On November 2, 2020, the Federal Court Appointed Monitor James Ginger filed with the Federal Court his 12th Compliance Audit Report of the Albuquerque Police Department (APD) reforms mandated under the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA). The report covers the twelfth-monitoring period of February 1, 2020 to July 31, 2020. The link to the City web site with entire 12th Federal Monitor’s report is here:

http://documents.cabq.gov/police/reports/department-of-justice/independent-monitors-twelfth-report-nov-2020.pdf

On Friday, October 6, the Federal District Court Judge James Browning held a hearing on the 12th Federal Monitors Report. Normally, such a hearing is an all day long, in person hearing allowing the public to attend. As a result of the corona virus, the hearing was held “virtually” but because of technology difficulties, the public and the press were prevented from attending.

A transcript of the October 6 hearing reveals that Federal Court Appointed Monitor James Ginger told the court:

“We are on the brink of a catastrophic failure at APD. … [The department] has failed miserably in its ability to police itself. … If this were simply a question of leadership, I would be less concerned. But it’s not. It’s a question of leadership. It’s a question of command. It’s a question of supervision. And it’s a question of performance on the street. So as a monitor with significant amount of experience – I’ve been doing this since the ’90s – I would have to be candid with the Court and say we’re in more trouble here right now today than I’ve ever seen.”

CONTEMPT OF COURT AND RECIEVERSHIP SOUGHT

On Friday, November 4, another “virtual” public hearing will be held in federal court. In anticipation of the hearing, attorneys and advocacy groups have submitted letter to the Federal Judge who has been assigned the case. The attorneys include prominent Civil Rights Attorney Peter Cubra, NM State Representative Moe Maestas whose firm represents a group known as the Community Coalition.

Also submitting a letter to the court was ABQ Forward that advocates APD reform mandated by the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA). APD Forward includes 19 organizations who have affiliated with each other in an effort to reform APD and implement the DOJ consent reforms. Members of APD Forward include Albuquerque Health Care for the Homeless, American Civil Liberties, Bernalillo County Community Health Council, Common Cause New Mexico, Disability Rights New Mexico, Equality New Mexico, League of Women Voters of Central New, Mexico New Mexico Conference of Churches, New Mexico Criminal Defense Lawyers Association, Sierra Club Rio Grande Chapter, and the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico.

A link to the court document “Notice Letters From Amici and Casa Stakeholders Regarding Issues to be Addressed During December 4, 2020 Public Hearing” with the letters is here:

https://www.scribd.com/document/486597382/Amici-Stakeholders-letters#from_embed

The reform advocates, after six years under the consent decree, in their letters for the first time include a request that the Federal Court be far more aggressive with mandating the reforms. One letter goes as far as to asked for the city to be held in contempt. Mr. Cubra in his letter suggests a finding, based on the Twelfth Monitor’s Report, that the City and the Albuquerque Police Officers Association be held in civil contempt of Court.

APD Forward in its letter points out that the Federal Monitor reports several places he traces resistance to interference by the police officer’s union. APD Forward goes on to ask the question “Why is the Albuquerque Police Officers’ Association still included as a litigant in the CASA when they have been actively undermining reforms?” Mr. Maestas goes as far as to suggest that the city renegotiate the police union terms that are conflict with the CASA. If new union contract terms are negotiated, one term that needs to be negotiated is who are allowed in the bargaining unit.

Peter Simonson, speaking on behalf of the APD Forward coalition of advocacy organizations, said the group has considered asking before that the court to hold the city in contempt. It did so when the Mayor Berry Administration and then City Attorney Jessica Hernandez secretly recorded conversations with Independent Monitor James Ginger in an effort to show biasness on his part and have him removed from the case.

According to Simonson, the current situation under the Mayor Tim Keller Administration is now so desperate that putting APD under an outside receivership might be the only way for it to reform. Simonson put it this way:

“I don’t see a way out, and I don’t think APD Forward sees a way out for this reform to succeed. … It doesn’t seem to be an exit strategy. … Given the systemic nature of the problems that the monitor has identified, it seems to us that the situation is too dire to hope that the department and the city can pull together.”

Simonson, on behalf of APD Forward, also points out that the Federal Monitor has been raising red flags in several of his reports, but no action has been taken by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Both Simonson and Cubra said their frustrations extend beyond APD, the city and mayoral administrations. They said they are frustrated that the DOJ hasn’t already done more to make sure APD is complying with the settlement agreement.

Simonson put it this way:

“If they are going to be the legal representative of our community, we need them to stand up and react to these kinds of indications … That feels to me like this conversation should have started much earlier.”

Civil Rights Attorney Peter Cubra in his letter to Judge James Browning said that if the Court finds the city in contempt of court, he could appoint an administrator to oversee APD and give instructions to subordinates in the city government and said:

“That would be a receivership, where the agent of the court could act as the de facto police chief in order to get the existing agreed court order complied with.”

Cubra noted that the Keller Administration formulated new policies and procedures for investigating excessive use of force a couple of years ago and that those were implemented earlier this year. However, Cubra said systemic problems remain and added:

“Not only did this report find things are still out of compliance, but it found both city employees and union employees actively interfering with the implementation of the court order. … They got a second chance, and they blew it.”

A link to related news coverage and sources is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/1522741/advocacy-groups-criticize-pace-of-police-reforms.html

MONITOR’S SCATHING ASSESSMENT AT “TOP OF ORANIZATION”

In the 12th Federal Monitors Report file with the Court on November 2, and covering the period of February 1, 2020 to July 31, 2020, Independent Monitor James Ginger wrote a scathing condemnation of APD’s ability to police itself and hold officers accountable when they improperly use force. Ginger wrote:

“APD’s compliance efforts have exhibited serious shortfalls during the … reporting period. These range from critical shortfalls in management and oversight of the APD Training Academy, significant and deleterious failures relating to oversight and discipline; and executive-level failures regarding oversight, command and control, discipline, supervision, and training.
…
Since the inception of this monitoring process in 2015, we have been as open and honest as possible with APD executive leadership and have never noted a problem at APD without following up with suggestions regarding how APD might best address that problem. At this stage of the process most of those discussions at the executive level have fallen on deaf ears. After six years of suggestions, recommendations, and problem-solving meetings, … as of the end of the … reporting period, much remains to be done.

Until these actions take place, compliance will be exceptionally evasive.”

MONITOR FINDS OVERSIGHT OF THE ”USE OF FORCE” INEFFECTIVE

The monitoring team was highly critical of APD’s Use of Force Board (UFB) and reported:

“… [D] during the reporting period we encountered system-wide failures related to the oversight of force used by APD officers and supervisory and command review of those uses of force. The monitoring team has been critical of the Force Review Board (FRB), citing its past ineffectiveness and its failing to provide meaningful oversight for APD’s use of force system. The consequences are that APD’s FRB, and by extension APD itself, endorses questionable, and sometimes unlawful, conduct by its officers.

During the … reporting period, APD continued to struggle to establish a system of force oversight and the accountability for officer conduct. These struggles have significant influence on the organization’s efforts to achieve Operational Compliance. Still evident are systemic failures that allow questionable uses of force and misconduct to survive without being addressed in any meaningful way.”

Regarding one disturbing use of force incident the Monitor reported:

“After six years of ‘reform’ at APD, after six years of acute and intensive technical assistance and assessment from the monitoring team, after six years of exhaustive (and critical) reports from the monitor; after six years of ‘effort,’ this knowable and egregious case floated through (several) levels of review at APD … (on-scene officers; on-scene supervisory personnel; ‘upstream’ area command supervisory and management personnel; video review unit personnel; IAFD; and FRB) and all … of those levels managed to ‘not see’ a clear and (convincing) incident of deliberate excessive use of force against an individual obviously suffering a crisis.”

