WASHINGTON — A federal judge on Tuesday kept alive a citizen muckraker’s quest to pry loose for the public’s benefit tens of thousands of FBI documents about disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein, including his time as a government informant.Self-styled public information crusader Angela Clemente sued in May, seeking to force the FBI to release the documents on the grounds that Epstein is now dead, albeit under mysterious circumstances, and that there is an overarching public interest in releasing documents. The Justice Department, representing the FBI, is fighting the effort.In a status hearing...
ALBANY, N.Y. — John Lennon’s killer said he was seeking “glory” when he shot the Beatles star in cold blood 40 years ago but now thinks he deserved the death penalty for his “despicable act,” according to a transcript of his most recent parole hearing obtained by the Daily News.Mark David Chapman, who shot Lennon four times outside of his Upper West Side apartment building on Dec. 8, 1980, was denied parole for the 11th time last month.During his appearance before the State Parole Board, Chapman expressed remorse for his actions that night, saying he killed the famed songwriter because he was ...
NASA has announced in a $28 million plan that in 2024 a woman and man will land on the moon for the first time since the last Apollo lunar mission in 1972.The move is in line with its mandate to establish sustainable space exploration by the end of this decade, the agency said Monday, laying out its plan in a 74-page opus.All it needs is $3.2 billion more to build a landing system there, BBC News reported.“With bipartisan support from Congress, our 21st century push to the Moon is well within America’s reach,” NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said in a statement. “As we’ve solidified more of...
Los Angeles (AFP) - Deadly blazes raging across the western United States have again destroyed thousands of homes nestled in forested areas this year -- with months of the fire season still to come in a region perilously exposed to climate change. With many insurers now refusing or charging exorbitant rates to cover at-risk houses, some homeowners are questioning what the future holds for their exhausted communities.Populations of settlements built on the forested margins of cities -- officially known as the wildland–urban interface (WUI) -- have exploded in recent decades, and now total some ...
SEATTLE — The City Council voted Tuesday to override Mayor Jenny Durkan’s vetoes of council bills meant to start shrinking the police force and scaling up community solutions this year. Council members chose to stick with the 2020 budget bills instead of a substitute proposal that the mayor had said she could accept.The veto-override votes on the three bills were preceded by more than an hour of public comments, with most speakers urging council members to “hold the line” against the mayor and demonstrate they were listening to the Black Lives Matter movement. Several council members then shar...
The widow of late U.S. Sen. John McCain plans to endorse Joe Biden on Wednesday, giving the former vice president another boost from a prominent Republican.Biden leaked Cindy McCain’s political plans during a fundraising call Tuesday evening.“Maybe I shouldn’t say it,” Biden told campaign donors, “but I’m about to go on one of these Zooms with John McCain’s wife, who is first time ever, is endorsing me.”The last straw for McCain was a report from The Atlantic saying Trump told staff that American soldiers killed in combat were “suckers” and “losers,” according to Biden.“Because of what he talk...
President Donald Trump will remain in power if he narrowly loses the 2020 presidential election, with conservative judges poised to help him "steal" the election, a longtime Democratic Party strategist warned on Tuesday.
MSNBC anchor Brian Williams interviewed James Carville about the Supreme Court vacancy and how it could impact any legal wrangling about counting the votes.
"James, that's a pretty neat trick, the president is gaslighting out in advance voter fraud that he is promoting, ergo the need for nine justices on the court, which doesn't exist in law. The court has functioned just fine with eight during times of a death or a recusal," Williams noted. "Be that as it may, if Trump fills this seat before the election, in your view, how does that change the dynamic of the election?"
"If this election is remotely close, they'll steal it, and the Supreme Court will let them," Carville replied.
"Let's not forget this century started with them stealing a race in Florida," he reminded. "They stopped an ongoing vote count and gave the election to [George W.] Bush. Since then, they've gotten away with everything they want to," he warned.
"The only protection Democrats have is they have to win by such a margin that makes it impossible for him to overturn the election. But believe you me, they have every intention -- if this race is anywhere near remotely close of overturning the result," he warned. "And I don't have any doubt about that. He understands that because if he loses this election, he knows what's going to happen to him, he's going to the penitentiary."
According to Playboy magazine senior White House correspondent Brian Karem -- who has seen it first hand -- Donald Trump is an absentee president who puts in little time at his job and, when he does, has no idea what he is supposed to be doing.
Writing for the conservative Bulwark, Karem said Trump is more than just "Putin's puppet," he is "incompetent" and therefore dangerous.
As Karem sees it, the public is inundated with reports about the president's "bombast, wild claims, misogyny, racism, lies, greed and avarice" but what should be more concerning is his inability to fulfill the basic responsibilities of his office.
