The 2020 Election

Rad · Aug 19, 2020, 02:59 AM

A win for Democracy: Post Office changes postponed until after 2020 election

on August 19, 2020
RawStory

All changes being made to the U.S. Postal Service will now be postponed until after the November 3, 2020 election after 20 Democratic states announce plans to sue Postmaster General Louis DeJoy.

According to CNN, at least two federal lawsuits are in the process of being filed with the first one being led by Washington state and joined by Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin.

Washington state Attorney General Bob Ferguson wrote that DeJoy "acted outside of his authority to implement changes to the postal system, and did not follow the proper procedures under federal law."
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Ferguson added, "For partisan gain, President Trump is attempting to destroy a critical institution that is essential for millions of Americans. We rely on the Postal Service for our Social Security benefits, prescriptions - and exercising our right to vote. Our coalition will fight to protect the Postal Service and uphold the rule of law in federal court."

Trump stated last week that the service cuts at the Postal Service have a partisan motive.

"They need that money in order to make the Post Office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots," Trump claimed. "They don't have the money to do the universal mail-in voting. So therefore, they can't do it, I guess."

Ferguson repeatedly refuted Trump's unfounded claims about mail-in voting.

"In the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative that we fiercely protect the democratic right to vote for all Americans, and simultaneously, the physical safety of voters," Ferguson said earlier this month. "Expansion of vote-by-mail options across the country allows us to achieve both."

The second lawsuit is being filed in a Pennsylvania federal court. States involved in this lawsuit include California, Pennsylvania, Massachusetts, Delaware, Maine, and North Carolina.

DeJoy issued a statement Tuesday on behalf of the U.S. Postal Service.

"I want to assure all Americans of the following: Retail hours at Post Offices will not change; mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes will remain where they are; no mail processing facilities will be closed; and we reassert that overtime has, and will continue to be, approved as needed."

DeJoy continued, "In addition, effective Oct. 1, we will engage standby resources in all areas of our operations, including transportation, to satisfy any unforeseen demand."

However, the damage to the U.S. Postal Service and election integrity has already been marred with removal of postal boxes and delivery slowdowns in recent weeks.

Rad · Aug 19, 2020, 03:32 AM

Biden campaign planning "˜layers and layers of contingency plans' for election disaster scenarios: report

CNN
8/19/2020

(CNN) The 2020 election doomsday scenarios are endless: Dozens of lawsuits challenging state results. Claims of voter fraud and a "rigged" election. Millions of ballots arriving late due to delays in the mail. Ballot counting stretching on for weeks after Election Day. A refusal to concede as Inauguration Day approaches.

Those are just some of the many unprecedented possibilities being contemplated by both the Trump and Biden campaigns in the run up to an election that's already shaping up as the greatest test of the US system in decades. Both campaigns have set aside millions of dollars and created massive legal teams now deep in contingency planning for what's expected to be a prolonged and potentially contested post-vote period while states tabulate a flood of mail-in ballots, anticipating legal challenges across numerous states.

The US Postal Service announced Tuesday that it will hold off on planned service changes that could impact the delivery of election mail, but the furor over the ability of the USPS to handle the surge of mail-in ballots laid bare the risks of reorienting the system away from in-person voting amid the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic.

Millions of ballots are unlikely to be the hands of election officials when the polls close November 3, making it difficult -- if not impossible -- to quickly call the battleground states that will decide whether President Donald Trump or former Vice President Joe Biden occupies the White House in January 2021. While muddying up everything else about the election season, the pandemic and its expected effect on mail-in voting are making one thing clear: Election Day will almost certainly turn into Election Week or even Election Month.

Election officials are already asking for patience, reminding the public that a wait for results doesn't mean anything is wrong. But even if a delay in calling the race is widely anticipated, it opens to door to potential chaos in the hours and days following the election, not to mention potentially lengthy and politically fraught challenges to the election -- and after years of rising concern over foreign meddling, room for doubts to grow about the integrity of American democracy itself.

"If we don't have a winner within 24 hours, there is a very real potential for a national freak-out and for conspiracy theories to thrive, which can never be undone," said Amanda Carpenter, a CNN contributor and former adviser to Texas GOP Sen. Ted Cruz.

The pandemic election

That it is all playing out against the backdrop of the worst public health crisis in a century, when millions of voters will be mailing in ballots for the first time, has only amplified the sense that this year's contest is more at risk for error and a disputed outcome.

A new CNN poll released Tuesday shows that almost two-thirds of Americans -- 64% -- say they're at least somewhat concerned that changes to the rules regarding voting meant to make it safer to cast a ballot during the pandemic won't go far enough, while 59% are concerned the changes will make it too easy for people to cast fraudulent ballots. A sizable minority, 36%, say their confidence in the vote will be diminished if a winner cannot be determined on Election Night because it is taking longer than usual to count.

Already, Trump has deemed this year's contest the "most rigged" on record and preemptively suggested a prolonged wait for results would be unacceptable, even though returns on election night are always unofficial and often change as the final ballots are tallied.

Biden and his supporters have accused the President of purposely attempting to suppress the vote as polls show him badly trailing, in some cases by double digits, while his campaign has amassed a team of 600 lawyers across the country to help monitor voting issues. A senior Biden aide told CNN the campaign has created "the largest voter protection operation that's ever been run in a presidential cycle."

"If we've learned one thing from the pandemic," the aide said, it's that "having one contingency plan isn't enough. We have layers and layers and layers of contingency plans. Our programs are built with flexibility in mind to deal with any situation."

And Democrats have begun gaming out, at least in theory, what it might look like if Trump loses and refuses to leave office.

Recent deployments of federal law enforcement officers to American cities have raised additional concerns at how far Trump and his administration, led by Attorney General Bill Barr, might go in preventing or intimidating voters from casting ballots -- an idea viewed as outlandish by many Trump allies but serious enough that at least one election integrity group has run exercises that include the scenario.

"What we're preparing for is if Donald Trump refuses to concede, and if he tries to steal this election," said Sean Eldridge, president of Stand Up America, a liberal advocacy group preparing to mobilize people around the election results. "We are concerned about not only making sure that millions of Americans can vote safely this year, we're concerned about what will happen on Election Day and in the days thereafter."

'The courts better be ready'

The President has refused so far to explicitly state that he will accept the results of the election, saying it would be foolish to affirm in advance an outcome he's already begun to question. "I have to see," Trump said in an interview last month when asked if he would accept the election results. "No, I'm not going to just say yes. I'm not going to say no, and I didn't last time either."

In office, Trump routinely referred to his 2016 victory as rigged because he lost the popular vote, and he created a panel -- ultimately disbanded -- to investigate baseless claims of widespread voter fraud in that race. Now, the Trump campaign is reviving that cause, recruiting poll watchers in what officials say is an effort to ensure Democrats aren't changing voting rules to open the door to vote fraud in November.

"Democrats are working to shred election integrity measures one state at a time, and there's no question they'll continue their shenanigans from now to November and beyond," said Matthew Morgan, the Trump campaign general counsel. "The Trump campaign is fighting to ensure every valid ballot across America counts -- once."

There are already numerous legal fights across the country being waged between the parties over voting, in response to states making changes to their vote-by-mail rules, to when a ballot can be postmarked or delivered and even how states use drop boxes to collect ballots. Democrats accuse Trump and the Republican National Committee of trying to suppress the vote by limiting access in order to help Trump win reelection.

The lawsuits over voting access may just a be prelude to the potential legal challenges after Election Day on November 3, particularly if any swing states turn into a nail biter.

"The courts better be ready because they're going to be packed after the election in November," predicted former Republican National Committee official Mike Shields. "I think that both sides are going to have lawyers at the ready to challenge results that don't go their way."

At a congressional hearing last month, Barr suggested that a full vote-by-mail election "substantially increases the risk of fraud," though he failed to provide evidence when pressed about how foreign governments might produce counterfeit ballots, an allegation both he and the President have leveled.

"No I don't, but I have common sense," Barr said when asked if he had evidence.

Counting ballots after Election Day

Trump and his Republican allies have targeted mail-in voting, particularly in states that have adopted universal vote-by-mail rules sending ballots to all registered voters. There's no evidence of widespread voter fraud in multiple states, red and blue, that have conducted most of their elections through the mail under this system for years, including Utah, Oregon and Colorado.

But states are anticipating exponentially more voters will use absentee ballots this year due to the pandemic, including some sending ballots or absentee applications to all registered voters for the first time. Many states accept ballots postmarked on Election Day that arrive later, and some don't begin counting their mailed votes until the polls close. It all adds up to potential delays certifying the results that have already popped up during the primaries -- it took more than a week for winners to be declared in recent congressional primary contests in New York and Kentucky.

"In states that have a history of a lot of mail ballots, they're going to be able to process these ballots very quickly and will have results fairly quickly," said David Becker, founder of the nonpartisan Center for Election Innovation and Research. "But in states that are not used to counting a lot of mail ballots, states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin perhaps, it may take some time to process all of those ballots properly and make sure the election results are final."

The recent cuts made to Postal Service operations by Postmaster General Louis DeJoy -- a major Trump donor -- have fueled additional concerns that mailed ballots will be delayed for days, or that ballots sent well in advance won't make it in time in states where they must be received by Election Day. DeJoy has been rapidly called in to testify in the coming days before both House and Senate committees, while a group of state attorneys general sued in federal court Tuesday to challenge the recent USPS operational changes.

DeJoy said in a statement Tuesday that he was suspending the changes until after the election "to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail."

If the election results remain up in the air for days after Election Day, it creates a potential recipe for chaos. Democrats are particularly fearful that Trump will declare victory, particularly if he's leading when the sun comes up on Wednesday, November 4, before millions of mail-in votes have been tallied. In CNN's poll, a majority of Biden voters said they prefer to vote by mail, while roughly two-thirds of Trump supporters said they prefer to vote in person on Election Day.

In addition to Trump's recent spate of false claims that mail-in voting is rife with fraud and will result in a "rigged" election, he's cast doubt on mail in balloting counted after Election Day. In Florida's 2018 Senate race, he said the state "must go with Election Night" results when then-Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson narrowed the gap against his challenge, Republican Rick Scott, who ultimately prevailed. And he tweeted "call for a new election?" when Democrat Kyrsten Sinema pulled ahead of Republican Martha McSally in Arizona after McSally was leading on Election Night.

Becker said that a delayed election result should not be viewed as a sign of fraud or problems -- but rather as one that shows the system is working.

"Be patient, it might take extra time this year. That doesn't mean anything is wrong, it actually means the opposite -- it means election officials are taking care to get this right," he said. "It's more important to get it accurate than to get it fast."

Rad · Aug 20, 2020, 03:07 AM

Kamala Harris accepts vice-presidential nomination on historic night

Democratic nominee urges voters to reject Donald Trump and says: "˜We can do better and deserve so much more'

Obama delivers withering attack on Trump

Lauren Gambino in Wilmington and Daniel Strauss
Guardian
Thu 20 Aug 2020 06.31 BST

Kamala Harris, a California senator and daughter of immigrants who has broken racial barriers at every step of her political career, made US history on Wednesday night as she became the first Black woman and first Asian American to formally accept a major party's vice-presidential nomination.

In the most consequential speech of her career to date, Harris urged voters to reject the divisive and destructive leadership of Donald Trump, calling him a president who "turns our tragedies into political weapons".

"We're at an inflection point," the 55 year-old said, speaking from a waterfront convention center near Joe Biden's home in Wilmington, Delaware.

"The constant chaos leaves us adrift. The incompetence makes us feel afraid. The callousness makes us feel alone," she continued. "It's a lot - and here's the thing: we can do better and deserve so much more."

Harris's sister Maya, her niece Meena, and her step-daughter Ella Emhoff offered their praise of Harris as she was formally nominated, and her address introduced Harris to a nation still largely unfamiliar with the California senator.

Moments before she spoke, Harris stood at a darkened podium as a technician checked the sound. She took a deep breath. The cameraman counted down to zero and the lights above her illuminated.

Harris smiled: "Greetings, America."

