Saying, “We will choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege,” Joe Biden accepts the nomination for President of the United States

By Mark | August 21, 2020

TRANSCRIPT:

Good evening.

Ella Baker, a giant of the civil rights movement, left us with this wisdom: Give people light and they will find a way.

Give people light.

Those are words for our time.

The current president has cloaked America in darkness for much too long. Too much anger. Too much fear. Too much division. Here and now, I give you my word: If you entrust me with the presidency, I will draw on the best of us not the worst. I will be an ally of the light not of the darkness.

It’s time for us, for We the People, to come together. For make no mistake. United we can, and will, overcome this season of darkness in America. We will choose hope over fear, facts over fiction, fairness over privilege.

I am a proud Democrat and I will be proud to carry the banner of our party into the general election. So, it is with great honor and humility that I accept this nomination for President of the United States of America.

But while I will be a Democratic candidate, I will be an American president. I will work as hard for those who didn’t support me as I will for those who did. That’s the job of a president. To represent all of us, not just our base or our party. This is not a partisan moment. This must be an American moment.

It’s a moment that calls for hope and light and love. Hope for our futures, light to see our way forward, and love for one another. America isn’t just a collection of clashing interests of Red States or Blue States. We’re so much bigger than that. We’re so much better than that.

Nearly a century ago, Franklin Roosevelt pledged a New Deal in a time of massive unemployment, uncertainty, and fear. Stricken by disease, stricken by a virus, FDR insisted that he would recover and prevail and he believed America could as well. And he did. And so can we.

This campaign isn’t just about winning votes. It’s about winning the heart, and yes, the soul of America. Winning it for the generous among us, not the selfish. Winning it for the workers who keep this country going, not just the privileged few at the top. Winning it for those communities who have known the injustice of the “knee on the neck”. For all the young people who have known only an America of rising inequity and shrinking opportunity. They deserve to experience America’s promise in full.

No generation ever knows what history will ask of it. All we can ever know is whether we’ll be ready when that moment arrives. And now history has delivered us to one of the most difficult moments America has ever faced.

Four historic crises. All at the same time. A perfect storm. The worst pandemic in over 100 years. The worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. The most compelling call for racial justice since the 60’s. And the undeniable realities and accelerating threats of climate change.

So, the question for us is simple: Are we ready? I believe we are. We must be.

All elections are important. But we know in our bones this one is more consequential. America is at an inflection point. A time of real peril, but of extraordinary possibilities. We can choose the path of becoming angrier, less hopeful, and more divided. A path of shadow and suspicion. Or we can choose a different path, and together, take this chance to heal, to be reborn, to unite. A path of hope and light.

This is a life-changing election that will determine America’s future for a very long time. Character is on the ballot. Compassion is on the ballot. Decency, science, democracy. They are all on the ballot. Who we are as a nation. What we stand for. And, most importantly, who we want to be. That’s all on the ballot. And the choice could not be clearer. No rhetoric is needed. Just judge this president on the facts.

5 million Americans infected with COVID-19. More than 170,000 Americans have died. By far the worst performance of any nation on Earth. More than 50 million people have filed for unemployment this year. More than 10 million people are going to lose their health insurance this year. Nearly one in 6 small businesses have closed this year.

If this president is re-elected we know what will happen. Cases and deaths will remain far too high. More mom and pop businesses will close their doors for good. Working families will struggle to get by, and yet, the wealthiest one percent will get tens of billions of dollars in new tax breaks. And the assault on the Affordable Care Act will continue until its destroyed, taking insurance away from more than 20 million people — including more than 15 million people on Medicaid — and getting rid of the protections that President Obama and I passed for people who suffer from a pre-existing condition.

And speaking of President Obama, a man I was honored to serve alongside for 8 years as Vice President. Let me take this moment to say something we don’t say nearly enough. Thank you, Mr. President. You were a great president. A president our children could — and did — look up to. No one will say that about the current occupant of the office.

What we know about this president is if he’s given four more years he will be what he’s been the last four years. A president who takes no responsibility, refuses to lead, blames others, cozies up to dictators, and fans the flames of hate and division. He will wake up every day believing the job is all about him. Never about you. Is that the America you want for you, your family, your children?

