TO COMMENT CLICK HERE
welcome to reality trivia
reality is the state of things as they actually exist
sep 25, 2020
Real News Today
*BEFORE LIMITING BALLOT DROP BOXES TO ONE PER COUNTY, TOP OHIO ELECTION OFFICIALS SECRETLY CONSULTED PROMOTER OF DEBUNKED VOTING FRAUD FEARS(Elections)
*Joe Biden is repeating the same mistakes that cost Hillary Clinton the election
(Candidates)
*HUNGER IN AMERICA, ESPECIALLY FOR CHILDREN, HAS “SKYROCKETED” DURING COVID-19, DATA SHOWS(America)
*Stained relations? Israeli PM accused of taking dirty laundry on state trips
(World)
*FACEBOOK SUED OVER KENOSHA KILLINGS
(Worthless Media)
*FORMER GOP INSIDER DETAILS WHY CONSERVATIVE ECONOMICS IS SEVERELY FLAWED
(Capitalism)
(for previous day's articles see "what's inside" below)
comment/tweet of the day
TRUMP’S PANDEMIC DEATH TRACKER:
dc report.com
Americans Killed by Inaction, Neglect, Incompetence and Corruption
202,798
(out of 6,977,658 current cases)
--------
Donald Trump is an embarrassment.
kentuck - DU
He is not funny. He is a very poor example for a comedian.
He appeals to the worst in people, the lowest common denominator.
He has dragged the Republican Party with him every step of the way.
He is incompetent and they know it.
He is a liar and a bullshitter and they know it.
He is mentally unstable and they know it.
They are sheep. They are embarrassments to our country.
It is sad.
---
lex: in the 19th century, ku klux klan and lynch would invade african-american homes and burn and/or lynch the occupants, in the 21st century the local police do the same.
lex: are you convinced yet that colin kaepernick was right?
---
LEX: THANKS TO STUPID AMERICAN VOTERS THE SUPREME COURT WILL HAVE ANOTHER RIGHT WING FOOL ADDED TO THE LIST OF 5 RACISTS, INCLUDING A RAPIST AND A SEXUAL ASSUALTOR SELECTED BY A CRIMINAL AND TRAITOR TO AMERICA. CONGRATULATIONS SUCKERS.
---
lex: the only ecomony that most americans understand is how much money they have in their pockets.
---
how to steal $800 million!!!
Trump Tower Hicksville: Why is the Trump campaign sending rent checks to a Long Island P.O. box?
Trump campaign's rent payments to Hicksville, New York, might be of interest to a tax fraud investigation
ROGER SOLLENBERGER - salon
SEPTEMBER 25, 2020 9:00AM (UTC)
President Donald Trump has charged his own campaign hundreds of thousands of dollars in rent for offices in Trump Tower for more than five years. But the campaign doesn't always send its rent to Trump Tower. In fact, most of the checks have gone to a post office box in Hicksville, New York, a suburban community on Long Island. It's not clear why, or who is receiving those checks. But experts say that the address may be of interest to Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance, who in a court filing earlier this week made his clearest statements yet about the scope and focus of his criminal investigation into President Trump's finances.
The Trump campaign has rented office space at Trump Tower, off and on, since Donald Trump first announced his candidacy in June 2015. Exactly how much space the campaign actually uses in the landmark Fifth Avenue building is unclear. FEC filings show that the rent started around $35,000 a month, then jumped over the $100,000 mark after Trump won the 2016 Republican nomination, before settling at its current rate of $37,541.67 a month, or about $450,500 a year. Sometimes the rent spikes, for reasons that are difficult to understand.
But while the campaign's payments go to Trump Tower Commercial LLC, the business operation behind Trump Tower — and ultimately to Trump himself — they don't always go to Trump Tower. Federal Election Commission records show that most of those checks have been sent to P.O. Box 1926 in Hicksville, which is a suburban town in central Nassau County, just south of Oyster Bay on the affluent North Shore of Long Island.
The Hicksville post office box has been described by Trump money watchers as the "white whale" of Trump's financial dealings. It is, in a word, bizarre — even by Trump standards. (The campaign did not reply to multiple specific requests for comment.) It's unclear whether other Trump Tower commercial tenants, such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, for instance, send their rent checks to Hicksville, or if they pay at the building itself — as the campaign itself did, for a while.
In the early days of the campaign, however, it wasn't just rent — some of the Trump campaign's payroll also went through Trump Tower Commercial LLC, but apparently to a certain type of employee.
But even given that confusing history, FEC filings show that 2020 is turning out to be an exceptional year in terms of the destination of the Trump campaign's rent checks to Trump Tower Commercial LLC.
In 2015, 2016 and 2017, all rent checks all went to the Hicksville address. The rent payments stopped after September 2017, but resumed in 2018, the year after the Trump tax bill passed, and the same year that the campaign also took up offices in Rosslyn, Virginia. All rent checks in that year, 2018, went upstairs to the accountants in Trump Tower. But in the first half of 2019, the checks went back to Hicksville. Then, in the second half of that year, they once again went to Trump Tower.
The pattern grew even more erratic in 2020. This year, public filings show, the campaign has so far sent six of its eight rent checks to Hicksville — the two outliers being April and May, when the coronavirus ravaged the city and the checks went to Trump Tower, in Manhattan.
Interviews with state income tax and commercial property tax experts familiar with the workings of New York city and state yielded bafflement: Comments included, "Totally bizarre," "No idea," "I've never seen something like that" and "Holy shit, that's absolutely weird."
Vance's announcement this week that his office is investigating Trump for criminal tax fraud and misrepresenting business records might throw the Hicksville mystery in a new light.
Vance is the district attorney of New York County, which is the same thing as the borough of Manhattan. He has no jurisdiction anywhere else. So if Vance is investigating Trump for tax fraud, he must believe that Trump defrauded Manhattan authorities in a unique way — through either school, income or property taxes. While New York state Attorney General Letitia James is also interested in Trump's taxes, she has not announced a similar criminal tax fraud investigation. And there is, as far as public records show, no federal investigation into Trump's taxes.
Hicksville is in Nassau County, about 30 miles east of Manhattan. If Trump attached the Nassau County address to Trump Tower payments that should otherwise have qualified for income, payroll or occupancy taxes in Manhattan, and did not make that clear — or actively concealed it, possibly with a second bank account — that, experts say, could amount to fraud.
Another possibility is that Trump is using the Hicksville address to hide portions of rent income, which could give him a property tax advantage in the city, where appraisers tie income to property value and tax.
"Given the jurisdiction of the Manhattan D.A., a tax fraud charge makes total sense if manipulated rental income results in a lower real property tax assessment," a New York City tax attorney told Salon.
A corporate accountant told Salon that if Trump has expenses "that should be allocated to the Trump Organization, but are paid outside to another entity, like Trump Tower Commercial, less expenses means more income — so he could inflate the value to make himself look much wealthier than he is."
It turns out that the campaign didn't only expense its rent there. It also spent payroll.
In the 2016 election cycle, federal filings show, the Trump campaign paid then-candidate Trump's personal bodyguard Keith Schiller $2,574 a week, occasionally a little more. Trump would make those payments himself, routed through payroll at Trump Tower Commercial LLC in Hicksville, and the campaign would reimburse him.
Schiller, however, was unique. Trump had a number of Trump Organization employees on the campaign payroll at one time or another. Hope Hicks, for instance, or the Trump Organization's chief legal officer, Allen Garten. None of those people, however, were ever on the Trump Tower Commercial LLC payroll. Trump routed their campaign salary through Trump Payroll Corp., which he also owned.
When Schiller went to work at the White House, he told the U.S. government in his financial disclosures that he had been paid $160,000 a year by the Trump Organization. He also said the campaign had paid him $70,000, when campaign filings indicate he made much more than that. What's more, those filings also indicate that Schiller was not on the Trump Organization payroll, but specifically on the payroll at Trump Tower Commercial LLC.
This makes a difference. At the time, Trump Tower Commercial was owned by Donald Trump personally, according to his 2015 and 2016 financial disclosures. This is a unique thing in TrumpWorld: Trump Tower Manhattan (or Hicksville) was all his.
(Well, along with any "silent partners" in the four Trump-owned entities between which Trump Tower was split. One of those was an obscure entity called Tipperary Realty Corp., which is owned by Donald Trump but lists his son, Eric, as CEO. Nothing in TrumpWorld is ever simple, an insider told Salon, but if anything is strange, it's intentional.)
Schiller wasn't the only person the Trump campaign paid through Trump Tower Commercial payroll. FEC records show that Trump's longtime personal driver Noel Cintron — who sued Trump for years of unpaid overtime shortly after he took office in 2017 — also at one point took campaign money routed through Hicksville. So did Trump Tower security chief Bert Mentor. Notably, both Cintron and former Trump Tower porter Rakhim Urazov sued Trump Tower Commercial — not the Trump Organization — for their lost overtime, eventually settling out of court.
"It appears that Trump had only certain employees on the Trump Tower Commercial payroll, rather than the Trump Organization's," campaign finance and government ethics law expert Brett Kappel told Salon. "Employees like Keith Schiller, his personal driver, the night security guard at Trump Tower — employees in a position to know embarrassing and possibly incriminating information about Trump."
It could also be that the story of the wandering rent checks is no big deal. One corporate accountant told Salon that the location of the payments did not raise any flags for him, and that outside of misrepresenting income, the arrangement appears benign.
Trump could be actively trying to keep this one entity — his flagship building — clear of any dirt. If so, that would seem to require a lot of legwork.
"Regular businesses don't run like Trump businesses," Jordan Libowtiz, of the government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told Salon. "If he's hiding something, he's doing a pretty good job of hiding it. And if he's not hiding something, he's doing a good job of making it look like he is."
New York City tax assessors consider income when they calculate the taxable value of commercial properties, making New York property tax filings resemble those of income taxes more than property tax filings typically do in other parts of the country. Trump Tower tax filings reviewed by ProPublica showed small discrepancies in terms of income.
In other words, a New York City tax attorney told Salon, the Hicksville setup might not be about falsifying tax records, but falsifying business records — also a subject of Vance's subpoenas.
