Are you Better? Plus Good News

The latest GOP meme uses Ronald Reagan’s question about whether people are better off than they were four years ago. Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-NY), wannabe vice president, used it earlier this year, and Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) echoed it in her ill-fated response to Biden’s address. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg reminded viewers, “Yeah, three or four years ago you couldn’t get toilet paper.” That’s one answer, but there are many more.

Disease: Four years ago, a few hundred people died every day in the U.S. of Covid; within a month, over 2,000 were dying each day. During two decades, 6,817 U.S. soldiers died in Iraq and Afghanistan, but Covid deaths topped that number in just three days. DDT’s solution on February 10, 2020, was waiting until the heat starts arriving in April. By February 26, 2020, he said that the number of people infected is “going very substantially down, not up.” By March 13, 2020, DDT said, “I don’t take responsibility at all.” By April, he said the cure was injecting people with disinfectants and shining ultraviolet lights “inside the body.” Four years later, safe and effective vaccines are available for all just like testing.

Economics: In March 2020, a rising unemployment rate was 4.4 percent, and it hit 14.8 percent a month later under DDT. Biden’s unemployment rate has been under 4 percent for 24 consecutive months, the longest stretch since the Vietnam War. The stock market crashed in 2020, and the Dow fell as far down as 19,173. Since Biden’s presidency, the market doubled from DDT’s top figure. In the first two quarters of 2020, the GDP seriously shrank to -2.8 percent, but since Biden was inaugurated, the U.S. has had the most sustained and robust economic growth in a decade, even after adjusted for inflation. The year 2023 saw a 3.1 percent growth when economists had predicted a recession. Since Biden was inaugurated, 15 million new jobs dropped the unemployment rate from 6.3 percent to 3.4 percent.

Energy: On December 15, 2023, the U.S. set a new annual oil production record, up from the 2019 record—an increase from 12.3 barrels daily to 13.175 million BPD for at least an additional 4.3 billion barrels in 2023.

Crime: The year 2020 had the biggest increase in the murder rate in U.S. history. That rate has fallen each of the last four years with the drop from 2022 to 2023 one of the biggest declines in the murder rate in U.S. history. Violent crime is also down, and the number of U.S. in harm’s way in Afghanistan dropped from 8,600 in 2020 to the current figure of zero.

Steven Benen lists other improved areas under Biden: the shrinking uninsured rate, fewer supply-chain challenges, lower prescription drug costs, infrastructure investments, and global standing. The budget deficit improved after DDT drove it up by $7.8 trillion with his tax cuts and expenditures.

The U.S. still has issues:

With a do-nothing GOP-controlled House refusing to provide resources, border crossings are up after DDT forced all asylum seekers to stay in Mexico during his past year. Yet apprehensions are up from four years ago.

Housing affordability, caused by free enterprise, is a concern.

Inflation skyrocketed to 9.1 percent in 2022 is down to 3.1 percent and set to further recede in 2024, close to the optimum 2 percent and currently the lowest in the Group of Seven (G7) economies.

Some people are out of work and suffer financial strain, made worse by the loss of social programs after the end of Covid coverage.

Vladimir Putin is trying to break NATO as he waits to control the person in the White House by getting DDT elected.

Wealthy donors who claim Biden is a disaster want the expanded tax cuts if DDT returns, but people who talk about the “disaster” of President Biden have no hard facts. An example is the appearance of Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) on Bill Maher’s show. She constantly used the term but never backed it up with any information.

As Jonathan Last wrote, the U.S. was a dystopia—exactly four years ago:

“We had an America with double-digit unemployment, economic contraction, mass death, and skyrocketing crime….

“And in addition to all of that, we had Nazi marches and civil unrest. We had a president attempt to blackmail the leader of an American ally into helping his re-election campaign by lying about his rival. We had a president slam through two Supreme Court vacancies, at least one of which was achieved through irregular means.

“We also had an attempted coup.”

DDT’s daughter-in-law Lara Trump, now the RNC co-chair, is parroting the question about four years ago with the evidence-free answer that people are worse off, but her co-chair Mike Whatley, also hand-picked by DDT, answered the question with “no.” He tried to catch himself but again admitted, “I mean, yeah, we are better off today.” Lara is new at the political stuff, but Whatley is a seasoned politician who doesn’t make those verbal mistakes.

While Republicans are intent on running with the claim that Americans are not better off today than they were four years ago, despite the fact that the country was in the midst of a devastating pandemic four years ago, an inadvertent admission from a key figure in the Republican Party sheds light on the flawed nature of this approach.

Good News:

The RNC showed it can be embarrassed when it dropped plans to eliminate its budget for involving minority voters in battleground states such as Arizona and Georgia that have large Black and Hispanic voter populations. Community centers were designed to increase early vote turnout and educate minorities in vote-by-mail. Already short on money, RNC co-chair Lara Trump plans to use donations to pay for the legal debts of her father-in-law, DDT.