Born in 1964 to Shyamala Gopalan, an Indian-born American cancer researcher, and Donald Harris, an American economist from Jamaica, Harris recounted their political activism and said that some of her earliest memories were of attending civil rights protests as a toddler.

3:02..Kamala Harris reflects on vice-presidential nomination at DNC - video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yhxuDuI3EpM&feature=emb_logo

She described her family - both the one she was born into and the one she created - as foundational to her life and career, bringing some Indian-American women watching at home to tears with a mention of her chithis. Acknowledging the weight of nomination, she invoked her mother, along with the names of Black, female civil rights leaders who helped pave the way: "We all stand on their shoulders."

"My mother taught me that service to others gives life purpose and meaning. And oh, how I wish she were here tonight but I know she's looking down on me from above. I keep thinking about that 25-year-old Indian woman - all of five feet tall - who gave birth to me at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California," she said.

"On that day, she probably could have never imagined that I would be standing before you now speaking these words: I accept your nomination for vice-president of the United States of America."

In her remarks, Harris also delivered a biting rebuke of Donald Trump, or, as she calls it, "prosecuting the case" against the president of the United States.

She said: "Donald Trump's failure of leadership has cost lives and livelihoods. If you're a parent struggling with your child's remote learning, or you're a teacher struggling on the other side of that screen, you know that what we're doing right now isn't working.

"And we are a nation that's grieving. Grieving the loss of life, the loss of jobs, the loss of opportunities, the loss of normalcy. And yes, the loss of certainty."

Her speech threaded together the two major arguments Democrats have advanced across their four-day convention: that American democracy hung in the balance - and that voters must mobilize in historic numbers ahead of the November election to ensure not only that Trump is denied a second term but that Democrats take control with a governing mandate.

"It's not about Joe or me. It's about you. It's about us," Harris said. "People of all ages and colors and creeds who are, yes, taking to the streets, and also persuading our family members, rallying our friends, organizing our neighbors, and getting out the vote."

"And we've shown that, when we vote, we expand access to healthcare, expand access to the ballot box, and ensure that more working families can make a decent living."

As Wednesday's event began, Harris gave a brief direct-to-camera speech about the importance of voting in November's election. She said she knew many of the viewers may have "heard about obstacles and misinformation, and folks making it harder for you to cast your ballot," offering implicit criticism of Trump.

3:27..Barack Obama condemns Trump in powerful Democratic convention speech - video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bm_A3_tMhZA&feature=emb_logo

Harris, only the fourth woman in history to be nominated for a presidential ticket, shared a virtual stage - one hundred years and one day after the ratification of the 19th amendment that guaranteed the women - with Hillary Clinton, the first woman nominated by a major party for the presidency, and Nancy Pelosi, the House speaker and highest ranking woman in American political history.

After graduating from Howard University, a historically Black college in Washington DC, Harris pursued a career in criminal justice. In 2003, she was elected district attorney of San Francisco and the attorney general of California before becoming only the second Black woman to serve in the Senate.

It is this chapter of her career that Harris struggled to reconcile during her own presidential campaign, when confronted by progressives over her record as a prosecutor.

But on Wednesday, Democrats mostly celebrated her historic ascensions. Harris's presence on stage Wednesday was not preordained.

During the first Democratic primary debate last year, Harris confronted Biden over his past opposition to school bussing policies and his working relationship with segregationist senators. The attack wounded Biden, who had centered his campaign around the promise to restore the soul of the nation.

0:53..Billie Eilish at DNC: 'Trump is destroying our country and everything we care about' - video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vLbMNYy6K2M&feature=emb_logo

After her own presidential campaign fizzled and she dropped out of the race last year, Harris returned to the Senate, where she found her voice in the midst of nationwide protests over racial injustice. She joined protesters on the street and delivered a deeply personal speech on the Senate floor about being Black in America. She sponsored police reform legislation and championed a bill to make lynching a federal crime.

On Wednesday, Harris's speech capped the third night of the Democrats' national convention, which moved almost entirely online due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Barack Obama, who used his speech to warned that Trump poses a threat to American democracy, and urged voters to turn out, was originally scheduled to speak last, but he asked to switch slots so he would precede Harris, in a symbolic passing of the torch, according to a Democratic official.

When Harris concluded, she turned to face a screen, which displayed Hollywood-squares style boxes with women from around the country applauding.

Harris clasped her hand to her heart and waved back, though the videos were pre-recorded. Joe Biden appeared on stage. Keeping with physical distance guidelines, they stood apart, waving to viewers at home from a silent exhibit hall in Delaware.

But once backstage, they burst into cheers.

Click here for her full speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JijFLcbIqMs

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Obama delivers searing attack on Trump and warns of grave threat to democracy

Ex-president says Trump will try to "˜tear our democracy down'
Vice-presidential nominee Harris pledges to fight with hope

David Smith in Washington and Lauren Gambino in Wilmington
Guaridan
Thu 20 Aug 2020 05.37 BST

Barack Obama has delivered his most scathing attack on Donald Trump, accusing the US president and his enablers of trying to suppress the vote in November's election and making the heartfelt plea: "Don't let them take away your democracy."

In the most withering critique by a former president on his successor in modern times, Obama made the case that Trump, a billionaire businessman and celebrity, has not grown into the job of president because he cannot, and instead treats it as a reality TV show.

His grave address mentioned the word "democracy" 18 times and offered a stark warning: "This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that's what it takes to win. So we have to get busy building it up."

Obama, the country's first Black president, spoke on the third night of the virtual Democratic national convention just before Senator Kamala Harris of California became the first Black person to be formally nominated for vice-president by a major party and promised to fight with conviction and hope.

Obama spoke from the symbolic location of the Museum of the American Revolution in Philadelphia. The words "Writing the constitution" were displayed on an exhibit wall behind him. The absence of cheering crowds that greeted him at past conventions, including two successful presidential nominations, fitted the sombre occasion.

This time, Obama argued, the election is not merely a battle of blue versus red but for the survival of democracy itself. "What we do these next 76 days will echo through generations to come," he said.

Obama noted that he had sat in the Oval Office with both men who are running for president and said sardonically he had hoped that Trump might "show some interest in taking the job seriously "¦ But he never did.

"For close to four years now, he's shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves. Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't."

Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't
Barack Obama

The consequences, he continued, were 170,000 Americans killed by the coronavirus pandemic, millions of jobs lost while the rich get richer, "our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before".

Obama also lavished praise on Trump's challenger Joe Biden, his vice-president, "friend" and "brother", as well as Biden's running mate, Harris.

"Joe and Kamala have concrete policies that will turn their vision of a better, fairer, stronger country into reality," he said. "But more than anything, what I know about Joe and Kamala is that they actually care about every American. And they care deeply about this democracy."

Even as Obama spoke, Trump tweeted angry retorts in all caps.

Obama said he understood why many people were feeling down on government and were wondering what the point was.

"Well, here's the point," he said. "This president and those in power - those who benefit from keeping things the way they are - they are counting on your cynicism. They know they can't win you over with their policies. So they're hoping to make it as hard as possible for you to vote, and to convince you that your vote doesn't matter.

"That's how they win. That's how they get to keep making decisions that affect your life, and the lives of the people you love. That's how the economy will keep getting skewed to the wealthy and well-connected, how our health systems will let more people fall through the cracks. That's how a democracy withers, until it's no democracy at all."

He urged: "We can't let that happen. Do not let them take away your power. Don't let them take away your democracy."

He called on Americans to make plan now on how to get involved and how to vote: "What we do echoes through the generations."

Obama apart, the night belonged to Democratic women across generations, from host Kerry Washington to singer Billie Eilish, from House speaker Nancy Pelosi to former congresswoman Gabby Giffords, who was shot in the head in Tucson, Arizona, nearly a decade ago yet survived and now found the courage, grit and determination to speak about resilience and even play a French horn.

In a sign of how much has changed in the pandemic, Harris introduced herself to the nation in a sparsely attended auditorium in Wilmington, Delaware. She was applauded by supporters on a giant video screen. When nominee Joe Biden walked out, he remained physically distanced and could not embrace her.

Harris, the daughter of immigrants from Jamaica and India, sketched out her personal biography. "My mother taught me that service to others gives life purpose and meaning. And, oh, how I wish she were here tonight. But I know she's looking down on me from above. I keep thinking about that 25-year-old Indian woman - all of five feet tall - who gave birth to me at Kaiser Hospital in Oakland, California.

She went on: "On that day, she probably could have never imagined that I would be standing before you now speaking these words: I accept your nomination for vice-president of the United States of America."

Remember: Joe and Kamala can win three million more votes and still lose. Take it from me
Hillary Clinton

She, too, lambasted Trump but also offered hope. "There's something happening, all across the country," she said. "It's not about Joe or me. It's about you. It's about us. People of all ages and colors and creeds who are, yes, taking to the streets, and also persuading our family members, rallying our friends, organizing our neighbors, and getting out the vote."

Democrats are seeking to capitalise on a "gender chasm" between the parties. Women support Biden by 56% to 40%, roughly the same as their margin for Hillary Clinton over Trump in 2016, according to a Washington Post-ABC News poll. Wednesday night's programme seemed calculated to ram home that advantage.

Harris' nomination also marks the elevation of Black women in a Democratic party that has for decades relied on their electoral power but whose loyalty was rarely reflected in leadership. In the aftermath of the police killing of George Floyd in May, which sparked a national reckoning on racism, Biden faced pressure to choose a Black woman as his running mate.

But there was also a rueful look in the rearview mirror. Clinton wore suffragette white just as she did at her triumphant convention in 2016. Instead of the wildly enthusiastic crowds in Philadelphia anointing her as a likely future president, now she was alone at her home in Chappaqua, New York.

She said of Trump: "For four years, people have said to me, "˜I didn't realise how dangerous he was.' "˜I wish I could go back and do it over.' "˜I should have voted.' This can't be another woulda-coulda-shoulda election."

Clinton made reference to her own defeat in the electoral college, in spite of winning the popular vote, and fears that Trump will sow chaos and distrust in the process in a bid to claim victory again. "Remember: Joe and Kamala can win three million more votes and still lose. Take it from me. We need numbers so overwhelming Trump can't sneak or steal his way to victory."

Senator Elizabeth Warren, who finished third in the Democratic primary, spoke from the Early Childhood Education Center in Springfield, Massachusetts, which has been closed for months due to the coronavirus pandemic. In another display of party unity, she said: "Joe and Kamala will make high-quality child care affordable for every family, make pre-school universal, and raise the wages for every childcare worker."

18:50..Barack Obama's fiery DNC speech in full - video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Ym6H9C7eSg

Videos produced for the third of the virtual convention included 11-year-old Estela Juarez from Florida, reading a letter she wrote to Trump after her mother - who married a US American marine with whom she had two American children - was deported to Mexico in an indictment of the president's harsh immigration policies.

Another montage celebrated this week's centenary of women winning the right to vote, weaving together footage of women marching throughout American history, including the historic women's march that came a day after Trump's inauguration.

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Obama's stark message: America must save itself from Trump

Analysis: The former president issued an unprecedented attack on his successor as he urged voters to rescue their democracy

David Smith in Washington
Guardian
Thu 20 Aug 2020 07.05 BST

Just four years ago, amid balloons, confetti, dry ice smoke and giant TV screens, Donald Trump struck an authoritarian tone as he accepted the nomination at the Republican national convention before a frenzied crowd. It prompted warnings of the impending death of democracy, and the end of America's gloriously chequered 244-year journey. But no one really believed it.

However, Barack Obama is now clearly taking the fall of Rome theory seriously. No former US president has criticised his successor at a party convention as he did on Wednesday night, and none has warned that his successor "will tear our democracy down if that's what it takes to win".

The medium matched the moment. Gone, in this pandemic era, were the roaring crowds of the 2004 convention, when the young Obama declared, "There is not a liberal America and a conservative America - there is the United States of America," and of the triumphant conventions in 2008 and 2012 when he made history as the country's first Black president.

Nor was there any time for the elegiac long goodbye of 2016 when, with chants of "Four more years!" in Philadelphia, Obama championed Hillary Clinton and offered living proof that democratic norms require even popular leaders to relinquish power.