"The whole thing is a lie perpetrated by Trump and [Trump Organization CFO] Allen Weisselberg, who concocted a method to defray the salary costs of the Trump Organization and shift them to the campaign, on the backs of donations from unsuspecting supporters," said a source with knowledge of the payment arrangements.
It may be worth noting that the first of Trump's infamous checks to former personal attorney and "fixer" Michael Cohen — reimbursing the $131,000 in hush money paid out to adult film star Stormy Daniels — weren't signed by Trump himself, but by Weisselberg and Donald Trump Jr. The president began writing those checks from his personal account only a few months into his term. Before doing that, however, he quietly gained access to the trust into which he had put all his assets, as a symbolic promise to the American people that he could be trusted.
The Trump campaign has rented office space at Trump Tower, off and on, since Donald Trump first announced his candidacy in June 2015. Exactly how much space the campaign actually uses in the landmark Fifth Avenue building is unclear. FEC filings show that the rent started around $35,000 a month, then jumped over the $100,000 mark after Trump won the 2016 Republican nomination, before settling at its current rate of $37,541.67 a month, or about $450,500 a year. Sometimes the rent spikes, for reasons that are difficult to understand.
But while the campaign's payments go to Trump Tower Commercial LLC, the business operation behind Trump Tower — and ultimately to Trump himself — they don't always go to Trump Tower. Federal Election Commission records show that most of those checks have been sent to P.O. Box 1926 in Hicksville, which is a suburban town in central Nassau County, just south of Oyster Bay on the affluent North Shore of Long Island.
The Hicksville post office box has been described by Trump money watchers as the "white whale" of Trump's financial dealings. It is, in a word, bizarre — even by Trump standards. (The campaign did not reply to multiple specific requests for comment.) It's unclear whether other Trump Tower commercial tenants, such as the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, for instance, send their rent checks to Hicksville, or if they pay at the building itself — as the campaign itself did, for a while.
In the early days of the campaign, however, it wasn't just rent — some of the Trump campaign's payroll also went through Trump Tower Commercial LLC, but apparently to a certain type of employee.
But even given that confusing history, FEC filings show that 2020 is turning out to be an exceptional year in terms of the destination of the Trump campaign's rent checks to Trump Tower Commercial LLC.
In 2015, 2016 and 2017, all rent checks all went to the Hicksville address. The rent payments stopped after September 2017, but resumed in 2018, the year after the Trump tax bill passed, and the same year that the campaign also took up offices in Rosslyn, Virginia. All rent checks in that year, 2018, went upstairs to the accountants in Trump Tower. But in the first half of 2019, the checks went back to Hicksville. Then, in the second half of that year, they once again went to Trump Tower.
The pattern grew even more erratic in 2020. This year, public filings show, the campaign has so far sent six of its eight rent checks to Hicksville — the two outliers being April and May, when the coronavirus ravaged the city and the checks went to Trump Tower, in Manhattan.
Interviews with state income tax and commercial property tax experts familiar with the workings of New York city and state yielded bafflement: Comments included, "Totally bizarre," "No idea," "I've never seen something like that" and "Holy shit, that's absolutely weird."
Vance's announcement this week that his office is investigating Trump for criminal tax fraud and misrepresenting business records might throw the Hicksville mystery in a new light.
Vance is the district attorney of New York County, which is the same thing as the borough of Manhattan. He has no jurisdiction anywhere else. So if Vance is investigating Trump for tax fraud, he must believe that Trump defrauded Manhattan authorities in a unique way — through either school, income or property taxes. While New York state Attorney General Letitia James is also interested in Trump's taxes, she has not announced a similar criminal tax fraud investigation. And there is, as far as public records show, no federal investigation into Trump's taxes.
Hicksville is in Nassau County, about 30 miles east of Manhattan. If Trump attached the Nassau County address to Trump Tower payments that should otherwise have qualified for income, payroll or occupancy taxes in Manhattan, and did not make that clear — or actively concealed it, possibly with a second bank account — that, experts say, could amount to fraud.
Another possibility is that Trump is using the Hicksville address to hide portions of rent income, which could give him a property tax advantage in the city, where appraisers tie income to property value and tax.
"Given the jurisdiction of the Manhattan D.A., a tax fraud charge makes total sense if manipulated rental income results in a lower real property tax assessment," a New York City tax attorney told Salon.
A corporate accountant told Salon that if Trump has expenses "that should be allocated to the Trump Organization, but are paid outside to another entity, like Trump Tower Commercial, less expenses means more income — so he could inflate the value to make himself look much wealthier than he is."
It turns out that the campaign didn't only expense its rent there. It also spent payroll.
In the 2016 election cycle, federal filings show, the Trump campaign paid then-candidate Trump's personal bodyguard Keith Schiller $2,574 a week, occasionally a little more. Trump would make those payments himself, routed through payroll at Trump Tower Commercial LLC in Hicksville, and the campaign would reimburse him.
Schiller, however, was unique. Trump had a number of Trump Organization employees on the campaign payroll at one time or another. Hope Hicks, for instance, or the Trump Organization's chief legal officer, Allen Garten. None of those people, however, were ever on the Trump Tower Commercial LLC payroll. Trump routed their campaign salary through Trump Payroll Corp., which he also owned.
When Schiller went to work at the White House, he told the U.S. government in his financial disclosures that he had been paid $160,000 a year by the Trump Organization. He also said the campaign had paid him $70,000, when campaign filings indicate he made much more than that. What's more, those filings also indicate that Schiller was not on the Trump Organization payroll, but specifically on the payroll at Trump Tower Commercial LLC.
This makes a difference. At the time, Trump Tower Commercial was owned by Donald Trump personally, according to his 2015 and 2016 financial disclosures. This is a unique thing in TrumpWorld: Trump Tower Manhattan (or Hicksville) was all his.
(Well, along with any "silent partners" in the four Trump-owned entities between which Trump Tower was split. One of those was an obscure entity called Tipperary Realty Corp., which is owned by Donald Trump but lists his son, Eric, as CEO. Nothing in TrumpWorld is ever simple, an insider told Salon, but if anything is strange, it's intentional.)
Schiller wasn't the only person the Trump campaign paid through Trump Tower Commercial payroll. FEC records show that Trump's longtime personal driver Noel Cintron — who sued Trump for years of unpaid overtime shortly after he took office in 2017 — also at one point took campaign money routed through Hicksville. So did Trump Tower security chief Bert Mentor. Notably, both Cintron and former Trump Tower porter Rakhim Urazov sued Trump Tower Commercial — not the Trump Organization — for their lost overtime, eventually settling out of court.
"It appears that Trump had only certain employees on the Trump Tower Commercial payroll, rather than the Trump Organization's," campaign finance and government ethics law expert Brett Kappel told Salon. "Employees like Keith Schiller, his personal driver, the night security guard at Trump Tower — employees in a position to know embarrassing and possibly incriminating information about Trump."
It could also be that the story of the wandering rent checks is no big deal. One corporate accountant told Salon that the location of the payments did not raise any flags for him, and that outside of misrepresenting income, the arrangement appears benign.
Trump could be actively trying to keep this one entity — his flagship building — clear of any dirt. If so, that would seem to require a lot of legwork.
"Regular businesses don't run like Trump businesses," Jordan Libowtiz, of the government watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), told Salon. "If he's hiding something, he's doing a pretty good job of hiding it. And if he's not hiding something, he's doing a good job of making it look like he is."
New York City tax assessors consider income when they calculate the taxable value of commercial properties, making New York property tax filings resemble those of income taxes more than property tax filings typically do in other parts of the country. Trump Tower tax filings reviewed by ProPublica showed small discrepancies in terms of income.
In other words, a New York City tax attorney told Salon, the Hicksville setup might not be about falsifying tax records, but falsifying business records — also a subject of Vance's subpoenas.
"The whole thing is a lie perpetrated by Trump and [Trump Organization CFO] Allen Weisselberg, who concocted a method to defray the salary costs of the Trump Organization and shift them to the campaign, on the backs of donations from unsuspecting supporters," said a source with knowledge of the payment arrangements.
It may be worth noting that the first of Trump's infamous checks to former personal attorney and "fixer" Michael Cohen — reimbursing the $131,000 in hush money paid out to adult film star Stormy Daniels — weren't signed by Trump himself, but by Weisselberg and Donald Trump Jr. The president began writing those checks from his personal account only a few months into his term. Before doing that, however, he quietly gained access to the trust into which he had put all his assets, as a symbolic promise to the American people that he could be trusted.
proof of stupidity!!!
trump is not only the stupidest person in the headlines!
Anti-masker doctor flashes gun during video chat: ‘I’d rather be carrying a gun than masking up’
---
GOP senator openly hopes Supreme Court battle will distract voters from 200,000 COVID-19 deaths
“Either the election can be about Trump, or about COVID or about the Supreme Court,” Sen. Lamar Alexander says
---
Exclusive: GOP Sen. Thom Tillis embraced QAnon conspiracy about COVID-19 death count in town hall
"When the final accounting is done," the actual death COVID-19 count will be lower, Tillis claims
Couple calls cops on Black teacher for taking photos for her online classroom
September 23, 2020
By Sky Palma - RAW STORY
On August 14, an altercation took place at Red Hawk Elementary School in Temecula, California, where physical education teacher Tiffany Suetos apparently was taking photos for her online classroom when she was confronted by a couple who lived nearby, the Valley News reports.
According to a police report, a woman confronted Suetos, who is Black, and said she “exited her residence and requested to know the reason why Suetos was on school grounds, her name, and requested to know if she was an employee of the district.” The woman reportedly thought Suetos was taking pictures of her home.
Suetos said the couple continued to interrogate her, yelling at her from their property. Suetos told them she she was a teacher at the school and then left the area and told another school employee about the incident. After speaking to a school resource officer and the principal about the incident, she said that she could find no reason for the confrontation other than the fact that she is Black. According to Valley News, the woman told police that “there had been burglaries in the neighborhood, and she did not see any form of identification on Suetos.” The couple told the outlet that they simply felt they were protecting their neighborhood.
The couple also said they felt “intimidated” because someone had recently wrote “Black Lives Matter” in chalk in front of their home.
But Suetos thinks there’s something more sinister at play.
