How Our Politics Came Undone

Under Trump, our notion of shared truth has been shattered. In its place, monsters have swarmed.



MILES KAMPF-LASSIN OCTOBER 30, 2020https://inthesetimes.com/article/trump-bannon-biden-qanon-election-2020




America’s frac­tured real­i­ties are now cen­ter stage. Just tour some of the major sto­ries being spun through groomed algo­rithms into news feeds across the country:

There’s the Tuck­er Carl­son-fueled scan­dal claim­ing the Covid-19 virus was actu­al­ly cre­at­ed in a lab­o­ra­to­ry in Wuhan, Chi­na, poten­tial­ly for use as a ​“bioweapon.” Then there are tales of a ​“com­ing coup” that Democ­rats are alleged­ly plan­ning after the elec­tion — a the­o­ry pushed by a for­mer Trump nation­al secu­ri­ty advis­er and cir­cu­lat­ed across extrem­ist online com­mu­ni­ties claim­ing a sea of ​“har­vest­ed bal­lots” will be used to steal the pres­i­den­cy from Don­ald Trump. And, more dark­ly, there are charges that Hunter Biden, the for­mer vice president’s son, is some­how involved in a child sex tor­ture traf­fick­ing ring — a con­spir­a­cy that’s been spec­u­lat­ed upon not just by con­ser­v­a­tive pun­dits but also sit­ting Repub­li­can mem­bers of Congress.

Such is a sam­pling of the mes­sag­ing strat­e­gy being car­ried out by lack­eys of the Trump cam­paign ahead of Elec­tion Day 2020, a bar­rage of false accu­sa­tions that side­step the dis­as­trous record of the incum­bent pres­i­dent and instead seek to por­tray his Demo­c­ra­t­ic oppo­nent Joe Biden as both wicked and a threat to the Amer­i­can way of life.

Nev­er mind that, under Trump, a rapid­ly surg­ing pan­dem­ic has already claimed over 225,000 Amer­i­can lives, with small busi­ness­es clos­ing en masse while tens of mil­lions sit out of work, fac­ing the threat of evic­tion. Pay no atten­tion to the mil­lions more who have been thrown off of their health insur­ance amid the cri­sis, or the fact that hunger — espe­cial­ly among chil­dren — has ​“sky­rock­et­ed,” accord­ing to the Cen­ter on Bud­get and Pol­i­cy Pri­or­i­ties. The real issue fac­ing vot­ers this elec­tion, accord­ing to pro-Trump con­spir­a­cy hawk­ers, is a lap­top they claim belongs to Hunter Biden — and the QAnon-inspired the­o­ries that its con­tents avowed­ly bear out.

While spu­ri­ous, these claims have cir­cu­lat­ed beyond just the right-wing media echo cham­ber and are now pen­e­trat­ing into tele­vi­sion sets and social media accounts nation­wide. While some con­sumers of this actu­al fake news will undoubt­ed­ly decide to cast a bal­lot for Trump, the true aim is arguably more sin­is­ter — to dis­ori­ent and upset poten­tial vot­ers, caus­ing them to dis­en­gage from pol­i­tics entire­ly, and to sim­ply turn away.

In many ways, this strat­e­gy is mere­ly a con­tin­u­a­tion of what the Trump cam­paign pur­sued four years ago under the tute­lage of pro­pa­gan­dist extra­or­di­naire Stephen K. Ban­non. An archi­tect of polit­i­cal dis­in­for­ma­tion, Ban­non infa­mous­ly laid out his doc­trine in 2018, report­ed­ly stat­ing, ​“The Democ­rats don’t mat­ter. The real oppo­si­tion is the media. And the way to deal with them is to flood the zone with shit.”

As Trump’s 2016 cam­paign CEO and lat­er White House chief strate­gist, Ban­non brought with him lessons he gleaned as the for­mer exec­u­tive chair­man of Bre­it­bart News: make up sto­ries with explo­sive alle­ga­tions against polit­i­cal ene­mies, attempt to get them picked up by main­stream out­lets, and reap the prof­its. But par­ti­san­ship and per­son­al enrich­ment aren’t Bannon’s sole moti­va­tions — he also seeks to cre­ate chaos, so that fact and fic­tion are hard­er to differentiate.

In this sense, Ban­non is fol­low­ing in the foot­steps of anoth­er polit­i­cal Sven­gali, Russia’s Vladislav Surkov. As a top aide to Russ­ian Pres­i­dent Vladimir Putin, over the 2000s, Surkov sought to cre­ate a sys­tem where, as film­mak­er Adam Cur­tis explained in his 2016 doc­u­men­tary Hyper­Nor­mal­i­sa­tion, ​“no one was sure what was real or what was fake.” Surkov achieved this by spon­sor­ing all sorts of oppo­si­tion­al orga­ni­za­tions and cam­paigns in the coun­try — from neo-Nazi skin­heads to anti-fas­cist net­works — cre­at­ing an atmos­phere of bewil­der­ment among the pop­u­la­tion in order to push through author­i­tar­i­an aims.

The intent of this strat­e­gy was to cre­ate a form of ​“man­aged democ­ra­cy” where­in cit­i­zens have a right to express them­selves, but with­out real­ly being able to change — or even under­stand — polit­i­cal deci­sion-mak­ing, or outcomes.

The premise stems in part from the con­cept of ​“ket­tle log­ic” as laid out in the late 1990s by French the­o­rist Jacques Der­ri­da, ref­er­enc­ing Sig­mund Freud’s famous sto­ry from his book The Inter­pre­ta­tion of Dreams. As the sto­ry goes, in return­ing a dam­aged ket­tle to his neigh­bor, the wreck­er offers a series of con­flict­ing expla­na­tions: ​“It’s not actu­al­ly dam­aged; it was already dam­aged when you offered it to me; I nev­er bor­rowed your ket­tle.” Freud called this a form of dream log­ic. And as Der­ri­da point­ed out, it’s also an effec­tive argu­men­ta­tive device, as the para­dox­i­cal accounts chip away at the notion of objec­tive truth, lead­ing to con­fu­sion and, ulti­mate­ly, acquiescence.

In Putin’s Rus­sia, Surkov helped move this con­cept from post-mod­ern the­o­ry into the real world of pol­i­tics. And through his efforts on the Trump cam­paign, Ban­non par­al­leled Surkov’s strat­e­gy in the Unit­ed States, unleash­ing a bar­rage of fal­la­cious and mis­lead­ing sto­ries into the media ecosys­tem. As Ned Resnikoff report­ed in 2016, ​“the sheer vol­ume of these sto­ries had their intend­ed effect. When fake news becomes omnipresent, all news becomes sus­pect. Every­thing starts to look like a lie.”

Flash to today, and Ban­non is back at it. Though he may no longer be an offi­cial mem­ber of the Trump admin­is­tra­tion, he’s been hard at work push­ing out the same type of dis­in­for­ma­tion that helped ele­vate a swarm of white nation­al­ists into the White House four years ago.

That dis­cred­it­ed report about coro­n­avirus orig­i­nat­ing in a Wuhan lab? Ban­non was one of the tac­ti­cians behind it, and on his pod­cast, he even (with­out evi­dence) sug­gest­ed that Chi­na inten­tion­al­ly infect­ed Pres­i­dent Trump with the dis­ease. It’s a sim­i­lar sto­ry with the lap­top child sex scan­dal which Ban­non has been pro­mot­ing since late Sep­tem­ber, telling a Dutch TV sta­tion at the time (again with­out evi­dence): ​“I have the hard dri­ve of Hunter Biden.”

You don’t have to believe these sto­ries for them to have their intend­ed effect. Rather, by such mes­sages cas­cad­ing across our screens and inun­dat­ing our con­scious­ness, their man­u­fac­tur­ers have already suc­ceed­ed, build­ing a wall of decep­tions that leads audi­ences to retreat from the polit­i­cal are­na, see­ing all of its actors as lying cons.



Regard­less of what hap­pens on Elec­tion Day, this attack on our notion of shared real­i­ty will stand — along­side a suite of racist, anti-work­er actions and judi­cial appoint­ments — as a stark lega­cy of the Trump admin­is­tra­tion. In truth, the polit­i­cal strat­e­gy is tied direct­ly to the con­tent of pol­i­cy. After all, Ban­non was an engi­neer of Trump’s xeno­pho­bic Mus­lim trav­el ban, a vocal pro­po­nent of build­ing a mas­sive wall on the South­ern bor­der and a defend­er of exit­ing the Paris Cli­mate Accord. Now, Bannon’s for­mer pro­tégé and cur­rent Trump advis­er Stephen Miller report­ed­ly plans a ​“blitz” of anti-immi­grant exec­u­tive orders — includ­ing end­ing birthright cit­i­zen­ship and slash­ing refugee admis­sions to zero — if the pres­i­dent wins reelection.

