Robert B. Reich's Blog, page 30
October 8, 2020
4 Key Takeaways from the Harris-Pence VP DebateThe Vice...
4 Key Takeaways from the Harris-Pence VP DebateThe Vice Presidential debate didn’t have the fireworks of the first presidential debate but Pence’s lies were just as egregious as Trump’s.The only honest thing about Pence last night was the fly on his head.
From the moment he was tapped to be Donald Trump’s second-in-command, Mike Pence has served a single purpose: To put a placid, half-way respectable face on the disastrous, cruel policies of his boss. And that’s exactly what he did last night. Pence lied just like his boss, he flouted the debate rules like his boss, he evaded hard questions like his boss.
1. And just like Trump last week, Pence refused to condemn white supremacy.
After Harris highlighted Trump’s 2017 comments characterizing neo-Nazis in Charlottesville as “very fine people”, Pence attacked the media and tried to justify Trump’s despicable remarks. He touted the fact that Trump has Jewish grandchildren, as an apparent excuse for Trump’s repeated refusal to condemn white supremacy and tackle the lethal threat it poses. He concluded his non-answer by omitting any outright condemnation of white supremacy – instead claiming, outrageously, that systemic racism doesn’t exist.
2. He said he hoped Amy Coney Barrett would get a “fair hearing.”
As Kamala Harris pointed out, 4 million people have already voted in this election and 56 percent of Americans think the winner should fill the Supreme Court vacancy. Meanwhile, Pence’s boss has instructed Senate Republicans to stop negotiations over the stimulus, so Republicans can focus on ramming through Trump’s nominee, after they refused to give Obama’s nominee a vote for 293 days. There’s nothing fair about this process – and Pence knows it.
3. He doubled-down on Trump’s dangerous conspiracy theories.
When asked about Trump’s refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power, he rehashed Trump’s conspiracies about impeachment and the Russia investigation, and pushed Trump’s absurd claim that mail-in voting creates a “massive opportunity for fraud.” Rubbish. The right-wing Heritage Foundation, after examining 36 years of mail-in ballots, found only 1,285 cases of voter fraud out of nearly two billion votes cast — a rate of .0000007 percent.
4. Most importantly, Pence refused to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if Trump loses. This is a worrisome sign of what may be to come.
Throughout the entire debate, Pence talked over Kamala Harris and moderator Susan Page – who allowed him to go way overtime, avoid her questions, and lie endlessly. He showed utter contempt for the debate process. He even had the gall to demand Harris answer his own questions – in typical misogynistic fashion – even as he repeatedly evaded the moderator’s questions.
Make no mistake: Pence is a slick version of Trump, and just as dangerous as the liar-in-chief.
Empathy for the World’s Least Empathetic Person?I almost found...
Empathy for the World’s Least Empathetic Person?
I almost found myself feeling sorry for Donald Trump. The poor man is “battling” Covid-19. He’s out-of-shape. He’s 74-years old.
At almost the same time that Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, and Barack Obama offered him prayers and consoling words, the Trump campaign blasted “Lyin’ Obama and Phony Kamala Harris” and charged that “Sleepy Joe isn’t fit to be YOUR President.”
Why should we feel empathy for a man who is receiving world-class, publicly-funded healthcare at the same time that his lawyers are in court trying to rip yours away?
Remember, this is the man who told the white supremacist Proud Boys to “stand back and stand by” during his cringeworthy debate performance last week.
Yes, he’s had Covid. But he has also hindered our pandemic response at every turn and allowed 210,000 Americans to die on his watch.
He downplayed the virus, pushed responsibility on to governors, and then demanded they allow businesses to reopen – too early – in order to make the economy look good before the election.
He muzzled and disputed experts at the CDC, promoted crank cures, held maskless campaign events, and encouraged followers not to wear masks. He’s said he doesn’t take responsibility at all for America’s failed COVID response, and said our staggering death toll “is what it is.”
When he announced he’d be discharged from Walter Reed hospital, he told the American people: “Don’t be afraid of COVID.”
Meanwhile, Trump is urging his followers to intimidate Biden voters at the polls, and is already claiming the election is rigged against him and will be fraudulent unless he wins.
He’s even threatening to have states that he loses declare the votes invalid and certify their own slate of Trump electors in January.
Whether responding to Trump’s Covid or to Trump’s larger political maneuvers, Democrats want to act decently and nicely, to take the high road and be fair. They want to protect democratic norms, values, and institutions.