A recent poll reveals that consumers are catching onto the reason for price increases during the past six months—“large corporations taking advantage of inflation” instead of Democratic policies. In a Financial Times-Michigan Ross poll, 63 percent, up from 54 percent, blame the corporations.

In an overwhelming majority, only 6 percent of the people in the U.S. think that in vitro fertilization (IVF) should be illegal, and 66 percent support a law to protect IVF patients and their providers.

The Electoral College will still be in effect in 2024, but the landscape may change by 2028 as more states join an alliance to elect the president with the popular vote instead of the numbers of electoral votes. Maine is the latest state advancing a bill to join the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact, in which member states collectively award their electoral votes to the winner of the national popular vote. The compact will follow this process only after states with a majority of electoral votes have joined. Progress is shown on the map to the right.  In the past 140 years, two Republicans have taken the electoral vote but lost the popular vote—George W. Bush in 2000 and DDT in 2016.

Falling shares aren’t usually good news, but in this case it’s because Biden opposes the $15 billion takeover of U.S. Steel, based in Pennsylvania, by the Japanese company Nippon Steel. U.S. Steel also operates in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and other states. The United Steelworkers union opposes the sale. Despite Nippon’s connections to China, conservatives want the deal to go through.

 

Florida is losing its reputation as the most “anti-woke” state in the nation after 21 of 22 anti-LGBTQ+ bills recently died. Remaining was only anti-diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in education bill to pass this session. It blocks education teachers on these topics and bans “teaching identity politics.” Nadine Smith of Equality Florida stated:

“Extremist groups are collapsing amidst multiple scandals. Parents are mobilizing on behalf of their kids and to stop the dismantling of public education.”

A bankruptcy court may force DDT’s former lawyer Rudy Giuliani to sell his $5 million Florida condo to start paying off his massive debts. The court commented on Giuliani’s “recklessness in not maintaining any homeowners insurance for the Florida Condo or the NYC Apartment [his primary residence].”

As Republicans become more uncertain about continuing Biden’s impeachment, DDT’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, also a White House official, gives Democrats more grist for the mill of DDT making money for his family members who are doing business abroad. Using DDT’s former position and his current presidential candidacy, Kushner is working with Richard Grenell, DDT’s former appointments, to finalize real estate projects in Albania and Serbia on land controlled by their governments. Kushner is using the $2 billion obtained from Saudia Arabia through his government contacts there, and Grenell hopes to be secretary of state if DDT is elected in 2024.

While Republicans pursue the evidence-free search into Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, they refuse to investigate DDT’s family. Trying to gracefully back out of the impeachment debacle, James Comer (R-KY) has said his priority is to “pass influence-peddling legislation.” Democrats could benefit from such legislation in pursuing the alleged corruption of DDT and his family.

Lawmakers claim they oppose TikTok because of Chinese influence, but  60 percent of its parent company is owned by international investors, mostly from the U.S. Model and activist Emily Ratajkowski told her 2.7 milliom TikTok followers that the government wants to ban the platform because it is a hub for progressive activism. With no evidence, opponents complain about TikTok’s pro-Palestinian lean. Even if this were true, TikTok wouldn’t be the only social platform with biases.

Congress, Carlson’s Putin Interview

Update: Police officials in Kansas City (MO) have decided that the mass shooting leaving 22 people injured and another one dead was not terrorism but instead a dispute among several people. Fortunately, that makes violence business as usual in a state with extremely lax gun laws and a plethora of weapons. Two juveniles are in custody; a third one has been released.

In the House, Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-KY) keeps announcing witnesses with evidence for impeaching President Joe Biden, but he keeps failing. The latest one, Alexander Smirnov, has been arrested for providing false information about the Bidens. Special counsel David Weiss indicted the FBI confidential source on felony false statement and obstruction charges. Comer, however, released a statement saying that Smirnov’s charges do not undermine the GOP impeachment inquiry into Joe Biden. Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) claims, with no evidence, that the Biden family “pushed” a Ukrainian oligarch to pay them $10 million.

Rep. Andy Ogles (R-TN) has demanded a formal investigation into Rep. Mike Turner’s (R-OH) announcement of an undescribed but “urgent” “national security threat.” Ogles wrote Speaker MAGA Mike Johnson (R-LA) that the Intelligence Committee Chair’s public statement “was done with a reckless disregard of the implications and consequences said information would have on geopolitics, domestic and foreign markets or the well-being and psyche of the American people.” The letter also accused Turner of making the announcement on the same day that the House was set to consider an intelligence committee-led measure reauthorizing a controversial government surveillance program, now postponed, and was also planned to “ensure additional funding for Ukraine.” Other ultra-conservative Freedom Caucus members Andy Biggs (AZ) and Matt Gaetz (FL) echoed Ogles’ concerns.

