TrumpReich in action

[Rach3]

https://tinyurl.com/yxuzjzsv Fiddling with COVID-19 data

https://tinyurl.com/y4en9cc6 Fiddling with Census data

Just the latest , of course.

[jserraglio]

Impotus americanus now an endangered species.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8x1-CVsoEBU

[Rach3]

Impotus americanus now an endangered species.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=8x1-CVsoEBU

Unfortunately, no one ever went broke under estimating the intelligence of the average American, eg. 2016.

[Rach3]

At least James Murdoch ( Ruperts youngest son) finally quit the family NewsCorp (owns Wall Street Journal and apparently much of Aussie media ) .

[Rach3]

Per several news sources: Postmaster General DeJoy's ( gave $2M to Trump's 2016 campaign) changes which have crippled US Postal Service:Shutting down mail-sorting machines so workers must do by hand.Requiring letter carriers LEAVE MAIL BEHIND to avoid extra trips.Prohibiting overtime pay.This has created a massive backlog.

[Rach3]

The latest, no doubt with the involvement of Darth Miller, a new US citizenship test form:


WAPO Nov.14 ,2020
Maria Sacchetti

"The Trump administration unveiled a new U.S. citizenship test Friday, adding a broader array of history and civics themes while requiring that legal residents answer twice as many questions correctly to pass.

The new exam — which has been in development for years as part of a once-a-decade review — requires applicants to answer at least 12 oral questions correctly, up from six under the most recent exam, which has been in use since Oct. 1, 2008, late in George W. Bush’s presidency. Those taking the test must still get at least 60 percent of the questions correct.

Advocates for immigrants said on Friday that the exam appears to them to be more difficult than previous versions in that it is longer, more nuanced and, in some questions, has a tinge of politics.
One new question asks, “Who does a U.S. senator represent?” The correct answer under the old test was: “All people of the state.”
The new version lists the correct answer as “Citizens of their state.” President Trump has tried to exclude undocumented immigrants from the decennial census for the purposes of assigning congressional seats.

The new study guide contains 128 questions in three categories — American government, American history, and symbols and holidays — up from 100 in the older version. The new test also might take longer to administer: Officers must ask all 20 questions, while lawyers said they usually used to stop when an immigrant answered the required minimum of six correctly.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services officials said the updated exam will take effect Dec. 1, though elderly applicants who have been green-card holders for at least 20 years will be allowed to take the shorter version instead.

Joseph Edlow, the agency’s deputy director for policy, said the new test prepares immigrants “to become fully vested members of American society.”
“USCIS has diligently worked on revising the naturalization test since 2018, relying on input from experts in the field of adult education to ensure that this process is fair and transparent,” he said in a statement. The new exam was presented to community organizations and volunteers during the summer as part of a pilot program.

Doug Rand, a former immigration policy adviser to the Obama administration who runs a firm called Boundless Immigration, tweeted that the new test is “unnecessary, unjustified, overly complex, & shamelessly ideological” and called for President-elect Joe Biden to restore the 2008 test.
“This is an obvious attempt to throw one more obstacle in front of immigrants legally eligible for U.S. citizenship,” he said in the tweet.

USCIS has been working on the new test since 2018, and it announced last year that it was updating it just as the agency was seeing a rush of new applicants. Hundreds of thousands of immigrants have naturalized during Trump’s term, some inspired by his immigration crackdowns, leading to a backlog.
Officials eradicated the old test’s geography section — which included questions such as “What ocean is on the West Coast of the United States? (answer: Pacific) — and added newer, more technical questions about government.
One new question asks: “What is the form of government of the United States?” (possible answers: Republic, Constitution-based federal republic and Representative democracy).
Another question asks applicants to name five of the 13 original states, while the older test asked them to name three.

Analysts worry administering the test will take longer, potentially limiting the number of exams officers can handle.
“It’s basic math,” said Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, president and chief executive of Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service. “If you make the test twice as long, it takes twice as much time and USCIS officers will process half the applicants.”
USCIS spokesman Dan Hetlage said the increased number of questions “provides a more accurate measurement” of applicants’ understanding of civics and “ensures the reliability and validity of scores.”
Focusing on history and civics themes could give applicants “more questions from themes with which they are familiar, thus ensuring a better chance of passing the test,” he said.
Officials eliminated the geography questions, he said, “because they were not sufficiently tied to the statutory standard.”

Federal law requires immigrants to pass a citizenship test, along with other requirements such as paying a fee, clearing background checks and being able to speak basic English. Officials had also tried to nearly double the $640 citizenship application fee, but a federal judge in California blocked that move in September.
Sarah Pierce, a policy analyst at the Migration Policy Institute, a Washington think tank, said the incoming Biden administration should review the new exam.
“They’re obviously trying to make it more difficult,” she said. “What end will that achieve?”

Maria Sacchetti covers immigration for the Washington Post, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the court system. She previously reported for the Boston Globe, where her work led to the release of several immigrants from jail. She lived for several years in Latin America and is fluent in Spanish.


Interesting, in that former Alabama football coach and now a new Trump suckup US Senator,Tommy Tuberville, apparently would not pass the new test as he did not name the 3 branches of government correctly in a recent interview, and stated that the US was fighting " socialism" in WW II.
https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/202 ... nt-vpx.cnn
Perhaps another of those cases where when someone moves from Alabama to Mississippi the average IQ's of both States are increased.

[maestrob]

Interesting, in that former Alabama football coach and now a new Trump suckup US Senator,Tommy Tuberville, apparently would not pass the new test as he did not name the 3 branches of government correctly in a recent interview, and stated that the US was fighting " socialism" in WW II.https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/202 ... nt-vpx.cnnPerhaps another of those cases where when someone moves from Alabama to Mississippi the average IQ's of both States are increased.

Good grief!

I wonder how many American-born citizens could pass such a test, given the lack of civics courses in schools today!

[Rach3]

The election fraud fraud continues now with Hatch Act violations:



https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics ... story.html

[Rach3]

" Have you no shame, Senator ? "

https://www.cnn.com/politics/live-news/ ... 6fae2f8b6c

[Rach3]

Got an email from Eric and Donnie this am ; dumb and dumber Lords of the Sith:

Friend,
Is anyone shocked right now?
Our father has been saying for MONTHS that mail-in ballots would cause CHAOS. The Election interference we've uncovered so far is just the beginning and is an absolute disgrace!
We need to fully investigate all reports of fraud so that Americans can once again have faith in the democratic process. This is a MASSIVE undertaking, and we can't do it without you, Friend.
Our father is relying on his STRONGEST and most RELIABLE supporters during this critical time. Can we tell him he can count on YOU to make sure we have enough resources to COMBAT the lies coming from the Left?
This is a fight to preserve our Country's future and we won't win unless every Patriot, including you, steps up RIGHT NOW.
Contribute ANY AMOUNT IMMEDIATELY to the Official Election Defense Fund and to increase your impact by 1000%. >>

[maestrob]

What a sick joke, and a con too!

[Rach3]

Some, just some, of the latest:

Clue-less Georgia GOP US Senate candidates ( hucksters ) demand voter info they already had and was publicly available, as they try to make it appear as though " hidden' :

https://www.yahoo.com/news/georgia-secr ... 00303.html

Total COVID failure, perhaps criminally so (?),Fla. Gov. DeSantis’ COVID scam hiding death numbers pre-election day:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/floridas-sun ... 39990.html

900-invite ( far less than 70 showed up, but taxpayers still paid ) Christmas party-man Pompeo now quarantining:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/pompeo-tests ... 38527.html

Dept. of Education workers told to sabotage Biden by private school huckster Devos:

https://www.yahoo.com/news/betsey-devos ... 58824.html

Trump’s income tax fraud and what hell is National Trust doing, turning blind eye ? :

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyl ... story.html

“Next-door neighbors of Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s private club in Palm Beach, Fla., that he has called his Winter White House, have a message for the outgoing commander in chief: We don’t want you to be our neighbor.
That message was formally delivered Tuesday morning in a demand letter delivered to the town of Palm Beach and also addressed to the U.S. Secret Service asserting that Trump lost his legal right to live at Mar-a-Lago because of an agreement he signed in the early 1990s when he converted the storied estate from his private residence to a private club…The current residency controversy tracks back to a deal Trump cut in 1993 when his finances were foundering, and the cost of maintaining Mar-a-Lago was soaring into the multimillions each year. Under the agreement, club members are banned from spending more than 21 days a year in the club’s guest suites and cannot stay there for any longer than seven consecutive days. Before the arrangement was sealed, an attorney for Trump assured the town council in a public meeting that he would not live at Mar-a-Lago…The 1993 Palm Beach agreement isn’t the only document that raises questions about whether Trump can legally live at Mar-a-Lago. He also signed a document deeding development rights for Mar-a-Lago to the National Trust for Historic Preservation, a Washington-based, privately funded nonprofit organization that works to save historic sites around the country. As part of the National Trust deal, Trump agreed to “forever” relinquish his rights to develop Mar-a-Lago or to use it for “any purpose other than club use.”

(Rach3:Florida has no State income tax or death taxes on residents.)

Falwell and Trump’s tax scam; Falwell caught with his pants down again ? :

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/1 ... ity-444661

[barney]

Love the one about the Georgia Senators not knowing they already have the info they are demanding. Utter cretins. Raffensperger is fast becoming my favourite Republican.

And I know we've said it before,but it's worth repeating: This election was not hijacked because ordinary Republicans showed integrity. Just enough of them, but it is encouraging. America did not break.

[Rach3]

The latest:

Fuhrer Trump's SS squad plans to disrupt the Jan.6 Joint Session of Congress, not surprisingly led by a couple of Alabamians ( another Red State never to visit):


https://www.yahoo.com/news/sen-elect-to ... 19618.html


Fuhrer Trump's racist, Confederate Georgia GOP trying to rig the Senate run-off elections:

https://www.yahoo.com/lifestyle/georgia ... 44040.html

Any of your friends who voted for Trump or GOP candidates owe you an apology.

[maestrob]

ALL of these insane people should be barred from government service for life.

There has never been anything resembling behavior like this in our history.

[Rach3]

Moron and dangerous 61-year old GOP Rep. Ken Buck (CO.) says he has a right not to take the vaccine, won’t take it as he is more worried about the safety of the vaccine than he is of getting the virus since he’s a healthy man.

Selfish does not begin to describe him.GOP of course.

[Rach3]

Tucker Carlson is also questioning vaccine safety on his show.IF Murdochs had any principles, they'd fire him.

