Month: September 2020

Last April and May as the United States emerged as the world’s coronavirus epicenter, the US Navy began taking emergency precautions as the outbreak started to impact entire crews and ships, as was especially the case with the whole USS Theodore Roosevelt disaster off Guam.

These drastic measures included keeping US warships out to sea much longer than previously scheduled, especially those ships which had “clean” crew – that is, no confirmed cases of COVID-19. After all, if the only possible place for a non-infected crew to become infected was shore, then why not stay out at sea to maintain full operational readiness, or so the logic went. 

NBC News now reports that due to these extra coronavirus measures and extended time at sea a US guided missile destroyer has now shattered all prior US Navy records for the longest consecutive number of days at sea for a military surface ship.

“The USS Stout reached 208 days at sea Sept. 26, spending nearly seven months in the Middle East and the North Africa area, known as the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations,” NBC writes, citing US Navy press statements. “The previous record of 207 days, held by the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the USS San Jacinto, was also set this year.”

During normal times a warship could expect to make multiple port visits in various parts of the globe traversed, however, the Navy has for months had a ban on port visits in effect to mitigate the possibility of new outbreaks among seamen. 

The USS Stout had previously deployed as part of the USS Eisenhower Carrier group but remained at sea long after the carrier returned home at the start of summer. 

Record Breaking!

The guided-missile destroyer #USSStout (DDG 55) breaks a Navy record as it completes a nearly seven month deployment in the @US5thFleet area of operations.

Full story 👇 https://t.co/NSfqQAdH78 pic.twitter.com/ciuVXuqAXA

— U.S. Navy (@USNavy) September 29, 2020

A statement from 5th Fleet commander Vice Adm. Samuel Paparo said, “We are extremely proud of Stout’s accomplishments in theater as they’ve been operating to ensure freedom of navigation.”

He added: “Under the challenges of COVID-19 and the uncertainty of regional tensions, Stout embodied their motto and prevailed with ‘Courage, Valor and Integrity.'”

However, once defense affairs journalist quipped that it’s “not a record you want” given it was entirely done out of force of extreme circumstances, with parts of naval operations clearly hampered by the virus.

Unclear why the Navy is promoting this, but a new release says the destroyer USS Stout “reached 208 days consecutively at sea, surpassing the Navy’s known record.” That’s not a record you want.

— paul mcleary (@paulmcleary) September 29, 2020

Throughout the summer America’s rivals look on closely, especially China and Russia, eager to see just how severely operations and military readiness will be impacted across the Navy and Department of Defense by COVID-19.

Authored by John Whitehead via The Rutherford Institute,

“Free election of masters does not abolish the masters or the slaves.”

– Herbert Marcuse

Republicans and Democrats alike fear that the other party will attempt to hijack this election.

President Trump is convinced that mail-in ballots are a scam except in Florida, where it’s safe to vote by mail because of its “great Republican governor.”

The FBI is worried about foreign hackers continuing to target and exploit vulnerabilities in the nation’s electoral system, sowing distrust about the parties, the process and the outcome.

I, on the other hand, am not overly worried: after all, the voting booths have already been hijacked by a political elite comprised of Republicans and Democrats who are determined to retain power at all costs.

The outcome is a foregone conclusion: the Deep State will win and “we the people” will lose.

The damage has already been done.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which has been tasked with helping to “secure” the elections and protect the nation against cyberattacks, is not exactly an agency known for its adherence to freedom principles.

After all, this is the agency largely responsible for turning the American republic into a police state. Since its creation, the DHS has ushered in the domestic use of surveillance drones, expanded the reach of fusion centers, stockpiled an alarming amount of ammunition (including hollow point bullets), urged Americans to become snitches through a “see something, say something” campaign, overseen the fumbling antics of TSA agents everywhere, militarized the nation’s police, spied on activists and veterans, distributed license plate readers and cell phone trackers to law enforcement agencies, contracted to build detention camps, carried out military drills and lockdowns in American cities, conducted virtual strip searches of airline passengers, established Constitution-free border zones, funded city-wide surveillance cameras, and undermined the Fourth Amendment at every turn.

So, no, I’m not losing a night’s sleep over the thought that this election might by any more rigged than it already is.

