October 1, 2020

12 Democratic governors vow that all votes will be counted

By The Associated Press


LANSING, Mich. — Twelve Democratic governors issued a joint statement on Wednesday defending American democracy, vowing that every valid ballot will be counted in the election after President Donald Trump sowed distrust during the first presidential debate.

Trump claimed without evidence Tuesday night that mail voting — surging in popularity during the coronavirus pandemic — is ripe for fraud, and he refused to say whether he would accept the results. He also called on his backers to scrutinize voting procedures at the polls, which critics said could cross into voter intimidation.

Without mentioning Trump by name, the governors noted his refusal last week to commit to a peaceful transition of power.

“Any efforts to throw out ballots or refuse a peaceful transfer of power are nothing less than an assault on democracy,” they wrote. “There is absolutely no excuse for promoting the intimidation or harassment of voters. These are all blatant attempts to deny our constituents the right to have their voices heard, as guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution, and to know the will of the people will be carried out.”

Signing the statement were Gretchen Whitmer of Michigan, Gavin Newsom of California, J.B. Pritzker of Illinois, Phil Murphy of New Jersey, Ralph Northam of Virginia, Jay Inslee of Washington, Tony Evers of Wisconsin, Tim Walz of Minnesota, Kate Brown of Oregon, Steve Sisolak of Nevada, Michelle Lujan Grisham of New Mexico and John Carney of Delaware. ..............(more)

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2020-election/12-democratic-governors-vow-all-votes-will-be-counted-n1241645?

October 1, 2020

Trump is scared sh**less: He can't handle the truth, so he wouldn't let Biden talk

Trump is scared sh**less: He can't handle the truth, so he wouldn't let Biden talk
Trump's no strongman: He's a coward who listens to no one and hides behind the fascists he urges to "stand by"

AMANDA MARCOTTE
SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 4:30PM


(Salon) Forget the euphemistic language being used by much of the mainstream press to describe Tuesday night's presidential debate between Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. That wasn't a "contentious debate," nor were the candidates "bickering." No, Biden showed up to do normal politician things, only to find himself trapped on stage with Trump, a shit-flinging monkey whose only purpose was to prevent anything resembling truth from slipping through and touching the ears of the public.

For an hour and a half, the same thing kept happening over and over. (And over, and over.) Biden would try to talk, about literally anything — Trump's failures, his own policy ideas, the state of the nation, hell, possibly the weather — and Trump would immediately interrupt the second he heard a truth about to be stated, ranting over Biden and silencing any factual information or expression of decency under a blanket of lies and vitriol.

Trump and his supporters no doubt imagine that his performance was a triumphant display of animalistic dominance. But like all bullies, their posturing is a thin disguise for the cowardice underneath. What was really on stage was a man so incredibly terrified of being held to account, even a little, and so fearful of the facts that he lashed out like a cornered rat at even the barest hint that his opponent might say things that are true.

.....(snip).....

What's critical to understand here, however, is that none of this is the behavior of a man who thinks he's winning. Trump is lashing out because he knows he's a failure and a loser, and he's trying to hold that truth at arm's length with a torrent of lies and violent threats. He's resorting to drastic measures because he's lost control of the situation. He knows Americans want to throw him out — leaving him to face possible criminal charges and bankruptcy — and he's panicking. He's threatening people and making false fraud allegations because he wants people to give up on voting, as he knows that's how they can drive him out. ..........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/09/30/trump-is-scared-shless-he-cant-handle-the-truth-so-he-wouldnt-let-biden-talk/

September 30, 2020

Fight over milk sends Florida man to jail

LEE COUNTY, Fla. (CBS12) — A fight over milk sent one Florida man to jail.

The Lee County Sheriff's Office arrested Justin Anthony Garcia, 30, on a charge of aggravated battery.

Deputies said he had an argument with another man over which type of milk was better. Whole milk or almond milk? ............(more)

https://cbs12.com/news/local/fight-over-milk-sends-florida-man-to-jail

September 30, 2020

Dashcam shows Florida man shooting through his own windshield at another car

It's the Wild West out there, nowhere more so than in the Sunshine State, where Central Florida's WESH 2 news reports that a man fired several shots through his own windshield after he says the driver of another car pointed a gun at him. Dashcam footage captured the incident, which took place on Florida's Highway 417 in Orange County.

The driver, Marco Mazzetta, posted the footage to YouTube (naturally), and it shows him squeezing off several shots at a Nissan 370Z, all while traveling at 93 mph. According to Mazzetta, the Nissan was being driven aggressively and it bumped Mazzetta's truck when he tapped the brakes. Then it passed him, and the driver pointed a gun at him out the window. That's when Mazzetta opened fire.

"I know this video doesn't capture my smartest moments," Mazzetta wrote in a text to WESH 2, then adds, "but I hope any idiot criminal with a gun watching thinks twice before loading, brandishing & aiming their firearm at someone over a traffic infraction." .........(more)

https://www.autoblog.com/2020/09/29/florida-driver-fires-gun-through-windshield/

September 30, 2020

Trump heckled, bullied and lied through the debate. It won't help him beat Biden

Trump heckled, bullied and lied through the debate. It won't help him beat Biden
Richard Wolffe

The president is behind in key states. Fighting on TV won’t turn things around or win over the sliver of undecided voters left


(Guardian UK) In a bar-room brawl, who wins the fight? The guy swinging his fists or the guy clutching his drink?

