Democratic Financial World

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Escalating a push by ambitious Republicans to spotlight American workers, Sen. Marco Rubio today will side with the union in a high-stakes organizing campaign at an Amazon facility outside Birmingham, Ala. Driving the news: "[T]he days of conservatives being taken for granted by the business community are over," Rubio writes in a USA Today op-ed posting this morning. "I stand with [workers] at Amazon's Bessemer warehouse."

HE COULD HAVE DONE MORE. HE COULD HAVE VOTED FORTHE MINIMUM WAGE LAW IN BIDEN’S MAKING THAT A REPUBLCAN SUPPORTED  THE  BILL.

RUBIO COULD ALSO SUPORT THE NEW LABOR BILL CLEARING THE HOUSE THIS WEEK THAT STREGNTHENS ORGANZING RIGHTS.

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President Donald Trump left plenty of clues he'd try to burn the place down on his way out the door. The clues piled on at light speed when Trump lost the election and wouldn't admit it. The culmination of all that came Wednesday when Trump supporters, exhorted by the president to go to the Capitol and “fight like hell” against a “stolen” election, overran and occupied the building in an explosive confrontation that left a Capitol Police officer and four others dead.

TRUMP COULDN’T EVEN FULFILL HIS PROMSE TO JOIN THE RIOTTER AT CAPITAL. HE BETRAYS IS OWN SUPPORTERS

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A Capitol building rioter captured in news photographs wearing full body armor and brandishing zip tie handcuffs on the floor of the Senate has been identified as a retired Air Force officer. Larry Rendall Brock Jr., who wore a Kevlar helmet and military patches on his flak jacket during Wednesday's U.S. Capitol siege by pro-Trump demonstrators, retired from the Air Force Reserve in 2014 as a lieutenant colonel, Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told Military.com. Queries about Brock's military record and awards did not receive an immediate response.

SEE-THERE ARE NUT IN THE MILTARY TOO

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Democrats' momentum for a fresh drive to quickly impeach outgoing President Donald Trump gained support Saturday, and a top Republican said the president's role in the deadly riot at the Capitol by a violent mob of Trump supporters was worthy of rebuke. Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., said he believed Trump had committed “impeachable offenses.” “I don't know what they are going to send over and one of the things that I'm concerned about, frankly, is whether the House would completely politicize something,” Toomey said Saturday on Fox News Channel, speaking of the Democratic-controlled House. 

TOOMEY SHOULD REALIZE THAT ELECTION ARE POLITCA L EVENT, THEREFORE HIS COMPLIANT MAKE NO SENSE, BY DEFINTION THAT ARE POLITICAL..

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The former general in charge of U.S. Air Force Warfare Center -- removed from command due to an alleged unprofessional relationship -- was demoted to colonel following an investigation into his behavior, according to an Air Force Inspector General report released Friday. Maj. Gen Peter Gersten, head of the Warfare Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, retired as a colonel effective Jan. 1, spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told Military.com. Gersten, she said, received what's known as an Article 15, the highest form of nonjudicial punishment.

WHY ISN’T DONALD TRUMP SHOWN THE DOOR FOR HIS AFFIARS WITH STORMY DANEILS? THE COMMANDER INCHIEF SHOULD BE ABOVE REPROACH HIMSELF.

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If Trump has been so good at helping America's posture in the world why are Inanian  able to do this? Missile bases mean missle are coming soon. Trump has failed to make America more secure.

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Experts said the litigation serves to drag out the vote count and postpone major media from declaring Biden the victor, which would have dire political implications for Trump. "The current legal maneuvering is mainly a way for the Trump campaign to try to extend the ball game in the long-shot hope that some serious anomaly will emerge," said Robert Yablon, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Law School. "As of now, we haven't seen any indication of systematic irregularities in the vote count."

The campaign is still challenging late arriving mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania, which according to media reports numbered in the hundreds so far, likely too few to have a meaningful impact.

In addition, it appears increasingly likely Biden can win the race even if he loses the state.

Danielle Lang, who advocates for voting rights at Campaign Legal Center, said Trump has a long history of attempting to whip up mistrust in our electoral system.

"Allegations of 'irregularities' -- backed up by lawsuits, even frivolous ones -- could potentially serve that narrative," she said.

Experts said the lawsuits and claims of fraud might be aimed at softening the sting of being bounced from office by calling the process into question.

"The litigation looks more like an effort to allow Trump to continue rhetorically attempting to delegitimize an electoral loss,” said Joshua Geltzer, a professor at Georgetown Law's Institute for Constitutional Advocacy & Protection.