“There are racist people within every ethnicity, within every culture, and just because this happened to them, which my heart goes out to them, that doesn’t negate the fact that they reacted off of pure perception and unknowing bias when they saw me, and that perception in turn, it turned into action, which is why they continued to yell,” Suetos said. “So this implicit bias, this unknown bias they had when they saw me, they made this connection that I’m a burglar.”
Six days after the incident, a group of Temecula Valley Unified educators organized a protest outside the school to show their support for her.
Suetos said she’s not angry at the couple.
“With that said, I still forgive them,” Suetos said. “I don’t think that they’re racist, but I also don’t think that they realized the connection that they made, whether it was consciously or unconsciously, when they looked at me and they saw me and assumed that I was a burglar.”
According to a police report, a woman confronted Suetos, who is Black, and said she “exited her residence and requested to know the reason why Suetos was on school grounds, her name, and requested to know if she was an employee of the district.” The woman reportedly thought Suetos was taking pictures of her home.
Suetos said the couple continued to interrogate her, yelling at her from their property. Suetos told them she she was a teacher at the school and then left the area and told another school employee about the incident. After speaking to a school resource officer and the principal about the incident, she said that she could find no reason for the confrontation other than the fact that she is Black. According to Valley News, the woman told police that “there had been burglaries in the neighborhood, and she did not see any form of identification on Suetos.” The couple told the outlet that they simply felt they were protecting their neighborhood.
The couple also said they felt “intimidated” because someone had recently wrote “Black Lives Matter” in chalk in front of their home.
But Suetos thinks there’s something more sinister at play.
“There are racist people within every ethnicity, within every culture, and just because this happened to them, which my heart goes out to them, that doesn’t negate the fact that they reacted off of pure perception and unknowing bias when they saw me, and that perception in turn, it turned into action, which is why they continued to yell,” Suetos said. “So this implicit bias, this unknown bias they had when they saw me, they made this connection that I’m a burglar.”
Six days after the incident, a group of Temecula Valley Unified educators organized a protest outside the school to show their support for her.
Suetos said she’s not angry at the couple.
“With that said, I still forgive them,” Suetos said. “I don’t think that they’re racist, but I also don’t think that they realized the connection that they made, whether it was consciously or unconsciously, when they looked at me and they saw me and assumed that I was a burglar.”
"A psychopath": Psychologists call Trump the "most psychiatrically disordered president in history"
"He must be stopped before it is too late,” psychologists Alan D. Blotcky and Seth D. Norrholm warn Americans
ALEX HENDERSON -salon
SEPTEMBER 25, 2020 3:58PM (UTC)
President Donald Trump's niece, Mary Trump, has had a lot to say about his mental health this summer, telling CNN, for example, that her uncle is a "psychologically deeply damaged man." But psychologists Alan D. Blotcky and Seth D. Norrholm are even more blunt in an op-ed published by the New York Daily News this week: they describe him as a "psychopath" and "the most psychiatrically disordered president in history."
"It is time to stop relying on political pundits to weigh in on Trump's behavior, which they often soften and even normalize," Blotcky and Norrholm write. "We are psychologists, and we are convinced Donald Trump is a psychopath. His malignant behavior over the past four years is growing and escalating right before our eyes. Trump's psychopathy will change us forever if he is not stopped."
Blotcky is a clinical psychologist in Birmingham, Alabama, while Norrholm is on the faculty at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit.
The psychologists offer a long list of reasons why they believe that Trump "may well destroy our 244-year-old democracy" if he isn't voted out of office in November and why they believe his "mental health" is in such a terrible state. Trump, they write, not only "breaks norms, rules and laws with impunity" and "peddles fake conspiracy theories and irrational magical thinking" — he also "blames, scapegoats and gaslights as easily as he breathes" and "undermines the vital role of the free press, because he abhors oversight and accountability."
In addition to those things, the psychologists write in their op-ed, Trump "has no conscience" and "denigrates and humiliates anyone and everyone in his path."
"He has no respect for military heroes or renowned experts," Blotcky and Norrholm say of Trump. "He is racist and xenophobic. He incites violence and culture wars. He is obsessed with power and adoration. He is a greedy opportunist. He is corrupt to the core."
The psychologists add that because Trump is "desperate to win re-election," he has gone to a variety of dangerous extremes to accomplish that — for example, he "compromised the Postal Service" and "is letting the Russians intervene on his behalf in this election."
"Donald Trump is dishonest and destructive and evil," Blotcky and Norrholm warn. "He has become (emboldened) and empowered by the complicity of his Republican sycophants. Sadly, he now believes he is destined to carry on his mission. He feels unstoppable. And he must be stopped before it is too late."
"It is time to stop relying on political pundits to weigh in on Trump's behavior, which they often soften and even normalize," Blotcky and Norrholm write. "We are psychologists, and we are convinced Donald Trump is a psychopath. His malignant behavior over the past four years is growing and escalating right before our eyes. Trump's psychopathy will change us forever if he is not stopped."
Blotcky is a clinical psychologist in Birmingham, Alabama, while Norrholm is on the faculty at Wayne State University School of Medicine in Detroit.
The psychologists offer a long list of reasons why they believe that Trump "may well destroy our 244-year-old democracy" if he isn't voted out of office in November and why they believe his "mental health" is in such a terrible state. Trump, they write, not only "breaks norms, rules and laws with impunity" and "peddles fake conspiracy theories and irrational magical thinking" — he also "blames, scapegoats and gaslights as easily as he breathes" and "undermines the vital role of the free press, because he abhors oversight and accountability."
In addition to those things, the psychologists write in their op-ed, Trump "has no conscience" and "denigrates and humiliates anyone and everyone in his path."
"He has no respect for military heroes or renowned experts," Blotcky and Norrholm say of Trump. "He is racist and xenophobic. He incites violence and culture wars. He is obsessed with power and adoration. He is a greedy opportunist. He is corrupt to the core."
The psychologists add that because Trump is "desperate to win re-election," he has gone to a variety of dangerous extremes to accomplish that — for example, he "compromised the Postal Service" and "is letting the Russians intervene on his behalf in this election."
"Donald Trump is dishonest and destructive and evil," Blotcky and Norrholm warn. "He has become (emboldened) and empowered by the complicity of his Republican sycophants. Sadly, he now believes he is destined to carry on his mission. He feels unstoppable. And he must be stopped before it is too late."
Trump official removed after illegally serving 424 days as head of the Bureau of Land Management: report
September 25, 2020
By Bob Brigham - RAW STORY
Yet another Donald Trump official has found himself in trouble with the law for running a federal agency without Senate confirmation.
“federal judge ruled Friday that the Trump administration’s leading steward of public lands has been serving unlawfully and has blocked him from continuing in the position. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris said U.S. Bureau of Land Management acting director William Perry Pendley served unlawfully for 424 days without being confirmed to the post by the U.S. Senate,” the Associated Press reported Friday.
BLM was sued by Gov. Steve Bullock (D-MT), who is challenging Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) in the 2020 election.
“Pendley’s position as acting director was one of several major leadership roles that the Trump administration has sought to fill through temporary appointments and without going through the normal confirmation process.
Trump said he was nominating Pendley in June. But the nomination was withdrawn earlier this month after the confirmation process threatened to become contentious, potentially disrupting key U.S. Senate races in Colorado and Montana, where Bullock is seeking to unseat incumbent Republican Steve Daines,” the Associated Press reported. “But Pendley continued to hang on to the post, under an arrangement that Pendley himself set up months ago. In a May 22 order, Pendley made his own position, deputy director, the bureau’s top post while the director’s office is vacant.”
Read the full report.
“federal judge ruled Friday that the Trump administration’s leading steward of public lands has been serving unlawfully and has blocked him from continuing in the position. U.S. District Judge Brian Morris said U.S. Bureau of Land Management acting director William Perry Pendley served unlawfully for 424 days without being confirmed to the post by the U.S. Senate,” the Associated Press reported Friday.
BLM was sued by Gov. Steve Bullock (D-MT), who is challenging Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT) in the 2020 election.
“Pendley’s position as acting director was one of several major leadership roles that the Trump administration has sought to fill through temporary appointments and without going through the normal confirmation process.
Trump said he was nominating Pendley in June. But the nomination was withdrawn earlier this month after the confirmation process threatened to become contentious, potentially disrupting key U.S. Senate races in Colorado and Montana, where Bullock is seeking to unseat incumbent Republican Steve Daines,” the Associated Press reported. “But Pendley continued to hang on to the post, under an arrangement that Pendley himself set up months ago. In a May 22 order, Pendley made his own position, deputy director, the bureau’s top post while the director’s office is vacant.”
Read the full report.
Appeals Court slaps aside Trump lawyers’ latest ‘highly contrived’ attempt to hide the president’s taxes
September 25, 2020
By Tom Boggioni - RAW STORY
According to a report from the New York Daily News, the 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals is quickly running out of patience with Donald Trump’s lawyers who are attempting keep Manhattan District Attorney Cy Vance from having access to the president’s taxes.
Noting that “the three judges on the panel appeared deeply skeptical of arguments by Trump attorney William Consovoy,” the Daily News reports that Judge Pierre Leval called Trump’s attacks against Vance “deeply contrived.”
The report states, “Perhaps most significantly for Trump, Leval indicated that the only thing stopping Vance from enforcing his subpoena on Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars, was Vance himself. The DA has agreed with Trump to delay enforcement of the demand while Trump pursued appeals. The judge requested further briefing on the issue.”
Judge Robert Katzmann also piled on the president for claiming the the grand jury Vance is using to investigate the Trump Organization should be limited in scope, telling the president’s attorney, “Grand juries, as you know, are given broad authority to do their work. Are you asking us to change the way grand juries have done their work for time immemorial just because someone is President of the United States?”
You can read more here.
Noting that “the three judges on the panel appeared deeply skeptical of arguments by Trump attorney William Consovoy,” the Daily News reports that Judge Pierre Leval called Trump’s attacks against Vance “deeply contrived.”
The report states, “Perhaps most significantly for Trump, Leval indicated that the only thing stopping Vance from enforcing his subpoena on Trump’s accounting firm, Mazars, was Vance himself. The DA has agreed with Trump to delay enforcement of the demand while Trump pursued appeals. The judge requested further briefing on the issue.”