In 2020, Obama was back in the city where the US constitution was drafted and signed. But this time he stood alone at a lectern in the Museum of the American Revolution. Usually presidents go into bat for their own legacy, but the message was that the legacy of George Washington and other founding fathers is now at stake.

Obama's speeches are often lauded for their poetry but this time his language was cold and muscular, using the word "democracy" 18 times. The man who made famous the slogan "Hope and change" had found that the first of those is not always enough. "I did hope, for the sake of our country, that Donald Trump might show some interest in taking the job seriously," he said. For a long time the 44th president has declined to use Trump's name. No more.

In the special intimacy of a virtual convention, where participants speak directly to you, the viewer, Obama went for the jugular: "For close to four years now, he's shown no interest in putting in the work; no interest in finding common ground; no interest in using the awesome power of his office to help anyone but himself and his friends; no interest in treating the presidency as anything but one more reality show that he can use to get the attention he craves."

In an echo of his wife Michelle's suggestion in her speech on Monday that Trump is simply incapable of being the president that America needs, Obama said: "Donald Trump hasn't grown into the job because he can't. And the consequences of that failure are severe."

No one made his point more spectacularly than Trump himself, who provided his own form of live-tweeting the speech with baseless interjections such as: "HE SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN, AND GOT CAUGHT!"

And yet Obama fell into a familiar trap, implying that Trump is a freak case, a one-off, an aberration. He did not dwell on the forces of white identity politics, social media flame-throwing and politics-as-entertainment that empowered Trump - the notion that he was a symptom, not a cause. There has been little of that this week except from the New York governor, Andrew Cuomo, who observed:"Donald Trump didn't create the initial division. The division created Trump. He only made it worse."

Some fear that Joe Biden represents that old status quo. Obama promised that his former vice-president "sees this moment now not as a chance to get back to where we were, but to make long-overdue changes so that our economy actually makes life a little easier for everybody".

For the past four years, those warning of an existential threat have been accused of "Trump derangement syndrome" and written off as boys who cried wolf. But the president's recent attempts to undermine that sacred pillar of all democracies, elections, have concentrated minds.

The Democratic congressman Jim Clyburn, whose endorsement of Biden was critical to his nomination, told the Axios website in March: "I used to wonder how could the people of Germany allow Hitler to exist. But with each passing day, I'm beginning to understand how. And that's why I'm trying to sound the alarm."

On Wednesday, Thomas Friedman, an influential columnist in the New York Times, warned: "Here is a sentence I never in a million years thought that I would ever write or read: This November, for the first time in our history, the United States of America may not be able to conduct a free and fair election and, should President Trump be defeated by Joe Biden, have a legitimate and peaceful transfer of power."

But none carries the weight of Obama who, it seems safe to assume, was expressing sentiments shared by the other living former presidents, Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and George W Bush.

"Do not let them take away your power," he said in an entreaty to vote and vote early that has become a theme of this convention as Trump threatens the post office. "Don't let them take away your democracy. Make a plan right now for how you're going to get involved and vote ... What we do echoes through the generations."

In what seems like another age, Obama spoke at the African Union headquarters in Addis Ababa about the precious gift of democracy. On Wednesday, haunted by history and fearful of the future, he made his plea for Americans to appreciate its value.

Rad · Aug 21, 2020, 02:51 AM

Biden vows to end 'season of darkness' as he accepts Democratic presidential nomination

Biden says election is a battle for the soul of the nation and accuses Trump of having "˜failed in the most basic duty to the nation'

Lauren Gambino in Wilmington
Guardian
Fri 21 Aug 2020 07.56 BST

Full speech: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnmQr0WfSvo

Joe Biden vowed to unite a deeply divided America and lead the country to "overcome this season of darkness" as he accepted the Democratic presidential nomination on Thursday evening, a long-sought moment that came more than 30 years after he first ran for president.

Biden, 77, denied the chance to accept the nomination before a roaring crowd due to the pandemic, delivered the most consequential speech of his nearly half a century in public life from a silent ballroom inside the Chase Center, near his home in Wilmington, Delaware, on the last night of the virtual Democratic national convention.

"Here and now I give you my word, if you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us, not the worst," Biden said. "I will be an ally of the light, not the darkness."

"United we can, and will, overcome this season of darkness in America. We will choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege."

Biden's speech, at turns somber and hopeful, delivered a forceful closing argument on the final night of the most unusual presidential nominating convention in modern memory. This year's quadrennial affair showcased the racial - and ideological - diversity of the Democrats coalition, which stretches from a Democratic socialist to a former Republican governor, and is increasingly led by women, young people and people of color.

That was evident the evening before when Biden's running mate, California senator Kamala Harris, accepted her place in history, as the first Black woman and first Asian American to appear on a major party's presidential ticket.

Biden presented November's election as a "battle for the soul of this nation", echoing the words he used when he launched his third presidential bid last year. He said the country faces four historic crises: the coronavirus pandemic, the economic fallout, racial injustice and climate change.

He vowed to be an "American president" who would "work hard for those who didn't support me," drawing a stark contrast with the president who attacks and threatens his critics.

"This is not a partisan moment," he said. "This must be an American moment."

Without mentioning his rival by name, Biden accused Donald Trump of having "failed in his most basic duty to the nation" by mishandling the pandemic. If elected, he pledged to implement a national strategy to tackle it, including a national mandate on wearing a mask as "a patriotic duty".

"The tragedy of where we are today is it didn't have to be this bad," he said of the crisis, which has killed more than 170,000 Americans and infected more than 5 million, far more than any other country in the world.

"He failed to protect us," Biden said. "He failed to protect America. And, my fellow Americans, that is unforgivable."

Outside the convention center, under a crescent moon, fireworks lit the sky in a moment of celebration. After delivering the speech, Biden and Harris emerged with their spouses to watch the display.

In a parking lot beyond the stage where they stood, supporters from Biden's hometown sat on their car hoods, others in the beds of their trucks, waving American flags and blaring car horns in a show of support for a man described earlier this week as Delaware's "favorite son". Biden and Harris raised their clasped hands high, and the crowd honked their horns louder.

Across the four-day convention, Americans were introduced anew to the former vice-president. His family, friends, colleagues and former political rivals - from the president he served for eight years to a New York City security guard who briefly rode on an elevator with him - testified to his character. Electing Biden, they argued, would amount to a stark repudiation of Trumpism.

They cast him as a singular match for the moment, a public servant whose empathy, deep experience and sense of decency had uniquely prepared him to lead a nation stricken by compounding crises.

"We know how important it is that we elect real leaders like Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, people of honor and integrity, who hold justice close to their hearts and believe that the lives of my four Black children matter," the Atlanta mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms, who was among the women Biden considered to be his running mate, said earlier in the evening, as part of a tribute to the late civil rights leader John Lewis on Thursday.

During his remarks, Biden spoke directly to the grieving families who have lost loved ones to the coronavirus, invoking the lessons learned from his own personal tragedies after losing his wife and infant daughter to a car accident in 1972, and his eldest son, Beau, to brain cancer in 2015.

"I know how mean and cruel and unfair life can be sometimes," Biden said. But he said he had found that "best way through pain and loss and grief is to find purpose."

The presidential nomination caps a decades-long quest for Biden, who has sought the presidency intermittently since 1987. In his first run, as a young senator, Biden ran as a generational change candidate but his campaign ended ignobly amid a plagiarism scandal and a sense that he lacked a policy core.

Twenty years later, he ran again, on a platform that emphasized his long record and experience. But he faded in the primary race, outshined by the history-making candidacies of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.

Biden again considered running in 2016. But after the death of his eldest son, Beau, he formally ruled out the possibility, in a decision many believed extinguished once and for all his dream of occupying the Oval Office.

However, driven by Trump's equivocation on the white nationalist violence that erupted in Charlottesville, Biden entered the 2020 race.

"It was a wake-up call for us as a country," Biden said on Thursday. "And for me, a call to action. At that moment, I knew I'd have to run."

The speakers at the convention on Thursday, which included several of his former primary rivals, were a reflection of how uncertain Biden's path to the nomination was. He faced the most diverse field of candidates that had ever run, and that better embodied a young, diverse and increasingly progressive Democratic party. But after faltering early, he staged a comeback with the help of Black voters in South Carolina.

each shared their favorite memory of Biden.

Pete Buttigieg, the openly gay former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, who ran for president in 2020, praised Biden for his early support of same-sex marriage.

"Joe Biden is right, this is a contest for the soul of the nation. And to me that contest is not between good Americans and evil Americans," Buttigieg said. "It's the struggle to call out what is good for every American."

Illinois senator, Tammy Duckworth, who lost both legs during a deployment in Iraq, lashed Trump by name.

"Donald Trump doesn't deserve to call himself commander in chief for another four minutes - let alone another four years," she said, calling Biden a man of "common decency" and vouching for his support for military families.

All week, organizers threaded the program with stories of people impacted by the pandemic and victims of gun violence and immigrant families torn apart. Thursday introduced Brayden Harrington, a 13-year-old from New Hampshire who suffers, as Biden did, from a stutter.

Staring into the camera, Harrington steadied his voice and, slowly and deliberately, delivered a speech.

"And in a short amount of time, Joe Biden made me feel more confident about something that's bothered me my whole life. Joe Biden cared. Imagine what he could do for all of us."

Biden's children, Hunter Biden and Ashley Biden, introduced their father on Thursday, after an emotional tribute to their sibling Beau.

While Ashley has been a presence on the campaign, hosting events for Biden, Hunter has largely remained behind the scenes since Republicans turned his past work for a Ukrainian gas company while his father was vice-president into a political liability.

Trump was ultimately impeached by the House over his efforts to pressure Ukraine to investigate the Bidens. Despite ongoing efforts by Trump allies to show otherwise, there is no evidence of corruption by either Biden.

Loathe to cede the national spotlight, Trump has spent the week assailing Biden on a tour of battleground states that included a stop on Thursday near Biden's childhood home in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

"In 47 years, Joe did none of the things of which he now speaks. He will never change, just words!" Trump tweeted after Biden's speech.

Biden enters the final stretch of the general election in a strong position, consistently leading Trump in national and battleground state polls, and with Democrats largely united behind him.

Over the course of two hour nightly broadcasts, the convention has sought to present a show of unity by featuring prominent Republicans including former governor John Kasich, who testified to Biden's character and consensus-minded approach to governing, while progressive Democratic leaders such as Senator Elizabeth Warren raised the possibility that Biden had the opportunity to be a transformational figure who would usher in sweeping economic and social change.

The task that now looms for Biden in the final 10 weeks of the campaign is to energize this ungainly coalition - to continue to persuade independent and moderate voters who recoil from Trump's divisiveness, without losing progressives who remain uncertain about their nominee.

The importance of voting was another major focus of the convention, amid fears that the pandemic and actions by the Trump administration will make it harder for Americans to cast their ballots ahead of the elections in November.

In his remarks on Thursday, Biden framed the stakes of the election.

"This is a life-changing election," he said. "This will determine what America's going to look like for a long, long time."

Rad · Aug 21, 2020, 09:08 AM

Six states, D.C. file lawsuit against Postal Service over service changes

David Shepardson
Reuters
8/21/2020

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Six states led by Pennsylvania on Friday sued the U.S. Postal Service and the new postmaster general, saying service changes in recent weeks have harmed the ability of states to conduct free and fair elections.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Pennsylvania, was joined by California, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, North Carolina and the District of Columbia.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said "to the Trump Administration, delivering your paycheck, medication or ballot is a joke but there's nothing funny about the wages you earn, your health, or right to vote. That's why today we're standing with Pennsylvania and other states, taking the Postmaster General to court."

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said on Friday the Postal Service will deliver all election mail.

"The Postal Service is fully capable and committed to delivering the nation's election mail securely and on-time," DeJoy told a Senate hearing. "This sacred duty is my Number One priority between now and election day."

