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The day's news roundup + tonight's musical feature: Clifton Chenier

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Hey! Good Evening!

This evening's music features The King of Zydeco Clifton Chenier. Enjoy!

^{Clifton Chenier - Zydeco sant pas sale}

"We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office."

-- Aesop

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News and Opinion

'Authoritarian': Trump condemned for falsely claiming election victory

Donald Trump has confirmed the worst fears of his opponents by making a false declaration of victory in the US presidential election and threatening to plunge the nation into a constitutional crisis. Results so far show his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, with an edge in the race to 270 electoral college votes after flipping the state of Arizona, but it could be days before the outcome is known.

“The president’s statement tonight about trying to shut down the counting of duly cast ballots was outrageous, unprecedented and incorrect,” said the Biden campaign manager, Jen O’Malley Dillon, in a statement. The Democrats went further on Wednesday mid-morning when Dillon said in a live address, “We believe we are on a clear path to victory by this afternoon” and that Biden was on course to become the president of the United States.

That Trump had been widely predicted to make a baseless assertion of triumph and resort to the courts to stop votes being counted did not make his 2.21am speech at the White House any less shocking. Some likened the move, unprecedented in American history, to a presidential coup. ...

Trump spoke in the East Room with numerous US flags behind him and flanked by two TV screens, which had been showing Fox News. Around 150 guests were standing with few face masks and little physical distancing. Donald Trump Jr, Ivanka Trump and other family members sat in the front row. “Millions and millions of people voted for us tonight, and a very sad group of people is trying to disenfranchise that group of people and we won’t stand for it,” Trump said to whoops and cheers. “We will not stand for it.” There is no evidence for Trump’s allegation of disenfranchisement.

The president listed some correct state victories, some false claims of state victories, and dived deep into unfounded conspiracy theories. “And did I predict this, did I say this? I’ve been saying this from the day I heard they were going to send out tens of millions of ballots because either they were going to win or, if they didn’t win, they’ll take us to court.” He added: “This is a fraud on the American public. This is an embarrassment to our country. We were getting ready to win this election. Frankly, we did win this election. So our goal now is to ensure the integrity – for the good of this nation, this is a very big moment – this is a major fraud on our nation.

“We want the law to be used in a proper manner, so we’ll be going to the US supreme court. We want all voting to stop. We don’t want them to find any ballots at four o’clock in the morning and add them to the list. OK? It’s a very sad moment. “We will win this and as far as I’m concerned we already have won it.”

Dear @realDonaldTrump - you accidentally deleted this tweet about Poles pic.twitter.com/D5rQd5KMXN

— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) November 4, 2020

Election Too Close to Call: Biden Underperforms & Trump Stokes Chaos, Claiming False Victory

Voting proceeds smoothly across US despite fears of unrest

Across America millions of people went to the polls amid an election campaign fraught with anxiety over the prospect of voter intimidation and the chance of civil unrest after a historically divisive election.

But as polls started to close on the east coast of the US, reports from across the country reflected a day of peaceful voting with only sporadic reports of incidents of intimidation or misinformation or technological problems with voting machines.

The leader of a group of 42,000 legal volunteers deployed for the election said so far there had not been “major, systemic problems or attempts to obstruct voting”.

Kristen Clarke, president and executive director of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, said early voting, voter education efforts and earlier litigation had made for “a relatively smooth election day across the country”. ...

Clarke said there was an increase in complaints about voter intimidation and electioneering compared to past elections, but those problems were at a smaller, less intense scale than had been expected.

Republicans confident they will keep Senate control after fears of backlash

Republicans are newly confident they will keep control of the Senate, after turning back challengers in a number of states that had become unexpected battlegrounds but where Donald Trump ultimately prevailed.

The backlash against the president and his handling of the coronavirus pandemic had some Republicans bracing for a “bloodbath” in the Senate. But with each passing hour on election night the picture grew rosier for Republicans, who hold a slim 53-47 majority.