On Thursday, House members again fled Washington, D.C. early for another vacation leaving the southern border issue in what GOP Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) called “the worst crisis we’ve ever seen.” Johnson insisted that the border has “solutions.” A reporter asked him what the House is doing, and Johnson said they were “addressing” the issues. The 2024 House session has only 114 days, and Johnson is chipping away at that number. An X about early vacation:

“NATIONAL SECURITY THREAT FROM RUSSIA but we refuse to fix either one and we’re going to leave early for a two-week vacation instead.”

McCarthy and Johnson have presided over more rules’ failures in 13 months than any other Congress in the past two decades. The failing rule in June, prohibiting regulation of gas-burning stoves, was the first since 2002 when Dennis Hastert (R-IL), alleged sexual molester, was Speaker.

Steve Benen compared the current Speaker to ousted Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-CA):

“Johnson is failing to count well. He’s become distracted by shiny objects, instead of focusing on meaningful priorities. He’s ceded far too much influence to Donald Trump. He’s routinely pushed around by his most radical members, whom he’s tried to appease. He’s failing to making plans, preferring instead to ‘wing it’ in the hopes of surviving the day, becoming a chess player who only makes one move at a time.”

While Republicans bicker and take vacation, the Senate finished negotiations on a bill they claim will protect children online. The Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA), introduced in 2022, would obligate digital platforms to “exercise reasonable care,” preventing the endangerments of kids that exacerbate depression, sexual exploitation, bullying, harassment, and other harms. It would limit who can talk to youths on online accounts and provide easy-to-use parental controls.

Digital rights and tech industry groups opposed the bill, concerned that state enforcers could target young LGBTQ+ users. An updated version removed key enforcement powers from state AGs and gave Federal Trade Commission regulators a more central overseeing role. With no House partner, however, the bill has a slim chance of moving into a law. Instead, the House is working on its own bill with safeguards for all ages. Meanwhile, state legislators have tried to pass their own privacy and child safety bills although industry groups won early legal challenges for these laws.

Since Tucker Carlson’s trip to Moscow and his softball interview with Vladimir Putin, the Russian president evaluated his performance:   

“To be honest, I thought that he would behave aggressively and ask so-called sharp questions. I was not just prepared for this, I wanted it, because it would give me the opportunity to respond in the same way.

“He tried to interrupt me several times, but still, surprisingly for a Western journalist, he turned out to be patient and listened to my long dialogues, especially those related to history.”

Putin said he “did not fully enjoy that interview” despite Carlson consistently supporting Putin, repeating his talking points, and praising Moscow:

“It is so much cleaner and safer and prettier aesthetically, its architecture, its food, its service, than any city in the United States.”

Carlson said Moscow’s grocery store “radicalized” him because his cartful of items costing $104 would cost $400 in the U.S. He doesn’t know that Russian rubles are worth much less than the U.S. dollar and groceries are much cheaper in poorer countries. The Libertarian Party of San Bernardino County called Carlson “economically illiterate” because he also doesn’t know that Russians spend approximately one-third of their income on groceries compared to the U.S. where people in the U.S. pay only eight percent. On X, a conservative pointed out that the average salary in Russia is slightly over $14,000.

After eight days in Moscow, Carlson went to the 2024 World Governments Summit in Dubai where he continued to praise Putin as “very capable” and gushed about Singapore, Dubai, Tokyo, and Abu Dhabi. According to Carlson, the rape and sexual assault rate is much higher in New York than those foreign cities, but he disregarded the lack of freedom in these cities except for Tokyo.

Fired from Fox, Carlson wanted publicity for his interview and received a large quantity of it–mostly negative.

His former colleague Chris Wallace (left), who is now on CNN, called Carlson an “eager puppy” and worse than a “useful idiot.” 

Wallace Xed:

“Putin droned on for two hours and seven minutes, while Tucker … rarely got in a question.”

 

Almost everytime Carlson tried to get in a question, Putin shut him up. Wallace said:

“But more telling than what Tucker asked, is what he didn’t ask. Nothing about why Putin invaded a sovereign country. Nothing about targeting civilians.

“Nothing about Russian war crimes….

“No, he’s made a cynical decision to chase MAGA’s affection for dictators and what better way to cash in than Putin’s Kremlin.”

Also missing were questions about why Russian authorities are fomenting violent antisemitism and that Putin’s opponents are poisoned, imprisoned, or fall out of windows.

Putin even ridiculed Carlson for his failure to get a job in the CIA after he graduated from college and pointed out his own past work as an intelligence officer for 16 years. A former KGB officer, Putin has mastered the art of manipulating and exploiting events for desired outcomes. Part of Putin’s usual manipulation is being late, two hours in this case, before he started detailing Russia’s history from the formation of the county in the 9^th century. In his revisionist view, he declared that a Ukrainian nation never existed.