I see a different America. One that is generous and strong. Selfless and humble. It’s an America we can rebuild together. As president, the first step I will take will be to get control of the virus that’s ruined so many lives. Because I understand something this president doesn’t. We will never get our economy back on track, we will never get our kids safely back to school, we will never have our lives back, until we deal with this virus. The tragedy of where we are today is it didn’t have to be this bad. Just look around. It’s not this bad in Canada. Or Europe. Or Japan. Or almost anywhere else in the world.

The President keeps telling us the virus is going to disappear. He keeps waiting for a miracle. Well, I have news for him, no miracle is coming. We lead the world in confirmed cases. We lead the world in deaths. Our economy is in tatters, with Black, Latino, Asian American, and Native American communities bearing the brunt of it. And after all this time, the president still does not have a plan. Well, I do.

If I’m president on day one we’ll implement the national strategy I’ve been laying out since March. We’ll develop and deploy rapid tests with results available immediately. We’ll make the medical supplies and protective equipment our country needs. And we’ll make them here in America. So we will never again be at the mercy of China and other foreign countries in order to protect our own people. We’ll make sure our schools have the resources they need to be open, safe, and effective. We’ll put the politics aside and take the muzzle off our experts so the public gets the information they need and deserve. The honest, unvarnished truth. They can deal with that. We’ll have a national mandate to wear a mask-not as a burden, but to protect each other. It’s a patriotic duty.

In short, I will do what we should have done from the very beginning. Our current president has failed in his most basic duty to this nation. He failed to protect us. He failed to protect America. And, my fellow Americans, that is unforgivable.

As president, I will make you this promise: I will protect America. I will defend us from every attack. Seen. And unseen. Always. Without exception. Every time. Look, I understand it’s hard to have hope right now. On this summer night, let me take a moment to speak to those of you who have lost the most.

I know how it feels to lose someone you love. I know that deep black hole that opens up in your chest. That you feel your whole being is sucked into it. I know how mean and cruel and unfair life can be sometimes. But I’ve learned two things. First, your loved ones may have left this Earth but they never leave your heart. They will always be with you. And second, I found the best way through pain and loss and grief is to find purpose. As God’s children each of us have a purpose in our lives.

And we have a great purpose as a nation: To open the doors of opportunity to all Americans. To save our democracy. To be a light to the world once again. To finally live up to and make real the words written in the sacred documents that founded this nation that all men and women are created equal. Endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights. Among them life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

You know, my Dad was an honorable, decent man. He got knocked down a few times pretty hard, but always got up. He worked hard and built a great middle-class life for our family. He used to say, “Joey, I don’t expect the government to solve my problems, but I expect it to understand them.” And then he would say: “Joey, a job is about a lot more than a paycheck. It’s about your dignity. It’s about respect. It’s about your place in your community. It’s about looking your kids in the eye and say, honey, it’s going to be okay.” I’ve never forgotten those lessons.

That’s why my economic plan is all about jobs, dignity, respect, and community. Together, we can, and we will, rebuild our economy. And when we do, we’ll not only build it back, we’ll build it back better. With modern roads, bridges, highways, broadband, ports and airports as a new foundation for economic growth. With pipes that transport clean water to every community. With 5 million new manufacturing and technology jobs so the future is made in America.

With a health care system that lowers premiums, deductibles, and drug prices by building on the Affordable Care Act he’s trying to rip away. With an education system that trains our people for the best jobs of the 21st century, where cost doesn’t prevent young people from going to college, and student debt doesn’t crush them when they get out. With child care and elder care that make it possible for parents to go to work and for the elderly to stay in their homes with dignity. With an immigration system that powers our economy and reflects our values. With newly empowered labor unions. With equal pay for women. With rising wages you can raise a family on. Yes, we’re going to do more than praise our essential workers. We’re finally going to pay them.

