DDT’s Future: Defending Himself in Court

As Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) remains ensconced at Mar-a-Lago permitting favored ones into his presence, his advisers grow increasingly concerned about the immense buildup of legal investigations and filings. Yet loyalists must tell him he will probably remain safe from lawsuits emanating from his incitement of violence at the U.S. Capitol on January 6.

Last week, two Capitol Police officers injured on January 6 while engaged in hand-to-hand combat are suing DDT for inciting his supporters who mobbed the Capitol to stop the Electoral College election of President Joe Biden. Officers James Blassingame and Sidney Hemby assert DDT has the direct responsibility for the insurrection because of his call to riot. Blassingame describes how rioters slammed him into a stone column while shouting racial slurs. Hemby, who was also sprayed with a chemical spray, said his hand and knee injuries still require medical care two months later. Both men suffer emotional trauma. DDT has tried to rework stories of January 6 by calling it a peaceful assembly with “zero threat.”

After breaking free of the crowd, Blassingame helped House members evacuate to a committee room and stayed among the maskless people until 7:30 pm. Hemby couldn’t get medical assistance until 9:00 pm. Part of the lawsuit uses speeches by GOP congressional members such as Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) and former Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-CA) who stated DDT could be legally liable for inciting the riot.  

Their suit follows ones by Reps. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) and Eric Swalwell (D-CA). Another political case against DDT filed in late December accuses DDT and the Republican National Committee of conspiring to violate the rights of Black voters. The case asks the judge to not only stop them from any further actions to overturn or undermine the 2020 election but also issue an order forcing them to obtain court approval for demands of recounts or participation in future “post-election activities.” In January 2018, a federal judge in New Jersey lifted the 1982 court-monitored settlement banning the RNC from “ballot security” activities based on the “racial or ethnic composition” of a specific community. In that agreement, the RNC agreed it had tried to intimidate, threaten, and disenfranchise voters through voter roll purges and by paying police officers to patrol polling sites in predominantly Black and Latino areas under the pretense of preventing election fraud.

This lawsuit expands a November case that the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund (LDF) filed in federal court in Washington, DC, against DDT and his campaign for deliberately focusing fraud accusations on cities with large Black populations, including Atlanta, Detroit, Milwaukee, and Philadelphia. These claims were brought under the federal Voting Rights Act and the Ku Klux Klan Act.

The Fulton County (GA) DA, Fani Willis, is pursuing an investigation into DDT’s election fraud through his telephone calls begging officials, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, to cheat on counting votes from the 2020 general election in DDT’s favor. Willis is putting together an investigative team, and two grand juries are underway, close to making subpoena demands for documents and recordings. She’s searching for three more lawyers and another investigator.

DDT’s Supreme Court justices, who were appointed to return him to the White House, have rejected the last of three cases to challenge his election loss, the one about absentee ballots in Wisconsin. The other two were about Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. Another rejected case asking justices to block the January 5 Senate runoff elections in Georgia was filed by DDT’s loyalist Lin Wood. Democrats won both these elections bringing their total to 50 members.

Wisconsin’s Democratic Gov. Tony Evers is going to court for over $250,000 from DDT that the state paid to defend the popular vote against his attempt to overturn the vote so he could return to the White House. The request for an order states DDT and his attorneys brought their two lawsuits “in bad faith.”

A New York appeals court is permitting a defamation lawsuit by former Apprentice contestant Summer Zervos against DDT because he is no longer in the White House. DDT denied her allegations about sexually assaulting her in 2007, and Zervos wants to depose DDT as part of her lawsuit. She is one of two women suing him for defamation. 

Three cases against DDT are being prosecuted by Roberta Kaplan, well-known for the Supreme Court case U.S. v. Windsor regarding legalized marriage equality. Kaplan is filing civil suits for defamation, fraud, and more fraud against DDT by his niece Mary Trump and writer E. Jean Carroll. DDT had claimed Carroll was lying about his raping her, and Trump’s case is about DDT and two of his siblings depriving her of an inheritance worth millions by lying about the worth of his father’s estate. Kaplan’s third case concerns the relationship of DDT and his three oldest children with a purported pyramid scheme by ACN.

DDT’s biggest problem may come from the New York criminal probe into his business affairs. Prosecutors are examining millions of pages recently acquired in a search for witnesses who can explain these to a jury. The next step is issuing subpoenas regarding the investigation into DDT’s reduction of his tax liabilities by lying about property values. Financial records about DDT’s Chicago skyscraper and his Seven Springs estate in Westchester County (NY) have been subpoenaed. In addition to possible criminal charges filed by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr., New York Attorney General Letitia James may file civil charges.

A judge has voided DDT’s non-disclosure agreement (NDA) with Jessica Denson, his former Latinx outreach director, ruling it too vague and broad to enforce under New York’s contract law. Although the decision applies only to Denson’s NDA, the same ruling may be possible for all DDT’s NDAs. The judge described the scope of the NDA as “unlimited,” that “campaign employees are not free to speak about anything concerning the Campaign.” The broadness makes the NDA “not reasonable.” Earlier, a campaign arbitrator issued a $50,000 award against Denson for violating the NDA, but it was overturned. Denson believes the NDAs blocked criticism about DDT for the past six years. 

DDT typically required the same secrecy of his companies’ employees and staff before he followed the same practice in his campaign and the White House. First Amendment experts warned him public employees could not constitutionally be forced to swear an oath of secrecy. Last year, DDT’s DOJ used an NDA to file a lawsuit against Stephanie Winston Wolkoff, a former volunteer adviser to first lady Melania Trump, over Winston Wolkoff’s tell-all book. The suit was dropped days after Biden’s inauguration.

While in the White House, DDT and his top officials indulged themselves in shady deals now coming into the light. They fought key oversight investigations conducted by government watchdogs in at least nine different cases. A high profile one concluded Elaine Chao, wife of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), abused her position as Transportation Secretary for personal reasons such as helping a family business. In another one, a White House physician, retired Navy rear admiral Ronny Jackson who raved about DDT’s superb health, abused substances while on the job and created a toxic work environment for his staff. 

The revelations can have no consequences because Chao resigned her position after the Electoral College determined Biden as president. Jackson has been elected as a U.S. representative from Texas.

Investigators described almost impossible obstructions: DDT’s attorneys made internal communications off limits because of their confidential nature and demanded to be present at witness interviews. Information was released either extremely slowly or not at all, preventing the ability to assess and correct internal problems in real time. DDT’s ultimate solution to investigations was to fire internal investigators.

Future releases of investigations may be the White House blocking delivery of Puerto Rico’s financial aid after Hurricane Maria and the Commerce Department’s attempt to add a citizenship question to the U.S. census. The Pentagon is also looking into the $400 million border-wall contract DT wanted to award to a subpar North Dakota construction company. The General Services Administration inspector general is conducting a sweeping review of responses to the coronavirus from several different federal agencies. 

Congress will now have the ability to examine records from DDT’s term, blocked from them during the past four years. The Presidential Records Act (PRA) allows former presidents to restrict access to their records for 12 years, but an exception permits release of records to Congress or “any committee or subcommittee thereof if such records contain information that is needed for the conduct of its business and that is not otherwise available.” These can include DDT’s blackmail in Ukraine, Michael Flynn’s lies to the FBI, the January 6 attempted insurrection, White House visitor logs, DDT’s phone logs, and other abuses of power. In the past, Democrats could not get records from the archives, which released them only to the majority party. Democrats now are the majority although they may suffer some delays. DDT can cite privilege, but Biden must uphold his claims. In filing lawsuits, DDT no longer has the support of the Department of Justice and must fund the lawsuits himself with personal lawsuits.

The import of the business lawsuits is beginning to sink into Eric Trump’s perception as shown by his meltdown on the Fox network. He was close to tears when he talked about what his family was facing.

Defending himself from defamation, fraud, and corruption. That is the future of the man who spent the last four years ruling from the White House and now hides in Florida.

DDT Loyalists: Where Are They Now?

Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) can’t quit causing trouble. Recently, he  claimed the election—in which he lost by about 7 million popular votes and 74 Electoral votes (232-306)—was “stolen” from him. Fox network won’t let him spew his lies about the election because of billion-dollar lawsuits so he falsely claimed no danger from the January 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol killing five people. He told Laura Ingraham:

“Right from the start, it was zero threat… Some of them went in, and they’re hugging and kissing the police and the guards, you know? They had great relationships. A lot of the people were waved in, and then they walked in, and they walked out.”

Among 140 police officers suffering injuries were an eye lost, cracked ribs, smashed spinal discs, concussions, and others from being beaten by a flagpole, sprayed with bear spray, punched, dragged, and trampled. Some officers said that their January 6 experiences were scarier than combat during two tours in Iraq. Almost 400 people have been charged for the attack. DDT, who called on his followers to incite violence in the insurrection, now sits like a deposed king in his Mar-a-Lago club, while his servile political sycophants gather at his feet, planning to bring him—and themselves—back into control. Some of his enablers who fell from power after the election are searching for their own ways to plan the GOP future:

Mike Pompeo went from a Kansas member of the U.S. House to fronting DDT’s “America First” foreign policy, alienating all the nation’s global allies. During his four years with DDT, he served first as CIA director and then as Secretary of State, leading DDT’s antagonistic policies with China. This cartoon from “Dr. Seuss” about the U.S. from 80 years ago well illustrates DDT’s position. In Iowa, Pompeo made his first “campaign event” of his 2024 presidential race in Iowa, over 1,000 days before the election, according to media sources. As usual, he ignores the appearance of political nonpartisanship, traditional for people who leave an administration. While Secretary of State, he hosted invitation-only, taxpayer-funded “Madison dinners” for wealthy GOP elites at the agency’s headquarters. 

