Isabel Kershner, reporting for The New York Times:

Israel’s government collapsed Tuesday, pushing the country into yet another early election — the fourth in two years.

The Israeli Parliament dissolved itself at midnight on Tuesday. The move forced a new election after weeks of infighting and paralysis in the so-called unity government, an uneasy coalition sworn in just seven months ago

What a shit show. Israel was a fun little post-WW2 experiment that seems to have run its course. They spent a few decades feeling victimized and pretending to be a country, but the whole time, they were just stirring the Middle Eastern pot. One starts to think maybe the #freepalestine people have a point. Granted, everyone in that region has been fighting for thousands of years over who gets to play in what sandbox according to which invisible sky wizard, so frankly, fuck all of them. I’m sick of America sending our troops over there to die trying to break up their pointless, unending wars (or just join them for profit, where the military industrial complex is involved).

Conservative Christians get so caught up in their allegiance to Israel, I really don’t get it. The Jews were “God’s Chosen People” is usually the best answer they can come up with, but I thought God loved everyone? If the Jews really are the favorites, why the hell would you subscribe to a religion where your god says you’re second best? What a joke.

Drew Harwell and Ellen Nakashima, reporting for The Washington Post:

A security executive with the video-tech giant Zoom worked with the Chinese government to terminate Americans’ accounts and disrupt video calls about the 1989 massacre of pro-democracy activists in Tiananmen Square, Justice Department prosecutors said Friday.

[…]

Prosecutors said the China-based executive, Xinjiang Jin, worked as Zoom’s primary liaison with Chinese law enforcement and intelligence services, sharing user information and terminating video calls at the Chinese government’s request.

Jin monitored Zoom’s video system for discussions of political and religious topics deemed unacceptable by China’s ruling Communist Party, the complaint states, and he gave government officials the names, email addresses and other sensitive information of users, even those outside China.

We’ve known Zoom has plenty of issues for a while now, but this is outrageous. Where is our strongman president when foreign adversaries are directly impeding American citizens’ freedom of speech? He’s made a huge issue about social media companies and their alleged censorship of conservative voices (which is bullshit), but now that there’s real censorship of Americans by China, he’s silent, either too stupid to understand what’s going on, too selfish to care, or so pathetic that he’s still nursing his post-election wounds.

The first amendment was designed to protect Americans against government overreach, but I never imagined we would have our first amendment rights challenged or stripped away by another government than our own. There has to be consequences for this.

Rob Price, writing for Business Insider earlier this year:

In an email to Facebook's chief financial officer at the time, Zuckerberg said Facebook wanted to buy Instagram to give itself more time to fend off competitors.

"One way of looking at this is that what we're really buying is time. Even if some new competitors springs up, buying Instagram, Path, Foursquare, etc now will give us a year or more to integrate their dynamics before anyone can get close to their scale again," he wrote. "Within that time, if we incorporate the social mechanics they were using, those new products won't get much traction since we'll already have their mechanics deployed at scale."

Mark Zuckerberg.

Isobel Asher Hamilton, Katie Canales, and Paige Leskin, reporting for Business Insider last week:

The lawsuits allege that Facebook used a strategy of neutralizing competitors before they could threaten the company's dominance of the social-media market. The suits call out Facebook's decisions to buy rather than compete with Instagram and WhatsApp, and they allege it imposed "anticompetitive conditions" on software developers.

Both complaints seek a "divestiture of assets" for Facebook — that is, breaking off Instagram and WhatsApp from the social-media giant. Additionally, Facebook could be required to get approval from the government before any mergers or acquisitions in the future.

[…]

The coalition of attorneys general, led by New York Attorney General Letitia James, began an investigation into Facebook in September 2019, and the FTC subsequently joined. Attorneys general from 46 states as well as Washington, DC, and Guam have signed on to the lawsuit. The only states whose attorneys general have not signed on are Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and South Dakota.

Forty six states. That’s more than enough to pass a constitutional amendment. Facebook is about to get fucked up.

This investigation (and any resulting regulation) is clearly focusing on antitrust issues, but I sincerely hope that congressional leaders take a long hard look at Facebook’s privacy practices while they’ve got them under the microscope.

I hope Facebook gets what they deserve for capitalizing on the destruction of privacy and the polarization of the American people.

#deletefacebook

Of course they did, the lawsuit was absolutely ridiculous. Shame on Texas. The people who brought this suit should face immediate disbarment, if not prosecution. It’s glaringly obvious that the Constitution doesn’t have the guardrails necessary to protect itself from bad faith attempts to subvert it. There needs to be a standard for how to punish people who bring suits like this, because they have they long term potential to erode our democracy. I want to see every one of the 130+ legislators that signed onto this outrageous, anti-democratic bullshit punished.

I say, the next time Texas flirts with the idea of concession, let them.

Dan Merica, reporting for CNN:

President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Pete Buttigieg to be his transportation secretary, sources familiar with the matter tell CNN, elevating the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor and 2020 Democratic presidential candidate to a top post in the federal government.

Buttigieg would be the first Senate-confirmed [LGB] Cabinet secretary should his nomination make it through the chamber.

The choice vaults a candidate Biden spoke glowingly of after the Democratic primary into a top job in the incoming administration and could earn Buttigieg what many Democrats believe is needed experience should he run for president again.

The role of transportation secretary is expected to play a central role in Biden's push for a bipartisan infrastructure package.

This choice makes sense for a lot of reasons. Pete is fairly moderate and will be able to reach across the aisle and get things done, and he could have a good impact as far as climate change is concerned.

And I’ll say this right now: if Pete gets that elusive high speed rail system built, he will be president one day.

CopyrightBro is releasing a series of damning screenshots in which a staffer on the campaign of Senator-elect Bill Hagerty (R-TN) admits that their loud endorsements of President Donald Trump’s policies is largely based on political convenience, and that he and the campaign actually see the Tennessee voters who elected them as ignorant sheep, falling prey to Trump’s divisive demagoguery, whom they simply intended to use to get into office.

During my time at the University of Tennessee, I was marginally involved in the Student Government Association, and that was how I met now-Hagerty campaign staffer Aaron Northcutt. To make a long story short, he was a good guy who was involved in a corrupt SGA campaign whose leaders were exposed, by me, for election corruption. I pretty much single handledly drove that campaign out of the race, and Aaron was the only person on said campaign for whom I felt bad after the dust settled. He and I originally got in touch in the months before all of that happened, just for the sake of discussing the vitriolic nature of the online discourse surrounding the student government campaigns. Through these conversations I learned that he was genuine and kind, and while he and I disagreed on a fair number of political issues (he saw himself as a moderate conservative while I considered myself a slightly left leaning moderate), we agreed that Donald Trump was an idiot and a terrible president. The discussions he and I had were always respectful, and his points were made in good faith despite our varying beliefs. He gave me hope for a future where Republican politicians would be honest and serve with integrity, and that maybe the two party system could survive in a fairly healthy way, if people like him were running the GOP. However, my confidence in Aaron began to fade when, after college, he got involved with Bill Hagerty’s senate campaign.

