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"Any violence arising from the US election or its aftermath will only benefit the powerful, will be used to justify authoritarian agendas which serve the powerful, and will in all probability have been instigated by the powerful.

There are plenty of arguments to be made for situations in which intelligent application of force by the citizenry could have good results. Killing each other over which oligarch crony will be the president is not one of those situations about which such arguments can be made."

-- Caitlin Johnstone

News and Opinion

Scholars warn of collapse of democracy as Trump v Biden election looms

Dozens of historians of fascism and authoritarianism have signed a letter warning that democracy “is either withering or in full-scale collapse globally”, and urging ordinary people to take action. “Democracy is extremely fragile and potentially temporary, requiring vigilance and protection,” the scholars wrote in the letter released on Sunday. “It is not too late to turn the tide.”

More than 80 signatories, including professors and other scholars at universities in the US, Canada, and Europe, do not agree on whether to label Donald Trump a “fascist”. The fragility of democracy worldwide, they write, will continue to be an issue “irrespective of who wins the American presidency”. ...

Among the many warning signs that democracy is at risk, the historians argue, are the spread of disinformation, inequality, the “politics of internal enemies” and politically motivated violence. “We need to reveal and denounce any and all connections between those in power and those vigilante and militia forces using political violence to destabilize our democracies,” the letter urges.

Jennifer Evans, a professor of German history at Carleton University in Canada and one of the lead organizers of the open letter said she was particularly disturbed by the evidence of “the infiltration of the far right” in police and military organizations around the world, including in the US, Germany, and Canada.

Battleground Texas: GOP Sues to Toss 127K Votes as Trump Caravan Tries to Force Biden Bus Off Road

Democrats condemn Trump supporters who swarmed Texas campaign bus

A caravan of Trump supporters in pickup trucks that delighted Donald Trump by swarming a Democratic campaign bus on a Texas highway came armed, according to a state representative and a witness. “Armed Trump trolls harassing Biden Bus on I35, ramming volunteer vehicles & blocking traffic for 40 mins,” Texas state representative Rafael Anchía wrote on Twitter.

The historian Eric Cervini, who had flown to Texas to help with get-out-the-vote efforts, posted a video on Instagram that showed a long line of cars with Trump paraphernalia stalled along the highway, waiting for the Biden-Harris bus. “These Trump supporters, many of whom were armed, surrounded the bus on the interstate and attempted to drive it off the road,” he wrote, adding: “As a historian who studied the rise of the Third Reich, I can tell you: this is how a democracy dies.”

The ambush, which took place on Friday as the bus traveled from San Antonio to Austin to conclude a three-day tour, included a crash between a white SUV and a black truck, police in San Marcos confirmed, though it was still unclear who caused the collision. Officers there had tried to provide a police escort for the Biden-Harris bus but were not able to catch up because of traffic. Even as dramatic footage from the scene caused widespread alarm, President Donald Trump threw his support behind the so-called Trump train, tweeting “I LOVE TEXAS!”

On Sunday, he asked supporters at a rally in Michigan: “Did you see the way our people … were… protecting this bus ... because they’re nice. They had hundreds of cars. Trump! Trump! Trump and the American flag.” Trump also said Biden supporters lacked such spirit and enthusiasm.

One Texas Republican official, Naomi Narvaiz, applauded the caravan’s tactics to force the bus to leave: “Your kind aren’t welcome here!”

FBI investigates claims Trump fans swarmed Biden campaign bus

Trump says supporters who harassed Biden campaign bus 'did nothing wrong'

Donald Trump and senior Republican leaders have continued to defend supporters of the president who participated in a caravan that surrounded and harassed a Joe Biden campaign bus on a Texas highway on Friday. “This story is FALSE,” the president tweeted on Monday, the last day before election day. “They did nothing wrong.”

The FBI confirmed it was investigating the incident, after videos shared on social media sparked widespread safety concerns. Concerns were also raised after convoys of Trump supporters blocked traffic on highways in New York and New Jersey on Sunday.

In Texas, police investigated a car crash at the scene and witnesses reported that some members of the pro-Trump caravan were armed. Nobody was hurt and neither Biden nor his running mate, Kamala Harris, was on the bus at the time. But the incident prompted the Biden campaign to cancel at least two events in a state where polling remains tight, as Democrats accused the president of encouraging supporters to engage in acts of intimidation. ...

Regarding the incident in Texas, Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, said on Sunday: “Certainly you don’t want harm. And we shouldn’t be hurting other people. The president would not endorse that.” But Trump spoke favorably of the caravan at multiple rallies – and received backing from senior party figures.