Stephen Miller, another “America First” fanatic who created DDT’s inhumane migration policies, emerged from a relatively unknown speechwriter for Jeff Sessions to his powerful role shaping DDT’s policies and messages, starting with DDT’s “American carnage” inauguration speech on January 20, 2016. Currently, Miller is leading the charge to elect DDT-wannabe Rep. Mo Brooks (R-AL) in his campaign for U.S. Senate. He spends the rest of his time attacking Biden and defending DDT’s cruel immigration record on Fox network. In his spare time, he is creating America First Legal to file lawsuits and organize GOP attorneys general opposing what they see as executive branch abuses. Unlike other far-right legal groups such as Judicial Watch, Alliance Defending Freedom, and the Immigration Reform Law Institute, Miller’s group will broadly focus on administrative law and executive overreach, a conservative type of ACLU. Involved in the project are former DDT stars such as Ken Starr, Gene Hamilton, and Mark Meadows. Other DDT minions, including Larry Kudlow and Russ Vought, participate in groups promoting DDT’s policies.

Sarah Huckabee Sanders, former White House press secretary and daughter of Mike Huckabee, either alienated journalists or didn’t hold press conferences while trying spin her way out of lying to Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s team by blaming Democrats. She has long been running for governor of Arkansas, her father’s old job.

Sean Spicer, the first of several White House press secretaries, has followed a diverse path since he was fired, including a bad performance on Dancing with the Stars. He may be most remembered for arguing with the facts, beginning with the size of the crowd at DDT’s inauguration, becoming more famous for Melissa McCarthy’s satire of him on SNL. Since then he’s written a slim-in-content memoir about his eight-month job in the White House and had a few short gigs before hosting Spicer & Co. on the pro-DDT network Newsmax embracing the GOP “big lie” about DDT’s election loss.

Kayleigh McEnany, another White House press secretary, began by saying she would never lie to the media—“you have my word on that”–and then proceeded to spew DDT’s lies throughout the pandemic. Up to Biden’s inauguration, she defended DDT “big lie” that the election was “stolen.” Fox network’s devotion to her words led to her employment as an on-air commentator, allowing her to defend DDT, attack Biden, and delight Twitter followers with her spelling gaffes. For example, the Harvard Law School Graduate wrote that Biden’s “touting the rate of vaccines being administered [was] a feet solely made possible by President Trump’s Operation Warp Speed”—another lie and the reason behind Merriam-Webster explaining the difference between “feet” and “feat.” One charming tweet connected “feet” and “solely.”

Jason Miller, a senior adviser for DDT’s transition team and then for DDT’s 2020 campaign, last appeared in defense of DDT at his second impeachment trial because DDT struggled to persuade lawyers to represent him. Miller’s time with DDT was marked by his lying to columnist A.J. Delgado about being separated from his wife and have her illegitimate child in 2017. In 2019, Miller lied about leaving the strategy firm Teneo after his profane Twitter tirade at Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-NY) so h could stop child support payments to Delgado. He is still DDT’s senior adviser, giving his wisdom to the press and helping with DDT’s, possibly mythical, new social media platform. Newsmax has also taken on Miller as a contributor.

Kellyanne Conway left DDT’s side after her family situation blew up, but she was a major cause in electing DDT and the queen of “alternative facts,” her definition of lying she began using on his inauguration day. Both she and her liberal husband, George Conway, claimed they were leaving politics for the sake of their four children, but conflict between Kellyanne and her 16-year-old daughter continued for months, accelerating to nude, possibly hacked, photographs of Claudia on Kellyanne’s Twitter account. Although they may have reconciled—Kellyanne appeared after Claudia on American Idol—an ongoing investigation is looking into the daughter’s claims of abuse. Kellyanne reportedly signed a deal with over $2 million advance for a tell-all book about her time in the White House with DDT. Kellyanne still defends DDT, and George still lambasts him.

Brad Parscale went from web designer to mastermind of DDT’s 2016 win and then out of a job after supposedly liberating huge amounts of money from DDT’s second campaign for his lavish lifestyle. After being demoted from DDT’s campaign manager, he behaved so erratically with a loaded, cocked gun in his home that his wife called the police. He resigned from the campaign and promised to forego politics, instead flipping houses. Soon after, he reneged on his promise and started Nucleus, a platform for a super PAC to raise—and spend—more unlimited dark money for the 2022 elections of pro-DDT candidates and support DDT’s new social media.

Deborah Birx, a leading member of DDT’s coronavirus task force, is trying to whitewash her part in the hundreds of thousands of U.S. deaths from mismanagement of the pandemic. She now claims they could have been prevented, but a year ago, she effusively praised DDT on the Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) by his being “so attentive to the scientific literature and the details and the data.” While DDT was denying the seriousness of COVID-19 to the public, she added, “I think his ability to analyze and integrate data that comes out of his long history in business has really been a real benefit.” Throughout Birx’s tenure on the task force, DDT refused to listen to science-based health information and disseminated disinformation to keep the economy appearing positive. Birx chose numbers from less-populated states to support DDT’s claims that cases declined in the U.S. while they were actually increasing, and she covered up for bad decisions. She didn’t protest DDT’s suggestion about drinking disinfectant could be a cure for the disease, but DDT turned on her last August when she suggested people should wear masks.

After saying she would like to be on Biden’s coronavirus team, Birx took the job as chief medical and scientific adviser for Texas-based ActivePure Technology (claiming to make air purifiers to kill the coronavirus), joined the George W. Bush Institute as a global health fellow, and became a board member for the biopharmaceutical company Innoviva. About the 400,000 people who died in summer, fall, and winter, she said “it didn’t go as well as it should have.” Dr. Anthony Fauci, who was more forthcoming about his disagreements with DDT while on the task force, is now Biden’s chief medical adviser.

Mark Meadows, who faithfully lied for DDT while his chief of staff, now works at the Conservative Partnership Institute (CPI). He may also appear in an Atlanta court for his part in trying to force votes onto DDT’s side as part of the White House attempt to obtain the state’s electoral college votes. Meadows made a late-December trip to Cobb County, hoping to watch the audit of voter signatures with no advance notice, but was blocked from entering the room. His trip was followed by demands by DDT and his allies to “find” the votes DDT wanted. Georgia’s extensive examination of ballots and signatures found no fraud.

Watch for these people and more “Trumpers” to crawl out for the 2022 election.

DDT Can’t Escape His History

Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) has left the White House and denied access to his favorite communication device, Twitter, but investigations into events during his term in the White House continues to be exposed.  

A recently released report explains how Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) was involved in how Jamal Khashoggi, U.S. resident and journalist, was coerced into the Saudi embassy in Turkey for the purpose of torturing him before his murder and dismemberment. DDT consistently covered up MBS’s involvement in the crime for a number of personal reasons. MBS was also a personal friend of DDT’s his son-in-law Jared Kushner. The released intelligence report now fully proves DDT knew about MBS’ involvement in the killing since its occurrence in October 2018 despite his repeated denials.

DDT had been enamored with Saudi Arabia and MBS since his inauguration. His journey to the country was his first foreign trip after he moved into the White House. The media fully covered the visit where he tried to participate in the sword dance and touched  the glowing “orb” along with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sissi and Saudi King Salman. According to MBS, a new book by New York Times reporter Ben Hubbard, DDT was given the orb, but people were afraid the photos people took with it would cause a scandal. Hubbard wrote, “The orb was hidden away in embassy storage.”

DDT’s not-so-secret weapon to derail mail-in voting, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, has reappeared in a congressional hearing. In DeJoy’s first few weeks last June, he cut back workers, overtime, and equipment to drastically slow down first-class mail delivery so much that Congress tried to block him. Despite lost equipment from his beginning, most of the ballots managed to get delivered on time, thanks to the efforts of Democratic legislators. DeJoy has remained in his position because the DDT-appointed board for the postal service is leaving him there. During his hearing last Wednesday, DeJoy showed a high degree of arrogance. When Rep. Jim Cooper (D-TN) asked him how long he planned to remain as postmaster general, he responded, “Long time. Get used to me.”

In the hearing, DeJoy also promised greater delays in service along with higher prices, including no longer having two-day delivery for first-class mail and limit air transport for it. DeJoy said, “Does it make a difference if it’s an extra day to get a letter?” He didn’t address the fact that some first-class mail isn’t delivered for weeks. White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said, “The Postal Service needs leadership that can and will do a better job.”

Rep. Jim Jordan (R-OH) joined other Republicans in accusing Democrats of conspiracy theories to create “chaos and confusion” in the information about delayed mail delivery. Rep. Gerry Connolly (D-VA) answered Jordan:

“I didn’t vote to overturn an election. And I will not be lectured by people who did.”

During the hearing, President Joe Biden announced his decision to fill the three vacancies on the nine-member USPS board with these nominees: Anton Hajjar, former general counsel for the American Postal Workers Union; Amber McReynolds, chief executive officer of Vote at Homes supporting mail-voting in the 2020 election; and Ron Stroman, a former deputy postmaster general on Biden’s transition team. Stroman quit last year because of DeJoy’s position on delaying the mail. Two of the appointments are Democrats; McReynolds is unaffiliated. She was Denver’s director of elections from 2011 to 2018 where she implemented a complete vote-by-mail elections system for the city. Appointments include two men of color and a woman.

The current DDT-appointed chair, DDT-supporter Ron Bloom, can also be replaced because he took the place of another board member whose term ended in December 2020. All the Republican members on the board are friends of Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) and, like DeJoy, have donated large sums to both the GOP and DDT. The entire board is composed of wealthy white men with limited postal service. 

Last week’s hearings included an investigation into the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol by the House Appropriations Committee. Key moments:

Intelligence reported to the U.S. Capitol Police headquarters about an attack on January 5, but the department’s leadership wasn’t notified, according to former Chief Steven Sund, who resigned after the insurrection. The FBI sent an email the night before the attack about an eminent attack, but Washington’s acting Chief of the Metropolitan Police Department Robert Contee said a late-night evening email was not sufficient to highlight the threat.

The insurrection was coordinated, with prepared people bringing equipment such as climbing gear, explosives, chemical spray, etc. They used hand signals and radio communications when they breached the building. Some rioters claimed they were caught up in the spirit of the event, but members of far-right extremist groups planned the attack for weeks and months, judging by the criminal charges against them. Even DDT’s lawyers claimed the attack was pre-planned during the impeachment trial.