That is when he bothers to show up and enter it.
As he explains, "The Marine guard posted outside of Trump’s office when he is in it almost never appears before noon and is rarely seen in the afternoon. There have been days when Trump has held press briefings where the guard wasn’t outside of the door even as Trump entered the briefing room—indicating that Trump may have walked straight from the residence to the briefing room. No guard on duty outside of the West Wing after a Trump appearance would indicate he walked straight back to the residence."
Pointing out the staff aides' claims that the president is a hard worker are patently false, Karem said the president has neither the attention span nor the interest in dealing with complex issues that affect the country.
"His lack of engagement leads to him reading from notes and using visual aids in his briefings. It is often apparent—sometimes he even points it out himself—that he hasn’t read the prepared material he’s giving us. Thus he misquotes it and often doesn’t seem to understand what he’s saying," he charged. "Last Wednesday he was at it again. He used visual aids and misled us about their significance to try and explain away the fact that we lead the world in coronavirus deaths."
According to the journalist, Trump's disinterest in his job has allowed his close advisers to run wild and the White House communications shop to botch announcements only to be followed with claims of "they misspoke" or "they didn’t understand."
Providing an example, Karem wrote, "That was on display again last Wednesday. Early in the morning a pool reporter tweeted out that an administration official said a couple of staffers had tested positive for the coronavirus. In her afternoon briefing, press secretary Kayleigh McEnany refused to say how many, if any, of the White House staff had tested positive," and that what followed was the president saying he was unaware of it -- then disputing it.
Karem noted that that incident was not the only fruit of White House chaos that day with the president later disputing comments made by his own CDC director, with the White House correspondent writing, "The message coming out of the Trump White House could not be more muddled."
"At the end of the day, if there is a second term for President Donald Trump, then last Wednesday is a template for just how screwed up the administration can and will be," he explained. "If Trump gets a second term and doesn’t have to face another election in his lifetime, does anyone honestly think he’ll spend more time at the office?"
Adding "His speech at the National Archives last Thursday shows where we’re headed: Stephen Miller-driven national policy," Karem wrote. "That couldn’t be more hideous. As for Trump, he disengaged long ago and all the chaos and lies are symptomatic of a man who just doesn’t care anymore—or was never really even capable of doing so."
As the two sides in US politics begin jockeying for position following the passing of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the similarities to the 2016 presidential election are striking.
That year, the fierce battle between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump was made all the more contentious because the Republican-controlled Senate refused to allow a vote on President Barack Obama’s nominee to replace Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, who had died in February.
Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell pledged instead to “let the American people decide” the fate of the Supreme Court vacancy. His gambit worked. Trump won the election and successfully appointed a conservative justice to the court, some 14 months after Scalia’s death.
In recent days, however, McConnell is saying something altogether different. He’s made clear the Trump administration will decide who Ginsburg’s replacement will be — not the American people on election day.
Protesters began gathering outside McConnell’s house in Kentucky soon after Ginsburg’s death.
Timothy D. Easley/AP
And Trump has also already announced he will nominate a woman to the court — signalling his intention to move quickly to replace Ginsburg, with just over 40 days left before the vote.
The impending fight guarantees an already rancorous race will become even more acrimonious, with long-lasting implications.
As the third branch of government in the US, the Supreme Court not only keeps the powers of the other two branches (the legislative and executive) in check, it makes landmark decisions that can fundamentally transform the country, such as its 1954 ruling that the segregation of public schools was unconstitutional.
With the Supreme Court now featuring three judges appointed by Democratic presidents and five appointments by Republicans, the potential replacement of the progressive Ginsburg by a conservative judge could have generational implications for issues like affordable health care and access to abortion.
The Supreme Court has even settled contested presidential elections in the past, and with legal challenges to the 2020 election already mounting, there’s every likelihood this could happen again.
Why Republicans are passionate about conservative judges
Unlike American politicians, who are subject to the ballot box and term limits, federal judges — including Supreme Court justices — serve lifetime appointments.
The importance of such judicial appointments to Republicans cannot be understated. Few, if any, issues are more sacrosanct to them.
A key reason for this is that demographics are not on the side of the Republicans. The US is gradually becoming more urban and non-white — two trends that favour the Democratic Party more than Republicans.
This could explain why McConnell, whose memoir is called The Long Game, has prioritised the appointments of conservative judges to federal benches. These judges would certainly outlast the seemingly inevitable decline of conservative political power.
McConnell has said his motto for the year is ‘leave no [judicial] vacancy behind’.