And I’m not holding my breath in the hopes that the winner of this year’s popularity contest will save us from government surveillance, weaponized drones, militarized police, endless wars, SWAT team raids, asset forfeiture schemes, overcriminalization, profit-driven private prisons, graft and corruption, or any of the other evils that masquerade as official government business these days.

You see, after years of trying to wake Americans up to the reality that there is no political savior who will save us from the police state, I’ve come to realize that Americans want to engage in the reassurance ritual of voting.

They want to believe the fantasy that politics matter.

They want to be persuaded that there’s a difference between the Republicans and Democrats (there’s not).

Some will swear that Donald Trump has been an improvement on Barack Obama (he is not).

Others are convinced that Joe Biden’s values are different from Donald Trump’s (with both of them, money talks).

Most of all, voters want to buy into the fantasy that when they elect a president, they’re getting someone who truly represents the citizenry rather than the Deep State (in fact, in the oligarchy that is the American police state, an elite group of wealthy donors is calling the shots in cooperation with a political elite).

The sad truth is that it doesn’t matter who wins the White House, because they all work for the same boss: Corporate America. Understanding this, many corporations hedge their bets on who will win the White House by splitting their donations between Democratic and Republican candidates.

Politics is a game, a joke, a hustle, a con, a distraction, a spectacle, a sport, and for many devout Americans, a religion. It is a political illusion aimed at persuading the citizenry that we are free, that our vote counts, and that we actually have some control over the government when in fact, we are prisoners of a Corporate Elite.

In other words, it’s a sophisticated ruse aimed at keeping us divided and fighting over two parties whose priorities, more often than not, are exactly the same so that we don’t join forces and do what the Declaration of Independence suggests, which is to throw the whole lot out and start over.

It’s no secret that both parties support endless war, engage in out-of-control spending, ignore the citizenry’s basic rights, have no respect for the rule of law, are bought and paid for by Big Business, care most about their own power, and have a long record of expanding government and shrinking liberty. Most of all, both parties enjoy an intimate, incestuous history with each other and with the moneyed elite that rule this country.

Despite the jabs the candidates volley at each other for the benefit of the cameras, they’re a relatively chummy bunch away from the spotlight. Moreover, despite Congress’ so-called political gridlock, our elected officials seem to have no trouble finding common ground when it’s time to collectively kowtow to the megacorporations, lobbyists, defense contractors and other special interest groups to whom they have pledged their true allegiance.

So don’t be fooled by the smear campaigns and name-calling or drawn into their divide-and-conquer politics of hate. They’re just useful tactics that have been proven to engage voters and increase voter turnout while keeping the citizenry at each other’s throats.

It’s all a grand illusion.

It used to be that the cogs, wheels and gear shifts in the government machinery worked to keep the republic running smoothly. However, without our fully realizing it, the mechanism has changed. Its purpose is no longer to keep our republic running smoothly. To the contrary, this particular contraption’s purpose is to keep the Deep State in power. Its various parts are already a corrupt part of the whole.

Just consider how insidious, incestuous and beholden to the corporate elite the various “parts” of the mechanism have become.

Congress. Perhaps the most notorious offenders and most obvious culprits in the creation of the corporate-state, Congress has proven itself to be both inept and avaricious, oblivious champions of an authoritarian system that is systematically dismantling their constituents’ fundamental rights. Long before they’re elected, Congressmen are trained to dance to the tune of their wealthy benefactors, so much so that they spend two-thirds of their time in office raising money. As Reuters reports, “For many lawmakers, the daily routine in Washington involves fundraising as much as legislating. The culture of nonstop political campaigning shapes the rhythms of daily life in Congress, as well as the landscape around the Capitol. It also means that lawmakers often spend more time listening to the concerns of the wealthy than anyone else.”

The President. What Americans want in a president and what they need are two very different things. The making of a popular president is an exercise in branding, marketing and creating alternate realities for the consumer—a.k.a., the citizenry—that allows them to buy into a fantasy about life in America that is utterly divorced from our increasingly grim reality. Take President Trump, for instance, who got elected by promising to drain the swamp in Washington DC. Instead of putting an end to the corruption, however, Trump has paved the way for lobbyists, corporations, the military industrial complex, and the rest of the Deep State (also referred to as “The 7th Floor Group”) to feast on the carcass of the dying American republic. The lesson: to be a successful president, it doesn’t matter whether you keep your campaign promises, sell the American people to the highest bidder, or march in lockstep with the Corporate State as long as you keep telling people what they most want to hear.