POLICE UNION “COUNTER CASA AFFECT” STILL PROBLEMATIC

The 12th Federal Monitors’ report contains a summary that highlights major deficiencies that have set back compliance levels. For at least the 4th time, the monitor reported that the “Counter Casa” effect was interfering with APD accomplishing the implementing the CASA reforms. The Federal Monitor has defined the Counter CASA effect as a group of high ranking APD sworn police officers including Sergeants and Lieutenants who resist the reforms. Sergeants and Lieutenants, although management, are allowed to be part of the police union and can only be terminated for cause.

According to the 12th report:

“[The federal monitor] identified strong under currents of Counter-CASA effects in some critical units on APD’s critical path related to CASA compliance. These include supervision at the field level; mid-level command in both operational and administrative functions, [including] patrol operations, internal affairs practices, disciplinary practices, training, and force review). Supervision, [the] sergeants and lieutenants, and mid-level command, [the commanders] remain one of the most critical weak links in APD’s compliance efforts.”

During this reporting period, the monitoring team often found in its reviews of management and oversight practices, a near myopathy at APD when it comes to assessing actions in the field against the requirements of APD policy and the CASA. Supervisors and command level personnel have a deleterious tendency to ignore the requirements of policy and training, and at times to even support processes to hide or circumvent internal systems designed to ensure compliance to established policy.
…
When a major … CASA-critical command such as Internal Affairs can allow union representatives to hijack internal investigations and can allow officers to respond to salient , and reasonable, fact-finding questions by simply reading a … into the record [that they cannot be compelled to testify] as opposed to answering questions posed, there are serious and near terminal problems with process, policy enforcement, and outcome factors. “

The 12th Federal Monitor’s Report Highlights 5 major areas of union interference:

1.“… [When] … Internal Affairs … allow union representatives … and … officers to respond to salient , and reasonable, fact-finding questions by simply reading a Garrity statement … into the record, as opposed to answering questions posed, there are serious and near terminal problems with process, policy enforcement, and outcome factors.”

5. Supervision, which includes Lieutenants and Sergeants in the union, “needs to leave behind its dark traits of myopia, passive resistance, and outright support for, and implementation of, counter-CASA processes.”

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

After 6 years, 2 Mayors, upwards of $30 Million spent and police union interference, hope springs eternal that the Federal Court and the Department of Justice will finally take aggressive action to deal with APD, including the APD Police Union. No one should hold their breath. Truth be known is that the stakeholders, the amici groups and the Federal Monitor have all been warned more than once over the years that they needed to be far more aggressive in demanding results from APD.

I TOLD YOU SO

When Federal Monitor James Ginger first arrived in Albuquerque over six years ago, he was warned in private in a meeting at the United States Attorney Office what would happen. Dr. Ginger was told in a blunt manner that APD would resist any and all efforts to reform and that what was needed was for APD be placed in receivership. Ginger was also told that the Internal Affairs should be abolished. Ginger was specifically told that after 4 years of the consent decree, APD and the city would be no better off than it was before he started. His response was it was not his job to tell APD what to do, he had no management nor control over APD and that all he could do was audit and report to the court. Now 6 years have passed and the department is no better off now than when the reforms began to be implemented.

On May 25, 2017, in a guest editorial column published by the Albuquerque Journal it was advocated that a Special Master be appointed to take over APD.

The column said the Department of Justice and the US Attorney should seek contempt of court and sanctions against the APD command staff for deliberate noncompliance with the Court Approved Settlement Agreement and seek appointment of a special master to take over APD.

Following are applicable portions of the guest column:

The Monitor complains the lack of scrutiny given by the department’s highest-ranking officer’s in use of force cases is “mystifying” and “startling”.

The entire APD chain of command must be removed and replaced with a new generation of leadership and not from within the ranks of APD.

The link to the full guest column is here:

https://www.abqjournal.com/1008291/apd-is-going-in-the-wrong-direction-on-reform.html

OTHER ARTICLES

There have been other published articles that have reported on the Federal Monitor’s reports, APD’s and the Police Union’s failure to comply with the consent decree and advocating what should be done. Dates, titles and links to those articles are here:

1. November 15, 2020 “ABQ Journal Editorial On 12th Federal Monitor’s Report Short On Identifying What Needs To Be Done With APD And The Reforms; Mayor Tim Keller Only Has Himself To Blame For Reform Failures”

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/11/15/abq-journal-editorial-on-12th-federal-monitors-report-short-on-identifying-what-needs-to-be-done-with-apd-and-the-reforms-mayor-tim-keller-only-has-himself-to-blame-for-reform-failures/

2. November 9, 2020 “12th Federal Monitor’s Report: APD “On The Brink Of Catastrophic Failure”; “Failing Miserably To Police Itself”; Police Union Obstructs Reforms; COMMENTARY: Remove Sergeants And Lieutenants From Union; Abolish APD Internal Affairs.

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/11/09/12th-federal-monitors-report-apd-on-the-brink-of-catastrophic-failure-failing-miserably-to-police-itself-police-union-obstructs-reforms-commentary-rem/

3. October 10, 2020 NY Times: “How Police Unions Became Such Powerful Opponents to Reform Efforts”; This Sounds WAAAY Too Familiar! Dismiss Police Union As Party To Federal Lawsuit”

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/10/15/ny-times-how-police-unions-became-such-powerful-opponents-to-reform-efforts-this-sounds-waaay-to-familiar-dismiss-police-union-as-party-to-federal-lawsuit/

4. June 20, 2020 “Federal Judge Overrules APD Police Union Motion On “Use of Force” Policy; Union Needs To Get On Board With New Policy”

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/06/25/federal-judge-overrules-apd-police-union-to-use-of-force-policy-union-needs-to-get-on-board-with-new-policy/

5. June 8, 2020 “ ‘Counter Casa Effect’ Impedes Both DOJ Reforms And “#8 Can’t Wait” Metrics”

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/06/08/counter-casa-effect-impedes-both-doj-reforms-and-8-cant-wait-metrics/

6. May 6, 2020 “Federal Monitor Files 11th Compliance Audit Report Of APD Reforms; “Counter Casa Effect” Still Problematic; Order 100% Operational Compliance Within 6 Months Or Replace Chief Or Deputy Chiefs To Get Job Done”

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/05/06/federal-monitor-files-11th-compliance-audit-report-of-apd-reforms-counter-casa-effect-still-problematic-order-100-operational-compliance-within-6-months-or-replace-chief-or-deput/

7. November 18, 2019 “Glossing Over Or Ignoring APD’s “Counter Casa Effect” Does Not Make Problem Go Away”

https://www.petedinelli.com/2019/11/08/glossing-over-or-ignoring-apds-counter-casa-effect-does-not-make-problem-go-away/

8. November 7, 2019 “10th Federal Monitor’s Compliance Report: “Counter Casa Effect” Alive and Well Within APD; Move To Dismiss Union From Case; Remove Sergeants and Lieutenants From Police Union”

https://www.petedinelli.com/2019/11/07/10th-federal-monitors-compliance-report-counter-casa-affect-alive-and-well-within-apd-remove-to-dismiss-union-from-case-remove-sergeants-and-lieutenants-from-police-unio/

9. August 23, 2019 “APOA Police Union Is “Counter CASA Effect” Within APD; Remove Sergeants and Lieutenants From Union; Kudos To APD Chief Michael Geier On Reforms”

https://www.petedinelli.com/2019/08/23/apoa-police-union-is-counter-casa-affect-within-apd-remove-sergeants-and-lieutenants-from-union-kudos-to-apd-chief-michael-geier-on-reforms/

10. August 19, 2019 “Convoluted Federal Monitors Third “Outcomes Measures and Analysis” Report Red Flag For Another $4 Million Contract; Trump DOJ Has All But Ended Federal Police Reform; Dismiss ABQ’s Consent Decree”

https://www.petedinelli.com/2019/08/19/convoluted-federal-monitors-third-outcomes-measures-and-analysis-report-red-flag-for-another-4-million-contract-trump-doj-has-all-but-ended-federal-police-reform-dismiss-abq/

WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE

APD is a “para-military” organization and as such the “chain of command” must be honored and the lines of authority must not be blurred to the point where management and subordinates become one and the same for the purpose of enforcing policy. Allowing management positions to be part of employee bargaining unit is a recipe for disaster, which is exactly what is being played out with the Court Approved Settlement Agreement (CASA).