With polls show­ing Biden lead­ing both nation­al­ly and in bat­tle­ground states, that out­come appears in doubt. But Ban­non has a plan for that, too.

At an Octo­ber 10 forum host­ed by the Young Repub­li­can Fed­er­a­tion of Vir­ginia, Ban­non stat­ed: ​“At 10 o’clock or 11 o’clock… on Novem­ber 3, Don­ald J. Trump is going to walk into the Oval Office, and he may hit a tweet before he goes in there… and he’s going to sit there, hav­ing won Ohio, and being up in Penn­syl­va­nia and Flori­da, and he’s going to say, ​‘Hey, game’s over.’ ”

The pos­si­bil­i­ty of Trump declar­ing vic­to­ry before all of the votes are count­ed in an anti-demo­c­ra­t­ic pow­er grab has been a con­cern in Demo­c­ra­t­ic cir­cles for months, but the president’s for­mer chief strate­gist pre­view­ing such an out­come gives it fresh cre­dence. And, Ban­non con­tin­ued, ​“Once we set that pred­i­cate that Trump’s the win­ner on Elec­tion Day, that is mighty hard to unwind… He [Trump] is not going to go qui­et­ly into that good night, trust me.”

Is this pre­dic­tion a promise, or just more dis­in­for­ma­tion meant to gum up the elec­toral process and turn poten­tial vot­ers away from the polls, believ­ing it all to be a big fraud?

Pathol­o­giz­ing Ban­non may be a fool’s errand, but one thing’s for sure: He stands to ben­e­fit enor­mous­ly from Trump’s reelec­tion. With the far-right mas­ter­mind fac­ing counts of fraud for alleged­ly siphon­ing off hun­dreds of thou­sands of dol­lars from donors to the ​“We Build the Wall” online fundrais­ing cam­paign — charges that car­ry a lengthy prison term — Ban­non is like­ly hop­ing for a pres­i­den­tial par­don of the type received by fel­low MAGA spin­meis­ter Roger Stone.

In 2019, Surkov wrote an arti­cle in a Russ­ian news­pa­per claim­ing that, as a result of years of fraud­u­lent media and polit­i­cal tumult, those of us in the West ​“don’t know how to deal with their own altered con­scious­ness.” That’s cer­tain­ly the hope of Ban­non and oth­er devo­tees of Trump­ism. It’s up to us to learn how to deal with this new unwieldy ter­rain, and take con­trol of our pol­i­tics — before we’re lost in the flood.

Willie Nelson - Vote 'Em Out

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CjH7hOuq_Q&ab_channel=WillieNelsonVEVO

If Trump Loses COVID-19 Will Likely Get a LOT Worse Until He Leaves Office on Jan. 20th

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVujx0gAhHI&ab_channel=TheHumanistReport

How Workers Can Help Defeat a Trump Coup

Donald Trump, desperately behind in the polls, appears to be laying the groundwork for illegally attempting to remain in office if he loses the election. This commentary focuses in on the role of workers—union and nonunion—in resisting a Trump Coup.




October 30, 2020 Jeremy Brecher LABOR NETWORK FOR SUSTAINABILITY




https://portside.org/2020-10-30/how-workers-can-help-defeat-trump-coup




In a fiery October 10 speech, Steve Bannon, Donald Trump’s 2016 campaign CEO, said that at 10 or 11 o’clock November 3 Trump is going to walk into the Oval Office “having won Ohio, and being up in Pennsylvania and Florida,” and he’s going to say, "Hey, game’s over." If President Trump loses the November election but refuses to concede defeat and leave office, whatever words are used to justify his action the result will be a coup d’etat–an illegal, unconstitutional takeover of government power. Here’s how workers–whatever their degree and kind of previous organization—can play a crucial role in resisting usurpation and restoring democracy.
How coups are defeated

While the US doesn’t have a tradition of popular mobilization to overcome coups, around the world popular resistance has repeatedly helped defeat attempts to overthrow democratic governments. Two studies, The Anti-Coup by Gene Sharp and Bruce Jenkins and Civil Resistance Against Coups by Steven Zunes, examine civilian resistance to 15 coups. In 13 cases the resistance succeeded in overcoming the coups, primarily through nonviolent mass action.

The key lessons of these past anti-coup movements are summarized by Zunes:
Civil resistance movements generate “bottom-up legitimacy.”
The “physical control of government facilities” is not the same as the “political control of the state.”
Those who take part in a coup are “ultimately dependent” on the willingness of “local governments, independent social institutions, and the general population” to “recognize their authority and cooperate with them.”
The key to resisting or reversing a coup is “nonrecognition and noncooperation” by society.
The coups that were defeated were those in which “citizens successfully denied legitimacy” to the usurpers and resisted their attempt to rule with “noncooperation and defiance.”
All successful cases of coup reversals included “large public demonstrations and noncooperation.”
Pro-democracy elements must “mobilize quickly” and engage in what may be “unplanned and largely spontaneous acts of resistance.”

Sharp and Jenkins offer guidelines for resisting a coup:
Repudiate the usurpers as “illegitimate” with “no rightful claim to become the government”;
Make society “unrulable” by the usurpers and their supporters;
Block the “imposition of a viable government” by the usurpers;
“Maintain control and self-direction” of society;
Make the institutions of the society into “omnipresent resistance organizations” against continued illegal rule;
Deny the usurpers “any additional objectives”;
Make the “costs of the coup and the attempted domination unacceptable”;
“Subvert the reliability and loyalty” of the usurpers’ “troops and functionaries” and “induce them to desert” those who back the coup;
Encourage “dissension and opposition” among the usurper’s supporters
A resistance scenario

How do we apply these principles to the specific situation of a Trump coup and the specific role of workers in defeating it?

The strategy of a Trump coup is based not on a military seizure of power, but on executive usurpation of authority under cover of a stolen election. Trump and his supporters are already trying to prevent people from voting through legal and illegal means. Their strategies for disrupting a democratic election include preventing votes from being counted; insisting that votes are illegal; and creating chaos and disruption that will make the entire election process appear illegitimate.

Our electoral process offers an enormous range of opportunities for disruption, from armed gangs menacing voters at the polls, to shutting the polls before everyone has voted, to replacing members of the electoral college who have won the popular vote with others appointed by state legislatures. This summer the Transition Integrity Project, composed of more than 100 current and former senior government and campaign leaders and other experts, held a series of “war games” that concluded “with a high degree of likelihood” that the election will be marked by a “chaotic legal and political landscape.” President Trump is likely to contest the result by “both legal and extra-legal means.” He may be willing to go to “extreme lengths” to stay in office.

Preparations to respond are already under way. A manual titled Hold the Line lays out how to form local “election protection” committees and start organizing for coup resistance.[6] Numerous organizations and coalitions are actively preparing for responding if Trump and his supporters disrupt the election and attempt to nullify its results. They include Choose Democracy, National Council On Election Integrity, Keep Our Republic , Stand Up America , and People’s Strike!. Others are keeping a low public profile unless and until open resistance is necessary. Protect the Results, a joint project of Indivisible and Stand Up America, has already organized actions in 233 locations for 5:00 p.m. local time on November 4.

A leading role is likely to be played by organized young people. A youth coalition called We Count on Us is already organizing and mobilizing to resist such a coup. It includes the Sunrise Movement, March For Our Lives, Dream Defenders and United We Stand–groups that have played a leading role in mass youth mobilizations for climate protection, gun control, immigrant rights, and Black Lives.

An on-line training by the Sunrise movement laid out principles for youth mobilization and nonviolent resistance in what may be a long fight. People can start right now to gather a few friends to work with. Even before election day officials – for example, governors, attorneys-general, secretaries of state, legislative leaders, and congresspeople–can be called on to commit to counting every vote. Election day efforts will include getting out the vote and ensuring that every vote is counted. Masses of young people will stay at polling places–for multiple days if necessary — until everyone has voted and every vote has been counted. If the votes are not counted or the results of the election not respected, there will be a call for a mass youth strike from school and work. As the “We Count on Us” webpage puts it, “If Trump tries to steal the election, we need to be ready to lead a mass strike to make sure every vote is counted. We make this country run and if we all refuse to go to work or school, there’s no way for Trump to govern.”Such a strike will involve not only withdrawal from school and work but active interventions ranging from tweet storms and demonstrations targeting decisionmakers to socially-distanced and virtual rallies.
What can workers do?