The Supreme Court. The U.S. Supreme Court—once the last refuge of justice, the one governmental body really capable of rolling back the slowly emerging tyranny enveloping America—has instead become the champion of the American police state, absolving government and corporate officials of their crimes while relentlessly punishing the average American for exercising his or her rights. Like the rest of the government, the Court has routinely prioritized profit, security, and convenience over the basic rights of the citizenry. Indeed, law professor Erwin Chemerinsky makes a compelling case that the Supreme Court, whose “justices have overwhelmingly come from positions of privilege,” almost unerringly throughout its history sides with the wealthy, the privileged, and the powerful.

The Media. Of course, this triumvirate of total control would be completely ineffective without a propaganda machine provided by the world’s largest corporations. Besides shoveling drivel down our throats at every possible moment, the so-called news agencies which are supposed to act as bulwarks against government propaganda have instead become the mouthpieces of the state. The pundits which pollute our airwaves are at best court jesters and at worst propagandists for the false reality created by the American government. When you have internet and media giants such as Google, NBC Universal, News Corporation, Turner Broadcasting, Thomson Reuters, Comcast, Time Warner, Viacom, Public Radio International and The Washington Post Company donating to political candidates, you no longer have an independent media—what we used to refer to as the “fourth estate”—that can be trusted to hold the government accountable.

The American People. “We the people” now belong to a permanent underclass in America. It doesn’t matter what you call us—chattel, slaves, worker bees, it’s all the same—what matters is that we are expected to march in lockstep with and submit to the will of the state in all matters, public and private. Unfortunately, through our complicity in matters large and small, we have allowed an out-of-control corporate-state apparatus to take over every element of American society.

We’re playing against a stacked deck.

The game is rigged, and “we the people” keep getting dealt the same losing hand. The people dealing the cards—the politicians, the corporations, the judges, the prosecutors, the police, the bureaucrats, the military, the media, etc.—have only one prevailing concern, and that is to maintain their power and control over the citizenry, while milking us of our money and possessions.

It really doesn’t matter what you call them—Republicans, Democrats, the 1%, the elite, the controllers, the masterminds, the shadow government, the police state, the surveillance state, the military industrial complex—so long as you understand that while they are dealing the cards, the deck will always be stacked in their favor.

As I make clear in my book, Battlefield America: The War on the American People, our failure to remain informed about what is taking place in our government, to know and exercise our rights, to vocally protest, to demand accountability on the part of our government representatives, and at a minimum to care about the plight of our fellow Americans has been our downfall.

Now we find ourselves once again caught up in the spectacle of another presidential election, and once again the majority of Americans are acting as if this election will make a difference and bring about change. As if the new boss will be different from the old boss.

When in doubt, just remember what the astute commentator George Carlin had to say about the matter:

The politicians are put there to give you the idea that you have freedom of choice. You don’t. You have no choice. You have owners. They own you. They own everything. They own all the important land. They own and control the corporations. They’ve long since bought and paid for the Senate, the Congress, the state houses, the city halls. They got the judges in their back pockets and they own all the big media companies, so they control just about all of the news and information you get to hear. They got you by the balls. They spend billions of dollars every year lobbying. Lobbying to get what they want. Well, we know what they want. They want more for themselves and less for everybody else, but I’ll tell you what they don’t want. They don’t want a population of citizens capable of critical thinking. They don’t want well-informed, well-educated people capable of critical thinking. They’re not interested in that. That doesn’t help them. That’s against their interests. They want obedient workers. Obedient workers, people who are just smart enough to run the machines and do the paperwork…. It’s a big club and you ain’t in it. You and I are not in the big club. …The table is tilted, folks. The game is rigged and nobody seems to notice…. Nobody seems to care. That’s what the owners count on…. It’s called the American Dream, ’cause you have to be asleep to believe it.

