GOP lawmakers distance themselves from Trump comments on transfer of power

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Several high-profile Republicans on Thursday pushed back on President Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses in November, though all stopped short of rebuking the president directly.

The criticisms, in a series of tweets that didn’t mention Trump by name, came from lawmakers like Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.), a former presidential rival of Trump four years ago, and Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah), the GOP’s presidential nominee in 2012.

Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.), the highest-ranking GOP woman in Congress, and Rep. Steve Stivers (Ohio), who previously headed the House GOP’s campaign operation, were among other Republicans who took to Twitter to reject Trump’s decision not to embrace a peaceful transfer of power 40 days before the election. Continue reading.

The Metastasizing Delusions That Make Our Real Disasters Worse

This just in: There’s no wizard behind the curtain, and nobody’s actually in charge. There’s no shadowy cabal of billionaires scheming to bring about one-world government. To begin with, nobody clever enough to accumulate that much money believes that such a thing is A.) remotely possible, or B.) even desirable. 

If the world seems scary and confusing, that’s because it’s scarier and more confusing than usual of late, although nowhere near as frightening as it was to Grandpa. Here’s the opening stanza of W.H. Auden’s great poem, September 1, 1939:

I sit in one of the dives
On Fifty-second Street
Uncertain and afraid
As the clever hopes expire
Of a low dishonest decade:
Waves of anger and fear
Circulate over the bright
And darkened lands of the earth,
Obsessing our private lives;
The unmentionable odour of death
Offends the September night.

Auden wrote to commemorate that terrible day Hitler and Stalin invaded Poland, triggering World War II, the most cataclysmic struggle in human history. Some 70 to 85 million people, military and civilian, died before it was over. Continue reading.

They ‘just want to watch the world burn’: Psychological analysis reveals the 14 key traits that explain Trump supporters

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As he himself said even before he won the presidential election in 2016, “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” Unfortunately for the American people, this wild-sounding claim appears to be truer than not, at least for the majority of his supporters, and that is something that should disturb us. It should also motivate us to explore the science underlying such peculiar human behavior, so we can learn from it, and potentially inoculate against it.

In all fairness, we should recognize that lying is sadly not uncommon for politicians on both sides of the political aisle, but the frequency and magnitude of the current president’s lies should have us all wondering why they haven’t destroyed his political career, and instead perhaps strengthened it. Similarly, we should be asking why his inflammatory rhetoric and numerous scandals haven’t sunk him. We are talking about a man who was caught on tape saying, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy.” Politically surviving that video is not normal, or anything close to it, and we can be sure that such a revelation would have been the end of Barack Obama or George Bush had it surfaced weeks before the election.

While dozens of psychologists have analyzed Trump, to explain the man’s political invincibility, it is more important to understand the minds of his staunch supporters. While there have been various popular articles that have illuminated a multitude of reasons for his unwavering support, there appears to be no comprehensive analysis that contains all of them. Since there seems to be a real demand for this information, I have tried to provide that analysis below. Continue reading.

DFL Party Announces Humphrey Mondale Award Winners

SAINT PAUL, MINNESOTA – During this year’s Ninth Annual Humphrey Mondale Dinner, the DFL Party will honor six Minnesotans with awards for their important contributions to the DFL Party and Minnesota politics. The six awards, Mondale, Humphrey, Wellstone, Freeman, Growe & Munger, are named after historic DFL leaders and presented to those who embody their values and do justice to their legacy.

“I’m proud to be celebrating six outstanding leaders for their contributions to the greater good of Minnesota during this year’s Humphrey Mondale Dinner,” said DFL Party Chairman Ken Martin. “The history of the DFL Party is replete with people who stepped up and made invaluable contributions to our state by dint of hard work, courage, and a willingness to face down long odds in the pursuit of a better future. This year’s award winners stand squarely within that proud DFL Party tradition and remind all of us engaged in Minnesota politics why we do what we do: to improve people’s lives.”

The Hubert H. Humphrey Award for Dedication and Leadership to the Minnesota DFL:

Chris Thorp – Chair of the DFL State Constitution and ByLaws Committee

As Chair of the DFL State Constitution and ByLaws Committee, Chris Thorp has worked tremendously hard, often behind the scenes, to power the DFL Party, guide us forward during difficult times, and ensure our Party’s foundational documents reflect our progressive spirit. Those who know Chris universally attest to his work ethic, leadership ability, and fairness. Grassroots democracy is at the core of the DFL Party, from our caucuses and conventions to our endorsement process to our and living Constitution. Chris Thorp has done more than almost anybody to ensure the DFL Party’s grassroots democracy that we all cherish remains vibrant and strong.

