy General Counsel Thad Goodchild said.
”CPS has denied about 60% of the leave and accommodations requests of our members to which they responded, even as CPS has a back-load of hundreds of requests to which they’ve failed to respond,” he said in a written statement.
. — Elyssa Cherney
Two million children in the U.S. have tested positive.
Two million children in the United States had tested positive for infection with the coronavirus as of Dec. 24, one million of them just since Nov. 12, according to data gathered by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
Severe illness among children is still rare, but the numbers indicate a worrying trend in the proportion of children becoming infected. Children now make up 12.4 percent of the total cases in the country, based on age distributions of diagnoses in 49 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and Guam. In 11 states, children account for 15 percent or more of total cases.
But states define a child in various ways. The upper limit for a child’s age varies from 14 to 20 years, and some states have adjusted the ranges during the course of the pandemic, making direct comparisons difficult.
Nearly 400,000 children were diagnosed in the two weeks leading up to Dec. 24. It’s unclear why the number has risen so sharply over the past few weeks. Family gatherings during the Thanksgiving holiday and increased testing among children may have contributed…
Trump brings out the STUPID in people. Hope the GOP’ers in Georgia who LOVE Trump do stay home on election day. The Senate needs two more Democrats.
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How Richard Jewell’s Lawyer Became a Pro-Trump Conspiracy Theorist
The defamation lawyer L. Lin Wood has transformed into a fierce advocate for President Trump whose error-riddled lawsuits have promoted falsehoods about election fraud.
L. Lin Wood had a message from God to deliver.
“Don’t believe the media. They’re liars,” the celebrity defamation lawyer declared in October at a gathering of evangelicals in Atlanta.
Then he vowed, “We’re going to take them down,” bringing the crowd to its feet.
Mr. Wood’s speech to a packed ballroom at the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s annual conference was a preview of the role he would soon play as one of the most relentless promoters of President Trump’s conspiracy theories and baseless claims about election fraud.
It is a turn that has surprised many former associates of the theatrical lawyer, whom Dan Rather once described as “the attorney for the damned” for his roster of high-profile clients like Richard A. Jewell, who was wrongly suspected of setting off a bomb at the Atlanta Olympics, and the parents of JonBenet Ramsey, the 6-year-old whose murder became a tabloid frenzy.
But Mr. Wood has reinvented himself into an extreme Trump advocate, one who has found fame among Mr. Trump’s supporters not because he is good at notching victories for the president, but because he will amplify Mr. Trump’s wildest accusations and dive head first into the culture wars.
Mr. Wood’s lawsuits seeking to undo the election in Georgia and to ask the Supreme Court to overturn votes in other key states have been soundly rejected by judges and riddled with errors, including a misspelling of his own name.
Still, many Republicans have grown worried that Mr. Wood is harming the party’s chances of holding the Senate. His repeated suggestion that people should sit out the Georgia runoff elections to punish Republicans who weren’t sufficiently supportive of Mr. Trump led Newt Gingrich to condemn Mr. Wood as “totally destructive.” The editor of National Review described him as “an exceptionally talented demagogue.”
Ralph Reed, the chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition and a veteran of Georgia politics, said that control of the Senate was too important to squander.
“I like Lin. I think he’s a very brilliant guy and a first-class litigator,” Mr. Reed said. “But the stakes of the Senate races are too high to use them as a platform to express outrage about the results of the presidential election.”…
Mr. Wood’s recent clients have included highly polarizing figures like Marjorie Taylor Greene, who supports the QAnon hoax and was recently elected to Congress; Mark and Patricia McCloskey, the St. Louis couple who brandished weapons at demonstrators outside their house; and Kyle Rittenhouse, the teenager charged with fatally shooting two protesters in Kenosha, Wis. He is also representing Nicholas Sandmann, a student whose encounter with a Native American protester made national news, in his libel suit against The New York Times.