(Reporting by Tom Hals in Wilmington, Delaware; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Aurora Ellis)

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Parts of Denmark will face new, tougher lockdown measures after health authorities discovered a mutated coronavirus strain in minks and people in the north of the country. The government has said it would cull all minks to prevent human contagion with a mutated coronavirus, which authorities said could be more resistant against future vaccines for people. The industry association for Danish mink breeders called it a "black day for Denmark", and said the government's decision amounted to a death knell for the country's pelt industry.

Parts of Denmark will face new, tougher lockdown measures after health authorities discovered a mutated coronavirus strain in minks and people in the north of the country.

The government has said it would cull all minks to prevent human contagion with a mutated coronavirus, which authorities said could be more resistant against future vaccines for people.

The move to cull up to 17 million animals, which could cost the state more than $800 million, has prompted some lawmakers to demand to see the evidence behind the decision.

"We are asking to have it (the evidence) sent over, so we can assess the technical basis," a spokesperson for the Liberal Party told broadcaster TV2 on Wednesday.

The industry association for Danish mink breeders called it a "black day for Denmark", and said the government's decision amounted to a death knell for the country's pelt industry.

"Of course, we must not be the cause of a new pandemic. We do not know the professional basis for this assessment and risk ... but the government's decision is a disaster for the industry and Denmark," chairman Tage Pedersen said.

At his family-owned mink farm west of the capital Copenhagan, 34-year-old Hans Henrik Jeppesen said he was devastated by the decision.

"This is a very, very sad situation for me and my family," he told Reuters. Jeppesen's 36,000 minks have not been infected, but will be culled and skinned within the next 10 days.

MORE RESTRICTIONS

Outbreaks at mink farms have persisted in Denmark, Europe's largest producer and exporter of mink furs, despite repeated efforts to cull infected animals since June.

Animal rights groups welcomed the decision by the government, and called for a general ban on what they said was an "outdated" industry.

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US media outlets have projected wins for the Republican incumbent in 23 states including big prizes Florida and Texas, as well as Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio -- all states he won in 2016. Biden has captured 22 states including his home state Delaware and big prizes California and New York, as well as the US capital. The former vice president has flipped three states won by Trump in 2016 -- Michigan, Wisconsin and, according to two sources, Arizona.

Democratic presidential challenger Joe Biden on Thursday edged toward the magic number of 270 electoral votes needed to win the White House, but several battleground states were still in play, as incumbent President Donald Trump cried foul over the ongoing vote count.

As it stands, there are five states still left uncalled, including major prizes such as Pennsylvania, and key small state Nevada -- meaning both Trump and Biden still have a path to victory.

US media outlets have projected wins for the Republican incumbent in 23 states including big prizes Florida and Texas, as well as Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri and Ohio -- all states he won in 2016.

Biden has captured 22 states including his home state Delaware and big prizes California and New York, as well as the US capital.

The former vice president has flipped three states won by Trump in 2016 -- Michigan, Wisconsin and, according to two sources, Arizona.

In the case of Arizona, Fox News and the Associated Press have already called the race in Biden's favor, putting him at 264 electoral votes. Politico and The Wall Street Journal are also using this figure.

But other networks including CNN and NBC News have held back thus far from calling Arizona, giving him a total of 253.

Nebraska split its electoral votes between the two candidates -- four for Trump and one for Biden. Maine was won by Biden, but he seized only three of the four electoral votes on offer, with the last allocated to Trump.

So far, that gives Biden 264 electoral votes (or 253 without Arizona) and Trump 214.

If Biden holds on in Arizona, and wins Nevada, he would reach 270.

The following is a list of the states won by each candidate and the corresponding number of electoral votes, based on the projections of US media including CNN, Fox News, MSNBC/NBC News, ABC, CBS and The New York Times.

TRUMP (214)

Alabama (9)

Arkansas (6)

Florida (29)

Idaho (4)

Indiana (11)

Iowa (6)

Kansas (6)

Kentucky (8)

Louisiana (8)

Maine (1)***

Mississippi (6)

Missouri (10)

Montana (3)

Nebraska (4)**

North Dakota (3)

Ohio (18)

Oklahoma (7)

South Carolina (9)

South Dakota (3)

Tennessee (11)

Texas (38)

Utah (6)

West Virginia (5)

Wyoming (3)

BIDEN (253/264)

Arizona (11)*

California (55)

Colorado (9)

Connecticut (7)

Delaware (3)

District of Columbia (3)

Hawaii (4)

Illinois (20)

Maine (3)***

Maryland (10)

Massachusetts (11)

Michigan (16)

Minnesota (10)

Nebraska (1)**

New Hampshire (4)

New Jersey (14)

New Mexico (5)

New York (29)

Oregon (7)

Rhode Island (4)

Vermont (3)

Virginia (13)

Washington (12)

Wisconsin (10)

STATES NOT YET CALLED

Alaska

Arizona (*)

Georgia

Nevada

North Carolina

Pennsylvania

* Arizona has been placed in the Biden column by the Associated Press and Fox News, but other networks including CNN and NBC News have said the race is still too close to call.

