Saturday, November 21, 2020

Trump Makes Futile Last Stand to Overturn Results as Georgia Certifies Biden Win

THE GUARDIAN: President met with Michigan’s Republican leaders at White House in desperate bid to subvert democracy

Donald Trump was on Friday making a futile but dangerous last stand, without precedent in modern American history, to overturn the result of the presidential election so he can remain in power.

Even as Joe Biden’s victory in the state of Georgia was confirmed, the president met with Republican leaders from Michigan at the White House in an increasingly desperate bid to subvert democracy after a series of courtroom defeats over allegations of voter fraud.

The Trump campaign’s apparent strategy is to persuade Republican-controlled legislatures in Michigan and other battleground states in the electoral college to set aside the will of the people and declare Trump the winner, despite officials declaring it the most secure election in American history.

“The entire election, frankly, in all the swing states should be overturned and the legislatures should make sure that the electors are selected for Trump,” Sidney Powell, one of Trump’s lawyers, told the Fox Business Network on Thursday. » | David Smith in Washington || Saturday, November 21, 2020

Trump is such a pathetic little man. He’s the orange dictator wannabe! Donnie is the loser. It really is high time for him to concede to the winner: Joe Biden. Theankfully, it will soon be time for him for Trump to go. – Mark

Donald Trump Jr tests positive for coronavirus »

Friday, November 20, 2020

CC Ivanka Trump: How the President Has Stoked Unrest | The Mehdi Hasan Show | The Choice on Peacock

Two minute drill: Mehdi Hasan sums up almost everything Ivanka's father, the president, has done to incite violence and terror here in the U.S. since 2015.

'Night of the Beating': Details Emerge of Riyadh Ritz-Carlton Purge

THE GUARDIAN: Exclusive: three years on, some of the Saudi detainees reveal what they say took place

In early November 2017, nearly 400 of Saudi Arabia’s most powerful people, among them princes, tycoons and ministers, were rounded up and detained in the Ritz-Carlton hotel, in what became the biggest and most contentious purge in the modern kingdom’s history.

The arrests shook the foundations of Saudi society, in an instant turning untouchable establishment figures into targets for arrest. Statuses were discarded, assets seized and business empires upended. A conventional pact between the state and its influential elite was shredded overnight.

Now, leading figures caught up in the detentions have revealed details of what they say took place. The former detainees, many of whom were stripped of fortunes, portray a scene of torture and coercion, and of royal court advisers leading chaotic attempts to understand the investments behind the wealth of the kingdom’s most influential families, then seizing what they could find.

The accounts of what occurred in the Ritz, provided through an intermediary, are from some of the most senior Saudi business figures, who claim to have been beaten and intimidated by security officers, under the supervision of two ministers, both close confidantes of the man who ordered the purge, the crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. » | Martin Chulov, Middle East correspondent | Thursday, November 19, 2020

The End of a Presidency: Trump’s Loss in a Divided America | Fault Lines

As the Democrats take back the White House, what does the 2020 presidential election say about the future of US politics?

Despite Joe Biden’s win, tens of millions of Americans chose Donald Trump for a second term. How the Republican party relates to this bloc of voters - along with the ideology Trump represents - is now central to its strategic direction.

For the Democrats, an old guard embodied by Joe Biden and a new generation of progressives are in a contest for influence over the party’s vision.

In The End of a Presidency: Trump’s Loss in a Divided America, Fault Lines explores how Trump changed the presidency, and where the two parties will go next.


Fmr. MI GOP Exec: I'm "Not Confident That They'll Certify the Election" | The Mehdi Hasan Show

Despite that lack of confidence, fmr. longtime Republican Jeff Timmer says his ex-colleagues in the Michigan GOP "have an obligation to certify the election results. A court will likely tell them to certify the election results."

Mary Trump: The President is Not Going to Concede | The Mehdi Hasan Show

Mary Trump, a psychologist and President Trump's niece, joins Mehdi Hasan to discuss how the GOP has enabled Trump's unwillingness to concede, delaying critical information sharing with the incoming Biden administration.

Thursday, November 19, 2020

Leaders

“Call them whatever you like, but don’t call them leaders”

Tim O’Brien: ‘Donald Trump Will Go to His Grave Saying I Won’ | Deadline | MSNBC

Bloomberg Opinion senior columnist, Tim O’Brien, analyzes Trump’s decision to ignore the realities of the 2020 election and instead tout, with no evidence, that there was election fraud. Aired on 11/18/2020.