Over the course of several months, he and I had a few conversations about his role with the campaign, as well as the state of American politics in general. As the election go closer, Aaron started tweeting things that were wildly out of character for him. I called him out a few times, and he blamed those tweets on his involvement with the campaign, saying he was obligated to share them, and that nondisclosure agreements prevented him from sharing how he truly felt. This surrendering of his legal ability to share his thoughts openly was the first point at which I was afraid Aaron might be slipping out of the realm of levelheaded political hopefuls, and into the realm of corrupt, dishonest, self serving career politicians.

As time progressed, the posts on Northcutt’s twitter got worse and worse. Over the course of a few weeks, he graduated from Fox News-level bad faith arguments to OANN-level nonsense. All the hope I had that Northcutt would be a positive force in conservative politics is now completely gone, so I’ve decided that it’s time to hold another member of that old student government campaign to task, except this time, the campaign Northcutt is working for is a lot more organized and has a lot more potential to do real harm. So here I am, screenshots in hand.

These excerpts from my conversations with Northcutt put on display the worst, most corrupt instincts of the Republican Party. Despite the fact that Hagerty ran as a Trump Republican, it’s clear that that’s not truly the line of thinking he subscribes to, and nor do his staffers. If I were a Trump supporting Tennessean who voted for Hagerty, I would feel insulted and betrayed by these statements.

This concept of Republican congressional candidates riding Trump’s coattails while actually disagreeing with his policies and being disgusted by the way he treats people is not new, and it isn’t unique to Tennessee; in fact, it seems to span across Republican politicians from a variety of backgrounds, from veterans to businessmen, and from reliably red states to swing states. In October, CopyrightBro reported that Chris Taylor, former U.S. congressional candidate from Arizona, was pressured to get on board with Trump’s divisive messaging, despite personally feeling that Trump was a cancerous force to American democracy. However, the differences between Taylor and Hagerty couldn’t be more stark: Taylor publicly endorsed Joe Biden, while Hagerty is hoping his voters aren’t observant enough to recognize that he’s double crossed them.

Maggie Haberman and Michael S. Schmidt, reporting for The New York Times:

President Trump has discussed with advisers whether to grant pre-emptive pardons to his children, to his son-in-law and to his personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, and talked with Mr. Giuliani about pardoning him as recently as last week, according to two people briefed on the matter.

Just so we’re clear, you don’t pardon people who’ve done nothing wrong. The notion that this is a necessary step to protect Donald Trump’s fragile, innocent little children from some leftist witch hunt is bullshit. They’re grown ass adults, for Christ’s sake. As for Giuliani, is it a coincidence or is it karma that he got COVID after pulling this shit? You decide.

As reported by Claire Hymes for CBS News, we’re also now entertaining the idea of bribes for pardons:

The Justice Department is investigating a bribery scheme that directed money to the White House or used political contributions in exchange for a presidential pardon, according to court documents released Tuesday. 

Prosecutors asked the court for permission to review email communications […]

But… but.. what about HILLARY’s emails?!?!?

[…] they believe revealed a "bribery conspiracy scheme in which [redacted] would offer a substantial political contribution in exchange for a presidential pardon or reprieve of sentence for [redacted]."

I don’t know who this is for (I’m sure Trump has plenty of criminal acquaintances who’ve wound up behind bars and want to buy their way out) but it doesn’t matter who it is: this is banana republic shit, and it is fundamentally damaging the credibility and the integrity of our institutions as well as the notion of “law and order” in our country. Fuck Rudy Giuliani. Fuck Donald Trump’s kids. And fuck Donald Trump.

Sincerely, a 2016 Trump voter.

A few excerpts from a long twitter exchange/thread from Lincoln Project Senior Adviser Tom Nichols:

I know we want to believe our fellow citizens voted as if they are just making a civic decision about what's best for America. I think that was a legit way to view 2016. I think there is almost no way to view Trump's voters in 2020 that way. /4

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 27, 2020

But the insane Left does not control the Democratic Party, and the totalitarian streak among the liberals is still mostly stupid college kids and their professors, along with hucksters in the HR departments. Joe Biden isn't that. /6

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 27, 2020

I also think it's time for the Trump voters to start thinking about understanding the rest of America, instead of it always being this one-way street of understanding and compassion. They're the new minority. They might think harder about *why* others feel about them as we do. /8

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 27, 2020

But more to the point, why is it always a plea for *us* to understand *them*? Why is it always one way? Why is there never a plea - or demand - to people in rural Indiana to say: "Listen, you better start understanding the 100 million Americans who aren't like you."

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 27, 2020

And just to continue this rant a little more: These Trump voters did not spend a lot of time saying "You know, the inner cities are a mess, and people there seem desperate and unhappy. I wonder why. Maybe I should understand them more."

Instead, they said: F*ck those cities. /1

— Tom Nichols (@RadioFreeTom) November 27, 2020

Keen perspective.

Ella Koeze, reporting for The New York Times:

Stocks on Wall Street climbed for a second day on Tuesday, buoyed by news that President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. had chosen a former Federal Reserve chair, Janet L. Yellen, to be the next Treasury secretary, and as the Trump administration’s efforts to contest the election were further diminished as several key states certified Mr. Biden’s victory.

The S&P 500 rose about 1.4 percent, and by late morning was trading above its most recent closing record of 3,626.91, reached on Nov. 16. The Dow Jones industrial average rose to a new high, crossing above the 30,000 mark for the first time.

I guess all these Wall Street investors don’t realize that Joe Biden is going to drive the economy into the ground. 🙄

“The Comey Rule” was recommended to me by a friend in the days leading up to the election, and I’m very glad I took his recommendation seriously.

It’s a two part series that lays out the timeline of events that dragged the FBI into the political muck during the 2016 presidential campaign, including the scandal surrounding Hillary’s email servers, as well as the connections between the Trump campaign and Russia. It’s rather dense and you need to pay attention to the details, but I found the first half in particular to be absolutely gripping. It’s laid out so that part one covers the events leading up to the election, and part two covers the events after the election.

Though many of the characters make their political beliefs clear, I found it to have been produced in rather apolitical fashion. The show makers clearly wanted to lay out the documentable facts for the audience and help people understand what happened, and teasing out which “bombshell” headlines from that campaign season were actually of seismic importance, and which were just filler. It really impresses upon you the importance of our law enforcement and intelligence agencies remaining independent of the politics that consume the most of the federal government, and it demonstrates how our institutions can be fundamentally damaged when they kowtow to political pressure.