Sergeants and lieutenants need to be made at will employees and removed from the collective bargaining unit in order to get a real buy in to management’s goals of police reform and the CASA. APD Police sergeants and lieutenants cannot serve two masters of Administration Management and Union priorities that are in conflict when it comes to the CASA reforms.

The current police union contract expired on June 30. The City and the Union have now suspended their negotiations because of the corona virus pandemic and the uncertainty of the city’s revenues for the new fiscal year that begins July 1. The union contract negotiations must commence soon. Until a new union contract is negotiated and approved, the terms and conditions of the old contract will remain in effect.

The Police Union no doubt wants to continue the terms of the expired contract, including who is in the collective bargaining unit. There is no real excuse to delay negotiations on the police union contract. Delay will only allow the Union to continue dictating to the city what should be done and continue its efforts to obstruct implementation of the police reforms under the CASA.

Another option the City and the Department of Justice need to explore is to move for the dismissal of the police union from the federal court proceeding. This will allow APD command staff and management more authority do its job with enforcement of the CASA mandates and implementation of all 270 reforms.

ABOLISH APD INTERNAL AFFAIRS

Another option that needs to be considered is to abolish APD’s Internal Affairs Unit. APD has consistently shown over decades it cannot police itself which contributed to the “culture of aggression” found by the Department of Justice. The APD Internal Affairs Unit needs to be abolished and its functions absorbed by other civilian departments.

The investigation of police misconduct cases including excessive use of force cases not resulting in death or serious bodily harm should be done by “civilian” personnel investigators, not sworn police. The function and responsibility for investigating police misconduct cases and violations of personnel policy and procedures by police should be assumed by the Office of the General Council in conjunction with the City Human Resources Department.

The Office of Independent Council could make findings and recommendations to the APD Chief and Police Oversight Board (POB) for implementation and imposition of disciplinary action.

CONLUSION

After almost 3 years in office, Mayor Tim Keller under his leadership still has a police department that is failing miserably to police itself and on the brink of catastrophic failure. Keller has only himself to blame given the fact he personally selected those that have been in charge of APD and he went back on his campaign promise to hire a new Chief from outside the agency. The amici groups and the Federal Monitor also bear some responsibility and lamenting over what has happened does not get the job done.

After 6 years of work under the CASA, it is not at all likely the Federal Court will be inclined to place APD under a receivership. Nor is it likely that the Federal Monitor will want to do anything more than to continue with his audits and be paid even more than the $4.5 million he has already been paid. Also, in 2021, the municipal election for Mayor will be held and whatever changes made now may also be subject to another Mayor being elected.

For these reason, other options need to be implemented to compel APD to get the job done now. The City and the Department of Justice need to recognize that as long as the Police Union continues to be a party to the case and Sergeants and Lieutenants are allowed to be part of the collective bargaining unit, not much more is going to be accomplished. And neither is relying on the current interim Chief and Deputy Chiefs.

12th Federal Monitor’s Report: APD “On The Brink Of Catastrophic Failure”; “Failing Miserably To Police Itself”; Police Union Obstructs Reforms; COMMENTARY: Remove Sergeants And Lieutenants From Union; Abolish APD Internal Affairs

On November 22, NBC News published report and analysis written by Tom Winter, a New York-based correspondent covering crime, courts, terrorism and financial fraud on the East Coast for the NBC News Investigative Unit. Below is the article followed by the link to the article:

“It looks increasingly certain that on Jan. 20, 2021, around noon, Joe Biden will take the oath of office as president and Donald Trump will lose both his job and one of its most important perks.

Here are some of the most perilous cases that await Trump when he’s no longer president — and here’s how he could yet use the powers of the nation’s highest office to escape punishment:

THE MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY’S CASE

Former Trump lawyer Michael Cohen pleaded guilty in 2018 to campaign finance violations for paying adult film star Stormy Daniels to keep silent about an affair she alleges she had with Trump. The indictment alleged that Cohen had paid Daniels $130,000 before the 2016 election for the benefit of Trump.

He said a lower-level employee could claim that he or she didn’t personally benefit from the crime or merely executed orders on someone else’s behalf. That affirmative defense likely wouldn’t apply to Trump.

THE NEW YORK ATTORNEY GENERAL’S CASE

The office of New York Attorney General Letitia James, meanwhile, is investigating four different Trump Organization real estate projects and his failed attempt to buy the NFL’s Buffalo Bills. In March 2019, the office subpoenaed records from Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank. The fraud inquiry was reported to have been prompted by Cohen’s testimony before Congress that Trump had inflated his financial assets.

Trump has blasted the Vance and James investigations as politically motivated.

THE WOMEN

Multiple women have accused Trump of inappropriate sexual behavior in incidents alleged to date as far back as the 1970s. Trump has denied the allegations. A few of the women have taken legal action, and in the case with the most serious potential implications, Trump enlisted the Justice Department as his attorney to prevent submitting evidence.

“Thereafter the president could either resign or resume the duties of his office.”

Any presidential pardon, whether bestowed by acting President Mike Pence or by Trump himself, would cover only federal crimes, which wouldn’t help Trump in his New York state cases.”

The link to the article is here:

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/what-trump-faces-jan-20-2021-n1247722#anchor-Thewomen

COMMENTARY

During the 2016 election, one of the most favorite chants Donald Trump relished with great joy from his adoring and cult like supporters was “LOCK HER UP, LOCK HER UP!” During Trump’s entire 4 years in office, Trump and his allies have lied repeatedly. Trump has gone out of his way to create lies out of whole cloth such as “I am the least prejudice person” and the election was rigged and a fraud.

One thing is for certain, bank accounts, financial documents, loan applications and tax returns will provide the necessary roadmap to any criminal grand jury indictment. Deutsche Bank and Investors Bank has now turned over all of Trump’s financial records that are being combed over and reviewed by both federal and New York State prosecutors. In the event that Trump is in fact charged, convicted and sentenced to prison for securities fraud, tax evasion, financial fraud on loan applications, insurance fraud, or tax fraud, he will likely proclaim he has been unfairly treated and persecuted.

If jailed and sentenced, Trump will proclaim that he is a “political prisoner” that he is unjustly being prosecuted for his political belief’s, which has nothing to do with his the likely charges he is faced with after he leaves office. What is downright pathetic, now that Trump is making it known he wants to run again in 2024, all of his supports will proclaim when and if he is convicted and imprisoned, that he is a “political prisoner” on the same level as South African President Nelson Mandela. You can envision his cult like supporters protesting and carrying around signs “FREE TRUMP!” Trump may want to flee to Russia, or North Korea and seek “political asylum” from his buddies Vladimir Putin or Kim Jong-un in exchange for all the secrets he knows.

With any luck, and if there is in fact equal justice under the law, and that no one is above the law, Trump will be moving his residence from the State of Florida and back to the State of New York to live in the gated community known as the “Attica Corrections Facility” to live out his remaining years with members of his family.

With apologies to Willie Nelson:

“Georgia, oh Georgia
No, no, no, no, no peace I find
Just an old sweet song of Senate Dems in charge
Keeps Georgia on my mind
…
Democrat arms will reach out to me
Republican eyes smile tenderly
Still in peaceful dreams I see
The road leads back to Dems in charge!”

After the November 3 Presidential election, the current makeup of the United Senate stands at 50 Republican Senators to 48 Democratic Senators. The State of Georgia will decide the ultimate control of the US Senate with a January 5, 2021 runoff for the 2 United State Senate seats. In the 2020 Presidential election, Georgia, a historically red state, turned blue for the first time since 1992 by voting for President Elect Joe Biden over President Donald Trump. Joe Biden won Georgia with a mere 0.2% of the vote (12,670 votes) winning the state with 49.5% (2,474,507 votes) to Trump’s 49.3% (2,461,837 votes) giving the state’s 16 electoral college votes to Biden in the winner take all vote.

