Sections
-
Recent Posts
Search Results for: Donald Trump
‘Cold hard threat to democracy’: GOP sowing chaos at polls even before Election Day
"Voters deserve better than this when they exercise their constitutional right at the polls," said one government watchdog.
Government watchdogs are warning that Republicans are operating a well-funded, well-organized campaign to sow “an unprecedented level of suspicion and unfounded doubt” in this year’s midterm elections by lodging dubious legal challenges even before Election Day arrives and training thousands on how to create confusion at the polls. Continue reading
There is a sure-fire way to make Roe the law of the land again
Biden promises that if Dems keep the House and gain two Senate seats Roe will once again become the law of the land.
WASHINGTON—If Democrats keep control of the House and gain just two seats in the Senate, something well within reach two weeks from now, there will be a clear path to making Roe the law of the land again and halting the GOP drive to take away a host of other constitutional rights. Continue reading
Election 2022: Workers battle hordes of corporate campaign cash
WASHINGTON—Even as workers and their allies hit the political hustings, campaigning door-to-door, explaining issues, phone banking and more, they face one big problem on the campaign trail: Hordes of corporate campaign cash fueling the drives of anti-worker—and anti-democracy—politicians. Continue reading
Thirty progressive Democrats break rank, calling for a ceasefire in Ukraine
In a dramatic break with the Biden administration on the eve of the midterm elections, 30 House Democrats sent a letter to President Biden urging him to engage in direct talks with Russian President Vladmir Putin to end the war in Ukraine. In addition to bilateral talks, signatories to the letter, initiated by Progressive Caucus Chair Congresswoman Pramila Jayapal, urge the White House to support a mutual ceasefire and diplomatic efforts to avoid a protracted war that threatens more human suffering and spiraling global inflation, as well as nuclear war through intention or miscalculation. Continue reading
A third of 2022 midterm voters may use mailed out ballots
Growing numbers of voters will mark their ballots at home, latest data finds.
Despite both a torrent of lawsuits attacking every aspect of voting with mailed-out ballots in the 2020 presidential election as well as post-election efforts in GOP-led states to pass laws limiting their use, a record-setting 42 million or more Americans are likely to vote using mailed-out ballots in the 2022 general election—a 40 percent increase from the last midterm election in 2018. Continue reading
What could Donald Trump be thinking about the Democratic Party?
Imagine Donald Trump dining with two of his supposed political advisers. Being an advisor to Donald means you soak up Donald’s political comments and feed them back to him. At this dinner, Donald was spouting off about the Democratic Party. Continue reading
Why the window to prosecute Trump is closing
Donald Trump is not above the law. He must be prosecuted—to preserve what’s left of our democracy. Continue reading
The shadowy network of right-wing money and influence behind Moms for Liberty
The group, which claims to be about “parent rights,” has ties to the January 6 insurrection and is expected to provide “foot soldiers” for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis. Continue reading
Key Senate committee passes bill to prevent Trump-like Electoral College coups
An 1887 law would be reformed to prevent radicals in state government and Congress from subverting the popular vote for president.
Efforts to reform the Electoral Count Act, an 1887 law whose quirks and ambiguities became a roadmap for Donald Trump and his allies to try to subvert congressional certification of 2020’s Electoral College vote, moved a step closer in the Senate Rules Committee on Tuesday. Continue reading
Why the GOP is no longer a legitimate political party
US News and World Report has a story about how the fringe has become the mainstream in the Republican Party. The headline of their story says it all: “Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene Rises From GOP Fringe to Front.” Continue reading
The collapse of local newspapers helps hacks spread lies
“Critical race theory” panic owes its rise to thousands of fake websites filling the gaps left by real, independent newspapers.
One noisy piece of the GOP’s culture war bunkum is Critical Race Theory, or CRT — a previously little-known field of academic study examining racism’s central role in shaping our society. Continue reading
Brazil’s Lula remerges—in a very different political world
If Lula wins reelection, he must not only rebuild the social investments that Bolsonaro destroyed, but also restore trust in a nation damaged by fascism’s sophisticated propaganda machine.
