Tag: Trump wants to be a dictator

Mike Lee’s insistence that America isn’t a democracy is a dangerous slide toward fascism

There’s a certain type of obnoxiously precocious middle schooler who loves to lecture their peers (and everyone else) about things like how the word “decimate” actually only means “1 in 10,'” and how I bet you didn’t know the word’s largest desert is in Antarctica, did you? — the sort of “technically true”-isms that are incredibly annoying but ultimately harmless when issued from a 12-year-old eager to show how smart they are.

And then there’s United States Republican Sen. Mike Lee, of Utah, whose “um, ak-shu-a-lee!!!” shtick isn’t so much an endearing exercise in ephemeral trivia as it is one of the more overt examples of the GOP slide toward fascism in an era already rife with undemocratic Republican power plays. 

The shtick in question is Lee’s denial of American democracy, which he insisted on reiterating over and over again Wednesday evening during the vice presidential debate between California Sen. Kamala Harris and Vice President Mike Pence. Continue reading.

Trump Lashes Out at His Cabinet With Calls to Indict Political Rivals

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The pressure on his top administration officials to take action came as President Trump bristled at the restraints of his illness.

WASHINGTON — President Trump berated his own cabinet officers on Thursday for not prosecuting or implicating his political enemies, lashing out even as he announced that he hoped to return to the campaign trail on Saturday just nine days after he tested positive for the coronavirus.

In his first extended public comments since learning he had the virus last week, Mr. Trump went on the offensive not only against his challenger, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., but the Democratic running mate, Senator Kamala Harris, whom he called “a monster” and a “communist.” He balked at participating in his debate next Thursday with Mr. Biden if held remotely as the organizers decided to do out of health concerns.

But Mr. Trump secured a statement from the White House physician clearing him to return to public activities on Saturday and then promptly said he would try to hold a campaign rally in Florida that day, two days earlier than the doctor had originally said was needed to determine whether he was truly out of danger. The president again dismissed the virus, saying, “when you catch it, you get better,” ignoring the more than 212,000 people in the United States who did not get better and died from it. Continue reading.

Scoop: Trump’s spy chief releases new batch of Russia docs to Justice Department

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Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe has approved the release to the Department of Justice of a large binder full of documents to assist a review of the Obama administration’s handling of the Trump-Russia investigation, according to a source with direct knowledge of the materials and confirmed by Ratcliffe.

Why it matters: The release, which is being revealed publicly for the first time today, comes as President Trump is urging his agencies to expedite the release of materials that he believes will be politically advantageous to him. 

  • It follows a flurry of tweets by the president accusing the Obama administration of orchestrating a “treasonous plot” against him by investigating his campaign’s ties to Russia.

‘We’re on a knife’s edge’: Report details frightening parallels between Trump’s era and fascism of the past

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During his heated debate with former Vice President Joe Biden on Tuesday night, September 29, President Donald Trump disturbed many of his critics when he expressed his solidarity with the Proud Boys — a racist far-right group with a history of violence. History repeats itself, and journalist Amy S. Rosenberg — in an article published in the Philadelphia Inquirer on October 5 — warns that some historians see troubling parallels between the United States in 2020 and countries that sunk into fascism in the past.

For her article, Rosenberg interviewed some scholars and historians in Philadelphia and nearby southern New Jersey. One of them is Anne Berg, who grew up in Germany and now teaches history at the University of Pennsylvania.

Rosenberg writes that although Berg’s parents were “basically hippies,” her grandparents “were Nazis” — and Berg told the Inquirer, “To expect that things are going to return to normal is irresponsible. People need to be aware of the risks we are facing right now.” Continue reading.

Mike Pence is a reminder that destructive leaders are symptoms of an anti-democratic status quo

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If President Trump dies from the coronavirus that has killed more than 200,000 Americans largely due to his deliberate negligence, the man replacing him will be no less dangerous. While Mike Pence has eluded tough media scrutiny — in part because he exhibits such a low-key style in contrast to Trump — the pair has been a good fit for an administration that exemplifies the partnership of religious fundamentalism and corporate power.

The vice president, a former Indiana talk-show host who went on to become a six-term congressman and then governor, has described himself as “a Christian, a conservative, and a Republican, in that order.” But he remains at cross-purposes with the biblical admonition (Matthew 6:24) that “you cannot serve both God and money.” Whether Pence has truly served God is a subjective matter, but his massive service to money—big money—is incontrovertible.

Pence ranks high as a Christian soldier marching in lockstep with Trump on all major policy issues, a process that routinely puts business interests ahead of human lives. Whatever his personal piety might be, the results of Pence’s fidelity to right-wing agendas have further consolidated a de facto coalition of those seeking ever-lower taxes on wealth and corporations; denial of LGBTQ rights; a ban on abortion and severe restrictions on other reproductive rights; voter suppression and barriers to voting by people of color; obstruction of healthcare for low-income people; and on and on. Continue reading.