Putin played Carlson like a violin and, as Frank Figliuzzi wrote, used Carlson for his own purposes. The Russian leader tried to undermine confidence in U.S. intelligence which, he said with no evidence, was undercutting the Biden administration. He also criticized continued funding for Ukraine’s war efforts, supporting the GOP Russian assets in their claim that the funding should go to solve domestic issues and those on the U.S.-Mexico border.

The interview was apparently an answer to what Carlson considers considers “fawning pep sessions” with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky which disseminate “propaganda of the ugliest kind.” Before he was fired from Fox and later on X, Carlson described Zelenskiy as a “dictator” and “sweaty and rat-like,” stated that he (Carlson) was “rooting for Moscow,” and blames the West for the invasion. His interview was a victory for Russia where the state media views him as an asset of the country.

An overview of the interview from The Guardian.

In the U.S., Carlson has a history of claiming rigged elections from fraud but ignored the “deep state” with its massive election fraud in Russia. He exhibited no concern about Russia’s new online electronic voting system in March, allowing the country “to shift away from costly, uncertain vote-buying and voter pressure, to cheap, efficient falsification,” according to Cole J. Harvey, expert in authoritarian states’ electoral manipulation. 

While Carlson visited Moscow, Russia’s Central Election Commission was deciding which candidates should appear on the presidential ballot, another form of rigging. Putin’s imprisoned opposition leader Alexey Navalny cannot run because of Russia’s law banning people affiliated with “extremist” organizations from the presidency. Last Thursday, the only pro-peace candidate, Boris Nadezhdin, was also banned from the race after polling showed he could get ten percent or more of the election’s vote.

This leader is the person who MAGA wants to protect.

DDT – Onto the Trials But off the Rails

Deposed Donald Trump (DDT) grows more and more irrational although the media largely overlooks these comments. In the past he ridiculed a possible fatal assault on the spouse of a House speaker and called for the highest military official to be executed. In early October 5, he continued attacking immigrants with the fascist statement that they come from mental institutions and insane asylums. “We know they’re terrorists,” he said and finished by declaring, “It’s poisoning the blood of our country.” Adolf Hitler made the same accusation that Jewish people and migrants were “causing a blood poisoning” of Germany. In Mein Kampf, Hitler, admired by DDT, wrote:

“All great cultures of the past perished only because the originally creative race died out from blood poisoning.”

A few days after DDT made his “poisoned blood” statement, he said that shoplifting would stop if police just shot shoplifters when they left the store. The crowd of California Republicans cheered at the idea of eliminating due process for crimes. The man with four indictments and 91 charges called for “retribution for … the ruination of our country.” In the past, DDT called for shooting people crossing the border, protesters of the death of George Floyd, drug dealers, human traffickers, and anyone convicted of killing a police officer.

Fox host Greg Gutfeld, blessed with two different programs on the network, wants war instead of voting because “elections don’t work.” Instead of voting against Biden, people need to “force [your opponents] to surrender,” according to Gutfeld.

DDT’s meme of “America First” a statement was also used by Nazi-supporter Charles Lindbergh before World War II, but DDT might be a globalist with a penchant for sharing national security secrets with other countries. In April 2021, DDT gave classified information about U.S. nuclear submarines to Australian billionaire Anthony Pratt, founder of one of the world’s largest cardboard companies, during a conversation at Mar-a-Lago. Within minutes, Pratt started to tell at least 45 others including six journalists, 11 company employees, 10 Australian officials, and three former Australian prime ministers.

While in the White House, DDT told Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte about dispatching two nuclear submarines off the coast of the Korean peninsula, discussed U.S. nuclear weapons publicly in Turkey, disclosed details about a secret nuclear weapons program to Bob Woodward—and more. 

DDT’s globalist inner circle:

• Son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner, shared U.S. intelligence with Saudi Arabia.
• First national security adviser, Michael Flynn, was a paid foreign agent for Turkey.
• Inaugural chair, Tom Barrack, was a paid lobbyist for the United Arab Emirates.
• First campaign manager, Paul Manafort, was a paid agent for the former Putin ally president of Ukraine.
• Billionaire Guo Wengui spread Covid disinformation.

The civil fraud suit in New York against DDT continued after he ran away to Mar-a-Lago during the third day. The New York state appeals court temporarily stopped the dissolution of one of his most valuable properties until a final ruling is made, potentially taking over a year. In the same decision, however, the appeals court refused to stop the current trial to determine the amount of penalties for DDT, his two older sons, and ten of his companies for inflating his net worth to obtain more favorable loan terms.

The trial is expected to run through mid-December because of the large number of DDT’s witnesses. One of them, DDT’s former accountant Donald Bender, testified “that his client withheld documents from him.” About putting together DDT’s financial statements, Bender said he found that DDT and others within the Trump Organization didn’t provide all relevant documents for several years. Bender testified:

“I asked them for appraisals. They represented they gave me everything I needed.”