Pentagon officials were either unable or unwilling to rapidly sent National Guard troops, as evidenced by their delay after desperate pleas for help.

Sund said he asked the two former congressional sergeants of arms for an emergency declaration to call in the National Guard, but neither one recalled the request. According to Sund, Paul Irving said he “was concerned about the ‘optics’ and didn’t feel the intelligence supported it.” Irving denied saying that and couldn’t remember talking to Sund although Sund said he made the request at 1:09 pm on January 6.

Phone records prove Irving ignored Sund’s pleas for help, according to Yogananda Pittman, acting chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, who said Sund called Irving at 12:58 pm to request the National Guard as rioters breached the building. Lawmakers were forced into hiding. Sund called Irving another four times until 1:45 pm.

The continued presence of law enforcement and a fence remains, according to Pittman because militia groups announced their intention to “blow up the Capitol and kill as many members as possible” when Biden addresses the Congress.

Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI), responsible in the past for putting Russian disinformation into the Senate record, read  a statement from an observer standing out by the fence that the violence came only after police provoked the protesters and “fake Trump protesters” were at fault. Before the hearing he had said there was no armed insurrection on January 6.

DDT’s financial records including his tax returns for eight years—reportedly millions of pages—are now with Cy Vance, Manhattan’s district attorney, for review after the U.S. Supreme Court refused DDT’s appeal to block the subpoena. The question now is whether DDT can slow the process long enough to get past the statute of limitations, six years in New York. State law, however, now excludes the time when a person charged with a state crime while acting as president, but the question is whether this exclusion is also for criminal conduct predating the law’s passage. If the law holds up, the time for limitations begins on January 20, 2021. Vance also has only ten months left in his current term and doesn’t plan to run for re-election.

Meanwhile, Vance has enlisted outside experts, including a forensic consulting firm, to examine the documents. The accounting records can determine fraud by showing how tax figures were calculated as were done in the Paul Manafort investigation. Manafort was sentenced to over seven years in prison before DDT pardoned him in December. Tax returns can also determine whether other financial records are false.

Despite DDT’s pardon for Steve Bannon, DDT’s former main strategist, DOJ prosecutors won’t dismiss the indictment against him as a matter of record. Bannon allegedly siphoned off over $1 million from GoFundMe donations for building part of DDT’s southern wall. According to Nixon v. United State, a pardon does not erase the grand jury finding probable cause for Bannon’s committing the indictment’s offenses. The prosecutors’ letter explained:

“Were the Court to dismiss the Indictment against Bannon, it could have a broader effect than the pardon itself, among other things potentially relieving Bannon of certain consequences not covered by the pardon.”

Vance’s office has subpoenaed Wells Fargo and GoFundMe for financial records tied to Bannon’s crowd-funding effort. Bannon may face state criminal charges which cannot be pardoned by a president.

DDT may have a parallel with the Trump Plaza Hotel and Casino in Atlantic City (NJ) which was leveled by an implosion on February 17, 2021. People paid $10 for watching it in person, and a front-row seat cost $575. The building was the first of DDT’s casinos going bankrupt with unpaid contractors and suppliers. During his campaign he bragged about how much money he made in Atlantic City where he put personal debts on the casinos, leaving debts to investors. The eyesore was destroyed as an “imminent hazard” because of falling debris and metal.

GQP ‘Spiritual Leader’ Demands Followers “Kiss the Ring’

President Joe Biden is making decisions for the United States, but Deposed Donald Trump (DDT), declaring on conservative media that the presidential election was stolen from him, waits at Mar-a-Lago for followers to come pay obeisance to him.

Sycophant Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who calls DDT almost every day, is again going to Mar-a-Lago to golf—and get him to build up the Republican party, now badly split after the impeachment and House Minority Mitch McConnell’s (R-KY) attack on DDT. Last Tuesday, House Minority Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA) visited DDT. Brad Parscale, fired from being campaign manager and responsible for questionable expenditures of millions of campaign dollars, went to Mar-a-Lago for a long meeting. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) held a fundraiser on Saturday night.

Absent from DDT’s side for a few years, Steve Bannon is back. During the first few years of DDT in the White House, Bannon played him like a fiddle to accomplish his ends but got forced out. Once gone, Bannon stole almost a million dollars from a GoFundMe website ostensibly to build a tiny portion of DDT’s southern border wall, but DDT pardoned him for that offense shortly before Biden was inaugurated.

Now Bannon has another plan: run DDT for the House, become the Speaker because he believes Congress will turn Republican, and impeach Biden. His accusation is that Biden “stole” the election.

Top DDTers also have other plans such as making DDT’s first White House press secretary Reince Priebus the Wisconsin governor although Tony Evers has the position for another three years. In Pennsylvania, GOP Sen. Pat Toomey isn’t running in 2022, and the Republican party has its eye on a QAnon candidate. Toomey voted for DDT’s conviction in the impeachment, and furious Republicans announced they don’t elect people “to do the right thing.” The current criterion is to follow whatever corruption DDT wants. Bannon said, “Any candidate who wants to win in Pennsylvania in 2022 must be full Trump MAGA.”

Flush with what DDT sees as a strong following, he plans to put his extremist loyalists into primaries. They may win against other Republicans, but moderate Republicans and independents could elect Democrats. For example, Arizona GOP chair Kelli Ward might lose a general election against incumbent Mark Kelly in 2022 for supporting conspiracy theories and leading her party in censuring Cindy McCain, former Sen. John McCain’s (R-AZ) wife, for supporting Biden. In Georgia, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, an outspoken QAnon conspiracy theorist removed from her committee assignments, could run against former Sen. David Perdue in the primary, reducing the possibility of the Republicans defeating Democrat incumbent Raphael Warnock. DDT has clashed with Republicans who might defeat Democrats for Congress, like former Sen. Kelly Ayotte in New Hampshire.

The question is how long DDT will trust Bannon. Touting his new memoir Ticking Clock: Behind the Scenes at 60 Minutes in an interview, former 60 Minutes producer Ira Rosen talked about Bannon’s attempt to remove DDT from the White House by using the 25th Amendment because of DDT’s early stage dementia. Bannon told DDT’s major rightwing donor Rebekah Mercer about his concerns, including DDT’s repetition of the same stories, and quoted a David Brooks column from October 2017:  

“And the polls show that if you want to win a Republican primary these days, you have to embrace the Trump narrative…  The Republican senators greeted Trump on Capitol Hill and saw a president so repetitive and rambling, some thought he might be suffering from early Alzheimer’s. But they know which way the wind is blowing. They gave him a standing ovation.”

One sycophant couldn’t go to Mar-a-Lago. Rush Limbaugh died February 17, 2021, leaving 15 million listeners without his consistent diet of racial prejudice, misogyny, hate, and lies.

DDT also lost “my Kevin,” as he called House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), after McCarthy told people about his frantic January 6 telephone call for help when DDT refused to send assistance for congressional members under attack in the U.S. Capitol. McCarthy tried to cover up the problem, but DDT found him lacking in deferential attitude. Following that event, DDT lambasted McCarthy for not removing Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) from House leadership because she voted for DDT’s impeachment. Fox reports DDT looks at McCarthy “with disdain.”

McCarthy tried to crawl back into DDT’s favor in late January at a trip to Mar-a-Lago after he agreed DDT “bears responsibility” for the riot. Aides reported the meeting was “good and cordial,” and McCarthy he does not “believe he provoked [the attack].” DDT, however, never forgives a slight. 

Next weekend, DDT will collect the faithful at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando (FL). Usually located in Washington, CPAC chose the new venue because of its lax coronavirus guidelines producing its third-highest COVID-19 death toll last week. Sponsors include Fox, Washington Times, Epoch Times, Heritage Foundation, Turning Point USA, and conservative video platform Rumble. The senators typically voting against Biden’s appointees—Martha Blackburn (TN), Tom Cotton (AR), Ted Cruz (TX), Josh Hawley (MO), James Lankford (OK), and Rick Scott (FL)—will attend along with loyalist House members Mo Brooks (AL), Madison Cawthorn (NC), Matt Gaetz (FL), Jim Jordan (OH), Devin Nunes (CA), and Steve Scalise (LA). Deposed people such as former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, former HUD Secretary Ben Carson, former Wisconsin governor Scott Walker, former DOJ AG Matt Whitaker, former DDT lawyer Pam Bondi, and former press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders will be there. It’s a place for the ambitious to aim at a better job, perhaps president, like South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem.

One person missing from the event is former VP Mike Pence. Sources have said Pence will stay out of the public for the rest of the year after DDT looked willing to kill Pence at the January 6 insurrection. Pence’s former chief of staff Marc Short said he and Pence now accept Biden as “the duly elected president of the United States.” Although absent from DDT’s farewell, Pence attended Biden’s inauguration.

Others may not actually show up, and sponsors are insecure because of uncertain guest bookings. The theme “America Uncanceled” is about “cancel culture,” and organizers sent a letter to Politico accused it of this practice, a form of not providing support, after journalists asked questions about the event. Organizers whined about attempts to “cancel our votes, our voices, and our values” while trying to erase all non-white people in the U.S. DDT’s repetition about a rigged election in his CPAC speech as well as his smears of Biden’s actions will be an example of “cancel culture.”

Opposing DDT’s control of the GOP, House Minority Mitch McConnell (R-KY) ignores DDT, especially after McConnell’s vitriolic attack against DDT following McConnell’s vote against an impeachment conviction based on a mythical technicality. The speech scorched DDT about his faults, how he should have been convicted and how he can be criminally indicted. Three days later, DDT’s rebuttal rained lies and blistering attacks on the man who forced over 200 highly conservative and largely incompetent judges onto federal benches. A part of DDT’s statement:

“Mitch is a dour, sullen, and unsmiling political hack, and if Republican Senators are going to stay with him, they will not win again.”

Advisers talked DDT out of stating McConnell had too many chins and not enough smarts, according to one source.