** Nebraska splits its five electoral votes -- two electors are assigned based on the plurality of votes in the state, and the other three are awarded based on congressional district. Biden took one vote, in the 2nd congressional district.

*** Maine has a similar method to Nebraska. Of its four electoral votes, three have been projected for Biden, while the fourth went to Trump.

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Go Nakamura/Getty Images Harris County's elections chief decided to close all but one drive-through polling site amid legal challenges from a group of Texas Republicans despite state and federal courts rejecting lawsuits seeking to toss out ballots cast at the locations. County Clerk Chris Hollins said he would shutter nine out of 10 drive-through polling sites in the county, which includes Houston, due to concerns over appellate challenges after a federal judge rejected a Republican bid to invalidate votes cast at the locations. Harris County, the most populous county in Texas with a population of nearly 5 million, still has more than 800 regular polling locations open to the public.

Harris County's elections chief decided to close all but one drive-through polling site amid legal challenges from a group of Texas Republicans despite state and federal courts rejecting lawsuits seeking to toss out ballots cast at the locations.

County Clerk Chris Hollins said he would shutter nine out of 10 drive-through polling sites in the county, which includes Houston, due to concerns over appellate challenges after a federal judge rejected a Republican bid to invalidate votes cast at the locations. Harris County, the most populous county in Texas with a population of nearly 5 million, still has more than 800 regular polling locations open to the public.

Hollins approved 10 drive-through polling sites for early and Election Day voting to provide more options amid the coronavirus pandemic after the state restricted mail-in voting and ballot drop boxes. But a group of Republicans sued to try to throw out about 127,000 early votes cast at the drive-through locations and ban their use on Election Day, arguing that they were an illegal expansion of curbside voting, which the legislature limited to voters with illnesses or disabilities.

The Texas Supreme Court rejected the lawsuit, and U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen likewise shot down the group's bid to invalidate votes which had already been cast.

Related Articles Texas Republicans try to get 127,000 early votes thrown out in heavily Democratic Harris County

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Trump ally Angela Stanton-King loses Georgia House race with less than 15% of the vote

Williams won the seat with 85.1% of votes to Stanton’s 14.9%, The New York Times reports. The landslide victory was by a margin of 71%. It wasn’t a close contest despite the oversized importance it had after Lewis‘s death in July from pancreatic cancer at the age of 80. The Georgia lawmaker had served in the House of Representatives since 1987.

Democrats chose Williams to run for the 5th Congressional district after Lewis passed. Georgia’s 39th district senator campaigned on a platform of “good trouble,” invoking Lewis’ creed and promising to “protect his legacy.” She vowed to fight for Medicare for All, universal family care, and against rampant voter suppression tactics.

Nikema Williams John Lewis Angela Stanton-King (Credit: Georgia State Senate, Getty Images and Stanton-King) Read More: Cori Bush elected as first Black female congresswoman from Missouri

“I’m committed to fighting for you and I’m committed to bringing your voices with me to the halls of Congress,” she said in a campaign ad she tweeted to supporters last month.

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Voters in southeast Georgia on Tuesday ousted Jackie Johnson, the longtime Republican prosecutor who recused herself in the case of the killing of 25-year-old Ahmaud Arbery. Johnson received 34% of the vote compared to her opponent, independent Keith Kiggins, who received 66%, according to the Glynn County Board of Elections. Voters in the coastal Georgia city of Brunswick voted Tuesday to oust the longtime Republican prosecutor who declined to investigate the death of Ahmaud Arbery, the 25-year-old Black man who was followed, shot, and killed by a group of three white men.

Keith Higgins, an independent, won 66% of the vote compared to the incumbent Jackie Johnson's 34%, according to unofficial results from the Glynn County Board of Elections. No Democrats qualified by the primary election deadline to run against her, News4Jax reported.

As Insider's Rhea Mahubhani reported in June, Arbery went for a run in his Georgia neighborhood during the early afternoon on February 23. While on his run, Arbery was pursued by Gregory McMichael, a former police officer, and his son, Travis. A neighbor, William Bryan, joined and recorded the moment Arbery was shot and killed.