Bender added that the Trump Organization attested in writing that it provided all financial records and hadn’t “knowingly withheld” relevant data. He explained that “there were certain appraisals out there for a number of years that we had never seen.”

New York AG Letitia James said the appeals court rulings were a victory because they don’t delay the trial. Monday is a federal holiday, called Indigenous Peoples Day in many states; therefore, the trial won’t continue until Tuesday.

In special counsel Jack Smith’s election interference case, DDT argued in a court filing that he has presidential immunity, claiming his attempts to overturn his election loss was at “the heart of his official responsibilities as President.” In a second argument, he says that he’s already been impeached for the same charge which bars his prosecution. DDT claims the Constitution maintains presidents can be criminally charged only if they are convicted in an impeachment.

As Steve Benen points out, the impeachment was a bipartisan majority vote in the House, and the impeachment trial was a bipartisan majority vote in the Senate. A Senate conviction requires a two-thirds majority. After the Senate proceedings, the GOP leader Mitch McConnell (KY) stated:

“President Trump is still liable for everything he did while he was in office, as an ordinary citizen. He didn’t get away with anything yet—yet. We have a criminal justice system in this country. We have civil litigation. And former presidents are not immune from being accountable by either one.”

The appeal to drop the case refers to Nixon v. Fitzgerald (1981) in which a civilian U.S. Air Force employee sued Nixon for damages after he was terminated. The Supreme Court ruled 5-4 that the president is immune “from damages liability for acts within the ‘outer perimeter’ of his official responsibility”—a line DDT’s lawyers quote in the filing. DDT faces four criminal charges in the January 6 case including conspiracy to defraud the U.S. government and conspiracy against rights. The DOJ responded that Nixon provides “absolute immunity for the president’s official acts” but not for “incitement of imminent private violence.”

Fulton County (GA) DA Fani Willis has subpoenaed former NY Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik for testimony in the criminal case against DDT. He said he will testify if she gives him immunity. He took part in several meetings with Arizona and Pennsylvania lawmakers, including one at the White House with DDT and several others to plan the contesting of the 2020 presidential election.  

Prosecutors are considering plea deals for several of the 18 remaining defendants in the RICO case regarding attempts to overturn the 2020 presidential election with some of them already receiving the offers. The earlier the acceptance, the better the deal. Jury selection for the first trial involving Ken Chesebro and Sidney Powell, begins October 20. The first defendant to flip received only five years probation, and others have been offered similar agreements in exchange for truth testimony.

One of DDT’s lawyers said he has dropped his $500 million lawsuit against former lawyer/fixer Michael Cohen although DDT claims that the pause is only temporary because of its conflict with his presidential campaign. The decision came after a federal magistrate judge ordered DDT to sit for a deposition starting Monday. Earlier in the week, DDT scheduled a campaign rally on Monday noon in New Hampshire. He has already delayed the deposition twice. His lawyers tried to get the deposition scheduled for Sunday, but the judge refused. Cohen is expected to testify in DDT’s current business fraud trial.

Looking for more attention, DDT announced he may drop in on the House during the Speaker candidate forum on October 10 between his campaigning in New Hampshire and Florida. He claims that several House GOP members have asked him to run for Speaker and posted a fake photo of him on his Truth Social wielding the gavel (right). He won’t run for speaker because he might lose, the rules block anyone indicted for a felony, and, as his niece Mary Trump said, “He’d have to work.”

With only 100 days until the Iowa caucuses, DDT headed there this weekend along with some of his rivals. His substantial lead there still isn’t as much as nationally, meaning he has some work to do. DDT also wasn’t helped by his insulting Gov. Kim Reynolds who has a high rating in the state. In more irrationality, DDT praised Hannibal Lector, mixing him with Anthony Hopkins in the 1991 film. About the cannibal, DDT said:

“You know why I like him? Because he said on television on one of the – ‘I love Donald Trump.’ So I love him. I love him. I love him. He said that a long time ago and once he said that, he was in my camp, I was in his camp. I don’t care if he was the worst actor, I’d say he was great to me.”

Hopkins told The Guardian that he doesn’t care for DDT; no one knows what Lector thinks.

Eight years ago, DDT started telling his campaign audiences that he would build a “beautiful wall” between the U.S. and Mexico that Mexico would fund it with a one-time payment of $5 billion to $10 billion. His followers loved it. DDT built under 100 miles of a new “wall” on the border of almost 2,000 miles, but Mexico didn’t provide one cent of the cost. In 2019, DDT claimed he never said that Mexico would pay for a wall despite multiple videos showing he did. Four years after that, DDT told his Iowa audience that he always knew that Mexico wouldn’t pay for the wall. His audience still thinks he will live up to his promises despite his lies to them.