Because a large QAnon following thinks DDT will be inaugurated on March 4, 2021, 5,000 National Guard troops will stay in Washington for at least another three weeks out of concern for violence. If that date doesn’t work out for them, QAnon followers picked May 20, 120 days after January 20 based on an economic recovery plan proposed over 20 years to forgive the national debt. Conspiracy theorists claim the military will take Biden from the White House on May 20 and install DDT in his former Washington home. Robert Guffey, who tracks the QAnon movement, explained more conspiracy beliefs:

“Then all the debt goes away and the IRS is abolished. And then, at that point, Trump starts releasing all these hidden patents for free energy. It’s going to be utopia and all the Democrats will be in Gitmo.”

Conservative media feeds these lies to the tens of millions of their audience:

• The Biden’s marriage and romance is “part of a slick PR campaign devised by cynical consultants determined to hide the president’s senility by misdirection.”—Tucker Carlson, Fox 
• The Bidens 12-year-old German Shepherd, Champ, “needs a bath and a comb and all kinds of love and care. [He] looks like … from the junkyard.”—Greg Kelly, Newsmax
• About cutting off the video of the insurrection at the Capitol during the impeachment trial: “This is all emotional, political theater.”—Greg Gutfeld, cohost of Fox The Five
• “[There] was no physical evidence that George Floyd was murdered…  The autopsy showed that George Floyd almost certainly died of a drug overdose, fentanyl.”—Tucker Carlson, Fox
• About fighting domestic terrorists: “They’re creating extremists, just as we did in Iraq… And dramatically elevating the chance that something really awful is going to happen.”—Tucker Carlson, Fox
• “If the [COVID-19] vaccine was so great, why were all these people lying about it.”—Tucker Carlson, Fox (before Biden was inaugurated)
• “[I don’t know] a single conservative or single Republican who frankly even knows what QAnon.”—Sean Hannity, Fox

Much has been said from conservative leaders telling Democrats about “moving on,” but DDT will never let that happen as long as he stays the face and voice of the GQP.

DDT: Weeks 207 & 208 – ‘The Big Lies’

Only the legacy of insurrection and sedition left by Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) rises above his cruelty and inhumanity. He started his white supremacist campaign on June 16, 2015 when he declared people from Mexico are “rapists” who are “bringing drugs, and he finished it as a cult leader of a white supremacist terror cell attacking the U.S. Capitol.

The DOJ inspector general’s report about DDT’s “zero tolerance” family separation policy for immigrants proves DDT’s incessant cruelty. Interviews and email reviews define DDT’s involvement in the policy of separating separate children from their families with no hope of reunification. Too little too late, former Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein expressed regret, “I wish we all had done better.”

The report’s findings match the 21-month House Judiciary Committee’s investigation accusing DDT’s administration of “reckless incompetence and intentional cruelty.” Last November, 666 children, 20 percent under the age of five, were still not reunited with their families. Children reunified suffered trauma described by doctors as “torture” and “state-sanctioned child abuse” after U.S. officials had told the children they would never see their families again. Only public outrage over such revelations as a breastfeeding baby torn from the mother and a man’s suicide after separation from his wife and child forced the government to slightly modify its policy. The government continued its human rights violation with the removal of reproductive organs from immigrant women in concentration facilities until recently.  

In another cruel act, DDT and his HHS Secretary Alex Azar lied about releasing the “reserve” vaccines to increase the number of people receiving vaccinations.  DDT had claimed he was saving the doses for booster shots, but Azar finally admitted the government started sending out the reserves in December with the final shipment last week. Three years after DDT was inaugurated, he falsely accused President Obama of leaving “a bare cupboard” with no PPP supplies. Yet the “bare cupboard” with no vaccine is exactly what DDT leaves Joe Biden’s administration. Millions of people—teachers, healthcare workers, elders, etc.—expected to receive the vaccinations as soon as this month. Instead, everyone will watch DDT fly away on Air Force One the morning of January 20 for the last time and wonder when they will be vaccinated.

Biden’s transition team has been blocked from access to information or personnel about the production and distribution of the vaccine. Team members were also not briefed on new policies such as offering the vaccine to anyone with high-risk medical conditions, guaranteed to fail because of DDT’s vaccine shortage. Another policy to be put into effect after Biden became president was designed to penalize slower-moving states. Biden has promised to not punish any states. The new administration is developing a real plan for vaccinating the nation while dropping DDT’s name “Operation Warp Speed” for the vaccine.

Azar submitted his resignation letter dated January 12. He blamed DDT’s “actions and rhetoric” for tarnishing the administration’s legacy and touted his own accomplishments, including the COVID-19 vaccine. He omitted his lies to the people exacerbating its disaster with over 400,000 deaths, instead claiming that he saved millions of lives. He also didn’t mention his most recent lie to the states about having reserves for vaccinations or address the 20 million vaccinations he promised by the end of December. The total of doses delivered is currently 10.6 million.

January 15 would have been the 92^nd birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr, and DDT is using this anniversary by executing people. The execution on King’s birthday, DDT’s 13^th since last summer when AG Bill Barr thought killing people is a good idea, is the third in three days. The first woman to be executed in the U.S. since 1953 was killed January 13; she was seriously mentally ill. Another man, intellectually disabled, was killed January 14. Courts had objected to their executions. The DOJ complained that the U.S. would suffer more harm from the inconvenience of rescheduling private contractors than prisoners would be harmed by their deaths.

The most recent man executed was convicted in Maryland which outlawed the death penalty. Because the Federal Death Penalty Act bans executions for people from states banning the killing of prisoners, DOJ moved the case to Indiana, which does permit executions. Lawyers objected, and the legality of DOJ’s move to Indiana has a hearing on January 27—12 days after DOJ killed him. DOJ also lied about his killing three women: his co-defendant, who actually did the killing, is in prison for life without parole.

Michael Pack, CEO of the U.S. Agency for Global Media, wants to continue propagandizing government-funded broadcasts from Voice of America (VOA) and other networks such as Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty during the Biden administration. He serves as chair of the networks’ boards and packed them with conservative activists and DDT loyalists. The boards have agreed to binding contractual agreements which supposedly cannot be removed for another two years except “for cause.”

Because of internal objections and objections, the new presidents, appointed by Pack this month, have not yet signed the contracts. The European network reaches over 40 million people in 27 languages across 23 countries, including Afghanistan, Iran, Pakistan, Russia and Ukraine; Radio Free Asia audiences are in China, Myanmar, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and North Korea. Some VOA journalists signed a letter demanding Pack and his deputy resign for their use of VOA in a “propaganda event” for Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and the “sudden and unexplained” reassignments of the chief news editor and White House correspondent. Pompeo told the journalists at the event “to cease critical coverage of the United States.” A VOA journalist who tried to ask Pompeo questions after his speech was taken off the White House beat, and the new chief news editor told her she doesn’t “know how to behave!”

As a lame duck, DDT suffers continued financial losses:

Three banks—Signature, Professional, and Deutsche—stopped doing business with DDT. Signature, where DDT has a $5.3 million loan, closed his personal accounts; Professional in Florida had loaned DDT’s company $11.2 million to buy his sister’s home near Mar-a-Lago; and Deutsche, which holds $400 million in loans for DDT, will no longer lend to him.

Real estate giant Cushman & Wakefield will not work with DDT, including office leasing at Trump Tower and 40 Wall Street as well as retail leasing in Chicago. DDT has lost the real estate broker to sell his hotel in D.C.

Four Trump-branded hotels closed, and his company’s plans for new hotel chains disappeared. Biden is now DDT’s new “landlord” at the D.C. hotel because the government holds the lease.

Decorated chef David Burke left DDT’s D.C. hotel’s BLT Prime restaurant.

DDT’s worldwide 19 golf courses won’t be holding international events—the 2022 PGA at Bedminister (NJ) and the British Open at Turnberry (Scotland). His tax returns show a $315.6 million loss over two decades. Turnberry, Trump International Scotland, and Trump International Golf Links & Hotel Ireland together lost $63.6 million, and Trump National Doral (Miami, FL) lost $162.3 up to 2018.

Shopiify will not host TrumpStore.com.

New York City is considering canceling all contracts with DDT’s company, including operating the Central Park skating rink.

DDT is facing state-level investigations into his financial practices in New York, probably blocking his former business of money laundering and tax fraud. The unconstitutional emoluments will be gone.

And Lehigh University, Robert Gordon University, and Wagner College rescinded and revoked honorary degrees given DDT. He keeps only two honorary degrees from Liberty University.

At least, DDT doesn’t need to look for a new job; his staffers aren’t as lucky. With their negative branding, they are having difficulty. One PR recruiter who took only six of over a dozen staffers as clients couldn’t get interviews for any of them. One recruiter talked about the applicants “narcissistic attitudes, thinking any company” would want to hire them. For the first few couple of months after the election, staffers couldn’t even openly look for a job, afraid that the personnel director would carry through with his threat to fire them.

PR firm Burson Cohn and Wolfe (BCW), with executives from both Clinton and W. Bush administrations, stated it has “no current plans to hire from this administration.” In an op-ed, Forbes wrote it will assume any company or firm hiring current or former press secretaries is always telling lies. Former DDT officials such as Mick Mulvaney and John Bolton want jobs as a television commentator or an academic, but Fox has only so much room and the lying goes for academia. One media executive said:

“We’re not taking people who have no credibility. Very few of them have real value beyond Fox News, [One America News], and Newsmax.”

Recent polls:

• 76 percent: Voters rating DDT’s conduct since the election as fair or poor, up eight points from November and now 62 percent “poor.”
• 84 percent: support for another stimulus package, including 56 percent from Republicans.
• 56 percent: support for Congress to disqualify DDT from future offices.
• 66 percent: belief DDT acted irresponsibly since election.
• 71 percent: DDT’s responsibility for the Capitol attack from “a great deal” to “good amount.”
• 54 percent: in favor of charging DDT for crime of inciting a riot.
• 69 percent: viewing white supremacists as a serious problem.