***************

Mnuchin demanded prospective USPS board members "˜Kiss the Ring' and issued "˜illegal' orders says ex-USPS vice chair

on August 21, 2020
By David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, whose duties have little to do with the U.S. Postal Service, ordered prospective USPS Board of Governors members "to "˜kiss the ring' before they were confirmed and issued demands agency officials believed were "˜illegal,'" according to a recently-former vice chairman of the USPS board of governors, The New York Times reports.

The stunning accusations were made Thursday by recently former USPS Board of Governors vice-chair David Williams, who resigned in April. Williams also served as an Inspector General for the USPS for 13 years before joining the board of governors.

Williams "also told Congress he raised concerns about Louis DeJoy ahead of his hiring as Postmaster General," and "cited his concerns about the postmaster general as one reason for resigning."

Mnuchin "politicized" the Postal Service, Williams also says, and adds that the Treasury Secretary also ordered the removal of countless mailboxes across the United States.

"The blue boxes were maybe the most interesting of all," Williams told the Congressional Progressive Caucus at a hearing Thursday. Slate's Jordan Weissmann posted a transcript posted of Williams' remarks.

"Those were not part of ongoing plans," Williams said of the removal of the mailboxes. "To my knowledge, as a matter of fact, Secretary Mnuchin wanted that done," Williams testified.

"His study of the Postal Service asked that it be done. I asked the Postal Service about it, and they said it wouldn't save anything," Williams said, meaning removing the iconic blue mail collection boxes wouldn't save the USPS any money.

"And there would be no reason to remove those. I'm not sure how it went from that, several weeks ago, to where they're being uprooted from all over."

Calling it "very odd," Williams also addressed the removal of what is slated to be 671 mail sorting machines, noting that "you don't save money" by breaking them down.

**************

"˜It's a cover-up': White House accused of hiding Mnuchin's role in recruiting Postmaster General DeJoy

on August 21, 2020
By Jake Johnson, Common Dreams

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer on Wednesday accused the Trump White House of covering up the role Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin played in recruiting Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major Republican donor with no prior experience working for the U.S. Postal Service.

In a letter to Robert Duncan, chairman of the USPS Board of Governors, Schumer wrote that as part of his investigation into DeJoy's selection and unanimous appointment in May, his office "learned of the role Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin had with the Postal Board of Governors, including through meetings with individual governors as well as phone calls with groups of governors, which has not been previously disclosed by the board."

"This administration has repeatedly pointed to the role of [executive search firm] Russell Reynolds to defend the selection of a Republican mega-donor with no prior postal experience as postmaster general while at the same time blocking the ability of Congress to obtain briefings from the firm and concealing the role of Secretary Mnuchin and the White House in its search process," the New York Democrat wrote.

Schumer demanded that the Board of Governors-which is completely controlled by Trump appointees-immediately release Russell Reynolds from any nondisclosure agreement barring the firm from providing details about its postmaster general search and provide a full "explanation of the role of President Trump and Secretary Mnuchin in the search process for a new postmaster and the selection of Mr. DeJoy."

I'm demanding the USPS Board of Governors immediately disclose all materials on the selection of Trump megadonor Louis DeJoy to be Postmaster General

The role President Trump, Secretary Mnuchin, and the search firm played in his selection must be exposedhttps://t.co/58UGatCRL6

- Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) August 19, 2020

Schumer's investigation into the process that resulted in DeJoy's appointment began in June, when he demanded that the Board of Governors turn over any communications with the White House related to the postmaster general's selection. Shortly after taking charge of USPS on June 15, DeJoy moved to impose operational changes that caused severe mail backlogs across the nation. DeJoy this week vowed to suspend, but not reverse, the changes.

"In your July 2 response to me, the board asserted that much of the information I requested was confidential and declined to provide it," Schumer wrote Wednesday. "As a result, my staff sought the cooperation of Russell Reynolds with Congress"¦ My office was informed by counsel for Russell Reynolds that the board was not willing to waive its nondisclosure agreement so that Congress could satisfy its oversight obligations."

In response to stonewalling by the Board of Governors and the Trump White House, Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) tweeted, "If it looks like a cover-up, sounds like a cover-up, and smells like a cover-up, it's a cover-up."

On Wednesday, watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) obtained documents confirming that Mnuchin was involved in the Board of Governors' effort to find a replacement for former Postmaster General Megan Brennan, a 34-year Postal Service veteran who retired in June.

NEW: Documents obtained by @CREWcrew show that Treasury Sec. Steven Mnuchin involved himself directly in the selection of the new Postmaster General, Louis DeJoy, who then took steps that could undercut voting by mail, apparently to help the President.https://t.co/dIHoGbKy3z

- Noah Bookbinder (@NoahBookbinder) August 20, 2020

As CREW's Donald Sherman and Linnaea Honl-Stuenkel wrote Wednesday, the documents reveal that "Mnuchin met with the United States Postal Service Board of Governors in February to discuss the search for a new postmaster general as part of his larger campaign to exert influence over the USPS."

"It's clear that Mnuchin had a candidate for postmaster general in mind, who was personally invested in USPS competitors," Sherman and Honl-Stuenkel continued. "The Washington Post reports that Louis DeJoy, the eventual pick, was recruited by Mnuchin."

Rad · Aug 25, 2020, 02:54 AM

RNC 2020: a two-hour glimpse into the upside-down world of Trump TV

The president promised "˜uplifting and positive', but what viewers got was a dystopian vision under Biden - with racist overtones

David Smith in Washington
Guardian
Tue 25 Aug 2020 05.49 BST

There was once a theory that Donald Trump's first run for president was a merely a stunt to help him launch his own TV network. On Monday the world finally got two and a half ghoulish hours of Trump TV. It was a lesson in the medium's power in the art of make believe, especially of the Soviet kind.

The first night of the Trump national convention - sorry, Republican national convention - was proof how the 166-year-old party of Lincoln, Eisenhower and Reagan has become a personality cult. Speaker after speaker paid homage to the absolute monarch as if competing to outdo one another for obsequious sycophancy.

There is no Republican policy platform this year other than "the party's strong support for President Donald Trump and his administration".

Trump TV had two other crucial components. One was the type of propaganda that would make Fox News blush and had fact checkers scrambling, for example a selectively edited video segment on the coronavirus pandemic that trashed Democrats, claimed, "One leader took decisive action to save lives," and made no reference to Trump's repeated predictions that the virus will "just disappear" nor his suggestion that patients be injected with disinfectant.

Only on the upside down Trump TV channel could a Covid-19 death toll of more than 175,000 - far higher than any other country in the world - be an argument for reelection.

The other predictable theme was pornographic scaremongering about Democratic candidate Joe Biden and - in an endlessly repeated phrase - "the radical left". Despite Trump's promise that the evening's programming would contain "something very uplifting and positive", speakers portrayed the prospect of a Biden victory as the stuff of dystopian nightmares, sometimes with racist overtones.

Charlie Kirk, 26, of the student group Turning Point USA, set the tone early on by describing Trump as "the bodyguard of western civilisation" under mortal threat. But it was Kimberly Guilfoyle, partner of Trump's son Don Jr and former Fox News host, who stole the show with a high-octane audition for Evita - without an audience.

Standing in Washington's cavernous Andrew W Mellon Auditorium, scene of Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin's wedding in 2018, Guilfoyle screamed into the void about Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris: "They want to destroy this country and everything we have fought for and hold dear. They want to steal your liberty, your freedom. They want to control what you see and think and believe so that they can control how you live.

"They want to enslave you to the weak, dependent, liberal victim ideology to the point where you will not recognize this country or yourself."

It was about as different as could be imagined from Michelle Obama's calm, intimate address exactly one week earlier at the Democratic address. But it had a similarly dramatic message: whereas Obama and her husband framed the election as Trump versus democracy, the Republican pitch this week is America versus socialism.

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina, the last speaker of the night, said: "Joe Biden's radical Democrats are trying to permanently transform what it means to be an American.

"Make no mistake: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris want a cultural revolution. A fundamentally different America. If we let them "¦ they will turn our country into a socialist utopia "¦ and history has taught us that path only leads to pain and misery, especially for hard-working people hoping to rise."

This was spoken in a tone more moderate than Guilfoyle's so may have been more convincing to some. It also came from the only African American Republican in the Senate. There was a very obvious effort all night to counter charges that Trump is racist.

Former football player Herschel Walker, who is African American said: "It hurt my soul to hear the terrible names that people called Donald: The worst one is "˜racist'. I take it as a personal insult that people would think I've had a 37-year friendship with a racist. People who think that don't know what they're talking about. Growing up in the deep south, I've seen racism up close. I know what it is. And it isn't Donald Trump."

There were also contributions from Black Trump supporters Kim Klacik, a Maryland congressional candidate, and Georgia state representative Vernon Jones. In another counter-punch, Nikki Haley, the former ambassador to the UN, told how she was the proud daughter of Indian immigrants. "In much of the Democratic party, it's now fashionable to say that America is racist. That is a lie. America is not a racist country."

Such efforts were undermined, however, by Mark and Patty McCloskey, a white couple who waved guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their home in St Louis, Missouri. Their job was to voice Trump's racist obsession with America's suburbs, supposedly being under threat of invasion, violent crime and total destruction.

Sitting in a faux European medieval mansion, they knew how to push buttons. Mark warned: "The radicals are not content just marching in the streets. They want to walk the halls of Congress. They want power. This is Joe Biden's party. These are the people who will be in charge."

Patty addded: "They are not satisfied with spreading the chaos and violence into our communities, they want to abolish the suburbs altogether by ending single-family home zoning. This forced rezoning would bring crime, lawlessness and low-quality apartments into thriving suburban neighborhoods. President Trump smartly ended this government overreach, but Joe Biden wants to bring it back.

"These are the policies that are coming to a neighborhood near you. So make no mistake: no matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats' America."

Republicans struggled with the pandemic-enforced virtual format more than Democrats. Shots of Trump supporters in every state had a rushed look as if hastily commissioned in response to the Democrats' moving roll call last week.

There was soaring music and clips of monuments and memorials glowing at sunset and yet more stars and stripes. Whereas Biden was seen last week at virtual roundtables with guests on TV screens, Trump was able to host Covid-19 front line workers and freed hostages in the grand setting of the White House (they did not wear masks and barely physically distanced).

But the speeches, delivered in that empty auditorium with six colossal fluted Roman doric columns and draped in giant stars and stripes, rang hollow without the "Make America great again" crowd cheers, chanting and, of course, booing of perceived enemies.

Trump Jr, who feeds off crowd adulation like his father, struggled to throw red meat to an empty room. He accused the left of trying to "cancel" the founding fathers, adding: "Joe Biden and the radical left are also now coming for our freedom of speech and want to bully us into submission. If they get their way, it will no longer be the "˜silent majority', it will be the "˜silenced majority,'" - a comment met with deafening silence.

None of it was likely to win over wavering independents. This was a festival of fear aimed squarely at the base. It's Trump's party now: Republicans just happen to be living in it.

**********

Morning Joe left speechless by "˜cranks and misfits' on parade during RNC's first night

on August 25, 2020
Raw Story
By Travis Gettys

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough was gobsmacked by the parade of "cranks and misfits" on display during the Republican National Convention's first night of programming.

The "Morning Joe" host opened Tuesday's broadcast with a comparison between an over-the-top speech from Kimberly Guilfoyle - a former Fox News broadcaster and Donald Trump Jr.'s girlfriend - and a similar speech given by "The Office" character Dwight Schrute.

"Ladies and gentlemen, your 2020 Republican National Convention, wow," Scarborough began. "Good morning, it's - I just - you know, I just don't know where to go with what we all saw yesterday and what we saw last night. I was thinking back, people deeply offended in 1992 by Pat Buchanan's speech and, I mean, let me tell you something, that was Winston Churchill in the House of Commons in 1940 compared to everything we saw last night - a bizarre collection of alternative facts and alternative realities told by cranks and misfits that would never be allowed inside any convention before this."

"The couple that carried guns outside their house and pointing at Black Lives Matter protesters saying Joe Biden wants to abolish the suburbs," he continued. "You go down the whole list and, of course, Donald Trump - even had Donald Trump yesterday, even with his people begging him, stay on message, try to paint Joe Biden as a left-winger. Instead, he repeated his lie that Barack Obama spied on his campaign in 2016, something that has been disproven time and time again, and his own aides were so discouraged that he did it because he can't stay on script."