Around the world workers and labor organizations have been crucial for popular movements to resist coups. According to Zunes, “general strikes played an important role” in Bolivia, Burkina Faso, France, Argentina, Mali, Sudan, and Egypt and in resisting the 1920 Kapp Putsch in Germany. But there is no tradition of using general strikes for political purposes in the US.

Ten percent of US workers are organized in unions–that’s about 14 million people. Many millions more are organized in professional associations of one kind or another. Most of the rest are in frequent contact with co-workers and are often organized in informal networks that share information and cooperate in other ways. However organized, workers are an essential part of every social institution; they are positioned to organize themselves and make the institutions they work in “omnipresent resistance organizations” against illegal Trump rule. Resistance to a Trump usurpation needs participation of both unionized and non-unionized workers. This section examines what all workers can do; the next section addresses what unionized workers in particular can do.

Talk with co-workers: All workers can start by talking with the people they work with and the people they know through various networks to discuss the danger and what to do about it. A starting question might simply be, what do you think people should do if Trump loses but refuses to leave the White House? Those who think action is necessary can simply form their own informal or formal “election protection” group.

There are several steps workers can take before election day. They can get in touch with youth and other groups in their community and offer support and cooperation with what they are planning. They can participate in voter education and anti-voter-suppression activities.

On election day: Besides voting yourself, you can participate in get-out-the-vote efforts with your co-workers, neighbors, and the wider public. Youth will be showing up to help protect voters against misinformation, denied access, intimidation, and violence. They need workers and the entire population to show up and support their efforts to preserve democracy for all of us. These efforts need to continue for as many days as necessary until all the votes are counted and valid results announced.

Join the strike: If vote counting is interrupted or interfered with or Trump loses but refuses to concede, major youth organizations have already pledged a youth strike in schools and workplaces. There are likely to be significant efforts to break their strike, ranging from school and employer retaliation to arrests to vigilante violence. Supporting and protecting youth strikers will be necessary for preserving democracy against brutal authoritarianism. That means joining the strike, getting out in the streets, and participating in active interventions that show the people reject the coup. The thousands of strikes by Fight For Fifteen workers and the 900 wildcat strikes for COVID-19 protection since March show that–to paraphrase Mother Jones–you don’t need a union to raise hell. Even though they don’t have jobs to strike from, the millions of workers who are currently unemployed due to the COVID-19 Depression can participate in demonstrations and other public actions and can help put pressure on political decisionmakers.

Workers can organize in schools, hospitals, businesses, government offices, and every other venue to show that the entire society refuses to recognize or to cooperate with the usurpation of democracy. They can organize with others in their institutions to pass resolutions and impose policies of non-recognition and non-cooperation. For example, teachers and other education workers can demand that PTAs and school boards work with them to close schools and make them available as a base for anti-coup activists. Lawyers and their organizations can solicit cooperation from everyone in the legal system from judges to janitors to close the courts and issue statements rejecting the coup and stating that resistance to it is obedience to law. Municipal and state government workers can shut down normal operations and organize to continue socially necessary emergency operations under the authority of the local community and its representatives, making explicit that they are not operating under the authority of the usurpers of lawful government.

Certain workers are in locations that provide them special power. It was when airline workers stopped showing up for work and the Association of Flight Attendants called for mass mobilization at airports and a general strike that President Trump and his Senate supporters abandoned their shutdown of the federal government. Amazon, UPS, airline, and fossil fuel delivery workers among others could bring normal social life to a screeching halt.
What can unions do?

On September 25 AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka released this statement about the post-election transition:


The AFL-CIO categorically rejects all threats to the peaceful transition of power. The labor movement simply will not allow any breach of the U.S. Constitution or other effort to deny the will of the people. Union members across the political spectrum are united in our fundamental belief that the votes of the American people must always determine the presidency. America’s workers will continue to be steadfast in defense of our democracy in the face of President Trump’s antics, and we stand ready to do our part to ensure his defeat in this election is followed by his removal from office.

Discussions are under way within organized labor about how to make such a “removal from office” real. A number of unions–some of them in critical industries–are discussing strikes and other actions against a Trump coup internally and with each other. The Service Employees International Union and the Communication Workers of America are participating in Protect the Results, which has organized post-election meetings in nearly 200 locations to “activate their members and take coordinated action” if “Donald Trump loses the election and refuses to concede.”

At the local level unions are already organizing. The Rochester Labor Council, AFL-CIO, passed a resolution October 8 that calls on “the National AFL-CIO, all of its affiliate unions, and all other labor organizations in the United States of America to prepare for and enact a general strike of all working people, if necessary, to ensure a Constitutionally mandated peaceful transition of power as a result of the 2020 Presidential Elections.” The Seattle Education Association passed a resolution calling for post-election meetings for members to consider “work actions” in the event of interference with the elections. The American Postal Workers Union in Detroit called on its members to pledge that:
We will vote.
We will refuse to accept election results until all the votes are counted.
We will nonviolently take to the streets if a coup is attempted.
If we need to, we will shut down this country to protect the integrity of the democratic process.

If Trump loses but refuses to concede, labor organizations at every level can pass resolutions of nonrecognition and non-cooperation. Local unions can call on their central labor councils and higher bodies in their own unions to do so. Where official labor organizations are slow to respond, local labor activists can create “coalitions of the willing” to work around centers of inertia and resistance. Working with other stakeholders unions can pressure institutions whose workers they represent – like hospitals, schools, local governments, and civic institutions – to establish policies of non-recognition and non-cooperation with the Trump regime and take concrete acts to implement those policies. They can demand that their employers support electoral integrity, refuse to recognize and cooperate with an illegal Trump regime, and not retaliate against workers who join strikes for democracy. Unions can support and join the youth strikes and direct actions and help protect them against violent attack.
Guidelines for resistance

The US 2020 anti-coup movement, like those elsewhere in the past, will have to depend on “unplanned and largely spontaneous acts of resistance.” Its strategy and tactics will often have to be improvised on the spot. Here are some guidelines that may help with that process.

Organizing the resistance: Successful resistance will depend on millions of people organizing themselves in their own localities and institutions. There are already multiple centers organizing coup resistance. No one organization is preordained or likely to be in a position to claim legitimate leadership for the movement as a whole. Leadership will need to actively coordinate across organizations and seek alignment on goals and strategies. Constituents can support and demand such cooperation.

Defining the frame: The anti-coup movement does not represent Joe Biden or the Democratic Party. It represents the right of the American people to govern themselves through representatives of their own choosing. It asserts that the people determine our government, not a usurping tyrant.

Unifying demands: A small set of very similar demands has been articulated by a wide range of anti-coup efforts. The nearly universal demand is Count Every Vote. Various groups have proposed supplementary “red lines” that are essentially means to the same end, such as “impartially investigate and remedy all irregularities” and “respect election results regardless of who wins.” Whatever their other disagreements, all anti-coup groups should strive to create agreement around a small set of such core demands.

Using nonviolence: The core strategy of the anti-coup movement is to organize society to generate “bottom-up legitimacy.” The key to doing so is to demonstrate organized action by millions of people expressing their refusal to recognize and cooperate with the coup. As the recent Sunrise training pointed out, Trump is “waging a narrative battle” to “paint our actions as violent and fringe.” The movement can best win that battle by painting an alternative picture of the people peacefully rising to disenthrone an aspiring tyrant. Participants can ask each other to agree to and abide by pledges of nonviolence. If those who oppose this peaceful uprising choose to paint a picture of themselves as a violent mob menacing safety and democracy, that is their choice.

While fantasies of violent resistance to the forces of violence may satisfy some psychological needs, violence by democracy defenders will play right into the hands of Trump and his supporters. It will confirm to the general public their claims about the threat of “violent leftists.” And it will give both armed terrorists and police and other security forces the perfect excuse to wreak violence against peaceful demonstrators. The main effect of lefties brandishing guns will be to get a lot of peaceful demonstrators killed.