From the very first minute of the first presidential debate, the 45th president behaved as he has for the last four years: as unpresidential as possible.

He heckled. He bullied. He blustered and he lied. He came out swinging and didn’t mind where his fists landed: his opponent, the moderator, the Biden family, the microphones. It didn’t much matter.

“Will you shut up, man? This is so unpresidential,” gasped Joe Biden at the end of a chaotic discussion about the supreme court. “That was a really productive session. Keep yappin’, man.”

....(snip)....

But something funny happened on the way to Trump’s next swing of the fists: a pandemic. Covid-19 stopped the presidential yapping, briefly. Then Biden made a statement of the obvious, by questioning whether Trump was smart enough to handle the coronavirus.

“Did you use the word smart,” the un-president barked. “Don’t ever use the word smart with me.” .........(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/sep/30/donald-trump-joe-biden-debate-bully-heckle-lie

September 30, 2020

A debate that will live in infamy: That sweaty, red-faced liar is actually our president

A debate that will live in infamy: That sweaty, red-faced liar is actually our president
We already knew Trump was a national embarrassment. Did he think his sneering-bully act would win back voters?

HEATHER DIGBY PARTON
SEPTEMBER 30, 2020 1:00PM


(Salon) At the conclusion of the first debate between Donald Trump and Joe Biden on Tuesday night, CNN's Dana Bash gave the best review of the proceedings: "That was a sh**show." Her colleague Jake Tapper who described it as "a hot mess inside a dumpster fire inside a train wreck. That was the worst debate I have ever seen. In fact, it wasn't a debate. It was a disgrace. It's primarily because of President Trump, who spent the entire time interrupting [and] lying." Or maybe Rachel Maddow's assessment on MSNBC — a "monstrous cavalcade of increasingly wild and obscene lies" — draws the most accurate picture of what went down in Cleveland on Tuesday night.

However you want to phrase it, a great truth was expressed by Wolf Blitzer when he opened his show:

I'd like to welcome viewers from here and around the world. Clearly this debate was an embarrassment for the United States ...

I would only add that it was an embarrassment entirely because of Donald Trump's sophomoric behavior, which was more befitting a nasty tween bully trying to shake someone down for his lunch money than the president of the United States. But then, why would we expect otherwise? The Donald Trump whom millions of people watched in horror as he lied, insulted, interrupted and acted like a barbaric brute is who he is virtually every day at his briefings, press avails, interviews and, most especially, the grotesque super-spreader events he calls campaign rallies. To expect him to behave with the decorum befitting the leader of the most powerful country in the world is absurd. He simply doesn't know how.

To the extent that he has ever cared about attracting back some of those "suburban housewives," as he likes to call them, this debate was a massive failure. His sweaty face and angry grimace formed the surreal picture of every woman's worst nightmare — the domineering boss, the cruel boyfriend, the violent father, the abusive husband. He could not have done more to drive them away. .............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/09/30/a-debate-that-will-live-in-infamy-that-sweaty-red-faced-liar-is-actually-our-president/

September 29, 2020

GA: MARTA lays out plans for Clayton County transit future

Sep. 24--MARTA says it plans to launch new transfer stations that will make it easier for Clayton County residents to get from one side of the south metro community to the other.

The metro Atlanta transit agency said Wednesday the "mobility hubs" will allow Clayton residents to travel inter-county by hopping on buses that connect with one another at different spots in the community, such as Tara Boulevard or Clayton State University. Right now, Clayton residents can only transfer to other buses at MARTA rail stations, which often take riders far away from their destinations.

"This allows the bus routes to be shorter with more frequent service," said Tracie Roberson, project manager of the Clayton Transit System Plan. She did not give date for the "mobility hub" build out.

The announcement was one of many unveiled during a Wednesday virtual update of MARTA's upcoming plans for Clayton. There are also plans for more bus shelters and benches, updates on the site search for a multi-purpose operations and bus maintenance facility and discussion of bringing Arterial Rapid Transit to the community. ..............(more)

https://www.masstransitmag.com/management/news/21155825/ga-marta-lays-out-plans-for-clayton-county-transit-future

September 29, 2020

Is Lindsey Graham Trumpy Enough for His Voters?

Is Lindsey Graham Trumpy Enough for His Voters?
A former critic of the president scrambles to save his Senate seat against Jaime Harrison.

By JIM NEWELL


(Slate) South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham committed to a new political course in September 2018, when he screamed at his Democratic colleagues on the Senate Judiciary Committee about their treatment of Brett Kavanaugh. He was no longer the politician whom Rush Limbaugh had once dubbed “Grahamnesty” for his commitment to bipartisan immigration reform, the senator whose conservative credentials the Republican base had called into question for his willingness to work with Democrats. He was reinventing himself as a base politician in a red state and a loyal ally, defender, and golfing buddy of President Donald Trump, whom he’d called a “race-baiting, xenophobic bigot” during the 2016 election cycle.

