How Trump is sabotaging Biden -- and America https://edition.cnn.com/2020/11/19/politics/what-matters-november-18/index.html (CNN)President Donald Trump continues to howl on Twitter -- between rounds of golf -- spreading the lie that he won the election he lost, and promising he will be in the White House come January. He is simultaneously taking steps to sabotage Joe Biden's presidency in ways that harm the economy and US foreign policy. Biden Transition Biden poised to make first Cabinet announcements next week, eager to respond to Trump's sabotage attempts Biden's incoming chief of staff says Trump 'failing to follow the law' by not letting transition begin Trump's refusal to concede creates strange gap between Biden and Harris on classified intelligence MAP: Full election results Meanwhile, a "bunker mentality" has set in, according to CNN's reporting, and the first family has canceled plans for Thanksgiving in Florida to instead stay in the White House he'll leave in just more than two months. Across the government Trump oversees -- with actions at the Treasury, the Pentagon, inaction on the economy and denialism about the pandemic -- the President and his allies are undercutting President-elect Joe Biden and harming the American people, even as none of them acknowledge that they're about to be replaced. Instead, Trump's been busy firing officials who admit anything counter to the election-fraud narrative -- Tuesday it was Christopher Krebs, the DHS official who confirmed the election was safe from meddling. Here's a short guide to how Trump is leaving things for his successor. Sabotaging the Fed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has demanded the Federal Reserve return $455 billion in unused funds from a lending program meant to prop up American businesses. The Fed could legally continue with the funds if Mnuchin didn't claw them back, but he argues the program should end at the end of this year -- a decision panned by the US Chamber of Commerce. This will create political headaches for Biden, but it'll also have a negative impact on everyday Americans. Biden and Congress would have to come to a new agreement to spin the program back up again. Mnuchin said the goal of the funds -- to help get banks lending -- was achieved, but anyone else can see the pandemic is far from over and states are now closing back down. Mnuchin's move drew a rare rebuke from the Fed, which usually takes great pains to be apolitical. Boxing Biden in on foreign policy A report by CNN's national security team is emblematic of how Trump's administration is working actively in ways to make Biden's life more difficult. The goal is to set so many fires that it will be hard for the Biden administration to put them all out, an administration official tells CNN in the report. Trump's administration is: Further removing troops from Afghanistan and Iraq in the final days of Trump's time as President. Contemplating new terrorist designations in Yemen that could complicate efforts to broker peace. Rushing through authorization of a massive arms sale that could alter the balance of power in the Middle East. Planning a last-minute crackdown on China. Floating the idea of a last-minute military strike on Iran, according to The New York Times. Building a wall of sanctions that make it difficult for Biden to rejoin the Iran nuclear deal Trump scuttled. Sending Mike Pompeo on the first-ever official visit by a US secretary of state to an Israeli settlement. Intentionally making things more difficult for Biden could set up Trump's argument for a 2024 rematch, according to experts in the report. And Trump's last-minute change of civilian leadership at the Pentagon is part of this effort. Handing Biden an economic grenade Trump's failure to negotiate a new Covid stimulus with Congress will set Biden up for a political fight on Day One about how to help Americans hurt by the pandemic. Here's what expires in December without further action: Provisions to beef up unemployment insurance A deferral on student loan payments A paid family leave provision Coronavirus relief funding for states whose tax base has been decimated And a moratorium on evictions Trump could potentially address these items with executive orders if he were to focus on them. Regardless, the first major political fight of Biden's presidency is likely to be this standoff with either a narrowly Republican- or Democratic-controlled Senate. Trump also signed a temporary delay on payroll taxes this year. Not all employers took part, but with Trump unable to make the tax delay permanent or to forgive it, Biden will have to figure out how not to make the accumulated payroll taxes feel like a tax hike when the bill comes due in 2021. Read more here from CNN's Katie Lobosco and Tami Luhby. Weakening American democracy The most important of these various nails left under the couch cushions is Trump's steadfast refusal to accept the legitimacy of Biden's win, an ultimately futile bit of pique, since Biden will take the oath of office and Trump will no longer be President in January. Either because he wants to retire campaign debt, seed a new media empire of democratic disbelievers or is personally incapable of admitting defeat, Trump's actions will have consequences. We keep fact-checking these allegations and theories. They all spin a kernel of something into lies. Related:CNN speaks to Georgia voter the Trump campaign falsely accused of casting ballot in the name of a dead woman It's clear many of Trump's followers are all-in in their disbelief of the election results. If Republican orthodoxy is that Biden is not a real president, it will legitimize and even demand standing in the way of his efforts to govern in the next four years, and endanger the democratic process. If Biden is to govern as a uniter, as he's promised, he'll first have to find a way to reach people being groomed to believe the counterfactual notion that he's an election thief. Republicans will argue Trump was similarly set up for failure by sour Democrats, but that's a false equivalence, since Democrats from Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton on down acknowledged Trump's victory in real time. It also ignores the evidence that led to the Russia investigation, Trump's impeachment and more. Why 'bunker mentality' is so insidious That term from above -- bunker mentality -- is an interesting one for White House aides to anonymously self-apply. I've always associated it with Adolf Hitler's end, in the bunker, surrounded by sycophants -- rejecting facts in the face of certain defeat. But the historian Benjamin Carter Hett writes about it more expansively in the LA Times, and makes the point that Trump pushing the massive lie that he won the election and his party's enabling of him will have corrosive effects on democracy. I'll put the final two paragraphs here, but you should read the whole thing, and apply it to what we're seeing at the White House. Now we see the GOP gladly catering to Trump's delusions about his election "victory." Such prominent politicians as Sens. Lindsey Graham and Ted Cruz and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo are eagerly following along. Their lies too will linger and sow bitterness for years. They have shown that winning -- even flattering Trump's fragile ego -- means more to them than the survival of our democracy. How long can we go on as a democracy with one of our two great parties in the hands of such people will be the urgent question of the coming years.