"But, you know, you had Don Jr. saying that the choice was between - this is very funny, actually - church, work and school, or rioting, looting and vandalism,' Scarborough added. "Yes, Don Jr. and Donald Trump is the paragon of church, work and school. You just go down the list. Even Nikki Haley, whatever she wants, I hope it's worth it for her."

Watch: https://youtu.be/PppTTYIAWcE

***********

Psychologist explains how Trump's "˜delusional' alternative universe will be celebrated this week at the RNC

on August 25, 2020
Raw Story
By Alan D. Blotcky

Donald Trump lives in his own alternate universe. He sees the world not as it really is, but how he wants it to be. He relies on magical thinking-the belief that his thoughts can directly make something happen in the real world-and conspiracy theory-the belief that other people are making something happen in a sinister fashion behind his back.

Trump's magical thinking could not be more dangerous, especially when it comes to the coronavirus pandemic. And his conspiracy theory that mail-in voting will result in a "rigged election" is demoralizing and potentially calamitous to the country.

Trump is a malignant narcissist. Malignant narcissists are prone to establish their own "alternate universe" with magical thinking and conspiracy theories in order to maintain their grandiosity and sense of superiority. They twist and distort true information to fit their self-image. And, sometimes, their new version of the truth can become extreme, fixed, and detached from reality-what is called psychotic delusional thinking.

Trump's magical thinking and conspiracy theory are extreme, fixed, and largely disconnected from reality. They are almost delusional. Donald Trump is close to being psychotic.

Trump's mishandling of the pandemic can be traced to his irrational magical thinking. His magical thinking does not allow for the consideration of data and science. He has stopped listening to our public health experts, Dr. Fauci and Dr. Birx. He is not following CDC guidelines. Medical opinions are dismissed and unwelcome in Trump's alternate universe.

Trump proclaims to the American people that the coronavirus has been reduced to "ashes." He reports that some states are "in extremely good shape." He asserts that he has done "a great job" in getting rid of the virus.

Trump's magical thinking about COVID gets even more irrational: "It will go away like things go away," "It will just disappear," and "One day, it's like a miracle, it will just disappear."

Some of Trump's magical thinking about COVID has been bizarre. He mused at a press briefing that inserted light or ingested disinfectant might kill the virus. He is obsessed with a drug, hydroxychloroquine, although it has no proven efficacy with this virus and can cause death. On Sunday, Trump held a news conference to announce that he had obtained emergency approval for the use of convalescent plasma. Such plasma is already in use with COVID patients and is not considered a miracle breakthrough treatment. And the FDA commissioner approved it only after Trump accused him of being "deep state."

Trump also believes that the number of cases of COVID infection would be less if we stopped testing for it. That is recklessly illogical thinking. That is like saying there would be less cancer if we simply did not test for it.

Trump's conspiracy theory is that national mail-in voting will automatically result in widespread voter fraud. His belief is not supported by data; it is contrary to the best science at hand. Trump keeps clamoring about a rigged election; that is his new mantra. It is his "made-up fantasy" that is not rooted in reality. Trump irrationally believes that he is trying to prevent "anarchy, madness and chaos."

Trump's psyche cannot handle this pandemic situation. He does not understand that the virus is surging and spreading and will not just magically disappear on its own without a proven vaccine. He does not understand the vital importance of mitigation measures-hand washing, mask wearing and social distancing. He does not grasp that 176,000 deaths could have been largely prevented with a proactive national strategy.

Trump's psyche cannot grasp the importance-and safety-of national mail-in voting in light of our pandemic. He firmly believes that he will be the victim of voter fraud, and that this would be the "most inaccurate and dishonest election in history." He has blocked funds to the Post Office in order to stymie mail-in voting. The fact that Trump voted by mail in the last Florida Republican primary does not compute in his world of unreality.

We are in a life-and-death crisis in this country. Thousands of Americans are dying each week of COVID. And Donald Trump is still not taking reality-based, medically-sanctioned steps to defeat this deadly pandemic.

Mail-in voting is vital to have in place by November 3. The American people need a way to vote that is safe and timely and efficient. Trump is doing everything he can to undermine mail-in voting. His goal is to confound and even paralyze the whole election process-an event that would be catastrophic to the orderly transition of power.

Trump's alternate universe is almost delusional. It will be on full display at the RNC. His psychiatrically disturbed thinking and behavior will be lauded by his sycophants. It is beyond alarming to see his apologists have fidelity to a president who is near-psychotic.

Trump's alternate universe of irrationality and dangerousness cannot sustain the backbone of our democracy.

We are at the inflection point.

Alan D. Blotcky, PhD, is a clinical psychologist in Birmingham, Alabama.

Rad · Aug 27, 2020, 06:41 AM

Republican convention delivers whirlwind of lies great and small

Speaker after speaker piled falsehood upon falsehood to recast Trump as a saintly feminist preoccupied with the nation's health

David Smith in Washington
Guardian
Thu 27 Aug 2020 06.10 BST

As Hurricane Laura roared towards the southern US coast, the Republican national convention unleashed Hurricane Liar.

There were lies aplenty at the last convention in Cleveland four years ago but, in those innocent days, reporters were still reluctant to call a lie a lie. Donald Trump blew that up on his first day in office when he and his officials claimed his inauguration crowd was bigger than Barack Obama's.

Now there is no getting away from the fact that Republicans are commandeering more than two hours a night of primetime television to lie and mislead so brazenly, frequently and shamelessly that there's a chance the American public will simply be worn down into submission and untruth will be normalised.

As the New York Times columnist Frank Bruni noted, all conventions tell "extravagant fibs" but this one is "less a feat of pretty storytelling than an act of pure derangement". Wednesday night was another opportunity to deny Trump's record, deny the severity of the coronavirus pandemic and climate crisis, and deny reality itself.

Vice-President Mike Pence portrayed Trump as America's saviour from Covid-19. "Before the first case of coronavirus spread within the United States, President Trump took the unprecedented step of suspending all travel from China," he said, a false statement since there were several exceptions to the ban that still allowed tens of thousands to travel.

Putting on a patriotic show at Baltimore's Fort McHenry, scene of a battle that inspired The Star-Spangled Banner, Pence also avoided some brutal truths: no mention of Trump praising China's early response, his constant downplaying of the threat, failing to deliver testing or protective equipment, waffling over face masks for months or ruminating about miracle cures. There was mention of the 180,000 death toll, the highest in the world by far.

Other lies came in the convention's ongoing attempt to perform triage and rewrite not only history but Trump's personality. Someone waking from a four-year coma this week would be gratified to learn the president is a Mount Rushmore-worthy paragon of dignity, humility and kindness and a grandmaster of geopolitical chess.

Kayleigh McEnany, who famously began her tenure as White House press secretary by pledging "I will never lie to you," did just that from a different podium in the bleakly empty Andrew W Mellon Auditorium in Washington.

McEnany told a story of how she underwent a preventive mastectomy and how Trump called to see how she was doing. "I can tell you that this president stands by Americans with pre-existing conditions," she claimed about the man who has worked tirelessly, in Congress and in court, to reverse the law that protects 130 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.

Perhaps McEnany's closest rival as the most shameless defender of Trump's mendacity is Kellyanne Conway, the outgoing White House counselor. She said: "For decades, he has elevated women to senior positions in business and in government. He confides in and consults us, respects our opinions, and insists that we are on equal footing with the men "¦ For many of us, "˜women's empowerment' is not a slogan."

Trump's cabinet is dominated by men, he faces multiple allegations of sexual harassment (which he denies), he has frequently and publicly bullied female reporters and he mocked women's appearance online. He has also packed the country's courts with judges who threaten women's reproductive rights and revoked protections against sexual assault and discrimination at work and school.

For good measure, Conway claimed that Trump had taken "unprecedented action" to combat the opioid epidemic. In fact he did not declare a national emergency, and fatal overdoses in 2019 increased more than 10% from 2016.

Sometimes it's the little lies. Madison Cawthorn, the Republican nominee for North Carolina's 11th congressional district, who uses a wheelchair because of a car accident, commented: "James Madison was just 25 years old when he signed the Declaration of Independence." No, Madison did not sign the Declaration of Independence.

Cawthorn later claimed he "ad-libbed" the line. "After speaking all of that truth... I was afraid the fact checkers were going to get bored. I wanted to give them something to do," he tweeted.

And then there was Richard Grenell, former acting director of national intelligence, who said: "I've watched President Trump charm the chancellor of Germany, while insisting that Germany pay its Nato obligations." Charm? Over to Angela Merkel for whether she saw it that way.

Some of the deceit was wildly exaggerated scaremongering about what would happen if Democrat Joe Biden wins November's election. Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee warned darkly: "If the Democrats had their way, they would keep you locked in your house until you become dependent on the government for everything.

"That sounds a lot like Communist China to me - maybe that's why Joe Biden is so soft on them. Why Nancy Pelosi says that "˜China would prefer Joe Biden'."

Sister Deirdre "Dede" Byrne, a retired army colonel, told viewers: "President Trump will stand up against Biden/Harris who are the most anti-life presidential ticket ever, even supporting the horrors of late-term abortion and infanticide."

No, Biden and vice-presidential nominee Kamala Harris do not support infanticide. Even having to point that out somehow plays into the liars' hands, like agreeing to a debate with a creationist or a flat-earther. Such is the current landscape of partisan cable news and wild west social media.

Congresswoman Elise Stefanik of New York recalled Trump's impeachment, which has been largely forgotten at both conventions, and called it "illegal" - another Pinocchio.

The president's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, got in on the act with a fake Abraham Lincoln quotation and a red scare: "This is not just a choice between Republican and Democrat or left and right. This is an election that will decide if we keep America America or if we head down an uncharted frightening path towards socialism."

It was left to Pence to deliver perhaps the biggest lie of the night, so bold that it hid in plain sight in the Baltimore night. "America needs four more years of Donald Trump in the White House," he said. Worth a factcheck, surely.

Rad · Aug 28, 2020, 02:48 AM

Kamala Harris assails Donald Trump's 'reckless disregard' for American people

Lauren Gambino in Washington
Guardian
28 Aug 2020 21.48 BST

Kamala Harris launched a withering attack on Donald Trump's leadership hours before he will accept his party's re-nomination on Thursday, accusing the president of demonstrating a "reckless disregard" for the American people in his handling of the untamed coronavirus pandemic.

Speaking from an auditorium at George Washington University, Harris, a California senator who last week became the first woman of color to accept the vice-presidential nomination of a major party, unfurled a wide-ranging offensive against Trump to address what she said was "a reality completely absent from this week's Republican national convention".

"The Republican convention is designed for one purpose: to soothe Donald Trump's ego, to make him feel good," Harris said. "But here's the thing: he's the president of the United States, and it's not supposed to be about him. It's supposed to be about the health and the safety and the wellbeing of the American people."

"On that measure," she continued, "Donald Trump has failed."

Harris, a former prosecutor, methodically detailed Trump's response to the pandemic from his early praise of the Chinese government to his focus on the stock market.

"Right at the moment we needed him to be tough on the Chinese government, he caved," she said. "Instead of rising to meet the most difficult moment of his presidency, Donald Trump froze. He was scared, and he was petty and he was vindictive."

She continued: "He got it wrong from the beginning and then he got it wrong again and again and the consequences have been catastrophic."

During their four-day convention, Republicans have made few references to the pandemic, even as the death toll rises to 180,000. Instead, they sought to portray the president as a superhero figure, whose strong leadership will "make America great again, again" as Vice-President Mike Pence vowed.

Harris, who marched alongside Black Lives Matter protesters earlier this year, also opened her remarks on Thursday by addressing the shooting of Jacob Blake, a 29-year-old Black man, by a white officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, in an incident captured on camera. Attorneys say Blake is paralyzed and fighting for his life.

"The shots fired at Mr Blake pierced the soul of our nation," she said, paraphrasing Biden. "It's sickening to watch. It's all too familiar. And it must end."