Joni Ernst of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, both fierce Trump allies, fended off serious and well-financed opponents who channeled deep discontent with the president. Senator Thom Tillis appeared poised to hold his seat in North Carolina, a race that was viewed as tied to the president’s prospects in that battleground state. In Montana, Steve Daines held off a challenge from Steve Bullock, a popular former Democratic governor.

After shocking the political world with an upset special election victory in 2017, Doug Jones of Alabama lost to his Republican opponent, Tommy Tuberville, a former Auburn football coach.

US House races: Democrats retain control while facing upsets in key states

Democrats, who are still expected to retain control of the House of Representatives, have suffered several stinging losses that have knocked down their hopes of significantly expanding their majority in the House of Representatives.

In Florida’s Miami-Dade county, Republicans flipped two Democratic seats in an upset, while Democrats took two Republican seats in North Carolina. But chances that Democrats would gain some of the long-shot seats they were vying for in Texas and Arkansas are on track to remain in Republican hands as early results trickle in.

In New Mexico, the Republican Yvette Herrell on Tuesday beat incumbent Democrat Xochitl Torres Small – who had won her red district two years ago by just 3,700 votes. And in South Carolina, the Republican Nancy Mace defeated the incumbent Democrat Joe Cunningham. ...

Democrats now hold 232 seats, while Republicans have 197. There are five vacancies in the House, and one Libertarian-held seat . The GOP would need 218 seats to gain control. Such an upset is exceedingly unlikely.

However, Republicans have chipped away at predictions of Democratic sweeps – having unseated Democrats in red or swing districts.

STEALING ELECTIONS! - Investigative Reporter Greg Palast!

Eerie quiet in Washington as capital digs in for a tempestuous election night

Downtown Washington on election day had the feel of a city digging in for a siege. The White House and the Treasury were surrounded by a high steel fence and in the surrounding blocks, businesses and apartment buildings had covered every square foot of exposed glass with plywood.

The wealthier and more cautious had laid down sandbags to hold wooden buttresses that in turn held the plywood in place, and the city centre began to empty out in the mid-afternoon. The grid of streets and avenues were eerily free of traffic. ...

A few hundred metres south-east along Pennsylvania Avenue, some more modest barriers had been set up outside the old US post office building which since 2016 has been the Trump International hotel, the other Washington hub of a family empire spanning business and politics with no real divisions between the two. ...

Trump had been planning to watch the results from the hotel, but he cancelled that plan, instead summoning 400 of his closest supporters to the White House for a party that, whatever the outcome of the election, is bound to become the latest in a string of coronavirus super-spreader events hosted there.

The White House and Trump International are two outposts in an overwhelmingly hostile city – only 4% of DC residents voted for Trump in 2016 – which are destined to be flashpoints if the battle for power drags on after the election. Depending on how that battle ends, they could provide the setting for Trump’s last stand on the political stage.

They are working hard to make up 500,000 vote advantage in Pennsylvania disappear — ASAP. Likewise, Michigan and others!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020

They are finding Biden votes all over the place — in Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and Michigan. So bad for our Country!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020

Last night I was leading, often solidly, in many key States, in almost all instances Democrat run & controlled. Then, one by one, they started to magically disappear as surprise ballot dumps were counted. VERY STRANGE, and the “pollsters” got it completely & historically wrong!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 4, 2020

As Trump Moves to Steal Election, 500+ Demonstrations Planned to Protect the Results

As the nightmare scenario many have been warning about for months came true early Wednesday with President Donald Trump's false declaration of victory, advocacy organizations behind the "Protect the Results" coalition reaffirmed that they are prepared to mobilize across the United States as the nation teeters on the edge of a constitutional crisis.

If the coalition decides to officially activate the mass protests in response to Trump's false victory claim, more than 500 demonstrations are scheduled to take place Wednesday afternoon as the vote count continues, with a trio of key battlegrounds—Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania—at the center of the nation's attention. The coalition is expected to meet early Wednesday to decide whether to greenlight the wave of demonstrations.