[barney]

Tucker Carlson is also questioning vaccine safety on his show.IF Murdochs had any principles, they'd fire him.

Of course they have principles. I can sum them up in 5 symbols.
$ $ $ $ $

[maestrob]

Tucker Carlson is also questioning vaccine safety on his show.IF Murdochs had any principles, they'd fire him.

Of course they have principles. I can sum them up in 5 symbols.
$ $ $ $ $

[Rach3]

If you are going to be a Trump-crazy, at least dont be a chicken:

WAPO
12:35 p.m. CST

Something surprising happened Friday night on Lou Dobbs’s top-rated show on the Fox Business Network.
Dobbs, an opinion host and conservative ally of President Trump who has consistently raged over the past month that the president was robbed of a second term by a rigged election, introduced a segment that calmly debunked several accusations of fraud that Rudolph W. Giuliani and other Trump supporters have lobbed against the election technology company Smartmatic.
“There are lots of opinions about the integrity of the election, the irregularities of mail-in voting, of election voting machines and voting software,” Dobbs told his viewers before introducing Edward Perez, an expert with the nonprofit Open Source Election Technology Institute, to give “his assessment of Smartmatic and recent claims about the company.”

Perez then appeared in an apparently pretaped segment, where he shot down various conspiratorial theories in response to questions from an off-camera, unidentified voice — not Dobbs’s.
The segment, it turns out, was in response to a 20-page legal demand letter that was sent this month by Smartmatic to Fox News Media. Similar letters went to Fox’s smaller competitors on the right, Newsmax and One America News. The letters demanded “a full and complete retraction of all false and defamatory statements and reports” aired by the network in its coverage of the Nov. 3 presidential election.
Specifically, the company charged: “Fox News has engaged in a concerted disinformation campaign against Smartmatic. Fox News told its millions of viewers and readers that Smartmatic was founded by [the late Venezuelan President] Hugo Chávez, that its software was designed to fix elections, and that Smartmatic conspired with others to defraud the American people and fix the 2020 U.S. election by changing, inflating, and deleting votes.”

Not only are these claims false, the company says, it played only a relatively minor role in this year’s presidential election, as a contractor for the election process in Los Angeles County, Calif.
In the legal letter, Smartmatic included multiple segments from Dobbs’s prime-time show as examples of “false and defamatory statements/implications,” with some comments coming from Dobbs himself — Dobbs said on Nov. 18 that the company consists of “left-wing radicals” — and others from guests such as Giuliani and onetime Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell.
Fox News confirmed to The Washington Post on Saturday that the fact-checking segment seen on Dobbs’s show Friday night will also air on “Justice with Judge Jeanine,” hosted on Saturday night by Jeanine Pirro, and “Sunday Morning Futures,” hosted on Sunday morning by Maria Bartiromo, on which Powell made many of the comments included in the complaint. (Smartmatic had demanded that the corrections “must be published on multiple occasions” and must be made during prime-time shows, so as to “match the attention and audience targeted with the original defamatory publications.”)

The OSET Institute did not respond to a request for comment but put out a statement praising Dobbs on Twitter and said it was “good on him” to “set the record straight.” Perez, the organization said, “was happy to help do so.”
In the segment, Perez also clarified that Smartmatic is, “for all intents and purposes,” a completely separate company from Dominion Voting Systems, another voting technology company that has faced unsubstantiated charges of wrongdoing. In a Nov. 12 appearance on Dobbs’s show, Giuliani claimed that Dominion is owned by Smartmatic; on Nov. 16, Dobbs said that “Dominion has connections” to Smartmatic, while also claiming the since-denied theory that Smartmatic “had ties to” Venezuela’s Chavez.
During Friday night’s fact-checking segment, the questioner asked Perez: “Have you seen any evidence of Smartmatic sending U.S. votes to be tabulated in foreign countries?”

This appeared to be a reference to Giuliani’s Nov. 12 claim on the show that with Smartmatic software, “the votes actually go to Barcelona, Spain.” Perez responded, “No, I’m not aware of any evidence that Smartmatic is sending U.S. votes to be tabulated in foreign countries.”
It is unclear whether the fact-checking segment fulfilled Smartmatic’s demand for a retraction. The company did not respond to questions from The Post on Friday night. In the legal demand letter, Smartmatic said that the comments made on Fox will cost the company “hundreds of millions, if not billions, of dollars” in value.
Thus far, Fox appears to be the only network that has publicly made amends in response to Smartmatic’s complaint. Newsmax, which only began referring to Biden as “president-elect” on Monday, released a statement responding to Smartmatic’s demand letter by placing the burden of blame onto the guests who expressed those views on air.
“Individuals, including plaintiff’s attorneys, congressmen and others, have appeared on Newsmax raising questions about the company and its voting software, citing legal documents or previously published reports about Smartmatic,” the company said. “As any major media outlet, we provide a forum for public concerns and discussion. In the past we have welcomed Smartmatic and its representatives to counter such claims they believe to be inaccurate and will continue to do so.”


What bunch of whores. (Sorry, did not mean to give a bad name to whores.)

[Rach3]

NYT reports today that Trump discussed Friday appointing wack-job lawyer Sidney Powell ( from whom his campaign distanced itself last month after her crazy claims ) as a Special Counsel to investigate election " fraud", just as Trump is considering a Special Counsel to investigate Hunter Biden's China ties and whether Joe Biden lied about those ties ( Giuliani's Ukraine claims against Bidens went nowhere).Makes it difficult for Biden to then to fire Special Counsels, which he could otherwise do. Trump also opened more Federal lands to destructive commercial rape.GOP silent of course. As is Trump about the virus, botched vaccine distribution to date.

My friends who voted for Trump better never mention his name, or that fact, in my prescence,although I know who there are.It would be a " deal breaker."

[Rach3]

Time to tell my Trumpist friends I do not suffer fools gladly, so time for them to shape up, or ship out:

Sidney Powell, Michael Flynn, and Rudy Giuliani in the Oval Office Friday:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/19/politics ... index.html

Traitor Trump downplays Russia's declaration of war against the US:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/19/politics ... index.html

What great Americans are our most privileged:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/19/us/covid ... index.html

https://www.cnn.com/videos/health/2020/ ... x-ebof.cnn

GOP thugs:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/19/politics ... index.html

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/1 ... ice-448504

"A republic, if you can keep it." I'm not taking bets.

[Belle]

Still obsessed with Trump more than a month after he lost the unlosable election!! Some things never change do they!! It's sad to see such hatred and talk about the Third Reich - tired old cliches and tropes which are meaningless. Please demonstrate how Trump rushed people into the showers and killed more than 3 million people. We want names and addresses.

Here's an interesting discussion on Intersectionality from two very bright guys. Warning; one of these is a 24year old Columbia graduate and black conservative!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbDts_B ... NJmC51%3A6

For some reason all music messageboards I've ever been involved with have, without exception, the hard Left dominating their general sections, and they'll take no prisoners or tolerate dissent. (I guess conservatives are mostly pretty busy making money and being successful, running businesses, employing people and the like). I've given up on all of them because they just drag you down.

Have you nothing better to complain about? My son's 27 year old female work colleague and friend has been found by her mother this morning hanging from the bedroom ceiling. Her mother had to cut her down.

Try and think of somebody else for a change. Merry Christmas!!

[maestrob]

Still obsessed with Trump more than a month after he lost the unlosable election!! Some things never change do they!! It's sad to see such hatred and talk about the Third Reich - tired old cliches and tropes which are meaningless. Please demonstrate how Trump rushed people into the showers and killed more than 3 million people. We want names and addresses.

Here's an interesting discussion on Intersectionality from two very bright guys. Warning; one of these is a 24year old Columbia graduate and black conservative!!!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cbDts_B ... NJmC51%3A6

For some reason all music messageboards I've ever been involved with have, without exception, the hard Left dominating their general sections, and they'll take no prisoners or tolerate dissent. (I guess conservatives are mostly pretty busy making money and being successful, running businesses, employing people and the like). I've given up on all of them because they just drag you down.

Have you nothing better to complain about? My son's 27 year old female work colleague and friend has been found by her mother this morning hanging from the bedroom ceiling. Her mother had to cut her down.

Try and think of somebody else for a change. Merry Christmas!!

OMG, Belle! I am indeed so sorry to hear about the terrible tragedy in your life.

I have nothing to say about the rest of your post at the moment, but will wish you and yours a Merry Christmas and a much Happier New Year than the one just passed.

[maestrob]

Perez then appeared in an apparently pretaped segment, where he shot down various conspiratorial theories in response to questions from an off-camera, unidentified voice — not Dobbs’s.

The segment, it turns out, was in response to a 20-page legal demand letter that was sent this month by Smartmatic to Fox News Media. Similar letters went to Fox’s smaller competitors on the right, Newsmax and One America News. The letters demanded “a full and complete retraction of all false and defamatory statements and reports” aired by the network in its coverage of the Nov. 3 presidential election.

Specifically, the company charged: “Fox News has engaged in a concerted disinformation campaign against Smartmatic. Fox News told its millions of viewers and readers that Smartmatic was founded by [the late Venezuelan President] Hugo Chávez, that its software was designed to fix elections, and that Smartmatic conspired with others to defraud the American people and fix the 2020 U.S. election by changing, inflating, and deleting votes.”

Not only are these claims false, the company says, it played only a relatively minor role in this year’s presidential election, as a contractor for the election process in Los Angeles County, Calif.In the legal letter, Smartmatic included multiple segments from Dobbs’s prime-time show as examples of “false and defamatory statements/implications,” with some comments coming from Dobbs himself — Dobbs said on Nov. 18 that the company consists of “left-wing radicals” — and others from guests such as Giuliani and onetime Trump campaign attorney Sidney Powell.

Good for Smartmatic!!

Dobbs responded similarly when challenged about his massive efforts to publicize the birther theory about Barack Obama when Dobbs was still airing in prime-time on CNN. He was then removed from his perch at CNN and relegated to Fox Business, rather than their main channel.

Bullies are invariably cowards when confronted about their nonsense: they simply run away, as viewers have from Fox, now that Fox has recognized Biden as President-elect.

It is a terrible fact that so many voters in America would rather install a Republican dictatorship than support the great democratic values that have sustained us and caused us to prosper for so many centuries.

[Rach3]

Still obsessed with Trump more than a month after he lost the unlosable election!! Some things never change do they!! It's sad to see such hatred and talk about the Third Reich - tired old cliches and tropes which are meaningless. Please demonstrate how Trump rushed people into the showers and killed more than 3 million people. We want names and addresses.