Apparently it’s not over for South Korea’s commercial nuclear development industry after in 2017 President Moon Jae-in initiated his plan to phase out nuclear power and halt all reactor construction projects in the country.

Now for the first time South Korean-built key nuclear components will be used in the United States as part of efforts to introduced further safeguards at US facilities. The cutting edge new ‘miniature’ design was previously described in Forbes as a reactor that “doesn’t need the complex back-up power systems that traditional reactors require” and which “won’t melt down or otherwise cause any of the nightmares people think about when imagining the worse for nuclear power.”

Nikkei Asian Review reports this week that “Miniature nuclear reactors that use key components from South Korea’s Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction have won first-of-its-kind certification for use in the U.S.“

It’s part of a $1.3 billion contract between Doosan and American company NuScale Power for work on a major project in Utah, approved by the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission in late August.

The nuclear plant is scheduled to come online by 2029 under the operation of Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, with the South Korean-made small reactor modules, or SMRs, considered crucial to the cutting edge infrastructure and updated safety measures.

Nikkei describes what’s slated to be a 12-module plant:

Each SMR unit is capable of producing 50 megawatts of power, or about 5% that of a conventional reactor. An SMR is considered a safer alternative since it can be cooled in a water tank, cutting out the risk of an accident due to problems with water pumps or the electrical source.

Doosan’s SMRs are designed to be placed in underground water tanks. There is only a minor risk of reactors losing cooling capabilities due to earthquakes or other external factors.

“Small Modular Reactor” size comparison to conventional reactor:

Doosan has been a lead developer behind South Korea’s nuclear power industry, responsible for construction of at least two dozen reactors at five nuclear plans, but has seen its finances on the brink of collapse in recent years amid Moon Jae-in’s nuclear phaseout and amid the move toward other ‘safer’ alternative energy sources.

“The U.S. approval of the Utah project, which greenlights the $1.3 billion SMR order, will lead to an injection of much-needed capital. That and an agreement to sell off its construction equipment business have lifted Doosan’s stock price,” Nikkei notes.

As a ‘faster’ and ‘cheaper’ to install – but purportedly safer – reactor design, it could as Nikkie underscores, be “a promising antidote to the trend away from nuclear power in Western countries.”

The US Department of Energy deems Small Modular Reactors as “a key part of the Department’s goal to develop safe, clean, and affordable nuclear power options,” according to its official website.

And just like that it’s over…

It was contentious, for sure; but here is a quick summary of the performance:

• SCOTUS – Trump won by TKO

• COVID – Biden won, but close.

• Economy – A tie

• Race – A tie (Trump facts on Biden’s history versus Biden repetitive claims Trump’s a racist but no gotcha)

• Law And Order – Trump won (Biden unable to get past ‘defund’ and reform)

• Track Records – Trump won (Biden unable to get past Green New Deal malarkey)

• Election Integrity – A tie (but we might have given Trump the edge on Coup/recent ballots issues)

Overall, Biden did a lot better than many expected but on policies and straightforward facts, Trump won the first debate comfortably.

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer made it clear what the goal was:

“Clearly this is the most chaotic presidential debate that I have ever seen. That most of you have ever seen I suspect. … I wouldn’t be surprised by the way if this was the last presidential debate between the president of the United States and the former vice president of the United States but we will see.”

*  *  *

Full Debate Post-Mortem

As is usual the evening began with a few hundred protesters, unsure of exactly what they were angrily protesting outside the presidential debate to “dump Trump” and explain that “Black Lives Matter”…

A crowd of several hundred is gathered here outside the presidential debate, preparing to march shortly #Debates2020 #DebateTuesday #Cleveland pic.twitter.com/K6A6eUF6Zx

— Brendan Gutenschwager (@BGOnTheScene) September 29, 2020

Biden (or whoever was running his Twitter feed) showed some humor right before the debate…

It’s debate night, so I’ve got my earpiece and performance enhancers ready. pic.twitter.com/EhOiWdjh1b

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 29, 2020

In the 2016 debates, Mexican Peso was the markets’ proxy (falling when Trump did well and rising when Hillary outperformed). It’s not clear what the current market proxy will be – gold?