Kyle Kulinski: Trump vs Biden Update

Whoever Wins Faces Severe Eviction Crisis

Whoever wins today’s election is virtually certain to be confronted by a severe foreclosure and eviction crisis as state and local governments face acute budget shortfalls. These crises interact with each other and in ways that intensify the economic damage they inflict. The harm is also psychological and political. There are lessons to be learned from the last great foreclosure, 2008-2009.

U.S. households were in tenuous shape for years leading up to the onset of Covid—19. Consequently we should not be surprised by the implications for the housing market. The Wall Street Journal reports:

“about a quarter of American renter households with children are now carrying debt from not paying rent, U.S. Census Bureau surveys show… Mounting rental debt could also impede the path to a U.S. economic recovery, when 30 million to 40 million people from New York City to San Francisco face potential eviction once moratoriums expire.”

If foreclosures and evictions are standing in the way of recovery, it is also safe to say that the draconian cuts in budgets of state and local governments translate into wage reductions and/or unemployment for pubic sector workers and thus more pressures on the housing market. If homeowners and government workers are not able to create sufficient demand to restore economic growth the federal government must step in. State governments are constitutionally prohibited from borrowing for daily expenses.

Why Europe is praying for Trump to lose the US election

Birx warns US entering ‘deadly phase’ of Covid, contradicting Trump’s message

White House scientific adviser Dr Deborah Birx warned the United States is entering a new “deadly phase” of the coronavirus pandemic, and urged an “aggressive” approach to containing its spread.

Birx gave the warning in a written memo delivered to top administration officials Monday. It is a direct contradiction of one of Donald Trump’s central, and false, closing campaign messages – that the US is “rounding the corner” on the pandemic.

“We are entering the most concerning and most deadly phase of this pandemic,” Birx wrote in the memo, first reported by the Washington Post. She continued: “Cases are rapidly rising in nearly 30% of all USA counties, the highest number of county hotspots we have seen with this pandemic. Half of the United States is in the red or orange zone for cases despite flat or declining testing.”

The memo came as Trump gathered hundreds at in-person rallies in key swing states, and warned that his political rival Joe Biden would lock down the country again.

“This is not about lockdowns – it hasn’t been about lockdowns since March or April,” Birx said. “It’s about an aggressive, balanced approach that is not being implemented.” Americans need “consistent messaging about uniform use of masks, physical distancing and hand washing, with profound limitation on indoor gatherings especially with family and friends,” she wrote.

Highest one-week increase in US child cases since onset of COVID-19 pandemic

Last week, 61,000 children in the US were diagnosed with COVID-19. This figure is higher than in any other week since the onset of the pandemic, according to data reported Monday by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and the Children’s Hospital Association. In total, 853,635 children have been diagnosed with the virus this year, representing 11.1 percent of all US cases. The percentage of pediatric cases has risen dramatically since mid-April, when children accounted for just 2 percent of COVID-19 cases in the country.

Even more concerning, the AAP said it believes the true number of children with COVID-19 is even higher than the reports indicate because the illness tends to be mild in children, making them less likely to be tested. ...

The AAP report found that the biggest increases in pediatric COVID-19 case numbers in October occurred in western states: Alaska, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, New Mexico and Utah. These states saw increases of 25 percent or more. The Dakotas, Kentucky, Michigan and Wisconsin also reported higher rises among children. ...

There is no doubt that the dramatic spike in cases among children is directly linked to the reckless reopening of K-12 schools for in-person learning. Before the school year began, numerous scientific studies warned that reopening the schools would lead to a significant spike in infections, hospitalizations and deaths. As of Tuesday, Election Day, 60 percent of K-12 public school students were attending schools that offer in-person learning, a dramatic rise from 38 percent after Labor Day, two months ago, according to an ongoing audit conducted by Burbio.com.

Shocking Election Night Fox Polls -- What Americans Want!

Supreme court to hear Obamacare case that may lead to 20m losing insurance

For more than a decade, Republicans have sought to destroy the signature achievement of the Obama administration – the Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare.

