Prof. Richard Wolff On The Impact Of Trump Losing The 2020 Election

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBnGdjNMh7k&ab_channel=act.tv

No Evidence to Support Trump's Election Fraud Claims, New York Times Finds

"I don't know of a single case where someone argued that a vote counted when it shouldn't have or didn't count when it should," said one official. "There was no fraud."



by
Brett Wilkins, staff writer










https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/11/no-evidence-support-trumps-election-fraud-claims-new-york-times-finds




As President Donald Trump and some of his allies continued to level mendacious attacks on the legitimacy of the 2020 election results on Tuesday, the New York Times—whose reporters phoned election officials in every state and found no evidence of widespread irregularities—published a report refuting the president's baseless claims.


"There's a great human capacity for inventing things that aren't true about elections," Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose, a Republican, said. "The conspiracy theories and rumors and all those things run rampant. For some reason, elections breed that type of mythology."The Times spoke with both Republican and Democratic officials, who universally rejected accusations of voter fraud and other improprieties.

A spokesperson for Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab, also a Republican, confirmed that the Sunflower State "did not experience any widespread, systematic issues with voter fraud, intimidation, irregularities, or voting problems," adding that "we are very pleased with how the election has gone up to this point."


Democrat Steve Simon, Minnesota's secretary of state, succinctly told the Times: "I don't know of a single case where someone argued that a vote counted when it shouldn't have or didn't count when it should. There was no fraud."

Amid the desperate legal challenges, rampant conspiracy theories, and incessant lies from Trump and his die-hard supporters, each dubious claim crumbles upon sober examination:
Dead people did not vote in Michigan, Pennsylvania—or anywhere else. Such incidents are exceedingly rare.

There were no statewide problems with voting machines in Michigan, despite an isolated case of operator error that affected ballots in one county.
President-elect Joe Biden was not "given" 130,000 votes he did not earn in Michigan.
That ballot-stuffing video was not recorded in Michigan—it was shot in Russia.
Wisconsin did not count more ballots than registered voters.
Ballots marked with Sharpies were counted the same as every other vote in Arizona.

Meanwhile, the Washington Post on Tuesday reported that a Pennsylvania postal worker hailed by Trump supporters as a patriotic whistleblower admitted that he fabricated allegations of widespread voter fraud. Trump, however, refused to believe it.


Despite the debunking of every one of the preposterous claims made by Trump or his supporters, fully 70% of Republican voters surveyed in a post-election Politico/Morning Consult poll said they did not believe the 2020 contest was free and fair.

Instead of seeking to reassure the public that the election was legitimate, Trump has exacerbated and attempted to benefit from the widespread doubt, while encouraging government loyalists to delay or deny the constitutional transfer of power to Biden.

A growing number of Republican critics have called Trump's words and actions "reckless" and "dangerous" for democracy. So do some law enforcement authorities, who worry the president's election fraud conspiracy theories may spark deadly violence.

Supporters of the president who acknowledge the outcome of the election have been gentler, but unambiguous. As the Times reported, Montana Secretary of State Corey Stapleton took to Twitter over the weekend, writing: "I have supported you, Mr. President... @realDonaldTrump accomplished some incredible things during your time in office! But that time is now over! Tip your hat, bite your lip, and congratulate @JoeBiden."


The long thread of denigration and denial in response to Stapleton's friendly comments, however, shows the doubt over the election results that Trump has so effectively sown.

Biden Wins, America Loses & Russia Disappears

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nxsxBOVopk&ab_channel=MomentOfClaritywithLeeCamp

Demanding White House Climate Office and 'Fierce' Cabinet Picks, Groups Urge Biden to Claim His 'FDR Moment'

"Democrats have a once-in-a-generation moment to deliver policies at the scale of the crises our generation is facing."



by
Jon Queally, staff writer



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/11/demanding-white-house-climate-office-and-fierce-cabinet-picks-groups-urge-biden




The left is not waiting for permission to be heard—and they have some "fierce" Cabinet picks in mind for Joe Biden as well as a plan to help save the planet from climate destruction and the U.S. economy from ruin.