We can, and we will, deal with climate change. It’s not only a crisis, it’s an enormous opportunity. An opportunity for America to lead the world in clean energy and create millions of new good-paying jobs in the process. And we can pay for these investments by ending loopholes and the president’s $1.3 trillion tax giveaway to the wealthiest 1 percent and the biggest, most profitable corporations, some of which pay no tax at all. Because we don’t need a tax code that rewards wealth more than it rewards work. I’m not looking to punish anyone. Far from it. But it’s long past time the wealthiest people and the biggest corporations in this country paid their fair share.

For our seniors, Social Security is a sacred obligation, a sacred promise made. The current president is threatening to break that promise. He’s proposing to eliminate the tax that pays for almost half of Social Security without any way of making up for that lost revenue. I will not let it happen. If I’m your president, we’re going to protect Social Security and Medicare. You have my word.

One of the most powerful voices we hear in the country today is from our young people. They’re speaking to the inequity and injustice that has grown up in America. Economic injustice. Racial injustice. Environmental injustice. I hear their voices and if you listen, you can hear them too. And whether it’s the existential threat posed by climate change, the daily fear of being gunned down in school, or the inability to get started in their first job — it will be the work of the next president to restore the promise of America to everyone.

I won’t have to do it alone. Because I will have a great Vice President at my side. Senator Kamala Harris. She is a powerful voice for this nation. Her story is the American story. She knows about all the obstacles thrown in the way of so many in our country. Women, Black women, Black Americans, South Asian Americans, immigrants, the left-out and left-behind. But she’s overcome every obstacle she’s ever faced. No one’s been tougher on the big banks or the gun lobby. No one’s been tougher in calling out this current administration for its extremism, its failure to follow the law, and its failure to simply tell the truth. Kamala and I both draw strength from our families. For Kamala, it’s Doug and their families.

For me, it’s Jill and ours. No man deserves one great love in his life. But I’ve known two. After losing my first wife in a car accident, Jill came into my life and put our family back together. She’s an educator. A mom. A military Mom. And an unstoppable force. If she puts her mind to it, just get out of the way. Because she’s going to get it done. She was a great Second Lady and she will make a great First Lady for this nation, she loves this country so much. And I will have the strength that can only come from family. Hunter, Ashley and all our grandchildren, my brothers, my sister. They give me courage and lift me up. And while he is no longer with us, Beau inspires me every day. Beau served our nation in uniform. A decorated Iraq war veteran. So I take very personally the profound responsibility of serving as Commander in Chief. I will be a president who will stand with our allies and friends. I will make it clear to our adversaries the days of cozying up to dictators are over.

Under President Biden, America will not turn a blind eye to Russian bounties on the heads of American soldiers. Nor will I put up with foreign interference in our most sacred democratic exercise — voting. I will stand always for our values of human rights and dignity. And I will work in common purpose for a more secure, peaceful, and prosperous world. History has thrust one more urgent task on us. Will we be the generation that finally wipes the stain of racism from our national character? I believe we’re up to it. I believe we’re ready.

Just a week ago yesterday was the third anniversary of the events in Charlottesville. Remember seeing those neo-Nazis and Klansmen and white supremacists coming out of the fields with lighted torches? Veins bulging? Spewing the same anti-Semitic bile heard across Europe in the ’30s? Remember the violent clash that ensued between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it? Remember what the president said? There were quote, “very fine people on both sides.” It was a wake-up call for us as a country. And for me, a call to action. At that moment, I knew I’d have to run. My father taught us that silence was complicity. And I could not remain silent or complicit. At the time, I said we were in a battle for the soul of this nation. And we are.

One of the most important conversations I’ve had this entire campaign is with someone who is too young to vote. I met with six-year old Gianna Floyd, a day before her Daddy George Floyd was laid to rest. She is incredibly brave. I’ll never forget. When I leaned down to speak with her, she looked into my eyes and said “Daddy, changed the world.” Her words burrowed deep into my heart.

Maybe George Floyd’s murder was the breaking point. Maybe John Lewis’ passing the inspiration. However it has come to be, America is ready to in John’s words, to lay down “the heavy burdens of hate at last” and to do the hard work of rooting out our systemic racism.