Judge Robert Katzmann also piled on the president for claiming the the grand jury Vance is using to investigate the Trump Organization should be limited in scope, telling the president’s attorney, “Grand juries, as you know, are given broad authority to do their work. Are you asking us to change the way grand juries have done their work for time immemorial just because someone is President of the United States?”
You can read more here.
‘I feel sorry for Americans’ — The world grieves for the US because of Trump’s disastrous presidency
September 25, 2020
By Alex Henderson, AlterNet
Reading non-U.S. publications is an excellent way to gauge what other countries are thinking about life in the United States under the Trump Administration. But U.S. publications sometimes address that subject as well, and New York Times reporter Hannah Beech — in an article published this week — takes an in-depth look at non-U.S. reactions to the effects that the coronavirus pandemic and other crises are having in the U.S.
From Canada to Myanmar, Beech reports, much of the world feels badly for Americans in light of how deadly COVID-19 has been in the United States — which leads the world in deaths from the novel coronavirus.
Mike Bradley, mayor of the Canadian town Sarnia, told the Times, “Personally, it’s like watching the decline of the Roman Empire.” And U Myint Oo, a member of Myanmar’s parliament, spoke to the Times as well, saying, “I feel sorry for Americans, but we can’t help the U.S. because we are a very small country.”
U Aung Thu Nyein, a political analyst in Myanmar, told the Times, “The USA is a First World country, but it is acting like a Third World country.”
Beech reports that much of the world is also shocked to hear President Donald Trump talking like the leader of a banana republic and saying that he might not accept the election results if former Vice President Joe Biden wins in November.
Kiryl Kalbasnikau, a 29-year-old opposition activist in Belarus, told the Times, “It reminds me of Belarus, when a person cannot admit defeat and looks for any means to prove that he couldn’t lose. This would be a warning sign for any democracy.”
In Mexico, Eduardo Bohórquez, director of the organization Transparency International Mexico, expressed major concerns about Mexico’s neighbor to the north.
Bohórquez told the Times, “We used to look to the U.S. for democratic governance inspiration. Sadly, this is not the case anymore.”
From Canada to Myanmar, Beech reports, much of the world feels badly for Americans in light of how deadly COVID-19 has been in the United States — which leads the world in deaths from the novel coronavirus.
Mike Bradley, mayor of the Canadian town Sarnia, told the Times, “Personally, it’s like watching the decline of the Roman Empire.” And U Myint Oo, a member of Myanmar’s parliament, spoke to the Times as well, saying, “I feel sorry for Americans, but we can’t help the U.S. because we are a very small country.”
U Aung Thu Nyein, a political analyst in Myanmar, told the Times, “The USA is a First World country, but it is acting like a Third World country.”
Beech reports that much of the world is also shocked to hear President Donald Trump talking like the leader of a banana republic and saying that he might not accept the election results if former Vice President Joe Biden wins in November.
Kiryl Kalbasnikau, a 29-year-old opposition activist in Belarus, told the Times, “It reminds me of Belarus, when a person cannot admit defeat and looks for any means to prove that he couldn’t lose. This would be a warning sign for any democracy.”
In Mexico, Eduardo Bohórquez, director of the organization Transparency International Mexico, expressed major concerns about Mexico’s neighbor to the north.
Bohórquez told the Times, “We used to look to the U.S. for democratic governance inspiration. Sadly, this is not the case anymore.”
AND WE STILL HAVE "UNDECIDED" VOTERS??
Trump's Chief Of Staff Bashes His Own FBI Director For Not Lying About Non-Existent Voter Fraud
Mark Meadows attacks Christopher Wray for not lying enough on behalf of the so-called president.
By John Amato - crooks & liars
9/25/20 8:36am
Mark Meadows, Donald Trump's Chief of Staff, attacked their own FBI director this morning for testifying that the FBI has not seen any kind of voter fraud "by mail or otherwise."
Christopher Wray testified to the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday.
And it appeared as though MarkMeadows was swallowing some bleach to cure COVID19 in response.
At the hearing, Wray responded to a question on the security of mail-in voting by saying that the agency has "not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it's by mail or otherwise."
Certainly to change a federal election outcome by mounting that kind of fraud at scale would be a major challenge for an adversary," Wray said, adding that the FBI would "investigate seriously" any issue with widespread fraud by mail.
That is like Kryptonite to the Trump administration. Their efforts to "win" the 2020 election have included destroying the US Post Office's ability to handle increased mail in ballots and to attempt to delegitimize any mail-in voting in order to declare Trump the winner.
Earlier today on CBS This Morning, Mark Meadows bashed the FBI Director for his testimony:
“With all due respect to Director Wray, he has a hard time finding emails in his own FBI, let alone figuring out whether there’s any kind of voter fraud,” Meadows said.
In other words (Even though Trump hires only the best people) Trump has installed an unqualified, unserious and bumbling dweeb to run the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Mar - 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸Just wear a mask! 😷
@thelittlelotus
Replying to @kaitlancollins
Director Wray was under oath...Mark Meadows is under Trump. We know who tells the truth and who is lying. I will never forget Mark Meadows saying multiple times he was going to send our sitting President Barack Obama back to Kenya and he KNEW that was a lie.
4:22 AM · Sep 25, 2020
Christopher Wray testified to the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday.
And it appeared as though MarkMeadows was swallowing some bleach to cure COVID19 in response.
At the hearing, Wray responded to a question on the security of mail-in voting by saying that the agency has "not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it's by mail or otherwise."
Certainly to change a federal election outcome by mounting that kind of fraud at scale would be a major challenge for an adversary," Wray said, adding that the FBI would "investigate seriously" any issue with widespread fraud by mail.
That is like Kryptonite to the Trump administration. Their efforts to "win" the 2020 election have included destroying the US Post Office's ability to handle increased mail in ballots and to attempt to delegitimize any mail-in voting in order to declare Trump the winner.
Earlier today on CBS This Morning, Mark Meadows bashed the FBI Director for his testimony:
“With all due respect to Director Wray, he has a hard time finding emails in his own FBI, let alone figuring out whether there’s any kind of voter fraud,” Meadows said.
In other words (Even though Trump hires only the best people) Trump has installed an unqualified, unserious and bumbling dweeb to run the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
Mar - 🇺🇸🇺🇸🇺🇸Just wear a mask! 😷
@thelittlelotus
Replying to @kaitlancollins
Director Wray was under oath...Mark Meadows is under Trump. We know who tells the truth and who is lying. I will never forget Mark Meadows saying multiple times he was going to send our sitting President Barack Obama back to Kenya and he KNEW that was a lie.
4:22 AM · Sep 25, 2020
|
|
GOP Lawsuit to Repeal the ACA Would Give Huge Tax Cut to the Richest Americans
BY Igor Derysh, Salon - truthout
PUBLISHED September 25, 2020
The Republican lawsuit that seeks to strike down the Affordable Care Act would save the richest one-tenth of 1 percent of Americans an average of $198,000 per year, according to an analysis by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.
The case, which was initiated by 18 state attorneys general and backed by the Trump administration, is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court a week after the November election. A Texas judge ruled in 2018 that the entire Obamacare law was unconstitutional, after the Republican-led Congress eliminated the individual mandate penalty in its 2017 tax bill and an appeals court then sent the case back for the judge to decide whether the entire law needed to be struck down.
Legal experts have called the idea that the individual mandate rendered the entire law unconstitutional “ridiculous” and a “mockery of the rule of law.” But conservatives currently hold a 5-3 majority on the Supreme Court, which could soon swell to a 6-3 majority if President Trump successfully replaces the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, putting the fate of the law and health coverage and protections for tens of millions of Americans in doubt.
Repealing Obamacare would be a boon for the richest Americans, however, because of the taxes imposed by the law. Obamacare imposed a 0.9% tax on earnings over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples, along with an additional 3.8% tax on unearned income like capital gains and royalties. The analysis also includes other Obamacare revenue streams, like a $2.8 billion annual fee on pharmaceutical companies and the law’s employer mandate. These taxes were used to cover the cost of the Medicaid expansion and subsidies for those buying health care on the exchanges created by the law.
The top 0.1% of earners, who make more than $3 million per year, would see a tax savings of about $198,000 per year, according to the CBPP analysis. Households earning more than $1 million per year would get tax cuts of about $42,000 per year.
Households in the bottom 80% would see average tax cuts of less than $80 a year. The top 0.1% would receive 42% of the tax benefits from the law’s repeal.
Tax cuts for households with incomes above $200,000 per year would cost the government about $30 billion per year, enough to cover the cost of the Medicaid expansion for more than 4 million people, according to the analysis.
“In effect, the Administration and the state attorneys general are seeking a massive transfer of resources from low- and moderate-income people to those at the top of the income scale,” the CBPP researchers wrote. “The lawsuit would also widen racial gaps, with Black and Hispanic people disproportionately likely to lose health coverage and the overwhelming share of the tax cuts flowing to white people.”
Based on estimates from the Urban Institute, the analysis found that nearly 10% of non-elderly Black people and 10% of Hispanic people would lose health coverage if the law were repealed. About one of every 16 white people would also lose coverage.
“Meanwhile, the tax cuts that would result from striking down the law would flow disproportionately to white households, which are three times likelier than Black or Hispanic households to be in the top 1 percent of the income scale,” the researchers wrote.
The lawsuit was filed after Senate Republicans unsuccessfully tried to repeal Obamacare despite campaigning on the issue for years.
“Repealing ObamaCare has always been about tax cuts for the rich,” Steve Wamhoff, the director of federal tax policy at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, wrote in an op-ed during the repeal push.
An ITEP analysis also found that if Congress had repealed the law’s 3.8% tax on unearned income in 2016, about 90% of the benefits would have gone to the richest 1% of households.
“Opposition to the ACA has always been about opposition to the taxes that were included to finance the expansion of health insurance,” Wamhoff wrote. “No one should be gullible enough to believe that this has changed.”
The case, which was initiated by 18 state attorneys general and backed by the Trump administration, is scheduled to be heard by the Supreme Court a week after the November election. A Texas judge ruled in 2018 that the entire Obamacare law was unconstitutional, after the Republican-led Congress eliminated the individual mandate penalty in its 2017 tax bill and an appeals court then sent the case back for the judge to decide whether the entire law needed to be struck down.