Homeland Security Considered Snooping on Portland Protesters’ Cellphones

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The House Intelligence Committee says one agency within the Department of Homeland Security asked another to extract data from cellphones seized from protesters.

WASHINGTON — Department of Homeland Security officers considered extracting data from cellphones seized from protesters in Portland, Ore., which would have been a remarkable violation of privacy and the right to peaceable assembly, House Democrats said Friday.

Lawmakers on the Intelligence Committee called a hearing on Friday to examine the allegations of Brian Murphy, the former chief of the department’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis, who has accused department leaders of suppressing intelligence warnings of violent white supremacy and Russian election interference.

But Representative Adam B. Schiff of California, the chairman of the committee, opened the hearing by revealing that it had found that homeland security intelligence analysts were sent to Portland and questioned demonstrators. The Federal Protective Service, the homeland security agency that protects federal property, requested that the analysts “extract data” from phones seized from the protesters without a search warrant, a request that went unfulfilled, Mr. Schiff said. Continue reading.

How Trump amassed a red-state army in the nation’s capital — and could do so again

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The call that came into state capitals stunned governors and their National Guard commanders: The Pentagon wanted thousands of citizen soldiers airlifted to the nation’s capital immediately to help control crowds outside the White House in the wake of the death of George Floyd.

Presidents have routinely activated Guard troops to fight foreign enemies, and in extraordinary circumstances have federalized them to quell civil unrest, using the vast power of the commander in chief.

But the June 1 appeal to states was different. President Trump was drawing instead on an obscure law, changed after the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, that made it easier for governors to voluntarily send guardsmen across state lines for counterterrorism missions. His action was not an order but a request, essentially inviting states to augment the D.C. National Guard, which he controls, in a potential clash with civilian protesters. Continue reading.

These 5 Republicans refused to vote for a resolution committing to a peaceful transition

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Claiming that Democrats are trying to use mail-in voting to promote voter fraud, President Donald Trump has refused to say that he will accept the election results if former Vice President Joe Biden wins in November. The U.S. House of Representatives, in response, adopted a resolution on Tuesday calling for a peaceful transfer of power in the presidential election — and it passed 379-5. Most House Republicans voted in favor of the resolution, but five didn’t: Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas, Rep. Steve King of Iowa, Rep. Thomas Massie of Kentucky and Rep. Clay Higgins of Louisiana.

Gaetz, according to Axios reporter Rebecca Falconer, views the resolution as a Democratic attack on Trump even though many Republicans voted for it. Falconer quotes the Florida congressman as saying: “This resolution is a way for Democrats to attack the president and disguise the fact that they will refuse to accept the election results unless they win. Professional loser Hillary Clinton has told Joe Biden that he should not concede — and I’m quoting — ‘under any circumstances.'”

Gaetz is taking Clinton’s words out of context. During an August interview with Jennifer Palmierifor Showtime, Clinton stressed that under no circumstances should Biden, in a close election, concede until he is certain that all of the votes have been counted. Clinton fears that Trump will prematurely claim victory on Election Night before all of the votes have been counted in key swing states such as Pennsylvania, Florida and Arizona. Continue reading.

Trump administration pushes to end census next week

Commerce Department announces Oct. 5 ‘target date,’ despite federal order against ending count early

Days after a judge ordered the Census Bureau to continue enumerating for another month beyond its current Sept. 30 deadline, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the agency, announced Monday he intends to end all in-person counting efforts next week.

“The Secretary of Commerce has announced a target date of October 5, 2020 to conclude 2020 Census self-response and field data collection operations,” according to a Census Bureau announcement made on Twitter and on its website.

Plaintiffs in a lawsuit and census experts argued a shortened census count would risk missing or double counting people, skewing the results. Because of delays earlier in the year related to the coronavirus pandemic, the administration originally postponed certain counting deadlines and sought a four-month legislative extension of when it needed to delivery census totals to the White House. But it abandoned that effort after President Donald Trump signed a memorandum in July trying to exclude undocumented immigrants from apportionment. Continue reading.

‘This is how you normalize a madman’: Scholars and press watchdogs urge corporate media to treat Trump like the authoritarian threat he is

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Major news outlets failed the American people, critics say, when they chose to bury coverage of President Donald Trump’s Wednesday comment that he would not commit to a peaceful transition of power—a statement watchdogs say demanded above-the-fold, front-page headlines that simply did not materialize.

“Newsroom leaders made a considered, intentional decision not to panic after Trump was elected,” Dan Froomkin, editor of PressWatchers.org, wrote in a scathing rebuke of corporate media’s apparent nonchalant attitude towards the president’s rhetoric. “This was an epic, obvious mistake, and everything that has happened since was in some sense entirely predictable.”

Froomkin continued, “They should have gone on a war footing—and by that I don’t mean a partisan war against Trump, I mean a journalistic war against lies, ignorance, and intolerance.”

Critics weighed in on the relative non-importance corporate news outlets assigned—in print and online—to Trump’s latest suggestion that he may not cede the office of the presidency should he lose in November: Continue reading.