Harris invoked Blake's name, repeating the circumstances of his shooting for emphasis - "shot seven times, in the back". She also spoke the names of other Black Americans killed this summer, including George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery.

While condemning violence that has transpired in Kenosha, Harris said Black Americans were "rightfully angry" and praised the Blake family, who she spoke with on Wednesday, for appealing for peace even as they seek justice.

"It's no wonder people are taking to the streets, and I support them," she said, adding: "Make no mistake we will not let these vigilantes and extremists derail the path to justice."

The Wisconsin governor, Tony Evers, increased the number of national guard troops in Kenosha after a white 17-year-old was charged on Wednesday with killing two protesters and injuring a third.

Identifying the mounting crises - from the raging wildfires in California and the hurricane ripping across Louisiana, to the spate of police killings of Black Americans and a rising death toll from the coronavirus - Harris closed her speech by asking Americans to judge Trump on his performance.

"We all know, he's not changing. The president he has been is the president he will be," she said. "But we have a chance to right these wrongs, and put America on a better path."

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PEgcKDSJsbk&feature=emb_title

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Trump unleashes diatribe of falsehoods and baseless attacks in RNC finale

Trump portrayed Biden as a creature of the Washington swamp, beat the drum of law and order and said little about racial injustice

David Smith in Washington
Guardian
Fri 28 Aug 2020 07.39 BST

You write him off at your peril. Donald Trump stood at one of America's most hallowed spaces on Thursday - the White House - and bent it to his will, just as he has bent the Republican party and swaths of America.

The US president gripped a lectern with the presidential seal on a red carpeted platform. Behind him was a row of American national flags and the magnificent south portico of the White House, traditionally a neutral space for governing, not political rallies. At each side were beaming members of the Trump dynasty and two giant Orwellian TV screens.

Before him, enveloped in gloom as the clock struck 11pm on a balmy summer night in Washington, were 1,500 people obediently standing, clapping, whooping, booing his foes and chanting "Four more years!" Like past charismatic leaders who paid lipservice to democracy, Trump understands political theatre, plays crowds like a fiddle and feeds off their energy.

It was a formidable spectacle on several levels. With people crammed together and wearing "Make America great again" hats rather than face masks, this was performance art that sent the message that the coronavirus pandemic is over, even though more people have died from it during this week's Republican national convention than in the terror attacks of 11 September 2001.

The mood of exuberance and self-confidence also implied that, whatever the death toll, whatever the huge unemployment figures, whatever the polls say, the 2020 presidential election is far from over. Trump's grand setting in the nation's capital, culminating in fireworks at the Washington monument and opera singers, contrasted with opponent Joe Biden's speech last week to a silent, largely empty auditorium in Wilmington, Delaware.

And whereas the raucous crowds at a convention hall in Cleveland four years ago, with their chants of "Lock her up!", hinted at humanity's darkest authoritarian impulses returning to the surface, this more polite and genteel version unfolding at the seat of American power was no less ominous.

It was also a concrete demonstration that this time Trump has the levers of executive power at his disposal and will not hesitate to use the full weight of the US government to retain power. And the crowd clearly have no intention of stopping him. Their complicity was juxtaposed with the noise of protesters and emergency sirens in nearby Lafayette Square.

"This November we must turn the page forever on this failed political class; the fact is I'm here," said Trump, turning and gesturing to the executive mansion as supporters hollered and whistled. "What's the name of that building? But I'll say it differently. The fact is we're here and they're not."

People rose to their feet and cheered this classic Trump notion that he is somehow at heart a blue collar billionaire, a champion of the forgotten people who led them into battle against the Washington elites.

This was the final night of a surprisingly diverse convention that has sought to animate Trump's base, sanitise and soften his image among suburban voters and people of colour, and demonise his opponent Joe Biden as an avatar of radical socialism.

The grand finale came on the White House South Lawn, first with Trump's daughter and senior adviser Ivanka extolling the administration's achievements from a lectern that said "President of the United States" - some believe she will run for the title herself some day.

Sounding like a co-president, she said: "Dad, people attack you for being unconventional but I love you for being real, and I respect you for being effective... Washington has not changed Donald Trump. Donald Trump has changed Washington."

As his familiar rally soundtrack "God Bless the USA" played, Trump emerged with his wife, Melania, in bright green, agreeing to hold his hand this time but struggling to maintain a smile, especially after acknowledging Ivanka.

Yet while Biden rose to the occasion last week, Trump proceeded to deliver a somewhat flat 70-minute diatribe full of lies and falsehoods, red meat for the base and little to persuade the wavering voter. He even fluffed his big line by saying "profoundly" instead of "proudly": "My fellow Americans, tonight with a heart full of gratitude and boundless optimism, I profoundly accept this nomination for President of the United States."

Trump knows that if the election is a referendum on him, and his handling of the pandemic, he is likely to lose. But if he can turn the spotlight to Biden, he may yet raise doubts that keeps voters at home. He unleashed a cascade of bilious and often baseless attacks that portrayed the former vice-president, like Clinton before him, as a creature of the Washington swamp.

"Joe Biden is not the savior of America's soul - he is the destroyer of America's jobs, and if given the chance, he will be the destroyer of American greatness," the president warned darkly.

"For 47 years, Joe Biden took the donations of blue collar workers, gave them hugs and even kisses" - laughter from the audience - "and told them he felt their pain - and then he flew back to Washington and voted to ship their jobs to China and many other distant lands. Joe Biden spent his entire career outsourcing the dreams of American workers, offshoring their jobs, opening their borders, and sending their sons and daughters to fight in endless foreign wars."

Later, another framing: "We have spent the last four years reversing the damage Joe Biden inflicted over the last 47 years. Biden's record is a shameful roll call of the most catastrophic betrayals and blunders in our lifetime "¦ China would own our country if Joe Biden got elected. Unlike Biden, I will hold them fully accountable for the tragedy they caused."

And then yet another: "Biden is a Trojan horse for socialism. If Joe Biden doesn't have the strength to stand up to wild-eyed Marxists like Bernie Sanders and his fellow radicals... then how is he ever going to stand up for you? He's not."

The rest was afterthought. He pushed familiar buttons: the election is about saving the American dream rather than allowing a socialist agenda to demolish our cherished destiny. He beat the drum of law and order and had little to say about racial injustice. He argued that Republicans believe in feelgood American greatness, Democrats in endless self-flagellation.

"How can the Democrat party ask to lead our country when it spends so much time tearing down our country? In the left's backward view, they do not see America as the most free, just, and exceptional nation on earth. Instead, they see a wicked nation that must be punished for its sins."

Trump has struggled to define what his second term would look like other than more of the same. On Friday he threw out a few details: ending reliance on China, reducing taxes and regulations, creating 10m jobs in 10 months, hiring more police and increasing penalties for assaults on law enforcement and banning sanctuary cities.

Even as he assaults Barack Obama's health care law that protects people with pre-existing conditions, the president claimed: "We will always, and very strongly, protect patients with pre-existing conditions, and that is a pledge from the entire Republican party."

But Trump will hope the substance matters far less than the spectacle of the White House, otherwise known as the people's house, having been fully colonised by the Make America Great Again movement. And that the image of hundreds of people without face masks lingers longer than the cold statistic of 180,000 dead. It would be his greatest act of make believe yet.

Rad · Aug 30, 2020, 04:23 AM

Conventions Can Boost the Incumbent. Did It Work This Time?

The Trump team's approach to the task of pigeonholing the challenger looked less focused than those used in 2004 and 2012.

By Nate Cohn
NY TIMES
Aug. 30, 2020

ImagePresident Trump mentioned his opponent several dozen times by name on Thursday on the final night of the Republican National Convention. That's unusual.

The last two presidential re-election campaigns followed a similar playbook: define the opposition early on the most important issue, emphasize a few cultural wedge issues to rally the base while appealing to a few swing voters, and reinvigorate supporters at the convention. It was enough for George W. Bush in 2004 and Barack Obama in 2012 to flip their approval ratings from negative to positive, and to win re-election.

With that history in mind, this week's Republican convention was one of the last, best opportunities for the president to revitalize his political standing. We'll have to wait until mid-September - when polls stabilize after any convention bumps - before it's clear whether Mr. Trump has succeeded like Mr. Obama or Mr. Bush. But judged against its predecessors, this year's Republican National Convention differed from the traditional playbook in ways that raise doubts about whether Mr. Trump should be expected to make a breakthrough.

The 2004 and 2012 re-election campaigns are probably best remembered for their success in defining the opposition. In each case, the convention offered a clear and simple answer to the question: "Who is the opponent?" And the answer reflected poorly on the ability of that opponent to address the central challenge facing the country.

Mitt Romney was depicted as a rapacious plutocrat who personally embodied the policies that were eroding middle-class industrial jobs in the Midwest. John Kerry was depicted as a flip-flopper and a phony, who tried to have it every way on the Iraq war and whose indecision would threaten national security.

Trump strategists have struggled to send a similarly focused message about Joe Biden. They have cycled through attacking him via his son on Ukraine, or on his long record in Washington. They have called him "Beijing Biden," or tried to portray him as a nearly senile "Sleepy Joe." The Trump campaign has also sought to tie him to the far left, either by asserting, often wrongly, that he supports far-left positions or by suggesting he's a stealth candidate - a "Trojan horse" for socialists and radicals.

All of these attacks were raised at the convention, to some extent or another. The sheer range makes it less likely that any given attack will have the impact of, for example, the focus on Mitt Romney's time at Bain Capital, "flip flopping" or "crooked Hillary."

The most central attack was probably the claim that Mr. Biden was a stealth candidate of the left, who wasn't tough enough on violent rioters and would allow chaos to spread throughout the country. It's a strange move in some ways. Mr. Biden ran as a moderate in the Democratic primary and says he opposes violent protests. And it will be fairly straightforward for Mr. Biden to rebut the attack that he supports defunding the police, given that he does not, provided the campaign is sufficiently committed to doing so. He could even turn it into a positive.

Another limitation is that violent crime is not exactly the central issue of the election, at least not now, during the pandemic. It is not like terrorism in 2004 or the economic recovery in 2012. Instead, it somewhat resembles a wedge issue: one where you hope to energize your base and peel off a subset of swing voters who agree with you. The 2004 and 2012 campaigns also relied on a series of cultural wedge issues, like gay marriage in 2004, or immigration and defunding Planned Parenthood in 2012. But these weren't the central message of the campaign.

To be sure, crime, protests and riots are more than a classic wedge issue. They have added up to one of the major story lines in the news in the last few months. There have been demands for statue removal and defunding the police; sustained demonstrations in Portland and Seattle; and the recent unrest in Kenosha, Wis., after another police shooting. A Pew Research poll found that violent crime ranked as the fifth-most important issue. And it is certainly possible that events could elevate the issue even further over the next few months.

There are also at least some reasons to think the issue could ultimately be effective for the president. The polling data is fragmentary, but Black Lives Matter appears to have become less popular over the summer as it argued for more ambitious goals and as the memory of George Floyd's death in police custody began to fade.

Polling from Civiqs and Marquette Law School suggests that Black Lives Matter is now about as polarizing as the president is, so Republicans have less to lose by engaging on the issue. The Trump team can hope that the movement's popularity might continue to decline further with additional unrest.
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On the other hand, the president's handling of these issues has not been popular, either. The unrest is happening in Mr. Trump's America, not Mr. Biden's. And this issue could be a little too tied to the news: Unlike terrorism in 2004 or the economy in 2012, it could fade from the spotlight and once again leave the party without a persistent line of attack.

Taken together, the attack here is not nearly as strong as the one Mr. Bush or Mr. Obama advanced in their last re-election campaigns. Adding to the problem, Mr. Trump's speech was exceptionally focused on disqualifying Mr. Biden.

Mr. Trump mentioned Mr. Biden, by name, several dozen times during his speech. Mr. Obama and Mr. Bush each mentioned Mr. Romney and Mr. Kerry by name just once, and referred to their "opponent" a mere seven and eight times.