Michael Reynolds/EPA
Before Trump was elected in 2016, many Republicans questioned just how conservative he would be. In response, the Trump campaign made the unusual move of releasing a list of its intended candidates for the Supreme Court.
The list of established conservatives effectively quelled conservative concerns about the Trump candidacy. Indeed, exit polling in 2016 indicated 26% of Trump voters said Supreme Court nominees were the single most important factor in their decision to vote for him — compared to 18% of Clinton voters.
With Trump’s victory reliant on a combined margin of just under 80,000 votes across Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, even the smallest of advantages — in this case, those deciding who to vote for based on the Supreme Court — could have had outsized importance.
Some have posited a Supreme Court vacancy may help Trump’s chances in this year’s election because it shifts the focus of the race away from the president’s mismanagement of the coronavirus crisis and the poor economy.
But this ignores how much the issue could also energise the left. Indeed, in the hour after the announcement of Ginsburg’s passing, Democrats raised US$6.2 million on the Democratic digital fundraising platform ActBlue — more money in a single hour than the website had ever seen. This record was broken the next hour when donors gave over $100,000 a minute on average to total $6.3 million.
Altogether, some $42 million was raised in less than a day by Democratic online donors.
In 2016, many Republicans said they held their noses and voted for Trump because they were worried about the Supreme Court. Four years later, unenthusiastic Democrats may do the same with Joe Biden.
Biden’s campaign will likely turn the Supreme Court nomination fight into a referendum on the Affordable Care Act.
Carolyn Kaster/AP
‘Nothing is off the table’
Constitutionally, McConnell and Trump face few barriers in their mission to confirm a conservative justice to take Ginsburg’s place. Even a “blue wave” on election day — in which Democrats take control of the Senate and the White House — couldn’t stop them because the winners are not sworn into office until January. This would ostensibly provide enough time for the Republican-led Senate to confirm a Trump nominee.
There is no doubt what McConnell and Trump are planning to do. The more pertinent question is whether 49 Republicans in the Senate will go along with them.
Even the most anti-Trump Republicans — like Senator Mitt Romney, who voted to impeach Trump earlier this year — have supported the president’s previous picks for the Supreme Court. (Only one Republican chose not to support Brett Kavanaugh following his contentious confirmation hearing.)
But amid deep political polarisation, the likes of which America has not seen for generations, some Republicans are asking themselves about the long-term impact of rushing through a Supreme Court justice — most notably, what doors this opens for Democrats if they gain power.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has said “nothing is off the table” if Republicans try to fill Ginsburg’s seat before the outcome of the election.
Crowds gathered at the Supreme Court in the hours after Ginsburg’s passing.
Alex Brandon/AP
Some Democrats, already frustrated by Republicans having nominated 15 of the last 19 Supreme Court justices despite Republicans having lost the popular vote in six of the last seven presidential elections, have already pledged to make fundamental shifts to the country if they win the power to do so.
This could include giving statehood to Democratic-leaning Puerto Rico and Washington, DC — thereby almost assuredly giving the Democrats four more senators.
Regardless of the electoral outcome, the death of Ginsburg only further raises the stakes and the likelihood of unrest in an already contentious election. There is no winner in such an outcome.
President Donald Trump bragged on Tuesday evening about the large size of his supporters who gathered closely together and with few wearing masks during a campaign rally in Pennsylvania.
Trump tweeted an aerial photo of the event, which was held in Moon Township.
Here's some of what people were saying about Trump disregarding CDC guidance and holding a large rally during the pandemic:
Vice President Mike Pence is in full campaign mode now, making the rounds on news channels and holding re-election rallies. On Tuesday the Indiana Republican told Fox News Business' Lou Dobbs that perhaps President Donald Trump's yet-to-be-named Supreme Court nominee should just skip the usual Judiciary Committee hearings and get confirmed by the U.S. Senate immediately.
Pence said the nominee should get a committee hearing, but only "if needs be."
He might have been thinking that since Chairman Lindsey Graham has already said there are enough votes to confirm, even though no one knows who the nominee is, why take up valuable time when the outcome has, for the first time in U.S. history, been preordained without even a facade of interest in vetting.
Insisting that Trump has "a duty" under "the Constitution to appoint a new justice to the Supreme Court," Vice President Pence said, "we respect the role of the Senate to advise and consent but President Trump truly believes that the Senate should move thoroughly thoughtfully and quickly and and move to consideration a hearing, if needs be and ultimately to a floor vote because we you know we have, we have major issues in the country today."
What are the major Supreme Court issues?
"You know, Lou with all of the talk about universal unsolicited mail and validating where we see states around the country that are now, extending the deadline," Pence said, referring to President Trump's lie that voting by mail will make the election "rigged."