In both Georgia U.S. Senate races, since no candidate surpassed the necessary 50% of the vote in order to secure the seats, Democrat Raphael Warnock will again face off with incumbent Republican Sen. Kelly Loeffler, as will Democrat Jon Ossoff against incumbent Republican Sen. David Perdue. Democrats have been the minority in the United States Senate since 2014 with Republican Senator Mitch McConnel, who just was elected to another 6-year term, as Senate Majority Leader.

If Democrats win both Georgia races, the Senate will be divided 50-50, but they will have an effective majority and the ability to confirm Biden nominees without Republicans because Vice President Kamala Harris will be able to break any and all ties, including legislation, without Republican votes.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/hollywood-jumps-in-to-support-democrats-in-georgia-senate-races-theres-a-new-south-thats-rising

ELECTIONS HAVE CONSEQUENCES

Four years ago, President-Elect Donald Trump was clear proof that elections have consequences and at times very bad consequences. President Elect Trump proceeded to appoint members to his cabinet who were often at odds and had absolute contempt for the very government agencies they were to oversee. Most of Trump’s appointments were more interested in dismantling government rather than making it work. The Republican Controlled Senate had no problem in getting them all approved.

Some of the best examples of Trump’s appointments who had contempt for the agencies they were to run are worth noting:

Former Texas governor Rick Perry who advocated shuttering the Department of Energy he was to lead.

Betsy DeVos, appointed Secretary of the Department of Education was a leading proponent of voucher programs that divert taxpayer funds from public schools and she has been an embarrassment.

Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt who repeatedly sued the Environmental Protection Agency. Pruitt made the false accusation that Obama wanted to kill the oil industry and spike gasoline prices to near $8 a gallon. Pruitt once questioned whether the EPA had engaged in a conspiracy with environmental groups to file friendly lawsuits resulting in stricter regulations.

African American Ben Carson as Secretary of Housing and Urban Development who criticized rules designed to combat segregation in housing.

Andrew Puzder as Secretary of Labor who fought labor rules intended to protect workers.

Former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn served as Trump’s first national security adviser for just 24 days before he was ousted in February 2017 over his contacts with Russian Ambassador Sergey Kislyak before Trump’s inauguration. Flynn plead guilty for lying to federal agents about those contacts and on November 25, 2020 Trump pardoned Flynn. After Trump lost the election, he issued a Presidential pardon.

“COMPETENCY AND EXPERIENCE” IN BIDEN CABINET SELECTIONS

On Tuesday, November 24, President Elect Joe Biden announced some of his Cabinet picks. Those picks included former State Department officials Antony Blinken as Secretary of State and Linda Thomas-Greenfield as Ambassador to the United Nations and former CIA official Avril Haines as director of National Intelligence and former Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen as Treasury Secretary. In making the announcement, President Elect Joe Biden said:

“To the United States Senate, I hope these outstanding nominees received a prompt hearing, and that we can work across the aisle in good faith to move forward for the country. ”

In a dramatic contrast to Trump, who distained the very government he led, President Elect Biden has placed emphasis on “competency and experience” with his initial appointments, and there is not a single “wako” among them. Biden is surrounding himself with longtime aides and veterans of the Obama administration, many of whom have already worked together for years and with Biden. Biden has appointed a national security team who collectively are known for securing some of the most defining national security and diplomatic achievements in recent memory.

More on Biden’s cabinet pick thus far is worth noting:

President Elect Biden’s pick for Secretary of State Antony Blinken worked for Biden in the Senate for years, and he held the posts of Deputy Secretary of State and Deputy National Security Adviser. With the appointment of Blinken to serve as secretary of state, Biden signals he wants to rebuild relationships with foreign leaders and international organizations that Trump destroyed.

Alejandro N. Mayorkas has been designated by Biden as the next Secretary of Homeland Security and would be the first Latino and first immigrant to hold the position. Mayorkas is a lawyer and former Deputy Homeland Security Secretary, a former director of the department’s legal immigration agency. Mr. Mayorkas will likely be expected to roll back the Trump’s punitive immigration policies.

National Security Adviser, Jake Sullivan, was the deputy to that post under President Barack Obama. Sullivan’s list of accomplishments include being a Rhodes scholar, a graduate of Yale Law School, he was a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Stephen G. Breyer, worked as chief counsel to Senator Amy Klobuchar and he worked for Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

Linda Thomas-Greenfield, and African American, was announced as Biden’s choice as Ambassador to the United Nations. Biden plans to restore the post to cabinet-level status after Mr. Trump downgraded it, giving Ms. Thomas-Greenfield a seat on his National Security Council. Ms. Thomas-Greenfield brings more than 35 years of experience in the foreign service, having worked as the U.S. ambassador to Liberia and served in posts in Switzerland, Pakistan, Kenya, Gambia, Nigeria and Jamaica.

Avril D. Haines has been designated as the next Director of National Intelligence. Haines will be the first woman to serve as the nation’s top intelligence official. She has strong ties to the intelligence community and served in both the Obama and George W. Bush administrations. She is a trained physicist and also helped oversee a number of covert programs at the National Security Council beginning in 2010 and then as Deputy Director of the Central Intelligence Agency from 2013 to 2015, including the controversial targeted killing program involving precision drone strikes, some of which killed civilians. While Haines received criticism from progressives over her involvement in the drone program, her work to increase oversight of those operations, as well as her strong credentials in intelligence work, should satisfy progressive critics in the Senate.

Biden’s nominee for Treasury Secretary, Janet Yellen was chair of the Federal Reserve and chair of the White House Council of Economic Advisers. If confirmed, Ms. Yellen would be the first woman to lead the Treasury in its 231-year history. During her tenure as Federal Reserve chair from 2014 to 2018, Ms. Yellen oversaw a record-long economic expansion that would go on to drive unemployment down to its lowest rate in 50 years and which helped produce a thriving economy that was upended by the coronavirus pandemic.

Former US Senator and Former Secretary of State John Kerry is Biden’s nominee to fill the created post of Presidential Climate Envoy.

Incoming White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain was chief of staff to both Vice Presidents Al Gore and Biden himself and he was the Obama administration’s Ebola czar.

Retired Navy Admiral James Stavridis, a former NATO supreme allied commander Europe and who has worked with much of Biden’s new team and this to say:

“The team is bringing competency and experience, which are two separate things but deeply interwoven. … There are deputies stepping up into full roles, seasoned hands returning to the job. They tend to be calm and centered and they won’t all fight over the ball.”

https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-cabinet-picks-experience-kerry-9438f090cdd7c5cc67aaa967e6224768

REPUBLICAN SENATORS ALREADY INTENT ON OPPOSING CABINET PICKS

The Senate has a long-standing tradition to allow presidential cabinet selection and nominees without much opposition. But all that changed dramatically when Republicans gained control of the Senate and when Barrack Obama was President. Given recent remarks, things are to get even worse with President Joe Biden. The overwhelming majority of Senate Republicans have remained absolutely silent on Trump’s defeat. Many have not even referred to Biden as the President Elect.

Ever since Republicans won Senate control in 2014, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been extremely heavy handed, even saying it was his intent on making Obama a one term president. McConnel blocked dozens of nominations made by Democrat President Barack Obama. The most notable was in 2016 when the Mc Connel refused to even hold confirmation hearing on Obama’s nominee to the Supreme Court Merrick Garland arguing it was 11 months before Presidential election and voters needed to have a say with the Presidential election. McConnell had no problem cramming the confirmation of Trump nominee and conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett 6 weeks before the 2020 election. McConnell is refusing to comment on Biden’s cabinet nominations speaks volumes.