You can watch “The Comey Rule” on Showtime, but if you don’t have showtime, you can purchase it for seven bucks on iTunes or Amazon Prime.

Final electoral college tally seems like it’s going to be 306 for Biden and 232 for Trump. The popular vote is roughly 78,000,000 for Biden to 72,000,000 for Trump. 

A few thoughts:

• We need to have a conversation about the modern utility of the electoral college, but we’ll save that for another day.

• Historian Alan Litchman’s “Thirteen Keys” framework for predicting presidential elections held up, yet again. 

• For what it’s worth, my gut feeling about this election also proved to be correct. I’ve said for over a year now that the political climate leading up to this election did not feel the same as the political climate that preceded the 2016 election, and clearly that was the case. Not to brag, but my electoral college prediction map was entirely correct except for one state, which happened to be the state I’m from, funny enough.

• To those worried about election fraud: the possibility that our elections have been manipulated is certainly something worth being concerned about. However, it would be damaging to our democracy in the long run to undermine the credibility of a legitimate election by crying “fraud” where none exists simply because you aren’t pleased with the outcome. Of the dozen court cases the Trump campaign has brought in an attempt to overrule the results of the election, he’s 0 for 12. They have been laughed out of court by liberal and conservative judges after admitting that they had no grounds to allege fraud.

• The responses from world leaders and international news outlets has been very positive, as if they’re eager to welcome us back to our seat at the international table and will continue to respect us as the world’s premier superpower. It seems like the world is willing to forgive the United States for the damage and offense Trump caused them; let’s not put ourselves in a position to need to ask their forgiveness again. My favorite international headline: ”America. Great Again.”

• We can’t take our eyes off the ball yet: control of the Senate still hasn’t been decided, and there’s a good chance that Mitch McConnell could maintain his majority. If that were to happen, we would experience a two year long lame duck period where none of Joe Biden’s plans could come to fruition because Mitch McConnell would strike them down in the Senate. It isn’t over yet, though. There are still two runoff elections that have to take place in Georgia on January 5th before we’ll know if the Republicans will maintain their majority. Runoff elections occur when neither candidate in a race got more than 50% of the total votes; Georgia had two senate elections going on this cycle, and both of them are headed to runoff elections. One is between Democrat Raphael Warnock and Republican Kelly Loeffler, and the other is between Democrat Jon Ossoff and Republican David Perdue. Democrats must win both of these elections to break Mitch McConnell’s stranglehold. Click here to get email updates about ways you can volunteer remotely to help turn out voters in Georgia, or click here to donate to Stacey Abrams’s organization Fair Fight, which helps register voters and fight back against racist voter suppression in Georgia.

I’ve said before that neither of the presidential candidates in 2016 were great options, and that I even considered voting for a third party candidate. However, as a swing state voter, I felt obligated to eventually chose a side. While it would’ve been novel to see our first female president, I felt like Hillary Clinton was too corrupt and too entrenched in the Washington muck: she didn’t seem trustworthy. Donald Trump was not the first person I would’ve chosen to be president, nor would he have been the first pick for the vast majority of people when he announced his candidacy, but I did end up choosing him (fairly enthusiastically, I might add), and I felt surprised and vindicated when he pulled off an upset that nobody saw coming.

There were a multitude of reasons that I ultimately chose to vote for Donald Trump in 2016. He was a political newcomer who clearly wasn’t going to use the typical Washington playbook, and it seemed like he may have been able to shake things up. He was irreverent and spoke his mind, and while he was often rude or uncouth, it was a breath of fresh air to hear a political candidate tell you what they really thought. There was also the allure of his business background: we’ve had decades worth of career politician presidents, so perhaps giving the reigns to someone whose successful career was based on savvy business dealings could give the economy a revitalization and make things better for the middle and working classes. There was also the issue of the open Supreme Court seat in 2016 following the death of conservative Justice Antonin Scalia, which would be filled by whoever was elected president and swing the court to the right or the left.

If I’m being honest though, there were also some unsavory aspects of Donald Trump that appealed to me. The fact that most politicians on both sides of the aisle seemed to strongly dislike him made me want to play devil’s advocate, and it seemed to indicate that while he may screw up some of the systems ingrained in American government, he could bring real change to our politics. I believed (and still do believe) that the U.S. needs to do something major to overhaul our immigration system. Donald Trump’s proposal of a wall spoke to me on multiple levels, some practical, some silly, some subtly cruel. On the one hand, a large physical barrier seemed remarkably effective at reducing illegal immigration from Mexico. I was also just a fan of large, government projects in general; I saw them as monuments to a country’s power (think something like the massive, dystopian concrete walls and other structures from the “Hunger Games” movies), and I wanted the U.S. to have something cool like that (not just one wall though, I also wanted one on our northern border because the asymmetry of only having one massive wall separating our country from the rest of the continent bugged me in a sort of OCD-ish way). But there was also an aspect of the wall proposal that was subtly race based, and fell back on the notion that immigrants from Central America were second class people who didn’t necessarily deserve to live in the United States. I don’t think this was ever a conscious thought I had, but it certainly provided the bedrock for some of my isolationist, pro-wall views. While I did support the idea of a wall, I also wanted the legal immigration system to be updated to make it easier for people to come here legally, but that wasn’t as enticing for potential voters as the wall was, so Trump didn’t really spend a lot of time talking about that.

All in all, my vote for Donald Trump was a devil’s advocate vote. To borrow a quote, it was a vote to burn the house down and start over, in many regards. Perhaps I was a bit of an anarchist.

---

If you’ve always considered yourself a Republican or a conservative and feel repulsed by the idea of voting for a Democrat no matter how much you dislike the Republican, I know where you’re coming from. I was raised in a staunchly conservative Christian household, and for a long time, nothing made me question any of my positions. But like most Republicans, the past few years have probably left you feeling at least a little bit of internal conflict. You’ve seen our president and the leaders of the Republican Party make arguments in bad faith, you’ve seen them flip flop and change their “beliefs”, and you’ve seen them support positions that don’t reflect the views they claimed to hold when you voted for them. It’s okay to be concerned, and it’s okay to admit that voting for someone wasn’t a great choice. I voted for Donald Trump in 2016, and in hindsight, I can admit that I made a mistake. 

If you’re a Republican or a conservative and you don’t have ANY qualms with how your leaders have been behaving lately — even deep down, secret things you’ve never told anyone because you don’t want to risk being painted as a liberal snowflake — there’s a decent chance that your beliefs are founded on racism, homophobia, xenophobia, general bigotry, or a perverted and oppressive theological doctrine which you likely call “Christianity” but which doesn’t actually resemble the teachings of Jesus Christ. If you are in that camp and you see no issues with the behavior of Donald Trump and his “Republican” allies, you need to take a long hard look in the mirror. If that’s you, then stop reading, because this article is not for the close minded. But my guess is that if you’ve read this far, you have had at least some doubts about Donald Trump.

