Stephan: The criminality of Trump and his family and the various corporations they control is just endless; there is nothing like it in American political history. Here is the latest and, because it is at the state level, it means Trump cannot issue pardons. I have a sense that there is a real possibility one or more of his children are going to jail. I think Trump should be in prison as well, but I just don't see that happening. I am not sure America is ready to see a former president locked up. Would the Secret Service still guard him?
The New York attorney general, Letitia James, filed a petition in state trial court in New York City naming the Trump Organization as a respondent, along with other business entities. Credit: Richard Drew/AP
The New York state attorney general has asked a court to enforce subpoenas that could reveal sensitive financial information about the Trump Organization, potentially pulling back the curtain on the president’s private business and throwing Donald Trump into legal jeopardy.
Letitia James filed a petition in state trial court in New York City naming the Trump Organization as a respondent, along with other business entities. The filing also named Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons, and Seven Springs, a New York estate owned by the Trump family.
If the court agrees with the petition, sensitive tax documents and other material relating to Trump family holdings could come to light. The information could also feed investigations by prosecutors into whether Trump and his associates misrepresented the value of assets in order to either avoid taxes or win loans.
Either activity could constitute fraud. Trump has denied all wrongdoing, […]
Stephan: As is usually the case with any form of pollution the initial reports always underestimate when they first report the problem. Here is the latest on the pollution of the oceans by plastic. The situation is 10 times worse than anyone previously thought. And yet petroleum plastic is still legal. How is that possible? Greed and profit, of course.
Fishermen prepare to fish, amidst floating garbage off the shore of Manila Bay during World Oceans Day in Paranaque, Metro Manila June 8, 2013. The U.N. officially designated June 8th each year as World Oceans Day, in December 2008. Credit: Reuters/Erik De Castro
There is at least 10 times more plastic polluting the Atlantic Ocean than previously believed, a new study has found.
The National Oceanography Centre (NOC) study, the first to measure the “invisible” microplastics beneath the surface of the entire Atlantic Ocean, found that there were between 12-21 million tonnes (approximately 13-23 million U.S. tons) of them floating in the top 200 meters (approximately 656 feet) under the waves.
However, the study only measured the three most common types of microplastic in the upper levels of the ocean, The Guardian pointed out. The researchers estimate that the Atlantic’s total plastic load is closer to 200 million tonnes (approximately 220.4 million U.S. tons). That is much higher than the previous estimate of 17 million to 47 million […]
Stephan: I have been doing research for several weeks on why uniquely in the world, the United States, is handling the Covid-19 pandemic so badly. The obvious answer you usually see is the incompetence of the Trump administration. But as I thought about that I remembered the Sturgis biker rally, and beach pictures of people clustered together with no masks. That made me ask myself, what is the role of the attitude of Americans about this pandemic. How can they possibly find someone dying every 80 seconds acceptable? well, the research is out now and the answer is that 57% of Republicans do find this acceptable. Here is the data. I just find it appalling, but it explains a lot.
Supporters at a Trump Rally. Notice they are all White
A majority of Republicans said that the number of coronavirus deaths in the U.S. — now topping 176,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University — is “acceptable,” according to a poll released Sunday.
A CBS News-YouGov poll determined that 57 percent of Republican respondents said the U.S. death toll for COVID-19 was “acceptable,” while 43 percent said it was “unacceptable.” Republicans were the only partisan group of which a majority of voters said the number of deaths was acceptable.
Among Democrats, 10 percent said the coronavirus death toll in the U.S. was acceptable, while 90 percent said it was unacceptable. For independents, 33 percent labeled the death toll as acceptable, and 67 percent called it unacceptable.
Republican respondents also differed among all voters on whether the U.S.’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic is “going well,” with 73 percent agreeing with that assessment. A total of 38 percent of all voters said it was going well.
Most voters — 62 percent — said the pandemic handling is “going badly,” but only 27 percent of Republicans agreed.
Stephan: Here is Monday's Republican Scum Report, this one involving Senator Jim Inhofe of Oklahoma. Once again, when I read this story I was challenged by this question: Is it possible to be a Republican official and an ethical person?
A reader wrote to ask me why I am doing these reports almost every day. My answer was that because they are strung out across the days, and don't get much media coverage, the real dimensions and impact of Republican unethical and criminal behavior doesn't really register with most people. It's only when you see the endless litany that you begin to understand how racist and vile this christofascist cult really is.
Oklahoma Republican Senator Jim Inhofe
Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-OK) turns 86 this year, and it’s unclear if he’s forgotten the promise he made to his voters to root out corruption in Washington. The four-term incumbent has been linked to a lobbyist-turned-senate-staffer-turn-lobbyist-then-staffer again for the Senate Armed Services Committee.
Bonsell started working for Inhofe in 2001, but he left in 2007 to become a Vice President of Robison International Inc, a D.C. lobbying firm. The following year he joined an Altus, Oklahoma company named Aviation Training Consulting (ATC), because they hoped to obtain some contracts from the federal government. Bonsell appeared to have delivered because, by September, he’d scored $582,295 worth of contracts for the company in a single month.Defend democracy. Click to invest in courageous progressive journalism today.
Aviation Training Consulting received its first-ever defense contract, acquiring $582,295 worth of […]
Stephan: I am a year older than Joe Biden, although I am told I look much younger -- which is always nice to hear :-) -- but I make this observation, not about how we look but because I have a sense of how a man of his age thinks, particularly one who has suffered such loss. I too lost a life partner of many years, and was lucky enough, like Biden, to find a second life partner. It leaves one with few illusions about permanence. I have also met Biden several times, and for decades have listened to his speeches, and observed the kind of legislation he supports. He is not just intelligent, he has a sense of history, and understands the shaping of policies and what they can and cannot do. He lived through and was a major player in saving America once before from the previous Republican debacle when the Bush administration left the country in the pits. He knows what it takes to put the wheels back on the train.
Finally, and most importantly, Biden recognizes not just the reality of climate change, he also acknowledges what it will do. Finally, I don't think he believes he is going to be a two-term president; he would be in his eighties when he ran again. That is why I think he made deals with Sanders, Warren, and the other progressives, and why they support him with enthusiasm.
If enough of us vote to produce a landslide that gets the Trumpian mafia out of Washington, I think Biden has the vision to really make America great again.
Biden and Susan Rice
Sherrod Brown, the progressive senator from Ohio, says he’s talking with the Biden campaign about “where he needs to look and who he needs to look at” as he begins to form a potential administration.
Other people in positions of power, both inside and outside government, are engaged in similar conversations.
It’s part of an early, behind-the-scenes effort by the Biden campaign to shape the contours of a government he has pledged would be “the most progressive administration since FDR.”
Biden’s White House and his Cabinet would likely lean on his connections from the Obama administration, including institutionalists who are palatable to centrist Democrats. But in the same way Biden shifted left on policy in recent months in response to the pandemic, he is also taking advice from the progressive wing of the party.
Interviews with more than a dozen Democrats familiar with his transition process describe an effort by his campaign to assemble a center-left amalgamation of personnel designed to prioritize speed over ideology in responding to the coronavirus and the resulting economic ruin. […]