America’s history tells us that it has been in our darkest moments that we’ve made our greatest progress. That we’ve found the light. And in this dark moment, I believe we are poised to make great progress again. That we can find the light once more. I have always believed you can define America in one word: Possibilities. That in America, everyone, and I mean everyone, should be given the opportunity to go as far as their dreams and God-given ability will take them. We can never lose that. In times as challenging as these, I believe there is only one way forward. As a united America. United in our pursuit of a more perfect Union. United in our dreams of a better future for us and for our children. United in our determination to make the coming years bright.

Are we ready? I believe we are. This is a great nation. And we are a good and decent people. This is the United States of America. And there has never been anything we’ve been unable to accomplish when we’ve done it together.

The Irish poet Seamus Heaney once wrote:

“History says,
Don’t hope on this side of the grave,
But then, once in a lifetime
The longed-for tidal wave
Of justice can rise up,
And hope and history rhyme”

This is our moment to make hope and history rhyme. With passion and purpose, let us begin — you and I together, one nation, under God — united in our love for America and united in our love for each other. For love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. Light is more powerful than dark. This is our moment. This is our mission.

May history be able to say that the end of this chapter of American darkness began here tonight as love and hope and light joined in the battle for the soul of the nation. And this is a battle that we, together, will win. I promise you.

Thank you. And may God bless you. And may God protect our troops.

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“We Are Gullible Racists Paying For Plastic Surgery” would have been a more fitting name for the non-profit

By Mark | August 20, 2020

[Steve Bannon, the man credited with crafting Donald Trump’s populist message in 2016, was seen yesterday aboard the $28 million yacht of Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui. Today, off the coast of Connecticut, the high-profile former Trump advisor was arrested on the same yacht for fraud.]

I know things seem pretty bleak right now, but there is still beauty in this world. This morning, Trump adviser Steve Bannon and three associates were arrested and charged with fraud for bilking millions of dollars out of gullible racists who wanted to contribute toward Trump’s ridiculous, ineffective, and largely imaginary border wall. According to reporting, Bannon and his associates, through the non-profit We Build the Wall, took in over $25 million in donations, telling donors that “100% of the funds raised (would be used) in the execution of our mission.” Well, that’s apparently not what happened. It would appear that Bannon and his coconspirators — Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato, and Timothy Shea — took hundreds of thousands of dollars for themselves. Kolfage, according to the charges, spent over $350,000 of the donated funds on personal expenses, which included a boat, jewelry, and cosmetic surgery.

When asked about the fraudulent non-profit today, Donald Trump said, “Don’t know anything about the project,” and “I don’t like that project.” Here, however, is Kris Kobach, the former Secretary of State of Kansas who ran Trump’s fake voter fraud commission, explaining last year how We Build the Wall had the blessing of Donald Trump. [The We Build the Wall advisory board, in addition to Kobach and Bannon, included other prominent right wing grifters like Blackwater founder Erik Prince and Sheriff David Clarke.

I know that, by this point, most Trump supporters have too much invested to just walk away, but I do wonder how difficult it is for them to reconcile the idea of their populist hero Steve Bannon on the mega yacht of a Chinese billionaire, arrested for hooking his buddy up with plastic surgery money that was supposed to have bee spent protecting the American people from caravans of Mexican rapists that never materialized. I cannot begin to imagine the mental contortion that one would have to do in order to escape the obvious conclusion, which is that a White House full of grifters sought to manipulate the unfounded fears of American racists to enrich themselves with the blessing, support and aid of Donald Trump.

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75 days before the election, mail sorting machines are being removed in Grand Rapids

By Mark | August 19, 2020

Yesterday, in response to the overwhelming public outcry over the U.S Postal Service decommissioning mail sorting equipment prior to the upcoming presidential election, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced an abrupt change of course. DeJoy, an ardent trump supporter, said that, so as to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail,” he would halt the sweeping moves he’d recently implemented, which appeared to be motivated by a desire on the part of the Trump administration to slow the processing of mail-in-ballots. Well, today, it looks as though very little has actually changed. Despite DeJoy’s pledge to stop removing mail processing equipment, it looks as though, at least here in Michigan, the campaign continues.