Months later, in May, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation arrested the father and son, Gregory and Travis McMichael. Later that month, Bryan was arrested. All three men have denied wrongdoing.

In June, a Grand Jury indicted Gregory and Travis McMichael and William Bryan on nine charges related to Arbery's killing. Johnson, who was in office for a decade, had recused herself from the case because the elder McMichael had previously been an investigator in her office. While Johnson handed the case to another district attorney, he too was removed from the case due to an additional conflict of interest, News4Jax reported.

There have been specific questions raised about Johnson's behavior in the case. The McMicahels, for example, were permitted to return home and were not arrested on the day Arbery was killed, according to NBC News. A Glynn County commissioner also claimed that police officers had been reluctant to make an arrest because Johnson's office said it wasn't necessary, News4Jax reported.

Johnson's office called that allegation a "vicious lie," the report said.

Read the original article on Insider

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House Agriculture Chair Collin Peterson was defeated on Tuesday after he lost his congressional seat in a Minnesota district that has grown more conservative during his 30-year tenure on Capitol Hill. Minnesota's 7th Congressional District will now be represented by Michelle Fischbach, a GOP recruit and former lieutenant governor. Fischbach, who turned 55 on Nov. 3, ran a campaign tying Peterson to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and left-wing lawmakers.

House Agriculture Chair Collin Peterson was defeated on Tuesday after he lost his congressional seat in a Minnesota district that has grown more conservative during his 30-year tenure on Capitol Hill.

The preliminary vote was 53.6 percent to 40 percent, as of 1:36 a.m., according to the Associated Press.

Peterson, 76, represented a rare kind of rural Democrat within the party. He did not support Trump’s impeachment and frequently voted in favor of gun rights and anti-abortion legislation. Ultimately, the national polarization trend led to his downfall.

Minnesota’s 7th Congressional District will now be represented by Michelle Fischbach, a GOP recruit and former lieutenant governor.

Fischbach, who turned 55 on Nov. 3, ran a campaign tying Peterson to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and left-wing lawmakers. President Donald Trump’s endorsement featured prominently in her ads. She also earned broad support from anti-abortion groups, and her husband and mother-in-law hold leadership positions in the movement.

Fischbach served only one year as lieutenant governor in Minnesota but had been a state senator for 22 years. Her victory adds one more seat to the Republican minority, although the House remains in Democratic hands by a wide margin.

Minnesota's 7th Congressional District is a largely rural area that runs almost the entire western length of the state and has an economy driven by agriculture.

Peterson's defeat is a major setback for the traditional agriculture lobby, which considered the Minnesota Democrat a top ally who worked to secure funding for farmers and boost agricultural interests within his district.

The agriculture industry invested heavily in Peterson’s race. A super PAC started by the sugar industry, Committee for Stronger Rural Communities, spent more than $1 million during the election cycle. Peterson was a champion for the sugar and pork sectors, as well as conservation programs.

Comment-even supporting Trump’s anti  impeachment didn’t save Peterson’s ass

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Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican, said President Trump's attempts to stop votes from being counted in Pennsylvania and Michigan are "un-American."

Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge, a Republican, said Wednesday that President Trump’s attempts to stop votes from being counted in Pennsylvania and Michigan are “un-American” and “wrong.”

“I’m grateful and truly grateful that so many Republicans, so many conservative Republicans, have repudiated his remarks as being inappropriate — I’ll say un-American — because to a certain extent he’s trying to disenfranchise not only millions of Pennsylvanians, but millions of voters in Michigan and Wisconsin and Nevada and elsewhere,” Ridge said.

“So, Mr. President, you were wrong,” said Ridge, who was secretary of homeland security under President George W. Bush.

Tom Ridge Former Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Ridge. (Siavosh Hosseini/NurPhoto via Getty Images) Ridge’s comments, on a call organized by a group called the National Council on Election Integrity, came as members of the Trump campaign ramped up attempts to try to claim victory in key states before all votes had been counted.

And it raised the question of how other Republicans, espe

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A Nevada judge ruled that ballot-counting measures in the state's largest county, home to Las Vegas, were legal, a setback to U.S. President Donald Trump and Republican officials in a battleground state ahead of Tuesday's election. The suit claimed the counting process in Clark County was plagued by several issues, including observers not being able to get to where they needed to observe the count and ballots being handled in a way observers deemed improper. Trump's campaign, the state's Republican Party and an individual voter filed the lawsuit against Nevada's secretary of state and the Clark County registrar on Oct. 23.

Judge James Wilson said the plaintiffs in the Nevada case did not have legal standing to bring the case and had not provided evidence that the county's processes had led to the counting of fraudulent votes.