At a late-night rally in Opa-locka, Florida, before Trump took the stage, the US senator Marco Rubio said: “I saw yesterday a video of these people in Texas. Did you see it? All the cars on the road ... we love what they did. “But here’s the thing they don’t know: we do that in Florida every day.” Trump appeared to seek to discourage the FBI from investigating, saying in a tweet: “In my opinion, these patriots did nothing wrong.”

Trump and Democratic governors, mayors ready National Guard and police for election night protests

With four days until the November 3 election, state governors, local mayors and President Donald Trump are preparing for massive demonstrations by activating emergency operations centers, readying police forces at polling sites, and mobilizing National Guard soldiers and federal paramilitaries. Trump’s mobilization of thousands of soldiers and federal agents, including an unspecified number of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Washington DC, is without precedent. ... But Democratic leaders are also mobilizing forces for election night, not to challenge Trump, but to suppress demonstrations called in opposition to any attempted coup by Trump. This only strengthens Trump’s hand.

Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf called up hundreds of National Guard soldiers, ostensibly to quell protests against the police murder of 27-year-old Walter Wallace, Jr. on Monday. However, with the protests mostly subsided for now, the troops are not leaving. On Friday, the soldiers arrived and began to deploy in the city of Philadelphia as Democratic Mayor Jim Kenney imposed another 15-hour curfew, beginning at 9 p.m. Friday and lasting until 6 a.m. Saturday. As of this writing, Humvees, M-35 series 2.5-ton troop carriers and uniformed soldiers carrying M-4 assault rifles are posted outside of City Hall and throughout downtown Philadelphia. ...

In Chicago, Democratic Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced on Friday that she had activated the city’s emergency operations center for 10 days in preparation for the election. Lightfoot said that between 60 and 300 garbage trucks, salt spreaders, snowplows and water trucks were ready to be deployed to protect “commercial districts.” While stating that there were no “credible threats” to the city and that Trump “is absolutely not going” to be allowed to deploy federal troops to the city, Lightfoot warned, “if we need to take more aggressive measures to protect the city... we will take those actions.” ...

Meanwhile, in Washington DC, where protests are ongoing following the death of Karon Hylton-Brown as a result of a police chase, two anonymous Department of Homeland Security officials confirmed with NBC that agents from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), Federal Protective Services, and Customs and Border Protection (CPB) have been told to prepare to “protect federal property” in DC. These agents are part of the recently created Trump paramiitary force dubbed the “Protecting American Communities Task Force.” ...

Meanwhile, the ultra-wealthy in New York are preparing for election day by hiring off-duty police equipped with “submachine guns” to guard their multi-million-dollar penthouses and condos. According to a source speaking with the New York Post, building managers, working in conjunction with the New York Police Department and DHS, are providing “officers with submachine guns." The source added, We’ve always had immense security, but there will be more. We’ll have extra patrols.”

UK Labour civil war? Jeremy Corbyn vindicated on anti-Semitism smears, gets suspended anyway

Boris Johnson faces Tory fury amid hints of further lockdown

Boris Johnson will insist there is “no alternative” to a nationwide lockdown as he addresses the House of Commons on Monday amid mounting fury among Tory MPs, after ministers conceded the new “stay at home” order could be extended beyond 2 December.

The prime minister will tell parliament that without the draconian new measures, which will come into force across England on Thursday, deaths from coronavirus over the winter could be “twice as bad or even worse” than in the first wave.

He will promise the government will “seek to ease” restrictions when the measures are due to expire. However, cabinet minister Michael Gove made clear on Sunday they could be left in place if they have not yet brought the infection rate down sufficiently. ...

Johnson will set out his plan to parliament after a chaotic weekend that saw his dramatic announcement brought forward after it was leaked on Friday evening, causing shock among his own backbenchers. Amid forecasts that the economy could take a hit of up to 10% as a result of the new curbs, the Bank of England is poised to announce a fresh cash injection into the economy later this week.

'Trump Is KILLING Americans': As US Cases Top 9 Million, Stanford Study Ties President's Rallies to Covid-19 Spread

As the U.S. coronavirus caseload surpassed nine million on Friday, Stanford University economists published a study that connected 18 of President Donald Trump's reelection rallies from June 20 to September 30 with more than 30,000 Covid-19 infections and over 700 deaths—tallies that don't include the month of October, when cases nationwide surged.

"Our analysis strongly supports the warnings and recommendations of public health officials concerning the risk of Covid-19 transmission at large group gatherings, particularly when the degree of compliance with guidelines concerning the use of masks and social distancing is low," wrote (pdf) Stanford's B. Douglas Bernheim, Nina Buchmann, Zach Freitas-Groff, and Sebastián Otero. "The communities in which Trump rallies took place paid a high price in terms of disease and death."