No handshake – as pre-agreed – at the start…

The first question was on SCOTUS.

President Trump clarified his position: “We won the election. Elections have consequences… We won the election and therefore we have the right to choose her.”

President Trump on nominating Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court:

“We won the election. Elections have consequences. We have the Senate, we have the White House and we have a phenomenal nominee. … We won the election, and therefore, we have the right to choose her.” pic.twitter.com/MyGEAIxeVf

— PBS NewsHour (@NewsHour) September 30, 2020

Biden’s response aggressively swung to healthcare and abortion as opposed to the actual process and claimed 100 million Americans would lose healthcare because of ACB.

Biden stumbled early on with his answers and the first gaffe hit – “how many of those who have died from COVID have survived?”

Trump stomped right on him, over-ruling the moderator going directly at Biden’s talking points. Biden stumbled a little but held it together: “I’m not here to call out his lies, everyone knows he’s a liar.”

“Everything [Trump] is saying so far is simply a lie.” —@JoeBiden #Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/x0Xp0TgjvN

— CAP Action (@CAPAction) September 30, 2020

Trump blasted Biden for pandering to the left and Bernie. Biden responded:  “I am the Democratic party right now.”

President @realDonaldTrump: “Your party wants to go Socialist… and they’re going to dominate you, Joe. You know that.”@JoeBiden: “I am the Democratic Party right now.”

Trump: “Not according to Harris.”#Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/iSJkUo1dQx

— The Hill (@thehill) September 30, 2020

The discussion escalated, and the SCOTUS section ended with this:

“Will you shut up, man?” Biden says, as Trump repeatedly taunts “will you pack the court? Will you pack the court?”

MOMENT

Biden to Trump: “Would you shut up, man?”https://t.co/NIYsIbTxhw#Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/FChqw3a4qV

— Dan Linden (@DanLinden) September 30, 2020

Then the debate moved on to COVID.

Biden began by attacking Trump for 200,000 dead and his lack of response. In a stunning moment of irony, Biden claimed Trump “should get out of your bunker, and out of the sand trap, in your golf course.”

“You would have lost far more people,” Trump says, interrupting Biden.

Then the discussion shifted to shutting down the economy: “He wants to shut down this country and I want to keep it open,” Trump says.

Trump to Biden: “Did you use the word smart?”

“There’s nothing smart about you, Joe.”https://t.co/NIYsIbTxhw#Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/m6hsEgnMfU

— Dan Linden (@DanLinden) September 30, 2020

The next topic was the economy, and its recovery.

“We built the greatest economy in history, we closed it down because of the China plague,” Trump said, adding that “Joe wants to shut down this Country. I want to keep it OPEN!”

Biden pivoted to the $750 tax issue, but focused on the fact that “you can’t fix the economy until you fix the COVID crisis.”

Moderator Wallace then shifted to ask Trump if he paid $750 in Federal taxes.

Trump slammed Biden by asking what he had done for 47 years?

“You’re the worst president America’s ever had, c’mon.” – Biden to Trump, to which Trump replied: “I’ve done more in 47 months — than you’ve done in 47 years.”

MOMENT

Biden: “You’re the worst president America has ever had, come on.

Trump: “I’ve done more in 47 months than you’ve done in 47 years, Joe.” https://t.co/NIYsIbTxhw#Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/eyzUUaUpM1

— Dan Linden (@DanLinden) September 30, 2020

Then the discussion jumped to Biden’s tax plan but the big moment was when Trump pivoted to Hunter Biden asking about the $3.5 million from a Moscow mayor’s wife. Biden denied it, Trump slammed… “He didn’t get three and a half million dollars, Joe?”

Trump to Biden:

“While we’re at it, just out of curiosity, the mayor of Moscow’s wife gave your son $3.5 millions of dollars. What did he do to deserve it?” pic.twitter.com/V4ARVLvGxl

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) September 30, 2020

Biden claimed that was “totally discredited,” except it hasn’t been. Biden: “my son did nothing wrong at Burisma.”

Wallace shutting down the Hunter line of attack isn’t going to please the Trump supporters. Also – TENSE AND UNCOMFORTABLE exchange

— Megyn Kelly (@megynkelly) September 30, 2020

The issue of race came up next.