Last week, DDT fired Byung Pak, his appointed Georgia U.S. Attorney, after DDT insisted Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger “find” another 11,780 votes to swing the state for DDT. Furious because Pak wouldn’t help him change the votes, DDT replaced him with Bobby Christine who brought assistants involved in monitoring election fraud. Christine dismissed two DDT election fraud cases on his first day.

Four more days until the inauguration.  

DDT: Week 206 – Sabotage, Blocking Change

President-elect Joe Biden continues to face sabotage from the far-right loyalists of Dictator Donald Trump (DDT), and Dana Milbank lays much of the responsibility in the hands of DDT’s budget director, Russell Vought. During Vought’s two years in the office, the national debt increased by $6 trillion while predicting a 2.8 percent GDP growth last February, just before the economy’s collapse. Milbank writes:

“But what Russ Vought is very good at is sabotage. He’s sabotaging national security, the pandemic response and the economic recovery — all to make things more difficult for the incoming Biden administration… He has blocked civil servants at OMB from cooperating with the Biden transition, denying President-elect Joe Biden the policy analysis and budget-preparation assistance given to previous presidents-elect, including Barack Obama and Trump himself. Transition figures warn that it will likely delay and hamper economic and pandemic relief and national security preparation (the Pentagon is the other key agency resisting transition cooperation with the incoming administration).”

Milbank tells about Vought’s past:

“He was the author of a Sept. 4 memo attacking critical race theory and canceling racial sensitivity programs, which he called ‘divisive, anti-American propaganda.’

“Vought was also the mastermind of Trump’s executive order that attempts to reclassify tens of thousands of civil servants who work in policy roles so they can be easily fired…

“He was a key figure in the Ukraine imbroglio, freezing military aid to the country as Trump pushed for Ukraine’s president to announce a probe of Joe and Hunter Biden and the Democrats… Vought also ignored a subpoena during the impeachment inquiry.

“[In] a 2016 article … he wrote: ‘Muslims do not simply have a deficient theology. They do not know God because they have rejected Jesus Christ, his Son, and they stand condemned.’

“Vought spent seven years on the vanguard of conservative extremism as a senior official at Heritage Action, the political wing of the Heritage Foundation…

“Before Heritage, Vought worked for the right-wing House Republican Study Committee whose job, he said, ‘is to push leadership as far to the right as is possible and flat out oppose it when necessary.’

“At an antiabortion rally, he claimed credit for blocking Planned Parenthood’s funding. He infuriated Democrats by refusing to share projections with Congress…

“He ran the botched White House response to the 2019 government shutdown, issuing legally dubious decisions and, as one Republican budget expert told The Post, ‘making up the rules as they go along.’ It became the longest-ever shutdown and ended in Trump’s surrender.”

Now Vought is in charge of destroying the transition—and the U.S. along with it.

The Secret Service is planning changes in its protection for Biden because of existing white House agents’ loyalty to DDT. While working for DDT, some agents told colleagues not to wear masks during trips, perhaps the reason over 130 agents tested positive for COVID-19 or were quarantined because of exposure to the virus. In addition, former agent detail leader Anthony Ornato also worked as DDT’s chief of staff. Ornato helped coordinate the photo op when DDT walked through the cleared Lafayette Square to pose with a Bible and his people attacked peaceful protesters with tear gas.

One country nervous about Biden’s upcoming administration, Saudi Arabia, departs the golden years of Dictator Donald Trump (DDT). For four years, the Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salam committed human rights abuses and even killed a U.S. journalist with no objection from DDT who promoted the sale of huge quantities of weapons to the Saudis used to kill large numbers of people in the Middle East, including Yemeni civilians. DDT sided with Saudi Arabia over Qatar where the U.S. has a military base. In possible steps to appease the new administration, the Saudis are considering the release of women’s rights activist Loujain al-Haltoul, sentenced in 2018 to almost six years in prison for defying the country’s ban on women driving, and a resolution to its four-year blockade of Qatar.

This week, Biden made three appointments to the Department of Defense.

Kathleen Hicks, nominated for deputy secretary of defense, has a history of posts in the office of the Secretary of Defense.

Colin Kahl, another former Pentagon official overseeing Middle East Affairs, has been appointed for undersecretary of defense for policy.

Kelly Magsamen, former principal deputy assistant secretary of defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs now at the Center for American Progress, has been named Pentagon chief of staff.

Meanwhile DDT continues his “scorch the earth” policies and killings. He headed home early from Mar-a-Lago before the large New Year’s Eve party where he had promised to appear. Those who attended still managed to make it a grand superspreader event with mask-less proximity and kept Mar-a-Lago fiscally afloat by paying over $1,000 a ticket each. Before he left the club, DDT had a tantrum about his wife’s renovations of his living quarters and demanded the removal of the white marble and dark wood.  

Trying to get the heat off Russia’s paying bounties to the Taliban to attack U.S. troops, DDT declassified unconfirmed information about China paying people in Afghanistan to attack U.S. soldiers. Months ago, news reports revealed Russians gave bounties to Taliban militants to kill U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

DDT also completely ignored the Nashville (TN) explosion taking out AT&T communication from Georgia to Kentucky. The alleged perpetrator was a 63-year-old white man who supposedly died in the explosion. According to reports, the man believed in conspiracy theories such as “aliens and UFO’s began attacking the earth” on 9/11, and the world is controlled by reptilians and lizard people masquerading as humans. The man’s girlfriend told the police over a year ago he was building bombs, but police discounted her information and didn’t follow up on it.

Three federal executions will be DDT’s way of honoring the 91^st anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr’s birthdate; one of the killings is of a mentally-disturbed woman. 

DDT extended the ban on some immigrant work visas for three months, including the diversity visa lottery allowing people from underrepresented countries to come to the U.S, the H-1B tech program, and the H-2B non-agricultural seasonal workers.

Customs and Border Protection are illegally expelling newborn U.S. citizens from the country with their migrant mothers without giving any citizenship proof. CBP is lying about the women, asylum seekers, voluntarily leaving the U.S.

Although DDT cannot defund foreign aid, he plans to freeze it for the last 18 days. 

The sinking ships are still leaving the rat. One resignation came from U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Pennsylvania David Freed, who fueled DDT’s claim of widespread voter fraud when he told him about nine discarded mail-in ballots in Luzerne County. The election worker had made a mistake, she was fired, and the ballots were retrieved. Yet Freed improperly made a public declaration, and DDT turned a preliminary investigation into a conspiracy theory.

Texas owes Pennsylvania’s Lt. Gov. John Fetterman $3 million because of its bounty on cheating voters, and he isn’t letting them forget. Fetterman claims Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick—the man who suggested old people should die of coronavirus to open up businesses—should pay him the money because of Fetterman’s proof of voter fraud, all three cases against Republicans. Fetterman also pointed out that his legal case is far stronger than the false one for election fraud Texas sent to the Supreme Court.

After the deaths of 346 people in the 2018 and 2019 crashes, the Boeing 737 Max was grounded for 20 months until the FAA permitted the plane style to return to the skies. Within 34 days, an engine issue in a 737-8 Max forced the plane to divert to Tucson (AZ) four days ago.

DDT is transferring up to $700 million from low-paid wage earners to their employees by giving tips for waiters and waitresses to back-of-the-house employees. That money can then be used for minimum wages. With the change, tipped people can be required to do non-tipped work for their minimum wage, as low as $2.13 an hour and under the federal minimum wage in half the states. Employers can then fire some of the regular minimum wage employees.

The favorite bankers of DDT and Jared Kushner at Deutsche Bank, Rosemary Vrablic and Dominic Scalzi, have unexpectedly resigned after the Manhattan DA’s office and New York AG subpoenaed Deutsche Bank about its lending relationship with the Trump Organization.  DDT owes Deutsche Bank about $330 million, and the loans come due in 2023 and 2024. If he doesn’t repay the bank, it can collect on his personal assets. Last year, the bank’s anti-money-laundering specialists recommended DDT’s and Kushner’s transactions be reported to the Treasury Department’s financial crimes watchdog, but executives failed to follow through.

As the number of COVID-19 infections and deaths skyrockets, so does the number of hospitalizations. The total ratcheted up to over 125,000, up from 100,000 five days earlier. Although totals drop from lack of recording on weekends and holidays, new infections in the U.S. for the second day of 2021 are 232,227. Deaths are 2,107.

Week 205: DDT Belatedly Signs Bill, Other Catch-Ups

When I heard that Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) had signed the stimulus bill to keep millions of people temporarily out of poverty, all I could think was “what a piece of garbage.” He didn’t demand $2,000 checks because he cared about people. If he was sincere, he would have told sycophant Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to do it. Instead, he waited until Mnuchin and Congress to finish the bill before he had his tantrums. Mnuchin declared the approved bill “fabulous,” but DDT wanted attention. He got it by ruining his beloved “Christmas” (remember when he said Joe Biden would take away Christmas?!) for tens of millions of people who suffer from his mismanagement of the pandemic. If DDT had led the United States into health last March, hundreds of thousands of people in the nation wouldn’t have died, and hundreds of millions of others wouldn’t be living a life of deprivation and insecurity.

Stalling on the signing for several days, DDT still created more permanent misery. Twelve million people will get unemployment benefits for another 11 weeks, but those in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and the Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs for gig workers won’t get a payment for the final week of the year because DDT signed it Sunday instead of Saturday. In addition, the $300 federal enhancement may last only 10 weeks instead of 11. DDT pompously said he’d sign the bill but wanted Senate to increase stimulus checks to $2,000 with no congressional commitment. Republicans in the House have consistently turned down that amount. Info about the stimulus relief bill. 