The new study comes after an analysis published Tuesday by the think tank Center for American Progress which found that half of the 22 campaign rallies Trump held between June and September were followed by county-level increases in Covid-19 infections. As Common Dreams reported Friday, attendees of the president's more recent reelection events have also been taken to the hospital with possible hypothermia and required medical attention for heat-related illnesses.

With less than a week until Election Day, the United States saw a record number of new daily Covid-19 cases on Friday—99,321, according to Johns Hopkins University's global tracker. Meanwhile, both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence were on the campaign trail. The president held rallies in Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota while Pence held two events in Arizona.

'A whole lot of hurt': Fauci angers Trump White House with dark Covid outlook

The US should prepare for “a whole lot of hurt” under the coronavirus pandemic, senior public health expert Anthony Fauci has said, predicting a winter of 100,000 or more cases a day and a rising death toll. “We’re in for a whole lot of hurt,” Fauci told the Washington Post in a hard-hitting interview published on Saturday night, three days out from election day, immediately angering the Trump White House.

“It’s not a good situation. All the stars are aligned in the wrong place as you go into the fall and winter season, with people congregating at home indoors. You could not possibly be positioned more poorly.”

More than 9.1m cases of Covid-19 have been recorded in the US and more than 230,000 people have died. Daily case counts vary but agree that on Friday the US set a world record for cases in a single day, between 99,000 and 100,000, as numbers surge in several states, many of them electoral battlegrounds key to control of the White House. On Saturday, Johns Hopkins University reported more than 81,000 new cases. There were 862 deaths, down from more than 1,000 the day before.

Donald Trump, recently recovered from the virus himself, continues to campaign for re-election, staging rallies at which mitigation strategies such as mask-wearing and social distancing are not observed and regularly claiming the US is “rounding the corner”. On Friday he made the baseless claim that doctors are rewarded financially if people die of Covid. ...

Fauci told the Post that Biden was “taking it seriously from a public health perspective”. Trump, he said, was “looking at it from a different perspective … the economy and reopening the country.”

Experts Warn Trump HHS 'Endangering People' by Covering Up Key Covid-19 Hospitalization Data

As surging coronavirus hospitalizations across the U.S. push already-strained medical facilities to the brink of full capacity, internal documents obtained by NPR show that the Trump administration is withholding from the public critical hospital data that experts say would be extremely useful in helping communities prepare for, track, and overcome Covid-19 outbreaks.

NPR reported Friday that the documents—which are based on hospital data collected and analyzed daily by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—"highlight trends in hospitalizations and pinpoint cities nearing full hospital capacity and facilities under stress. They paint a granular picture of the strain on hospitals across the country that could help local citizens decide when to take extra precautions against Covid-19."

"The documents show that detailed information hospitals report to HHS every day is reviewed and analyzed—but circulation seems to be limited to a few dozen government staffers from HHS and its agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institutes of Health," NPR noted. "Only one member of the White House Coronavirus Task Force, Adm. Brett Giroir, appears to receive the documents directly."

Dated October 27, the most recent internal report obtained by NPR shows that around 24% of the nation's hospitals—including facilities in major cities like Atlanta and Minneapolis—are utilizing more than 80% of their intensive care unit capacity and names specific hospitals that are over 95% capacity. The document also shows an uptick in ventilator usage over the past month as coronavirus infections continue to rise at a record-shattering rate.

Experts said the detailed local data currently only circulated among a small group of Trump administration officials would, if made widely available, play a significant role in better informing Americans and health officials about nearby hotspots and encouraging greater safety precautions.

"The neighborhood data, the county data, and metro-area data can be really helpful for people to say, 'Whoa, they're not kidding, this is right here,'" Lisa Lee, former chief science officer for public health surveillance at the CDC, told NPR. "It can help public health prevention folks get their messages across and get people to change their behavior."

While some state officials are able to access HHS reports for their own state, the inability to view broader regional data leaves them without potentially crucial information.

"Hospitals in Tennessee serve patients who are from Arkansas and Mississippi and Kentucky and Georgia and vice versa, and so we're a little bit blind to what's going on there," said Melissa McPheeters, adjunct research professor of health policy at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. "When we see hospitals that are particularly near those state borders having increases, one of the things we can't tell is: Is that because hospitals in an adjacent state are full? What's going on there? And that could be a really important piece of the picture."