Before the former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn raised the possibility with Mr. Trump of declaring martial law, the notion of enlisting the military to oversee a do-over of the election was an idea that Mr. Wood had floated in interviews with right-wing media…
Why in the world would ANYONE admire Trump? Maybe he is admired because he supposedly has money, can fly anywhere, has power and can hit on women.
He received an approval rating of only 39%. That is not something to admire. GROSS!!!
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Trump, Michelle Obama ‘most admired’ in poll
Donald Trump was named “most admired” man of 2020 in a new Gallup poll that left Democrats diving up mentions.
Former first lady Michelle Obama won the title of most admired woman for the third year in a row. according to the annual poll released Tuesday.
Trump managed his first solo No. 1 finish despite his dismal 39% job approval rating due to his dominance of the GOP, Gallup said…
http://digitaledition.chicagotribune.com/infinity/article_share.aspx?guid=921c1d97-d3b1-4417-bd3b-db0230b82c41
Triumph of the ID.
In this case, the Id is theIdiot.
Yet more pardons to come from Trump. Could he be promising pardons for what amounts to sedition from those he has appointed in the Pentagon for supporting a military style coup. What I do know is that Trump has an awful lot of (criminal) birds coming home to roost on January 20th, some state crimes which are not pardonable. He is looking at years behind bars with his kids for company. He is capable of the unthinkable – a man who golfs while Americans die of COVID 19 – lowest of the low . Leader? Definitely, if leaders lead from the back.
I am afraid of violence here. If he tells this mob of his cultists to march into the Electioral College certification and take control, some if them will do it.
Feeding this anger with more lies is going to get someone killed.
A new Congresswoman from Colorado says she will bring her Glock to Congress. Democrats should wear bullet proof vests
Thank goodness Trump was stupid enough to think how mask wearing was ONLY about getting votes. It is totally possible that if he had showed any compassion or intelligence about the necessity of wearing a mask more people would have voted for him. Thousands of Americans are suffering or dead due to his self-centered ignorance.
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Trump’s Focus as the Pandemic Raged: What Would It Mean for Him?
By Michael D. Shear, Maggie Haberman, Noah Weiland, Sharon LaFraniere and Mark Mazzetti
Dec. 31, 2020
President Trump missed his chance to show that he could rise to the moment in the final chapter of his presidency and meet the defining challenge of his tenure.
…With the pandemic defining the campaign despite Mr. Trump’s efforts to make it about law and order, Tony Fabrizio, the president’s main pollster, came to the Oval Office for a meeting in the middle of the summer prepared to make a surprising case: that mask wearing was acceptable even among Mr. Trump’s supporters.
Arrayed in front of the Resolute Desk, Mr. Trump’s advisers listened as Mr. Fabrizio presented the numbers. According to his research, some of which was reported by The Washington Post, voters believed the pandemic was bad and getting worse, they were more concerned about getting sick than about the virus’s effects on their personal financial situation, the president’s approval rating on handling the pandemic had hit new lows and a little more than half the country did not think he was taking the situation seriously.
But what set off debate that day was Mr. Fabrizio’s finding that more than 70 percent of voters in the states being targeted by the campaign supported mandatory mask wearing in public, at least indoors, including a majority of Republicans.
Mr. Kushner, who along with Hope Hicks, another top adviser, had been trying for months to convince Mr. Trump that masks could be portrayed as the key to regaining freedom to go safely to a restaurant or a sporting event, called embracing mask-wearing a “no-brainer.”
Mr. Kushner had some reason for optimism. Mr. Trump had agreed to wear one not long before for a visit to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, after finding one he believed he looked good in: dark blue, with a presidential seal.
But Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff — backed up by other aides including Stephen Miller — said the politics for Mr. Trump would be devastating.
“The base will revolt,” Mr. Meadows said, adding that he was not sure Mr. Trump could legally make it happen in any case.