Today, Heather Walker, an investigative journalist for the NBC affiliate in Grand Rapids, got word from a source inside the local Post Office facility that “mail sorting machines (were) being dismantled” on the order of DeJoy. Walker immediately went to the site, where she saw equipment, like the piece seen at the top of this post, being pulled from the facility. Here’s video.

I know it’s little consolation, but, according to former Attorney General Eric Holder, this is “good evidence that can be used in a criminal investigation.” [Remember, federal criminal law 18 USC 1701, states, “Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”]

Please don’t take DeJoy at his word that he’s given up his attempt to cripple the Post Office prior to the election. The 2016 election was effectively decided by 107,000 people in Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, representing just .09% of all ballots cast. Here in Michigan, just 10,704 votes decided the race. Given that, and the fact that an unprecedented number of our fellow Michiganders — especially those who understand the seriousness of this pandemic — will be voting by mail this November, one can easily imagine a scenario in which Donald Trump appears to be winning based on Election Day precinct reports, but hundreds of thousands of mail-in-ballots remain uncounted, allowing Donald Trump to claim victory before a full count of the ballots can be conducted. This is why we absolutely must keep fighting, everyone. We cannot give Donald Trump an opportunity to steal this election by keeping our ballots from being counted.

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Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee confirms that Putin ordered DNC hack to help Trump in 2016

By Mark | August 18, 2020

The Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee today released the long-awaited 5th volume of their exhaustive report on Russian interference during the 2016 election. While this volume, titled Counterintelligence Threats and Vulnerabilities, doesn’t appear to break a lot of new ground, it’s good to be reminded once again, especially as we’re headed into another election, that members of Donald Trump’s campaign had close personal ties to the Russians, encouraged Russian interference against the Clinton campaign, and sought to obstruct the ensuing lawful and legitimate investigations. And it bears repeating that this isn’t a report issued by some left wing think tank. This, again, is a bipartisan report issued by the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee.

According to the report, “Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered the Russian effort to hack computer networks and accounts affiliated with the Democratic Party and leak information damaging to Hillary Clinton and her campaign for president,” with the intention being to “tarnish an expected Clinton presidential administration, help the Trump Campaign after Trump became the presumptive Republican nominee, and undermine the U.S. democratic process.” In other words, Donald Trump was completely full of shit when he suggested that it was Ukraine, and not Russia, that had hacked the DNC servers, and when he said that he believed Putin had nothing to do with it. [The Senate report says on page 108, “The Committee identified no reliable evidence that the Ukrainian government interfered in the 2016 election.”]

No, it was the Russians who hacked the DNC, and they did so at the behest of Putin. This is not “fake news.” It’s not a “witch hunt.” It’s a fact. And the Trump administration attempted to stop the very necessary investigation into this at every turn.

Republicans today are latching onto the fact that this report, like the Mueller report before it, stops short of demonstrating collusion between the Trump campaign and the Russians who aided their efforts. And this is true. The Senate report issued today does not contain any smoking gun evidence that members of the Trump campaign directly helped orchestrate the Russian active measures campaign intended to “undermine the U.S. democratic process.” What the Senate investigation did find, however, is that Trump and his advisors were open to the help of an American adversary, and that Paul Manafort, the chairman of Trump’s 2016 campaign, was determined to be a “grave counterintelligence threat” due to his repeated contacts with members of Russian intelligence. And, in this area, today’s report does break some new ground, in that it identifies Manafort associate Konstantin Kilimnik as a “Russian intelligence officer” — a Russian intelligence officer that, though his connections, “created opportunities for Russian intelligence services to exert influence over, and acquire confidential information on, the Trump Campaign.” [The Mueller report just identified Kilimnik as having Russian intelligence connections.]

As for collusion, I don’t know how it’s defined in a legal sense, but it seems to me that Roger Stone telling Jerome Corsi to get Julian Assange to “drop the Podesta emails immediately,” when it became known that the “pussy grabbing” Access Hollywood tape was about to come out probably comes pretty close. [It’s also worth remembering that, according to reports this past February, Donald Trump offered Julian Assange a pardon if he denied Russia link to hack.]