Don’t get me wrong, I still don’t like Hillary Clinton, but the last four years have shown me that voting for Trump and encouraging others to do so may have been one of the most destructive decisions of my life. That said, it took me a long time to reach that conclusion, and it was not a comfortable journey. I spent a long time trying to justify my vote for Donald Trump. I convinced myself that even though he was unconventional, America could use someone who would turn over a new leaf and shake things up in Washington. “Drain the swamp” was a remarkably appealing message. Allowing Donald Trump to burn the house down doesn’t sound like the worst option until you realize that he doesn’t have a plan to get you out of the house before he sets it ablaze.

---

By 2018, I was beginning to seriously question my decision. There was no progress being made on any of the issues I’d cared about when I cast my ballot for him. On top of that, while I still appreciated his candor and unfiltered thoughts, I couldn’t justify some of the things he said or did, like his remarks about “very fine people” who happened to be torch-carrying white supremacists and Nazis. He was beginning to cross red lines, striking matches and pouring gasoline as he went.

Another point of inflection for me was when I found out how exactly he had managed to pull off his 2016 upset. I’m not talking about Russian interference (though I do now believe that they did try to influence voters), I’m talking about the Cambridge Analytica scandal, wherein the Trump campaign used personal data from millions of Americans to target individual voters in specific counties in specific states to help them win an electoral college majority without trying to win the popular vote. They understood the weaknesses of the Electoral College, and they used modern technology and unethically collected personal data to influence only the voters they needed with disinformation, and they also used that data to conduct racist voter suppression, showing ads to black people to discourage them from voting. They gamed the system. They cheated.

Unflattering as that may have been, I could’ve looked the other way if he had been delivering on his policy promises. I could’ve told myself that he was technically playing within the rules, and that it was just an example of why the Electoral College was an outdated system that needed to be reformed or abolished. But he wasn’t delivering on anything, and he continued to cross red lines.

---

When I voted for Donald Trump, I expected him to be a champion of our military. I expected him to respect them and appreciate their sacrifices, but he’s shown time and time again that he simply does not care about them. He’s a draft dodger, and he’ll never understand or revere our troops the way a Commander in Chief should, and high ranking military leaders in his administration have condemned his actions that take advantage of our troops.

I’m a big believer in the second amendment, but Donald Trump is not doing what a responsible Republican president would do in this day and age. With the incredible frequency of mass shootings, it’s clear that something needs to be done: the curriculum for our children’s first day of school each year should not include where to hide in case of a shooting. Yet, Trump refuses to address this problem because of the overwhelming support he receives from big donors like the NRA. Respecting the second amendment means not only respecting the right of the people to bear arms, but also respecting the specific aspect of that same amendment that calls for thorough regulation.

Climate change is an issue that a lot of people — young people in particular — care a lot about. We are seeing the effects of climate change from wildfires decimating the landscapes of California and Australia to record numbers of hurricanes brutalizing the east coast. Yes, the earth goes through periods of warming, but the evidence that humans have accelerated global warming is incontrovertible. Donald Trump just refuses to acknowledge it because it’s unpopular among big donors whose businesses rely on lax environmental regulations. To those who don’t believe in climate change, I say this: let’s apply a common theological argument used by Christians to convert non-believers. If climate change is a hoax and we waste our time trying to prevent it by transitioning to clean energy and less harmful manufacturing processes, then no real harm will be done. But, if climate change is real and we do nothing to address it, the consequences will be dire. Even if you don’t believe the evidence, we can all agree that there is no harm in making our environment cleaner and less polluted. Donald Trump apparently can’t follow this logic, becasue he’s been rolling back environmental protections throughout his term.

In regards to immigration: it doesn’t take four years to build a wall, and it certainly doesn’t require eight years, but despite having Republican majorities in both chambers of congress, Donald Trump didn’t build a wall. In fact, he’s only put up a few miles of fencing (nothing like the “Hunger Games”-style wall I was imagining), and sections of it have been cut through, sections have blown over, and the people he tasked with building the wall actually tore parts of it down to sell the scrap rebar on craigslist. It flies in the face of what I wanted when I voted for him. And of course, there have been zero improvements to our legal immigration system. 

Racism has been a hot topic this year, and Trump simply hasn’t met the moment. He’s stoked fires rather than trying to extinguish them because he knows that division is good for his re-election odds. What he clearly doesn’t realize is that America’s strength is in our diversity. We’ve always had issues with race in this country, but while he tells the Proud Boys to “stand by” and says that white supremacists are “very fine people”, real patriots recognize that this behavior is not the best America has to offer. The pursuit of justice and equality is not a zero sum game in the greatest country on earth, but Donald Trump would have us believe that it is.

Abortion is another important issue for a lot of people, and while there are tense disagreements, there are a few things that the majority of people do agree on. Most people believe abortion should be an option in cases where the mothers life is in danger, and most people also agree that the fewer abortions we collectively have, the better. Unfortunately, this is an issue that Trump has flip flopped on several times, so we don’t really know whether he agrees with those things or not. He’s described himself as pro-life and pro-choice, he’s said that he thinks partial birth abortion is terrible yet that it should be legal. It’s impossible to trust anything he says or does in regards to abortion at this point. Personally, I want the number of abortions in this country to go down, but Donald Trump has done nothing to make that happen. We know that better sex education and increased access to contraceptives and birth control can reduce the number of abortions: Trump has made no effort in any of those areas.

When it comes to healthcare, Trump has accomplished nothing at all, and he knows it.  He’s tried and failed to undo Obamacare. He’s still trying to get rid of the Affordable Care Act (which ensures coverage for people with preexisting conditions) but he has nothing to replace it with. He simply doesn’t have a plan, yet he’s trying to kick tens of millions of Americans off their current plans in the middle of a pandemic. It’s stupid and it’s cruel.

Speaking of the pandemic, yes, Trump banned travel from China and that was a smart move, but even that was too late. He didn’t ban travel from Europe until even later, which is where almost all of the United States’ cases came from. And what has he done since then? He’s pushed back against relief efforts, stalled stimulus checks so they could print his name on them (as if he were dispensing them from his own personal fortune), and suggested we ingest bleach. He’s undermined the scientists in his own administration because he thinks telling the truth is a bad look for him; he habitually avoids and discredits science and facts that are inconvenient for him. He’s been so reckless that not only has he allowed more than 8,000,000 people to contract COVID-19 and 220,000+ to die, he’s been so ridiculously stupid that he contracted it himself.