That was all Mr. Trump needed to hear. “I’m not doing a mask mandate,” he concluded.
Aside from when he was sick, he was rarely seen in a mask again…
The pope has criticized people who ‘refuse to wear masks”..commenting that they move in “their own little world of interests”. Trump should have listened to Pope Francis instead of Steve Miller.
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Pope criticizes people going on holiday to avoid Covid-19 lockdowns
Rome (CNN) — Pope Francis has condemned people who traveled abroad for a vacation and avoid Covid-19 lockdowns, adding that holidaymakers were not considering the effect of their actions on others.
The pontiff said Sunday he was “saddened” by news reports claiming that people were flying abroad to have fun amid the pandemic.
“They are good people, but they didn’t think about those who were staying at home, of the economic problems of many people who have been hit hard by the lockdown, of the sick people,” Pope Francis said Sunday.
“[They thought] only about going on holiday and having fun. This pained me a lot,” the Pope said at the end of his Sunday Angelus prayer.
Pope Francis held his Sunday prayers from the Apostolic Palace library, rather than from the usual window overlooking St. Peter’s Square where crowds would usually gather, in order to limit the spread of the virus.
Many countries around the world are facing renewed lockdowns and travel restrictions, with 84 million people now infected by the virus. At least 1.83 million people have died, according to figures from Johns Hopkins University.
Renewing his best wishes for the New Year, Pope Francis said: “What each of us — and all of us together — can do is commit ourselves a little more to take care of each other and of what was created, our common home.”
In the past, the Pope has also criticized people who refuse to wear masks or who protest against coronavirus restrictions, commenting that they move in “their own little world of interests.”…
https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/pope-flying-covid-intl-scli/index.html
Operation Warp Speed had nothing to do with the creation of a vaccine but it did allow Trump to blast out how great he is. “Operation Warp Speed is one of Donald Trump’s greatest accomplishments.”
“Operation Warp Speed is on track to distribute 20 Million doses of Coronavirus Vaccine by next week.” Really?
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RenewedRight.com
Mike Pence shut down Joe Biden’s biggest lie with these seven words
Joe Biden is running around claiming to be President-elect.
In that capacity, Biden is trying to usurp some of Donald Trump’s authority.
And Mike Pence shut down Joe Biden’s biggest lie with these seven words.
Operation Warp Speed is one of Donald Trump’s greatest accomplishments.
The administration delivered an effective coronavirus vaccine before the end of the year and ahead of schedule.
But now the Fake News Media is trying to rewrite history to give Joe Biden credit for the vaccine if Biden becomes President by claiming the pace at which states are administering the vaccine is falling behind schedule.
Biden set up this narrative by falsely claiming Operation Warp Speed was falling behind schedule because just 2 million Americans had been vaccinated.
“As I long feared and warned, the effort to distribute and administer the vaccine is not progressing as it should,” Biden added.
Biden then baselessly claimed the pace of vaccinations would proceed at the current rate alleging “it’s going to take years, not months, to vaccinate the American people.”
Vice President Mike Pence fired back in a Tweet ripping Biden by pointing out the facts about Operation Warp Speed and that “this is no time for playing politics.”
“Operation Warp Speed is on track to distribute 20 Million doses of Coronavirus Vaccine by next week. Millions of Americans have been vaccinated and we are working with States every day to vaccinate millions more. This is no time for playing politics!” the Vice President wrote on social media.
It’s not Operation Warp Speed’s job to administer vaccinations.
Operation Warp Speed’s only responsibility was to produce a vaccine and deliver it to the states.
It met both of those goals – in record time – despite the Fake News Media, Dr. Fauci, and Biden’s naysaying.
States were supposed to submit vaccination plans by November 1 and it was on the Governors and state health officials to ensure their populations take the vaccine.
Renewed Right will keep you up-to-date on any new developments in this ongoing story.
FOCUS: Worse Than Treason …the majority of the Republican Party is advocating for the overthrow of an American election.”