And, yes, Wikileaks was doing the work of the Russians, contrary to what Trump might suggest. Today’s report says that the committee “found significant evidence to suggest that, in the summer of 2016, WikiLeaks was knowingly collaborating with Russian government officials.”

I could go on, but I suspect that all of you capable of rational thought already know what’s up. And the rest of you could never be convinced. So, with that, I’m going to bed.

OK, here’s one last thing. This is what I posted back in July of 2018, upon hearing Donald Trump say that he believe Vladimir Putin and not his own national security advisors on the subject of Russia’s election interference. The post was titled, “Some Dare Call It Treason: When a former CIA Director starts referring to your actions as “treasonous,” I think you might have a problem.”

Well, today was the big day. Following almost immediately on the heels of last week’s big announcement about the grand jury indictments of 12 Russian military intelligence officers for committing acts of cyber warfare against the U.S. during the 2016 presidential election, Donald Trump had more than ample opportunity to cancel this morning’s private one-on-one meeting with Vladimir Putin, the man we now know, for a certainty, orchestrated the hacking of Democratic campaign servers in order to aid the Trump 2016 team. Instead of heeding the advice of the U.S. intelligence community, however, Donald Trump continued on with his plans, meeting with the ruthless dictator behind closed doors for over two hours, with no other Americans present. And, sadly, that wasn’t the worst of it.

When the private meeting had concluded, as thinking people everywhere were busy speculating how it was that Putin came to have such a hold over our President, Donald Trump stood up in front a room of reporters next to a smirking Putin and said that, despite the indictments, and the mountains of evidence that had been shown to him, he still saw no reason for concern. In fact, he said, he still wasn’t convinced that it had even happened.

Asked point blank if he believed his own intelligence agencies, and their conclusion that Russia had meddle in our election, Donald Trump said, “My people came to me, [Director of National Intelligence] Dan Coats came to me, some others, they said they think it’s Russia. I have President Putin. He just said it’s not Russia. I will say this, I don’t see any reason why it would be.”

Our Republican President then went on to say, “President Putin was extremely strong and powerful in his denial today.”

Watch for yourselves.

So, now the nation holds its breath and waits to see what our Republican Congress will do, as they hold every lever of power, and have been satisfied to look the other way just as long as Donald Trump agreed to appoint their judges, and cut their taxes. Now, though, according to the Atlantic, it’s “the moment of truth,” where Republicans have to decide whether or not they really care about the country at all, or only the wealth and power that come with control. And people like Democratic Congressmen Adam Schiff are appealing to their last vestiges of decency, urging them to do the right thing before they “become enablers” of something truly horrific, as though that hasn’t been their position from the time the Access Hollywood “pussy grabbing” audio first surfaced, to just recently, when we learned about the toddler prisons on the border. The truth is, they’re now so far down the slippery slope, I doubt they could stop even if they’d wanted to. The momentum, I fear, just won’t let them.

And so we wait, as, one by one, the Republican members of Congress weigh in with their statements.

So far, it’s not looking good. While John McCain came out and pronounced it to be “disgraceful,” most wouldn’t allow themselves to go so far. Bob Corker, for instance, just said he was “saddened” and “disappointed.” That, however, was still better than Rand Paul, who praised the “renewing open lines of conversation” between the U.S. and Russia. [McCain went on to say, “No prior president has ever abased himself more abjectly before a tyrant.”]

But some seem to be searching for a way off the sinking ship. Newt Gingrich, for instance, took to Twitter and demanded an explanation. “President Trump must clarify his statements in Helsinki on our intelligence system and Putin,” he said. “It is the most serious mistake of his presidency and must be corrected—-immediately.”

But Fox, you can be sure, isn’t going to just sit around and wait for the pressure to build against the President. They’ve already begun spinning, with Sean Hannity going on the offensive this evening, pushing a conspiracy theory in line with their always popular “Obama was worse” narrative. According to Hannity, whatever Putin may have done, Obama did worse when he “interfered in Israel’s election.” This, of course, is a claim that has already been debunked, but what does that matter, right? We, after all, have a war against immigrants to fight here, and Donald Trump is our great white champion, no mater what kind of leverage Vladimir Putin may have over him.