So far, just about 350K and counting dead Americans due to his virus incompetence/denial, but he's got another month to go. More than enough reason to hate Trump.The names and addresses of the dead are public record.And he's had only since January, not 6 years.The rest of the corruption, capitulation of the GOP, conning 72M Proud Boy-QAnon-White Nationalist Americans voting for him in comparable time to the ' 30's.

[Rach3]

Trump has apparently, for now, backed off felon ReichsMarshall Flynn's suggestion of martial law, was told by Homeland Security he alone cant confiscate State voting machines, and even Giuliani may think Sidney Powell is crazy,BUT Fuhrer Trump has plenty of time to:

Appoint a flunkie as "Acting AG" to replace Barr ( who leaves Dec.23), and the flunkie then appoint Powell as Special Prosecutor to investigate " election fraud", just as Barr, day after he announced he's quitting,appointed Durham Special Prosecutor for the bogus FBI -Russia investigation.

Powell , with taxpayer $$M and Trump PAC $$M to use, will then "find" alleged "evidence" of "fraud", and can subpoena the voting machines before Red State GOP judges , who probably have to run for election or retention, and once she has the machines in her possession" find" more alleged "evidence".Even if DOJ lawyers refuse to help her, unikely, she can hire the private bar crazies Trump has been using.Trump could have his flunkie "Acting AG" appoint Giuliani Special Prosecutor to investigate Hunter Biden - China ( one of the countries like Iran and Venezuela who programmed the voting machines to reject Trump votes remember ),and, voila!, find "misdeeds" and then allege Joe Biden lied about Hunter during the campaign.

Trump then claims the election was a fraud, has to be re-done, but only in the States he lost, he gets to stay until then.

Think that scenario, and many others, are not being actively discussed in WH right now ?

Who stops him ? Mitch ? Lindsey? Cruz ? Paul ? Dobbs ? Hannity ? McCarthy ? Meadows ? Joint Chiefs disobey their Commander in Chief and Trump's newly installed Pentagon flunkies ? Christie ? Pence ? Limbaugh ? Proud Boys ? 72M Trump voters ?

Trump has said zero, zero, in recent days about more Americans dying from COVID daily than were lost on 9-11 , but has said much daily about election fraud.

[Rach3]

From Axios tonight:


"It's a fitting end to a crappy year: White House officials are calling us in a panic about President Trump’s erratic behavior. England is panicking about a possible super-spreading virus strain. And vaccine distribution is hitting bumps.

Why it matters: My friends joke that I'm a hopelessly optimistic guy. So, I could spin it: You need to hit rock bottom before you bound out of bed better than ever! But the reality is that incoming White House chief of staff Ron Klain was right when he warned of a "very, very, very dark winter."

Winter technically starts tomorrow. But it's already clear that in the 31 days until the inauguration, American institutions will be tested like never before.

Axios yesterday sent two alerts with Jonathan Swan's jaw-dropping reporting from Trump's inner circle, with diehard loyalists now telling us they're alarmed about what Trump might try over the next month.

On top of loose Oval Office talk about martial law first reported by the N.Y. Times' Maggie Haberman and Zolan Kanno-Youngs, Trump tweeted yesterday that the cyberhack "is well under control."

Top administration officials tell me it's anything but — that the damage may take months and billions to detect and repair.


After Prime Minister Boris Johnson warned yesterday of a coronavirus strain that is 70% more transmissible, England finds itself increasingly cut off:

Italy, the Netherlands and Austria banned flights from the U.K., and Eurostar trains between London, Brussels and Amsterdam are being canceled.

The virus is out of control, regardless of any new variant.
With governors around the country complaining that they're being shorted on vaccines they've been promised, a government official yesterday did something rare — admitted there was a problem, and took total blame.

Army four-star Gen. Gus Perna, COO of Operation Warp Speed, apologized for "miscommunication" with states and told reporters: "I failed. I'm adjusting."

The bottom line: In these times, even an optimist has no choice but to become a realist.

Go deeper, with Swan's living-history dispatches: "Officials increasingly alarmed about Trump’s power grab" ... "Giuliani asks DHS about seizing voting machines."


President Trump's closest confidants no longer expect him to imminently announce he's running in 2024, Jonathan Swan is told by three sources who've recently discussed the matter with the president.

Between the lines: Trump doesn't want to announce a run before January 20 — an idea he had initially toyed with — because it would show his base he’s given up his fight to overturn the election.

While Trump definitely wants to hold out the possibility of running, he is not sure he wants to go through the official FEC process anytime soon, a person familiar with Trump’s thinking said.

Inside the West Wing: Raised voices, "rocket to Mars"

There were "raised voice levels and animated conversation" during a chaotic Friday night meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office, a source familiar with the meeting tells Jonathan Swan.

As the N.Y. Times first reported yesterday, the meeting included — at various times — Rudy Giuliani, Gen. Michael Flynn and conspiracy-minded election lawyer Sidney Powell.
Chief of staff Mark Meadows and counsel Pat Cipollone pushed back strenuously on some of the more far-out ideas, including impounding voting machines and making Powell special counsel for election fraud.
"It's basically Sidney versus everybody," the source told Swan. "That is why voices were raised. There is literally not one motherf—r in the president’s entire orbit — his staunchest group of supporters and allies — who doesn't think that Sidney Powell should be on that first rocket to Mars."

"These are the hardcore defenders. This is the one thing that has united people."

Between the lines: With the obvious exception, of course, of the president of the United States."

[Rach3]

From Axios newsletter this am:

"Here's a freeze frame from AP's Jonathan Lemire, Zeke Miller and Darlene Superville, kicking off a Trump legacy series:

He went after the intelligence agencies and Justice Department — calling out leaders by name.
He targeted the Supreme Court for insufficient loyalty and the Postal Service for its handling of mail-in ballots.
He didn't release his tax returns or divest himself from his businesses.
He used government property for political purposes, including the White House as the backdrop for his renomination acceptance speech.
He used National Guard troops to clear a largely peaceful protest across from the White House for a photo-op.
He cast doubt on once-inviolable alliances like NATO.
And that was all before his challenge to the peaceful transfer of power."

From NYT newsletter this am:

"Neo-Nazis have burrowed into the ranks of German police departments. 'We have a problem with far-right extremism,' said Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state. 'If we don’t deal with it, it will grow.'"

Deja vu all over again, here and in Germany.

[maestrob]

Even IF Trump declares martial law, the Constitution would still be in force, and he would have to leave the WH on January 20.

That chill in my spine will be there until then, to be sure.

[barney]

From Axios newsletter this am:

"Here's a freeze frame from AP's Jonathan Lemire, Zeke Miller and Darlene Superville, kicking off a Trump legacy series:

He went after the intelligence agencies and Justice Department — calling out leaders by name.
He targeted the Supreme Court for insufficient loyalty and the Postal Service for its handling of mail-in ballots.
He didn't release his tax returns or divest himself from his businesses.
He used government property for political purposes, including the White House as the backdrop for his renomination acceptance speech.
He used National Guard troops to clear a largely peaceful protest across from the White House for a photo-op.
He cast doubt on once-inviolable alliances like NATO.
And that was all before his challenge to the peaceful transfer of power."

From NYT newsletter this am:

"Neo-Nazis have burrowed into the ranks of German police departments. 'We have a problem with far-right extremism,' said Herbert Reul, the interior minister of North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany’s most populous state. 'If we don’t deal with it, it will grow.'"

Deja vu all over again, here and in Germany.

All true, and the tip of the iceberg. No mention, eg, of the pandemic, the wall, Russia (plus the bounty, the hacking), his encouragement of white supremacists.

[Rach3]

Dec. 19, 2020
WAPO

The inside story of how Trump’s denial,
mismanagement and magical thinking
led to the pandemic’s dark winter
The story of how America arrived at this final season of devastation, with the reported death toll some days surpassing 3,000 people — a new 9/11 day after day — is based on interviews over the past month with 48 senior administration officials, government health professionals, outside presidential advisers and other people briefed on the inner workings of the federal response:

As the number of coronavirus cases ticked upward in mid-November — worse than the frightening days of spring and ahead of an expected surge after families congregated for Thanksgiving — four doctors on President Trump’s task force decided to stage an intervention.
After their warnings had gone largely unheeded for months in the dormant West Wing, Deborah Birx, Anthony S. Fauci, Stephen Hahn and Robert Redfield together sounded new alarms, cautioning of a dark winter to come without dramatic action to slow community spread.
White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, among the many Trump aides who were infected with the virus this fall, was taken aback, according to three senior administration officials with knowledge of the discussions. He told the doctors he did not believe their troubling data assessment. And he accused them of outlining problems without prescribing solutions.

The doctors explained that the solutions were simple and had long been clear — among them, to leverage the power of the presidential bully pulpit to persuade all Americans to wear masks, especially the legions of Trump supporters refusing to do so, and to dramatically expand testing.
“It was something that we were almost repetitively saying whenever we would get into the Situation Room,” said Fauci, who directs the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. “Whenever we got the opportunity to say, ‘This is really going to be a problem because the baseline of infections was really quite high to begin with, so you had a lot of community spread.’ ”
On Nov. 19, hours after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advised against Thanksgiving travel, Vice President Pence, who chairs the coronavirus task force, agreed to hold a full news conference with some of the doctors — something they had not done since the summer. But much to the doctors’ dismay, Pence did not forcefully implore people to wear masks, nor did the administration take meaningful action on testing.

As for the president, he did not appear at all.

Trump went days without mentioning the pandemic other than to celebrate progress on vaccines. The president by then had abdicated his responsibility to manage the public health crisis and instead used his megaphone almost exclusively to spread misinformation in a failed attempt to overturn the results of the election he lost to President-elect Joe Biden.
“I think he’s just done with covid,” said one of Trump’s closest advisers who, like many others interviewed for this story, spoke on the condition of anonymity to candidly discuss internal deliberations and operations. “I think he put it on a timetable and he’s done with covid. . . . It just exceeded the amount of time he gave it.”
Now, a month later, the number of coronavirus cases in the United States is reaching records daily. The nation’s death count is rising steadily as well, this past week surpassing 300,000 — a total that had seemed unfathomable earlier this year. The dark winter is here, hospitalizations risk breaching capacities, and health professionals predict it will get worse before it gets better.