Follow-up on DDT’s and AG Bill Barr’s executions from internal documents: 

• Public explanations for the picks of executed prisoners misstated key facts from the cases.
• One of the claims falsified the executed man “murdered … an 8-year-old girl.” He refused to kill her so the co-defendant, who received a life sentence instead of the death penalty, murdered the girl.  
• The claim about the execution being for “the victims and families” was a lie: family members objected to one of the executions.
• The claim that the first ten executions were of the oldest inmates sentenced to death is false.
• The Justice Department didn’t review the prisoners’ physical or mental health before the execution: one had an IQ between 70 and 75, and the other suffered from schizophrenia, dementia, and Alzheimer’s disease.
• Executions were done in the middle of the night.
• One prisoner was strapped to the gurney with an IV to kill him while lawyers worked to remove a court order.
• Another prisoner was executed during a pending appeal.
• Executioners bought drugs from a secret pharmacy failing a quality test, drugs officials knew might not face a court scrutiny.
• An “expert” witness hired to testify the drug is humane is not a physician or licensed care provider; he is a professor of chemistry and pharmacology at Vanderbilt University. The second witness is a retired California anesthesiologist.
• An execution took 28 minutes for the man to die while he gasped for breath.
• The government hired private executioners and paid them in cash.
• Barr was the final authority for buying drugs and issuing public information, but he didn’t act alone.

More about DDT and Barr’s executions.  

Late last night, I posted a piece about Democratic socialism. This morning I read my partner’s Facebook page on the same subject. I was amazed because we had not talked about the subject. Hers is much better than mine—see below.   

“Democratic socialism is not socialism. Nor is it a political party. Democratic socialism protects our democracy by aiding capitalism and socialism to work together sharing in the welfare of the people.

“Government serves and protects, and privately owned business supports. Putting it bluntly, Democratic socialism is the fire department saving your house. Capitalism is the insurance company denying your claim. Democratic socialism collects taxes and returns our taxes back to us in services and protection such as building the infrastructure, Social Security, Medicare, police, fire, military, education—meaning all people collectively and equally reap the benefits. Capitalism produces the world in which we live, based upon supply and demand which, in turn, determines profit and loss for owners and stockholders in the privately owned sector.

“Both government and businesses provide the money for wages that, in turn, pay the taxes to the government and buy products from business. Working together. This was so successful during the middle part of last century that education became widely accessible, houses easy to buy, and the middle-class workers took home the greatest share of the wealth than ever before. Life was good. Too much vanilla but still good.

“Until Reagan. Again, bluntly put, under laissez-faire policies (no restrictions or limits) capitalism got greedy. Until Reagan, for every service or product capitalists provided to the government such as uniforms for the army, our government put a cap on what it would pay. Obviously limiting profits does not make any capitalist heart sing. And god knows how businesses love to raise prices any way they can.

“It was the rising oil prices that gave Reaganites a reason to attack government price limits. Along with the biggest cut in history for the rich, causing “stagflation” for the first time (rapid inflation and high unemployment), resulted in “trickle-down economy” which we now know does not work. Add destroying unions, and the removal of many price limits, especially military, in the Tax Reform Act, the stage was set for business takeover. Tragically for a stable economy, every time we got a tax cut Reagan Stagflation became the new norm.”

Thanks, Sue!

A few pieces from the past week or two. Only 23 days until Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) leaves the White House—one way or another, and the confusion is already in full swing. The White House emailed its employees to begin departing the premises on January 5, but two days later the White House Management Office emailed staff to disregard earlier message. “Updated information will be shared in the coming days.” Nothing since then.

Last Monday, more information about the cyber espionage reveals emails from Treasury Department senior officials have been hacked although Secretary Steve Mnuchin declares no classified information has been breached. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) said no one knows the damage caused. Mnuchin said, “I can assure you, we are completely on top of this” but didn’t explain how no one detected the Russian presence in the system for over four months. Although Barr and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo agree on Russia as the hacking source, no public declaration has been announced. The Dow Jones market went down 200 points that day, and the subject largely disappeared from the media. Background of this espionage.   

After six months, the White House coronavirus task force no longer sends weekly state reports with data and recommendations unless states request them. There was no explanation for the change. In the December 20 reports, Tennessee had the largest COVID-19 cases per capita, and Oklahoma has the highest test positivity rate. South Dakota has the most deaths per capita. Like nine other states, none of these three states has a mandate to wear masks.

Only 1.94 million shots of the Pfizer vaccine were administered as of December 26 while about 9 million doses from Pfizer and Moderna sit in U.S. hospitals and elsewhere. DDT’s promise of 20 million vaccinations before the end of the year also carried little funding. The lag may come from the process of preparing the frozen shots, finding employees for vaccinating, and guaranteeing social distancing before and after vaccinations. Johnson & Johnson’s one-shot vaccine, using an ordinary refrigerator and no need to specialized procedures to administer, may be available in February.

Two two major op-eds from the conservative Wall Street Journal in 2020 typify the misrepresentations and betrayals from DDT’s administration. In June, VP Mike Pence, head of the White House coronavirus task force, promised people that COVID-19 would have no “second wave,” that “such panic is overblown.” With fawning accolades for DDT’s fantastic leadership, he wrote about the containment of new outbreaks and “stabilized” cases. “We’ve saved lives,” he wrote. “That’s a cause for celebration, not the media’s fear mongering.” At that time, the U.S. passed 115,000 COVID-related deaths with about 750 deaths per day in the U.S. A little over six months later, the “stabilized” nation has almost tripled the number of deaths at 341,138 while the number of infections is over eight times the approximately 2,300,000 in mid-June.

A claim from Mick Mulvaney, sometimes CIA director or chief of staff or director of the Office of Management and Budget or special envoy to North Ireland under DDT, is a colossal joke. Instead of DDT being willing to “concede gracefully,” as Mulvaney promised four days after the election, DDT’s hateful claims and court cases about non-existent election fraud has infused the nation with hatred and violence for months to the extent of using martial law enforcing new elections. We’re still waiting for even “concede” almost eight weeks after the election, let alone “gracefully.”

Unity of Kwanzaa, Divisiveness of DDT

Saturday, the first day of the seven-day Kwanzaa, a non-religious holiday to honor Black peoples’ ancestral roots, does not have a religious purpose. Everyone could follow its principles, those of working together to benefit all in a form of Democratic socialism, instead of tearing society apart. Kwanzaa for each day:

• Unity: striving for and maintaining unity in the family, community, nation and race.
• Self-determination: defining, naming, creating and speaking for oneself.
• Collective work and responsibility: uplifting the community by solving problems together.
• Cooperative economics: economically uplifting the community by working together to build and maintain businesses.
• Purpose: returning the community to its greatness.
• Creativity: leaving the community more beautiful and beneficial.
• Faith: believing in the people, parents, teachers, leader, and the struggle’s victory.

People can thank Democratic socialism for vaccinations against COVID-19. Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) takes credit for the vaccine in a short time, but it comes from decades of medical research and development along with public-sector funding. Distribution comes from public funding—Democratic socialism in health departments. To those who claim God will prevent them from getting sick or dying, He doesn’t seem to be doing a good job these days.  

People who refer to Democratic socialism as the “radical left” and fight for almost nonexistent government involvement ignore the ways they benefit from the philosophy in the United States: police, fire departments, libraries, Social Security, Medicare/Medicaid, education, unemployment, workers’ compensation, food stamps, welfare to those in need such as farmers and oil companies, the military, transportation, roads and highways, parks and recreation, Federal Reserve Bank, courts, prisons, water and sewer, utilities in some areas—the basis for everyone’s everyday life.  

According to Democratic socialism, both economy and society should be run democratically to meet public needs, not to make profits for a very few. Corporate bureaucracies with business executives and wealthy stockholders should not control society by making decisions for the few and taking all the profits, leaving workers with unlivable low wages. Regulations and tax incentives can encourage companies to act in the public interest.

The Cares Act, passed in March to help people suffering from COVID-19 intended to help small businesses gave tens if not hundreds of billions of dollars to big businesses. The new, not-yet-signed stimulus bill makes forgiven loans tax deductible—unlike charitable contributions—and creates a commission to oversee safety in horse racing. Republicans gave $6.3 billion in tax breaks to wealthy corporate backers but couldn’t manage another 25 percent to the bill for $2,000 checks. Seven months of COVID-19 gave U.S. billionaires an additional $931 billion, almost as much as the stimulus bill costs taxpayers.

Over two months ago, the top 1 percent of people in the U.S. owned 30.4 percent of all the nation’s household wealth while the bottom 50 percent had 1.9 percent of the assets. The wealthiest 10 percent have over 88 percent of all corporate equity and mutual fund shares, yet people look at the changes in stock markets to judge the economic health of the U.S. Under largely GOP control, these figures of income inequality, although currently skyrocketing, continue the increasing inequality during the past four decades. Income follows the same pattern.

Fair elections are another part of democracy. DDT claimed he would be working while at Mar-a-Lago, but Saturday he spent his time tweeting attacks against the recent election, ranting against the Supreme Court, the DOJ, the FBI, the New York Times, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY), GOP senators, and the U.S., which he called a third world nation.  DDT also called President-elect Joe Biden a “fake president.” Saying the election would be rigged if he lost, DDT has kept that promise to lie about election fraud. Now he claims he has “absolute proof” about non-existent widespread fraud and whines that no one will pay attention to it. There’s no evidence of any widespread fraud.

Another DDT lie comes from his mischaracterization of a year-old report from Inspector General Michael Horowitz. The IG found no evidence of political bias in the investigation into Russian interference during the 2016 campaign, only criticizing the handling of four FISA applications putting DDT’s adviser Carter Page under surveillance for 17 “significant inaccuracies and omissions.” DDT maintained:

“The details of the report are far worse than anything I would have even imagined…This was an overthrow of government, this was an attempted overthrow and a lot of people were in on it and they got caught. They got caught red-handed.”

Frank Figliuzzi, former assistant director for counterintelligence at the FBI,who worked under Robert Mueller at the bureau, said DDT had never seen the report and is “lying about it.”