Overturning the Affordable Care Act Could Result in 68,000 Deaths

As many as 68,000 people may die in a single year if the Supreme Court overturns the Affordable Care Act, according to research published Thursday. The study, published by Health Affairs, found that some 2.3 million people have already lost health insurance coverage during the first three years of the Trump administration and that between 3,399 and 25,180 people died as a result of losing that coverage.

The growth in the number of uninsured between 2016 and 2019 likely resulted from several steps the administration has taken to shrink health care coverage, such as cutting spending for a program that helps people sign up for health insurance, according to the study’s authors. The administration also supported the repeal of the individual mandate by Congress in 2017. ...

Far more deaths are expected if the Supreme Court overturns the Affordable Care Act. The authors of the study use the Urban Institute’s estimate that 19.9 million people will likely lose their health insurance, as well as several studies tying a lack of insurance to premature death, to calculate that the massive loss in health coverage will likely cause between 22,892 and 68,345 deaths per year among adults under 65.

While the study focused on adults, an estimated 726,000 children also lost coverage during the first three years of the Trump administration, according to the Georgetown University Health Policy Institute, which predicts that an additional 1.7 million children will become uninsured if the Affordable Care Act is overturned.

On November 10, the Supreme Court is scheduled to hear arguments in California v. Texas, a case that could result in the court striking down the entire Affordable Care Act in the midst of a global pandemic that has already resulted in more than 227,000 deaths in the U.S. Amy Coney Barrett, Donald Trump’s recently installed justice, is expected to vote with conservatives against the law. Trump appears not to have a plan for making sure that those who lose coverage as a result of the Supreme Court decision will have continued access to health care.

'Banking for the People': Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez Unveil Bill to Foster Creation of Public Banks Across US

"It's long past time to open doors for people who have been systematically shut out and provide a better option for those grappling with the costs of simply trying to participate in an economy they have every right to—but has been rigged against them."

That's according to Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), who along with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and a handful of other progressives in Congress introduced legislation on Friday they say "would provide a much-needed financial lifeline to states and municipalities, as well as unbanked and underbanked residents, that have been left in dire straits by the Covid-19 pandemic."

Specifically, as a joint statement from the congresswomen explains, the Public Banking Act (pdf) would enable "the creation of state and locally administered public banks by establishing the Public Bank Grant program administered by the secretary of the Treasury and the Federal Reserve Board which would provide grants for the formation, chartering, and capitalization of public banks."

"We spent $30 trillion in the global crisis from 2007-2009 propping up financial institutions that held the country hostage for their reckless behavior. Only $8 trillion dollars has been committed thus far in the Covid-19 pandemic," Tlaib noted. "These banks have been, are, and will continue to depend on the public dollar. It is time for this relationship to be reciprocated and have the banks work for the people and not solely privatized profits wreaking havoc on communities of color."

In addition to allowing the Treasury secretary and the Fed's board to give grants to public banks for "bank formation, capitalization, developing financial market infrastructure, supporter operations, covering unexpected losses, and more without the requirement to provide matching funds," the bill:

• Allows the Federal Reserve to charter and grant membership to public banks, and in conjunction with the appropriate federal agencies, establish a separate regulatory scheme with respect to these.
• Establishes public banking incubator program to provide technical assistance to public member banks to develop technologies, practices, and data that promote public welfare.
• Establishes new liquidity and credit facilities at the Federal Reserve to provide direct federal support to state and local public banks and their communities;
• Prohibits investment in fossil fuel projects.

Tlaib and Ocasio-Cortez argue that public banks not only would benefit city and state governments and aspiring entrepreneurs due to lower interest rates and fees, but also could result in broader community benefits by, for example, funding public infrastructure projects. Ocasio-Cortez called their legislation "monumental."

"Public banks are uniquely able to address the economic inequality and structural racism exacerbated by the banking industry's discriminatory policies and predatory practices," she said. "The creation of public banks will also facilitate the use of public resources to construct a myriad of public goods including affordable housing and local renewable energy projects. Public banks empower states and municipalities to establish new channels of public investment to help solve systemic crises."

After Mother Beaten by Philly Cops, Fraternal Order of Police Use Photo of Terrified Toddler as Propaganda

The conduct of Philadelphia police officers and the nation's largest law enforcement association this week amounted to what one journalist called "an extraordinary mix of police violence and disinformation," after it was revealed Friday that officers beat a young mother who had accidentally driven into a protest and then snatched her toddler from the car and later used his image in pro-police propaganda.