This is admirable. It’s also what Democrats say they stand for.
But the other side isn’t playing the same game. Trump and his enablers will do anything to retain and entrench their power.
So feel sympathy for him if you’d like. But when you cast your ballot, don’t forget who he is, what he’s done, and what he wants to continue to do to America.
October 7, 2020
How You Can Stop America’s Slide Toward TyrannyWithout a shred...
How You Can Stop America’s Slide Toward Tyranny
Without a shred of evidence, Trump claims that mail-in ballots are rife with fraud. Rubbish. Mail-in ballots, also called absentee ballots, have been used for years across America. They have proven safe and secure.
Even the right-wing Heritage Foundation, after examining 36 years of mail-in ballots, found only 1,285 cases of voter fraud out of nearly two billion votes cast – a rate of .0000007 percent. That’s about the same probability of being hit by an asteroid. Or to put it another way, you are 10.5 times MORE likely to be struck by lightning than for anyone to commit voter fraud.
Trump is raising doubts about mail-in ballots during this pandemic – when no one should have to choose between their health and their right to vote – because Trump is intent on contesting this election if he loses, and he knows that polls are showing him trailing Joe Biden.
Trump even refuses to commit to a peaceful transition of power. He claimed, “the only way we’re going to lose this election is if the election is rigged.”
He’s also threatening to have states that he loses declare the votes invalid and certify their own slate of Trump electors in January.
His consigliere Roger Stone urges him to declare “martial law” if he loses. Michael Caputo, assistant secretary of public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, warns “the shooting will begin” when Trump refuses to stand down. And the white supremacist Proud Boys have already taken Trump’s words from the debate, “stand down and stand by,” as a signal to stoke violence in the coming weeks.
Never before in the history of our country has a presidential candidate suggested he wouldn’t abide by the results of an election. Never before has a candidate refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power – the hallmark of our democracy. This alone makes him unfit to serve a second term.
What can the rest of us do? We need a blow-out election – a vast wave of Joe Biden voters that will make it almost impossible for Trump to claim he’s the winner.
Here’s what you can do right now to make it happen, at MoveOn.org/ActNow:
1) Check your registration, and read over your state’s rules and deadlines for voting by mail, and in person.
2) Make a plan to vote. There are many options for how to cast your ballot this year, so make sure you know exactly how and when you’re going to vote.
3) Do your research and make sure you’re informed about the measures and candidates down the ballot
4) Help your friends and family make a plan to vote, too.
5) If you’re healthy, and feel safe doing so, consider volunteering to be a poll worker. Being a poll worker will help mitigate long lines and keep the in-person voting process running smoothly.
This is our chance to change our nation’s terrifying course. We can deliver a resounding defeat to Trump and every single one of his enablers, and stop our slide toward tyranny. But it’s going to take each and every one of us.
October 4, 2020
Trump’s Covid: Empathy for the World’s Least Empathetic Person?
September 30, 2020
The 6 Most Revealing Moments From the Presidential DebateThe...
The 6 Most Revealing Moments From the Presidential DebateThe first presidential debate was as horrific as we feared it would be. We were barely able to hear a word from Joe Biden or moderator Chris Wallace thanks to Trump’s incessant interruptions and nonstop insults. Here are the six most revealing moments:
1.Trump refused to disavow white supremacy.
He reiterated his baseless claims that anti-fascist groups and left-wing organizers were the ones causing violence – a narrative contradicted by multiple studies and his own national security officials. The violence Trump claims is the greatest threat facing our country does not exist. The latest draft of the Department of Homeland Security’s threat assessment report characterizes white supremacy as the “most persistent and lethal threat” to national security.
2.Both Biden and Trump showed us who they really are.
One of Biden’s most powerful moments was when he talked about his deceased son, Beau. I was struck by Biden’s raw humanity in this moment. And how did Trump respond? By interrupting him and launching nonsensical attacks on Biden’s other son, Hunter. Trump revealed the core of who he is – a cruel narcissist who has no feelings for anybody but himself. And Biden revealed who he is: a decent human being who understands the plight of loss at a time when Americans everywhere are losing their loved ones.
3.Trump kept dodging questions about his tax returns.