Legal experts have called the idea that the individual mandate rendered the entire law unconstitutional “ridiculous” and a “mockery of the rule of law.” But conservatives currently hold a 5-3 majority on the Supreme Court, which could soon swell to a 6-3 majority if President Trump successfully replaces the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, putting the fate of the law and health coverage and protections for tens of millions of Americans in doubt.
Repealing Obamacare would be a boon for the richest Americans, however, because of the taxes imposed by the law. Obamacare imposed a 0.9% tax on earnings over $200,000 for individuals and $250,000 for couples, along with an additional 3.8% tax on unearned income like capital gains and royalties. The analysis also includes other Obamacare revenue streams, like a $2.8 billion annual fee on pharmaceutical companies and the law’s employer mandate. These taxes were used to cover the cost of the Medicaid expansion and subsidies for those buying health care on the exchanges created by the law.
The top 0.1% of earners, who make more than $3 million per year, would see a tax savings of about $198,000 per year, according to the CBPP analysis. Households earning more than $1 million per year would get tax cuts of about $42,000 per year.
Households in the bottom 80% would see average tax cuts of less than $80 a year. The top 0.1% would receive 42% of the tax benefits from the law’s repeal.
Tax cuts for households with incomes above $200,000 per year would cost the government about $30 billion per year, enough to cover the cost of the Medicaid expansion for more than 4 million people, according to the analysis.
“In effect, the Administration and the state attorneys general are seeking a massive transfer of resources from low- and moderate-income people to those at the top of the income scale,” the CBPP researchers wrote. “The lawsuit would also widen racial gaps, with Black and Hispanic people disproportionately likely to lose health coverage and the overwhelming share of the tax cuts flowing to white people.”
Based on estimates from the Urban Institute, the analysis found that nearly 10% of non-elderly Black people and 10% of Hispanic people would lose health coverage if the law were repealed. About one of every 16 white people would also lose coverage.
“Meanwhile, the tax cuts that would result from striking down the law would flow disproportionately to white households, which are three times likelier than Black or Hispanic households to be in the top 1 percent of the income scale,” the researchers wrote.
The lawsuit was filed after Senate Republicans unsuccessfully tried to repeal Obamacare despite campaigning on the issue for years.
“Repealing ObamaCare has always been about tax cuts for the rich,” Steve Wamhoff, the director of federal tax policy at the left-leaning Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, wrote in an op-ed during the repeal push.
An ITEP analysis also found that if Congress had repealed the law’s 3.8% tax on unearned income in 2016, about 90% of the benefits would have gone to the richest 1% of households.
“Opposition to the ACA has always been about opposition to the taxes that were included to finance the expansion of health insurance,” Wamhoff wrote. “No one should be gullible enough to believe that this has changed.”
Bites from Real News
*9/25/2020*
*Federal judge blocks Texas' elimination of straight-ticket voting
A U.S. district judge has blocked Texas from eliminating straight-ticket voting as an option for people at the polls this November. Straight-ticket voting allows voters to register support for all of their party’s candidates on the ballot with a sin ... (Texas Tribune)
*Ancient microbial life used arsenic to thrive in a world without oxygen
*WALL STREET JOURNAL MANAGES TO FIND A WAY TO BLAME DEMOCRATS FOR TRUMP’S ELECTION THREATS
The newspaper’s right-leaning editorial board published an op-ed Friday dismissing the president’ repeated threats to reject an election loss as just another one of his provocations, and insisted he lacked the necessary support to pull off such a constitutional assault.
*Black Voters in East Baton Rouge Face Continuous Polling Place Changes
Twenty-six percent of Black voters in East Baton Rouge Parish had their polling place changed between the 2012 and 2016 general elections, compared with 15% of white voters in the parish, according to a new analysis of polling place movement by the Center for Public Integrity and Stateline.
*Texas Republicans sue Gov. Greg Abbott to stop extended early voting amid the coronavirus pandemic
It's not the first time Abbott's own party targeted actions he has taken to mitigate coronavirus outbreaks
*The COVID-19 Charmer: How a Self-Described Felon Convinced Elected Officials to Try to Help Him Profit From the Pandemic
In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic when testing supplies were limited, local politicians went to great lengths to help a businessman with a criminal past try to sell telehealth and COVID-19 services across Texas. This is their story.
*Dianne Feinstein's husband named in UC admissions scandal, wrote 'inappropriate' letters for years
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein’s husband finds himself in the middle of the latest University of California admissions scandal, accused in a state audit of improperly using his clout to help an applicant get into the elite public system. But Richard Blum ... (San Francisco Chronicle)
*WASHINGTON CONGRESSIONAL RACE LAYS BARE DEMOCRATIC DIVIDE ON TACKLING CLIMATE CRISIS
THE OUTCOME OF THE RACE WILL SAY MUCH ABOUT WHAT KIND OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY WILL BE CONFRONTING CLIMATE CHANGE IN THE YEARS AHEAD.
*HOW THE PROTESTS UPENDED PORTLAND’S MAYORAL RACE
*JUST LIKE DRUGS: A neuroscientist explains how religious fundamentalism hijacks the brain
...But religious fundamentalism—which refers to the belief in the absolute authority of a religious text or leaders—is almost never good for an individual. This is primarily because fundamentalism discourages any logical reasoning or scientific evidence that challenges its scripture, making it inherently maladaptive.
*Romney Crowns His Hypocrisy by Backing McConnell’s Push to Fill Ginsburg’s Seat Romney has become a parody of himself in allowing Mitch McConnell’s brazen hypocrisy to stand unchallenged.
by William Rivers Pitt, Truthout
*Foreign Hackers Cripple Texas County’s Email System, Raising Election Security Concerns
The malware attack, which sent fake email replies to voters and businesses, spotlights an overlooked vulnerability in counties that don’t follow best practices for computer security.
*Trump’s vaccine czar refuses to give up stock in drug company involved in his government role
*They ‘just want to watch the world burn’: Psychological analysis reveals 14 key traits that explain Trump supporters
These are the people who will stand by his side no matter what scandals come to light, or what sort of evidence for immoral and illegal behavior surfaces.
*New Jersey Law Says Criminal Cops Should Go to Jail. Records Reveal They Often Don’t.
Officers accused of violence, sexual misconduct and more have walked free in deals that dodge a tough sentencing law. Now lawmakers want to eliminate it.
*DEMOCRATS MOCK THE GOP FOR CLIMATE DENIALISM — BUT THEY’RE ADDICTED TO FOSSIL FUEL CASH
SONALI KOLHATKAR / INDEPENDENT MEDIA INSTITUTE
THE RECENT CHORUS OF DEMOCRATIC PARTY LEADERS LINING UP TO DENOUNCE PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP’S CLIMATE SCIENCE DENIAL IS DEAFENING.
*Prehistoric desert footprints are earliest evidence for Homo sapiens on Arabian Peninsula
Humanity originated on the African continent at least 300,000 years ago. We know from fossil evidence in southern Greece and the Levant (modern-day Israel) that some early members of our species expanded beyond Africa around 200,000 years ago, and again between 120,000 to 90,000 years ago.
Attorneys Say Police Shot Dijon Kizzee a Total of 15 Times, Partly from Behind and Also After He Was Down
By Ashley Turner | ATLANTA BLACK STAR
September 24, 2020
Attorneys for the family of Dijon Kizzee have contested the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department’s claim that he pointed a gun at police before he was shot 15 times in Los Angeles last month.
A news conference was held on Tuesday, during which attorney Carl Douglas revealed that an independent autopsy had shown that some of the shots were fired while the 29-year-old was already on the ground. It also indicated that he was not instantly killed by the shooting. Douglas presented a diagram of the body that exhibited every bullet’s entry point.
Douglas stated that the evidence also signified a lack of assistance from the police after the gunfire that led to Kizzee’s last moments.
“What this shows is he was alive and breathing and writhing in pain when the officers continued to stay away,” Douglas said.
The news conference occurred in the wake of a briefing the previous week by Sheriff Alex Villanueva and additional sheriff’s officials who gave their version of events that preceded the Aug. 31 shooting. Protests have persisted in the aftermath, with mainstream media adding additional attention and further fueling the outrage.
According to the sheriff, Kizzee was stopped by two deputies from the South L.A. station after they spotted him riding his bike on the wrong side of the road. Capt. Kent Wegener said Kizzee then made a U-turn and abandoned his bicycle on the ground before running away.
Wegener said that when one of the deputies got close to Kizzee, Kizzee lifted his arms and hit him in the face, after which a pistol fell to the ground.
“He bends over, reaches, picks up the gun and is shot as he stands with the gun in hand,” said Wegener. “You will see that the deputy struggling with Kizzee does not arm himself until Kizzee bends down to pick up the gun he dropped.”
Previously, sheriff’s officials had said that the shooting occurred after Kizzee had let go of a jacket he was holding and a handgun fell to the ground. The next day, the Sheriff’s Department stated Kizzee “made a motion toward” the gun prior to being shot and killed, causing the former account to be at odds with their current statement.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva said about the discrepancy, “It’s not a discrepancy at all — he did make a motion towards the gun. He actually recovered the gun and pointed it at the deputies.
Villanueva said that when deputies are involved in a shooting, they must give a “public safety statement” to their supervisor before having an interview with homicide investigators.
“And that is what’s first presented when they’re trying to give the preliminary information. It’s always subject to change, just like any investigation, and now when we sit down to interview the deputies in detail we get to pick apart the entire thing. And we have a lot clearer picture,” said Villanueva.
A significant portion of the encounter was caught on video, but some aspects of the skirmish before the shooting are hard to see, such as the instance where Wegener said Kizzee grabbed the gun. The scene is partly blocked by a wall, making it difficult to comprehend the situation.
The Sheriff’s department has also released photos of the weapon they said was retrieved from the scene and a video that was recovered from Kizzee’s cellphone showing him with the gun, carrying the identical serial number, in his pocket. Wegener said the gun was reported stolen in Las Vegas in 2017.