And, as you might expect, Donald Trump has gone back to blaming Hillary Clinton’s server for getting itself hacked, like a rapist arguing that his victim was “asking for it” because of the way that she was dressed.

So if you care at all about this country, I’d encourage you to call your elected officials and demand that they speak out. We cannot just allow this to pass the same way that we’ve allowed everything else to pass. And I’m afraid we need to start pressuring the people who support Donald Trump, and not just the man himself. As vile as he may be, and as corrosive as he may be to our democratic institutions, the truth is that he couldn’t have made it in office for one week without a complicit Congress that was willing to look the other way in exchange for wealth and power. And we need to go after those people. And, maybe, just maybe, now that the t-word is being uttered in polite D.C. society, they’ll be forced to re-triangulate and do the right thing.

Speaking of the t-word, the one good thing about Trump’s absolutely jaw-dropping performance in Helsinki today is that people have now started to say it more freely. Here, to give you and example, is something written earlier this afternoon by former CIA Director John Brennan.

[note: If something is “nothing short of treasonous,” it’s treasonous.]

So, yeah, when you call your elected officials, be sure to tell them that what we just saw in Helsinki is treason, and that it’ll be the lucky ones who are just driven from office and banished to the wilderness.

The penalty for treason, after all, is death.

There’s more that I could say… I wanted to tell you, for instance, about how Trump actually suggested at some point in the joint news conference that Robert Mueller make information and sources available to the Russians so that they might help investigate, but, in hopes of preserving a bit of my sanity for the street fights to come, I’ve decided to take it easy this evening.

Goodspeed, patriots.

update: Donald Trump responds, accusing others of Treason.

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Stealing the Election in Broad Daylight: Everything You Need to Know about Trump’s Dismantling of the U.S. Postal Service to Thwart Mail-In Voting

By Mark | August 16, 2020

I never would have imagined a scenario in which the U.S. Postal Service would be figuring prominently in the battle against domestic fascism, but here we are.

This past Thursday, in an interview with Fox Business Network’s Maria Bartiromo, Donald Trump essentially confessing that recent cuts made to the U.S. Postal Service were done with the intention of keeping Americans from voting my mail. Explaining why his administration was refusing to adequately fund the Post Office, Trump said, “They need that money in order to have the Post Office work, so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots… Now, if we don’t make a deal, that means they don’t get the money. That means they can’t have universal mail-in voting, they just can’t have it.”

We, of course, had known that this was happening. Back in May, a plan was put into to motion to take roughly 15% of all the mail sorting machines in the United States out of service. And, at roughly the same time, wealthy Trump supporter Louis DeJoy was appointed Postmaster General by the GOP-controlled Post Office Board of Governors. [According to Federal Election Commission records, DeJoy has contributed more than $1.2 million to the Trump Victory Fund, and millions more to the Republican Party and other candidates.] And, since taking the role, DeJoy has already reassigned 23 top Post Office officials and eliminated overtime pay, severely hampering the Post Office’s efficient delivery of the mail. What’s more, photos like this one have been all over the internet in recent days, as mailboxes have started being removed from U.S. communities.

[The above photo was taken in Oregon, where people have been successfully voting by mail for the past two decades without incident. It looks as though mailboxes have also started being removed from communities in New Jersey, New York and Montana as well.]

And this, of course, is important because, due to our current pandemic, people will be voting by mail in unprecedented numbers come November. Here, from a recent opinion piece in USA Today, is a little bit of the relevant background.

…In the last presidential election, 33.6 million people — about 1 in 4 voters — voted by mail. If COVID-era primaries are any indication, that number will explode this November.

In Kentucky’s June primary, for instance, absentee ballots accounted for 85% of all votes. In Michigan, more than three times as many voters have requested absentee ballots compared with the same period in 2016.