Wallace: “Why should voters trust you rather than your opponent to deal with the race issues facing this country over the next four years?”

Biden began by focusing on Charlottesville: “this is a president who has used everything as a dog whistle to try to generate racism — to try to generate racist division.”

Trump went after Biden hard, reminding him of the busing decision, the “super predators” comments:

“He did a crime bill, 1994, where you called them super predators,” Trump says. “You have treated the Black community about as bad as anybody in this country.”

Biden stumbled through trying to say that there is systemic racism in America. Trump emphasized his law-and-order stance.

The topic shifted to Critical Race Theory, and Trump did a good job explaining his position: “They were teaching people to hate our country, and I’m not going to do that, I’m not going to allow that to happen,”

“What is radical about racial sensitivity training?” asks Chris Wallace.

“They were teaching people to hate our country,” replies @realDonaldTrump. pic.twitter.com/W4IkDhSpxm

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) September 30, 2020

“He’s the racist,” Biden says of Trump.

Then the debate transitioned to Law & Order.

Trump says “Democratic cities” are where the problems have been occurring.

Biden: “I’m in favor of law … Law and order with justice where people are treated fairly.”

“I’m totally opposed to defunding the police budget,” Biden says – well that’s not exactly true is it…

Joe Biden told a far-left activist he will “absolutely” cut funding for police departments.

Biden cut police funding when he was vice president and he will do it again. #Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/PKXvz3zobe

— Trump War Room – Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) September 30, 2020

Wallace asks Trump: Are you willing to condemn white supremacists, militia groups?

“Sure, I’m prepared to do that,” Trump says of condemning White supremacists. “Almost everything I see is from the left wing not the right wing.”

“Proud boys — stand back and stand by — but I’ll tell you what somebody’s got to do something about Antifa and the left.”

Biden then claimed that “Antifa is an idea, not an organization.”

Trump: Name one police group that supports you.

Biden: We don’t have time.

Trump: We have plenty of time. Name one.

Guess who interrupted that exchange to save Biden? Chris Wallace.

— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) September 30, 2020

“When a bat hits you over the head, that’s not an idea,” Trump says of antifa.

Speechless!

The topic of the candidates’ track records came up next.

“There has never been an administration that has done what I’ve done,” Trump says, “and that’s with the impeachment hoax.”

“There has never been an administration or president who has done more than I’ve done in a period of three-and-a-half years.” –@realDonaldTrump on his record #Debates2020 pic.twitter.com/Ih5c1BlMXo

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) September 30, 2020

Biden: “Under this president we’ve become weaker, sicker, poorer, more divided and more violent. When I was vice president we inherited a recession, we fixed it.”

Trump and Biden got heated as Biden attempted to bring up Beau Biden’s heroism, but Trump pivoted to Hunter and left Biden stumbling.

Climate Change then popped up (presumably on track records)

“We have to do better management of our forests,” Trump says. “Every year, I get the call, ‘California’s burning. California’s burning.’”

In a rather shocking admission, Biden said?: “No, I don’t support the Green New Deal.” Biden then says after asserting: “The Green New Deal will pay for itself as we move forward.”

BIDEN’S WEBSITE SAYS HE SUPPORTS THE GREEN NEW DEAL pic.twitter.com/bzK0fn3ZCz

— The_Real_Fly (@The_Real_Fly) September 30, 2020

Does Biden know that Kamala Harris was a cosponsor of the Green New Deal?

And the last topic of the debate was Election Integrity…

“This is going to be a fraud like you’ve never seen,” Trump says of mail-in ballots.

Biden: “If I win, that will be accepted. If I lose that will be accepted.”

Trump also bought up the Obama/Biden coup: “There was no transition. They came after me trying to do a coup.”

*  *  *

It’s over. Now the pundits weighing in.

“That was a shitshow” pic.twitter.com/noTdq5HPPj

— Dave Brown (@dave_brown24) September 30, 2020

Finally, we can’t leave the post-mortem without commenting on Wallace’s performance. While Trump did try his usual bullying, Wallace repeatedly steeped on Trump’s responses to Biden

Chris Wallace is shamelessly biased. It’s a beautiful demonstration of fake news in action. I’m actually glad it’s happening, because you can see it for yourself.