Douglas has expressed that he and Kizzee’s family are offended by the “unspoken messages and half-truths” given by the sheriff’s officials. He said witnesses to the shooting have described Kizzee as “standing up, with nothing in his hands when the younger deputy fired his first three shots at him.”
Najee Ali, a community activist who has spoken on behalf of the Kizzee family, said Villanueva’s version of events is discredited by the individuals present at the scene, as well as from current evidence.
“His lies concerning Kizzee are rebuffed by witnesses who were at the scene and saw Kizzee be shot with his hands in the air,” said Ali. “And the tape that Villanueva showed — it doesn’t show Kizzee pointing his gun at anyone.”
A news conference was held on Tuesday, during which attorney Carl Douglas revealed that an independent autopsy had shown that some of the shots were fired while the 29-year-old was already on the ground. It also indicated that he was not instantly killed by the shooting. Douglas presented a diagram of the body that exhibited every bullet’s entry point.
Douglas stated that the evidence also signified a lack of assistance from the police after the gunfire that led to Kizzee’s last moments.
“What this shows is he was alive and breathing and writhing in pain when the officers continued to stay away,” Douglas said.
The news conference occurred in the wake of a briefing the previous week by Sheriff Alex Villanueva and additional sheriff’s officials who gave their version of events that preceded the Aug. 31 shooting. Protests have persisted in the aftermath, with mainstream media adding additional attention and further fueling the outrage.
According to the sheriff, Kizzee was stopped by two deputies from the South L.A. station after they spotted him riding his bike on the wrong side of the road. Capt. Kent Wegener said Kizzee then made a U-turn and abandoned his bicycle on the ground before running away.
Wegener said that when one of the deputies got close to Kizzee, Kizzee lifted his arms and hit him in the face, after which a pistol fell to the ground.
“He bends over, reaches, picks up the gun and is shot as he stands with the gun in hand,” said Wegener. “You will see that the deputy struggling with Kizzee does not arm himself until Kizzee bends down to pick up the gun he dropped.”
Previously, sheriff’s officials had said that the shooting occurred after Kizzee had let go of a jacket he was holding and a handgun fell to the ground. The next day, the Sheriff’s Department stated Kizzee “made a motion toward” the gun prior to being shot and killed, causing the former account to be at odds with their current statement.
Sheriff Alex Villanueva said about the discrepancy, “It’s not a discrepancy at all — he did make a motion towards the gun. He actually recovered the gun and pointed it at the deputies.
Villanueva said that when deputies are involved in a shooting, they must give a “public safety statement” to their supervisor before having an interview with homicide investigators.
“And that is what’s first presented when they’re trying to give the preliminary information. It’s always subject to change, just like any investigation, and now when we sit down to interview the deputies in detail we get to pick apart the entire thing. And we have a lot clearer picture,” said Villanueva.
A significant portion of the encounter was caught on video, but some aspects of the skirmish before the shooting are hard to see, such as the instance where Wegener said Kizzee grabbed the gun. The scene is partly blocked by a wall, making it difficult to comprehend the situation.
The Sheriff’s department has also released photos of the weapon they said was retrieved from the scene and a video that was recovered from Kizzee’s cellphone showing him with the gun, carrying the identical serial number, in his pocket. Wegener said the gun was reported stolen in Las Vegas in 2017.
Douglas has expressed that he and Kizzee’s family are offended by the “unspoken messages and half-truths” given by the sheriff’s officials. He said witnesses to the shooting have described Kizzee as “standing up, with nothing in his hands when the younger deputy fired his first three shots at him.”
Najee Ali, a community activist who has spoken on behalf of the Kizzee family, said Villanueva’s version of events is discredited by the individuals present at the scene, as well as from current evidence.
“His lies concerning Kizzee are rebuffed by witnesses who were at the scene and saw Kizzee be shot with his hands in the air,” said Ali. “And the tape that Villanueva showed — it doesn’t show Kizzee pointing his gun at anyone.”
Trump’s destruction of America started with Reagan
Thom Hartmann / Independent Media Institute - alternet
Donald Trump and his billionaire buddies are letting America die.
The billionaires who make their money from fossil fuels have bought off Trump and Republicans so that they’re denying climate change while a dozen states in the West burn and the Gulf Coast is repeatedly ravaged by hurricanes. Firefighters are using dogs to identify the remains of homes where people died by the smell of burnt human flesh.
The billionaires who make their money screwing American students with almost $2 trillion in student loans bribed politicians in 2005 to make it illegal to declare bankruptcy on those loans. Across America, students are experiencing depression, despair, and suicide.
The billionaires who own millions of rental properties across the country are actively ignoring both legal requirements and morality-based requests, depending on the state, to prevent evictions and are today throwing people out of their homes in the middle of a pandemic.
The billionaires who own Fox News and some of our largest radio networks are facilitating lies about climate change and the coronavirus, both of which are killing people, while these billionaires live in their protected bubbles. They are also stoking racial violence by repeatedly portraying protesters calling for Black equality under the law as terrorists.
Massive tax cuts by Republican presidents (Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump) have transferred fully $50 trillion from the homes and pockets of working people into the money bins and foreign bank accounts of the billionaire class since 1975. As a result, fewer than half of all Americans are still in the middle class, and fear and rage increasingly dominate the American political landscape.
Using that despair and anger people are feeling as they watch their lives be wiped out, their homes destroyed, and their jobs vanish, Trump and the Republican Party are fomenting violence and political instability by trying to scapegoat Black and Brown people. The growing QAnon movement, a rebranding of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion that the Nazis weaponized for political purposes in the 1930s, further asserts that “international Jewish bankers” like George Soros are behind it all, stoking anti-Semitism along with their garden-variety racism.
This all began in the 1980s with the so-called Reagan Revolution, when Reagan dropped the top tax rate from 70 percent to 28 percent and began a vicious, scorched-earth campaign to destroy unions across the country while he and George H.W. Bush authored NAFTA and other free trade agreements.
Reagan even championed the destruction of our public schools and the modern-day Republican rejection of science on everything from the origin of the Earth to climate change. He empowered people like “Christian” billionaire Pat Robertson who argued, at the peak of the AIDS crisis that Reagan refused to acknowledge, that the biggest crisis facing America was homosexuality.
If America is to recover from this hellscape that right-wing billionaires and their bought-off politicians have inflicted on us, it’s going to require a massive, nationwide awakening and a nonstop multiyear effort.
Reaganism needs to be ripped out by the root. His policies of minimizing science, privatizing our public schools, defunding Social Security and social welfare programs, ending support for infrastructure repair and construction, wiping out union protections for working people, and transferring America’s wealth to the billionaire class must be reversed.
Until Reaganism is utterly repudiated and reversed, the crises engulfing America will simply get worse and worse. If Democrats take power in 2021, this must be at the top of the to-do list.
The billionaires who make their money from fossil fuels have bought off Trump and Republicans so that they’re denying climate change while a dozen states in the West burn and the Gulf Coast is repeatedly ravaged by hurricanes. Firefighters are using dogs to identify the remains of homes where people died by the smell of burnt human flesh.
The billionaires who make their money screwing American students with almost $2 trillion in student loans bribed politicians in 2005 to make it illegal to declare bankruptcy on those loans. Across America, students are experiencing depression, despair, and suicide.
The billionaires who own millions of rental properties across the country are actively ignoring both legal requirements and morality-based requests, depending on the state, to prevent evictions and are today throwing people out of their homes in the middle of a pandemic.
The billionaires who own Fox News and some of our largest radio networks are facilitating lies about climate change and the coronavirus, both of which are killing people, while these billionaires live in their protected bubbles. They are also stoking racial violence by repeatedly portraying protesters calling for Black equality under the law as terrorists.
Massive tax cuts by Republican presidents (Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Donald Trump) have transferred fully $50 trillion from the homes and pockets of working people into the money bins and foreign bank accounts of the billionaire class since 1975. As a result, fewer than half of all Americans are still in the middle class, and fear and rage increasingly dominate the American political landscape.
Using that despair and anger people are feeling as they watch their lives be wiped out, their homes destroyed, and their jobs vanish, Trump and the Republican Party are fomenting violence and political instability by trying to scapegoat Black and Brown people. The growing QAnon movement, a rebranding of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion that the Nazis weaponized for political purposes in the 1930s, further asserts that “international Jewish bankers” like George Soros are behind it all, stoking anti-Semitism along with their garden-variety racism.
This all began in the 1980s with the so-called Reagan Revolution, when Reagan dropped the top tax rate from 70 percent to 28 percent and began a vicious, scorched-earth campaign to destroy unions across the country while he and George H.W. Bush authored NAFTA and other free trade agreements.
Reagan even championed the destruction of our public schools and the modern-day Republican rejection of science on everything from the origin of the Earth to climate change. He empowered people like “Christian” billionaire Pat Robertson who argued, at the peak of the AIDS crisis that Reagan refused to acknowledge, that the biggest crisis facing America was homosexuality.
If America is to recover from this hellscape that right-wing billionaires and their bought-off politicians have inflicted on us, it’s going to require a massive, nationwide awakening and a nonstop multiyear effort.
Reaganism needs to be ripped out by the root. His policies of minimizing science, privatizing our public schools, defunding Social Security and social welfare programs, ending support for infrastructure repair and construction, wiping out union protections for working people, and transferring America’s wealth to the billionaire class must be reversed.
Until Reaganism is utterly repudiated and reversed, the crises engulfing America will simply get worse and worse. If Democrats take power in 2021, this must be at the top of the to-do list.
Employers Are Spying on Remote Workers in Their Homes
As the Covid-19 pandemic has forced more people to work from home, employers have begun using digital surveillance technology to increase control and maintain productivity.
STEVEN HILL - IN THESE TIMES
SEPTEMBER 23, 2020
The future of work is here, ushered in by a global pandemic. But is it turning employment into a Workers’ Paradise of working at home? Or more of a Big Brother panopticon?
Disturbing increases in use of digital surveillance technologies by employers to monitor their remote workers is raising alarm bells. With the number of remote workers surging as a result of the pandemic--42% of U.S. workers are now doing their jobs from their kitchens, living rooms and home offices — a number of employers have begun requiring their workers to download spying software to their laptops and smartphones. The goal is for businesses to monitor what their remote employees do all day, and to track job performance and productivity and reduce so-called “cyber-slacking.”