The absence of the challengers from the incumbents' speeches in 2004 and 2012 hints at a forgotten element of those conventions: They managed to reinvigorate support and improve the president's approval rating by at least a net three percentage points. Remarkably, this elevated approval rating lasted all the way until the election.

Some of the work was done by high-profile speakers, like Rudy Giuliani in 2004 or Bill Clinton in 2012. But the presidential speeches probably contributed. They outlined a governing agenda and focused more on advancing a positive vision than on attacking opponents. They gave many former supporters, who might have been disillusioned by middling economic growth or a quagmire in Iraq, reason to return to their old favorite - and to feel good about doing so.

Mr. Trump certainly had at least some opportunity to lure back any disaffected supporters. The national political environment has been gradually improving for him, as coronavirus cases decline, the stock market reaches record highs, and as voters appear to grow chillier to Black Lives Matter.

It's hard to say whether the changing national political environment adds up to a clear opening for the president. An improving national political environment for the president might still be a bad one, with more than 180,000 people dead from the coronavirus and double-digit unemployment.

But heading into the convention, the president's approval rating had already ticked up to minus-10 in the FiveThirtyEight average of registered or likely voters. It's a weak figure, but only a few more points would bring the president back to the point where he could hope for a polling error and a relative advantage in the Electoral College to give him another upset victory.

It's hard to predict, of course. It's possible that the president's playbook will work just as well as, or even better than, those of Mr. Bush or Mr. Obama. Perhaps Mr. Trump has more supporters to try to win back. And Mr. Trump will have other opportunities to claw back into a tighter race, including the debates. But a seemingly weaker attack, on an issue less central to voters, by a less popular president, is not an obvious plan for an equally successful convention.

Rad · Aug 30, 2020, 08:57 AM

'Two visions of the US': Trump and Biden offer contrasts on race, Covid and economy

The Democratic and Republican national conventions offered two radically different diagnoses of the problems confronting America

David Smith in Washington
Guardian
Sun 30 Aug 2020 15.54 BST

One version told of a president who is callous and cruel. "My dad was a healthy 65-year-old," said Kristin Urquiza, whose father voted for Donald Trump in 2016 and died from Covid-19 in June. "His only pre-existing condition was trusting Donald Trump - and for that he paid with his life."

The other spoke of a president blessed with compassion. Kayleigh McEnany recalled taking a phone call as she recovered from a preventative mastectomy. "It was President Trump, calling to check on me," she said. "I was blown away. Here was the leader of the free world caring about me."

The contrast was enough to induce a sense of whiplash.

But it happened over and over again during the past two weeks during the Democratic and Republican national conventions, held virtually for the first time due to the pandemic. The primetime television split screen displayed two radically different Americas - and two radically different diagnoses of its ills.

Democrats tore into Trump's character and lack of fitness for office; Republicans paid tribute to his competence, common touch and generosity of spirit. Democrats hammered away at the pandemic, its death toll and the economic fallout; Republicans spoke of the virus rarely and preferred to sell optimism, promising a renaissance just around the corner. Democrats embraced the Black Lives Matter movement and quest for racial justice; Republicans stoked fear of "cancel culture" and suburbs overrun by violent mobs.

John Zogby, an author and pollster, observed: "We didn't get a portrayal of disagreements; we got a portrayal of two completely different realities and that's kind of astounding. If a Martian came down and watched both conventions, they would be puzzled and get back on the ship. It was amazing, a completely different reality about Covid, about the economy, about Black Lives Matter."

When the smoke cleared from fireworks at the Washington monument that spelled out "Trump 2020" on the final night, the nation had a clearer idea of where the two armies have drawn battle lines before the November election.

Democrats set out to draw a contrast between their nominee Joe Biden's empathy and experience versus Trump's chronic inability to do a job he treats as a reality show. Michelle Obama, the former first lady, channeled the anguish of mothers across the country appalled by the 45th president's crass conduct. "He is clearly in over his head," she said. "He cannot meet this moment. He simply cannot be who we need him to be for us."

Democrats prosecuted a case that Trump failed to rise to the historic challenge of Covid-19, resulting in what are now 180,000 deaths and tens of millions unemployed. Above all, they warned, Trump threatens America's 244-year-old democratic experiment. An unusually raw Barack Obama said: "This administration has shown it will tear our democracy down if that's what it takes to win. So we have to get busy building it up."

It was amazing, a completely different reality about Covid, about the economy, about Black Lives Matter
John Zogby

When their turn came, Republicans spun an elaborate web of fantasy that fact checkers found included dozens of lies per night. They worked hard to smooth the jagged edges of Trump's persona and make him palatable to suburban voters. A procession of women told how he promoted them to senior positions; a procession of people of colour sought to deny his racism.

In addition, Trump was seen pardoning an African American man convicted of bank robbery and benevolently welcoming immigrants as they became US citizens. The pitch appeared to be: do not believe the media caricature of Trump as demonic figure; you have licence to vote for him again with a clear conscience.

Wendy Schiller, a political science professor at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island, said: "What was striking was that this convention was designed to appeal to suburban moderate Republicans and independents."

"It was really designed to assuage or mollify suburban voters and say, "˜Listen, I'm not that bad, really. .'"

Republicans' political plastic surgery included hailing Trump's response to the virus as an epic success, when they mentioned it at all. The president hyped the promise of a vaccine before the end of the year during an acceptance speech delivered at the White House where face masks were few and far between in the packed crowd, as if willing a return to normal.

There was one common thread of the conventions: a sense that defeat by the other side would spell something more profound and existential than the mere swing of a political pendulum. Instead it was a stark choice between American democracy or the American dream - both long seen as inviolable tenets of the American soul. Zogby commented: "This is a genuine Armageddon election: if the other side wins, this is the end of the United States, the end of our values, the end of democracy."

The sense that the stakes are higher than ever before was fuelled by another dominant narrative of the year: police killings of unarmed African Americans, the uprising against racial injustice and a minority of protests that led to vandalism and violence.

Again the parties see the issue through opposing prisms. Democrats gave a platform to the family of George Floyd, whose killing by police in Minneapolis triggered nationwide marches, celebrated the life of civil rights activist John Lewis and nominated Senator Kamala Harris to be the country's first vice president of colour.

Republicans, by contrast, conjured images of "violent anarchists, agitators and criminals", falsely accused Biden of supporting efforts to defund police departments and implied that America's long march against racism ends with Trump. "I say very modestly that I have done more for the African American community than any president since Abraham Lincoln, our first Republican president," Trump said.

Speakers included Mark and Patricia McCloskey, embodiments of white privilege from St Louis, Missouri, who waved guns at Black Lives Matter protesters outside their mansion. Patricia delivered a message of racial fear reminiscent of apartheid South Africa: "What you saw happen to us could just as easily happen to any of you who are watching from quiet neighbourhoods around our country. Make no mistake: No matter where you live, your family will not be safe in the radical Democrats' America."

The messages played out against the backdrop of fresh unrest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, where police shot Jacob Blake, an African American man, seven times in the back, leaving him paralysed. Some demonstrators destroyed buildings and started fires. A white 17-year-old was charged with intentional homicide after two protesters were shot dead.

Some Democrats worry that such scenes could feed Trump's narrative and boost him at the polls. Yet whereas a law and order appeal worked for Richard Nixon in 1968 as an insurgent challenger, the current social disorder is happening in an America where Trump is the incumbent.

Michael Steele, former chairman of the Republican National Committee, said: "The ironic twist in that everything Donald Trump was complaining about occurring under a Biden administration was actually happening under his own. The dissonance that you see in all of this is that he's basically telling you don't believe what you're seeing, it's not happening, but it will happen if you elect this guy. You're like, wait a minute, we have riots in the streets now."

He added: "The challenge for Biden is going to be to get Americans to see that what they fear is already happening, what they fear is already in their suburban communities, what they fear is already on their streets, and that there is as much happening in areas of the country that are run by Republicans as is happening in areas run by Democrats, and his goal as president is to address those concerns, to heal those wounds, not cause more pain or to open up those wounds further."

Donna Brazile, former interim chairwoman of the Democratic National Committee, said: "The race is now being defined by two epic visions of the country. One is the vision that Joe Biden and Kamala Harris provided, which is a nation that must continue to grow and to reach out to others, especially those who feel like they are left behind.

"The vision of Donald Trump and Mike Pence was much more of an "˜us versus them'. It didn't feel as though they were reaching out to anyone. It felt more like they're still willing to say the other side is incapable of leading the America that they represent."

Brazile added: "I think what we saw this past two weeks is one political party that is still engaged in trying to help the American people through this pandemic, which has caused an economic crisis, versus the other party, which quite honestly don't believe that this crisis exists at all."

Rad · Aug 31, 2020, 04:02 AM

"˜Bad news for the White House': Morning Joe panelists explain why Trump melted down over the weekend

Raw Story
8/31/2020

Panelists on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" pondered the reasons for President Donald Trump's weekend Twitter meltdown.

New polling shows the president's approval rating had fallen even further behind Joe Biden's since the conventions ended, and host Joe Scarborough asked the Rev. Al Sharpton whether that had freaked Trump out.

"Clearly Joe Biden [is] rising with approval and the president coming down is bad news for the White House, no matter how they spin it," Scarborough said. "They're now playing this, we're in survival mode, trying to spin it as if this is some advancement. The thing that I observed, Joe, over the weekend, we had the big march in Washington Friday, which was probably the biggest civil rights march in the last several years."

"The energy - remember, we had this on a work day in the middle of a pandemic - so remember for people to come out is a signal to the White House that people are energized to come out and vote," Sharpton added. "They will come out and stand up and did it peacefully because the tone is set at the top, not one incident with several hundred thousands people there, and you have no problems, no incidents, and people ready to come and stay out all day. That's a signal what they will do Election Day, so if I was the White House between the polling and the turnouts I think I would be very concerned because it shows a determination against this kind of divisive hate-filled a atmosphere that this president has established."

The president fired off more than 90 tweets or retweets Sunday morning, starting before 6 a.m., and Scarborough asked PBS White House reporter Yamiche Alcindor whether she had any insight into Trump's state of mind.

"I don't think there's any official explanation for why the presidential does what he does on Twitter, especially yesterday," Alcindor said. "I think the things we've been talking about likely are the things weighing on President Trump's mind. The idea that the reality TV president who sold himself as a showman, a deal maker, that he has lower ratings than the Democrats must really get at him."

Trump staged the Republican National Convention at the White House and other national landmarks in apparent violation of the Hatch Act, but he still couldn't beat the Democratic National Convention's television ratings.

"When you think about what he risked to really put on this event at the White House that was, I think, troubling, interesting, remarkable and somewhat dangerous," Alcindor said, "I think he put it all on the line and he's put it all on the line with this idea, that if I do all this stuff, try to put the virus in the rearview mirror and say we are going to get through this, if I spread misleading information enough somehow Americans will believe me over the facts, over my own health officials and as a result I will be able to be re-elected. I think all of that is weighing on the president's mind, and I think there was this civil rights march that Rev. Sharpton was talking about, there was so many people on the president's doorstep telling him we don't like the way you're handling the virus and this racial reckoning."

"I think he understands the nation is coming to a head when it comes to civil rights issues," she added. "Black people are fed up, people of color understand they are being treated like second-class citizens and white Americans are waking up to the privilege they have and saying this is not right. I think we're in a moment where everyone is recognizing, even if you're a supporter of President Trump you're recognizing he's struggling with his response to the coronavirus and he's not someone who has shown historically the empathy that people need in this moment when it comes to connecting with people who are reeling from the loss of so many Black men or the shootings of so many Black men."

Watch: https://youtu.be/ZDETOol4DoE

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Trump's convention failed to hand him the big poll bounce he needs: CNN analyst

Raw Story
8/31/2020
By Tom Boggioni

Donald Trump failed to get the big bounce he needed in the polls after the Republican National Convention, writes CNN election analyst Harry Enten, which is putting pressure on the sitting president's campaign to find a new path to victory.

The four evening's worth of proceedings televised on national TV that started with a widely mocked appearance by Trump advocate Kimberly Guilfoyle - who is dating the president's son - and ended with the president giving a rambling acceptance speech on the lawn at the White House. failed to move the needle in any appreciable way Enten suggested.