Vote by mail has never been more critical to our democracy than during this pandemic. And the Postal Service has never been as politicized as it is today. That is a toxic, dangerous mix.

Trump has made his disdain for vote by mail well known. In April, he called the U.S. Postal Service a “joke” and stood in the way of $10 billion in aid that Congress approved as part of an earlier pandemic relief bill.

This is a democratic emergency. The outcome of the November presidential election will almost certainly be decided by mail-in votes. And with about two-thirds of states claiming they will not accept any mail-in ballots that arrive after Election Day, how those votes are handled once voters return their ballots is among the most consequential policy decisions of the 2020 election…

As Donald Trump admitted as much in the Fox Business interview noted above, I don’t think there’s any way to misconstrue what’s happening here, but I think it bears repeating. The President of the United States, during a pandemic that has already cost over 172,000 Americans their lives, has set out to systematically deconstruct the U.S. Postal Service, thinking that, by doing so, he might be able to remain in power, and avoid facing the consequences of his illegal acts while in office. I think it’s pretty clear what the game plan is; socialize the message with members of Trump’s base that the results of mail-in-voting are not to be trusted, cripple the Postal Service so that ballots aren’t received in time to be counted, and then claim victory on Election Day based on the results of in-person voting, which may slightly favor Donald Trump, due to the fact that his supporters are less likely to do the responsible thing and vote by mail during the pandemic.

All of this, as you might imagine, is illegal. As former Attorney General Eric Holder pointed out yesterday, these moves on the part of DeJoy and Trump are a clear violation of federal criminal law 18 USC 1701, which states, “Whoever knowingly and willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail, or any carrier or conveyance carrying the mail, shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than six months, or both.”

Oh, and the dismantling of the Post Office for political purposes has had a few unintended consequences, like seriously delaying the delivery of medications to America’s veterans. So, yeah, the Trump administration, during a pandemic, has chosen to dismantle the most beloved government agency of American voters, putting veterans at risk in the process… As my wife just said to me when discussing this, “It’s fucking evil.”

Thankfully, it would appear that people are taking the threat seriously. Not only are there petitions circulating to see DeJoy removed from office, but the USPS Office of the Inspector General (OIG) is launching an ethics investigation into DeJoy in response to a request from Elizabeth Warren. And Nancy Pelosi just said that she’s considering calling members of the House back to Washington to take the matter up in Congress. And, of course, people are increasingly in the streets, demanding that something be done. [Yesterday hundreds of people were outside the D.C. residence of Postmaster General DeJoy, demanding that he step down.]

Two more things, as I still can’t sleep. First, it would appear as though Donald Trump is lying when he says that he hasn’t been in communication with DeJoy. [He has.] And, second, we know that Donald Trump is lying when he says that mail-in-voting is “one of the greatest frauds in history.” As we’ve discussed here before at length, there is absolutely no evidence that voting my mail is anything but legitimate and safe. Several U.S. states have been voting by mail for years with no indication of widespread fraud. In fact, as mentioned here in the past, the President, Vice President and several members of the Trump administration vote by mail, and the President himself has called on his supporters in red states to vote by mail. [From yesterday’s Washington Post: “There’s very little reason to buy Trump’s attacks on mail-in voting as prone to rampant fraud, as multiple studies repeatedly have shown. What’s more, security concerns can be readily addressed, as the nonpartisan Brennan Center for Justice detailed in a report aptly titled ‘The False Narrative of Vote-by-Mail Fraud.'”]

This is sick. We are in the middle of a public health crisis, and the President of the United States is making it more difficult for people to vote safely from home because he sees it as being a threat to his reelection prospects. And people, as a result, will die. Of this we can be sure. And for what? To give Donald Trump an edge come Election Day over an opponent who, according to every poll, is the clear favorite of the American people. This is not only sick, but criminal, perverse and evil.

That’s it. That’s all. Hopefully it’s enough to make you as angry as I am.

Please tell every person you know to pay attention to what’s happening. The future of our democracy depends on our response, which must be decisive and overwhelming. As Walter Shaub, the former director of the Office of Government Ethics, we are now in a “a dead sprint to authoritarianism.”

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