A few Republican Senators quickly condemned Bidens cabinet picks. US Senator Marco Rubio, Florida, a senior member of the Foreign Relations Committee, which has jurisdiction over State Department nominees, wrote on Twitter that Biden’s Cabinet picks “will be polite & orderly caretakers of America’s decline.” Republican US Senator Tom Cotton, went out of his way to quote criticism from 2014 by former Defense Secretary Robert Gates that Biden has been wrong on “nearly every” major foreign policy issue. Cotton wrote on Twitter about Biden:

“Now he’s surrounding himself with panda huggers who will only reinforce his instincts to go soft on China.”

Senate Republican John Cornyn, Texas went so far as to say he assumed Cabinet picks would be “negotiated if Biden becomes president” an obvious reference to Trump’s continued efforts to contest the election results with hopes of Trump prevailing.

https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2020-11-24/biden-cabinet-picks-may-face-rough-republican-reception-in-senate?src=usn_fb&fbclid=IwAR3qxmDvKXt8iUfSCMU71vdwEY8Zv1DIzadm4h0omCRH70up5VT5-OvlB7s

REFUSING TO CONCEDE

On Thursday, November 25, Thanksgiving Day, President Trump said he will leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden. This is the closest statement he will likely make to conceding the election to Biden. Trump also reiterated false claims of massive voter fraud. Trump said it would be hard for him to concede under the current circumstances and declined to say whether he would attend Biden’s inauguration. The electors are scheduled to meet on December 14.
The White House is under the concurrent control of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the United States Secret Service. Come January 20, 2021 at 12:00 Noon when Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46 President of the United States, if Trump and his wife, and 14-year-old son and family members are not move out, they will be forcefully evicted.

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Democrats winning both United States Senate seats is a very tall order and would defy the expectations of many national political pundits . The reason for that is the small margins Biden won by in some battleground states and with Republicans gaining seats in the Democratic-majority House of Representatives. Republicans will still have at least 50 seats in the new United States Senate.

Notwithstanding, Democrats really have no other choice but to make the strongest effort they possibly can to win both Georgia Senate seats, otherwise the Senate Republicans will not hesitate to be the biggest obstruction to any and all policies of the Biden Presidency. If one or both of the Senate Seats goes Republican, Mitch Mc Connel will remain majority leader and will do whatever he can to deny any and all of President Joe Bidens cabinet picks that McConnel objects to. Least anyone forgets, party affiliation and loyalty to Donald Trump is all that matters to Mitch McConnel. It was Mc Connell who made sure that some of the most unqualified and downright shady and flaky Trump appointment picks got through the United States Senate.

Biden’s campaign noted before Biden announce his first cabinet appointments that Republicans said they would support experienced and qualified nominees. Biden adviser Jen Psaki told CNN:

“We don’t need a fabricated crisis in the Senate and I don’t think the American people are going to tolerate that if there’s a refusal to move forward with qualified nominees,”

The fact that Mitch McConnel has remained silent on Biden’s initial appointment makes it more likely than not qualifications mean absolutely nothing to Senate Republicans. If one or both Georgia Senate Seats remain Republican, the Gridlock Opposite Party (GOP) will continue the control the United States Senate with an iron first. As with the case with President Obama, Republican Senators have every intent of obstructing any efforts made by the Democrats to reverse the disastrous policies of Trump.

CONCLUSION

Come January 5, the Georgia runoff elections should be on every one’s mind, at least to those that recognize that the 4-year nightmare that has been Trump, along with his Republican Senate, will not end if the Republicans maintain control of the United State Senate.

On November 27, President Trump claimed that President-Elect Joe Biden must prove that the votes he received in the presidential election were not “illegally obtained” in order to enter the White House. Following is Trump’s Tweet:

“Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous “80,000,000 votes” were not fraudulently or illegally obtained. When you see what happened in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia & Milwaukee, massive voter fraud, he’s got a big unsolvable problem!”

Twitter added the disclaimer: “! This claim about election fraud is disputed.”

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-biden-illegally-obtained-white-house

Trump’s tweet came after it was reported by FOX news no less that Biden crossed the 80 million vote threshold as votes are still being counted. Trump’s TWEET is merely one of the many of his TWEETs to cast doubt on the election result. Trump has ordered lawsuits to challenge the results in the swing states, with all those lawsuits having been dismissed, which he has challenged by alleging voter fraud in multiple swing states that he lost, specifically Pennsylvania.

It was on Wednesday, November 15 that Trump said the election was stolen and said:

“This election was rigged and we can’t let that happen. We can’t let it happen for our country. … And this election has to be turned around because we won Pennsylvania by a lot and we won all these swing states by a lot.”

It was on Thanksgiving Day that Trump said he would leave office if the Electoral College vote in December went to Biden and said:

“Certainly, I will. … You know that I will. … A lot of things [are] happening between now and January 20.”

Ostensibly what Trump was referring to are all the lawsuits being file with the hope that at least one of the cases will reach the United State Supreme Court and it will declare the election fraudulent. It was 2000 when the United States Supreme Court intervened to give the election to George W. Bush by stopping the recount in Florida. Bush won the electoral college to become President and Vice President Gore won the popular vote.

TRUMP’S LOSING LEGAL CHALLENGES TO ELECTION

The Trump campaign has launched upwards of 45 legal challenges related to how votes were counted. All of the court challenges have been dismissed as the states certified their results. Pennsylvania was one of those states where the election was certified. On Tuesday, November 23, Pennsylvania election officials announced that they had certified their vote count for President Elect Joe Biden, who defeated Trump by more than 80,000 votes in the state.

On November 19, 2020, during a news conference at Republican National Committee headquarters in Washington, with the smell of sweat blackened by his cheap hair dye running down his face, an unhinged former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani had this to say:

“I know crimes, I can smell them. You don’t have to smell this one, I can prove it to you, 18 different ways. I can prove to you that he won, Pennsylvania, by 300,000 votes. I can prove to you that he won Michigan, probably 50,000 votes. …

It’s not a singular voter fraud in one state. This pattern repeats itself in a number of states, almost exactly the same pattern, which any experienced investigator prosecutor, which suggests that there was a plan — from a centralized place to execute these various acts of voter fraud, specifically focused on big cities, and specifically focused on, as you would imagine, big cities controlled by Democrats, and particularly if they focused on big cities that have a long history of corruption.”

Reports have said that Giuliani is being paid $20,000 a day, and for that kind of money he should be able to afford a decent hair dye that will not run as he sweats.

It was on November 17 that Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, during a five-hour hearing in Williamsport, Pennsylvania before U.S. District Judge Matthew Brann. Giuliani asserted widespread election fraud in Pennsylvania without evidence and that a “Mafia-like” cabal of Democratic leaders in cities nationwide used mail ballots to rig the election in Joe Biden’s favor. United States District Judge Matthew Brann, a Republican appointee, wrote that the campaign’s error-filled complaint “like Frankenstein’s Monster, has been haphazardly stitched together”. Just one example of a pleading error was spelling “poll” as “pole”. The Federal Court denied Giuliani the right to amend the election challenge complaint for a second time. The Trump campaign appealed the ruling.

On November 27, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed Brann’s lower court ruling and called any revisions “futile.” 3rd Circuit Judge Stephanos Bibas wrote the decision for the Court. Bibas is a former University of Pennsylvania law professor. The Court Panel included Chief Judge D. Brooks Smith and Judge Michael Chagares. Trump’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry, sat on the court for 20 years, retiring in 2019. The 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals denied the campaign’s request to stop the Pennsylvania from certifying its results, a demand the court called “breathtaking”. Judge Bibas wrote in the opinion and found:

“Free, fair elections are the lifeblood of our democracy. Charges of unfairness are serious. But calling an election unfair does not make it so. Charges require specific allegations and then proof. We have neither here. … Voters, not lawyers, choose the president. Ballots, not briefs, decide elections”

Trump’s lawyers vowed to appeal to the Supreme Court despite the judges’ assessment that the “campaign’s claims have no merit.”

https://apnews.com/article/election-2020-donald-trump-pennsylvania-elections-philadelphia-d9c96c4593ec278f3b1d4bc564068df6

BIDEN CAMPAIGN RESPONSE

When Trump began to make it clear that he would not concede the election and he began launching unsubstantiated claims of voter fraud and claiming falsely that he had been cheated out of re-election, Biden campaign spokesman Andrew Bates had this to say:

“… the American people will decide this election. And the United States government is perfectly capable of escorting trespassers out of the White House.”

