DAN GOLDBERG and ALICE MIRANDA OLLSTEIN, - Politico
Stephan: The incompetence of Trump and his administration to properly address the Covid pandemic has come to this. The good news is that this failure may, in the Biden administration, lead to finally getting to single-payer universal birthright healthcare.
The United States’ surging coronavirus outbreak is on pace to hit nearly 1 million new cases a week by the end of the year — a scenario that could overwhelm health systems across much of the country and further complicatePresident-elect Joe Biden’s attempts to coordinate a response.
In this Nov. 3, 2020, file photo, Salt Lake County Health Department public health nurses look on during coronavirus testing outside the department in Salt Lake City. Credit: AP Photo/Rick Bowmer
Biden, who is naming his own coronavirus task force Monday, has pledged to confront new shortages of protective gear for health workers and oversee distribution of masks, test kits and vaccines while beefing up contact tracing and reengaging with the World Health Organization. He will also push Congress to pass a massive Covid-19 relief package and pressure the governors who’ve refused to implement mask mandates for new public health measures as cases rise.
But all of those actions — a sharp departure from the Trump administration’s patchwork response that put the burden on states— will have to wait until Biden takes office. […]
Nicholas Fandos and Emily Cochrane, Reporters - The New York Times
Stephan: What we are seeing, in my opinion, is a party trending to permanent minority status doing everything they can to sabotage American democracy. All the phony arguments about voting fraud are, I think, an attempt to lay the groundwork for subsequent legislation at the state level to justify voter purges, and voter suppression.
Most worrisome of all though is that millions of Americans buy this crap. All of this, taken together, proves yet again that you cannot be an ethical person and a Republican, and for a democratic republic that is a real crisis.
Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, said the nation’s legal and political system “will resolve any recounts or litigation.”Credit: Al Drago/The New York Times
Leading Republicans rallied on Monday around President Trump’s refusal to concede the election, declining to challenge the false narrative that it was stolen from him or to recognize President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s victory even as party divisions burst into public view.
Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the top Republican in Congress, threw his support behind Mr. Trump in a sharply worded speech on the Senate floor. He declared that Mr. Trump was “100 percent within his rights” to turn to the legal system to challenge the outcome and hammered Democrats for expecting the president to concede.
In his first public remarks since Mr. Biden was declared the winner, Mr. McConnell celebrated the success of Republicans who won election to the House and the Senate. But in the next breath, he treated the outcome of the presidential election — based on the same ballots that elected those Republicans — as unknown.
ANITA SNOW, DAVID GOLDMAN and LISA MARIE PANE, - Associated Press
Stephan: Getting through the next 71 days is, I think, going to be harder than most people think. Just look at what Tuesday was like. Trump, aided by Congressional Republicans, assaulting democracy from the inside using the powers of the presidency. Trumpers refusing to accept the election.
As I write this, I am watching the PBS Program on the rise of the Nazis, and how Germany went from liberal democracy to racist fascist authoritarianism in four years. It is eerily relevant to the present day.
Trumpers on display
Chanting “This isn’t over!” and “Stop the steal,” supporters of President Donald Trump protested at state capitols across the country Saturday, refusing to accept defeat and echoing Trump’s unsubstantiated allegations that the Democrats won by fraud.
From Atlanta and Tallahassee to Austin, Bismarck, Boise and Phoenix, crowds ranging in size from a few dozen to a few thousand — some of them openly carrying guns — decried the news of Joe Biden’s victory after more than three suspense-filled days of vote-counting put the Democrat over the top. Skirmishes broke out in some cities.
In Atlanta, outside the state Capitol in the longtime Republican stronghold of Georgia, chants of “Lock him up!” rang out among an estimated 1,000 Trump supporters. Others chanted, “This isn’t over! This isn’t over!” and “Fake news!” The streets were awash with American flags and Trump banners.
No immediate violence was reported, though at one point, police moved to separate Trump opponents from supporters. Biden held a slim lead in Georgia, which hasn’t gone for a Democrat since 1992.
Jordan Kelley, a 29-year-old from Murfreesboro, […]
Stephan: This was entirely predictable. Those who live in Trumper world, fill with resentments are easily stirred to violence and, I suspect, Trump's anger at losing the election and his utter self-centeredness have driven him to seek revenge against the people who chose another. The Trumpers are his willing tools.
Trumper militia
On Saturday, the media declared victory for now President-elect Joe Biden. Staying true to form, Donald Trump is following through on his promises to reject defeat by declaring fraud. The two-and-a-half months between now and Inauguration Day will undoubtedly be filled with tension as we watch to see whether Republican leaders and/or state forces will take steps beyond echoing Trump’s rhetoric of fraud to tangibly ensure that their leader holds on to power.
Far more likely than a pro-Trump military-backed coup, however, is enhanced militancy on the part of far right militias and fascist groups. Already Trump’s unfounded accusations of fraud have inspired an attempted armed attack on the Philadelphia convention center and bomb threats against the mall next to the convention center, not to mention the plot to kidnap the governor of Michigan. Indeed, Trump’s ramblings about election fraud — which he has peddled for four years now — fit perfectly into the conspiratorial worldview of QAnon and provide ample fodder for far right efforts to expand their popular support and undermine faith in the electoral system. As […]
Stephan: As I have already said, I think that because Trump is entirely self-referential and narcissistic, he seems to have no sense of obligation to serve the interests of the country. Quite the contrary, his anti-science posture, and indifference to social wellbeing is made very clear by acts like the one described in this report.
A girl places an American flag on the rubble of her grandparents’ home after it was destroyed by a tornado in Louisville, Mississippi. Credit: Joe Raedle / Getty
The National Climate Assessment, which is released every four years, combines the expertise of 13 federal agencies along with independent scientists, The New York Times explained. The last assessment, released in 2018, said unequivocally that the impacts of climate change were already being felt in the U.S. and would get worse if nothing was done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The Trump administration tried to bury the report by releasing it Thanksgiving weekend, and President Donald Trumpclaimed that he did not believe it. Now, there is concern the administration is trying to influence the findings of the next assessment.
“Even in their final days, they are continuing to attempt to bury the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change,” Union of Concerned Scientists senior climate scientist Rachel Licker told The New York Times.
The administration on Friday reassigned Michael Kuperberg, a climate scientist who runs the U.S. Global Change […]