DDT may not have been re-elected, but his incessant lies about election fraud makes Russia very, very happy, according to its state media. After its president, Vladimir Putin, recognized Joe Biden as the U.S. president-elect, the media expressed sympathy that “our candidate”—“poor, poor Trump”—will be leaving the Oval Office. The bright side of DDT’s loss to Russia, however, comes from DDT’s successful destruction of the U.S. political system. Russian political expert, Alexei Martynov, said, “They burned the reputation of U.S. institutions during these elections.” Evgeny Popov, the host of Russia’s 60 Minutes, added, “Let’s be glad about that,” and Deputy of the Russian Duma Alexei Zhuravlyov concluded, “The worse for them, the better for us.” Popov pointed at the map to show how the U.S. is 50-50 divided—badly polarized.

According to the Russians, U.S. Republicans are disturbed because Biden is putting minorities into top-level positions. Dmitry Mikheev, who claims to be familiar with conservatives, said, “The whites aren’t being allowed in there. [The GOP] got scared.” Popov agreed, “And the head of the Department of Defense is Black. What is this? That must have been the red line.” Co-host Olga Skabeeva used racial slurs on Russian 60 Minutes, fitting the Russian tactic of sowing discord as described in Robert Mueller’s report from U.S. intelligence and supported by the Senate report. The GOP’s delight in DDT’s insulting minorities and vilifying immigrants works better than Russian disinformation as calls for division and violence comes from inside the White House.

Death defines DDT’s legacy—killing civilians in the Middle East, gutting environmental regulations, endorsing domestic violence, promoting rampant hunger, allowing hundreds of thousands of people to die from COVID-19, and executing more federal prisoners than any other person in the Oval Office since the 19^th century. One execution, however, may not happen. The DOJ illegally scheduled the execution of Lisa Montgomery, the only woman on federal death row, during a stay of execution, and a judge vacated her latest execution date for January 12. This month, Montgomery’s lawyers contracted COVID-19 while visiting their client and asked for additional time to file a clemency petition. The execution can’t be scheduled until January 1, 2021, and a death-row inmate must be notified at least 20 days before the execution—in this case, January 21—which is the day after Biden’s inauguration. Two other federal inmates scheduled to be executed in January are positive for coronavirus, and their attorneys are also seeking delays. Biden “opposes the death penalty now and in the future.”

After a 17-year hiatus, DDT’s DOJ executed ten federal prisoners in 2020, the total killed by Grover Cleveland in 1896. One of the executed men wasn’t present at any murder, and jury members now question the capital punishment. Three of the ten have been during DDT’s lame-duck session, the first series of federal executions in this time period since the 19^th century. Until 2020, only three other federal inmates were executed since the reinstatement of the penalty in 1988, and no federal inmates were executed since 2003. State executions are at a 37-year low, only seven in five southern states during 2020 and all before July 8. State death sentences dropped to 18, the fewest since the Supreme Court struck down capital punishments statutes in 1972.

DDT also plans to cover up for the Saudi Arabian murders of U.S. residents—the three U.S. servicemen killed by a Saudi officer at Pensacola Naval Air Station a year ago and the Washington Post journalist killed at the Saudi embassy in Turkey over two years ago. Eight other service members were wounded in the Pensacola attack. The service member’s families have never heard from the White House and are still waiting for the attack’s solution and the Saudi royal family to take care of them, as DDT promised. He is considering legal immunity for Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman from a federal lawsuit for targeting a former intelligence officer for assassination, leading to the dismissal of these other cases against MBS as well as Saudi’s involvement in 3,000 people killed in the U.S. on 9/11/01. Such action removes any legal actions in other murders of U.S. residents. With the Saudi officer murderer having “significant” ties to al-Qaeda, the killings mark the first successful deadly terrorist attack on U.S. soil since 9/11. In justifying his obsequious attitude toward the Saudis, DDT says, “We do a lot of business with them.” By that, he may mean personal business with his companies.

COVID-19 cases in the U.S. are due to hit 20 million by the end of the year; deaths will rise to 350,000. DDT never mentions them.

DDT Plays President for a Day

Another day, 26 more pardons and three commutations from lame duck  and “law and order” Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) category including his felon friends and a family member along with others convicted of cyber crimes, firearm possession, and mail fraud. A sampling:

DDT’s son-in-law’s father: Charles Kushner, imprisoned after pleading guilty to 18 charges of tax evasion, witness tampering, and illegal campaign donations.  In early 2019, Chris Christie, who prosecuted the case in 2005, said Kushner committed “one of the most loathsome, disgusting crimes” he had prosecuted in his hiring a prostitute to lure his brother-in-law into having sex and then sending the tape to Kushner’s wife for revenge.

Advisers indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller and convicted: On home confinement after two years in prison, Paul Manafort, briefly DDT’s campaign manager, admitted his crimes, agreed to cooperate with Mueller, lied to prosecutors, and tried to interfere with witnesses in crimes of bank and tax fraud, illegal foreign lobbying, and witness tampering. Manafort may face charges in New York which cannot be pardoned by a president. Despite AG Bill Barr’s attempt to save Roger Stone, DDT’s friend was sentenced for obstruction of Congress and threatening a witness before DDT commuted his sentence earlier this year.

The wife of former Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-CA) pardoned yesterday: Margaret Hunter pled guilty to conspiring “knowingly and willingly” to convert campaign funds for personal use.

Former Ron Paul presidential campaign aides: John Tate and Jesse Benton, involved in a plot to make hidden payments in exchange for an endorsement. Tate and Benton spent two years on probation and paid $10,000 for corrupting the 2012 Iowa caucus process after they secretly paid then-Iowa Sen. Kent Sorenson $73,000 to shift support from presidential candidate Michele Bachmann to Ron Paul. Sen. Rand Paul, Ron Paul’s son, asked for the clemency; DDT is counting on him to support overturning Biden’s election on January 6.

The others are listed here. 

DDT destroyed two appropriation bills just hours before he left for Mar-a-Lago today, perhaps until after the inauguration. Silent during negotiation of the spending bill including a stimulus relief bill, DDT permitted Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin to settle the $600 checks for everyone making under $75,000 a year. The bill passed by huge majorities in both congressional chambers before DDT insisted the check amount to be $2,000. If he continues to obstruct the bill, it will not see the light of day in the 116^th Congress. With ten days, minus Sundays, in which to sign it, DDT could wait out the time until January 4, the day after the 117^th Congress is sworn out, and two days after all the bills disappear and need to be taken up anew.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) told her GOP counterparts that Democrats are ready to pass the $2,000 checks by New Year’s Eve to save the bill, but Republicans refuse the idea. The GOP will then be responsible for critical provisions’ running out at the end of the month including unemployment programs, which pushes almost 5 million people into poverty overnight. Mnuchin had promised to start sending out the $600 checks next week because he knew nothing about DDT’s objections.

DDT’s threat has split Republicans. The House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) told House Republicans the will is “tainted,“ but some of them recognize the GOP will take the blame for failure. Rep, Virginia Foxx (R-NC) said, “We will have a hell of a time getting this out of people’s head,” and Rep. Don Bacon (R-NE) said DDT had thrown House Republicans under the bus.

The question is whether Republicans will stick with their congressional leadership, who negotiated the bill, or DDT, who will savage those who oppose him. Another fallout could come in January when both chambers select their leaders.

Democrats can come out ahead. One day ago, they faced criticism for accepting the faulty $900 billion relief package; now the GOP may be killing it. Georgia’s GOP Sens. Kelly Loeffler and David Perdue, whose elections are in less than two weeks, may also take the fall. McConnell had counted on the relief checks to reelect the two; now their opponents are calling on them to support the $2,000 checks.

Even with the agreement to increase the amount in individual checks, DDT says he wants to turn down the spending bill because of foreign aid worth under $2 billion, but he’s only searching for reasons to throw the U.S. economy into chaos before President-elect Joe Biden takes over. To complicate matters, McCarthy and McConnell promise to unanimously get rid of the foreign aid on a unanimous basis, something Democrats may not support.

Waiting until the ten days allotted for addressing bills, DDT vetoed the $741 billion National Defense Authorization Act, using his latest excuse of its not protecting the U.S. from China. The NDAA has passed every year for the past six decades. In this case, Congress could override his veto in the next few days. Yet Congress needs to pass another Continuing Resolution to the budget to keep the government from shutting down on January 28. There is no guarantee, however, DDT will sign that C.R.

A classic response to DDT’s actions came from a GOP aide, calling the situation a “complete clusterf—.” No one, not even his own aides and officials, knows what DDT wants. Without a resolution, the government could have its fourth government shutdown in DDT’s four years. He is accelerating his style of grabbing attention while planning for his next re-election, this one in 2024. Newt Gingrich said he hoped DDT will sign the bill after he “sends a signal he wants to help people more.” Two years ago, DDT threatened to veto a $1.3 trillion spending bill before signing it, but he’s in much worse emotional state two years later.

With DDT’s campaign team shut down, he listens to only the White House staff who agree with his seditious agenda. He pressured over 150 GOP leaders in the battleground states he lost, trying to persuade them into overturning the popular vote. According to the report based on interviews with 22 Trump aides, local and states officials, Republicans, and elections experts:

“In total, the president talked to at least 31 Republicans, encompassing mostly local and state officials from four critical battleground states he lost—Michigan, Arizona, Georgia, and Pennsylvania. The contacts included at least 12 personal phone calls to 11 individuals, and at least four White House meetings with 20 Republican state lawmakers, party leaders, and attorneys general, all people he hoped to win over to his side. Trump also spoke by phone about his efforts with numerous House Republicans and at least three current or incoming Senate Republicans.”

Anita Kumar and Gabby Orr tracked DDT’s attempts to overturn the election.

Republican attacks on November’s election are still working their way through the courts in a reversal of former GOP ideology. After virulently complaining about “judicial activism” when judges ruled in favor of human rights, the GOP uses a sledgehammer on courts to push their personal wishes, legal or not. For years, the GOP used the court in its attempt to kill the Affordable Care Act, give DDT “absolute immunity” from subpoenas, and, now, overturn a legal election. The GOP position is so wrong that at least eight DDT-appointed judges to be the most conservative in the nation have not supported his evidence-free allegations election fraud.