Biden Waits, DDT Sabotages

Ignoring security for the United States, the lame-duck administration of Dictator Donald Trump (DDT) and the GOP continues its roadblocks against the new Biden/Harris administration, depriving people in the U.S. of safety, including members of the military.

Vital information about budgets, U.S. military forces, troop withdrawal, and the Russian cyber espionage is being withheld from the transition team of President-elect Joe Biden. The result, the most contentious presidential transition in decades, means danger for U.S. interests in both domestic and foreign issues. DDT frequently talked about his conversation with President Obama about sensitive national security matters but refuses to meet with Biden and anyone from Biden’s transition team for the same purpose.

A senior Pentagon official admitted the Defense Department is deliberately keeping budgetary data from Biden, who said he needed “a clear picture” to “deter our enemies.” Although saying that the Pentagon had been “completely transparent … on fiscal 2021 budget” and “topline information on the fiscal 2022-2026 program,” a spokesperson said the Office of Management and Budget hasn’t authorized the release of the full details of the FY22-26 program.” Answers to follow-up questions from the transition team demand a lengthy process. Biden also said the Defense Department refused to brief the transition team on last week’s huge cyberattack on government agencies and private U.S. companies. The department also continues to “deny and delay” meetings with transition members.

DDT’s officials admit they don’t want to give Biden any help in dealing with DDT’s priorities, such as building a wall on the southern U.S. border. Biden has vowed to stop the building of the wall upon his inauguration as DDT has charged ahead to damage and degrade the land with little planning. McAllen (TX) has more illegal crossings than other regions but almost no construction because ranchers and other landowners oppose the wall impacting their property. DDT brags about the miles of wall he has built, but only 40 of the 440 miles is new barrier. The remainder replaces or upgrades existing fences and bollards. No one know if DDT’s fence blocks migrants, but they are destroying natural habitats and species, some of them endangered. Biden’s plan to stop wall construction saves the nation $2.6 billion after about $700 million winds up current construction contracts. The funding can be returned to building projects on U.S. military bases.

At least a dozen existing construction contracts in Texas are on land the government doesn’t own, costing the government $1.6 million while contractors wait around. In this area, the administration planned 110 miles but finished only 15 miles. The Army Corps of Engineers won’t award contracts until it has the land, but high-level decision can override the agency. After the government awards the contract on land it doesn’t own, it goes to court to demand the land because it’s being penalized for not beginning construction. The court must give permission before building begins. In Texas, 70 condemnation cases have been filed since September; 53 are in one county where the government filed 25 lawsuits since Election Day. Much of the property has been in the families for generations. One owner came into the U.S. over 40 years ago as an undocumented immigrant on the same property he bought 30 years ago after he became a legal U.S. resident. His ranch would be behind the wall on the Mexican side.

After the inauguration, Biden faces other crises such as the slowing global economy, dangerous climate change, and accelerating racial problems, especially with DDT’s increasing promotion of domestic terrorism by white supremacists. DDT has played down the cyber attack, refusing to admit it could be by Russians because his entire focus has been on the mythical election fraud and developing strategies to overturn the nation’s majority win for Biden.

In opposition to the upcoming administration, Labor Secretary Eugene Scalia completed regulations allowing federal contractors to discriminate against racial and religious minorities, women, and LGBTQ people by calling the rules “religious liberty.” The new regulations affect about 4 million employees and follow Scalia’s refusal to protect employers from infection and death in the COVID-19 crisis. By removing language from statutes and court decisions, Scalia classifies almost all contractors as “religious, permits them to discriminate based on the employers’ belief in “religious tenets,” and removes the ability to identify lawbreaking. The contractors can select employees based on their religion, also breaking the law.

Throughout his past three years, DDT also wants to consider mandating agencies to delineate policy goals and show progress in the achievement for budgeting purposes to restrict Biden from his own budget processes. Circular A-11, a thousand-page document, must be used to justify funding requests. It would, however, remove strategic planning and performance measures from budget guidelines as required in a 1933 congressional law. The same order mandating Circular A-11 also permits a new classification of federal employees who aren’t permitted civil service protections. Federal employee unions are suing to stop the new class of workers.

Other DDT infiltration of Biden’s administration is filling multi-year positions left empty for years with DDT’s loyalists. 

DDT also continues his plan to overturn the election. Following DDT’s strategy, Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) is suing VP Mike Pence, demanding he not count electoral votes from states DDT wants to exclude. The Constitution does not permit Gohmert’s demand, but Gohmert and his Arizona cohort Kelli “Chem Trail” Ward got the idea from a meeting with Pence and DDT last week to plot keeping DDT in the Oval Office. The case was filed with DDT-appointed Judge Jeremy Kernodle in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas. The text of the Twelfth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution:

“The President of the Senate shall, in the Presence of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted.”