Tom Nichols, The Atlantic
Excerpt: “No amount of rationalizing can change the fact that the majority of the Republican Party is advocating for the overthrow of an American election.”
…This is sedition, plain and simple. No amount of playacting and rationalizing can change the fact that the majority of the Republican Party and its apologists are advocating for the overthrow of an American election and the continued rule of a sociopathic autocrat.
This is not some handful of firebrands making a stand for the television cameras. In 2005, one Democrat in the House and one in the Senate filed an objection to counting Ohio’s electoral votes, while insisting that they were not contesting the outcome of the presidential election itself. In 2017, a handful of Democratic members of the House objected to the electoral count. Because they lacked support in the Senate, then–Vice President Biden ruled the representatives out of order and declared, “It is over.” In both cases, the Democratic candidate had already conceded.
Today, the “sedition caucus” includes at least 140 members of the House—that is, some two-thirds of the House GOP membership—and at least 10 members of the Senate. Their challenge comes after weeks of insistence that the 2020 election was rigged, plagued by fraud, and even subverted by foreign powers. The president and his minions have filed, and lost, scores of lawsuits that ranged from minor disputes over process to childlike, error-filled briefs full of bizarre assertions.
Instead of threatening to gavel these objections into irrelevance, as Biden did four years ago, Vice President Mike Pence “welcomes” these challenges. Pence’s career is finished, but he could have stood for the Constitution he claims to love and which he swore to defend. However, cowardice is contagious, and no mask was thick enough to protect Pence from the pathogen of fear.
Perhaps the sedition caucus didn’t mean to go this far. Its members began by arguing that we all just needed to humor President Trump, to give him time to process the loss, and to treat the president of the United States as a toddler who was going home empty-handed. He wouldn’t be a dead-ender, they assured us, because that would be too humiliating. The Republican Party would never immolate itself for a proven loser.
But for Trump, there is no such thing as too much humiliation. The only shame in Trump world lies in admitting defeat. And so Trump doubled down, as anyone who had watched him for more than 10 minutes knew he would. And then he tripled, quadrupled, quintupled down. And just as they have done for the past four years, elected Republicans tried to convince themselves that if they supported this outrage, it would be the last time they would be required to surrender their dignity; that this betrayal of the Constitution would be the last treachery demanded of them. That if they complied one more time, they would be allowed to go back to their privileged lives far from the districts they claim to represent—places few of them really want to live after tasting life in the Emerald City.
It is possible that the sedition caucus knew that all these challenges would fail. It is possible that they know their last insult to American democracy, on Wednesday, will go nowhere, as well. This is irrelevant: Engaging in sedition for insincere reasons does not make it less hideous. Arguing that you betrayed the Constitution only as theater is no defense.
Indeed, shredding the Constitution purely for personal gain is perhaps the worst of the sins of the sedition caucus. It would almost be a relief to know that these Republicans really believe what they’re trying to sell, that they are genuine fanatics and ideologues who have at least paid us the respect of pitting their sincere beliefs against our own.
But we are, in the main, dealing with people who are far worse than true believers. The Republican Party is infested with craven opportunists, the kind of people who will try to tell us later that they were “just asking questions,” that they were “defending the process,” and of course, that they were merely representing “the will of the people.” Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz are not idiots. These are men who understand perfectly well what they are doing. Senator Mitt Romney sees it clearly, noting that his GOP colleagues are engaged in “an egregious ploy” to “enhance political ambition.”…
https://readersupportednews.org/opinion2/277-75/67102-focus-worse-than-treason
This is good news. Money talks in this country.
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NYT:
More than 170 business leaders urged Congress to confirm President-elect Joe Biden’s election victory.
“Attempts to thwart or delay this process run counter to the essential tenets of our democracy,” they said in a statement as Congress prepares to meet on Wednesday to certify the results of the presidential election.