As far as the economy goes, Trump’s potential to make life better for middle and working class Americans was clearly just an illusion, because he drove the economy into the ground. Donald Trump is not a great business man, he’s a tax fraud. As was recently pointed out, he’s spent a great deal of his career exploiting tax laws in an attempt to hold on to the money he made as a result of other people’s successful business ventures. His tax records showed us that most of the business dealings he managed directly lost exorbitant amounts of money, and he’s personally in debt to the tune of $400M-$1.1B. The notion that he’s a successful businessman whose business acumen would benefit the greater American economy simply has not proven to be the case. After all, companies spend unbelievable amounts of money each year examining and mitigating various risks, and the greatest risk to the American economy, COVID-19, was by and large ignored by the Trump administration because the president found it unflattering. Ignoring your problems isn’t exactly a great business strategy or a good P.R. move.

Now, it’s not uncommon for a president not to accomplish everything they intended, but it’s not common for them to accomplish virtually nothing. The Trump administration accomplished so little that they aren’t even telling you what they would hope to do during a second term, if re-elected. For the first time in history, the Republican Party didn’t even put together a party platform, presumably because they know that Donald Trump is so erratic that anything they could possibly write down as their official agenda for the next four years would be swiftly and completely abandoned by the schizophrenic old man at the top of their ticket. Even Trump’s own website doesn’t list anything he hopes to accomplish if re-elected. They’re asking you to elect them without a plan. 

You know who does have a plan? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. They have a lot of good, moderate plans that are supported on substance by a majority of Americans. Do you want to elect someone who will respect the second amendment and pass common sense gun legislation to reduce mass shooting? Elect Joe Biden. Do you want to elect a president who has the resolve to stand up to white supremacy? Elect Joe Biden. Do you want a president who will empower and respect our military rather than denigrating and disrespecting their sacrifices? Elect Joe Biden. Do you want to elect someone who will put measures in place to allow greater access to contraceptives and birth control and subsequently reduce the number of abortions, while ensuring that it remains a safe option in cases of rape, incest, or danger to the mother’s life? Elect Joe Biden. Do you want to elect someone who will improve our immigration system in meaningful ways so that we know who’s entering our country? Elect Joe Biden. Do you want to elect someone who will create thousands of well paying clean energy jobs to get us out of Trump’s recession and turn the tide on climate change? Elect Joe Biden. Do you want to elect someone who will finally get the pandemic under control and get our economy firmly on the path to recovery? Elect Joe Biden. Do you want someone who will bring kindness, honesty, empathy, and strength back to the Oval Office? Elect Joe Biden.

You maybe thinking, “well I don’t really like Donald Trump, but isn’t Joe Biden a socialist?” Fortunately for America, the answer to that question is no, Joe Biden is not a socialist. In fact, the reason he won the primary and became the Democratic nominee is specifically because he was not a socialist. He ran against a socialist, Bernie Sanders, and he beat him. By a lot. Despite what you might hear on Facebook or Fox News, the vast majority of Democrats, including Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, do not want socialism. Many people are trying to paint this election as one where we’re having to chose the lesser of two evils, and while that was the case in 2016, it’s not the case now. Joe Biden is a good man — even many Republicans agree, including Lindsey Graham — and whether you like all of his plans or not, at least he has plans and he’s honest about them.

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Again, regardless of what you think about the aforementioned policies, we should be able to agree that preserving our democracy should always be our top priority. However, in recent days, members of the Republican Party have begun to abandon even that foundational principle of our nation, seemingly preferring rule by the wealthy elite.

For a long time, people have been tempted to call Trump an authoritarian and a dictator, ready to dismantle our democracy at the first opportunity. He certainly has those autocratic, fascistic impulses, and he would love to be the strongman dictator of the United States for years to come, but the truth is that he isn’t strong enough or intelligent enough to follow through on those desires. 

No, Donald Trump is not a dictator. He’s a weak, dumb, self conscious old man who stumbled into the presidency and whose only skill is taking advantage of the people around him. Unfortunately, the president’s ineptitude doesn’t mean that he isn’t still a fundamental threat: his haphazard abandonment of political norms, outright corruption and nepotism, and blatant disregard for the rule of law could very well be setting the stage for a true dictator in the United States. The most progress he’s made when it comes to tearing down our democracy was more or less a coincidence: since he announced his candidacy five years ago, he has been attacking the press and trying to discredit them when their coverage is critical, and he’s succeeded in creating an alternate reality with “alternate facts”. He’s also cracked down on peaceful protestors, authorizing force to be used against them without provocation. Even these fundamental threats to our freedom of the press and freedom to peaceful assembly were byproducts of his narcissism as opposed to deliberate attempts to undo the First Amendment. Imagine how much worse things could be if a real, competent dictator takes his place.

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I noted earlier that the Trump administration has no plan, but it’s not entirely true that they have nothing they want to accomplish in a second term, it’s just that their aims are so corrupt that they can’t say them out loud. Following the leaked tax information from a few weeks ago, we learned that the president is in a massive amount of personal debt. The entire time he’s been in office, he’s refused to step away from his businesses, and has illegally exploited political relationships with domestic and foreign agencies and investors to make more money for himself and his family, ostensibly to reduce the burden of the personal debts from his many failed business ventures.

We were correct to assume that a businessman in the Oval Office could make a lot of money, but we were wrong to assume he would be interested in using those skills to the people’s benefit. Donald Trump’s business savvy served only himself and his family during his term, not the American people. From the start, this has been all about him, not us.

He sees his life as a tv show: he’s the main character, and the only thing that matters is how many people tune in to watch the show. He’s found a fan base in the Republican Party, a bloc of voters who were so fed up with politicians that they were willing to elect a reality television star.

Dont let a reality tv show host convince you that he’s a Republican president of the same caliber as Ronald Reagan. There’s a growing list of well-known Republicans who have denounced Trump, and while he has tried to label them as RINO’s (Republicans In Name Only), he’s the real RINO. He doesn’t actually value conservative ideas, he’s just playing the part—it’s a performance.

The scary thing is that not only is he not a true conservative, most of the officials in the Republican Party aren’t either, because he’s coopted their allegiance. There are instances where Republican congressional candidates have been required by the party to vocally support Trump despite not actually liking him. His presidency is destroying what’s left of the Republican Party: to be a Republican today, it’s not enough to simply have conservative beliefs, you have to be a vocal advocate for Donald Trump. There is no room for debate. You fall in line, or you aren’t a Republican. Group think like this — “herd mentality”, if you will — would be cancerous to any organization, but especially to one that prides itself on individual freedom.

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In 2016, a vote for Donald Trump wasn’t just a vote for Donald Trump, it was also a vote for the future of the Supreme Court. This time, though another seat came open very soon before the election, the seat has already been filled, and the court now has a solid conservative majority of 6-3. The prospect of an open seat being filled by the winner of the election was a strong motivator for people; the high stakes in the court helped the vote for Trump go down a little more smoothly for conservatives who didn’t like him. The odds of Trump getting to replace another liberal justice in the next four years are exceedingly low, so the only reason one would vote for Donald Trump this time is if you like his personality or his literally nonexistent policies.