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) September 30, 2020

Which gave us an idea…

Next debate (assuming there is one) each candidate should be in a booth where they can hear, but mics will be off until their turn to speak

— Guy Adami (@GuyAdami) September 30, 2020

* * *

Time for a beer… or five!

Authored by Patrick Buchanan via Buchanan.org,

By nominating Federal Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Donald Trump kept his word, and more than that.

Should she be confirmed, he will have made history.

Even his enemies would have to concede that Trump triumphed where his Republican predecessors — even Ronald Reagan, who filled three court vacancies — fell short. Trump’s achievement — victory in the Supreme Court wars that have lasted for half a century — is a triumph that will affect the nation and the law for years, perhaps decades.

Trump’s remaking of the Supreme Court for constitutionalism may well be the crown jewel of his presidency.

Consider. If Judge Barrett becomes Justice Barrett, she will join Justices Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh to create a constitutionalist core of five justices, a controlling majority.

On the other side would sit the three liberals: 82-year-old Stephen Breyer and Barack Obama appointees Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor.

If Chief Justice John Roberts envisioned a Roberts Court where he would be the swing vote for 4-4 deadlocks, deciding every such case himself, his dream could be about to vanish.

If Barrett is confirmed, the new court becomes “The Five,” with its youngest, newest and most charismatic member, a 48-year-old protege of Justice Antonin Scalia, its brightest and rising star.

Consider the credentials of the jurist Trump just named.

Barrett was summa cum laude at Notre Dame Law School, graduating first in her class. She clerked for Scalia, taught law at South Bend for 15 years and has served for three years on the 7th Circuit Court of Appeals.

She is a non-Ivy League, Middle American and a devout Catholic and mother of seven, including a special needs child and two adopted children from Haiti. Almost universally, former classmates and colleagues, liberals among them, praise her temperament, brilliance and scholarship.

America’s court wars, in which the coming battle over Barrett’s nomination may prove decisive, go back half a century.

It was begun in June 1968, as Richard Nixon, victorious in his party’s primaries, was moving inexorably to the GOP nomination in Miami Beach and very possibly on to the presidency of the United States.

Chief Justice Earl Warren, an old adversary of Nixon’s from California days, was not happy with this. A report in the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that Warren “is said to feel that Richard Nixon — regarded as the GOP’s likely presidential nominee — would be bound to appoint a new Chief Justice pledged to overturn recent court decisions guaranteeing constitutional rights of criminals.”

Nixon sent the clipping to me with a note: “Buchanan: Why doesn’t (Strom) Thurmond send this to Southern papers — opinion leaders.”

The Inquirer article proved to be on point. In collusion with Chief Justice Warren, President Lyndon Johnson had hatched a plot.

Warren would announce his resignation as chief justice and would make acceptance contingent upon Johnson’s nominee to succeed him being confirmed. And that nominee would be Justice Abe Fortas, a court ally of Warren and longtime crony of LBJ. All three were in on it.

When Fortas was confirmed, his vacant seat as associate justice would then be filled by Federal Judge Homer Thornberry, also an ally of Johnson’s going back to his Texas days.

Thus would Nixon be preempted, the liberalism of the high court guaranteed, and the Warren Court succeeded for another decade by the Fortas Court.

When LBJ named Fortas, Nixon went silent. But GOP Senators Robert Griffin, John Tower and Howard Baker moved to block Fortas’ ascent. They used an argument familiar to us today. The new president chosen in November, not the president retiring in January, should choose Warren’s replacement as chief justice.

The attack from Senate Republicans soon zeroed in on Fortas’ social liberalism on pornography as manifest in his having voted alone on the court to approve for public viewing films depicting acts of homosexual sex.

Fortas not only failed to win the support of the two-thirds of the Senate he needed to overcome a Republican filibuster, he also failed to win a simple majority, receiving only 45 votes for confirmation. On Oct. 1, 1968, Fortas asked Johnson to withdraw his nomination, and in the spring of 1969, he was forced to resign from the court in a financial scandal.

Warren would have to swear in Nixon as the nation’s 37th president on Jan. 20, 1969, and then watch Nixon replace him as chief justice with Judge Warren Burger in the spring of that same year.