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

Trump is acting like a wounded, dying animal with his refusal to engage in a normal presidential transition. Trump and the Republican party want to steal the election from President Elect Joe Biden with daily lying about the election results and filing frivolous lawsuits in the battleground states.

Trump is already making it known that he wants to run again in 2024 and telling his supporters he wants to keep his options open. As he has done for the last 4 years, he promotes hostility and mistrust amongst his supporters undercutting our democracy for the sake of holding onto power. Most assuredly, the country has not seen the last of its once and future fascist who became president.

Trump’s Republican party is supporting his efforts to discredit the election with the likes of Republican Senators Mitch Mc Connell, Lindsay Graham and Rudy Giuliani supporting his legal challenges. McConnell, the Senate majority leader said that “President Trump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options,” while chastising Democrats for expecting Trump to “accept preliminary election results”. Trump may have the right to legally challenge election results, but he does not have the right to press on in a court of law without absolutely no proof and just lying that the election was rigged.

Trump still has a strangle hold on the Republican party that will play into his thirst to regain power after he leaves office. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 52% of Republicans believe Trump “rightfully won” the U.S. election and that the election was stolen from him by widespread voter fraud. The poll found that just 26% of Republicans said they thought Biden’s win was “legitimate.”

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/world/2020/11/18/half-of-republicans-say-biden-won-because-of-a-039rigged039-election-reutersipsos-poll

The White House is under the concurrent control and protection of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the United States Secret Service. Come January 20, 2021 at 12:00 Noon when Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46 President of the United States, if Trump and his wife, and 14-year-old son and family members have not move out of the White House by then, they will be trespassing and will be breaking the law and can be forcefully evicted. Perhaps if Trump attends the Biden-Harris inauguration, which is not at all likely, the United States Secret Service can give him an eviction notice and even arrest him for trespass.

It is hoped that Trump is forced to move his residence from the State of Florida back to the State of New York and that he resides in the gated community known as the “Attica State Corrections Facility” to live out his remaining years with members of his family.

LinkS to related blog articlS are here:

Trump: The Once And Future Fascist Who Wants To Be President Again; US Military Loyalty To Democracy Has Saved It

Trump’s Big Lie: “The Election Is Being Rigged!”

On November 3, former Vice President Joe Biden was elected the 46 President of the United States. Biden won the popular vote securing 51.1% of the popular vote (79,693,395 votes) to President Donald Trump’s 47.2% of the popular vote (73,708,217). President Elect Biden also won the electoral college, securing 306 to 232 electoral votes. President Biden won the electoral college by the exact same vote Trump won the electoral college over Hillary Clinton. When Trump won the electoral college and not the popular vote, he declared he had won by a “landslide” even though Clinton had won the popular vote by over 3 million votes. Not this time. Trump lost the popular vote by 6 million votes and the electoral college by 74 and by Trump’s own measure he lost in a landslide to Biden.

The “big lie” is the name of the political propaganda technique originally coined by Adolf Hitler in Mein Kampf. It is where an outright lie is stated and repeated over, over, over and over again as if true, to sway public opinion that the lie is true and taken for granted. In other words, the more you repeat a lie to the public, it will be believed as true by the public. Since the November 3 election, President Donald Trump on a daily basis has been engaging in the “big lie” saying he won the election and is attempting to overturn the results the election to deny President Elect Joe Biden’s legitimacy by claiming the election was rigged.

On Thanksgiving day, when asked if he will leave the White House voluntarily, he said “of course” but only after the electoral college votes. Trump then went on to say it did not matter, the election was rigged and then complained that Biden was announcing cabinet picks.

https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Big_lie

On November 27, Trump tweeted:

“Biden can only enter the White House as President if he can prove that his ridiculous “80,000,000 votes” were not fraudulently or illegally obtained. When you see what happened in Detroit, Atlanta, Philadelphia & Milwaukee, massive voter fraud, he’s got a big unsolvable problem!”

TWITTER flagged the tweet “!This claim about election fraud is disputed”.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-biden-illegally-obtained-white-house

Trump is acting like a wounded, dying animal with his refusal to engage in a normal presidential transition. Trump and the Republican party want to steal the election from President Elect Joe Biden with Trump’s daily lying about the election results and filing frivolous lawsuits in the battleground states.

20 LESSONS LEARNED BY TRUMP FROM HITLER

None of Trump’s denials that he lost and outright lies about the election being rigged and that he has not lost to Biden should come as any surprise to anyone. For months before the election, Trump laid the groundwork repeatedly saying that the only way he would lose to Biden is if the election were rigged. He has also said absentee balloting was fraudulent without offering any evidence of it.

According to Donald Trump’s first wife’s divorce filings, Donald Trump kept and studied a book translating and annotating Adolf Hitler’s pre-World War II speeches and kept the Hitler writings in a locked bedside cabinet. Trump learned his lessons well studying the rise to power and studying the writings from Adolf Hitler. The ugly truth is he adopted Hitler’s approach to seizing power, now he wants to use what he learned to hold onto power.

A remarkable book outlines the stunning similarities between Trump and Hitler. The book powerfully describes how America’s constitutional checks and balances were pushed to the brink by President Donald Trump who consciously followed Adolf Hitler’s extremist propaganda and policy template from the early 1930s when the Nazis took power in Germany.

Burt Neuborne, is and author and one of the nation’s foremost civil liberties lawyers. His 55-year career began by challenging the constitutionality of the Vietnam War in the 1960s. He became the ACLU’s national legal director in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan. He was founding legal director of the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University Law School in the 1990s. He has been part of more than 200 Supreme Court cases and Holocaust reparation litigation.

In July, 2019, Burt Neuborne’s book entitled “When at Times the Mob Is Swayed: A Citizen’s Guide to Defending Our Republic “ was published. On August 09, 2019 a book review written by Steven Rosenfeld was published by Common Dreams, a U.S. based progressive news website that publishes breaking news stories, editorials and commentary. A link to the complete book review is here:

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/08/09/leading-civil-rights-lawyer-shows-20-ways-trump-copying-hitlers-early-rhetoric-and?fbclid=IwAR1O9kLuT5nOSmmkP1kXeB5816nQagDFs1oNEYXmUaLr0rzqwWJ0wKVK-aQ

Neuborne says in his book:

“Ugly and appalling as they are, [Hitler’s] speeches are masterpieces of demagogic manipulation. … Give Trump credit. He did his homework well and became the twenty-first-century master of divisive rhetoric. We’re used to thinking of Hitler’s Third Reich as the incomparably evil tyranny that it undoubtedly was. But Hitler didn’t take power by force. He used a set of rhetorical tropes codified in Trump’s bedside reading that persuaded enough Germans to welcome Hitler as a populist leader. … The Nazis did not overthrow the Weimar Republic. It fell into their hands as the fruit of Hitler’s satanic ability to mesmerize enough Germans to trade their birthright for a pottage of scapegoating, short-term economic gain, xenophobia, and racism.”

SHARED VALUES OF TWO DEMAGOGUES

The book review lists 20 very alarming points of comparison between Adolph Hitler and Donald Trump:

1. Neither was elected by a majority.

“Trump lost the popular vote by 2.9 million votes, receiving votes by 25.3 percent of all eligible American voters. “That’s just a little less than the percentage of the German electorate that turned to the Nazi Party in 1932–33,” Neuborne writes. “Unlike the low turnouts in the United States, turnout in Weimar Germany averaged just over 80 percent of eligible voters.” He continues, “Once installed as a minority chancellor in January 1933, Hitler set about demonizing his political opponents, and no one—not the vaunted, intellectually brilliant German judiciary; not the respected, well-trained German police; not the revered, aristocratic German military; not the widely admired, efficient German government bureaucracy; not the wealthy, immensely powerful leaders of German industry; and not the powerful center-right political leaders of the Reichstag—mounted a serious effort to stop him.”