Disabling Trump’s support: While pre-election polls indicate that Trump’s support is declining to a modest minority, a third or more of the population still supports him. Trump has urged his supporters to go to the polls to prevent the election from being stolen–one can only imagine by what means. Trump supporters have already shot demonstrators dead–and been celebrated by the president for doing so. Nonviolent democracy defenders will sometimes be confronted by rightwing, white supremacist Trump supporters, some armed, some part of organized terrorist “militias.” They will be encouraged by the rightwing media echo chamber which will feed them with lies, fears, and incitements. In some cases they will be supported by a segment of police and other security forces.

Nonviolent movements have developed a host of techniques for dealing with threats of violence and de-escalating conflict, like linking arms to protect demonstrators and create a barrier against attacks. On-line training is available on how to use them; groups going into nonviolent action should watch them and role-play their techniques.[17] Of course, no techniques will always immediately cool out angry violent attackers, and a threatened democracy cannot be defended without risk. But history shows that in most instances the perpetrators of violence against peaceful people seeking to protect the public good undermine their own support and increase support for those they attack. The best way to counter violence is to render it self-defeating for those who would use it.

Neutralizing and winning over the security forces: Unlike a classic military coup, the role of the military and other security forces in the event of a Trump executive usurpation is far from predetermined. The New York Times recently reported that several Pentagon officials said there could be resignations among many of Trump’s senior generals, starting at the top with chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark A. Milley, should troops be ordered into the streets at the time of the election. The intelligence apparatus is similarly sending signals of dealignment with Trump’s machinations. In a video message, William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, with the agreement of the directors of the FBI, National Security Agency, and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, said the “election system remains resilient.” In sharp contrast to Trump’s contentions that the elections will be “rigged,” “corrupt, and “illegal,” Evanina stated “it would be very difficult for adversaries to interfere with, or manipulate, voting results at scale.”

The role of various sectors and levels of the security forces in the event of a Trump coup will no doubt be contested. Some police and military forces support democracy and legitimate government and will refuse to take orders from a usurper. Some will strive to present themselves as neutral or “non-political.” Some sympathize or even ally themselves with white nationalist, rightwing, Trumpist movements and organizations. What is most likely to win their support or at least neutralize opposition from the security forces is to paint a portrait of the people peacefully rising to defend democracy against the attempt to establish a tyranny.

Endgames: While many social movement campaigns end with negotiations, the movement against a Trump coup may not. Rather, it may result in a collapse of the coup and the restoration of constitutionally mandated democratic procedures and principles. If the demands of the movement are clear and unambiguous, everyone should be able to tell whether they have been met and there will be no opportunity for leadership sellout. Democracy is not negotiable.

Resisting a Trump coup and protecting democracy will undoubtedly involve sacrifice and suffering. It may well be easier and safer to simply defer to illegitimate authority. But as the abolitionist former slave Frederick Douglass noted long ago, “There is no disguising the fact that the price of liberty is eternal vigilance, and if we maintain our high estate in this republic, we must be something more than driftwood in a stream.”

Republicans Closely Resemble Autocratic Parties in Hungary and Turkey

Swedish university finds ‘dramatic shift’ in GOP under Trump, shunning democratic norms and encouraging violence




October 30, 2020



https://portside.org/2020-10-30/republicans-closely-resemble-autocratic-parties-hungary-and-turkey




The Republican party has become dramatically more illiberal in the past two decades and now more closely resembles ruling parties in autocratic societies than its former centre-right equivalents in Europe, according to a new international study.

In a significant shift since 2000, the GOP has taken to demonising and encouraging violence against its opponents, adopting attitudes and tactics comparable to ruling nationalist parties in Hungary, India, Poland and Turkey.

The shift has both led to and been driven by the rise of Donald Trump.

By contrast the Democratic party has changed little in its attachment to democratic norms, and in that regard has remained similar to centre-right and centre-left parties in western Europe. Their principal difference is the approach to the economy.

The new study, the largest ever of its kind, was carried out by the V-Dem Institute at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, using newly developed methods to measure and quantify the health of the world’s democracies at a time when authoritarianism is on the rise.

Anna Lührmann, V-Dem’s deputy director, said the Republican transformation had been “certainly the most dramatic shift in an established democracy”.



V-Dem’s “illiberalism index” gauges the extent of commitment to democratic norms a party exhibits before an election. The institute calls it “the first comparative measure of the ‘litmus test’ for the loyalty to democracy”.

The study, published on Monday, shows the party has followed a similar trajectory to Fidesz, which under Viktor Orbán has evolved from a liberal youth movement into an authoritarian party that has made Hungary the first non-democracy in the European Union.

India’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has been transformed in similar ways under Narendra Modi, as has the Justice and Development party (AKP) in Turkey under Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and the Law and Justice party in Poland. Trump and his administration have sought to cultivate close ties to the leadership of those countries.

The Republican party has remained relatively committed to pluralism, but it has gone a long way towards abandoning other democratic norms, becoming much more prone to disrespecting opponents and encouraging violence.

“We’ve seen similar shifts in parties in other countries where the quality of democracy has declined in recent years, where democracy has been eroding,” Lührmann said. “It fits very well into the pattern of parties that erode democracy once they’re in power.”

“The demonisation of opponents – that’s clearly a factor that has shifted a lot when it comes to the Republican party, as well as the encouragement of political violence,” she said, adding that the change has been driven in large part from the top.

“We have several quotes from Trump, that show how he has encouraged supporters to use violence against either journalists or political opponents.”

In western Europe, centre-right parties like Germany’s Christian Democratic Union and Spain’s People’s party have stuck to their commitment to democratic norms. By the same measure, Britain’s Conservative party has moved some way along the liberal-illiberal spectrum but not to the Republicans’ extremes.

“The data shows that the Republican party in 2018 was far more illiberal than almost all other governing parties in democracies,” the V-Dem study found. “Only very few governing parties in democracies in this millennium (15%) were considered more illiberal than the Republican party in the US.”

The institute has found the decline in democratic traits has accelerated around the world and that for the first time this century, autocracies are in the majority – holding power in 92 countries, home to 54% of the global population.

According to V-Dem’s benchmark, almost 35% of the world’s population, 2.6 billion people, live in nations that are becoming more autocratic.




• The graphic accompanying this article was amended on 26 October 2020 to reduce the number of parties shown.

An Actual Fascist Is Plotting To Run In 2024

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9j2KiZKy18&ab_channel=RebelHQ

Wolff Responds: No "Tradeoff" Between Fighting COVID-19 and the Economy

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W875dUMa0QM&ab_channel=RichardDWolff

DAMNING Anti-Trump Ads Go VIRAL

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_OVlS-LksE&ab_channel=RebelHQ

Chris Hedges: Trump's legacy will be the empowerment of the Christian Fascists

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkjpiCtqDA8&ab_channel=FaintSignalsfromVega

Australia Handles COVID Better Than Crazy America

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U9iD_FkykoU&ab_channel=GrahamElwood

Extreme Poverty Skyrocketing - But Why?

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1h1SCfgUTNg&ab_channel=MomentOfClaritywithLeeCamp

Trump Goes on INSANELY Bigoted Rant Against Ilhan Omar at Campaign Rally

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FILoOQvXfhk&ab_channel=TheHumanistReport

Glen Greenwald Quits, Police SUES Breonna Taylor's BF, Corbyn Gone From Labour

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZqOLfSRrlqA&ab_channel=HardLensMedia

We May Have Found a New Organ, Thanks to Cancer Therapy

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fVDyPdhj3U&ab_channel=SciShow

Under Trump, Households Making $30 Million Nine Times Less Likely to Face IRS Audit Than Working Poor Making Less Than $25,000

If U.S. police detected murders at the same .03% rate that America's richest families are audited, writes journalist David Cay Johnson, "they would become aware of just five of the 16,214 reported homicides."


Brett Wilkins, staff writer



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/30/under-trump-households-making-30-million-nine-times-less-likely-face-irs-audit




How exactly does President Donald Trump get away with paying such low—or no—taxes?

It's a question many people are asking in the wake of bombshell New York Times reporting showing the president paid just $750 in annual federal income tax in two recent years, and in a stunning new report published Friday, DCReport editor-in-chief David Cay Johnston examined Internal Revenue Service audits of the very richest Americans to find out how people like Trump manage to keep tax collectors at bay.

Johnston looked at 2018 IRS audits of the wealthiest 23,400 U.S. households—their average income was about $30 million—and found that the administration audited just seven of them. Not 7%, but seven households. That's an audit rate of 0.03%.