Included in the list of signers were chief executives from many of America’s largest businesses including Microsoft, Pfizer, BlackRock, Lyft and Apollo Global Management.
The challenge to Mr. Biden’s decisive victory in the Electoral College, undertaken by dozens of Republicans in the House and Senate, has sowed deep divisions in the party’s ranks, even though it has no chance of succeeding.
Thom Hartmann has nailed Trump….Trump is a career criminal, and he has surrounded himself with career criminals.
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How the Supreme Court set up the authoritarian takeover of America
Jan. 4, 2021 4:20 pm
By Thom Hartmann .
Donald Trump’s phone call to Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is the latest illustration of his lifelong criminality. Over the last 40 years, career criminals like Trump have increasingly moved out of the business world and the streets and into politics, something for which we can thank the Supreme Court.
There are, among us, a small number of individuals who are career criminals. They have literally spent their entire lives skirting or outright breaking the law, and not only believe the law doesn’t apply to them, but actually delight in getting away with their crimes.
Because all of us have, at one time or another in our lives, broken a law or told lies, we tend to assume that these career criminals are just like us but only got caught in that one unlucky moment, like that time you drove home after a second glass of wine, or made up an excuse to tell your boss.
But they’re not like you and me. There’s something fundamentally different about these people. And the failure to recognize that goes to the core of the crisis within the Republican Party and our overall political system today.
Back when I was in my early 20s, I got a job as a manager of a GNC store in a mall in Okemos, Michigan. There was a test that I had to give to all job applicants to determine their “honesty.”
The test asked really weird questions, along the lines of:
“One of your very best employees just came to you to return some money to the till, money that she had borrowed from the till because a few months back she needed it to help pay for an emergency medical procedure for her child. She has saved up to pay the money back, and is now trying to do so. What do you do?”
Or: “Your mother just called and told to you that she’s been shoplifting at the local store when her food stamps run out and your younger sister is really hungry. What do you do?”
The test, from a national testing chain, went on with 20 or 30 similar questions. In almost every case, the only correct answer to the multiple choice test was, “call the police and send them to jail.”
I protested to my district manager, saying that I would’ve flunked the test, or would’ve had to lie to pass it. There’s no way I turn in my mother or call the police on somebody with a sick child.
My manager pointed out to me that the only way to pass the honesty test is to lie on it, and it was actually designed that way. They expect people to say that they will call the police even for the tiniest of crimes. I protested that I thought that was crazy, that we were requiring people to lie to pass an honesty test, and that made no sense at all to me.
What he explained was that there’s no test in the world that can tell if a person really and truly will or will not call the police on anyone. But the test does tell whether a person understands the difference between right and wrong.
“I know it’s hard for you to realize or believe,” he said as I recall, “but there are some people who literally don’t know what is right and what is wrong. And the people who don’t have that basic understanding, or do know but don’t think the rules apply to them, are the ones most likely to steal from us or let their friends come shoplifting.
“The test expects people to lie by representing themselves as being honest, because to lie on the test they would first have to know the difference between right and wrong, so they could lie and say that they would always do the right thing.”
One of the big challenges the American media and our political system have with Donald Trump and a number of his enablers is that, like the people I were testing to filter out from our potential pool of employees, they are actually career criminals with no deep understanding of, or respect for, right and wrong.
Donald Trump has been scamming, grifting and stealing his entire life, going all the way back to stealing his father’s money from his parents and his siblings. He is a career criminal.
Many of the people he’s surrounded himself with are, similarly, career criminals even though they appear to have had high profile, high powered positions in government or industry.
Being successful in the world doesn’t mean someone isn’t a career criminal. Witness the numerous members of Congress who’ve been busted or at least outed for everything from giving no bid contracts to their own companies (Cheney and Halliburton) to putting bricks of bribe cash into their freezers (Rep. Jefferson). Even Forbes magazine called Trump’s commerce secretary, billionaire Wilbur Ross, a professional “grifter” for all the scams he has perpetrated in his career.