"There is no evidence that any vote that should lawfully not be counted has been or will be counted. There is no evidence that any election worker did anything outside of the law, policy, or procedures," the judge wrote.

Trump has repeatedly warned of fraud, although election experts say that is rare in U.S. elections. Both campaigns have mobilized armies of lawyers in preparation for post-election litigation battles.

Nevada's Attorney General Aaron Ford praised the decision in a statement, saying: "Today's ruling makes clear that there is a proper procedure to observe an election that even the president must follow, and it's most certainly a victory for the constitutional rights of all Nevadans."

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Donald Trump Scott Olson/Getty Images With Election Day approaching and his poll numbers still flagging, President Donald Trump has allegedly begun to express concerns to aides about the potential criminal liabilities which may await him in a post-White House life. The threats are broad: Trump's businesses are currently under investigation by the New York State attorney general and the Manhattan District Attorney's office for possible tax and financial crimes. He is also worried about the potential for new federal investigations, And according to a newly report from The New York Times.

Politics President Trump tells advisers that he fears prosecution if he loses the election: report Salon Roger Sollenberger ,Salon•November 2, 2020

This article originally appeared here on Salon.com

With Election Day approaching and his poll numbers still flagging, President Donald Trump has allegedly begun to express concerns to aides about the potential criminal liabilities which may await him in a post-White House life.

The threats are broad: Trump's businesses are currently under investigation by the New York State attorney general and the Manhattan District Attorney's office for possible tax and financial crimes. He is also worried about the potential for new federal investigations, And according to a newly report from The New York Times.

Trump has reportedly expressed these concerns to advisers "for weeks." Aside from the known state and local probes, The Times did not specify which specific liabilities might have unnerved the president at the federal level.

The difference is significant, because presidential pardons only apply to federal crimes; they do not extend to state and local levels. The constitutional question of whether Trump would pardon himself before leaving office — which no president has tried — has simmered throughout his term. It even came up during Justice Amy Coney Barrett's confirmation hearings last month.

While former special counsel Robert Mueller's final report did not directly accuse Trump of any crimes, "it also does not exonerate him." Though Mueller laid out what many legal experts called textbook examples of obstruction of justice, he did not make a decision "either way" about whether to prosecute Trump. The lack of conclusion maddened the president's supporters and detractors alike.

That decision largely — but not solely, according to testimony from Attorney General William Barr — hinged on existing Department of Justice guidance which bars a sitting president from be criminally prosecuted. That same guidance deterred federal prosecutors from listing Trump as a co-conspirator by name in the indictment which ultimately sent his former personal attorney Michael Cohen to federal prison.

Federal prosecutors in the Southern District of New York claimed in that case that Cohen had an accomplice in his hush-money payment to Stormy Daniels, an unindicted co-conspirator whom the charging document against Cohen referred to as "Individual-1" — someone who had run "an ultimately successful campaign for president of the United States."

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There is a consensus among China observers that Beijing hopes for a Joe Biden win this November, because the last time Biden was in charge, as vice president of the United States, China completed its control of the South China Sea. The South China Sea is one of the most important bodies of water on the planet. In addition to historic claims, according to the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a nation has sovereignty over waters extending twelve nautical miles from its land and exclusive control over economic activities 200 nautical miles out into the ocean.

The South China Sea is one of the most important bodies of water on the planet. Besides China, multiple nations including Vietnam, Malaysia, and the Philippines have their own, sometimes overlapping, claims to portions of the South China Sea. In addition to historic claims, according to the United Nations Convention for the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), a nation has sovereignty over waters extending twelve nautical miles from its land and exclusive control over economic activities 200 nautical miles out into the ocean.

However, using its own map with a “nine-dash line,” China claims that it has historic rights to about 90 percent of the South China Sea, including those areas that run as far as 1,200 miles from main­land China and which fall within 100 miles of the coasts of the Philippines, Malaysia, and Vietnam. No other country in the world either recognizes the legitimacy of China’s nine-dash–line map or its historic claim.

The disputes between China and its neighboring Asian countries are not simply about who has the rightful claim historically but are predominantly about economic rights. The South China Sea is rich with natural resources such as oil and gas. It accounts for 10 percent of the world’s fisheries and has provided food and a way of living for millions of people in the region for centuries. The region is also one of the busiest trading routes, with about one-third of global shipping and more than $3 trillion worth of global trade passing through this area annually.

When Xi Jinping became Communist China’s supreme leader in 2013, he regarded transforming China into a maritime power, including the expansion in the South China Sea, as a key component to his great Chinese rejuvenation.