In contrast, in 2015 under President Barack Obama, the wealthiest Americans were 270 times more likely to be audited than they were in 2018 under Trump. "If American police detected murders at the same rate it would mean that they would become aware of just five of the 16,214 reported homicides that year," writes Johnston.


It doesn't bode well for tax enforcement when the president himself is a known tax cheat, according to Johnston. He writes:





There's no question Trump is a tax cheat because he has done it again and again. He cheated on New York City sales taxes in 1983, for which Mayor Ed Koch said Trump should have served 15 days in jail. He went to extreme, even farcical lengths to evade $3 million of payments he owed in lieu of taxes to New York City.

Trump has been tried twice for civil tax fraud. He lost both times, a story I broke four years ago but you may not know about because America's major news organizations have not reported it except for one passing mention in the wedding announcement section of The New York Times. Two years ago, however, that newspaper did an exhaustive report showing years of calculated gift tax cheating by two generations of Trumps. In recent weeks income tax information that newspaper reported revealed many badges of tax fraud.

So why hasn't Trump been held accountable for his expansive tax cheating? It has to do with who the IRS audits, says Johnston. He notes that the working poor—defined as people earning less than $25,000 annually—were the target of one-third of all IRS audits in 2018, even thought their average income was just $12,600. The audit rate for poor households was 0.28%, or nine times that of the richest households.


"Now add to all this Trump's powers as president," writes Johnston, which include being able to appoint—and fire—the heads of the Treasury Department, IRS, Justice Department, and other important posts."The cold hard truth," writes Johnston, "is that the richest Americans today face a teensy-weensy risk of being detected if they cheat," mostly due to the dizzying complexity and intricacies of their business operations and property holdings.

Over the past 13 months of the Trump administration, the IRS has referred just 231 cases for prosecution. In 2016, Obama's final year in office, there were 2,744 referrals for prosecution—over 1,100% more than Trump during a similar period. Additionally, around 70% of those cases under Trump were dismissed due to "insufficient evidence."

In the end, "the costs of these favor-the-rich policies even when they cheat are borne by the other 99% of taxpayers," writes Johnston.

'This Is Trump's Failure': US Reports Record 90,400+ Covid Cases in Just 24 Hours—Equivalent to One New Infection Every Second

"Another record day of Covid cases. Not because of testing—but because President Trump has given up on controlling the virus and his administration has failed the American people."


Jake Johnson, staff writer



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/30/trumps-failure-us-reports-record-90400-covid-cases-just-24-hours-equivalent-one-new




As President Donald Trump stuck to his falsehood-riddled closing message in the final stretch of the 2020 campaign—the U.S. is "rounding the turn" on the pandemic, the economy is roaring back, and public health measures are politically motivated ploys to harm his reelection chances—the U.S. on Thursday reported a daily record of 90,400-plus new coronavirus infections, the equivalent of more than one case every second.

Coronvirus cases are on the rise in nearly every U.S. state including Florida, where Trump on Thursday held an in-person campaign rally during which he paid lip service to basic precautions, such as wearing a mask and social distancing, as a crowd of his largely maskless supporters stood inches apart from each other.

"You know the bottom line, though? You're going to get better. You're going to get better. If I can get better, anybody can get better. And I got better fast," Trump said, neglecting to mention that he had access to a level of high-quality government healthcare that is unavailable to most Americans after he contracted Covid-19.

The president's remarks came hours before the U.S. reported 90,446 new coronavirus cases and around 1,000 deaths Thursday, bringing the nation's infection total to more than nine million as the death toll surpassed 228,700. Hospitalizations are also trending upward at an alarming rate.

"This is Trump's failure," tweeted Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, in response to the staggering new figures.


In its weekly update on the pandemic published Thursday, the Covid Tracking Project pointed out that "unlike the spring and summer outbreaks, the third surge is geographically dispersed, and counts are up in every region of the country. An increase in testing is not sufficient to explain the numbers."




"The country reported a record number of tests at 8.2 million, but case growth (24 percent) far outpaced test growth (9 percent), as we explained earlier this week," the organization noted. "That's also true for the entire month of October: Forty-seven of the 50 states, along with the District of Columbia, have seen cases rise faster than reported tests since October 1."


As the Washington Post reported late Thursday, "coronavirus cases are surging in every competitive state before Election Day, offering irrefutable evidence against President Trump's closing argument that the pandemic is nearly over and restrictions are no longer necessary."

"In the 13 states deemed competitive by the Cook Political Report," the Post noted, "the weekly average of new cases reported daily has jumped 45 percent over the past two weeks, from fewer than 21,000 on October 14 to more than 30,000 on October 28."

With the president and members of his administration continuing to publicly downplay the pandemic and indicate the White House has given up trying to control the spread, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers—whose state has been hit hard by the coronavirus in recent days with more than 200 deaths reported over the past week—said Thursday that "there is no way to sugarcoat it: We are facing an urgent crisis."

"There is an imminent risk to you, your family members, your friends, your neighbors," Evers warned.

Minnesota Democrats Implore Voters to 'Drop Off Your Ballot' in Person After Last-Minute Court Ruling

Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon called the court's decision a "tremendous and unnecessary disruption to Minnesota's election, just days before Election Day."


Jake Johnson, staff writer



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/30/minnesota-democrats-implore-voters-drop-your-ballot-person-after-last-minute-court




Minnesota lawmakers and election officials urged voters in their state to avoid the mail and drop off their absentee ballots in person if possible after a panel of federal judges on Thursday issued a last-minute ruling ordering the separation of absentee ballots that arrive after 8:00 pm on November 3 from those received earlier, leaving open the possibility that late-arriving ballots could be invalidated.

"DROP OFF YOUR BALLOT IF YOU HAVEN'T MAILED IT YET," Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) tweeted late Thursday, linking to a website designed to help voters find nearby ballot drop-off locations.

In its 2-1 decision just days out from the election, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit said Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon's mandate that ballots postmarked by November 3 and received within seven days of Election Day must be counted stands "in direct contradiction to Minnesota election law governing presidential elections."


Simon, a Democrat, said state officials are considering appealing the ruling to the conservative-dominated Supreme Court and implored Minnesota voters to drop their ballots off in person at their local county election office instead of mailing them."There is no pandemic exception to the Constitution," wrote Judges L. Steven Grasz and Bobby Shepherd, respectively appointed by President Donald Trump and former President George W. Bush.

While ruling in favor of the pair of Trump Electoral College electors who brought the case, the appellate judges acknowledged their decision would likely cause "voter confusion" and "election administration issues" and potentially further undermine "public confidence in the election."

"With that said," the judges added, "we conclude the challenges that will stem from this ruling are preferable to a postelection scenario where mail-in votes, received after the statutory deadline, are either intermingled with ballots received on time or invalidated without prior warning."

In her lone dissent, Judge Jane Kelly warned that the court's decision "has the effect of telling voters—who, until now, had been under the impression that they had until November 3 to mail their ballots—that they should have mailed their ballots yesterday (or, more accurately, several days ago)."

"With the court's injunction in place," Kelly wrote, "fewer eligible Minnesotans will be able to exercise their fundamental right to vote. That, in and of itself, should give us significant pause before granting injunctive relief."




As Reuters explained, "the 8th Circuit sent the case back to a lower court and instructed it to require Minnesota election officials to identify and 'segregate' absentee ballots received after November 3. The litigation is in a preliminarily stage and those ballots would not be counted if a final judgment is entered in the Republicans' favor."

Following the court's ruling, Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said voters should "NOT put ballots in the mail any more" and instead drop them off in person to ensure they're received on time.


In a statement late Thursday, Simon denounced the court's dismissal of his deadline extension as "a tremendous and unnecessary disruption to Minnesota's election, just days before Election Day."

"This last-minute change could disenfranchise Minnesotans who were relying on settled rules for the 2020 election—rules that were in place before the August 11 primary and were accepted by all political parties," Simon added. "I won't let any Minnesota voter be silenced. My mission is now to make sure all voters know that a federal court has suddenly changed the rules, and that their ballot needs to be received by Election Day."

The secretary of state's office provided a list of steps voters should take to ensure their ballots are counted:
Voters who have already put their ballot in the mail can track their ballot at http://www.mnvotes.org/track. If their ballot has not yet been received the voter can vote in-person either by absentee, or at their polling place on Election Day.
Voters can deliver their ballots to their county election office by hand (or have someone they trust hand-deliver it for them).
Voters can cast their vote in person with an absentee ballot at their local election office up until November 2, 2020.
Voters can cast their votes in person on Election Day. Use our Pollfinder Tool to find out where to vote.