Came then Nixon’s losing battles to put Southern judges Clement Haynsworth and G. Harrold Carswell on the court, Reagan’s failure to elevate Bob Bork, and the brutal but failed assaults on Clarence Thomas and Brett Kavanaugh.

Now comes Amy Coney Barrett’s turn.

If Senate Republicans stay united, then they can realize a victory that generations of their GOP predecessors had hoped to see.

The lengthy economic recovery that followed the great recession will be remembered for, among other things, the torrid gains seen in real-estate markets from NYC, to Boston to the Bay Area, and beyond. A recent survey from Construction Coverage found that home prices in some cities have skyrocketed over the ten year period, while prices in other cities slumped even further. As hot markets got hotter, as unloved urban areas continued to decay.

Interestingly enough, many of the cities that saw the biggest increases in prices likely wouldn’t be considered obvious. Instead, what Construction Coverage found was that many small and mid-sized cities in the Sun Belt saw surprisingly strong appreciation. The leader in the “Large City” category was Oakland, Calif. – aka “San Francisco’s Brooklyn”.

San Bernardino topped the mid-sized city list, while Lehigh Acres Fla. took the No. 1 spot in the small cities category.

Here’s a ranking of the 15 large cities that topped the ranking of the highest price appreciation.

Oakland

Percentage change in median home price since 2010: 102.2%

Absolute change in median home price since 2010: $400,119

2020 median home price: $791,554

2010 median home price: $391,435

Median household income: $76,469

Detroit

Percentage change in median home price since 2010: 101.7%

Absolute change in median home price since 2010: $19,478

2020 median home price: $38,638

2010 median home price: $19,160

Median household income: $31,283

Phoenix

Percentage change in median home price since 2010: 99.0%

Absolute change in median home price since 2010: $136,536

2020 median home price: $274,488

2010 median home price: $137,952

Median household income: $57,957

San Jose

Percentage change in median home price since 2010: 98.7%

Absolute change in median home price since 2010: $494,246

2020 median home price: $995,212

2010 median home price: $500,966

Median household income: $113,036

Las Vegas

Percentage change in median home price since 2010: 98.3%

Absolute change in median home price since 2010: $143,651

2020 median home price: $289,830

2010 median home price: $146,179

Median household income: $53,575

See the rest of the list in the graphic below:

Authored by Ben Zeisloft via Campus Reform,

The University of North Carolina’s “Anti-Racist Graduate Worker Collective” is calling for the redistribution of administrators’ salaries for “worker relief.”

According to the Daily Tar Heel, a memo from the UNC System’s former interim president Bill Roper stated that chancellors in the System can issue salary reductions for certain employees, including faculty and senior administrators in an attempt to help mitigate COVID-19 losses. The Anti-Racist Graduate Worker Collective is asking that this authority be exercised to fund programs and departments low on resources.

According to a statement from Vice Chancellor for Human Resources and Equal Opportunity and Compliance Becca Menghini to the Daily Tar Heel, the school has a desire to manage funding in order to “prioritize people, reduce operational expenses, and put focus on the teaching, research and service components of our mission.”

“Should we determine that personnel actions are needed, we will most certainly work to distribute the effort such that those with higher earnings assume a larger share of the burden,” Menghini said.

Since April, the group of UNC graduate students has expressed concerns over the pay disparities on campus. 

The list of “demands” to the university noted that the “current minimum graduate worker service stipend of $15,700 per academic year does not allow students to save cash reserves for emergencies, and many graduate workers have lost second and third jobs they rely on to make ends meet.”

The group demanded that the “University administration accept a pay cut of 10%, and that the funds freed up by this cut be redistributed directly to worker relief,” including graduate students.

“We are tired of seeing the people at the top get more and more, while we are forced to make do on what effectively becomes less and less as cost of living increases,” the group said.

A UNC freshman, who asked to remain anonymous, told Campus Reform that he agrees with the graduate workers’ demands. 

However, he does not think that “they can just call for redistribution of [the administration’s] salary” but instead call for “better money management across the entire board.”

Campus Reform reached out to the UNC System but did not receive a response in time for publication.