Along with several posts urging voters to support President Donald Trump, the Fraternal Order of Police on Thursday night posted a photo of a toddler who the union falsely claimed had been found by Philadelphia police "wandering around barefoot" amid the "lawlessness" of the fourth night of demonstrations over the killing of Walter Wallace, Jr. 

But the union soon deleted the post after being confronted by the Philadelphia Inquirer and lawyers for the two-year-old boy's mother, Rickia Young, said the officers forcibly removed the toddler from his mother's vehicle after smashing the car's windows and violently arresting Young after she accidentally drove into an area where protesters were being confronted by lines of riot police.

The reality of what the photo shows, tweeted HuffPost reporter Ryan J. Reilly, offers "a tremendously valuable lesson in why you always need to treat initial police narratives with intense skepticism."

According to attorneys Riley H. Ross III and Kevin Mincey, Young attempted to turn around immediately after she turned down a street where police were clashing with protesters Thursday night, while her son and teenage nephew were in the car with her. 

While she was trying to make a three-point turn as directed by officers, the police suddenly surrounded her SUV, smashing Young's windows while the toddler sat in the back seat. The police violently dragged Young out of the car, beat her with batons, and then threw her to the ground.

[If you feel obligated to see the video, it is here. -js]

While Young was left with a bloodied head and badly bruised left side from the police attack and was detained and separated from her son for hours, a female police officer was photographed holding the toddler in what was later used for what Ross called "propaganda."

"Using this kid in a way to say, 'This kid was in danger and the police were only there to save him,' when the police actually caused the danger," Ross told the Washington Post. "That little boy is terrified because of what the police did."

The child was also hurt during the attack and was taken to Children's Hospital to be treated for a head injury after being reunited with his mother. According to the Post, the family still has not been able to locate the SUV or their belongings, including the toddler's hearing aids, which were inside.

Observers on social media expressed shock at the story, with filmmaker Peter Ramsey tweeting that accounts like that of Young and her child are evidence of a police force that is "begging to be defunded."

At least 25 Americans were killed during protests and political unrest in 2020

At least 11 Americans have been killed while participating in political demonstrations this year and another 14 have died in other incidents linked to political unrest, according to new data from a non-profit monitoring political unrest in the United States. Nine of the people killed during protests were demonstrators taking part in Black Lives Matter protests. Two were conservatives killed after pro-Trump “patriot rallies”. All but one were killed by fellow citizens.

The new data highlights the danger of the presence of guns during politically charged protests, and raises concerns about continued violence during and after election day, when many Americans anticipate delays, confusion and protests before the winner of the presidential race is confirmed.

The new data on fatalities and violence at American protests comes from a database created by the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data project (ACLED), a non-profit, working in collaboration with a group of researchers at Princeton.

ACLED, a widely cited source for data on civilian casualties in Yemen, has been a non-partisan monitor of protests and violence in the Middle East, Asia, Europe and Latin America, and launched its US Crisis Monitor in July, citing concerns over hate crimes and rising political violence.

ACLED found that the overwhelming majority of the more than 9.000 Black Lives Matter demonstrations that took place across the US after the killing of George Floyd have been peaceful. News reports at the height of demonstrations over Floyd’s killing cited dozens of deaths in connection with protests, but many of those turned out to be examples of deadly crimes carried out in the vicinity of protests, rather than directly related to the demonstrations themselves, the researchers concluded. ACLED’s dataset only focuses on political violence.

Trump Administration Shields Racist Border Patrol Facebook Members

U.S. Customs and Border Protection, the nation’s largest federal law enforcement agency, will face a subpoena from lawmakers in Washington, D.C., over its failure to produce documents related to a secret and highly inflammatory Facebook group that included thousands of current and former Border Patrol agents, according to a memo obtained by The Intercept. Rep. Carolyn Maloney, chair of the House Committee on Oversight and Reform, sent a 17-page memo on Friday informing her colleagues of her intent to subpoena CBP for documents the agency “has been withholding from the Committee for more than a year,” and revealing a pattern of downgrading of consequences for agents involved in a secret social media group that drew national attention and condemnation.

“These documents include information about dozens of CBP employees who engaged in misconduct by participating in secret Facebook groups that shared racist, sexually violent, dehumanizing, and abhorrent material,” Maloney wrote. “They made these vile posts not only about immigrants — including a father and daughter who drowned in the Rio Grande — but also about a Member of our Committee.” Despite a handful of firings over the summer, “CBP has refused to produce any documents that identify these employees or the specific abuses they engaged in, instead choosing to withhold these documents or redact them to conceal this information from the Committee,” Maloney wrote, adding that “the Trump Administration has not set forth any valid legal basis to withhold this information.” Among the reasons the administration gave for its “overt obstruction,” Maloney wrote, “is a fear that the identities and abuses of these employees could become public.”