"The right to vote is fundamental," said Simon. "The court's decision is a step in the direction of restricting the exercise of that right, during a pandemic that has altered everything about our daily lives. But Minnesotans always find a way to vote, and they'll do so again this year. The spirit that has fueled Minnesota's nation-leading voter turnout will continue."

Tillis Pushed Deregulation That Helps His Top Donor, Blackstone Group, Bilk Small Investors

Besides being Tillis’ top campaign donor, Blackstone’s CEO has given $20 million to a super PAC attacking Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham.


Donald Shaw

@donnydonny



https://readsludge.com/2020/10/30/tillis-pushed-deregulation-that-helps-his-top-donor-blackstone-group-bilk-small-investors/




The private equity industry has spent more money on the 2020 elections than ever before, and no politician has benefitted more than North Carolina’s Republican senator Thom Tillis, whose race against Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham, a dead heat, could determine which party controls the upper chamber.

Keeping Republicans in control of the Senate would benefit the industry in many ways, including helping their billionaire executives hold onto lucrative tax breaks, but they also have reason to try and keep Tillis around in particular. Tillis has been a leader in helping to deliver regulatory benefits for the industry, including his repeated efforts to secure a new rule that weakens the position of smaller American investors to the benefit of big corporations and private equity firms.

In 2018, Tillis introduced legislation to direct the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to expand the definition of accredited investors so that private funds can raise money from less-wealthy investors. The accredited investor definition is used to determine who is allowed to participate in investments that are not available to the general public, including offers by private equity firms, hedge funds, and venture funds. For years, accredited investors were required to have a net worth of at least $1 million, but Tillis wanted to expand that to include people with certain educational backgrounds, job experience, and a lower net worth.

The SEC kicked off a rulemaking to expand the definition in December 2019 and finalized it earlier this year after Tillis and a few of his Republican colleagues filed a comment to the agency’s chair, Jay Clayton, asking him to be even more expansive with their changes to the definition. When the SEC voted to change the definition, Tillis put out a statement applauding the effort and saying that he “has led Congressional efforts to amend the definition of accredited investor.”

The definition now allows for holders of entry-level stockbroker’s licenses, “knowledgeable employees” of nonpublic firms, and other new categories of investors to participate in financial offerings like leveraged buyouts and angel funds that are far less transparent than those offered to the general public.

In his letter, Tillis calls the change “a win for the American people,” but financial reform advocates see the SEC’s move as an industry victory that helps giant firms exploit small investors.

“The SEC did the bidding of private equity in particular by enlarging the pool of money from which this industry, which already has trillions on hand, can draw,” said Carter Dougherty, communications director with consumer group Americans for Financial Reform. “The result will surely be that private equity firms will prey on less-informed investors, who will not have the benefit of information available in public securities markets, and will pay higher fees for mediocre returns on their money.”

These investments and fees will benefit billionaire fund managers, several of whom have spent tens of millions of dollars this election cycle to support Tillis and other vulnerable Republicans.

The CEO of private equity behemoth Blackstone Group, Stephen Schwarzman, who is worth $18.1 billion, has donated $20 million since January 2019 to the Senate Leadership Fund, a super PAC affiliated with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.).

Tillis has been the biggest beneficiary of Senate Leadership Fund support this election cycle. The super PAC has spent $47 million on television ads and other communications opposing his opponent Cal Cunningham as of Oct. 30. The group’s ads have attacked Cunningham over flirtatious texts he sent to a woman who is not his wife.

Another top donor to Senate Leadership Fund is Ken Griffin, the founder and CEO of investment firm Citadel, which could benefit from an expanded pool of potential investors. Griffin gave the super PAC $25 million this cycle.

According to the Wall Street Journal, Blackstone sent letters to the SEC praising their proposal to expand the accredited investor definition and urging it to go further.

Blackstone Group is also Tillis’ top campaign donor this election cycle, according to a tally by the Center for Responsive Politics, with many of the firm’s executives and employees chipping in the legal maximum of $5,600 for a combined total of $67,611, including Schwarzman, Global Head of Private Equity Joseph Baratta, and Senior Managing Director Prakash Melwani. Securities and investments is Tillis’ top donor industry, with investment firms like Elliot Management, Apollo Global Management, and Capital Group all among his top 20 donors.

The North Carolina Senate race is one of a handful that will determine which party controls the Senate, along with races in Maine, Colorado, and Arizona. Most polls have Tillis trailing his Democratic opponent by a few percentage points, with the race having tightened dramatically in the past two weeks.

Unions Representing Hundreds of Thousands of Workers Prepare for General Strike If Trump Subverts Election Results

"Paired with people in the streets, a strike could help stop a GOP coup."



Julia Conley, staff writer



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/30/unions-representing-hundreds-thousands-workers-prepare-general-strike-if-trump




Dozens of labor unions have resolved to consider a general strike after Nov. 3 should President Donald Trump refuse to accept the results of the election or sabotage the counting of ballots, with organizers calling a work stoppage "the most powerful tool the movement has" to protect democracy.

The 100,000-member Rochester-Genesee Valley Area Labor Federation in New York was the first union federation to adopt a resolution this month stating that it would prepare for and hold “a general strike of all working people, if necessary, to ensure a constitutionally mandated peaceful transition of power as a result of the 2020 presidential elections."

The resolution also stated the federation would lobby other labor organizations including the AFL-CIO, which represents 12.5 million workers, to consider a general strike if the president attempts to subvert the election results.


MLK Labor in Seattle, which represents 150 unions and 100,000 members, approved a resolution last week stating it "will take whatever nonviolent actions are necessary up to and including a general strike to protect our democracy, the Constitution, the law, and our nation’s democratic traditions," and Western Mass Area Labor Federation in Western Massachusetts voted on a similar resolution last Monday. The group passed the resolution as Trump has repeatedly refused to commit to accepting the election results if he loses and after several federal court decisions have sparked fears that hundreds of thousands of voters could be disenfranchised.

"We joined a growing number of labor organizations around the country and passed a resolution making clear that should Donald Trump and his administration attempt to obstruct, subvert, sabotage, overturn or reject a fair and complete count of presidential ballots (essentially a coup against democracy), that the labor movements must respond with nonviolent action to defend the democratic process, the Constitution and an orderly transfer of power that is one of the historic hallmarks of American democracy," the federation wrote on its Facebook page last week.

"The labor movement must be ready to defend our democracy and use our collective power to ensure that every vote is counted," the group added.

The AFL-CIO's executive council has so far only committed to "defend our democratic republic," and President Richard Trumka told labor leaders on Oct. 22 that the labor movement's focus up until Election Day is to get out the vote for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden. After the election, Trumka said, the AFL-CIO will determine how it will fight back if Trump or the judicial system moves to stop the counting of votes or otherwise stands in the way of a peaceful transition of power.




Even a work stoppage in certain parts of the country would be historic; the last time a general strike took place in the U.S. was in 1946 when workers in Oakland, Calif. staged a walkout over low wages, forcing all businesses except for grocery stores and pharmacies to shut down for one month.

"What we've seen is people going about our business during the day and conducting mass protests at night, and that's not going to be enough to make this president move," Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, told The Guardian on Friday. "[Trump] will use those protests to further divide the country. We will have to do the one thing that takes all power and control from the government or anyone with corporate interests in keeping this person in office, and that is withholding our labor."

As labor leaders across the country are considering a work stoppage, advocacy groups are preparing a growing number of direct actions to demand that election officials protect the results of the election. Led by Indivisible and Stand Up America, the Protect the Results coalition is so far planning at least 435 demonstrations across the country, up from 375 on Tuesday.

"If Trump declares victory prematurely or tries to undermine the results of the election, the American people must be ready to rise up and protect the results," wrote Leah Greenberg of Indivisible and Sean Eldridge of Stand Up America at Talking Points Memo on Friday.

"With a combined membership in the tens of millions, the Protect the Results coalition continues to build a national activist network that could mobilize quickly to demand that election officials, the Electoral College and Congress honor the accurate, final vote count," they added. "By mobilizing across the country, our groups hope to ensure that any corrupt political pressure from Trump is met with far greater pressure from the American people to follow the rules and preserve our democracy."

A work stoppage combined with rallies at government buildings and other public places starting on Nov. 4, should the president sabotage a free and fair election, "could help stop a GOP coup," said organizers.