Furthermore, you shouldn’t want Trump to appoint any more justices. He’s slowly shifting the court away from a liberal or conservative tilt, and appointing justices whose loyalties will lie with him specifically. It’s corrupt, it’s not what the judicial branch was designed for, and it’s going to cost people their rights. In the next few weeks, the court will hear a case that could strip insurance coverage from millions of people with preexisting conditions, and they may potentially rule on the outcome of the election, should it be contested. The nonpartisanship of the judiciary branch is unraveling at the seams, and Trump continues to pull the loose strings because it benefits him personally.

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My decision to vote for Donald Trump in 2016 wasn’t a difficult one, but it was a mistake. However, I believe it’s a mistake that history will judge as being a forgivable one. Nobody can be right 100% of the time, but the closest we can come is to acknowledge when we make mistakes and correct them. The time has come for America to correct one of our greatest wrongs, for the sake of our rights.

Voting for Donald Trump in 2020 will not be a mistake future generations are likely to forgive. It’s not a mistake that many people today will be likely to forgive either: in my view, anyone who has lived through the past four years and still decides that voting for Donald Trump is a good decision is a racist, a homophobe, and a xenophobe. Point blank.

That’s a strong statement, but I want to reiterate that while I have my own biases and discrete life experiences, as we all do, this isn’t about partisanship for me — I’m a registered independent and most of the candidates I’ve ever voted for have been Republicans — this is about preserving the foundations of American democracy for generations to come, and demonstrating to the world that the United States of America is truly the greatest nation on earth by rebuking hatred and division in favor of empathy and honor. The decision to choose Trump over Clinton was not very difficult for me. But the decision to choose Joe Biden over Donald Trump — to choose honor, truth, integrity, science, and democracy — that was a much easier choice.

Vote.

Most people first heard about Chris Taylor back in February when he garnered a few national headlines. Eight months ago, Taylor was running as a Republican for the U.S. House of Representatives seat for Arizona’s 1st congressional district, but he dropped out of the race when it was reported that he was struggling from a drug abuse relapse that resulted in a traumatic heroin overdose. Check out his interview with a local Arizona news channel to learn more about his personal story.

Now, CopyrightBro has some original reporting to contribute which adds color and context to Taylor’s story.

Following the news of his overdose and withdrawal from the race, we decided to poke around his campaign website a bit. As you might imagine of a Republican campaign site for a congressional seat in a swing state in 2020, it was extremely Trump-y. Every opportunity to name drop the president was taken. They opted for utilitarian fonts that appeal to men with militarized concepts of masculinity. The policy section was light on specifics but used plenty of inflammatory language and relied on common tropes one might hear from Tucker Carlson or Rush Limbaugh. It was extremely polarizing. Interestingly though, the website offered up Taylor’s personal phone number. I decided to reach out to him, personally.

To be frank, my initial intentions in contacting him weren’t entirely innocent and devoid of political influence. I did want to wish him well, but in doing so, I wanted to demonstrate that empathy is more important than dying on political hills, and that connecting through our shared humanity is a good way to traverse the widening ideological boundaries that plague our country and are often exacerbated and exploited by Republicans. I truly did want to wish him a swift and successful recovery, but I also intended for my message to serve as a subtle indictment of the way his party has abandoned honor, empathy, and respect in recent years, as well as their inaction when it comes to addressing America’s opioid crisis. The message I sent read:

Hi, my name is Broc. I’m from NC and may not have been a fan of some of your political views, but I just saw your story online and wanted to say I hope you get the help you need and that your recovery goes well. The opioid epidemic doesn’t discriminate based on political parties, and well wishes for folks trying to overcome that challenge shouldn’t either. 🇺🇸🤟🏼

To my surprise, he responded. And his response shocked me. He said:

Thank you so much! And I bet we aren’t too far off, politically. I actually can’t stand Trump.

Wh.. what? I was blown away. I didn’t expect a reply, and I certainly wasn’t expecting him to say that. My response was a bit incredulous:

Dude really? Your website is very ride-or-die Trumpian haha. I guess you gotta play to your audience a bit. […]

Again, Chris’s reply struck me:

Yeah, I had to, but it’s not worth selling my soul for his hatefulness.

Hatefulness and selfishness are not only afflictions that ail Donald Trump, they’re endemic to the friends he’s found in the Republican Party. The only politician to contact Chris while he was in the hospital recovering from his overdose was his Democratic opponent—no one from the Republican Party reached out to him. He recently announced that he is now supporting that Democratic candidate who was his former opponent. That’s not the only Democrat he’s supporting, though.

In further conversations, Chris revealed to me that he was privately supporting Pete Buttigieg in the presidential primaries, and even told me that Mayor Pete was the only candidate he had ever donated money to. I was also a big fan of Pete, and I personally donated to and volunteered for his campaign, in addition to endorsing him here on CopyrightBro. It was remarkable for me to learn that we really were on the same political page, as he had suggested in his first message to me. It gives me a little bit of hope that not every Republican in office right now is as bought into the performance as they seem.

If you’re a lifelong Republican, it’s worth considering how many more Republican politicians may be running under that label whilst being manipulated by the puppet masters of the Republican Party. How many others’ commitments to Donald Trump self serving, devisive antics are simply a facade they’ve been forced to erect for the sake of receiving support from the Republican Party’s political machine? For people who truly hold some conservative beliefs, considering this paradox for more than a few seconds will lead you to an uncomfortable mental place.

Do your allegiances lie with Donald Trump? If so, you should be offended by the prospect that many Republican politicians don’t actually support him, and are taking advantage of your votes by riding his coattails.

-or-

Do your allegiances lie with your conservative principles? If so, you should take note of the fact that Republican politicians who share your beliefs are breaking from Donald Trump, and consider that Trump is more of a demagogue than a true conservative.

The Republican Party is in disarray: they’re corrupt, they lie, they’re running out of principled stances. That doesn’t mean that the same is necessarily true for conservatism; not all conservative principles are useless or harmful. America’s political system is being ruined by the two party system, and what we need is more parties, not less. For the sake of the future of American politics, let’s hope there are more people like Chris who could build new, righteous political parties that incorporate some legitimate conservative principles once the current Republican Party inevitably implodes.

Today, Chris Taylor tweeted a message announcing his endorsement of Joe Biden. In the wake of his endorsement this morning, we reached out to Chris again, and he provided the following statement regarding his decision:

I swore an oath to the Constitution, I will defend it with my life. There is a reason we don’t swear an oath to the President, but that’s where the allegiance lies today in the Republican Party and that’s why I can’t be a part of it anymore. We need to defend all of the constitutional amendments as vigorously as we defend the Second Amendment: especially the First Amendment, all of it. Freedom of religion means all religions, not just Christianity. Freedom of speech means that athletes have the right to kneel in protest during the national anthem, that people have every right to peacefully protest racial inequality and police brutality, that businesses have the right to mandate masks during a pandemic. Freedom of the press means not discrediting and disregarding reputable news organizations by calling them fake news and “the enemy of the people” simply because the coverage is unflattering.