According to Maloney’s memo to her colleagues, from March to September of this year, “CBP produced documents showing that it has now taken final disciplinary action against dozens of employees, including firing them, suspending them, and issuing Letters of Reprimand for their conduct. CBP has produced to the Committee final disposition documents in 106 cases. Based on the documents obtained to date, it appears that CBP fired four employees, suspended 37 employees, and issued Letters of Reprimand to ten employees.” At the same time, however, the oversight chairwoman reported that the agency concealed, “the names, roles, and responsibilities of employees who have been fired”; “the identities and abuses of those who were disciplined, but remain on the job”; “information regarding the specific misconduct of the employees”; “proposed penalties for misconduct and any mitigating factors considered in reducing their punishments”; and “the names and roles of supervisors that signed off on punishment reductions.”

Maloney went on to report that “the limited information produced to the Committee shows that CBP significantly reduced penalties for numerous employees who they determined engaged in misconduct,” reducing three firings to suspensions and the duration of 19 other suspensions. “In communications with the committee, the Trump Administration has expressed more concern about protecting the reputations of employees who made racist and sexually depraved posts than the wellbeing of the children and families they interact with on a daily basis,” she said.

Joe Rogan Experience #1556 - Glenn Greenwald

RIP Robert Fisk

'Greatest Journalist of His Generation': Robert Fisk, Veteran War Reporter and Fierce Critic of US Imperialism, Dead at 74

Robert Fisk, longtime Middle East reporter for The Independent whose work—often reported from deep inside dangerous war zones and fiercely critical of both U.S. and British foreign policy—earned him a worldwide reputation for courageous reporting, died Friday in Dublin of a suspected stroke at age 74.

The Independent remembered Fisk, whose articles often appeared here on Common Dreams, as "the most celebrated journalist of his era" and someone who was "renowned for his courage in questioning official narratives from governments and publishing what he uncovered in frequently brilliant prose." Christian Broughton, the paper's managing editor, lauded Fisk as "fearless, uncompromising, determined, and utterly committed to uncovering the truth and reality at all costs."

"Robert Fisk was the greatest journalist of his generation," Broughton said. "The fire he lit at The Independent will burn on." 

Robert Fisk has died. I pay warmest tribute to one of the last great reporters. The weasel word 'controversial' appears in even his own paper, The Independent, whose pages he honoured. He went against the grain and told the truth, spectacularly. Journalism has lost the bravest.

— John Pilger (@johnpilger) November 2, 2020

Robert Fisk was simply the best foreign correspondent by a mile. Honest, diligent and fearless. Hated by those who wished to justify illegal invasions and war crimes. Disliked by those on all sides who put their international political allegiances before the truth. https://t.co/xaXZjVoTUP

— Craig Murray (@CraigMurrayOrg) November 1, 2020

Fisk—who held both British and Irish citizenship—had already established a more than 15-year reputation by the time he joined The Independent in 1989. He is most known in the U.S. for having interviewed al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden three times. Both a self-described pacifist and one of the most prolific war reporters of modern times, Fisk covered conflicts on three continents over an illustrious and award-winning career spanning five decades. He reported from the front lines of The Troubles in Northern Ireland; the Iran-Iraq War; the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan; the Islamic Revolution in Iran; the wars in the former Yugoslavia; the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait; both U.S.-led invasions of Iraq; the U.S.-led war in Afghanistan; the civil wars in Lebanon, Algeria and Syria; and the Israel-Palestine conflict.

Barack Obama, Gaslighter

Krystal and Saagar: Biden Team Weighs BAN On Bernie, Warren As They Consider Republicans For Cabinet

Trump to declare victory before results are in, report says

Donald Trump embarked on a blistering final campaign sprint on Sunday, lining up 10 rallies in seven swing states over two days in an effort to defy the polls and replicate his shock election win in 2016. As he did so, it was reported that he is planning to declare victory on Tuesday, before the result is called.

Citing three anonymous sources “familiar with his private comments”, the news site Axios said Trump “has told confidants he’ll declare victory on Tuesday night if it looks like he’s ‘ahead’.

“That’s even if the electoral college outcome still hinges on large numbers of uncounted votes in key states like Pennsylvania,” the site said, adding: “Trump has privately talked through this scenario in some detail in the last few weeks, describing plans to walk up to a podium on election night and declare he has won.