"Spread the word. Contact your union," tweeted Protect the Results NYC. "And if you haven't, commit to taking the streets."

'Truly Sociopathic Behavior': After Mother Beaten by Philly Cops, Fraternal Order of Police Use Photo of Terrified Toddler as Propaganda

"The underlying story of Philadelphia police conduct is shocking enough, but the added layer of intentional lies and deception... is unbelievable."


Julia Conley, staff writer



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/30/truly-sociopathic-behavior-after-mother-beaten-philly-cops-fraternal-order-police




The conduct of Philadelphia police officers and the nation's largest law enforcement association this week amounted to what one journalist called "an extraordinary mix of police violence and disinformation," after it was revealed Friday that officers beat a young mother who had accidentally driven into a protest and then snatched her toddler from the car and later used his image in pro-police propaganda.

Along with several posts urging voters to support President Donald Trump, the Fraternal Order of Police on Thursday night posted a photo of a toddler who the union falsely claimed had been found by Philadelphia police "wandering around barefoot" amid the "lawlessness" of the fourth night of demonstrations over the killing of Walter Wallace, Jr.

But the union soon deleted the post after being confronted by the Philadelphia Inquirer and lawyers for the two-year-old boy's mother, Rickia Young, said the officers forcibly removed the toddler from his mother's vehicle after smashing the car's windows and violently arresting Young after she accidentally drove into an area where protesters were being confronted by lines of riot police.

The reality of what the photo shows, tweeted HuffPost reporter Ryan J. Reilly, offers "a tremendously valuable lesson in why you always need to treat initial police narratives with intense skepticism."



According to attorneys Riley H. Ross III and Kevin Mincey, Young attempted to turn around immediately after she turned down a street where police were clashing with protesters Thursday night, while her son and teenage nephew were in the car with her.

While she was trying to make a three-point turn as directed by officers, the police suddenly surrounded her SUV, smashing Young's windows while the toddler sat in the back seat. The police violently dragged Young out of the car, beat her with batons, and then threw her to the ground.

A nearby resident, Aapril Rice caught the police violence on video:


While Young was left with a bloodied head and badly bruised left side from the police attack and was detained and separated from her son for hours, a female police officer was photographed holding the toddler in what was later used for what Ross called "propaganda."

"Using this kid in a way to say, 'This kid was in danger and the police were only there to save him,' when the police actually caused the danger," Ross told the Washington Post. "That little boy is terrified because of what the police did."

The child was also hurt during the attack and was taken to Children's Hospital to be treated for a head injury after being reunited with his mother. According to the Post, the family still has not been able to locate the SUV or their belongings, including the toddler's hearing aids, which were inside.

Observers on social media expressed shock at the story, with filmmaker Peter Ramsey tweeting that accounts like that of Young and her child are evidence of a police force that is "begging to be defunded."




"This is state sanctioned terror," tweeted Vox journalist Kainaz Amaria.

In Bid to Beat 'Public Health and Economic Crises,' Senate Dems Urge Utilities to Suspend Shutoffs During Pandemic

"Minority and low-income families who have disproportionately borne the brunt of the current economic crisis are particularly at risk."


Brett Wilkins, staff writer



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/30/bid-beat-public-health-and-economic-crises-senate-dems-urge-utilities-suspend




Voicing support for "legislation that would impose a federal moratorium on all utility shutoffs" during the coronavirus pandemic, a group of Senate Democrats on Friday sent a letter to 21 of the nation's largest utility and telecommunications companies urging them to voluntarily stop terminating services for the duration of the crisis.

"Because of the economic devastation wrought by the pandemic, millions of Americans are struggling to make ends meet and are at risk for having their electricity, water, and broadband services terminated," the letter (pdf)—which was led by Sens. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.)—said.


The lawmakers noted that nearly 179 million Americans—"a staggering number of people"—are at risk of electricity shutoffs, and that "minority and low-income families who have disproportionately borne the brunt of the current economic crisis are particularly at risk" for service cancellation or interruption. "In order to effectively address the concurrent public health and economic crises, the families you serve must have uninterrupted access to these essential public services," the senators asserted.

Furthermore, "shutoff moratoriums have expired (or were never implemented) in 33 states, and seven more states have moratoriums that will expire next month."


"Every day more people in our communities become at risk for losing access to the water they need to wash their hands or the electricity they need to keep the lights on," the senators wrote.

The letter also called the internet "an essential public service"—especially "as millions of children are forced to learn remotely" during the pandemic—and warned that "without a moratorium on electricity and broadband disconnections, many more children, in particular those in minority, low-income, and rural communities, are at risk of falling behind."

In addition to Brown and Merkley, the letter was signed by six other Democratic senators: Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), Edward Markey (Mass.), Tina Smith (Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (Mass.), Ron Wyden (Ore.), and Chris Van Hollen (Md.). Bernie Sanders (Vt.), an independent who caucuses with the Democrats, is also a signatory.

Earlier this week, over 120 advocacy organizations sent a letter to Dr. Robert R. Redfield, director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, urging him to declare a national moratorium on water shutoffs—echoing a similar message from Reps. Harley Rouda (D-Calif.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) earlier this month.

'Banking for the People': Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez Unveil Bill to Foster Creation of Public Banks Across US

"It's time for an option that works for the people and not solely privatized profits."


Jessica Corbett, staff writer



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/30/banking-people-tlaib-and-ocasio-cortez-unveil-bill-foster-creation-public-banks




"It's long past time to open doors for people who have been systematically shut out and provide a better option for those grappling with the costs of simply trying to participate in an economy they have every right to—but has been rigged against them."

That's according to Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who along with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and a handful of other progressives in Congress introduced legislation on Friday they say "would provide a much-needed financial lifeline to states and municipalities, as well as unbanked and underbanked residents, that have been left in dire straits by the Covid-19 pandemic."

Specifically, as a joint statement from the congresswomen explains, the Public Banking Act (pdf) would enable "the creation of state and locally administered public banks by establishing the Public Bank Grant program administered by the secretary of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board which would provide grants for the formation, chartering, and capitalization of public banks."

"We spent $30 trillion in the global crisis from 2007-2009 propping up financial institutions that held the country hostage for their reckless behavior. Only $8 trillion dollars has been committed thus far in the Covid-19 pandemic," Tlaib noted. "These banks have been, are, and will continue to depend on the public dollar. It is time for this relationship to be reciprocated and have the banks work for the people and not solely privatized profits wreaking havoc on communities of color."


In addition to allowing the Treasury secretary and the Fed's board to give grants to public banks for "bank formation, capitalization, developing financial market infrastructure, supporter operations, covering unexpected losses, and more without the requirement to provide matching funds," the bill:
Allows the Federal Reserve to charter and grant membership to public banks, and in conjunction with the appropriate federal agencies, establish a separate regulatory scheme with respect to these.
Establishes public banking incubator program to provide technical assistance to public member banks to develop technologies, practices, and data that promote public welfare.
Establishes new liquidity and credit facilities at the Federal Reserve to provide direct federal support to state and local public banks and their communities;
Prohibits investment in fossil fuel projects.

Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez argue that public banks not only would benefit city and state governments and aspiring entrepreneurs due to lower interest rates and fees, but also could result in broader community benefits by, for example, funding public infrastructure projects. Ocasio-Cortez called their legislation "monumental."

"Public banks are uniquely able to address the economic inequality and structural racism exacerbated by the banking industry's discriminatory policies and predatory practices," she said. "The creation of public banks will also facilitate the use of public resources to construct a myriad of public goods including affordable housing and local renewable energy projects. Public banks empower states and municipalities to establish new channels of public investment to help solve systemic crises."


The other half of the Squad—Congresswomen Ayanna Pressley (D-Mass.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.)—and Reps. Jesús G. "Chuy" García (D-Ill.), Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), Al Green (D-Texas), Bennie G. Thompson (D-Miss.), Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), Barbara Lee (D-Calif.), and Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) are backing the bill, as are 29 outside groups.

Organizations supporting the measure include the California Public Banking Alliance (CBPA), Take on Wall Street, Americans for Financial Reform, Beneficial State Foundation, Communications Workers of America, Friends of the Earth, Food & Water Action, Americans for Financial Reform, California Reinvestment Coalition, Center for Popular Democracy, Community Change, Farm Aid, Institute for Policy Studies, Jobs With Justice, NJ Citizen Action, Oil Change International, Oil Change International, People's Action, Strong Economy for All, UNITE HERE, Working Families Party, Democracy Collaborative, ACRE, and Public Citizen.