Brazil’s first round of elections, held on October 2, yielded a major victory for the man who held the presidency from 2003 to 2010, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva. Winning 48 percent of the vote in a multicandidate race, Lula now heads to a runoff against incumbent president Jair Bolsonaro, who won 43 percent. It’s the first chapter of a dramatic comeback for a leader who was once hailed as the epitome of Latin America’s resurgent left, who was then imprisoned on corruption charges by a politicized judiciary, eventually was released, and has now emerged onto the political scene in a very different nation than the one he once led. Continue reading
Ron DeSantis: Stolen valor, stolen taxpayers’ money, stolen lives
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is a lot of things, none of them good and one quite unforgivable. Just as he did in his 2018 race for governor, DeSantis has rolled out a television ad highlighting his “pumped up” Navy service. That service continues in the U.S. Naval Reserve, where DeSantis – who routinely questions the authority of his Commander-in-Chief, President Biden – wears the uniform of a Lieutenant Commander in the Judge Advocate General Corps. DeSantis’s political ad features him wearing various uniforms, including dress whites on which he displays a row of medals along with the Fleet Marine Force insignia. DeSantis, whose collateral duty during active service included that of “Awards Officer,” has made it a point of having his political ad, titled “Honor, Courage, Commitment,” focus on his chest of medals while having praise heaped upon him by his former JAG Corps commanding officer, retired Navy Captain Daniel Bean, now a Jacksonville, Florida attorney. Bean formerly served as a managing partner of the Republican-tilting Holland & Knight law firm. Continue reading
Why do so many Americans believe the lies pushed by the GOP?
Donald Trump is still insisting he won the 2020 election, despite having lost by about 7 million votes and being wiped out in the Electoral College. Continue reading
Signs of our times: Space Force anthem and campaign ad countering Nazism in Pennsylvania
There is an old Chinese saying that certainly applies today: “Better to be a dog in times of tranquility than a human in times of chaos” or its modernized version: “May you live in interesting times.” Perhaps nothing represents these bizarre times more than the new anthem recently rolled out by the U.S. Space Force, a creation of Donald Trump that continues to haunt us. The anthem was written by Jamie Teachenor, a Nashville singer and song writer. Its lyrics include a mix of Pentagon jargon like “warfighters” and the Marvel Universe reference of “guardians,” as in “Guardians of the Galaxy.” The anthem was the brainchild of the Chief of Space Operations, General James Raymond. The song and its lyrics sound like the intro for a 1960s Saturday morning cartoon. Continue reading
Will the United Nations finally deliver justice for Palestine?
In his anticipated speech today at the United Nations General Assembly, Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas is expected to, once more, make a passionate plea for the recognition of Palestine as a full member. Continue reading
Asylum, migration and U.S. foreign policy
Immigration rules are often determined by U.S. foreign policy. Citizens of nations under U.S. attack, such as Venezuela, are made eligible for asylum. Haitians suffer under U.S. dictates but are deported and returned to the hell that Washington created.
Every day the Republican governors of Texas, Greg Abbott, and Florida, Ron DeSantis, eagerly announce that they are sending people generically labeled as migrants to what are known as sanctuary cities. The corporate media report that thousands of people have been convinced to board buses to New York City or Washington DC or Sacramento or Chicago or even chartered flights to Martha’s Vineyard, Massachusetts. What they don’t explain is who these migrants are and why their status is highly problematic and a function of imperialist foreign policy. Continue reading
How a rural Colorado county became an epicenter of Trump’s big lie
First an election official erred. Then Trump’s IT squad arrived. Then the false claims, conspiracies, stolen data and denials ensued.
Colorado’s southwestern Mesa County is filled with desert lore. It’s also home to one of 2020’s stranger false stolen election narratives that keeps resounding like echoes in its canyons but offers lessons for 2022’s general election. Continue reading
Florida: the Schwarze Sonnenschein Staat
Heinrich Himmler’s SS adopted the Teutonic runic Black Sun—Schwarze Sonne—as its favorite symbol. In May 2022, the neo-Nazi who massacred ten black people at a Buffalo supermarket wore the Black Sun on his body armor. On September 1, the would-be neo-Nazi assassin of Argentina’s Vice President, Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, wore a Black Sun tattoo. And, in keeping with the theme, Florida’s far-right Governor Ron DeSantis has quickly turned the Sunshine State into the “Black Sunshine State,” in homage to the Nazi Schwarze Sonne. Continue reading
How vote count mistakes by two rural counties fed Trump’s big lie
County officials didn’t properly set up and use their election computers, helping to launch a looming disinformation juggernaut.