With all the different serious fires raging in our country right now, the ideal situation would be to elect a once-in-a-generation kind of leader. A professional firefighter, figuratively speaking— a fire science expert who knows exactly what to do to put the fires out and who possesses the courage needed to advance the firehose to the seat of the raging inferno. Someone to finally close this devastating chapter in American history and ultimately heal and unite our wounded nation.

How we long for the wisdom of Abraham Lincoln, the talent of JFK, the energy and compassion of Bobby Kennedy, the tenacity of Teddy Roosevelt and the steady crisis leadership of FDR. I don’t pretend to believe Joe Biden will be that caliber of leader. But I know in my heart that Joe has the love, empathy, compassion, and courageous soul needed to at least attempt to put those fires out. 

With the current occupant of the White House, the little hope I ever had that he would even try to do the right thing in any given situation is lost completely. I’m endorsing Joe Biden because I know at the very least, he won’t start anymore fires. Donald Trump has and will continue to light new fires, and he will keep pouring gasoline on the ones that are already raging. He’s unfit for office of any level, and his repeated, disgusting remarks about America’s war heroes wholly disqualify him from continuing to serve as Commander-in-Chief.

It’s evident that Chris’s decision to support Joe Biden did not come as a result of him being a closeted Democrat. He made this decision because Joe Biden is a better vessel of many true conservative ideals than Donald Trump. 

In any case, publicly endorsing Biden is an incredible, courageous conclusion to his 2020 character arc of political reckoning and personal growth. I don’t know Chris terribly well, but if I know anything about him at all, these three things are true:

1. He has massive balls.

2. He gives me hope for the future of responsible conservative ideas.

3. He makes me proud, and whether he gets back into the fray of national politics or not, he’ll make you proud. Anyone in America would be lucky to have a Congressman like him.

I’m choosing light over darkness, hope over fear, honesty over deception, honor over disgrace, unity over division, love over hate, empathy over narcissism. In other words I’m choosing @JoeBiden over @realDonaldTrump. Character is on the ballot.The soul of our nation is at stake. pic.twitter.com/WHQxAUhIR4

— Chris Taylor (@taylor4arizona) October 23, 2020

Quotes from text messages have been lightly edited for grammar and clarity.

Sam Fossum, reporting for CNN:

Sen. Lisa Murkowski announced Saturday that she will ultimately vote yes on Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation to the Supreme Court of the United States.

Four weeks ago:

Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski said on Sunday that she will not support President Donald Trump’s nomination of a replacement to fill the vacancy on the Supreme Court left by the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg before Election Day.

“For weeks, I have stated that I would not support taking up a potential Supreme Court vacancy this close to the election. Sadly, what was then a hypothetical is now our reality, but my position has not changed,” Murkowski said in a statement.

“I did not support taking up a nomination eight months before the 2016 election to fill the vacancy created by the passing of Justice Scalia,” she added. “We are now even closer to the 2020 election – less than two months out – and I believe the same standard must apply.”

Of course she changed her mind. Did we expect her to actually do the right thing? No, but still. Fuck Lisa Murkowski.

There’s a good chance that the Senate will soon confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court. Donald Trump quickly nominated Barrett to the court following the death of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg last month, in hopes of rushing through another SCOTUS appointment before the election. Amy Coney Barrett is a devout catholic and a member of People of Praise, a Christian faith commune that believes women shouldn’t hold positions of leadership (a source of internal conflict for her, I imagine).

I’ll cut to the chase: if the Senate confirms Barrett to the court, it will be a disaster for the United States. Supreme Court Justices hold their positions for life, so this would cause a drastic imbalance on the court that would last for decades.

In her confirmation hearings (which have been taking place over the past few days), she has been asked how she would rule if presented with cases that would give her the opportunity to overturn previously decided cases, and she’s shown a blatant disregard for precedent. She has indicated that she would be open to reversing several important Supreme Court decisions, including ones that determined the constitutionality of same-sex marriage, upheld the Affordable Care Act (which prevents insurance companies from denying coverage to Americans with preexisting conditions), and established the trimester framework that dictates the legality of abortion.

And she will have the opportunity to do those things and more. There’s a case scheduled for just four weeks from now which could deconstruct the Affordable Care Act, and there are also likely to be cases that could determine the outcome of the election if Trump continues down his path of feigning voter fraud because he knows he’s losing. If she is appointed to the court, Barrett could very well be the justice who hands Trump four more years in office despite the will of the people.

While Democrats are doing what they can to delay her confirmation until after the election, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has shown on multiple occasions that he’s perfectly willing to change the rules as he goes and punt this nomination through, no matter what. There is only one way to stop it for sure, and that’s for enough Republicans to vote against confirming her. While that may seem like a lost cause, history shows us that phone calls and emails from constituents can influence how senators vote, and this close to an election, they have to be especially considerate of what the people want. Our only chance to prevent Barrett’s confirmation is to flood their phone lines and email boxes with messages making it clear that the voters want the next elected president to nominate the next SCOTUS Justice.

Click here to find out who your senators are and let them know how you feel about this.

Not sure what to say? Whether you call and get a voicemail box or a real person, or whether you’re sending an email, here’s an easy script you can follow:

Hi, my name is _______, and I live in _______. I’m reaching out to share my thoughts about the pending confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett.

Given that voting has already began for the upcoming election, I believe that it should be the next president’s decision as to who should be appointed to the court. It’s not right to rush a nominee through at this point, and efforts to do so make the Republican Party look corrupt, morally inconsistent, and disconnected from their constituents.

Please vote against the confirmation of Amy Coney Barrett and allow the people’s voice to be heard in this matter by waiting to let the next president fill the vacancy.

Thanks for your time, and I’ll remember your decision in this matter when I make my decision at the ballot box.

This is going to be one of the most important things that happen in American politics this year, possibly even more important than the election. Do your part and reach out to your senators, because at this point, we are our own last hope.

Just about everyone in America realizes that this election is going to have massive consequences for our country for decades to come. What a lot of people don’t realize is that as of today, there are only three weeks left until the end of the election. It’s time to rally.

The polls look good right now (I’m knocking on wood, trust me), but things can always change and the stakes are too high to take our eye off the ball. There are a variety of ways for you to get involved and help Joe Biden and Kamala Harris snag a dub (as well as other candidates down the ballot), and it’s time to kick it into high gear.