Business software products from Hubstaff, which tracks a worker’s mouse movements, keyboard strokes, webpages visited, email, file transfers and applications used, are surging in sales. So are sales for TSheets, which workers download to their smartphones so that employers can track their location. Another product, called Time Doctor, downloads videos of employees’ screens and uses a computer’s webcam, which can take a picture of the employee every 10 minutes. As one worker who was subjected to Time Doctor told NPR, “If you’re idle for a few minutes, if you go to the bathroom or to the kitchen, a pop-up comes up and says, ‘You have 60 seconds to start working again or we’re going to pause your time.’”
Another system, InterGuard, can be secretly installed on workers’ computers. As the Washington Post notes, it “creates a minute-by-minute timeline of every app and website they view, categorizing each as ‘productive’ or ‘unproductive’ and ranking workers by their ‘productivity score.’” Other employers are using a lower tech approach, requiring workers to stay on a teleconference like Zoom all day so they can be continually watched.
Since the Covid-19 outbreak, one surveillance company, Awareness Technologies, Inc., says it has seen its sales triple. Executives at Hubstaff and Teramind also say demand for their companies’ monitoring products have tripled. One website showing “Employee Monitoring Software in the USA” lists nearly 70 companies with products for sale.
Outdated laws keep it legal
Online surveillance of employees may seem invasive and creepy, but it is a legal practice in the United States. Individual state laws vary over whether companies must inform workers that they’re using tracking software, but in reality “when you’re on your office computer, you have no privacy at all,” Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, told CNBC. “Anything and everything you do is probably monitored by your boss.”
Current laws are vastly outdated, as they are based on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, when the primary form of electronic communication was the telephone. That was a distant time when desktop computers were first becoming popular, and smart phones were not yet a glint in Steve Jobs’ eye.
And now, in response to the coronavirus outbreak, companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Salesforce have developed intrusive applications that enable companies to continuously track the health status of their employees. Often they include a system for tracking contacts between employees within an office, and a mobile app for collecting information about their health status. A number of large U.S. employers, including Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot and Starbucks, are taking the temperatures of their employees before they are allowed to work. Certainly, employers have a legitimate need to collect the necessary data to safeguard their workplaces, especially in response to a pandemic. But what is the appropriate level of “health intrusion”? How voluntary is the participation of workers, and who gets to decide?
The reality of this constant Big Brother digital spying in people’s homes is that dozens of remote workers are starting to complain that they feel burned out by this pressure. A recent Fishbowl survey of major companies’ employees found that three-quarters of those polled were opposed to using an app or device that allows their company to trace their contacts with colleagues. Yet many fear they will be branded as troublemakers or lose their jobs if they speak out. And since remote workers hardly see each other — and increasingly may not even know many of their coworkers — these factors will make labor organizing and collective worker empowerment increasingly challenging.
U.S. labor unions have been slow to advocate for updating these outdated laws. One union, the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, has been working to blunt the worst of the abuses. Labor-friendly media have been missing this story as well. Not only should unions advocate to update the laws and limit digital spying, but why not also demand that home-based workers be compensated by employers for use of their house, utilities and the internet? And that the employer remains responsible to provide equipment and a safe workplace, even in the home?
Remote workforce growth — the new normal?
As the number of remote workers rises, concerns are growing among labor advocates that this is quickly becoming the “new normal.” One survey found that 74% of companies intend to keep some proportion of their workforce on a permanent remote status, with nearly a quarter of respondents saying they will move at least 20% of their on-site employees to permanent remote status. Google, whose parent company is Alphabet, recently announced it will keep its 200,000 full-time and contract employees home until at least July 2021, and Mark Zuckerberg predicts half of Facebook employees will work from home over the next decade. HUB International, a global insurance brokerage, has shifted 90% of its 12,000-plus employees to remote status. Teleperformance, the world’s largest call-center company, estimates that nearly 155,000 of its employees — almost half its global workforce — will not return to a physical worksite. A survey of firms by the Survey of Business Uncertainty found that the share of working days spent at home is expected to increase fourfold from a pre-Covid-19 level of 5 percent to 20%. Post-pandemic, many employees will work from home one to three days a week, and come into the office the rest of the time.
But not all at-home workers are created equal. Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom says “This is generating a time bomb for inequality.” More educated, higher-earning employees are far more likely to work from home, continuing to get paid and advance their careers. But many others are unable to work from home, often because they lack suitable space or fast, affordable internet connections, and they are being left behind. “They face bleak prospects if their skills and work experience erode during an extended shutdown and beyond,” says Bloom.
The future of work has become more uncertain than ever. In this “brave new world,” labor unions and advocates must ensure that the pandemic is not misused by businesses as an excuse to worsen conditions for employees who work out of the office. It is easy to imagine how the lines between ‘remote’ work and ‘platform’ work could blur, leading to more ‘Uberization’ as work devolves into ‘independent’ contracts, bogus self-employment and ‘pay-by-project’ arrangements that can be easily outsourced to remote (and lower cost) destinations.
Worker advocates must push for a strong and modern legal data protection framework. And that should include an effective enforcement system against privacy abuse that creates a disincentive against illegal spying behavior. Remote work should not become a downward slide toward a Big Brother panopticon that penetrates into society ever more deeply, including into our homes.
Disturbing increases in use of digital surveillance technologies by employers to monitor their remote workers is raising alarm bells. With the number of remote workers surging as a result of the pandemic--42% of U.S. workers are now doing their jobs from their kitchens, living rooms and home offices — a number of employers have begun requiring their workers to download spying software to their laptops and smartphones. The goal is for businesses to monitor what their remote employees do all day, and to track job performance and productivity and reduce so-called “cyber-slacking.”
Business software products from Hubstaff, which tracks a worker’s mouse movements, keyboard strokes, webpages visited, email, file transfers and applications used, are surging in sales. So are sales for TSheets, which workers download to their smartphones so that employers can track their location. Another product, called Time Doctor, downloads videos of employees’ screens and uses a computer’s webcam, which can take a picture of the employee every 10 minutes. As one worker who was subjected to Time Doctor told NPR, “If you’re idle for a few minutes, if you go to the bathroom or to the kitchen, a pop-up comes up and says, ‘You have 60 seconds to start working again or we’re going to pause your time.’”
Another system, InterGuard, can be secretly installed on workers’ computers. As the Washington Post notes, it “creates a minute-by-minute timeline of every app and website they view, categorizing each as ‘productive’ or ‘unproductive’ and ranking workers by their ‘productivity score.’” Other employers are using a lower tech approach, requiring workers to stay on a teleconference like Zoom all day so they can be continually watched.
Since the Covid-19 outbreak, one surveillance company, Awareness Technologies, Inc., says it has seen its sales triple. Executives at Hubstaff and Teramind also say demand for their companies’ monitoring products have tripled. One website showing “Employee Monitoring Software in the USA” lists nearly 70 companies with products for sale.
Outdated laws keep it legal
Online surveillance of employees may seem invasive and creepy, but it is a legal practice in the United States. Individual state laws vary over whether companies must inform workers that they’re using tracking software, but in reality “when you’re on your office computer, you have no privacy at all,” Lewis Maltby, president of the National Workrights Institute, told CNBC. “Anything and everything you do is probably monitored by your boss.”
Current laws are vastly outdated, as they are based on the Electronic Communications Privacy Act of 1986, when the primary form of electronic communication was the telephone. That was a distant time when desktop computers were first becoming popular, and smart phones were not yet a glint in Steve Jobs’ eye.
And now, in response to the coronavirus outbreak, companies such as PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and Salesforce have developed intrusive applications that enable companies to continuously track the health status of their employees. Often they include a system for tracking contacts between employees within an office, and a mobile app for collecting information about their health status. A number of large U.S. employers, including Amazon, Walmart, Home Depot and Starbucks, are taking the temperatures of their employees before they are allowed to work. Certainly, employers have a legitimate need to collect the necessary data to safeguard their workplaces, especially in response to a pandemic. But what is the appropriate level of “health intrusion”? How voluntary is the participation of workers, and who gets to decide?
The reality of this constant Big Brother digital spying in people’s homes is that dozens of remote workers are starting to complain that they feel burned out by this pressure. A recent Fishbowl survey of major companies’ employees found that three-quarters of those polled were opposed to using an app or device that allows their company to trace their contacts with colleagues. Yet many fear they will be branded as troublemakers or lose their jobs if they speak out. And since remote workers hardly see each other — and increasingly may not even know many of their coworkers — these factors will make labor organizing and collective worker empowerment increasingly challenging.
U.S. labor unions have been slow to advocate for updating these outdated laws. One union, the United Electrical, Radio, and Machine Workers of America, has been working to blunt the worst of the abuses. Labor-friendly media have been missing this story as well. Not only should unions advocate to update the laws and limit digital spying, but why not also demand that home-based workers be compensated by employers for use of their house, utilities and the internet? And that the employer remains responsible to provide equipment and a safe workplace, even in the home?
Remote workforce growth — the new normal?
As the number of remote workers rises, concerns are growing among labor advocates that this is quickly becoming the “new normal.” One survey found that 74% of companies intend to keep some proportion of their workforce on a permanent remote status, with nearly a quarter of respondents saying they will move at least 20% of their on-site employees to permanent remote status. Google, whose parent company is Alphabet, recently announced it will keep its 200,000 full-time and contract employees home until at least July 2021, and Mark Zuckerberg predicts half of Facebook employees will work from home over the next decade. HUB International, a global insurance brokerage, has shifted 90% of its 12,000-plus employees to remote status. Teleperformance, the world’s largest call-center company, estimates that nearly 155,000 of its employees — almost half its global workforce — will not return to a physical worksite. A survey of firms by the Survey of Business Uncertainty found that the share of working days spent at home is expected to increase fourfold from a pre-Covid-19 level of 5 percent to 20%. Post-pandemic, many employees will work from home one to three days a week, and come into the office the rest of the time.
But not all at-home workers are created equal. Stanford economist Nicholas Bloom says “This is generating a time bomb for inequality.” More educated, higher-earning employees are far more likely to work from home, continuing to get paid and advance their careers. But many others are unable to work from home, often because they lack suitable space or fast, affordable internet connections, and they are being left behind. “They face bleak prospects if their skills and work experience erode during an extended shutdown and beyond,” says Bloom.