2. Both found direct communication channels to their base.

“By 1936’s Olympics, Nazi narratives dominated German cultural and political life. “How on earth did Hitler pull it off? What satanic magic did Trump find in Hitler’s speeches?” Neuborne asks. He addresses Hitler’s extreme rhetoric soon enough, but notes that Hitler found a direct communication pathway—the Nazi Party gave out radios with only one channel, tuned to Hitler’s voice, bypassing Germany’s news media. Trump has an online equivalent.

“Donald Trump’s tweets, often delivered between midnight and dawn, are the twenty-first century’s technological embodiment of Hitler’s free plastic radios,” Neuborne says. “Trump’s Twitter account, like Hitler’s radios, enables a charismatic leader to establish and maintain a personal, unfiltered line of communication with an adoring political base of about 30–40 percent of the population, many (but not all) of whom are only too willing, even anxious, to swallow Trump’s witches’ brew of falsehoods, half-truths, personal invective, threats, xenophobia, national security scares, religious bigotry, white racism, exploitation of economic insecurity, and a never ending-search for scapegoats.”

3. Both blame others and divide on racial lines.

As Neuborne notes, “Hitler used his single-frequency radios to wax hysterical to his adoring base about his pathological racial and religious fantasies glorifying Aryans and demonizing Jews, blaming Jews (among other racial and religious scapegoats) for German society’s ills.” That is comparable to “Trump’s tweets and public statements, whether dealing with black-led demonstrations against police violence, white-led racist mob violence, threats posed by undocumented aliens, immigration policy generally, protests by black and white professional athletes, college admission policies, hate speech, even response to hurricane damage in Puerto Rico,” he says. Again and again, Trump uses “racially tinged messages calculated to divide whites from people of color.”

4. Both relentlessly demonize opponents.

“Hitler’s radio harangues demonized his domestic political opponents, calling them parasites, criminals, cockroaches, and various categories of leftist scum,” Neuborne notes. “Trump’s tweets and speeches similarly demonize his political opponents. Trump talks about the country being ‘infested’ with dangerous aliens of color. He fantasizes about jailing Hillary Clinton, calls Mexicans rapists, refers to ‘shithole countries,’ degrades anyone who disagrees with him, and dreams of uprooting thousands of allegedly disloyal bureaucrats in the State Department, the Environmental Protection Agency, the FBI, and the CIA, who he calls ‘the deep state’ and who, he claims, are sabotaging American greatness.”

5. They unceasingly attack objective truth.

“Both Trump and Hitler maintained a relentless assault on the very idea of objective truth,” he continues. “Each began the assault by seeking to delegitimize the mainstream press. Hitler quickly coined the epithet Lügenpresse (literally ‘lying press’) to denigrate the mainstream press. Trump uses a paraphrase of Hitler’s lying press epithet—‘fake news’—cribbed, no doubt, from one of Hitler’s speeches. For Trump, the mainstream press is a ‘lying press’ that publishes ‘fake news.’” Hitler attacked his opponents as spreading false information to undermine his positions, Neuborne says, just as Trump has attacked “elites” for disseminating false news, “especially his possible links to the Kremlin.”

6. They relentlessly attack mainstream media.

“Trump’s assaults on the media echo Hitler’s, Neuborne says, noting that he “repeatedly attacks the ‘failing New York Times,’ leads crowds in chanting ‘CNN sucks,’ [and] is personally hostile to most reporters.” He cites the White House’s refusal to fly the flag at half-mast after the murder of five journalists in Annapolis in June 2018, Trump’s efforts to punish CNN by blocking a merger of its corporate parent, and trying to revoke federal Postal Service contracts held by Amazon, which was founded by Jeff Bezos, who also owns the Washington Post.”

7. Their attacks on truth include science.

Neuborne notes, “Both Trump and Hitler intensified their assault on objective truth by deriding scientific experts, especially academics who question Hitler’s views on race or Trump’s views on climate change, immigration, or economics. For both Trump and Hitler, the goal is (and was) to eviscerate the very idea of objective truth, turning everything into grist for a populist jury subject to manipulation by a master puppeteer. In both Trump’s and Hitler’s worlds, public opinion ultimately defines what is true and what is false.”

8. Their lies blur reality—and supporters spread them.

“Trump’s pathological penchant for repeatedly lying about his behavior can only succeed in a world where his supporters feel free to embrace Trump’s ‘alternative facts’ and treat his hyperbolic exaggerations as the gospel truth,” Neuborne says. “Once Hitler had delegitimized the mainstream media by a series of systematic attacks on its integrity, he constructed a fawning alternative mass media designed to reinforce his direct radio messages and enhance his personal power. Trump is following the same path, simultaneously launching bitter attacks on the mainstream press while embracing the so-called alt-right media, co-opting both Sinclair Broadcasting and the Rupert Murdoch–owned Fox Broadcasting Company as, essentially, a Trump Broadcasting Network.”

9. Both orchestrated mass rallies to show status.

“Once Hitler had cemented his personal communications link with his base via free radios and a fawning media and had badly eroded the idea of objective truth, he reinforced his emotional bond with his base by holding a series of carefully orchestrated mass meetings dedicated to cementing his status as a charismatic leader, or Führer,” Neuborne writes. “The powerful personal bonds nurtured by Trump’s tweets and Fox’s fawning are also systematically reinforced by periodic, carefully orchestrated mass rallies (even going so far as to co-opt a Boy Scout Jamboree in 2017), reinforcing Trump’s insatiable narcissism and his status as a charismatic leader.”

10. They embrace extreme nationalism.

“Hitler’s strident appeals to the base invoked an extreme version of German nationalism, extolling a brilliant German past and promising to restore Germany to its rightful place as a preeminent nation,” Neuborne says. “Trump echoes Hitler’s jingoistic appeal to ultranationalist fervor, extolling American exceptionalism right down to the slogan ‘Make America Great Again,’ a paraphrase of Hitler’s promise to restore German greatness.”

11. Both made closing borders a centerpiece.

“Hitler all but closed Germany’s borders, freezing non-Aryan migration into the country and rendering it impossible for Germans to escape without official permission. Like Hitler, Trump has also made closed borders a centerpiece of his administration,” Neuborne continues. “Hitler barred Jews. Trump bars Muslims and seekers of sanctuary from Central America. When the lower courts blocked Trump’s Muslim travel ban, he unilaterally issued executive orders replacing it with a thinly disguised substitute that ultimately narrowly won Supreme Court approval under a theory of extreme deference to the president.”

12. They embraced mass detention and deportations.

“Hitler promised to make Germany free from Jews and Slavs. Trump promises to slow, stop, and even reverse the flow of non-white immigrants, substituting Muslims, Africans, Mexicans, and Central Americans of color for Jews and Slavs as scapegoats for the nation’s ills. Trump’s efforts to cast dragnets to arrest undocumented aliens where they work, live, and worship, followed by mass deportation… echo Hitler’s promise to defend Germany’s racial identity,” he writes, also noting that Trump has “stooped to tearing children from their parents [as Nazis in World War II would do] to punish desperate efforts by migrants to find a better life.”

13. Both used borders to protect selected industries.

“Like Hitler, Trump seeks to use national borders to protect his favored national interests, threatening to ignite protectionist trade wars with Europe, China, and Japan similar to the trade wars that, in earlier incarnations, helped to ignite World War I and World War II,” Neuborne writes. “Like Hitler, Trump aggressively uses our nation’s political and economic power to favor selected American corporate interests at the expense of foreign competitors and the environment, even at the price of international conflict, massive inefficiency, and irreversible pollution [climate change].”