While a coalition of progressive advocacy groups is circulating a memo on Capitol Hill arguing that bold, transformative policies in the next Congress will be essential for the Democratic Party to win the kinds of policy changes that will improve the lives of ordinary people as well as solidify the party's electoral prospects above and beyond what was seen in 2020, a related effort launched Wednesday morning is pressuring President-elect Joe Biden to move swiftly to make tackling the climate crisis by making a major national economic mobilization and energy system transformation plan central to his first-year agenda.

First reported by the New York Times, organizers from the Sunrise Movement and Justice Democrats began an active campaign Wednesday for Biden to create a White House Office of Climate Mobilization as well as to appoint bold, progressive leaders to prominent executive branch posts as a way to transform the nation and achieve lasting change after four years of destructive environmental policies and regulatory rollbacks by the Trump administration.

The groups argue that trying to compromise with Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, should the GOP retain control of upper chamber, would be a disastrous miscalculation and are urging Biden to take bold steps with his executive authority and other tools.

According to the groups:

Biden has a ten-year window to stop the worst and most permanent effects of climate change. He can avoid Mitch McConnell's forced delays by creating a brand new executive office and senior position with wide-reaching power to combat the climate crisis—just as we mobilized to defeat the existential threat of Nazi Germany in WWII.


This new position will convene and coordinate across the president's Cabinet agencies and, ultimately, hold every federal department accountable to the national project of stopping climate change.


The Office of Climate Mobilization will deeply embed this mission into all of our spending, regulations, policies, and actions. The Office of Climate Mobilization will not require Mitch McConnell's approval. Joe Biden can and must appoint a qualified leader who is trusted by the climate and environmental justice community.

Alexandra Rojas and Varshini Prakash, executive directors of Justice Democrats and the Sunrise Movement respectively, explained there is no more time for incrementalism and corporate-friendly half-measures on the part of Democrats—not when the planet is burning and the economy is on the verge of seismic collapse.

"President-elect Biden must embrace this historic moment by keeping the party united and appointing progressive leaders who will help him usher in the most progressive Democratic administration in generations," said Rojas.




As part of the new campaign push, the groups launched a new website—ClimateMandate.org—and released this video to help deliver their message:



"Democrats have a once-in-a-generation moment to deliver policies at the scale of the crises our generation is facing," said Sunrise's Prakash, who also served as an adviser in the Biden-Sanders task force on climate policy that came together after Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) left the primary.


"Young people helped deliver this historic majority to Joe Biden," Prakash added. "The Senate can't be an excuse; whether or not Mitch McConnell remains the Majority Leader, we need an Office of Climate Mobilization and visionary personnel in the Biden administration who are ready to use every tool in their disposal to create millions of good-paying green jobs."

The groups are also urging Biden to appoint progressives to key leadership posts, including Sanders for labor secretary, Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.) for secretary of interior, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) for secretary of treasury, Keith Ellison for attorney general, Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) for secretary of state, and economist Darrick Hamilton for chair of the Council of Economic Advisers.


Based on key criteria—including having no ties to fossil fuel companies or corporate lobbyists and demonstrating a clear sense of urgency around the climate crisis—the groups put forth a full slate of possible Cabinet choices for the Biden team to choose from:























Arguing that the climate crisis presents an urgent and unique opportunity for Biden to have his "FDR moment," the group's website says that there will not be a better chance for him to erect a lasting legacy than the choices he makes out of the gates.

"We can unite our nation by solving the crises we have in common: Covid-19, climate change, systemic racism, and an economic recession," the site states. "Joe Biden must command the federal government with fierce urgency and bold creativity."

Journalists Who Cheered on Invasion of Iraq Cut off Trump for Lying

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7M80wM79LhQ&ab_channel=RichardMedhurst

Working-Class Democrats Strike Back: "Defund Their Butts!"