“For this to happen, his allies expect he would need to either win or have commanding leads in Ohio, Florida, North Carolina, Texas, Iowa, Arizona and Georgia.” According to FiveThirtyEight.com, Trump leads in Ohio, Texas and Iowa while Biden is up in Florida, North Carolina, Georgia and Arizona. The races are all exceptionally tight: the biggest lead in the FiveThirtyEight.com polling average is Biden by three points in Arizona, the smallest Trump by 0.2 in Ohio. ...

Trump’s tactics, Axios said, will depend on continuing to claim without evidence ballots counted after election day are illegitimate and evidence of voter fraud. Vote counting after election day is a regular feature of US elections.

A TERRIBLE CHOICE - Chris Hedges, Rick Wolff, Jill Stein & Mike Gravel

Krystal Ball: Don't Fool Yourself, Donald Trump Isn't Going Anywhere

Texas supreme court rejects Republican effort to toss 127,000 drive-thru votes

The Texas supreme court on Sunday denied a Republican-led petition to throw out nearly 127,000 ballots cast at drive-through voting places in the Houston area.

The all-Republican high court rejected the request from a state representative and two Republican candidates without explaining its decision. Their effort to have the Harris county ballots thrown out is still set to be taken up during an emergency hearing in federal court on Monday.

Conservative activists have railed against expanded voting access in Harris county, where a record 1.4m early votes have already been cast. The county is the nation’s third-largest and a crucial battleground in Texas, where Donald Trump and Republicans are bracing for the closest election in decades on Tuesday.

US district judge Andrew Hanen is expected to rule on the same issue on Monday. Hanen’s decision to hear arguments on the brink of election day drew attention from voting rights activists. The Texas supreme court also rejected a nearly identical challenge last month. ...

Harris county has offered 10 drive-through locations where its nearly 5 million residents can cast ballots in their cars instead of going inside polling centers. The accommodation aims to prevent transmission of the coronavirus.

"We Never Made It to the Polls": Police in North Carolina Pepper-Spray Voting March, Arresting Eight

North Carolina police pepper spray protesters at get-out-the-vote march

North Carolina police pepper-sprayed and arrested attendees at a get-out-the vote rally because participants blocked the roadway without permission, authorities said on Saturday.

The “I Am Change” march to the polls was organized by the Reverend Greg Drumwright and began as a walk from a local church to the courthouse. Drumwright said the group was permitted to stand in the square outside the Alamance county courthouse and was escorted through the streets by the police. He also said that the group had “no intention” of having the rally in the street.

“We are fed up with this kind of treatment in Alamance county and in Graham city,” Drumwright said in a Facebook live video following the altercation. “Both of those law entities … colluded to suppress peaceful organizers, who were here not only to vote today, but to call an end to system oppression and racial disparages.”

Lindsay Ayling, a graduate student and anti-racism activist who participated in the rally, said police used teargas indiscriminately and without reason on the crowd, including on children.

“The police were looking for excuses to use pepper spray and arrest members of the crowd,” she said. ...

Saturday was the last day to vote early in North Carolina, a state Donald Trump needs to win to boost his prospects of defeating Joe Biden. North Carolina attorney general Josh Stein called the events in Graham “troubling”. He said election officials told him polling places stayed open and people continued to vote. “All eligible voters in North Carolina have a constitutional right to cast their vote safely and securely, without threats or intimidation,” said Stein, a Democrat.

Why Nancy Pelosi Should Be Defeated!

EPA Sued for 'Once Again Putting Corporate Interests Over Public Health or the Environment' by Reapproving Herbicide Atrazine

While taking aim at the Trump administration's broader pesticide agenda, a coalition of advocacy groups sued Friday over the Environmental Protection Agency's recent reauthorization of atrazine, which is one of the most widely used herbicides in the United States but off limits in dozens of countries due to health and safety concerns.

"If EPA were actually doing its job, this chemical would have been off the market years ago," declared Kristin Schafer, executive director of Pesticide Action Network (PAN). "The science on atrazine's harms is so clear that it's been banned in Europe for more than a decade, yet here in this country EPA is now loosening use restrictions—once again putting corporate interests over public health or the environment."

The agency's atrazine decision last month "is part of a sweeping effort by the EPA in recent months to quickly approve numerous extremely controversial and harmful pesticides," the groups behind the lawsuit—Beyond Pesticides, Center for Biological Diversity, Center for Food Safety, PAN North America, and Rural Coalition—said in a joint statement.

Filed in 9th Circuit Court of Appeals just days before crucial U.S. elections, the suit (pdf) challenges the EPA's reapproval of atrazine as well as propazine and simazine, two other pesticides in the triazine class that were part of the same review process.