FEB. 29

48 total U.S. covid-19 deaths
The miraculous arrival of a coronavirus vaccine this past week marks the first glimmer of hope amid a pandemic that for 10 months has ravaged the country, decimated its economy and fundamentally altered social interactions.
Yet that triumph of scientific ingenuity and bureaucratic efficiency does not conceal the difficult truth, that the virus has caused proportionately more infections and deaths in the United States than in most other developed nations — a result, experts say, of a dysfunctional federal response led by a president perpetually in denial.
“We were always going to have spread in the fall and the winter, but it didn’t have to be nearly this bad,” said Scott Gottlieb, a former FDA commissioner in the Trump administration. “We could have done better galvanizing collective action, getting more adherence to masks. The idea that we had this national debate on the question of whether masks infringed on your liberty was deeply unfortunate. It put us in a bad position.”
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, one of the few Republican elected officials who have criticized Trump’s handling of the pandemic, said many in the administration are working hard to control the alarming November-to-December surge, but not the man at the top.
“My concern was, in the worst part of the battle, the general was missing in action,” Hogan said of the recent surge.

The catastrophe began with Trump’s initial refusal to take seriously the threat of a once-in-a-century pandemic. But, as officials detailed, it has been compounded over time by a host of damaging presidential traits — his skepticism of science, impatience with health restrictions, prioritization of personal politics over public safety, undisciplined communications, chaotic management style, indulgence of conspiracies, proclivity toward magical thinking, allowance of turf wars and flagrant disregard for the well-being of those around him.
“There isn’t a single light-switch moment where the government has screwed up and we’re going down the wrong path,” said Kyle McGowan, who resigned in August as chief of staff at the CDC under Redfield, the center’s director. “It was a series of multiple decisions that showed a lack of desire to listen to the actual scientists and also a lack of leadership in general, and that put us on this progression of where we’re at today.”


‘Words matter’

Trump’s defenders say the president and his administration deserve credit not only for Operation Warp Speed — the public-private initiative to develop, test and now distribute vaccines — but also for their work early on to address a shortage of ventilators, ease supply-chain delays for personal protective equipment and set guidelines for businesses and other gathering places to reopen after the March and April shutdowns.
They also point to Trump’s decision in late January to restrict travel from China, where the virus originated. And they say they’re not sure what Trump should have done differently.
“President Trump has led a historic, whole-of-America coronavirus response — resulting in 100,000 ventilators procured, an abundance of critical PPE sourced for our frontline heroes, the largest testing regime in the world, groundbreaking treatments, and a safe and effective vaccine in record time with another to be approved in the coming days,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Matthews said in a statement. She went on to attribute the success of vaccines to Trump’s “bold and innovative leadership.”
Still, the administration’s overall response is likely to be scrutinized for years to come as a case study in crisis mismanagement. At the heart of the problem, experts say, have been Trump’s scrambled and faulty communications.
“Words matter a lot, and what we have here is a failure to communicate — and worse than that, the effective communication of policies, of myths, of confusion about masks, about hydroxychloroquine, about vaccines, about closures, about testing,” said Tom Frieden, a former CDC director in the Obama administration. “It’s stunning.”
Trump’s repeated downplaying of the virus, coupled with his equivocations about masks, created an opening for reckless behavior that contributed to a significant increase in infections and deaths, experts said.
“The central and most important thing we needed was national leadership from the president to be able to really lead with empathy,” said Anita Cicero, deputy director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security. “It seemed much more focused on the administration as the lead character, rather than communities in need.”
A hallmark of the response has been the secrecy of some in the White House, including Meadows, whom other officials described as outright hostile in his denial of the virus and punitive toward colleagues who sought to follow public health guidelines or be transparent.
As the virus spread wildly among White House staff this fall, Meadows sought to conceal some cases from becoming public — including, at first, his own — and instructed at least one fellow adviser who sought to disclose an infection not to.
In addition, Meadows threatened to fire White House Medical Unit doctors, who fall below the chief of staff in the chain of command, if they helped release information about new infections, according to one official. Ben Williamson, an aide to Meadows, said it was “false” that the chief of staff ever threatened to terminate doctors.
Meadows argued internally, according to this official, that the White House was “under no obligation to tell the press or the public that Joe Schmo who works in the White House has tested positive.”

Despite shunning recommended protocols internally, Trump aides speak with pride about the actions they took on the pandemic and are incredulous that their work has been so widely panned.
One senior administration official involved in the response said what was accomplished in less than a year — from producing and distributing protective gear to creating vaccines — is nothing short of remarkable. But, this official acknowledged, “The way it was messaged, unfortunately, was flawed.”
A second senior administration official said, “I’m not clear on what Trump should have done different, but put me in the camp of, well, something, because it has not been a success.”
Olivia Troye, a former Pence adviser and task force aide who resigned in the summer and campaigned against Trump’s reelection, said the nation’s trauma is a result of the president’s mismanagement of the crisis early on, and is being prolonged by his disinterest in it now.
“I would love to say that I’m shocked, but I’m not,” Troye said. “This is in keeping with everything he has been.” She added: “People are still dying every day. There’s thousands of cases every day and yet he won’t do the right thing. . . . To see a sitting president directly refuse to help during a crisis is just flabbergasting to me.”
Paul A. Offit, who is director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, a professor of vaccinology at the University of Pennsylvania and a member of the FDA’s vaccine advisory council, said of Trump: “He’s a salesman, but this is something he can’t sell. So he just gave up. He gave up on trying to sell people something that was unsellable.”
On Friday morning, in a tableau orchestrated to provide hope to a beleaguered nation, Pence and second lady Karen Pence received the Pfizer vaccine — a needle in his left shoulder as they sat beneath a sign that read, “SAFE and EFFECTIVE,” broadcast live on national television.
Trump was nowhere to be seen.

A window is illuminated at Mar-a-Lago resort in Palm Beach, Fla., as Trump hosts Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro for a dinner on March 7.

Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), center, and Tucker Carlson, second from right, with other guests at Mar-a-Lago before Trump’s dinner with Bolsonaro.

President Trump, at center, is joined at the March 7 dinner at Mar-a-Lago by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, left; U.S. national security adviser Robert C. O'Brien, third from right; adviser Ivanka Trump, second from right; and adviser Jared Kushner, right. Several members of the Brazilian delegation tested positive for the coronavirus soon after the event.

‘It was whack-a-mole’

Tucker Carlson arrived at Trump’s private Mar-a-Lago Club the first Saturday in March, before cities started shutting down, on an urgent mission: to convey to the president the seriousness of the coronavirus threat.
Carlson’s message was simple but pointed. He warned the president that the virus was real, that people he knew were going to get it, that the country might have already missed the point at which they could control it and, as he later told Vanity Fair, that “this could be really bad.”
But Carlson and the president ultimately talked past one another, said a person familiar with the conversation. Carlson told Trump he could lose the election because of the virus, and Trump argued that the virus was less deadly than people were claiming.
The scene at Mar-a-Lago that weekend underscored the concerns. Far from taking any precautions, Trump that Saturday dined with Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro and his delegation — several of whom later tested positive for the virus — while Donald Trump Jr.’s girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, threw herself a lavish 51st birthday party at the club. The next day, Trump hosted a fundraising brunch with about 900 attendees.


As the country began to shut down in March, Trump and his administration found themselves in the early throes of denial and dysfunction. Despite the warnings of Carlson and others, Trump continued to downplay the severity of the virus, and turf wars and unclear chains of command roiled the administration’s fledgling response.
Public health advisers and other administration officials were left scrambling — scattershot, and with little clear direction — to recoup time squandered.
Jared Kushner, the president’s son-in-law and senior adviser who had spent the early days of 2020 focused on other challenges in his overly large portfolio — including a Middle East peace plan and overseeing Trump’s reelection campaign — turned his attention to the virus.
Kushner’s allies and even some of his critics say he was effective in helping cut through bureaucracy — ensuring, for instance, that states eventually had as many ventilators as they needed. A text or call to Kushner could yield a clear response or directive in just minutes, said one senior administration official, and shortly after Pence was appointed head of the coronavirus task force his chief of staff, Marc Short, enlisted Kushner’s help to streamline resources and speed up response times.
But the help Kushner provided was often ad hoc rather than part of a long-term strategy, according to people familiar with his role.
“It was entirely tactical troubleshooting and, to be fair, it was pretty successful, with the ventilators and this and that, but it was whack-a-mole,” said an outside Republican in frequent touch with the White House.
Part of Kushner’s coronavirus management approach was an ambitious effort to bring in a cadre of young consultants from the private sector as volunteers. The group was dismissively referred to as the “Slim Suit” crowd.

After Kushner brought in a cadre of young volunteer consultants from the private sector to help with the response, one of them filed an anonymous whistleblower report alleging a number of issues.
“[Kushner] is like, ‘I’m going to bring in my data and we’re going to MBA this to death and make it work,’ ” one senior administration official said.
But problems quickly emerged with Kushner’s team of volunteers. The group was not issued government laptops or emails, forcing them to use their personal Gmail addresses — a practice that often hindered their efforts to procure personal protective equipment from companies that were understandably skeptical of inquiries coming from nongovernment email accounts. The volunteers in charge of PPE procurement also did not know the Food and Drug Administration requirements for importing the protective equipment, and found themselves spending unnecessary time Googling basic questions and calling the FDA for guidance.
Max Kennedy Jr., a senior associate at a private growth equity firm when he joined Kushner’s effort as a volunteer, was so alarmed by what he witnessed that he initially filed an anonymous whistleblower report.
Among his complaints was a culture that prioritized tips and leads from VIPs, which consumed an inordinate amount of the volunteers’ time and energy. Kennedy wrote in his report that Jeanine Pirro, a Trump booster who hosts a Fox News show, “repeatedly called and emailed until 100,000 masks were sent to a particular hospital she favored. No checks were completed to ensure that the hospital was in particular need of PPE.”
Kennedy, a lifelong Democrat and a grandson of Robert F. Kennedy, later revealed his identity and, in an interview with The Washington Post, described a group of smart and earnest volunteers who were, at best, out of their depth and, at worst, asked to do things they felt uncomfortable doing.
Kennedy said that Brad Smith, the director of the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation and a friend of Kushner, asked him and another volunteer to make a coronavirus model for 2020 that specifically projected a low casualty count. When Kennedy noted that he had no training in epidemiology and had never modeled a virus before, he recalled, Smith told him that it was just like making a financial model. The other models made by the health experts, Smith explained, were “too catastrophic.”
“‘They think 250,000 people could die and I want this model to show that fewer than 100,000 people will die in the worst-case scenario,’ ” Kennedy said Smith told him. “He gave us the numbers he wanted it to say.”
Kennedy and the other volunteer refused to make the model. But he said the incident left him discomfited.
“[Smith] said, ‘Look around. Does it look like 250,000 people are going to die? I don’t think so,’ ” Kennedy recounted. “And I remember thinking it was a weird thing to say because we were surrounded by military officers in the [Federal Emergency Management Agency] basement and it did look like a lot of people might die.”