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86IKhHlZMPo&ab_channel=TheRationalNational

DeSantis Responds to Racial Justice Protests With Expanded 'Stand Your Ground' Proposal Slammed as 'Legalized Lynching'

"This is basically just a license for white people to kill protesters," said one critic.



by
Jessica Corbett, staff writer



https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/11/11/desantis-responds-racial-justice-protests-expanded-stand-your-ground-proposal




This year's nationwide protests demanding racial justice and an end to police brutality—sparked by the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and other Black Americans—inspired a proposal from Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis that critics worry will lead to more bloodshed: expanding the state's controversial "stand your ground" law with his drafted "anti-mob" legislation.

The Miami Herald reported Tuesday on the draft, which traces back to promises DeSantis made earlier this year "as he tried to deliver Florida" to President Donald Trump. The president—who ultimately won the state but lost the election, though is still refusing to concede to President-elect Joe Biden—has come under fire for his own forceful response to the protests.

DeSantis' administration has circulated an "anti-mob legislation draft" among Florida lawmakers since his public statements in September, but no related measures have been filed in the state legislature. However, local attorneys are already raising alarm that the proposal "allows for vigilantes to justify their actions," in the words of Denise Georges.

Georges, a former Miami-Dade County prosecutor who handled "stand your ground" cases, told the Herald that "it also allows for death to be the punishment for a property crime—and that is cruel and unusual punishment. We cannot live in a lawless society where taking a life is done so casually and recklessly."


Florida passed its "stand your ground" law in 2005—and other states, encouraged by the National Rifle Association, followed suit, enacting measures that effectively say people have no duty to retreat before using deadly force to defend themselves. The Florida measure garnered national attention in 2012, after George Zimmerman, a neighborhood watch volunteer, killed Trayvon Martin, an unarmed Black teenager, in a gated community. Zimmerman's acquittal the next year sparked the Black Lives Matter movement.

"Zimmerman's attorney did not raise a 'stand your ground' defense at the trial," the Washington Post noted in 2014. "But after the trial a juror acknowledged that jurors had discussed the self-defense law before finding Zimmerman not guilty. The law also changed the standard instructions to jurors in homicide cases, so that the judge said that Zimmerman had no duty to retreat and could stand his ground if he felt threatened. (The law may have also played a role in the initial failure of the local police to prosecute Zimmerman.)"

DeSantis' proposal goes even further than 2017 changes to the law that make prosecutors prove by "clear and convincing evidence" that a defendant wasn't acting in self-defense. As the Herald detailed Tuesday:


The proposal would expand the list of "forcible felonies" under Florida's self-defense law to justify the use of force against people who engage in criminal mischief that results in the "interruption or impairment" of a business, and looting, which the draft defines as a burglary within 500 feet of a "violent or disorderly assembly."

Other key elements of DeSantis' proposal would enhance criminal penalties for people involved in "violent or disorderly assemblies," make it a third-degree felony to block traffic during a protest, offer immunity to drivers who claim to have unintentionally killed or injured protesters who block traffic, and withhold state funds from local governments that cut law enforcement budgets.

Former Miami-Dade prosecutor Aubrey Webb told the newspaper that "the Boston Tea Party members would have been lawfully shot under Florida's law by the British East India Tea Company."




"It dangerously gives armed private citizens power to kill as they subjectively determine what constitutes 'criminal mischief' that interferes with a business," Webb said. "Someone graffiti-ing 'Black Lives Matter' on a wall? Urinating behind a dumpster? Blocking an entrance?"

Webb and Georges were far from alone in criticizing the GOP governor's proposal. Critics warned it could lead to more violence by vigilantes like the white teenager charged with killing racial justice protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin in August and urged DeSantis to instead focus on the coronavirus pandemic that continues to ravage his state.





Miami Beach Mayor Dan Gelber, retired Miami-Dade homicide prosecutor Reid Rubin, Miami defense lawyer Phil Reizenstein, and Melba Pearson, a civil rights attorney and former deputy director of Florida's American Civil Liberties Union, all shared concerns about the proposal with the Herald, while others on social media described the draft legislation as "legalizing lynching" and "legalizing murder."

As digital rights activist Evan Greer put it: "This is basically just a license for white people to kill protesters."