Exactly one week after election day, they might succeed.

After an election season like no other, in the middle of a pandemic, the supreme court will hear a case that could result in 20 million Americans losing their insurance, along with a raft of other insurance benefits disappearing from American life. Or not. ...

Whether the court will overturn the law or eliminate only one provision stands on a question of “severability”, a legal doctrine that allows judges to, in the words of Chief Justice John Roberts, take “a scalpel rather than a bulldozer” to statutes.

“What is highly unorthodox about their position is they are arguing Congress would have intended for the entire ACA to be swept off the books if the insurance mandate is struck down,” said Abbe Gluck, Yale Law School professor and faculty director of the Solomon Center for Health Law and Policy.

Neo-Liberal Hall Of Fame!

With $340 Million in Loans Soon Coming Due, Deutsche Bank Could Seize Trump Assets If President Defaults: Report

Tired of bad press and global scrutiny—and owed hundreds of millions of dollars by the Trump Organization—Deutsche Bank's management is trying to figure out how to cut ties with President Donald Trump after Tuesday's election, Reuters revealed, citing three senior officials at the German investment bank.

The Trump Organization didn't respond to Reuters' requests for comment and both Deutsche Bank and the White House declined to comment. The president refused to divest from his business empire upon taking office in January 2017 but the Trump Organization—"a rat's nest of hundreds of ambiguous limited liability companies"—is now managed by his adult sons, Don Jr. and Eric, and CFO Allen Weisselberg.

While Deutsche Bank has lent Trump over $2 billion since the 1990s, the Trump Organization currently owes the bank about $340 million for three loans against his golf course in Miami and hotels in Washington, D.C. and Chicago, Reuters reports. Although the conglomerate has made payments on interest, the entire principal is outstanding and the loans—personally guaranteed by the president—are set to come due in 2023 and 2024.

A bank management committee has recently discussed how to sever ties with Trump, whose relationship with the bank has caused probes and negative publicity that one senior executive called "serious collateral damage," according to the news agency. Though selling off Trump's loans has been discussed, one bank official explained the proposal isn't popular because it's unclear who would be willing to buy them.

The bank leadership's final decision regarding Trump will be based on the result of the November 3 election in which the president is facing Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Reuters reports, explaining how the loans may factor into Trump's effort to secure a second term.

"If Trump is not in office, Deutsche Bank executives feel that it would be easier for them to demand repayment, foreclose if he is not able to pay it off or refinance, or try to sell the loans," according to Reuters. "Since Trump has personally guaranteed all the loans, Deutsche Bank could also seize the president's assets if he is unable to repay."

Worth a full read:

Corporate Media Reverse Reality by Blaming BLM Protesters for Everything

Aside from the coronavirus pandemic, this year has also seen unprecedented mass uprisings against the US’s white supremacist police state after the death of George Floyd at the hands of the police in Minneapolis. However, throughout the ongoing protests this year, corporate media seemed to take every opportunity to vilify the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement by spinning the protesters—rather than the racist and authoritarian US regime they are protesting against—as the primary instigators of violence and theft, in addition to preemptively blaming them for Trump’s reelection.

When the protests began after Floyd’s death, corporate media reports were quick to blame BLM for initiating violence, portraying them as senseless rioters in an otherwise peaceful and tranquil society.

NBC News (6/1/20): “Some George Floyd Protests Turn Violent in Several West Coast Cities”

Wall Street Journal (6/2/20): “Protests Sparked by George Floyd Death Descend Into Violence Despite Curfews”

ABC News (7/26/20): “Police Declare Riots as Protests Turn Violent in Cities Nationwide; 1 Demonstrator Dead in Austin”

Wall Street Journal (7/26/20): “Violence Erupts Around Protests Across US”

Associated Press (8/22/20): “Portland Protest Turns Violent, Federal Police Clear Plaza”

Chicago Tribune (8/15/20): “Protests Turn Violent in Downtown Chicago”

9&10 News (9/24/20): “Protests Over Breonna Taylor Case Turned Violent Overnight”

CNN (10/28/20): “Philadelphia Puts Curfew in Place After Violence Erupts During Protests over the Fatal Police Shooting of Walter Wallace Jr.”