For four years, Trump has been promising to release his tax returns but has never followed through. Tonight was no different. He dodged Chris Wallace’s questions about the bombshell New York Times report that found he paid only $750 in federal taxes in 2016. And when Biden challenged him to release his tax returns so the American people could see for themselves, Trump said “You’ll see it as soon as it’s finished.” Hello? It’s been four years. If Trump wants to refute the New York Times story, all he has to do is voluntarily release his returns. But he refuses to do so. We know exactly why.
4.Trump touted his record on judiciary nominations. But he left out some important details.
When asked about their respective records, the bulk of Trump’s response was hyperbole and nonsense. But one aspect he made sure to highlight was his takeover of the courts: He’s appointed 202 federal judges so far. And he didn’t miss an opportunity to go after Biden, either: Trump turned his own takeover of the courts into an attack on Biden and Obama’s inability to confirm judges. What he failed to mention was that Mitch McConnell refused to confirm any of Obama’s judicial nominees (most notably his Supreme Court pick, Merrick Garland), and then, once Trump was elected, changed the confirmation rules so that the Republican-held Senate could ram through every single one of Trump’s picks – as he’s now trying to do with Amy Coney Barrett.
5.Yet again, Trump refused to accept responsibility for our staggering COVID-19 death toll.
Trump compared his response to COVID-19 to the Obama-Biden administration’s response to swine flu. But the 2009 swine flu pandemic killed approximately 12,500 Americans, compared to the more than 200,000 Americans who have died, so far, from COVID-19 on Trump’s watch. Trump also floated yet another insane conspiracy theory, this time claiming that Democratic governors and mayors were keeping things shut down until after the election just to sabotage Trump. While Trump has said that the virus affects “virtually nobody,” Biden made a point to empathize with the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have lost loved ones to Covid.
6. Trump ramped up his false conspiracies about voting by mail.Trump rehashed practically every one of his conspiracy theories about the previous administration. And he doubled down on his lies about mail-in voting. Here’s the truth: The right-wing Heritage Foundation examined a 36-year time frame and found only 1,285 cases of voter fraud involving mail-in ballots out of nearly two billion votes cast — a rate of .0000007 percent. And Trump himself – along with nearly two dozen other senior administration officials – have all voted by mail before. Trump knows he can’t win through our normal democratic process. That’s why he’s sowing distrust about mail-in voting and railing about “fraud” – so he can lay the groundwork to contest the election and claim it’s illegitimate if he loses. Biden’s response? Telling people to vote.What we saw last night was not a debate. It wasn’t an argument about issues. It was a confrontation between a decent human being and a lying sociopath who refuses to commit to a peaceful transition of power if he loses.
September 29, 2020
What You Need to Know About the GOP Takeover of the Supreme...
What You Need to Know About the GOP Takeover of the Supreme Court
Led by Mitch McConnell, Republicans are gearing up to reverse the precedent they themselves set in 2016, when they blocked President Obama’s Supreme Court nominee for 293 days because, they said, “this vacancy should not be filled until we have a new president.”
They know if they let the people decide who should appoint the next Supreme Court justice, their last chance to implement minority rule could be lost.
What do I mean by minority rule?
Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million people.
And he was impeached.
If confirmed, his nominee would be approved by Senate Republicans representing 11 million fewer Americans than their Senate Democratic counterparts.
Two of those Senate Republicans – Kelly Loeffler of Georgia and Martha McSally of Arizona – weren’t even elected; they were appointed by their respective governors, meaning they will get to confirm a Supreme Court justice to a lifetime appointment without ever winning their elections.
That justice would join a Supreme Court alongside four conservative justices who were nominated by Republican presidents who also lost the popular vote.
These 5 would have the power to negate laws supported by a majority of Americans. They would have the power to interpret the U.S. Constitution.
They’d even have the power to determine the outcome of the presidential election – a not-so-far-fetched possibility, given that Trump has refused to say whether he’ll accept the results if he loses, and has a multimillion-dollar war chest to mount legal challenges. He’s even said his motivation for ramming through a new justice is to serve as a tiebreaker in determining who wins the presidency.
In other words, a president elected by a minority will appoint a justice who will be confirmed by senators representing a minority. That justice will have the power to subvert the will of the majority and possibly hand the election to a president who’s already been impeached.
Most Americans – including half of Republicans – believe Justice Ginsburg’s vacancy should be filled by whomever wins the presidency weeks from now.
The GOP’s attempt to hold onto power at all costs jeopardizes the foundations of our democracy and threatens the sanctity of the Supreme Court, whose power and influence depend on Americans’ trust in its non-partisan judgment.