In an emailed statement, Smith denied asking Kennedy and a fellow volunteer to create a low fatality model.
“The only model I asked the team to build in the three weeks Max volunteered was a model to project PPE needs through July 2020,” Smith said. “To calculate PPE needs, the model used hospitalizations and deaths as inputs. The mean version of the model assumed 169,000 deaths by July 2020 and the worst case version of the model assumed 312,000 deaths by July 2020. According to the CDC, there were approximately 160,000 deaths as of July 30, so the model’s assumptions proved to be very accurate.”
There were other problems too. Kushner’s initiative to stand up drive-through testing sites nationwide at retail stores such as CVS, Target and Walgreens, for instance, may have been a good idea in theory but almost instantly raised concerns. Government officials asked Kushner and his team whether they had fully considered the logistical and supply issues behind setting up the sites — including swabs and reagents for tests, and protective equipment for the clinicians administering them.
Kushner’s team responded that they had it covered, but it quickly became clear they did not. At a time when health-care workers were using garbage bags as gowns and reusing N95 masks because of severe shortages, roughly 30 percent of “key supplies,” including masks, in the national stockpile of emergency medical equipment went toward Kushner’s testing effort, according to an internal March planning document obtained by The Post and confirmed by one current and one former administration official.
Though Kushner had initially promised thousands of testing sites, only 78 materialized, the document said, and the national stockpile was used to supply more than half of those.
“The knock against Jared has always been that he’s a dilettante who will dabble in this and dabble in that without doing the homework or really engaging in a long-term, sustained, committed way, but will be there to claim credit if things go well and disappear if things go poorly,” a former senior administration official said. “And this is another example of that.”
By the summer, Trump had grown angry with Kushner over problems with testing, said current and former administration officials — a rare conflict between the president and his son-in-law.

Matthews defended Kushner’s testing initiative, saying there are now more than 6,000 retail testing sites and that the federal government has established more than 500 temporary surge testing sites in 17 states over the past 10 months.
At the beginning of the outbreak, the United States failed to deploy a coronavirus diagnostic test across the country so state and local officials could quickly detect and trace confirmed cases. And while the administration eventually scaled up testing considerably — more than 1.5 million tests a day are now being conducted — it still has not developed a national testing strategy. Even as more tests have become available, experts said, there have rarely been enough for the scale of the pandemic.
“Compared to other countries, the biggest mistake we made was in testing,” said Katrina Armstrong, a physician and chief of Massachusetts General Hospital who has been treating coronavirus patients. “It’s not even a hard test, and we whiffed it. There should be central leadership bringing everything together. For the clinical side, not having access to testing early on and through the summer was the biggest tragedy of what got us here.”
The best chance to control an outbreak is at the very beginning. But U.S. officials squandered that opportunity in February for two key reasons. The first was the CDC’s failure to deploy a working coronavirus test, and the second was the task force’s almost singular focus on repatriating Americans from China and cruise ships, rather than on preparing the United States for an inevitable outbreak.
A review of task force agendas from that time demonstrates a disproportionate focus on cruise ships, masks and other bureaucratic and logistical issues, rather than on more practical public health steps such as testing, contact tracing and targeted efforts to prevent the virus’s spread. That allowed the virus to spread undetected for all of February, several officials and experts said, as it seeded itself in New York, Washington state, California, New Orleans and other populous areas. And from then on, the country was perpetually behind the virus.
Kennedy said his experience volunteering in the White House left him disillusioned.
“I don’t think this has to be a politicized crisis,” Kennedy said. “This pandemic is incredibly tragic and, as someone who was in the room, it was very clear it wasn’t taken seriously. It was well understood what measures could be taken to save lives, to reduce the severity of the pandemic, and the administration and Jared Kushner made an active choice not to pursue those actions.”

‘A loser message’

As the virus began to rage across the United States, some of the nation’s health officials had a novel idea. Face coverings were emerging as one of the simplest tools available to control the contagion’s spread. So Robert Kadlec, the assistant secretary for preparedness and response at the Department of Health and Human Services, called Jerry Cook, an executive at the cotton clothing giant Hanes, on March 13 to discuss producing enough masks to send to every American household, according to two senior administration officials.
Cook pulled together a number of underwear makers, including Fruit of the Loom, SanMar, Beverly Knits and Delta Apparel, to figure out how to redirect their manufacturing operations to manufacture 650 million three-ply cotton masks — enough to send a packet of five to each household. The masks would bear an HHS logo, contain a microbiocide that would kill the virus, and say: “Do your part, help stop the spread.”
A command group at FEMA unanimously approved the plan, and the task force doctors did as well. Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, saw the white prototypes and asked if they could be made in a neutral tone.
But when Kadlec’s boss, HHS Secretary Alex Azar, began to pitch it at a White House task force meeting in March, there was sharp dissent. Several on the task force generally did not have much confidence in Kadlec, and a senior administration official said his plan was half-baked and that he was unable to answer basic questions, like how much the effort would cost or how they would deliver all the masks.
Short abruptly stopped the conversation and told Pence the idea wasn’t ready and was being pulled off the agenda. Other officials complained that the masks looked like underwear, according to three current and former senior administration officials. Peter T. Gaynor, the FEMA administrator, compared them to jockstraps.

Then there was the issue of logistics. For months leading up to the pandemic, Trump had been attacking the U.S. Postal Service and airing grievances over its business relationship with Amazon. Some aides surmised that, for Trump, a private-public partnership involving the Postal Service as the distributor would be a nonstarter.
The mail-a-mask plan was killed. The Office of Management and Budget tried to cancel the contracts with the underwear makers, but the masks still were produced and distributed to health clinics, religious groups and states that requested them. Hanes did not respond to a request for comment.
Kadlec was so frustrated that he decided his time as preparedness and response chief was no longer best spent on preparing and responding, so he focused instead on vaccines and therapeutics.
Skepticism of masks became a hallmark of the Trump administration’s pandemic response. On April 3, when the CDC recommended that all Americans wear masks, Trump announced that he would not do so because he could not envision himself sitting behind the Resolute Desk with his face covered as he greeted visiting dignitaries. The president stressed that mask-wearing was “voluntary,” effectively permitting his legions of followers to disregard the CDC’s recommendation.
In the months that followed, Trump was only seen wearing a mask on rare occasions, instead following the advice of Stephen Miller, Johnny McEntee, Derek Lyons and other trusted aides to think of masks as a cultural wedge issue.
Pence covered his face with somewhat more regularity than the president, but after forgoing a mask during an April 28 visit to the Mayo Clinic in Minnesota, he drew a public rebuke from the hospital’s leaders. Short then yelled at a hospital official over it, a person with knowledge of the visit said.
“What the Trump administration has managed to do is they accomplished — remarkably — a very high-tech solution, which is developing a vaccine, but they completely failed at the low-tech solution, which is masking and social distancing, and they put people at risk,” Offit said.
Trump did not imagine the coronavirus would consume the fourth year of his presidency. When he established a task force in January, he assumed it would not last long and that the crisis would subside relatively quickly, according to two officials with knowledge of the situation. These officials said the president selected Pence, the favorite of then-acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney, for chair of the task force over Gottlieb and former New Jersey governor Chris Christie.
In retrospect, according to a senior administration official, Trump’s biggest political miscalculation was basing the task force in the White House. “Once you put it in the Situation Room, the president owns every failure, leak, whatever, whereas this could have been an Azar, Redfield, Hahn problem,” this official said.
In the early weeks, Pence was the frontman at daily coronavirus news conferences. He provided top-line updates, including case and death counts, before turning it over to Fauci, Birx and other health professionals. Short advised the vice president against detailing such dire statistics, but Pence insisted, believing he was obligated to share such facts with the public, according to another official with knowledge of these discussions.

Over time, however, Trump decided he wanted to be the face of the government’s response, so he took over Pence’s role at the briefings. A number of Republican senators privately counseled the president to let the doctors be out front, according to a senior Republican congressional official, but “Trump just couldn’t let someone else get all that attention.”
Trump’s performances were riddled with misinformation, contradictions and indecorous boasts, while also predicting miracles and promoting cure-all therapeutics. Trump often said he was trying to be a “cheerleader” for the country, and a senior administration official explained that the president has said he drew lessons from Norman Vincent Peale’s “The Power of Positive Thinking.”
“What he’s saying there is, ‘I’m going to will the economy to success through mass psychology. We’re going to tell the country things are going great and it’s going to be a self-fulfilling prophecy,’ ” this official said of Trump.
But there were consequences for Trump’s often too-rosy takes. Hogan — who as chairman of the National Governors Association helped lead regular meetings among governors and task force members, sometimes including Trump — said there was “a huge disconnect” between what was agreed to by Pence and members of the task force and what the president told the public.
“We would have a great meeting that might have lasted an hour or two with all the top folks focused on the virus, and then the president would have one of those rambling press conferences that went on maybe an hour too long and he said the opposite of what others in the administration told us that day,” Hogan recalled.

The Maryland governor, one of the rare Republicans who seemed unafraid to challenge Trump, said he directly confronted the president in some of these sessions about what was not working.
“I pushed back very hard when there was no testing program and there was no availability of basic supplies, like swabs and tubes and testing agents and ventilators,” Hogan said. “There were a few times the president bristled when I wasn’t saying everything was great. . . . One time the president said on a call, ‘You’re not being very nice to me.’ I said, ‘No, Mr. President, I’m always nice. I’m just telling you what the governors see.’ ”
The White House also made governors’ jobs more difficult by interfering at the CDC, which was forced to water down reopening guidelines for businesses, schools, restaurants and other facilities after a cadre of White House and administration officials weighed in with suggestions that were not based on science.
By late spring — after he infamously suggested people ingest bleach to cure themselves of the virus — Trump stopped appearing at coronavirus briefings. Meadows is among those credited with pulling the plug.
“He felt it was a loser message,” said one senior administration official with knowledge of Meadows’s thinking. “So why message on covid?”