While fundamentally dishonest people has been a problem for our society and business community for centuries, it has particularly become a problem in our political world since 1976 and 1978, when the Supreme Court explicitly ruled that billionaires or corporations giving massive amounts of money to politicians and political parties is no longer considered bribery or corruption but, instead, is “free speech” protected by the First Amendment.
Never before in all of American history had bribing politicians been considered free-speech, until the Buckley v Valeo and First National Bank v Bellotti Supreme Court decisions. In 2010, conservatives of the court doubled down on these decisions and even expanded their scope with Citizens United.
The result after these SCOTUS decisions was an ocean of corporate and billionaire money flowing into politics, sweeping Ronald Reagan into the White House. In the 40+ years since then, billionaire bribery of politicians has become the norm, and even institutionalized with national and state-based “policy networks,” PACs and SuperPACs, and dark money groups like the ones affiliated with Mitch McConnell that just poured over $50 million into the Georgia runoff election.
All this money now sloshing around in our political system has produced the result the dissenting Supreme Court justices worried about. It’s become a giant magnet that draws career criminals into politics, and then helps them become fabulously wealthy as they do the bidding of the corporations and wealthy people who fund their elections and careers.
It’s normalized the “revolving door” where people go into government positions, particularly in regulatory agencies, and make decisions that benefit giant corporations while drawing a modest government paycheck, only then to leave government and pick up multi-million dollar a year jobs in the industries they were regulating.
Trump is a career criminal, and he has surrounded himself with career criminals. But he and many of his criminal Republican allies could never have gained power if the Supreme Court, back in the 1970s, hadn’t struck down the “good government” laws that came out of the Nixon bribery scandals and other laws to keep money out of politics, like the Tillman Actthat dates back to 1907.
Because of these Supreme Court decisions equating money with free speech, our political system is now overrun with grifters, con artists and career criminals.
Job one of the new Congress must be finding ways to overturn or get around these corrupt Supreme Court decisions and get big money out of American politics.
-Thom
It must suck to be one of those who cannot accept new outcomes. LOLOL
What a lesson for the children of our nation to have a president who refuses to admit that he lost.
He lost fair and square.
He took his case to more than 50 state and federal courts, even the Supreme Court.
He lost every case except for one that did not affect the outcome.
My grandmother used to force us to congratulate the sister who won one of our board games. My mother used to get a kick out of our grudging acknowledgements of defeat. I guess there was nobody to force Donald to concede (more or less gracefully).
It has been rumored, and not denied by the WH, that Trump will fly to Scotland to avoid the inauguration. Won’t happen.
……………………………..
According to The Independent, First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon has confirmed that Trump will not be allowed to visit Scotland during Biden’s upcoming inauguration. Since the president usually visits Scotland to play golf, an upcoming visit would be deemed non-essential. Therefore, he would have no legitimate reason to travel there.
“We are not allowing people to come in to Scotland without an essential purpose right now and that would apply to him, just as it applies to anybody else,” Sturgeon confirmed. “Coming to play golf is not what I would consider to be an essential purpose.”
The people that stormed the capital were not Trump supporters. They were people planted to do the heinous act to blame Trump. Pictures are all over the internet showing a number of these idiots mixed in with antifa. You need to get over Trump and look at the true issues. 1. China is building a military base in the Bahamas close to America. 2. China has bought off a number of politicians, including Biden. 3. Our government is so corrupt and needs a purge. 4. The election process has been compromised and if we don’t challenge it, we as Americans will never have a voice. 5. Americans are being censored by big tech, this must stop. 6. MSM is a propaganda arm of the left. Dont believe anything you here. 7. No matter your political viewpoint, these issues are real for all of us.
John Smith Please report to your closest eye doctor. CBK
Your an idiot
Your grammar is very poor.