Noting that the president did receive a "small bump," the analyst predicted things don't look good for the incumbent Republican.

"If later polling data confirms this early evidence, a Trump victory hinges on him becoming the first incumbent in over 70 years to come from behind after trailing following the major party conventions," he wrote before adding, "Trump's favorable rating stood at 32% in an Ipsos' poll last week. Today, after the Republican National Convention, it stands at 31%."

Enten did add that the lack of bounce could be attributed to disappointing viewership of the virtual convention, before adding that, regardless, the president's campaign needs a game-changer if they have any hope of getting Trump re-elected.

"The bottom line is this for Trump: something major needed to change in the post-convention polling. It doesn't look like it did in the first round of evidence. That means unless something shifts, Trump will have to do something quite unusual to earn another term in the White House," he concluded.

Rad · Aug 31, 2020, 04:25 AM

Donald Trump's attacks on the US Post Office have blown up in his face in spectacular fashion: report

on August 31, 2020
RAW STORY
By Tom Boggioni

Donald Trump's attempts to curtail mail-in voting by having his Postmaster General interfere with U.S. Post Office operations is having the unintended effect of filling the coffers of Democratic candidates who will be on the ballot in November.

According to a report from the Daily Beast, at least one hundred Democrats currently running for office have used the uproar over postal interruptions in their emails to supporters designed to rake in contributions - and it is working.

"It's huge-every single client has been trying to capitalize on it," explained one Democratic strategist before adding, "It's rare you get an issue where every candidate, whether they're a Blue Dog or very liberal, is so aligned on this."

Responding to fears that the postal interference will cripple mail-in voting, Democratic donors are ponying up for to oust Republicans in 2020.

Central to voter concerns is the evidence that the mail is already lagging, with voters across both parties complaining about delayed deliveries of life-saving medications and other important packages.

According to Democratic strategist Jared Leopold, "I've sat in dozens of focus groups of swing voters, and they care about core competency of government. This is a great proof point of something that is apolitical that Trump has politicized and screwed up"¦ It's a reason why Democrats would go on offense about it."

In a pitch to voters on Facebook, the campaign for Rep. Steven Horsford (D-NV) claimed, "Donald Trump is moving to DEFUND the US Postal Service. We need leaders in Washington who are dedicated to protecting this critical institution. Will you chip in $20 to Steven's campaign so he can keep fighting for the USPS?"

The Beast notes that not all emails are direct campaign solicitations over the Post Office, but still use the controversy to rile up constituents.

"The bulk of emails, however, open with a different kind of ask: urging the reader to sign a petition demonstrating their support for the Postal Service or to "˜stand with' the lawmaker or candidate sending it. More often than not, someone who signs the petition is redirected to another page asking for money," the report states. "Even if they don't give, the fact that they clicked through a solicitation email is priceless information for operatives who build and maintain a campaign's email list, perhaps the most valuable asset in modern fundraising."

According to Michael Whitney who oversaw digital fundraising for Sen. Bernie Sanders' presidential run, the Post Office controversy has been a godsend.

"This is one of those unique moments where everybody is talking about it"¦ Everyone is affected by the Postal Service," he explained. "In terms of how you know that you're going to have something people are paying attention to, this is really a gimme in terms of knowing your audience is going to have heard about it, has an opinion about it, and is going to want to do something about it."

Rad · Sep 01, 2020, 03:37 AM

"˜Mic. Freaking. Drop.': Americans applaud Biden speech slamming the "˜violence we're seeing in Donald Trump's America'

9/1/2020
By David Badash, The New Civil Rights Movement

Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden delivered an important speech Monday denouncing violence in America while attacking President Donald Trump for fueling it yet blaming it on the former Vice President.

"Trump and Pence are running on this and I find it fascinating, quote, "˜You won't be saving Joe Biden's America.' And what's their proof? The violence we're seeing in Donald Trump's America," Biden told supporters at a speech in Pittsburgh.

"These are not images of some imagined "˜Joe Biden America' in the future. These are images of Donald Trump's America today."

"He keeps telling you if only he was president, it wouldn't happen if he was president. He keeps telling us that if he was president, you'd feel safe. Well, he is president whether he knows it or not. And it is happening. It's getting worse and you know why? Because Donald Trump adds fuel to every fire. Because he refuses to even acknowledge that there's a racial justice problem in America, because he won't stand up to any form of violence."

Biden also accused Trump of having "no problem with right wing militias, white supremacists and vigilantes with assault weapons, often better armed than the police, often in the middle of the violence at the protesters and aiming it there."

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H7yxH13SHTI

Rad · Sep 01, 2020, 04:40 AM

Is "˜malignant narcissist' Trump sick? Experts and former allies say he's "˜unfit'

on September 1, 2020
By Agence France-Presse

As battle lines are drawn ahead of Donald Trump's bid for re-election, a new documentary based on the testimony of mental health professionals has labeled the US president a "malignant narcissist."

"Unfit: The Psychology of Donald Trump" - released on streaming platforms Tuesday - claims not to be politically motivated.

The film interviews several psychologists who argue they have a medical duty to warn the US public about Trump's alleged mental state.
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According to psychologist John Gartner, Trump clearly exhibits four key symptoms of malignant narcissism - the "most destructive" personality type - including paranoia, narcissism, antisocial personality disorder and sadism.

"This type of leader pops up all throughout history, and they're always extraordinarily disruptive," Gartner told AFP, noting that the same label has been applied to Hitler, Stalin and Mussolini.

"What is so strange is that we're not used to seeing this type of leader in America."

But the film's central premise of professionally diagnosing a public figure from afar is contentious.

Republican candidate Barry Goldwater successfully sued a magazine after it published a damning survey of psychiatrists speculating about his mental health during his failed 1964 run.

The psychiatric community later ruled that offering a professional opinion without an in-person examination is unethical.

However, Gartner argues the rise of observation-based diagnosis over traditional Freudian psychoanalysis - and the wealth of public data about Trump's behavior - makes that rule outdated.

And the film highlights another rule that compels mental health professionals to speak out when a patient's disorder imperils others - in this case, the US public.

"It's not that he's as bad as Hitler, or that he's the equivalent of Hitler," Gartner says. "But he has the same diagnosis as Hitler."

Diagnosing Trump has long been a popular tactic for his opponents.

Trump's psychologist niece Mary Trump recently published an unflattering tome on her uncle, while the president's own "Art of the Deal" co-author has said their book should be re-titled "The Sociopath."

The US president memorably hit back at allegations of mental health problems by declaring himself a "very stable genius."

As well as psychologists, the movie interviews lawyers, historians, academics, former intelligence officers and - most prominently - noted Trump critics.

These include short-lived White House communications boss Anthony Scaramucci, and George Conway - whose wife, Kellyanne, recently announced she was stepping down as the president's long-standing advisor.

According to director Dan Partland, "plenty" of politicians "have psychological diagnoses that are not dangerous."

The film suggests Abraham Lincoln struggled with depression, which was an asset during the suffering of the Civil War, and Bill Clinton has hypomania, a key to his charisma.

"It's the particular constellation of diagnoses that Donald Trump has that makes him so dangerous," Partland told AFP.

Watch: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DeFQBvwaCgs

Rad · Sep 02, 2020, 02:48 AM

If Trump refuses to accept defeat in November, the republic will survive intact, as it has 5 out of 6 times in the past

on September 2, 2020
By The Conversation

During the 2016 presidential campaign, then-candidate Donald Trump refused to promise to accept the results of the election. Likewise, in 2020, his continued assault on the reliability and legitimacy of mail-in voting has laid the groundwork for challenging a loss on the basis of voter fraud. He has also refused to promise to observe the 2020 results.

This has led some to worry that a contested election would severely undermine faith in American democracy.

Yet the United States has a long history of such contested elections. With one exception, they have not badly damaged the American political system.

That contested 1860 election - which sparked the Civil War - happened in a unique context. As a political scientist who studies elections, I believe that, should President Trump - or less likely, Joe Biden - contest the results of the November election, American democracy will survive.

Legitimacy and peaceful transitions

Most contested presidential elections have not posed threats to the legitimacy of government.Legitimacy, or the collective acknowledgment that government has a right to rule, is essential to a democracy. In a legitimate system, unpopular policies are largely accepted because citizens believe that government has the right to make them. For example, a citizen may despise taxes but still admit that they are lawful. Illegitimate systems, which are not supported by citizens, can collapse or descend into revolution.

In democracies, elections generate legitimacy because citizens contribute to the selection of leadership.

In the past, contested elections have not badly damaged the fabric of democracy because the rules for handling such disputes exist and have been followed. While politicians and citizens alike have howled about the unfairness of loss, they accepted these losses.

Contested elections and continuity

In 1800, both Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr received the same number of votes in the Electoral College. Because no candidate won a clear majority of Electoral votes, the House of Representatives followed the Constitution and convened a special session to resolve the impasse by a vote. It took 36 ballots to give Jefferson the victory, which was widely accepted.

In 1824, Andrew Jackson won a plurality of the popular and electoral vote against John Quincy Adams and two other candidates, but failed to win the necessary majority in the Electoral College. The House, again following the procedure set in the Constitution, selected Adams as the winner over Jackson.

The 1876 election between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden was contested because several Southern states failed to clearly certify a winner. This was resolved through inter-party negotiation conducted by an Electoral Commission established by Congress. While Hayes would become president, concessions were given to the South that effectively ended Reconstruction.

The contest between Democrat John F. Kennedy and Republican Richard Nixon in 1960 was rife with allegations of voter fraud, and Nixon supporters pressed for aggressive recounts in many states. In the end, Nixon begrudgingly accepted the decision rather than drag the country through civil discord during the intense U.S.-Soviet tensions of the Cold War.

Finally, in 2000, GOP candidate George W. Bush and Democratic candidate Al Gore tangled over disputed ballots in Florida. The Supreme Court terminated a recount effort and Gore publicly conceded, recognizing the legitimacy of Bush's victory by saying, "While I strongly disagree with the Court's decision, I accept it."

In each case, the losing side was unhappy with the result of the election. But in each case, the loser accepted the legally derived result, and the American democratic political system persisted.
The system collapses

The election of 1860 was a different story.

After Abraham Lincoln defeated three other candidates, Southern states simply refused to accept the results. They viewed the selection of a president who would not protect slavery as illegitimate and ignored the election's results.

It was only through the profoundly bloody Civil War that the United States remained intact. The dispute over the legitimacy of this election, based in fundamental differences between the North and South, cost 600,000 American lives.

What is the difference between the political collapse of 1860 and the continuity of other contested elections? In all cases, citizens were politically divided and elections were hotly contested.

What makes 1860 stand out so clearly is that the country was divided over the moral question of slavery, and this division followed geographic lines that enabled a revolution to form. Further, the Confederacy was reasonably unified across class lines.

While the America of today is certainly divided, the distribution of political beliefs is far more dispersed and complex than the ideological cohesion of the Confederacy.

Rule of law

History suggests, then, that even if Trump or Biden contest the election, the results would not be catastrophic.

The Constitution is clear on what would happen: First, the president cannot simply declare an election invalid. Second, voting irregularities could be investigated by the states, who are responsible for managing the integrity of their electoral processes. This seems unlikely to change any reported results, as voter fraud is extraordinarily rare.

The next step could be an appeal to the Supreme Court or suits against the states. To overturn any state's initial selection, evidence of a miscount or voter fraud would have to be strongly established.

If these attempts to contest the election fail, on Inauguration Day, the elected president would lawfully assume the office. Any remaining ongoing contestation would be moot after this point, as the president would have full legal authority to exercise the powers of his office, and could not be removed short of impeachment.

While the result of the 2020 election is sure to make many citizens unhappy, I believe rule of law will endure. The powerful historical, social, and geographic forces that produced the total failure of 1860 simply are not present.

Correction: This story has been corrected to give the proper date for the contested election between Thomas Jefferson and Aaron Burr. It was in 1800.The Conversation

Alexander Cohen, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Clarkson University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.