‘A MAGA perspective’

Scott Atlas found himself in Trump’s orbit the way so many do: through the television screen.
A neuroradiologist with no infectious-disease or public health background, Atlas joined the coronavirus response team in August as a special government employee, after a few senior Trump advisers — Kushner, McEntee and Hope Hicks — were impressed by his appearances on cable news.
Atlas began working out of Kushner’s office suite, and quickly scored a blue badge — the most coveted level of White House access — and a spot on the coronavirus task force. Though many were skeptical of him, the vice president’s team felt that if Atlas was going to be part of the virus response, then he needed to be a full-fledged member of the effort, said two people familiar with the decision.
Atlas pushed a controversial “herd immunity” strategy — of letting the virus spread freely among the young and healthy — and clashed with others on the task force, many of whom described him as combative and condescending. He lorded his seemingly unfettered access to the president over the group and, as one senior adviser said, “The science just got totally perverted with Scott in the room.”
Atlas, who resigned Nov. 30, defended his advice to Trump as “based on the best available science and data at the time” and said he sought to reduce both the virus spread and what he called “structural harms.” In a lengthy emailed statement, Atlas denied much of The Post’s reporting about his work in the administration, including that he had described those with the coronavirus in derisive or demeaning terms.
“I am very disappointed to see more totally false statements and patently absurd lies about me,” Atlas said. “Although I don’t intend to weigh-in on every false and defamatory story or allow myself to be endlessly used as a political piñata, I firmly deny the false accusations that, as a special advisor to the President, I advocated for ‘herd immunity’ via letting the infection spread as a scientific approach to the pandemic. Nothing could be further from the truth.”
Even those inclined to be sympathetic to Atlas’s coronavirus theory — that the virus mainly affected the most vulnerable, who were the only ones who truly needed protection — found his personal manner off-putting, said one senior administration official. And privately, Atlas often argued his case more crudely, bluntly saying coronavirus was a disease that only affected the overweight, the diabetic and the elderly, the other adviser said.
But Trump liked Atlas — and the shoddy science he was peddling seemingly bolstered the president’s optimism. Atlas’s appeal to Trump, this adviser explained, was that he “had a doctor title but a MAGA perspective,” referring to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” slogan.
Atlas’s presence, however, frustrated much of the rest of the group, especially the public health experts who feared he was undermining their hard-fought efforts to keep the public safe.
“If you ever wanted to spread confusion and give license to the people in the cities and states who did not want to abide by any of the public health measures, you gave them license to do it,” Fauci said. “They could say, ‘Look, this guy who’s a well-respected Stanford person who the president seems to like is saying this thing; why should we listen to Fauci?’ I think he was disruptive to what Birx and I were trying to do.”
The addition of Atlas to the coronavirus task force was just the latest iteration of the infighting that had plagued the virus response all along. He clashed with the other doctors, but especially with Birx.


One early dispute was over testing. At the time, the president was pushing to move away from the widespread testing recommended by health experts and toward more narrow surveillance testing in vulnerable communities. Atlas and Birx fought over the issue in the Oval Office, with Birx — who was backed up by Redfield — advising that widespread testing was the best way to catch new cases, a senior administration official said.
In August, the CDC put out revised testing guidelines that were more in line with Atlas’s view than Birx’s, only to walk them back after a public outcry.
During another task force meeting, Atlas argued that it would be reasonable to consider substantially fewer mitigation efforts, allowing people to become infected. Instead, Atlas said, officials should focus their efforts on protecting those in nursing homes. Birx retorted that the vulnerable were not only in nursing homes, prompting agreement by other doctors in the group.
“Dr. Scott Atlas has caused people to lose their lives because he stood at the White House podium and told people masks may not work and he told people we should get over it and build up herd immunity,” said McGowan, the former CDC chief of staff. “He’s telling the world lies from a bully pulpit, from a position of power, and I believe people died because of that.”
Some of Trump’s advisers tried to convey to the president how much his reelection might hinge on the pandemic. Being seen as a responsible, empathetic leader in a moment of crisis, they explained, would buoy his chances of victory.
For instance, internal campaign data from pollster Tony Fabrizio found that in July, just 40 percent of voters approved of Trump’s handling of the virus and 58 percent disapproved, a deficit of 18 percentage points. Among independents, the gap grew to 30 percentage points, according to a senior campaign adviser.
According to an internal polling memo obtained by The Post, more than 70 percent of voters in target states supported “mandatory masks at least indoors when in public, and even a majority of Republicans support this.”
Though Republicans were not keen on the idea of an executive order for mask-wearing, they were less opposed to an order that applied only indoors, the internal polling found. And, as one of the slides reviewed by The Post read, “Voters favor mask-wearing while keeping the economy open,” and also favor Trump “issuing an executive order mandating the use of masks in public places.”
Given those findings, Fabrizio, Kushner, then-campaign manager Brad Parscale and others urged Trump to model good behavior by wearing a mask, and to encourage his supporters to do so as well, several Trump advisers said. But the president was unreceptive, as was Meadows.
“He was of the opinion that it would hurt his base,” the senior campaign adviser said. “He listened and it just didn’t move him. The argument just didn’t move him.”
The president and some on his team were also increasingly frustrated with Fauci, who frequently appeared in the media offering what they viewed as an overly alarmist public health message. “Fauci was probably Joe Biden’s most effective campaign surrogate on the trail in 2020,” said Jason Miller, a senior campaign adviser.
Trump aides added that there also was little pushback to the idea of Trump resuming large rallies — without social distancing or mask requirements. The few advisers who did counsel caution were largely ignored, with allies arguing that rallies were key to the president’s brand and that the raucous events also helped improve his mood.
“My attitude was, how are voters going to take us seriously that we’re taking this seriously if we’re doing things where the perception is we’re putting people at risk?” the senior adviser said. “It surely undermines.”

‘We’re in trouble’

As summer turned to fall, Birx — whose calming guidance and elegant scarves had inspired online memes — found herself silenced and increasingly minimized in the coronavirus response.
Atlas succeeded in sidelining her from Trump’s immediate orbit. Her national television appearances all but vanished. She traveled to dozens of states and had unfiltered conversations with governors and local officials, but was denied the time she wanted with the president to keep him abreast of the facts. And her warnings fell on deaf ears inside the West Wing.
“She would circulate her daily report, and more often than not, there would be no responses from anyone on the email,” a senior administration official recalled. “I remember there were times where she would flag something massive, like, we are within weeks of a massive remdesivir shortage, and no one would reply.”
Birx met either in person or virtually with Fauci and other doctors on the task force at least once a week to discuss the science and support each other as they were being ignored at the White House. They plotted alternative ways to get their messages to the public, including through Birx’s travels to states.
But Birx was undermined there, too. After she advised Florida’s political leaders in August to close bars and restrict indoor dining, Atlas visited the state and contradicted her. Atlas told Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) and other local leaders to focus less on widespread testing and instead to direct their efforts to opening the economy back up and opening schools, according to two senior administration officials.
As it became clear the pandemic was worsening and the country was headed for a disastrous winter, Atlas dismissed Birx’s projections in task force meetings and in private discussions with Trump and Pence. This pushed Birx to be more outspoken, especially in the reports she and her small team put together, some of which took on a grim tone, officials said.
“It was almost like she wanted to make sure she had a paper trail saying, ‘I, too, think we’re in trouble,’ ” another senior administration official said. “It was a combination of events that pushed her to change her tune and be much more realistic about the seriousness of what was going on.”
The rise in cases and deaths in November coincided with a drop in visibility from Trump and Pence. Following the Nov. 3 election, the two went many days without public appearances. Whenever the president did speak or weigh in on Twitter, it was usually about his desire to overturn the election results, not about the worsening pandemic.
As for Pence, one consistent criticism was his reluctance to deliver tough news and dire coronavirus statistics to the president. As one former senior administration official put it, “He knows, like everybody else knows, that covid is the last thing Trump wants to hear about or see anybody making news about. If not touting Operation Warp Speed, it’s the topic that shall not be spoken of.” A senior administration official and Pence ally, however, said Pence always shared the daily reality with Trump but, as a perpetual optimist, often did so with a positive spin.

The President did make a couple of appearances to tout vaccine breakthroughs. But much to the frustration of health officials, they did little to leverage their influence with the 74 million Americans who had just voted for them to persuade people to make sacrifices to stop the spread.
“There are tens of millions of people who fundamentally don’t have the same perception of reality when it comes to the virus,” Frieden said. “There are always going to be people who are suspicious and paranoid and believe in UFOs or whatever, but because we’re not on the same page on covid, it’s very hard to get people to act together.”
The week before Thanksgiving, health officials fanned out to plead with Americans not to travel over the holiday. Fauci practically begged people in an appearance on ABC’s “Good Morning America” to stay home and not interact with people outside their immediate household.
But even America’s most famous doctor, one with an approval rating well north of Trump’s, was unconvincing to many. More than 3 million people were screened at U.S. airports in a three-day period just before Thanksgiving, according to the Transportation Security Administration. AAA projected that an additional 48 million people would travel by car around the holiday.
That nonchalance about spreading the virus carried this month into the White House, where Trump and first lady Melania Trump hosted a traditional series of elaborate holiday parties.

Night after night, the Trumps had party guests congregate inside the White House residence to mix, mingle and hear the president speak — each clinking of champagne flutes a potential superspreader moment.
“Here, you have Fauci and Birx saying: wear a mask, keep your distance, avoid congregate settings and indoor crowds, particularly indoors,” a senior administration official said. “And then you have these events at the White House where nobody is wearing a mask, they’re having an event inside and then coming outside, if there ever was a complete confusion of messages.”
Pence and second lady Karen Pence also hosted holiday parties at the Naval Observatory, where pictures from one such event earlier this month showed hundreds of guests mingling mostly maskless underneath an enclosed tent. Even Pence himself, the head of the coronavirus task force, did not wear a mask.
Members of military bands, servers and others were forced to work and exposed for hours to guests who were not wearing masks, officials said.
At least one worker who got infected never heard from anyone in the White House about the illness. They were replaced for the next party.