Not to mention the destruction a 6-3 conservative majority could wreak. Right now, a group of Republican states, backed by Trump’s Justice Department, is seeking to strike down the entire Affordable Care Act. That decision would strip healthcare from upwards of 20 million Americans, remove women’s access to birth control, and eliminate protections for roughly 100 million people with preexisting conditions – including the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have recovered from COVID-19.
And there’s no telling what that Supreme Court would do to reproductive freedom, LGBTQ+ rights, climate action, gun reform, union rights, immigrant rights, civil rights, and just about all civil liberties over the course of the next few decades.
The majority of Americans will not go down without a fight.
First, we must defeat Trump and his Republican enablers in the upcoming election.
Next, when Democrats have control of the Senate, the House, and the presidency, the top priority must be to restructure the Supreme Court so it better reflects the will of the people.
We must see the GOP’s exercise of raw power for what it is and meet it with even greater force.
September 28, 2020
10 Things You Need to Know About Trump’s Tax ReturnsFinally...
10 Things You Need to Know About Trump’s Tax Returns
Finally Trump’s tax returns have been made public. Here are the 10 big things you need to know about them:
1. Did he break the law? Almost surely. Details of tax practices suggest fraud on a massive scale. As Michael Bromwich, a former inspector general at the Justice Department, said yesterday, based on the Times’s story, Trump faces federal and state prosecution for bank fraud, tax fraud, wire fraud, and mail fraud, as does his entire family.
2. How little has he paid in taxes? In 11 of the 18 years examined, Trump paid no taxes at all. In his first year in office he paid the most income tax he had paid in a decade: $750. He has deducted taxes for almost everything imaginable, including $70,000 for hairstyling.
3. But he paid taxes in other nations where he did business? Yes, in 2017, when he paid $750 to the U.S., he paid $15,598 in Panama —$145,400 in India —$156,824 in the Philippines. So much for America first.
4. Why did Trump run for president? He was deeply in debt in 2015, and was, as his former fixer Michael Cohen said, eager to rebuild his brand by running for president. The presidency has injected cash into Trump’s businesses, as lobbyists and foreign governments have invested in them. But he’s still losing money.
5. How broke is he? He owes more than $300 million in loans and can’t repay them. His businesses are constantly losing money. He’s fighting with the IRS and could owe another $100 million to the government. So much for the “successful businessman” image.
6. Who does he owe money to? We don’t know. And that’s part of the problem. Because whoever he does has huge leverage over him.
7. Does this make Trump a national security risk? You bet. Note that a bipartisan group of nearly 500 national security officials, past and present, last week endorsed Biden for president. The list includes retired General Paul Selva, who served as vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff for the first two and a half years of Trump’s presidency.
8. Why is he so desperate to stay in power? Presumably because a sitting president cannot be indicted, and he won’t have to face federal and state prosecution.
9. What’s Trump’s reaction to this bombshell? Not surprisingly, he claims it’s “totally fake news.” But the easiest way to refute it would be to make his tax returns public, which he refuses to do.
10. Will this bombshell affect the election? Probably not. His followers live in a Fox News bubble that this news won’t permeate. It will only confirm what the rest of us already knew. Trump is a conman and a crook.
September 27, 2020
The Coming Civil War Over Trump’s Ego
September 22, 2020
6 Crucial Races That Will Flip the SenateThis November, we have...
6 Crucial Races That Will Flip the Senate
This November, we have an opportunity to harness your energy and momentum into political power and not just defeat Trump, but also flip the Senate. Here are six key races you should be paying attention to.
1. The first is North Carolina Republican senator Thom Tillis, notable for his “olympic gold” flip-flops. He voted to repeal the Affordable Care Act, then offered a loophole-filled replacement that excluded many with preexisting conditions. In 2014 Tillis took the position that climate change was “not a fact” and later urged Trump to withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, before begrudgingly acknowledging the realities of climate change in 2018. And in 2019, although briefly opposing Trump’s emergency border wall declaration, he almost immediately caved to pressure.
But Tillis’ real legacy is the restrictive 2013 voter suppression law he helped pass as Speaker of the North Carolina House. The federal judge who struck down the egregious law said its provisions “targeted African Americans with almost surgical precision.”