In doing so, he bought himself a smooth ride through primary season, followed by the bumpiest general election of his career. The last three public polls of his reelection contest against Democrat Jaime Harrison—a former top aide to South Carolina Rep. Jim Clyburn, chair of the South Carolina Democratic Party, and lobbyist—show Graham either tied or leading by a single percentage point. It’s the most competitive South Carolina Senate race in decades, and it’s reflected in the mammoth fundraising figures the race is generating. Harrison raised $10.6 million in August alone, more than Graham raised in April, May, and June combined. As Matt Moore, a Republican consultant and former chair of the state Republican Party, told me, $100 million could end up being spent in the race—four times the previous record. Graham has recently taken to appearing on Fox News multiple times a day pleading for money just to keep up.

Both the race and the fundraising have been accelerated into hyperintensity by the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg and the decisions Graham, the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, has made since then. Despite vowing in the past, with airtight language and on multiple occasions, that he would not move to fill a Supreme Court vacancy in the last year of Trump’s first term, he is now moving to fill a Supreme Court vacancy in the last year—the last months—of Trump’s first term. His shift in thinking has regularly been described as “hypocrisy.” As the Dispatch’s Jonah Goldberg has written, the maneuver “is better understood as simple and outright deceit.”

But simple and outright deceit is no-brainer political move to make when you have the problem Graham has. If you look under the hood at South Carolina Senate race polls, there’s a recurring issue for Graham: He’s not getting enough Republican support. A CBS NewsYouGov survey released this past weekend, which had Graham leading Harrison 45–44 percent, showed Harrison earning 94 percent of Democrats and Graham only earning 82 percent of Republicans. In a Quinnipiac poll earlier this month in which the race was tied, Harrison earned 98 percent of Democrats while Graham earned 89 percent of Republicans. As Morning Consult wrote last week, Graham is “one of the worst-performing GOP incumbents up for re-election this cycle among voters from his own party,” consistently trailing Trump’s support among Republican voters in the state. ...............(more)

https://slate.com/news-and-politics/2020/09/lindsey-graham-jaime-harrison-south-carolina-senate.html

September 29, 2020

Trump's resort business is collapsing -- is that why he pushed to reopen the economy?

Trump's resort business is collapsing — is that why he pushed to reopen the economy?
Donald Trump is broke, and his resorts are bottomless money pits. He needed "reopening" to keep his business afloat

BOB CESCA
SEPTEMBER 29, 2020 11:00AM


(Salon) For the past several decades, Donald Trump has been widely regarded as a great big phony. Everything about him is a mirage. He steals credit for the accomplishments of others, especially his predecessor, Barack Obama. His business model is all about slapping his goofy name on properties built by others. Even his outward appearance is a fraud: his unsubstantiated self-confidence, his hair, his clown makeup, his baggy suits designed to hide his doughy frame, even his shoes, which appear to have unusually high heels — it's all intended to make him appear physically more powerful than he actually is. Fake, fake and fake.

It's all a big show. In reality, he's nothing more than a petty, brittle, small man — and a business failure.

Now, thanks to the latest bombshell story from the New York Times, revealing previously unknown details about Trump's tax returns, we finally have solid confirmation that his wealth and his status as a successful businessman are just as fake as his presidential record and his dairy-swirled hair.

One of the major components in Trump's ongoing deception pertains to the alleged "success" of his various resorts and golf courses. Spoiler warning: Trump's properties aren't doing nearly as well as he says, which leads me to a theory about his response to the pandemic. More on that presently.

According to the tax returns obtained by the Times, Trump earned $427 million as the host of "The Apprentice," along with various deals linked to his network television career. Trump used his TV revenue to go on a spending spree, buying up golf courses around the world -- golf courses that turned out to be 18-hole money-pits. As of 2015, he had accumulated 15 golf resorts, and it's difficult to find one that's actually operating at a profit. ..........(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/09/29/trumps-resort-business-is-collapsing--is-that-why-he-pushed-to-reopen-the-economy/

September 28, 2020

Donald Trump 'a bad businessman or a tax cheat - probably both', say accountants

(Guardian UK) Accountants say the revelation that Donald Trump paid just $750 (£580) in federal income tax in 2016 shows that the US president is either “a very bad businessman or a tax cheat … probably both”.

Independent left-leaning accounting experts who analysed Trump’s tax returns, which were published by the New York Times on Sunday, said that while the full details of Trump’s tax affairs were not yet known, the details published by the newspaper showed that the president was “abusing the tax system”.

Alex Cobham, the chief executive of the Tax Justice Network, an international group campaigning for a fairer and more transparent tax system, said: “This shows that Trump is either a very bad businessman or a tax cheat who is not respecting the tax system that he is asking everyone else to pay. Probably both are true.”

The New York Times said Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes in the year he won the presidency, and the same amount in his first year in the White House. It said Trump paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years, largely because he reported losing much more money than he made. The Times said the records revealed “chronic losses and years of tax avoidance”. ............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/sep/28/donald-trump-a-bad-businessman-or-a-tax-probably-both