The first and easiest way is to donate. South Carolina Senate challenger Jaime Harrison’s campaign actually set a record for the most money raised in a quarter by a senate challenger, but that record could galvanize big Republican donors with millions of dollars to spare hoping to keep Lindsey Graham and other slimy Republicans in power. Now is the time to donate, if you have the extra cash; we can’t afford to cede any fundraising ground. Click here to donate to Joe Biden or here to donate to the most competitive Senate races.

Now is also the time to be talking to your friends to make sure they have a plan to vote early. Get the word out and make sure the people around you know what they need to do. In 2016, Donald Trump won one state by just two votes per precinct. TWO VOTES!!!

I’m usually not one to encourage social media use, but we also need to be sharing lots of pro-Biden and pro-democrat content. Everyone already has their mind made up about whether they like Trump or not, but they may not have decided yet whether they think it’s worth their time to vote for Biden. We need to be spreading content that highlights his humanity and his plans, creating a marked contrast with Donald Trump’s campaign of aimless vitriol.

You should also be volunteering: you do things like calling and texting voters, or you could sign up to work at a polling place.

We have the power to change the course of American history and kick Trump and his cronies out of office before their weakness and corruption cause more harm to our democracy, we just have to use that power. Now is the time.

I spoke to @vmagazine about why I’ll be voting for Joe Biden for president. So apt that it’s come out on the night of the VP debate. Gonna be watching and supporting @KamalaHarris by yelling at the tv a lot. And I also have custom cookies 🍪💪😘

📷 @inezandvinoodh pic.twitter.com/DByvIgKocr

— Taylor Swift (@taylorswift13) October 7, 2020

Taylor — Thanks for your support and for speaking out at this crucial moment in our nation’s history.

Election Day is right around the corner — are you ready for it? https://t.co/eoxT07d7QB https://t.co/TLHRYSjbTx

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) October 7, 2020

Voting never goes out of style. Thank you so much for your support Taylor.

P.S. Please share your cookie recipe.

— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) October 7, 2020

You love to see it.

i can’t even explain how much this hurt me. pic.twitter.com/nl5HRySXLG

— 𝓤𝓾𝓽𝓽𝓮 𝓲𝓲𝔀𝓪𝓪𝓬𝓱𝓮 (@dessiemaeliyah_) October 11, 2020

If you think this needed to be said, if you think they had a point, if you think what they said was funny: fuck you. These people are cruel, racist, and self-serving, and they lack any capacity for empathy. They’re a good example of the worst type of human beings our country is capable of producing.

Also, their grammar was predictably atrocious.

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Read the original story from the Grand Forks Herald about Elvia Ramirez’s beautiful life and tragic death.

For more articles about the United States’ failed federal response to the pandemic, check out CopyrighBro’s COVID-19 Roundup.

Two days ago, the Commission on Presidential Debates announced that they were cancelling the second debate, originally scheduled for this upcoming Wednesday, October 15th.

After news of Trump’s COVID-19 diagnosis broke just nine days ago, the commission had announced that they were transitioning to a virtual event, presumably to protect the moderators, participants, and staff safe from the infectious Trump campaign.

He refuses to "waste his time" in virtual debate. Thousands say virtual farewell to dying family. Millions of teachers & students forced into virtual school; millions fortunate to work virtually; millions worship via virtual services; millions fortunate to virtual doctor visit.

— Patricia Maguire (@PatMag7) October 8, 2020

But that just wouldn’t do for Donald Trump (who was hospitalized with COVID just a week ago). He refused to participate in a virtual debate, calling the proposal “ridiculous”. According to Trump’s rent-a-doc physician Sean CONley, Trump is no longer contagious. Even though he had the virus just a few days ago, it seems to have just disappeared. Like a miracle. The standard time for quarantine has been fourteen days all along, but somehow, Trump is a-okay in less than 10? Interesting.

No, no. Don’t be fooled by the blurred line between medicine and politics. Trump is still contagious, and he should not be returning to public events for several more days. I’m positive he pressured Conley into telling the press that he would be fine to return to business as usual. His campaign had to know the Commission wouldn’t allow an in-person debate so soon after his diagnosis, and having Conley give the all clear was a tactic to give Trump some wiggle room to at least pretend he wanted to debate in person; Trump never would’ve agreed to a virtual debate because it highlights his failure to contain the pandemic. Best case scenario for Trump, they cancel the debate altogether, or refuse to move to an in-person debate, giving Trump latitude to back out. Worst case for Trump, they allow the debate to happen in-person, and he has the opportunity to infect Joe Biden with Trumplague.

Donald Trump may have walked away from the first debate thinking he won, but he was the only one. Even others in his campaign came away realizing how much more sane, reasonable, and likable Biden was than Trump. They know he’s weak, and they don’t want to showcase his weakness on the national stage again, if they can prevent it. The possibility of Trump refusing to debate has been lingering for months, and now it’s coming to fruition. Add that to the list of our destroyed democratic norms.

As of right now, the next debate is scheduled for October 22nd. We’ll see what excuse the Trump campaign comes up with for that one.

I hate headlines that ask a question, so if you want the baby and not the labor, I’ll spare you a few minutes of reading: no, trans people don’t seem to be murdered at a disproportionate rate.

It’s common for trans rights advocates to assert that trans people are being murdered violently and at a higher rate than other groups in America, offering anecdotal evidence to support their claim. This goes without saying, but nobody deserves to be murdered on account of their gender. Murder is a heinous crime, and anyone who kills a trans person because of their gender deserves to be charged with murder and a hate crime. That said, the argument that they are being hunted down simply doesn’t hold water when you look at the numbers.

According to the Human Rights Campaign, this year is tied for the highest year on record for number of trans murder victims in the United States. Upon reading that, I expected them to report a number in the hundreds or thousands. The number they reported was 31.

According to the FBI, the United States has roughly 16,000 murders each year. If you do the math, the percentage of those murder victims who were transgender would be 0.1%. Surely, the HRC and trans rights advocates aren’t saying that’s a disproportionately HIGH number? That would mean the average number of trans and gender nonconforming people in America is less than one in one thousand, and that certainly doesn’t seem to fit within their narrative.

Of course, the HRC does offer the caveat that the number of trans murders goes underreported. I’m sure thats true to some extent, but I doubt that’s causing such a drastic discrepancy. So which is it?

Based on the numbers, it seems like either the trans/gender nonconforming community is fortunate to be murdered disproportionately less than everyone else, or the number of trans people is so tiny that 31 murders is a proportionate figure. But to say that 31 is disproportionately high and that they’re being viciously hunted down because of their gender would indicate that the number of trans and gender nonconforming people in the United States is microscopically small.

Of course, it again goes without saying that each of those 31 lives had value and that people don’t deserve to be murdered for something as inconsequential as their gender. However, if trans rights advocates hope to bring people on board with their cause, they should use claims that are backed up by statistics; we get enough attacks on science and data from the far right, we don’t need them from the left, too.