"There is a possibility that election issues may come before the Supreme Court in the days following the election and all the more reason why we should have nine justices on the Supreme Court to, to be able to resolve any issues that may arise then or on any other matters."
In other words, Trump wants a justice on the nation's top court prepared to hand him the election.
In a startling frank admission, President Donald Trump told reporters on Tuesday that he believes the country needs to have nine Supreme Court justices because of the millions of mail-in ballots at play in the 2020 election.
"We need nine justices. You need that," he said. "With the unsolicited millions of ballots that they're sending, it's a scam. It's a hoax. Everybody knows that. And the Democrats know it better than anybody else. So you're gonna need nine justices up there, they're going to be very important."
Critics of the president, including many here at AlterNet, have been arguing for months that Trump clearly sees his best chance at victory to be an early declaration that he's won on Election Night, challenging any mail-in ballots that might be breaking toward former Vice President Joe Biden in key states, and taking any legal fight to the Supreme Court stacked with conservative judges. With the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Trump now has the opportunity to install a sixth conservative justice, giving him an even better chance of having any election-related ruling break his way. And he also is using the very chaos and uncertainty he is fomenting around the election to justify the extremely rushed schedule the GOP has laid down for confirming a nominee.
Trump's plan to win the election by challenging votes that go against him has been clear for months now. It's also entirely and transparently corrupt. While Trump focused on the idea of unsolicited ballots as the key problem in his remarks above, he and his allies, such as Attorney General Bill Barr, often deride mail-in ballots generally. But then they make telling exceptions, such as Trump's claim that despite the supposed problems with mail-in voting, sending ballots through the post in Florida — where he votes and where the GOP has long relied on mail-in votes — is perfectly acceptable.
He just wants to create enough doubts around the ballots so he can target them wherever it happens to be convenient, and then leave his fate in the hands of the Supreme Court. It's worked before — Republicans won the presidency in 2000 after the infamous Florida recount and the Supreme Court case of Bush v. Gore.
Trump recently mentioned another component of his plan at a rally — the baseless assertion that a winner must be declared on Election Night, despite the fact that many states actually require ballots to be counted for many days after if they have the right postmark.
More than 100,000 ballots are at risk of not being counted in a crucial swing state in November's presidential election, an official warned this week. The scale of the problem could potentially swamp the size of President Donald Trump's 2016 victory in the key state of Pennsylvania, which has a signficant chance of being the tipping point state in 2020.
Lisa Deeley, a Democrat who serves as the chairwoman of Philadelphia's commissioners office, wrote a letter to state lawmakers on Monday drawing attention to the issue.
Last week, she explained, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court issued a ruling that she said "is going to cause electoral chaos." The court ruled that so-called "naked ballots" will not be counted.
So what is a "naked ballot"? In Pennsylvania, mail-in ballots come with two envelopes. The first, blank envelope, contains the ballot and is meant to keep it secret. The ballot and the first envelope are then together placed in a second envelope, which is postmarked, addressed and carried to the elections office.
When a voter accidentally skips the first envelope, placing the ballot directly in the second envelope, it's called a "naked ballot."
Deeley explained that the Philadelphia Board of Elections has traditionally counted these ballots. After all, the first envelope is mean to ensure a voter's privacy. If a ballot is "naked," it doesn't undermine the integrity of the vote at all, it just means the voter won't have all the privacy they could have.
But the state supreme court's ruling would invalidate these ballots, she explained. According to Deely's accounting, 6.4 percent of ballots in a 2019 general election were naked. Statewide, she estimated, this could result in 100,000 votes or more that would be discarded under this rule — "votes that will not be counted, because of a technicality." This problem could be exacerbated because mail-in voting is expected to be widespread, and many people will be engaging in the process for the first time.
"When you consider that the 2016 Presidential Election in Pennsylvania was decided by just over 44,000 votes, you can see why I am concerned," she said. "This is not a partisan issue. We are talking about the voting rights of our constituents, whether they be Democrats, Republcinas, or independents, whose ballots will be needlessly set aside."
She also argued that this problem is entirely unnecessary because the "secrecy envelope is not needed." Since votes are counted rapidly in an "industrialized process," she argued, there's no way for vote counters to identify a particularly voter's ballot.
She urged lawmakers to strike down the requirement for a secrecy envelope to avoid the coming confusion and possible mass disenfranchisement.
But if that doesn't happen, there are other ways to mitigate the chaos. Pennsylvania voters can be instructed to use the secrecy envelope if it is provided, and voters generally can be educated to follow the instructions on mail-in ballots as scrupulously as possible. The 2020 election is already extremely fraught — the chance that it could be decided by such simple and pointless blunders should be disturbing to everyone.