Climate Justice Alliance policy coordinator Anthony Rogers-Wright expressed excitement that "our values regarding the need for a rapid Fossil Fuel phaseout" are represented in the bill, highlighting evidence that economically, "Big Oil is in big trouble and the people don't want the money they keep in their banks utilized to bailout or finance an industry that's killing people and planet."

Take on Wall Street campaign director Porter McConnell explained that her group supports the Public Banking Act "because public banks can create jobs and boost the local economy, save cities and states money, and lend counter-cyclically to blunt the impact of Wall Street booms and busts."

"As we learned recently from the Paycheck Protection Program, when you pay big Wall Street banks to provide public goods, they inevitably reward themselves and their friends at the expense of white, Black, and brown working families," McConnell said, referencing the business loan program established in March by Congress' last Covid-19 relief measure. "We deserve a financial system for working families, not the big banks."

Experts Warn Trump HHS 'Endangering People' by Covering Up Key Covid-19 Hospitalization Data

"We're now in the third wave, and I think our only way out is really open, transparent, and actionable information."

Jake Johnson, staff writer





https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/30/experts-warn-trump-hhs-endangering-people-covering-key-covid-19-hospitalization-data




As surging coronavirus hospitalizations across the U.S. push already-strained medical facilities to the brink of full capacity, internal documents obtained by NPR show that the Trump administration is withholding from the public critical hospital data that experts say would be extremely useful in helping communities prepare for, track, and overcome Covid-19 outbreaks.

NPR reported Friday that the documents—which are based on hospital data collected and analyzed daily by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—"highlight trends in hospitalizations and pinpoint cities nearing full hospital capacity and facilities under stress. They paint a granular picture of the strain on hospitals across the country that could help local citizens decide when to take extra precautions against Covid-19."


Dated October 27, the most recent internal report obtained by NPR shows that around 24% of the nation's hospitals—including facilities in major cities like Atlanta and Minneapolis—are utilizing more than 80% of their intensive care unit capacity and names specific hospitals that are over 95% capacity. The document also shows an uptick in ventilator usage over the past month as coronavirus infections continue to rise at a record-shattering rate."The documents show that detailed information hospitals report to HHS every day is reviewed and analyzed—but circulation seems to be limited to a few dozen government staffers from HHS and its agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health," NPR noted. "Only one member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Adm. Brett Giroir, appears to receive the documents directly."

Experts said the detailed local data currently only circulated among a small group of Trump administration officials would, if made widely available, play a significant role in better informing Americans and health officials about nearby hotspots and encouraging greater safety precautions.

"The neighborhood data, the county data, and metro-area data can be really helpful for people to say, 'Whoa, they're not kidding, this is right here,'" Lisa Lee, former chief science officer for public health surveillance at the CDC, told NPR. "It can help public health prevention folks get their messages across and get people to change their behavior."

While some state officials are able to access HHS reports for their own state, the inability to view broader regional data leaves them without potentially crucial information.

"Hospitals in Tennessee serve patients who are from Arkansas and Mississippi and Kentucky and Georgia and vice versa, and so we're a little bit blind to what's going on there," said Melissa McPheeters, adjunct research professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "When we see hospitals that are particularly near those state borders having increases, one of the things we can't tell is: Is that because hospitals in an adjacent state are full? What's going on there? And that could be a really important piece of the picture."






Ryan Panchadsaram, co-founder of the website Covid Exit Strategy and a former data official in the Obama administration, said the decision to keep the detailed hospitalization data out of public view is "reckless," particularly in the face of soaring coronavirus cases and hospitalizations nationwide.

"It's endangering people," Panchadsaram told NPR. "We're now in the third wave, and I think our only way out is really open, transparent, and actionable information."

In a tweet Friday, Panchadsaram wrote that "there's a mismatch: the rigorous work that's happening internally by the rank and file at HHS/CDC/USDS [United States Digital Service] and what is being shared externally by the administration."

According to publicly available data analyzed by the Covid Tracking Project, more than 46,000 people in the U.S. are currently hospitalized due to the coronavirus as of Thursday, which saw a daily record of 90,400-plus new cases.

"Approaching the eve of the election, President Trump has downplayed the steep rise in cases, attributing much of it to increased testing," the New York Times noted earlier this week. "But the number of people hospitalized for the virus tells a different story, climbing an estimated 46 percent from a month ago and raising fears about the capacity of regional healthcare systems to respond to overwhelming demand."

Dr. Leana Wen, an emergency physician and visiting professor of health policy and management at George Washington University's Milken School of Public Health, tweeted Friday that the HHS hospitalization data "needs to be available to the public."

"It is critical to hospital surge planning and guiding local and state policies," said Wen.

As Covid-19 Infections Skyrocket, House Report Slams Trump's Pandemic Response as Among "Worst Failures of Leadership" in U.S. History

"This report exhaustively documents what has long been clear: the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus crisis has been a tragic failure."

Kenny Stancil, staff writer





https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/30/covid-19-infections-skyrocket-house-report-slams-trumps-pandemic-response-among




One day after the United States reported a record high of more than 90,400 Covid-19 cases in a 24-hour period—equivalent to one new infection every second—the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis on Friday denounced President Donald Trump's disastrous response to the pandemic, describing it as one of the "worst failures of leadership" in the country's history.

In a new report (pdf) entitled Inefficient, Ineffective, and Inequitable, the panel detailed how the Trump administration's response to the coronavirus crisis has caused a public health catastrophe, failed to alleviate the ongoing economic hardships endured by millions of U.S. households, and prioritized Wall Street recovery over Main Street relief.

"The virus is a global scourge," said the report, "but it has been an American fiasco, killing more people in the U.S. than in any other country."


The subcommittee's most recent publication compiled and summarized key findings from dozens of investigations it has conducted since being established on April 23.

"This report exhaustively documents what has long been clear," said subcommittee Chairman James Clyburn (D-S.C.) in a statement released Friday. "The Trump administration's response to the coronavirus crisis has been a tragic failure."

According to the analysis, Trump's "decision to mislead the public about the severity of the crisis, his failure to listen to scientists about how to keep Americans healthy, and his refusal to implement a coordinated national plan to stop the coronavirus have all contributed to devastating results: more than 227,000 Americans dead, more than 8.8 million Americans infected, and a dangerous virus that continues to spread out of control nine months after it reached our nation's shores."

In addition, the report noted that the White House failed to protect millions of economically distressed households experiencing material deprivation and financial freefall.

Instead of extending enhanced unemployment insurance benefits and providing housing relief, for instance, the Trump aministration "exacerbated and extended an economic collapse of historic proportions, with tens of millions of Americans losing their jobs and at least six million Americans falling into poverty."




To the extent that the Trump administration did respond to the economic crisis, the report noted that it intervened in ways that "benefited larger companies and wealthy Americans, while leaving behind many disadvantaged communities and struggling small businesses."

The report pointed to the Federal Reserve's practice of purchasing corporate debt while leaving workers out to dry. It also stated that the Trump administration's "implementation of relief programs passed by Congress has... been marred by fraud, waste, and abuse."

Trump "has refused to do what is necessary to control the virus and mitigate its economic damage," said Clyburn.

"While we cannot bring back the nearly 230,000 Americans we have lost to this disease, I hope that this report will serve as a wake-up call to make the improvements needed to prevent further unnecessary deaths and deprivation that will occur if the response continues on its current course," he added.

To that end, the subcommittee made several recommendations:
The administration must create and implement a coordinated national plan to defeat the coronavirus, save American lives, and revive our economy;
A coordinated national plan must be guided by the best available science, not political expediency;
Americans need the Senate to pass and the president to sign comprehensive relief legislation to tackle the virus and support workers, families, and communities; and
Economic relief legislation must be implemented in a manner consistent with Congress's intent to target assistance to the most vulnerable Americans rather than wealthy corporations.

These recommendations contrast sharply with recent stances taken by the White House. As Accountable.US president Kyle Herring said Friday, the Trump administration appears "to have thrown their hands up in surrender, ramping up rhetoric around 'herd immunity' and publicly announcing that they 'are not going to control the virus.'"

"As cases surge," Herring added, "the Trump administration should be doubling down on resources to ensure communities have the support they need."

Failing to do so "is an abdication of responsibility to the American people on a massive scale," he said.