The Republican Party championing judicial restraint and opposition of courts’ imposing policy preferences on society now has no legitimate, consistent jurisprudential philosophy. It’s all about the results: killing the Affordable Care Act, granting DDT “absolute immunity” from subpoenas, and, worst of all, overturning a presidential election based on no evidence at all. The Federalist Society taught all DDT’s judges, who the GOP Senate faithfully confirmed, to defer to executive authority, put its conservative social agenda over precedent and law, and use “religious liberty” to violate laws. These judges believe they can actually know exactly what the people who wrote the Constitution were thinking although the same judges ignore the 14^th Amendment giving due process rights instead of staying faithful to the document’s language and the government’s structure.

Fortunately, even the most conservative of judges almost universally agreed courts have no power to “grant the relief” desired by Republicans—in this case overthrowing an election. As Jennifer Rubin, a GOP columnist, wrote:

“The courts’ words might fall on deaf ears among the Trumpian right, but it should provide comfort to the rest of the country that unlike the Republicans who nominated and confirmed them, even “conservative” judges feel duty-bound to act in a judicial capacity—not as handmaidens to an authoritarian party that cares only that its side wins.”

Not all DDT’s judges understand the importance of the law. Supreme Court Brett Kavanaugh attacked Democrats, and others reversed precedent because they can. But thus far, democracy survives.

Officials have finally found a case of voter fraud so frantically sought by DDT’s supporters. Bruce Bartman, 70, pretended to be his dead mother to vote in Delaware County (PA). The vote was for DDT. Bartman was charged with unlawful voting and perjury. A database has found 193 convicted cases of voter fraud between 1000 and 2020, when 250 million votes were cast. Maybe judges understand the lack of election fraud.

Today, self-identified super-Christian VP Mike Pence said to his Florida rally audience:

“[Democrats] want to make rich people poorer and poor people more comfortable.”

That’s a bad thing? Twenty-seven days until Pence moves out of public housing.

DDT: Week 204 – More of the Same

News of the week may include Senate coming to terms with a stimulus bill keeping the government from shutting down, but details are uncertain because Republicans change their minds hour to hour. More after a final vote. Instead of working to help people and stop a government shutdown by passing a budget, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) uses Senate time to pass more right-wing, inexperienced judges.

Will Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) blow up democracy? He still wants to leave himself in the White House by ordering the military to throw out swing state election results for a new vote favoring himself. Career Pentagon officials are also horrified by acting Defense Secretary Chris Miller’s refusal to allow cooperation between President-elect Joe Biden’s transition team and his department. DDT’s only event last Friday was a meeting with Miller. The Pentagon said it is “taking a knee for two weeks” because of the “holidays.”

One month before he leaves the White House, DDT, obsessing about his legacy, tweeted the SPACE FORCE, as he cites it in a tweet, will be one of his “great achievements.” VP Mike Pence proudly announced “guardians” will be used for its members, along with Marines, sailors, and soldiers, after a year-long search for a name. James Gunn, director of the Marvel franchise Guardians of the Galaxy, tweeted, “Can we sue this dork?” The logo looks like Star Trek’s insignia for the StarFleet.

DDT’s obsession overrides any great concern about the hacking in government agencies and private businesses. Saturday, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo announced Russia is behind the hack, “a very significant effort.” For the first time, DDT mentioned the hack, only to declare China may have been responsible and claimed “everything is well under control.” He accused the media of exaggerating the damage and proposed the real issue is his belief elections results have been compromised. His claim again brings up the question of what Russian president Vladimir Putin is holding over DDT. Privately, he calls the hack a “hoax” and told others to give alternative theories—such as China—for the responsible party instead of Russia. John Bolton, DDT’s third national security adviser, did away with the strong cybersecurity team in the White House. The newly passed National Defense Authorization Act recreates the team with a “cyber czar” with direct access to the president, but DDT has promised to veto the bill.

Biden, currently shut out by the Pentagon, faces a difficult task because the U.S. hacks other countries and a military response violates international law. Within 16 days of Biden’s inauguration, he must also address the renewal of New Start, the nuclear arms control treaty with Russia.

Rupert Murdoch, owner of media entities such as Fox network leading the war against health, received his vaccine for COVID-19 the day before Tucker Carlson promoted anti-vaccine theories. While Carlson and other Fox notables killed people by supporting the lies the virus is a hoax, Murdoch and his wife isolated themselves in the UK.

The three most recent U.S. presidents are offering to get the vaccine live on TV, and VP Mike Pence got his “jab” on Friday, in time for a second shot before his departure from the U.S. after he accepts the vote on January 6, forcing him into new housing. DDT won’t commit. Maybe he doesn’t want anyone to see his arm.

Fox programs, such as the one hosted by Lou Dobbs is backing down on their conspiracy theories about election fraud. At least three programs played clips from Smartmatic debunking fraud accusations by DDT’s personal lawyer and his other supporters against its technology company after Smartmatic sent a 20-page legal demand to Fox, Newsmax, and One American News. One of the conspiracy theories is that former Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez, who died seven years ago, designed the software to rig elections used to fix the 2020 U.S. election. In addition to lies on his program by Giuliani about Smartmatic owning Dominion voting software and other lies by attorney Sidney Powell, Dobbs accused Smartmatic of being controlled by “left-wing radicals.” The debunking video was also played over the weekend on conspiracy theorist programs hosted by Jeanine Pirro (Justice with Judge Jeanine) and Maria Bartiromo (Sunday Morning Futures). The clip didn’t go over well with Bartiromo’s watchers.

Antrim County in Michigan has been the center of conspiracy theories about a stolen election because the voting machines originally gave Biden more votes than DDT in the traditionally GOP county. Correcting updating the software brought DDT in ahead by 4,000 votes over Biden out of 16,000 ballots. The lies have a life of their own, but Antrim has paper ballots, providing evidence about the accurate vote in the county. A hand tally of all 15,962 votes gave DDT more votes—12 to be exact. Losing one vote in Antrim County, Biden won Michigan by 154,000 votes.

Republicans have cited proof of election fraud because people wouldn’t vote for Biden. They might find more fraud in GOP Mitch McConnell’s Kentucky reelection to the Senate, 57.8 percent over Democratic Amy McGrath’s 38.2 percent:

• McConnell won large vote leads in Democratic strongholds, ones he never before carried.
• Wide discrepancies between DDT and down-ballot candidates were not explained.
• Along with other states, Kentucky’s vote tabulation by Election Systems & Software (ES&S) reported down-ballot race result significantly different from pre-election polls.
• Forty percent of Kentucky’s counties have more registered voters than voting-age citizens; in November 2017, right-wing Judicial Watch sued Kentucky for its “Dirty Voter Rolls” and failure to maintain voter registration lists.
• (Details here.)

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) also won by a comfortable 10 percent lead after a squeaker election; his votes were tabulated on ES&S machines. Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who never had a polling lead in the four months before the election, won by almost nine points. Yup, ES&S machines counted the votes for Collins. Maybe the polls about their losing weren’t wrong.

McConnell and Russian president Vladimir Putin may have admitted DDT lost the election, but House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) is staying silent. Asked if Biden won, he ducked into House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) office. McCarthy was one of the seditious 126 House members trying to overthrow the election results in the Supreme Court. Newsmax’s Greg Kelly thinks DDT will be inaugurated because Biden coughed during his speech on Monday. Bad news for Kelly: VP-elect Kamala Harris is second in line for the president, according to the 20^th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. DDT isn’t in line.

DC visitors can’t go to the Washington Memorial for a few days after Interior Secretary David Bernhardt took people on a private tour after hours last week and tested positive for COVID-19. He also caused a staffing shortage at the monument: National Park Service staff near Bernhardt are under quarantine. His virus also caused the cancellation of a large Interior Department party—perhaps lucky for those who planned to attend—and concerns about Deputy Secretary Katharine MacGregor’s plans to visit Yellowstone and Grand Teton national parks. Staff was supposed to drive her between the two parks and give her tours for four days. She still plans the trip. Despite the possibility of contagion, agencies are still hosting large parties, and both Bernhardt and MacGregor do not consistently wear masks.

The Supreme Court will allow people in Kansas to vote without presenting a birth certificate or passport. The former state’s secretary of state, anti-immigrant Kris Kobach, succeeded in putting this requirement into law, but a trial court and the 10^th Circuit Court both declared the mandate unconstitutional. The high court declined to address those rulings. Kobach briefly led DDT’s “election integrity” commission when DDT lied that three million immigrants voting against him caused him to lose the 2016 popular vote. About 30,000 people in Kansas couldn’t vote because of the punitive law.

DDT has come to the last month of pardoning capability, and Bill Barr has left the DOJ. New acting AG Jeff Rosen has continually demonstrated his unswerving loyalty to DDT. He quashed the investigation into DDT’s extortion scheme against Ukraine, tried to force an indictment against former acting FBI director Andrew McCabe, and reviewed career prosecutors’ work in an attempt to save Roger Stone. Rosen also saved former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke from prosecution for his scandals and led the case against John Bolton in DDT’s attempt to keep his book from being published. In other actions, Rosen kept Paul Manafort out of Rikers Island when he was arrested and encouraged prosecutors to aggressively prosecute activists, even with the charge of “sedition,” to satisfy DDT. The month of pardons is beginning. Let DDT pardon himself? To Rosen, it’s a piece of cake.

In the White House, DDT always had his priorities. He has succeeded in getting the Energy Department to finalize a rule increasing shower pressure to rinse his “beautiful head of hair,” in his own words. Part of his “energy dominance” policy, it’s one of his biggest talking points at rallies.  Another achievement for the people starving in the country is “Freedom” cherry pie. DDT’s administration is persuading the persuadable FDA to remove regulations from frozen cherry pie—like requiring cherries. In deregulating vegetable oil and an acid in French dressing, the FDA said the agency doesn’t need “to promote honesty and fair dealing in the interest of consumers.” DDT can leave the White House, secure in the knowledge he can always have a good hairdo. And Freedom “Cherry Pie.” DDT’s priorities in his last month during massive hacking and a deadly pandemic.