Ahem... https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/wealth-should-trickle-up-not-down.334536/page-5#post-4899388 https://www.elitetrader.com/et/thre...ump-on-sep-tariffs.335579/page-3#post-4922815 https://www.elitetrader.com/et/threads/es-journal-2019-2020.328086/page-2681#post-5156242 And now it comes to pass..
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/12/05/politics/trump-georgia-brian-kemp-phone-call/index.html Trump pressured Georgia governor in call to help overturn Biden's win in state Updated 2154 GMT (0554 HKT) December 5, 2020 (CNN)President Donald Trump on Saturday called Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, pushing him to convince state legislators to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's win in the state, a source familiar with the conversation told CNN. Trump asked Kemp to call a special session and convince state legislators to select their own electors that would support him, according to the source. He also asked the Republican governor to order an audit of absentee ballot signatures. Kemp explained that he did not have the authority to order such an audit and denied the request to call a special session, the source said. RELATED: See CNN's live results from the 2020 election The White House declined to comment on the call, which was first reported by The Washington Post. The President appeared to reference the call in a tweet Saturday, attacking Kemp and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and calling for a signature audit of the absentee ballot envelopes in the state -- while making false or misleading claims about the potential process. The governor, in response, tweeted that he has already "publicly called for a signature audit three times" -- leading Trump to then double down on his request for Kemp to call for a special session of the state's Legislature. Trump White House White House exodus begins even as Trump continues to baselessly claim victory Courts across the country hand Trump and his allies more losses as attempts to upend election results collapse While Trump rants about votes, none of his election security officials support him MAP: Full presidential election results Kemp spokesman Cody Hall confirmed the governor spoke with the President, but, when asked about the conversation, only said that Trump offered his condolences on the death of Harrison Deal, a young Loeffler campaign staffer. Trump's call to Kemp, his latest attempt to interfere in the results of the 2020 election, came hours before the President's visit to the state to rally in support of Republican Sens. David Perdue and Kelly Loeffler ahead of January's Senate runoff elections.CNN previously reported that the President has publicly pushed for Kemp and Raffensperger, both Republicans, to overturn the state's election results -- demands they have rebuffed. Hall told CNN earlier this week -- following a separate push from Trump to intervene in the state's elections process -- that "Georgia law prohibits the Governor from interfering in elections." "The Secretary of State, who is an elected constitutional officer, has oversight over elections that cannot be overridden by executive order," Hall said in a statement at the time. "As the Governor has said repeatedly, he will continue to follow the law and encourage the Secretary of State to take reasonable steps -- including a sample audit of signatures -- to restore trust and address serious issues that have been raised." All eyes are on Georgia ahead of Trump's rally and Senate debate Trump's refusal to concede and his continued push of false claims of fraud in Georgia has some Republicans uneasy and concerned that the President could depress turnout in the state's crucial runoff elections that will help determine the balance of power in Congress. And despite the pummeling from their party leader, Georgia GOP election officials have pushed back against Trump's claims of fraud in the state. Biden won Georgia by more than 12,000 votes, becoming the first Democratic presidential nominee to win the Peach State in nearly three decades. Kemp certified the results of Biden's victory on November 20, following a statewide audit, which included a hand-count of the nearly 5 million ballots cast in the election. CNN previously reported that Trump had recently bashed Kemp, who is a supporter of his, as a "moron" and a "nut job" during another phone call. And earlier this week, the President publicly criticized the governor in an interview on Fox News, saying he was "ashamed" he had endorsed Kemp. The governor does not plan to attend Trump's rally in Valdosta, Georgia, Saturday night, due to the sudden death of a close friend of the family, Hall told CNN. This story has been updated with additional developments Saturday. CNN's Ryan Nobles contributed to this report.