The filing also follows the EPA's approval of three dicamba products on Tuesday. Also vowing to challenge that move, Center for Food Safety legal director George Kimbrell said that "rather than evaluating the significant costs of dicamba drift as the 9th Circuit told them the law required, EPA rushed reapproval as a political prop just before the election, sentencing farmers and the environment to another five years of unacceptable damage."

'They give me the willies': scientist who vacuumed murder hornets braces for fight

Asian giant hornets were first discovered in North America last year, popping up in British Columbia, Canada, before a handful of specimens made it south of the border to Washington state. The hornets, native to east Asia, most likely arrived on the continent clinging to imported goods sent via sea or air. A close relative of the hornet has already made separate inroads into France and the UK.

A key, and unnerving, question is how far they will manage to spread across America. Looney said the removal of the first nest found in the US was just a “small victory” in a battle likely to rage for several years to contain the insects. Thousands of sightings have been reported in Washington, and while many are false or mistaken, Chris Looney, a WSDA entomologist who was tasked with vacuuming up the hornets said it was likely the hornets had spread, potentially establishing dozens more nests.

“It’s hard to say how they will behave here compared to their native range, but the fear is that there are large apiaries of bees that could be sitting ducks, while as the hornets move south to warmer weather their colonies could grow larger,” he said. “The object of our work is to avoid finding this out.” Scientists who have modeled the potential spread of the hornets predict they will be able to extend down the west coast into California. The Rocky Mountains and drier interior of the US pose major barriers to an eastward push but environs on the east coast such as New York would be ideal homes for the murder hornets should they inadvertently be transported there.

Looney said he was “troubled” by evidence that overwintering hornet queens like to bury themselves in straw and hay, commodities that are regularly shifted around the US by train or truck. A hornet queen that hitched a ride would still face challenges establishing a nest even if moved to the east coast – it could immediately be crushed underfoot, after all – but the potential pathway is there.

Also of Interest

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

The President’s War on Dissent Is Using Trumped-Up Federal Charges

Private Security Firms Ramp Up for Potential Election Unrest in Minneapolis

Trump lead in Iowa poll rattles Democrats – but Biden still leads nationally

Venezuela coup plotters met at Trump Doral. Central figure says U.S. officials knew of plan.

Media Silence on Assange Aids Trump

Top Democrat Says Biden Would Change National Defense Strategy

It May Not Be Sunny in Philadelphia, But the Town’s Not Burning Either

Citing Widespread Election-Related Delays, Federal Judge Invokes 'Extraordinary Measures' to Ensure On-Time Delivery, Counting of Ballots

Wisconsin battles rapid rise in Covid cases amid partisan disputes over safety

Caitlin Johnstone: Violence After The Election Will Only Benefit The Powerful: Notes From The Edge Of The Narrative Matrix

Jeremy Scahill: Statement Regarding Attacks on The Intercept and Its Journalists

Caitlin Johnstone: Greenwald’s Intercept Resignation Exposes The Rot In All Mass Media

Michael Olenick: The Real Origins of Trump – The Foreclosure Crisis

Despite Its Five Felony Counts, the Federal Reserve Has Entrusted $2 Trillion in Bonds to JPMorgan Chase

Add vitamin D to bread and milk to help fight Covid, urge scientists

'An incredible scar': the harsh toll of Trump's 400-mile wall through national parks

Jimmy Dore: Socialism and America - with Jacobin editor Bhaskar Sunkara

Jimmy Dore: The PATHETIC End of RUSSIA-GATE!

Krystal and Saagar: New Maps Reveal INSANE Early Turnout, What Does It Mean?

Krystal and Saagar: Liberals FREAK Over New Poll, Nate Silver WARNS Biden On Pennsylvania

Saagar Enjeti: A Trump WIN Would Be A ‘Middle Finger’ To Establishment, Sign Of Decrepit Dem Party

Krystal and Saagar: What's WORST Case Scenario If Trump Declares Premature Victory?

A Little Night Music

Sax Mallard - The Bunny Hop

Lil Green - Knockin' Myself Out

Doctor Clayton - Moonshine Women Blues

Willie "Long Time" Smith - Homeless Blues

Big Joe Williams - Stack Of Dollars

Washboard Sam - Motherless Child Blues

T-Bone Walker - Papa Ain't Salty

L.C. McKinley - Disgusted

Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup - Where Did You Stay Last Night

Sunnyland Slim - Illinois Central

Champion Jack Dupree (feat. Wilson Swain, Ransom Knowling) - Junker Blues

Elmore James - I Believe

Tampa Red - Midnight Boogie