The future of work has become more uncertain than ever. In this “brave new world,” labor unions and advocates must ensure that the pandemic is not misused by businesses as an excuse to worsen conditions for employees who work out of the office. It is easy to imagine how the lines between ‘remote’ work and ‘platform’ work could blur, leading to more ‘Uberization’ as work devolves into ‘independent’ contracts, bogus self-employment and ‘pay-by-project’ arrangements that can be easily outsourced to remote (and lower cost) destinations.
Worker advocates must push for a strong and modern legal data protection framework. And that should include an effective enforcement system against privacy abuse that creates a disincentive against illegal spying behavior. Remote work should not become a downward slide toward a Big Brother panopticon that penetrates into society ever more deeply, including into our homes.
|
|
State Dept. Lied About Why It Took Back Woman’s Award (It Was Slightly Mean Tweets About Trump), Says Report
Jamie Ross - Reporter
Published Sep. 25, 2020 9:49AM ET
DAILY BEAST CHEAT SHEET
A State Department internal watchdog has found that the Trump administration lied about why it rescinded an award recognizing the work of a journalist from Finland: Officials feared that some of her tweets about President Donald Trump that were very slightly negative would be embarrassing when discovered by reporters. The Washington Post reports Jessikka Aro was chosen for the State Department’s International Women of Courage Awards in 12019 for her reporting on Russian propaganda activities. But, after she was told she was getting the award, the State Department discovered her posts. One accurately said: “Trump constantly labels journalists as ‘enemy’ and ‘fake news.’” Another noted that Trump and Vladimir Putin were meeting in Helsinki where, she wrote, “Finnish people can protest them both. Sweet.” The award was then taken back, and the department’s press office lied to reporters to say that Aro had been “incorrectly notified” about the honor, the inspector general’s office report states.
Federal Judge Halts Trump Admin Effort to Stop the 2020 Census Count Early
Jamie Ross - Reporter
Updated Sep. 25, 2020 6:23AM ET
DAILY BEAST CHEAT SHEET
A federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from its controversial plan to end the 2020 Census count a month early. In July, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, who oversees the Census Bureau, directed it to speed up counting efforts to end by Sept. 30 instead of the end of October, as originally planned. It was widely seen as an effort to ensure that President Trump is handed results by the end of the year—even if Joe Biden wins the election—so he can control Census figures that will be used to draw thousands of political boundaries nationwide. On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh disrupted that plan, saying it would produce inaccurate numbers—particularly on people of color. Koh’s preliminary injunction requires the bureau to keep counting the population through Oct. 31. The Justice Department is expected to appeal the decision.
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam and Wife Test Positive for Coronavirus
Rachel Olding - Breaking News Editor
Published Sep. 25, 2020 10:06AM ET
DAILY BEAST CHEAT SHEET
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat who has overseen tough coronavirus restrictions in his state, has tested positive for the coronavirus, according to a statement. His wife, Pamela, also contracted the virus. The pair were tested after a staffer in their official residence contracted the highly contagious virus. The governor is said to have no symptoms and his wife has mild symptoms. “Both are in good spirits,” the statement said. Northam is the third governor to contract coronavirus after the Republican governors of Missouri and Oklahoma. He had recently declared the virus “moderately contained” in Virginia and slightly eased restrictions as new cases declined to around 900 per day. “This virus is still alive and well around the commonwealth of Virginia,” Northam said this month. “It is in our hands, it really is. If we follow the guidelines... we can get this virus under control. It can be done, but it’s going to take the cooperation of everybody.”
*What's Inside*
sep 22 - sep 24
✔'FINCEN' REPORTS SAY BIG BANKS MOVED DIRTY MONEY
(CORPORATE CRIMINALS)
*TRUMP-LOVING FORMER REPUBLICAN OFFICIAL WHO HATED FACE MASKS DIES FROM COVID-19
(PAYBACK)
*TRUMP'S OBSESSION WITH "GOOD GENES"
(TRUMP)
*TRUMP & CO. KEEPS HIRING COMPANIES WITH HISTORIES OF RIPPING OFF OUR GOVERNMENT
(CORPORATE CRIMINALS)
✔MOST PLASTIC WILL NEVER BE RECYCLED – AND THE MANUFACTURERS COULDN’T CARE LESS
(ENVIRONMENT)
*SWEDISH SCIENTISTS ARE WORKING ON A RADICAL COVID-19 BLOCKER INVOLVING ALPACAS
(CURRENTS)
*A TRUMP ADMIN RULE CHANGE WOULD ALLOW SHELTERS TO REFUSE TRANS PEOPLE
(RIGHTS)
*FOX NEWS PUNDITS COMPARE BLM PROTESTERS TO SERIAL KILLER TED BUNDY
(WORTHLESS MEDIA)
✔KEY CANNABIS CHEMICAL MAY HELP PREVENT COLON CANCER, RESEARCHERS SAY
9CURRENTS)
*NEARLY TWO-THIRDS OF US YOUNG ADULTS UNAWARE 6M JEWS KILLED IN THE HOLOCAUST
(AMERICA)
*THIS GOP SENATOR RECEIVED MORE THAN $20,000 IN CONTRIBUTIONS FROM DRUG COMPANIES AFTER BACKING PHARMA-FRIENDLY BILL(CORRUPTION)
*US COPS ARE TREATING WHITE MILITIAS AS “HEAVILY ARMED FRIENDLIES”
(GESTAPO USA)
*NORTH CAROLINA NURSES WIN UNION IN LANDSLIDE AFTER BITTER OPPOSITION
(SLAVERY 21ST CENTURY)
*late news of interest*
a blast from the past!!!
British Writer Pens The Best Description Of Trump I’ve Read
MICHAEL STEVENSON - The HOBBLEDEHOY.com
MARCH 8, 2019
Someone on Quora asked “Why do some British people not like Donald Trump?” Nate White, an articulate and witty writer from England wrote the following response:
A few things spring to mind.
Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.
For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.
So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever.
I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.
But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.
And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.
Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.
Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.
And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.
Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that.
He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat.
He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.
That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.
There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.
He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.
In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish:
‘My God… what… have… I… created?
If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.
RELATED: Lucie Arnaz Shares Her Husband’s Letter to Trump; “All Tyrants End the Same Way –in Misery. That is Your Destiny…”
..."The people see all that you are doing to destroy the country that belongs to us. There are so many, many, many things you and your captive minions have done and are doing to change the people into your servants, slaves, even. The people can only tolerate the theft of their freedom for so long–but finally, as in our original Revolution, they will gather en masse to remove you and every one of your party from any position of power ever again."
A few things spring to mind.
Trump lacks certain qualities which the British traditionally esteem.
For instance, he has no class, no charm, no coolness, no credibility, no compassion, no wit, no warmth, no wisdom, no subtlety, no sensitivity, no self-awareness, no humility, no honour and no grace – all qualities, funnily enough, with which his predecessor Mr. Obama was generously blessed.
So for us, the stark contrast does rather throw Trump’s limitations into embarrassingly sharp relief.
Plus, we like a laugh. And while Trump may be laughable, he has never once said anything wry, witty or even faintly amusing – not once, ever.
I don’t say that rhetorically, I mean it quite literally: not once, not ever. And that fact is particularly disturbing to the British sensibility – for us, to lack humour is almost inhuman.
But with Trump, it’s a fact. He doesn’t even seem to understand what a joke is – his idea of a joke is a crass comment, an illiterate insult, a casual act of cruelty.
Trump is a troll. And like all trolls, he is never funny and he never laughs; he only crows or jeers.
And scarily, he doesn’t just talk in crude, witless insults – he actually thinks in them. His mind is a simple bot-like algorithm of petty prejudices and knee-jerk nastiness.
There is never any under-layer of irony, complexity, nuance or depth. It’s all surface.
Some Americans might see this as refreshingly upfront.
Well, we don’t. We see it as having no inner world, no soul.
And in Britain we traditionally side with David, not Goliath. All our heroes are plucky underdogs: Robin Hood, Dick Whittington, Oliver Twist.
Trump is neither plucky, nor an underdog. He is the exact opposite of that.
He’s not even a spoiled rich-boy, or a greedy fat-cat.
He’s more a fat white slug. A Jabba the Hutt of privilege.
And worse, he is that most unforgivable of all things to the British: a bully.
That is, except when he is among bullies; then he suddenly transforms into a snivelling sidekick instead.
There are unspoken rules to this stuff – the Queensberry rules of basic decency – and he breaks them all. He punches downwards – which a gentleman should, would, could never do – and every blow he aims is below the belt. He particularly likes to kick the vulnerable or voiceless – and he kicks them when they are down.
So the fact that a significant minority – perhaps a third – of Americans look at what he does, listen to what he says, and then think ‘Yeah, he seems like my kind of guy’ is a matter of some confusion and no little distress to British people, given that:
• Americans are supposed to be nicer than us, and mostly are.
• You don’t need a particularly keen eye for detail to spot a few flaws in the man.
This last point is what especially confuses and dismays British people, and many other people too; his faults seem pretty bloody hard to miss.
After all, it’s impossible to read a single tweet, or hear him speak a sentence or two, without staring deep into the abyss. He turns being artless into an art form; he is a Picasso of pettiness; a Shakespeare of shit. His faults are fractal: even his flaws have flaws, and so on ad infinitum.
God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty, or nastiness so stupid.
He makes Nixon look trustworthy and George W look smart.
In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws – he would make a Trump.
And a remorseful Doctor Frankenstein would clutch out big clumpfuls of hair and scream in anguish:
‘My God… what… have… I… created?
If being a twat was a TV show, Trump would be the boxed set.
RELATED: Lucie Arnaz Shares Her Husband’s Letter to Trump; “All Tyrants End the Same Way –in Misery. That is Your Destiny…”
..."The people see all that you are doing to destroy the country that belongs to us. There are so many, many, many things you and your captive minions have done and are doing to change the people into your servants, slaves, even. The people can only tolerate the theft of their freedom for so long–but finally, as in our original Revolution, they will gather en masse to remove you and every one of your party from any position of power ever again."