America's "Freedom" for the Rich Is Killing Us!

Republicans have a bizarre notion of what that word “freedom” means. But Americans who don’t have live-in chefs and pilots for their private jets are more inclined to agree with President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who pointed out in 1933, that “a necessitous man is not a free man.”

Schmidt Calls Efforts to Cast Doubt on the Election a ‘Breaking of Faith with American Democracy’

Co-founder of the Lincoln Project Steve Schmidt says Trump not accepting the results of the election is his worst action yet, and says it’s tragic to watch Republicans go along with it. Aired on 11/18/2020.

Wednesday, November 18, 2020

'Pathetic' Trump Denounced over Krebs Firing as Campaign Presses for Recounts

THE GUARDIAN: Senior House Democrat says Trump ‘views truth as his enemy’ / Campaign seeks recounts and investigations in key states

Donald Trump was condemned by opponents on Wednesday for firing the senior official who disputed his baseless claims of election fraud, as the president pressed on with his increasingly desperate battle to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.

The president’s election campaign team continued to press for recounts and investigations in battleground states where Biden has already been declared the winner, including a new request in Wisconsin for a partial recount.

And there was uproar over his decision late on Tuesday, announced by tweet, to fire a federal official in charge of election security who dismissed his claims of widespread voter fraud.

The firing of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) director, Christopher Krebs, was “pathetic and predictable from a president who views truth as his enemy”, senior House Democrat Adam Schiff said. » | Maanvi Singh in Oakland, Sam Levine and Martin Pengellyin New York and Joan E Greve in Washington | Wednesday, November 18, 2020

Ivanka Trump obsessed with status, says former friend in tell-all essay »

Conservative Political Analyst Bill Kristol on If Trump Will Concede

Conservative political analyst and Editor at Large at the Bulwark, Bill Kristol, chatted with me on Instagram Live about President Trump’s refusal to concede. “The Republicans by going along with Trump,” Kristol said. “They have strengthened him a lot. They’ve set him up to be a major figure in the next months, maybe years.”

Monday, November 16, 2020

Pete Buttigieg: 'Each Passing Day That This Denial Goes on, It Has a Real Cost' | Andrea Mitchell

Pete Buttigieg joins Andrea Mitchell to discuss the delayed transition process, on which he says that "Each passing day that this denial goes on, it has a real cost." He also addresses reports and speculation that he could serve in a role in the Biden administration, saying that "I would love a chance to return to public service but that's for the president-elect to decide. This administration is going to have enthusiastic support from me whether I'm on the inside or outside." Aired on 11/16/2020.

Born Rich – Documentary

This documentary by Jamie Johnson, heir to the Johnson & Johnson pharmaceutical fortune. He captures their rituals, worries and social customs. This is a documentary on the children of the superrich.

Directed by Jamie Johnson, one of their own and heir, this 80-minute documentary focuses on the growing wealth gap in America, as seen through the eyes of the filmmaker and 27-year-old heir to the Johnson & Johnson fortune.


Barack Obama: The 2020 60 Minutes Interview

The former president shares the advice he would give President Trump, his thoughts on the killing of George Floyd, and what's behind the divisions in Washington and across the U.S. Scott Pelley reports

Sunday, November 15, 2020

Barack Obama: One Election Won't Stop US 'Truth Decay'


Read the BBC article HERE »

Trump Acknowledges Biden’s Win, But Quickly Reverses, Saying ‘I Concede NOTHING!’

THE NEW YORK TIMES: WASHINGTON — President Trump appeared to briefly acknowledge for the first time Sunday morning that former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. had defeated him in the presidential election, but quickly reversed himself less than two hours later, insisting that “I concede NOTHING! We have a long way to go.”

The dueling tweets came as Mr. Trump continued to lie about the conduct of the vote-counting process, falsely insisting that Mr. Biden’s victory was the result of a “Rigged” election orchestrated by the “Fake & Silent” media.

His first tweet came Sunday morning at 7:47. Referring to Mr. Biden, the president said that “he won.” That represented the first time Mr. Trump had publicly said what his advisers have been telling him for days privately: His re-election bid failed and Mr. Biden will be inaugurated on Jan. 20.

After a flurry of tweets and news reports about his “concession,” Mr. Trump insisted that he had been misunderstood. » | Michael D. Shear | Sunday, November 15, 2020

Saturday, November 14, 2020