Since 2020’s presidential election, two rural counties in Michigan and Colorado that initially reported incorrect results have had outsized roles in spreading Donald Trump’s big lie that his second term was stolen by Democrats colluding with one of the country’s biggest computerized voting systems makers. Continue reading
Who is raising our children? Liberating tweens from corporate tentacles
Consider the harmful, grasping tentacles by corporations around the bodies and minds of youngsters through relentless direct marketing that bypasses parental authority. Now comes my sister Claire Nader’s new book You Are Your Own Best Teacher! Sparking the Curiosity, Imagination and Intellect of Tweens. Continue reading
Why it’s time to declassify the documents from Trump’s basement
Whatever your feelings about former President Trump, there are reasons to be skeptical when government officials say it was necessary to raid his Florida home to recover classified documents that threatened national security. Continue reading
Barr covered up Bush I & Reagan’s treason—no surprise he covered up Trump’s
Geoffrey Berman has a new book out, “Holding the Line: Inside the Nation’s Preeminent US Attorney’s Office and Its Battle with the Trump Justice Department,” laying out chapter and verse of how Bill Barr corrupted the Department of Justice on behalf of Donald Trump. Barr’s coverups for Trump range, in my read, from criminal activity to treason. Continue reading
Jayapal ties Trumpian rhetoric to violent threats against US lawmakers and democracy
“We are at a precipice and we’re counting on the American people to come through—and I have hope that people will realize that we have to turn this clock back.” Continue reading
A few royal memories
Many young stamp collectors, like myself, discovered who Queen Elizabeth was after constantly seeing her side portrait or silhouette on stamps from what seemed like everyplace in the world: from Great Britain, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand to Malta, Tanganyika, Gold Coast, Bechuanaland, the Gilbert Islands, and Hong Kong. Crowned two years before I was born, it is amazing to reflect back to how many times I encountered something or someone having to do with the Queen. From living in one of her many realms – Barbados — for over two years to my first ever trip abroad to England in 1975, there was no getting away from the fact that Elizabeth was not only the Queen of England, but also of scores of other vestiges of the old empire. In addition, she was the head of the Commonwealth of Nations, many of which I had the occasion to visit after they had become republics. One could not but notice the high regard many of their citizens had for their former monarch or royal protector, whether it was in India, Cyprus, Uganda, Singapore, Sarawak, Brunei, Sikkim, or Fiji. Continue reading
Compromising nuclear secrets—it’s deja-vu
The revelation that Donald Trump had stored in Mar-a-Lago Top Secret Sensitive Compartmented Information/Special Access Program (TS/SCI/SAP) documents on foreign nuclear capabilities, which came on the heels of his owned-and-operated dime store federal judge in Fort Pierce, Florida ruling in his favor on halting the government’s damage assessment on Trump’s treason, brought back some vivid memories of 2003. Continue reading
Trump successfully judge-shopped for an unqualified South Florida right-winger
Donald Trump, the New York real estate mobster who fled Gotham City for Florida during his twice-impeached presidency to avoid the arm of justice in the Empire State, needed a corrupt and inexperienced federal judge to stymie the Justice Department’s investigation of his theft of thousands of highly-classified and other official documents from the White House. He found one in Judge Aileen Mercedes Cannon, a right-wing Federalist Society Cuban-American. Continue reading
Biden’s MAGA obsession won’t help Democrats
Because Joe Biden and Democrats act on behalf of the oligarchy instead of the people, they now risk a mid-term election loss. His solution to this political problem is to speak endlessly about Donald Trump and shout the word MAGA at every opportunity.
Anyone paying attention knows that Joe Biden’s accomplishments as president are pretty sparse. The oligarchy allowed his American Rescue Plan stimulus program to go through but then put a stop on Build Back Better or any other legislation that would help the people in a meaningful way. The student loan debt relief plan is a bait and switch scam used against desperate people. Biden brags about allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices with pharmaceutical companies but that won’t happen until 2026 and will only be allowed for ten drugs that are to be named later. Continue reading
Will America see a 2nd major renewal of the middle class?
It’s easy to get lost in despair and outrage over the state of affairs in America. Women and queer people are being forced back into the kitchen and closet, climate change is killing scores of Americans every week, our schools and public areas are under constant assault by armed Republican gangs and GOP-sanctioned mass shooters. Over the past decade more than a million American lives have been lost to “deaths of despair” as a result of our 40-year experiment with Reagan’s neoliberalism. Continue reading
Trump calls Biden ‘enemy of the state’ in ‘fully unhinged’ speech
"This is, quite simply, a speech intended to incite domestic terrorists to kill FBI agents and members of the Biden administration," said one attorney.
Former President Donald Trump was accused of inciting domestic terrorism following a Saturday rally speech in which he called President Joe Biden an “enemy of the state” while threatening a “backlash the likes of which nobody has ever seen” in response to the federal investigation into his possession of classified documents. Continue reading
The Biden administration and two looming crises: an economic and financial crisis and a hegemonic war
Besides the lingering COVID-19 pandemic and the on-going climate crisis, which will be accompanied by an energy crisis, not to mention the coming migration crisis, the world could be facing two man-made major crises in the years to come, i.e. an economic and financial crisis and a hegemonic war crisis. Continue reading
GOP ads cry “crime!” but homicides are actually falling
Rather than running on their unpopular agenda, Republicans are conjuring a “crime wave” to scare voters.
Posted on October 28, 2022 by Mitchell Zimmerman
If you’re trying to process all those political ads you’re seeing about crime, you’d better look at the facts. Continue reading →