Enter Democrat Cal Cunningham, who unlike his opponent, is taking no money from corporate PACs. Cunningham is a veteran who supports overturning the Supreme Court’s disastrous Citizens United decision, restoring the Voting Rights Act, and advancing other policies that would expand access to the ballot box.
2. Maine Senator Susan Collins, a self-proclaimed moderate whose unpopularity has made her especially vulnerable, once said that Trump was unworthy of the presidency. Unfortunately, she spent the last four years enabling his worst behavior. Collins voted to confirm Trump’s judges, including Brett Kavanaugh, and voted to acquit Trump in the impeachment trial, saying he had “learned his lesson” through the process alone. Rubbish.
Collins’ opponent is Sara Gideon, speaker of the House in Maine. As Speaker, Gideon pushed Maine to adopt ambitious climate legislation, anti-poverty initiatives, and ranked choice voting. And unlike Collins, Gideon supports comprehensive democracy reforms to ensure politicians are accountable to the people, not billionaire donors.
Another Collins term would be six more years of cowardly appeasement, no matter the cost to our democracy.
3. Down in South Carolina, Republican Senator Lindsey Graham is also vulnerable. Graham once said he’d “rather lose without Donald Trump than try to win with him.” But after refusing to vote for him in 2016, Graham spent the last four years becoming one of Trump’s most reliable enablers. Graham also introduced legislation to end birthright citizenship, lobbied for heavy restrictions on reproductive rights, and vigorously defended Brett Kavanaugh. Earlier this year, he said that pandemic relief benefits would only be renewed over his dead body.
His opponent, Democrat Jaime Harrison, has brought the race into a dead heat with his bold vision for a “New South.” Harrison’s platform centers on expanding access to healthcare, enacting paid family and sick leave, and investing in climate resistant infrastructure.
Graham once said that if the Republicans nominated Trump the party would “get destroyed,” and “deserve it.” We should heed his words, and help Jaime Harrison replace him in the Senate.
4. Let’s turn to Montana’s Senate race. The incumbent, Republican Steve Daines, has defended Trump’s racist tweets, thanked him for tear-gassing peaceful protestors, and parroted his push to reopen the country during the pandemic as early as May.
Daine’s challenger is former Democratic Governor Steve Bullock. Bullock is proof that Democratic policies can actually gain support in supposedly red states because they benefit people, not the wealthy and corporations. During his two terms, he oversaw the expansion of Medicaid, prevented the passage of union-busting laws, and vetoed two extreme bills that restricted access to abortions.The choice here, once again, is a no-brainer.
Her opponent, Democrat Theresa Greenfield, is a firm supporter of a strong social safety net because she knows its importance firsthand. Union and Social Security survivor benefits helped her rebuild her life after the tragic death of her spouse. With the crippling impact of coronavirus at the forefront of Americans’ minds, Greenfield would be a much needed advocate in the Senate.
6. In Arizona, incumbent Senate Republican Martha McSally is facing Democrat Mark Kelly. Two months after being defeated by Democrat Kyrsten SINema for Arizona’s other Senate seat, McSally was appointed to fill John McCain’s seat following his death. Since then, she’s used that seat to praise Trump and confirm industry lobbyists to agencies like the EPA, and keep cities from receiving additional funds to fight COVID-19. As she voted to block coronavirus relief funds, McSally even had the audacity to ask supporters to “fast a meal” to help support her campaign.
Mark Kelly, a former astronaut and husband of Congresswoman Gabby Giffords, became a gun-control activist following the attempt on her life in 2011. His support of universal background checks and crucial policies on the climate crisis, reproductive health, and wealth inequality make him the clear choice.
These are just a few of the important Senate races happening this year.
In addition, the entire House of Representatives will be on the ballot, along with 86 state legislative chambers and thousands of local seats.
Winning the White House is absolutely crucial, but it’s just one piece of the fight to save our democracy and push a people’s agenda. Securing victories in state legislatures is essential to stopping the GOP’s plans to entrench minority rule through gerrymandered congressional districts and restrictive voting laws — and it’s often state-level policies that have the biggest impact on our everyday lives. Even small changes to the makeup of a body like the Texas Board of Education, which determines textbook content for much of the country, will make a huge difference.
Plus, every school board member, state representative, and congressperson you elect can be pushed to enact policies that benefit the people, not just corporate donors.
This is how you build a movement that lasts.
September 21, 2020
For RBG it was all Principle, for Mitch McConnell it’s all Power
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