[Rach3]

WAPO
Dec. 21, 2020 at 4:31 p.m. CST

Conservative student group Turning Point USA held two large events in Florida this weekend, including one at Mar-a-Lago, President Trump’s private club, allegedly violating local coronavirus restrictions and disregarding authorities’ pleas to avoid such massive gatherings.
Turning Point on Friday night held its annual winter gala at Mar-a-Lago in Palm Beach. The party, which was attended by hundreds of students, organizers, and GOP notables such as South Dakota Gov. Kristi L. Noem, Sen. Rand Paul (Ky.), White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany and Mike Lindell, otherwise known as the “MyPillow Guy.”
Then on Saturday, thousands of students gathered indoors at the organization’s “Student Action Summit,” where they heard from conservative GOP speakers, including Donald Trump Jr., and cheered loudly as women shot money into the crowd with a cannon.

Photos posted on social media showed Friday’s maskless gala crowd mingling in apparent violation of Palm Bach County’s coronavirus protocols, which require that face coverings be worn inside “all businesses and establishments.” There is an exception for people who are eating and drinking, but the county says that — in those cases — masks should be taken off only for “the shortest practical period of time.”
The county is not allowed to fine individuals for violating this rule, but it can fine businesses that do not enforce the mask mandate.

In recent weeks, journalist Zach Everson reported on other events at Mar-a-Lago — including an election night party — in which attendees appeared to be socializing maskless. But earlier this month, the town of Palm Beach said it had not taken any enforcement actions against Trump’s club.

A spokesman for the Palm Beach Police, which enforces coronavirus rules on the island, told The Washington Post he was checking to see if any enforcement action was taken.
Trump campaign committees spent $1.1 million at Trump properties in the last days of his losing campaign
Earlier in the pandemic, Palm Beach County had limited the capacity of restaurants and indoor gatherings to slow the spread of the coronavirus. But in September, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) removed such limits statewide.
Instead local governments have urged residents not to attend crowded gatherings such as the one at Mar-a-Lago on Friday. The town of Palm Beach, for instance, advises residents to “avoid … crowded spaces with many people nearby and close-contact settings such as close-range conversations.”
The Trump Organization did not respond to questions from The Washington Post, other than to say that neither Eric Trump nor his wife Lara Lea Trump were present at the Mar-a-Lago event.

Thousands of young conservatives gathered at the Palm Beach County Convention Center in West Palm Beach for Saturday’s event, where other college and high school students crowded near the stage to listen to speakers such as Trump Jr. and Tucker Carlson.
Despite health warnings, holiday travel has already set a record for busiest weekend of the pandemic
The event reached a high-tension point Saturday night as hundreds of students were left stranded outside the convention center after local authorities stopped allowing students to enter.
Palm Beach County officials, who own and operate the center, blamed the student group for overselling tickets and breaching a 2,000-person-capacity agreement, according to CBS 12 News.
A Turning Point spokesperson told RedState that although there were no initial capacity restrictions, county officials later told the event organizers that capacity would be limited to 50 percent and that masks were required, which TPUSA agreed to and developed an overflow plan.

But Palm Beach County officials blocked students from accessing the lobby once they determined that the main ballroom was at capacity, stranding overflow attendees outside. Turning Point told RedState that these actions left hundreds of students outside “packed like sardines,” provoking chaos, and that it was unable to enforce mask rules and social distancing outside, which the group claimed were enforced inside.
Turning Point did not respond to a request for comment from The Post.
At one point, to ease the tension, Trump Jr. stepped outside to address the crowd.

Inside the convention center, videos show young women, referred to as “Bang Girls” from one of the event’s sponsors, Bang Energy, blasting cash into the cheering crowd of conservative college and high school students.
“Yes, that’s a money gun cause we (heart) capitalism!” wrote Emily Sturge, who self-identifies as a Turning Point ambassador, on her Instagram account.

The images prompted backlash from conservative figures and young activists such as Curtis Houck, who took to Twitter to express outrage.
“THIS is what we’re supposed to believe is the future of the conservative movement and Republican Party?” Houck wrote. “There’s no wiggle room to explain this away or say it’s taken out of context. Don’t talk about Jesus and faith and family then pull this c---.”

The weekend Turning Point events notwithstanding, many groups appear to be listening to the county’s coronavirus guidance: The Palm Beach Daily News’s social calendar shows that many of the island’s biggest charity galas have gone virtual this year.
A survey of that social calendar and town permits shows that Mar-a-Lago’s roster of charity events — already shrunken by backlash to Trump’s politics — is likely to decline further this year because of the pandemic.

Several years ago, The Post counted 49 charity events and other gatherings at Trump’s club. This year, The Post could find just nine such gatherings, including that of Turning Point.
Turning Point was founded in 2012 by Charlie Kirk, a conservative activist and radio host who is known for his remarks that have drawn criticisms, at times downplaying the severity of the coronavirus pandemic and rebuking shutdown measures.

[maestrob]

Yeah, really!

And Republicans wonder why they lost the election!

Denial of reality has been known to destroy democracies in the past, as the shared reality which is the basis for civilized conduct among people of good will simply disappeared.

Only time will tell if the same is happening to the United States now.

We have survived the Civil War, the Pandemic of 1918, the Great Depression.

I have to believe we will survive this crisis as well, and emerge a better country in the bargain.

The seas are still rising.

[barney]

Brian, I refer you back to the Paul Krugman piece you posted this week. It seems to me to explain that precisely. (Not that I think you've forgotten. )

[maestrob]

Brian, I refer you back to the Paul Krugman piece you posted this week. It seems to me to explain that precisely. (Not that I think you've forgotten. )

Indeed, I still think Krugman said it best.

I also predict that that chill that resides in my spine still will not fade until January 20 is a done deal.

[Rach3]

How can any Trump supporter look themselves in the mirror.Ask your Trump friends why they should be yours ?

WAPO
Jon Swaine
Dec. 24, 2020 at 3:03 p.m. CST

Sidney Powell’s secret intelligence contractor witness is a pro-Trump podcaster

As she asked the U.S. Supreme Court this month to overturn President Trump’s election loss, the attorney Sidney Powell cited testimony from a secret witness presented as a former intelligence contractor with insights on a foreign conspiracy to subvert democracy.
Powell told courts that the witness is an expert who could show that overseas corporations helped shift votes to President-elect Joe Biden. The witness’s identity must be concealed from the public, Powell has said, to protect her “reputation, professional career and personal safety.”
The Washington Post identified the witness by determining that portions of her affidavit match, sometimes verbatim, a blog post that the pro-Trump podcaster Terpsichore Maras-Lindeman published in November 2019. In an interview, Maras-Lindeman confirmed that she wrote the affidavit and said she viewed it as her contribution to a fight against the theft of the election.

“This is everybody’s duty,” she said. “It’s just not fair.”

In a recent civil fraud case, attorneys for the state of North Dakota said that Maras-Lindeman falsely claimed to be a medical doctor and to have both a PhD and an MBA. They said she used multiple aliases and social security numbers and created exaggerated online résumés as part of what they called “a persistent effort . . . to deceive others.”

Powell’s reliance on Maras-Lindeman’s testimony may raise further questions about her judgment and the strength of her arguments at a time when she is becoming an increasingly influential adviser to the president. Trump’s legal team distanced itself from Powell last month after she falsely claimed Republican state officials took bribes to rig the election. But she has visited the White House three times in the past week, once to participate in an Oval Office meeting. Trump has weighed naming Powell a special counsel to investigate the election, according to previous reports.

Maras-Lindeman, 42, served in the Navy for less than a year more than two decades ago and has said she worked later as a government contractor and part-time interpreter. She has identified herself as a “trained cryptolinguist.”

North Dakota’s assertions about her credentials came in a civil case brought by the state’s attorney general in 2018 over a purported charitable event she tried to organize in Minot, N.D., where she and her family resided. Attorneys for the state said she used money she collected — ostensibly to fund homeless shelters and wreaths for veterans’ graves — on purchases for herself at McDonald’s, QVC and elsewhere.

A judge ultimately found that Maras-Lindeman violated consumer protection laws by, among other things, misspending money she raised and soliciting donations while misrepresenting her experience and education. He ordered her to pay more than $25,000.
Maras-Lindeman has appealed to the state Supreme Court. In court filings and in her interview with The Post, she denied mishandling the funds or misleading donors. She blamed identity theft and bureaucratic failings for a proliferation of variations on her name and social security numbers associated with her.

Maras-Lindeman also claimed that she was targeted by the state for political reasons, noting that around that time she was exploring running for mayor of Minot — under the slogan “Make Minot Great Again.” She said that in 2018 she assisted the campaign of David C. Thompson, the Democratic challenger to longtime Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem (R). Thompson is now Maras-Lindeman’s defense attorney.

Thompson said in an interview that the case was a “vindictive exercise” and was excessive given the relatively small amounts of money in question. “They took a missile to kill a fly,” he said.

In an interview, Stenehjem — who signed a brief this month asking the Supreme Court to take up a case that sought to overturn the election — dismissed the claim that his investigation was politically motivated and said that anyone working with Maras-Lindeman should “back away” from her.

In a text message, Powell did not directly address questions about Maras-Lindeman’s fraud case and credentials. “I don’t have the same information you do,” she wrote to The Post.

Powell’s lawsuits — litigation she has referred to as “the kraken,” after a Scandinavian mythological sea monster — rely in key respects on a handful of anonymous expert witnesses. Among them is a purported military intelligence expert identified in court filings as “Spyder.” The Post reported this month that the witness is an I.T. consultant named Joshua Merritt who has never worked in military intelligence. Rather, Merritt spent the bulk of his decade in the Army as a wheeled-vehicle mechanic.

Like Merritt, Maras-Lindeman told The Post she had never spoken directly to Powell or anyone working on her legal team. She said she distributed the affidavit widely to like-minded people and was unaware it had come to Powell’s attention until it appeared as an exhibit in one of her cases.

Maras-Lindeman’s 37-page affidavit outlines a purported conspiracy by the Canadian company Dominion Voting Systems, which sells voting machines used in some states, and Scytl, a Spain-based firm that provides election software. She claims that votes cast on Dominion machines in key states were hacked as they passed through Scytl tallying systems and rigged in favor of Biden.
“The vote is not safe using these machines not only because of the method used for ballot ‘cleansing’ to maintain anonymity but the EXPOSURE to foreign interference and possible domestic bad actors,” she writes in the affidavit.


Like Trump and many of his supporters, Maras-Lindeman points to election night spikes in Biden’s vote totals — explained by officials as merely the result of densely populated areas reporting their counts — as evidence of a “digital fix” involving abrupt dumps of bogus votes.
In a statement last month, Dominion described allegations leveled against it by Powell and other Trump supporters as “baseless, senseless, physically impossible, and unsupported by any evidence whatsoever.” Scytl said in a statement that it “does NOT tabulate, tally or count votes in US public elections,” had no relationship with Dominion, and that its U.S. operations are run by a Tampa-based subsidiary.