As it happens, a study by the US Crisis Monitor (9/3/20), a joint effort by the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED) and the Bridging Divides Initiative (BDI) at Princeton University, found that 93% of all racial justice protests since Floyd’s death have been peaceful and non-destructive. These findings contradict the misleading impressions corporate media coverage have given about the BLM uprisings spawning a massive wave of violence and property damage.

But focusing too much on whether violence occurred at the protests or not would be missing the point by conceding too much to the copaganda narrative. The “violence” did not begin when protesters began destroying property; this is a reversal of cause and effect. In actuality, the US “turns violent” every time Black people are brutally beaten down and murdered by the state for trivial or nonexistent infractions in the US’s selective enforcement system (often euphemized as a “law enforcement system”). As Adam Johnson and Nima Shirazi of the Citations Needed podcast (8/9/17) pointed out, when white supremacy is the default setting of corporate media, Black people dying at the hands of the racist police state is not really “violence,” or a disturbance of the peace, but simply the natural state of affairs.

This “turning violent” framing also neglects how brutal actions by police officers escalate violence, as many observers of these rebellions pointed out that “looting” and “destruction” often take place after the police begin violent repression. This serves to encourage and justify a police crackdown against all protesters under the pretext of only going after “violent” protesters, even though nonviolence is no guarantee that they won’t also be targeted for state repression (FAIR.org, 6/8/20). Indeed, making the violence of protesters disrupting the status quo the predominant focus of media scrutiny and scorn makes it hard for [their] audiences to realize the much greater violence that is being inflicted by the police to maintain it.

Despite media obfuscations and euphemisms (FAIR.org, 6/5/20, 6/7/20) that give a false sense of parity between unarmed protesters and armored militarized police, using terms like “skirmishes” and “clashes” (FAIR.org, 6/9/20), only one side routinely uses chemical weapons banned on the battlefield on protesters, uses mass arrests of protesters to intimidate dissent and is responsible for the vast majority of assaults on journalists (around 80%, as of June 4) to suppress unfavorable information. And only one side has plowed vehicles through large crowds, shot at people on their porch, trapped thousands of people on bridges, and kills hundreds of people every year.

Outrage After Postal Service Misses Court-Ordered Election Day Deadline

Election experts and other critics of voter suppression responded with alarm Tuesday after the United States Postal Service failed to meet a court-ordered afternoon deadline to conduct sweeps at mail processing facilities to "ensure that no ballots have been held up and that any identified ballots are immediately sent out for delivery."

Earlier Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan of the District of Columbia had ordered the sweeps between 12:30 pm and 3:00 pm ET, and set a 4:30 pm ET deadline for facilities to file a status update. John Kruzel, a reporter at The Hill, tweeted Tuesday afternoon that the USPS failed to comply, in spite of saying this week that about 300,000 ballots had entered the mail sorting system but lacked a delivery scan.

In response to Kruzel's long tweet thread, Rep. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) took aim at the postmaster general, tweeting: "Haul Louis DeJoy in front of a criminal grand jury."

Journalist Ari Berman, who has extensively covered voting rights in the United States, similarly declared that "Louis DeJoy should be held in contempt of court and face criminal charges for obstructing an election if these ballots are not delivered on time." Berman noted that mail delays have gotten worse in the lead-up to Election Day.

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Rising: What Dems And GOP Must Learn After Big Misses Last Night

Balm for the soul. https://t.co/EHV0XHnDa3

— BJG (@briebriejoy) November 4, 2020

Democracy Now headlines

FBI Investigates Robocalls Aimed at Suppressing Turnout as State Officials Pledge Vigilance Against Attacks on Voting Rights

State officials in Michigan countered robocall misinformation campaigns on Tuesday as the FBI announced it was investigating robocalls that have gone to people in a number of battleground states and appear to be aimed at suppressing voter turnout.

Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel warned voters to ignore robocalls reported in the majority-Black city of Flint, in which voters have been told to vote on Wednesday to avoid long lines on Election Day. ...

According to CNET, similar calls have also been received by voters in Ohio, Texas, Florida, and Nebraska. 

The FBI said it was investigating the calls as of Tuesday morning, while the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) advised voters to "be mindful of people that are trying to intimidate you [or] undermine your confidence."

The massive record-breaking fundraising wave for Jamie Harrison in South Carolina — like the one for Amy McGrath — goes to waste, as Lindsey Graham is re-elected to his 4th term.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 4, 2020

Big winners tonight are the Democratic consultants and ad buyers who handled the losing Senate races in Kentucky and South Carolina. They’re probably watching the returns from their new, large boat.

— Glenn Greenwald (@ggreenwald) November 4, 2020

John Nichols: Why The Dems ALMOST Blew It In The Midwest

McConnell Headed Back to US Senate, But Will Reviled Republican Remain Majority Leader?

Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was projected as the likely winner by major news outlets Tuesday night, as he thwarted—surprising almost nobody—Democratic challenger Amy McGrath, a former U.S. Marine who ran a centrist campaign.

The victory for McConnell means the reviled architect of President Donald Trump's takeover of the nation's judiciary—and the lawmaker in Washington, D.C. most responsible for tanking congressional efforts to achieve much-needed Covid-19 relief in recent months even as the nation suffers under severe economic pain—is headed back to the U.S. Senate for another term.

The race was called by the Associated Press and NBC News just before 8:30 pm ET. As of this writing, based on returns provided by AP and with an estimated 71% votes reported, McConnell had won 57.5% (955,512) compared to McGrath's 38.6% (641,027).

Critics of McConnell were quick to note that even though he has retained his seat, there is still hope that wins in a number of key Senate races by Democrats on Tuesday would strip him of his coveted majority position.

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People of color more likely to live without piped water in richest US cities

People of color in some of America’s wealthiest cities are significantly more likely to live in houses without indoor plumbing essential for running water, new research reveals.

Clean, safe, affordable water is essential for human health and economic survival. Yet access to running water is not universal in the United States, ostensibly the richest country in the world. Nationwide, almost half a million homes do not have piped water, with the majority – 73% – located in urban areas. In fact, almost half the houses without plumbing are located in the country’s top 50 cities.

Among these, San Francisco, Portland, Milwaukee, San Antonio, Austin and Cleveland have the highest proportion of plumbing poverty, according to the new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The largest actual number of homes without piped water were found in New York and Los Angeles.

Using census data from 2013 to 2017, researchers from King’s College London (KCL) found that inequities in water access – like other essential basic services – are racialized in the US. Households headed by people of color are almost 35% more likely to live without piped water as compared to white households. In addition, plumbing poverty is also predicted by income inequality and precarious housing conditions such as living in rental accommodation and mobile homes.

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Also of Interest

Here are some articles of interest, some which defied fair-use abstraction.

Animals vote, too: how different species choose – or depose – a leader

AOC and her fellow 'Squad' members all win re-election to Congress

Sirota: Six Takeaways From Election Night

A Weird Election Where The Aftermath May Be More Important Than The Result

Krystal and Saagar: What You NEED To Know About The 2020 Election Results, So Far

Rising: Can We Ever Trust Polling Again?

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A Little Night Music

Clifton Chenier - Ay Tete Fee

Clifton Chenier - Bon Ton Roulet

Clifton Chenier - I'm Coming Home (To See My Mother)

Clifton Chenier - Pinetop's Boogie Woogie

Clifton Chenier - I'm A Hog For You Baby

Clifton Chenier - Walking To Louisiana

Clifton Chenier - What I'd Say!

Ma Mama Ma Dit (My Mama Told Me)

Clifton Chenier - Louisiana Two-Step

Clifton Chenier - The King of Zydeco Live

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