Steve Benen wrote about the party that ran on following the U.S. Constitution and appointing “textual originalists” to the Supreme Court bench:

“In 2020, an elected member of Congress not only believes a vice president should have the unilateral power to decide the outcome of a presidential election, that same lawmaker expects the federal judiciary to make it happen. We are now watching people who call themselves conservatives argue that vice presidents should have unilateral power to decide presidential elections.”

DDT becomes increasingly angry with judges, especially Supreme Court justices, who refuse to overturn the election in his favor. Yesterday, he called the three he appointed “totally incompetent and weak” as well as chicken-hearted. A look at the rulings against DDT’s evidence-free election fraud claims.

With under ten percent of the promised 20 million vaccinations before the end of the year just two days before the deadline, Biden has been warned about delays for mass distribution, already experienced, worsening after his inauguration. One concern is whether DDT’s team has provided unrealistic expectations and no organization after Biden is inaugurated. DDT failed to order additional doses beyond the original one million earlier this year; a new order of 100 million doses for 50 more million people won’t be available until July 31, 2021. 

Biden is delivering difficult news either ignored or denied by DDT. Unable to take charge for another three weeks, Biden passes along the same news as many governors and medical experts about “this dark winter of the pandemic.” Last week, he said, “Our darkest days in the battle against COVID are ahead of us, not behind us.” Tuesday, he described the months ahead as “a very tough period for our nation” and asked people to make sacrifices to destroy the virus. Biden said, “It’s going to take all the grit and determination we have as Americans to get it done.” Yet he has a plan to give 100 million vaccinations in his first 100 days

Almost 70 percent of people in the U.S. support a mask-wearing mandate on federal property, and 72 percent want masks required in public places. Two-thirds of the respondents believe masks should be required with anyone outside the household. The poll shows a majority for both Democrats and Republicans.

Two GOP leaders, Massachusetts GOP leader Tom Mountain and Rep.-elect Luke Letlow (R-LA), suffered from their lack of masks. Mountain now recognized his mistake of attending a White House Hanukkah Party where the 100+ mingled closely, mostly without masks. He spent days in the hospital, close to needing a ventilator, and still suffers after over two weeks. His wife, who wisely didn’t attend the party, still contracted coronavirus along with Mountain’s son, daughter-in-law, and mother-in-law. Letlow, 41, died after testing positive for COVID-19 eleven days ago. Married, he had two young children.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates 400,000 deaths in the U.S. before Biden’s inauguration in three weeks. Past deaths in the U.S.: 100,000, May; 200,000, four months later; 300,000 in three months. Weekly deaths are expected to rise through January 16, 2021. By tomorrow, the number of infections will go above 20 million and deaths about 350,000. December 29, 2020: new cases in U.S. – 194,460; new deaths – 3,398.

DDT Runs Afoul of Executive Orders, COVID-19

For eight years, the Republicans hated presidential executive orders–until they elected Dictator Donald Trump (DDT). Their opposition to these orders stay in the GOP platform because Republicans decided to retread the 2016 platform citing their hatred of President Obama. DDT loves signing orders because he gets to look important.

Eight years, ago, President Obama signed an order for Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA), the program allowing undocumented young adults who were brought to the United States as children to apply for protection from deportation. In 2017, DDT signed his own order ending the program, telling almost 800,000 young people they should immediately be deported. After lawsuits against the order wandered the courts for almost three years, the Supreme Court ruled, 5-4 with Chief Justice John Roberts the swing vote, against DDT’s order, calling it “arbitrary and capricious.” The decision didn’t state DDT was wrong, just that he didn’t provide sufficient justification.

The executive order was sent back to the Department of Homeland Security, and, after a day of tantrums, DDT declared the high court wanted him to rewrite the order for reissuing.  

Damon Linker wrote about the decision:

“Presidents and their appointees can’t simply do anything they want, even when the aim falls within their purview. They need to abide by the rule of law in taking action…. It’s what separates a nation governed by law from one ruled by the whims of a malicious despot and his obsequious enablers.”

BuzzFeed’s Zoe Tillman wrote:

“This outcome is similar to what happened in the census citizenship question case — in both cases, Roberts wrote for the majority of the court that the Trump admin could in theory do what they were trying to do, but that officials had gone about it in an unlawful way.”

Law professor Steve Vladeck commented about the ruling:

“It’s not that Chief Justice Roberts is a closet progressive. He’s not. It’s that the Trump administration is really bad at administrative law.”

Steve Benen continued with the theme of his new book, The Imposters:

“Many of the White House’s recent failures are the result of its indifference to the substance of governing.

“Earlier this week, North Korea literally blew up a diplomatic office, in part because Trump launched a risky gambit for public-relations purposes, failed to do his due diligence, never bothered to formulate a specific plan or policy, and sat helpless as his half-hearted effort failed.

“Soon after, the political world was confronted with revelations from John Bolton’s new book, in which the former White House national security advisor describes the president as, among other things, a man who doesn’t care about governing, doesn’t know how government works, and prioritizes politics over policy.