Last week, Dominion said it had written to Powell to demand that she retract what the company said were defamatory accusations.

Federal judges have rejected all four of the complaints Powell has filed, two of which — in Wisconsin and Arizona — included Maras-Lindeman’s affidavit.


In Wisconsin, a federal judge ruled that Powell’s request that the results of the election be overturned is “outside the limits” of the court’s power. Attorneys for Gov. Tony Evers (D), in seeking the dismissal, said the complaint was “rampant with wild speculation and conspiratorial conclusions, and simply without any basis in law or fact.”

A federal judge in Arizona wrote that allegations “that find favor in the public sphere of gossip and innuendo cannot be a substitute for earnest pleadings and procedure in federal court” and “most certainly cannot be the basis for upending Arizona’s 2020 General Election.”

Powell has appealed the cases to the U.S. Supreme Court, where she is seeking to have them consolidated.
Maras-Lindeman, who goes by Tore (pronounced “Tory”), spent recent weeks in Washington with a group of fellow Trump supporters working to bolster Powell’s legal campaign, according to social media posts and statements on her podcast, “Tore Says.” The group included Millie Weaver, a former correspondent for the far-right website Infowars, who released a documentary over the summer — “Shadowgate” — that helped propel Maras-Lindeman to prominence among conspiracy theorists on the right.

Maras-Lindeman told her listeners on Dec. 7 that she was speaking from “the belly of the beast” and that a group of Trump loyalists was working to take action against those who had stolen the president’s victory.

“There are really good people — patriots — gathered, working hard to ensure that they not only get to the bottom of what happened during this election . . . but they’re also seeking to prosecute,” she said.

Maras-Lindeman spent time at Trump’s hotel in downtown Washington and interviewed Patrick Byrne, the millionaire Overstock.com founder and Trump backer who has said he is funding a team of “cybersleuths” to scrutinize the election. Byrne and Maras-Lindeman told The Post he is not funding her.

In past episodes, Maras-Lindeman has discussed conspiracy theories, including one that baselessly accused high-ranking Democrats of human trafficking centered at a D.C. pizzeria. In an episode last year, she said, “What we realize is that this Pizzagate stuff, this satanic constant abuse of children is an actual real thing.”

Maras-Lindeman, who is of Greek heritage, joined the Navy in December 1996 and spent eight months training in Illinois and Florida as an airman recruit before departing the service in August 1997, according to a Navy record.

In their civil case, North Dakota state attorneys said that Maras-Lindeman created a profile on Together We Served, an online veteran community, that incorrectly depicted an extensive military career.
The profile, which is no longer online, said that Maras-Lindeman reached the rank of lieutenant, served in the combat zones of Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq, and in the Office of Naval Intelligence, and was awarded multiple medals including a Purple Heart.
In the interview, Maras-Lindeman denied creating the profile and said whoever did had misstated the details of her career. She previously posted to Twitter a purported copy of her Navy separation paperwork, which said that she specialized in communications and intelligence.
Neither the record provided to The Post nor the paperwork Maras-Lindeman posted online stated a reason for her departure, but the papers she posted said that the character of her discharge was “general (under honorable conditions).”
In response to questions about the nature of the discharge, a Navy spokesman referred to the Navy Military Personnel Manual. The manual said it means, “The quality of the member’s service has been honest and faithful; however, significant negative aspects of the member’s conduct or performance of duty outweighed positive aspects of the member’s service record.”
In her affidavit, Maras-Lindeman identifies herself as a former “private contractor with experience gathering and analyzing foreign intelligence” and says that from 1999 to 2014 she had responsibility for delegating tasks to other contractors working for the United States and allied nations. She stood by that account in her interview with The Post.
In a court filing in North Dakota last year, she wrote that she had worked as a contractor since 1996 and had been “a vendor with certain programs associated with USSOCOM,” the U.S. Special Operations Command. A spokesman for the command said in an email that its contracting office could find no record of any contract with her.
She claimed in Weaver’s documentary that, as an intelligence contractor, she carried out a notorious 2008 intrusion into the State Department’s passport records on several presidential candidates. In a separate podcast interview, she said that she retrieved the records on direct orders from John O. Brennan, who then led a private security firm implicated in the incident and was later CIA director. “I went and got them,” she said. “He told me to go get them.”
A spokesman for Brennan said that Brennan had never heard of Maras-Lindeman.
Maras-Lindeman told The Post that, by its nature, her covert work could not be independently verified. “People like me don’t exist,” she said. “You just have to trust.”

According to a LinkedIn profile that has since been deleted, between 1997 and 2014 Maras-Lindeman obtained eight academic degrees in the United States and the United Kingdom, along with additional professional qualifications. The attorneys in the fraud case said in court filings that they could find records of her earning only one degree, a bachelor’s in biology from the University of Kentucky in 2011.
Maras-Lindeman told The Post someone else created the profile — despite claims to the contrary by state attorneys in the fraud case — and she declined to comment on its particulars.

After obtaining the degree, Maras-Lindeman and her family moved to Beaverton, Ore.
She took a voluntary job teaching Greek at Agia Sophia Academy, a private Greek Orthodox school in Beaverton. Her archived biography on the school’s website used the title “Dr.” and said she had a PhD. Attorneys for North Dakota later said in a court filing in the fraud case that Maras-Lindeman “is not a doctor and does not possess a PhD from any institution.”
The school’s principal, Christina Blankenstein, said in an email that the school could not vouch for Maras-Lindeman’s professional record because her position was unpaid. Maras-Lindeman worked at the school for between a year and two years, Blankenstein said.
In the interview, Maras-Lindeman said the school must have misunderstood paperwork she gave them saying that she was a PhD candidate.

After she moved to North Dakota, Maras-Lindeman asserted in series of small claims court cases that she was a pediatric oncologist, attorneys for North Dakota said in a court filing. As recently as November 2017, a website for a purported cancer research organization named “ML Laboratories” referred to her as “Dr. Tore Maras-Lindeman” and said she was its founder.
Maras-Lindeman also used an email address and Twitter handle identifying herself as “Dr. Lindeman.” She told The Post she reserved the accounts so they would be ready for her when she earned a doctoral degree.

[maestrob]

No wonder Trump's efforts are failing, if he's now relying on bizarre people like this.

The Post's reporting is fascinating in a morbid kind of way. I'm appalled that a President of the United States, let alone ANY public figure, would be connected to anyone like this.

We Americans are shamed and totally diminished in the eyes of the world by all this.

I was so proud of our society when we finally elected a great mixed-race president in Barack Obama. He and Michelle shone brightly in the White House and inspired so many. How quickly all that was undone is a lesson I hope we never forget.

[Rach3]

Americans will now be evicted from their homes, unemployment checks stop so people cold and hungry, no $ 600 let alone $2000, all so the alt.right and Trump can sue Twitter and Facebook for tagging or taking down their lying, horrific posts with Sec.230 immunity gone , and Trump can appeal to his Confederate Generals racist voter base in 2024 , all while
the "Kush"-ners bask in Florida, Trump and Lindsey Graham play golf on Christmas Day with Graham supporting Trump's refusal to sign the COVID relief bill.

The Third Reich analogies get stronger daily.

Add South Carolina to the list of States never to visit.

[barney]

Obviously John McCain was Lindsay Graham's conscience; he doesn't have one of his own. While McCain was alive Graham seemed much saner and occasionally stood up to Trump.

[barney]

We Americans are shamed and totally diminished in the eyes of the world by all this.

Brian, I very much fear that is true. Of course we all know that America is comprised of a vast array of opinions, but the nation is judged on the actions of the President/government. Trump has done so much to destroy US credibility.
Very interesting Pew survey of 14 countries in October found that distrust of Xi and China has soared in the past year, and views are overwhelmingly negative. Only one leader is distrusted more than Xi - the US temper-tantrum cry-baby in chief. Let's hope that the adults back in the room on Jan 20 can restore that long-standing trust. But, as you know, trust is hard-won and easily lost.

[maestrob]

Very interesting Pew survey of 14 countries in October found that distrust of Xi and China has soared in the past year, and views are overwhelmingly negative.

Barney, do read my posted article on Australian coal ships stuck in Chinese harbors because China has been refusing to allow them to unload for months now.

[Rach3]

The Third Reich analogies get stronger daily.

Remains to be seen what effect Fuhrer Trump's separate pending Government shutdown tantrum will have on vaccine distribution/administration. And on functioning of CDC,FDA, HHS. And on IRS ability to process stimulus checks and tax return refunds. To add to the woes of no pay raise for military because of his Defense bill veto tantrum, and of course termination of unemployment benefits and rent eviction protections from his stimulus tantrum. More Americans die as a result ?

[Rach3]

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/27/politics ... index.html

[barney]

Very interesting Pew survey of 14 countries in October found that distrust of Xi and China has soared in the past year, and views are overwhelmingly negative.

Barney, do read my posted article on Australian coal ships stuck in Chinese harbors because China has been refusing to allow them to unload for months now.

I read and commented, Brian. Thanks for your interest in the plight of these unfortunate crews, and China's increasing vindictiveness against Australia.

PS: the national mood in Australia is very strong, with apparently 81% support for the government in the latest polls. Our attitude is to extend a sturdy bronzed middle finger to China, and not take a backward step. Any of the steps China wants would imperil our sovereignty. And yes, the price is hurting us and - to a vastly lesser extent, of course - the Chinese people who like Australian produce (lobsters, wine, milk formula, barley for beer etc etc).

[Rach3]

The muggings continue:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/28/politics ... index.html

[maestrob]

The muggings continue:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/28/politics ... index.html

DJT won't stop until he's stopped. What an petty creep!

[Rach3]

Treason ?

https://www.axios.com/biden-trump-trans ... stream=top

[barney]

The muggings continue:

https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/28/politics ... index.html

How extraordinarily petty and vindictive, and how totally in character.

[maestrob]

Treason ?

https://www.axios.com/biden-trump-trans ... stream=top

As has been said, "There are lies, and then there are damn lies."

Miller's statement began: "The Department of Defense has conducted 164 interviews with over 400 officials, and provided over 5,000 pages of documents — far more than initially requested by Biden’s transition team."

"DoD’s efforts already surpass those of recent administrations with over three weeks to go, and we continue to schedule additional meetings for the remainder of the transition and answer any and all requests for information in our purview."