Continue reading “DFL Party Announces Humphrey Mondale Award Winners”

Two Million Americans Haven’t Died Yet, So McEnany Thinks America Should Be Impressed

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany defended President Donald Trump’s misleading and false claim that the coronavirus “affects virtually nobody,” and insisted that it is “a testament” to Trump that 2 million Americans have not died from COVID-19.

The U.S. just crossed the tragic marker of 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus pandemic.

“As you’ve heard several doctors in the Task Force note from this podium, we were looking at the prospect of 2 million people potentially perishing from the coronavirus in this country,” McEnany told reporters Tuesday, suggesting wrongly that doing absolutely nothing would have been a legitimate course of action Trump could have taken.

She called the more than 200,000 deaths, “a testament to the hard work done by the Task Force and this President.” Continue reading.

Nearly 500 former senior military, civilian leaders signal support for Biden

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Nearly 500 retired senior military officers, as well as former Cabinet secretaries, service chiefs and other officials, have signed an open letter in support of former vice president Joe Biden, the Democratic presidential nominee, saying that he has “the character, principles, wisdom and leadership necessary to address a world on fire.”

The letter, published Thursday morning by National Security Leaders for Biden, is the latest in a series of calls for President Trump’s defeat in the November election.

“We are former public servants who have devoted our careers, and in many cases risked our lives, for the United States,” it says. “We are generals, admirals, senior noncommissioned officers, ambassadors and senior civilian national security leaders. We are Republicans and Democrats, and Independents. We love our country.

“Unfortunately, we also fear for it.”

The letter has been signed by 489 people. Continue reading.

High court vacancy adds ‘urgency’ to Minnesota legislative races

The injection of a United States Supreme Court nomination fight with just six weeks left in the 2020 campaign could have political ripples beyond who serves in Washington.

A new justice to fill the vacancy left by Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death would likely alter the ideological makeup of the court and potentially set a new course on abortion and reproductive health. It puts added focus on who writes Minnesota’s laws in those areas.

“I would say the sense of urgency changed,” said Maggie Meyer, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice Minnesota. Continue reading.

DHS awarded $6 million in contracts to firm where Acting Secretary Wolf’s wife is executive

A Homeland Security spokesperson said Wolf was unaware of the contracts until contacted by the media. Wolf’s Senate confirmation hearing is scheduled for Wednesday.

WASHINGTON — The consulting firm where the wife of acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf is an executive has been awarded more than $6 million in contracts from the Department of Homeland Security since September 2018, according to records on the federal government website USA Spending.

Wolf became chief of staff at the Transportation Security Administration, a DHS agency, in 2017 and chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in 2018. He took over as acting secretary in November and has been nominated to become secretary. His confirmation hearing before the Senate is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday,

Wolf’s wife, Hope Wolf, is vice president of professional staff operations at Berkeley Research Group, a consulting firm. Although the company has a long history of federal contracts, it did not do work for DHS until after Wolf became the TSA’s chief of staff in 2017. Continue reading.

In secret tapes, mine executives detail their sway over leaders from Juneau to the White House

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Video recordings by the Environmental Investigation Agency shed light on an effort to win a key federal permit for Pebble Mine

A direct line to the White House, but routed through a third party to hide it from public view. Easy access to Alaska’s governor, as well as the state’s two U.S. senators. A successful push to unseat nine Republican state lawmakers who opposed their plan to build a massive gold and copper mine — the biggest in North America — near Bristol Bay in Alaska.

Those were some of the boasts made by two top executives of a company trying to build the Pebble Mine in videotapes secretly recorded by an environmental group and made public Monday. It was a rare glimpse into the private discussions surrounding the company’s heated campaign to win federal permits for the project, which environmentalists say will destroy a pristine part of Alaska and decimate its world-famous sockeye salmon fishery.

The conversations were secretly recorded over the past month and a half by the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency. Posing as potential investors in the mine, EIA investigators conducted Zoom calls in which the mine’s sponsors detailed how they sought to curry favor with elected politicians from Juneau to Washington, D.C. Continue reading.

Donald Trump Wants A New Supreme Court Justice To Help Hand Him A Second Term

“I think this will end up in the Supreme Court, and I think it’s very important to have nine justices,” Trump said of his plans to challenge the election results.

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the expansion of mail-in voting during the coronavirus pandemic is a “scam” and that he needs the Senate to confirm his Supreme Court pick to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before the election. And he was open about why: Trump wants a new justice in place to ensure election-related cases are decided in his favor. 

“I think this will end up in the Supreme Court, and I think it’s very important to have nine justices,” Trump said.

This is an extension of Trump’s earlier suggestion that he is “counting on the federal court system” to decide the winner of the presidential election in his favor. Continue reading.