“Meanwhile, Trump’s plan to hold a risky campaign rally in Tulsa is becoming increasingly controversial in ways his political operation may not have anticipated. Those who take governing seriously care about data, evidence, and expertise — and in this case, the coronavirus data out of Oklahoma is awful and getting worse; the evidence points to an enclosed venue where the virus can spread easily and quickly, and the experts are telling anyone who’ll listen that this is a bad idea.

“But because Trump and his allies are no longer members of a governing party, and have instead become leaders of a post-policy party, these developments are sadly predictable.”

Being able to legally work and attend school in the U.S. has made DACA recipients productive. About five percent of them contribute to healthcare work during the danger of COVID-19. Over 90 percent of DACA recipients are employed, and 45 percent of them attend school. In January 2018, 87 percent of people said DACA recipients should be allowed to stay if they work or attend school.

DDT believes Roberts wants another executive order, but a new attempt on his part could address whether the original DACA order was illegal or lacking in “sound policy.” This issue was not addressed in this week’s ruling and could last another three years or more in the courts. It could also be problematic in an election year.

Since the DACA executive order, DDT has learned to write ones totally without substance while making exaggerated statements about their effects. For example, he said he was keeping meat plants open during the pandemic, but the order told Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue to work with OSHA to make decisions.

DDT used the same approach when he signed his “law enforcement reform” order earlier this week. He said his order banned chokeholds, except “when an officer’s life is at risk.” The order actually states chokeholds are permitted wherever law allows them.  

DDT described his order as “pretty comprehensive.” These are his “orders”:

Police brutality has occurred.

Congress will pass policing-related legislation. (Congress started working on reform before he wrote the order.)

DOJ funding will pay police departments to provide federally-approved training programs. (An example of the huge loopholes is money only for departments prohibiting the use of chokeholds “except in those situations where the use of deadly force is allowed by law.”)

The HHS Secretary should encourage police departments to improve law enforcement handling of mental health crises, addiction, and homelessness. (No explanation how.)

A national database should track police misconduct.

No policies, no orders, but DDT can use his statement to veto anything from Congress with a lie that he’s already created “reform.”  He’s already demanded law enforcement officers keep their immunity and described his appreciation for police brutality. People want “law and order,” according to DDT, although “some of them don’t even know that’s what they want, but that’s what they want.”

When Barack Obama was president, DDT stated President Obama “signs executive orders because he can’t get anything done. I’ll get everybody together.” Then he moved on to complaining about the few times President Obama golfed. With his own ability to sign these orders, however, DDT holds up his signature, pointing to it like a toddler pointing out his toilet-training achievement.

DDT’s favorite part of signing orders comes from the speech he gives afterwards. In this case, he extolled the virtues of police officers, returning to the idea that the massive police brutality, even more obvious during the past three weeks, is from a few bad apples. He called school choice, which means using taxpayer funds to support religious groups, as the “civil rights statement of the year, of the decade, and probably beyond.” (Not voting rights of equality in justice—just taxpayers paying for religious instruction.)

Although DDT claimed to have met with families of nine victims of police or racially motivated killings, none was in his audience for his signing. His photo-op showed himself surrounded by male cops, only one of them black. “We have to break old patterns of failure,” DDT said. 

Meanwhile, DDT is pushing VP Mike Pence, the evangelical, to tell governors to lie to their people so they will think COVID-19 has disappeared after a backlash to his rally tomorrow. With spikes in the virus throughout over half the states, Pence told governors to tell people the virus has disappeared. DDT claims the only reason the number of cases could go up would be more testing. Dana Milbank compared this reasoning to people believing they aren’t gaining weight if they don’t weigh themselves. DDT and Pence are willing to kill hundreds of thousands to win an election.

Predictions show the U.S. COVID-19 death toll to over 200,000 by early October, up from 170,000 deaths, because of states lifting lockdowns and ignoring safety measures to prevent the virus. Florida insisted on opening the state and keeping it open, but yesterday, it was one of four states—Arizona, California, Florida, and Texas—with almost half the 33,000+ new cases for the day although they have about 20 percent of the nation’s population. Pence also lied to reporters about the new virus spike in Oklahoma, its highest one-day total since the pandemic began in the state on March 6, by calling it a “flattening” curve.

Pence also wrote a Wall Street Journal op-ed about “overblown” reports of a “second wave” while DDT is “winning the fight.” A factcheck about Pence’s piece, however asserted he “overstated the amount of coronavirus-related medical equipment distributed by a Trump administration program on multiple occasions, according to public data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.” The amount of masks, shields, and other PPE was far less than Pence stated, especially the 1.5 million N95 masks instead of the 143 million Pence declared.

As both DDT and Pence call for a “celebration” to the current end of COVID-19, people need to remember their comments earlier this year before over 120,000 people died of the virus in the United States.