14. They cemented their rule by enriching elites.

“Hitler’s version of fascism shifted immense power—both political and financial—to the leaders of German industry. In fact, Hitler governed Germany largely through corporate executives,” he continues. “Trump has also presided over a massive empowerment—and enrichment—of corporate America. Under Trump, large corporations exercise immense political power while receiving huge economic windfalls and freedom from regulations designed to protect consumers and the labor force.

“Hitler despised the German labor movement, eventually destroying it and imprisoning its leaders. Trump also detests strong unions, seeking to undermine any effort to interfere with the prerogatives of management.”

15. Both rejected international norms.

“Hitler’s foreign policy rejected international cooperation in favor of military and economic coercion, culminating in the annexation of the Sudetenland, the phony Hitler-Stalin nonaggression pact, the invasion of Czechoslovakia, and the horrors of global war,” Neuborne notes. “Like Hitler, Trump is deeply hostile to multinational cooperation, withdrawing from the Trans-Pacific Partnership, the Paris Agreement on climate change, and the nuclear agreement with Iran, threatening to withdraw from the North American Free Trade Agreement, abandoning our Kurdish allies in Syria, and even going so far as to question the value of NATO, our post-World War II military alliance with European democracies against Soviet expansionism.”

16. They attack domestic democratic processes.

“Hitler attacked the legitimacy of democracy itself, purging the voting rolls, challenging the integrity of the electoral process, and questioning the ability of democratic government to solve Germany’s problems,” Neuborne notes. “Trump has also attacked the democratic process, declining to agree to be bound by the outcome of the 2016 elections when he thought he might lose, supporting the massive purge of the voting rolls allegedly designed to avoid (nonexistent) fraud, championing measures that make it harder to vote, tolerating—if not fomenting—massive Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election, encouraging mob violence at rallies, darkly hinting at violence if Democrats hold power, and constantly casting doubt on the legitimacy of elections unless he wins.”

17. Both attack the judiciary and rule of law.

“Hitler politicized and eventually destroyed the vaunted German justice system. Trump also seeks to turn the American justice system into his personal playground,” Neuborne writes. “Like Hitler, Trump threatens the judicially enforced rule of law, bitterly attacking American judges who rule against him, slyly praising Andrew Jackson for defying the Supreme Court, and abusing the pardon power by pardoning an Arizona sheriff found guilty of criminal contempt of court for disobeying federal court orders to cease violating the Constitution.”

18. Both glorify the military and demand loyalty oaths.

“Like Hitler, Trump glorifies the military, staffing his administration with layers of retired generals (who eventually were fired or resigned), relaxing control over the use of lethal force by the military and the police, and demanding a massive increase in military spending,” Neuborne writes. Just as Hitler “imposed an oath of personal loyalty on all German judges” and demanded courts defer to him, “Trump’s already gotten enough deference from five Republican [Supreme Court] justices to uphold a largely Muslim travel ban that is the epitome of racial and religious bigotry.”

Trump has also demanded loyalty oaths. “He fired James Comey, a Republican appointed in 2013 as FBI director by President Obama, for refusing to swear an oath of personal loyalty to the president; excoriated and then sacked Jeff Sessions, his handpicked attorney general, for failing to suppress the criminal investigation into… Trump’s possible collusion with Russia in influencing the 2016 elections; repeatedly threatened to dismiss Robert Mueller, the special counsel carrying out the investigation; and called again and again for the jailing of Hillary Clinton, his 2016 opponent, leading crowds in chants of ‘lock her up.’” A new chant, “send her back,” has since emerged at Trump rallies directed at non-white Democratic congresswomen.

19. They proclaim unchecked power.

“Like Hitler, Trump has intensified a disturbing trend that predated his administration of governing unilaterally, largely through executive orders or proclamations,” Neuborne says, citing the Muslim travel ban, trade tariffs, unraveling of health and environmental safety nets, ban on transgender military service, and efforts to end President Obama’s protection for Dreamers. “Like Hitler, Trump claims the power to overrule Congress and govern all by himself. In 1933, Hitler used the pretext of the Reichstag fire to declare a national emergency and seize the power to govern unilaterally. The German judiciary did nothing to stop him. German democracy never recovered.”

“When Congress refused to give Trump funds for his border wall even after he threw a tantrum and shut down the government, Trump, like Hitler, declared a phony national emergency and claimed the power to ignore Congress,” Neuborne continues. “Don’t count on the Supreme Court to stop him. Five justices gave the game away on the President’s unilateral travel ban. They just might do the same thing on the border wall.” It did in late July, ruling that Trump could divert congressionally appropriated funds from the Pentagon budget—undermining constitutional separation of powers.

20. Both relegate women to subordinate roles.

“Finally,” writes Neuborne, “Hitler propounded a misogynistic, stereotypical view of women, valuing them exclusively as wives and mothers while excluding them from full participation in German political and economic life. Trump may be the most openly misogynist figure ever to hold high public office in the United States, crassly treating women as sexual objects, using nondisclosure agreements and violating campaign finance laws to shield his sexual misbehavior from public knowledge, attacking women who come forward to accuse men of abusive behavior, undermining reproductive freedom, and opposing efforts by women to achieve economic equality.”

WHITHERING CONSTITUTIONAL CHECKS AND BALANCES?

Most of Neuborne’s book is not centered on Trump’s fealty to Hitler’s methods and early policies. He notes, as many commentators have, that Trump is following the well-known contours of authoritarian populists and dictators: “there’s always a charismatic leader, a disaffected mass, an adroit use of communications media, economic insecurity, racial or religious fault lines, xenophobia, a turn to violence, and a search for scapegoats.”

The bigger problem, and the subject of most of the book, is that the federal architecture intended to be a check and balance against tyrants, is not poised to act. Congressional representation is fundamentally anti-democratic. In the Senate, politicians representing 18 percent of the national population—epicenters of Trump’s base—can cast 51 percent of the chamber’s votes. A Republican majority from rural states, representing barely 40 percent of the population, controls the chamber. It repeatedly thwarts legislation reflecting multicultural America’s values—and creates a brick wall for impeachment.

The House of Representatives is not much better. Until 2018, this decade’s GOP-majority House, a product of 2011’s extreme Republican gerrymanders, was also unrepresentative of the nation’s demographics. That bias still exists in the Electoral College, as the size of a state’s congressional delegation equals its allocation of votes. That formula is fair as far as House members go, but allocating votes based on two senators per state hurts urban America. Consider that California’s population is 65 times larger than Wyoming’s.

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court’s majority remains in the hands of justices appointed by Republican presidents—and favors that party’s agenda. Most Americans are unaware that the court’s partisan majority has only changed twice since the Civil War—in 1937, when a Democratic-appointed majority took over, and in 1972, when a Republican-appointed majority took over. Senate Republican Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s blocking of President Obama’s final nominee thwarted a twice-a-century change. Today’s hijacked Supreme Court majority has only just begun deferring to Trump’s agenda.

A link to the complete book review is here:

https://www.commondreams.org/views/2019/08/09/leading-civil-rights-lawyer-shows-20-ways-trump-copying-hitlers-early-rhetoric-and?fbclid=IwAR1O9kLuT5nOSmmkP1kXeB5816nQagDFs1oNEYXmUaLr0rzqwWJ0wKVK-aQ

TRUMP REFERRED TO WORLD WAR II VETERANS AS CHUMPS AND LOSERS

On March 13, the Atlantic published a controversial article written by its editor in chief Jeffrey Goldberg where Trump called those who served in time of war “chumps and losers”. The truth of the Atlantic story was confirmed by many new agencies including FOX news.

According to the Atlantic, when President Donald Trump canceled a visit to the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery near Paris in 2018, he blamed rain for the last-minute decision, saying that “the helicopter couldn’t fly” and that the Secret Service wouldn’t drive him there. Neither claim was true.

Trump rejected the idea of the visit because he feared his hair would become disheveled in the rain, and because he did not believe it important to honor American war dead, according to four people with firsthand knowledge of the discussion that day. In a conversation with senior staff members on the morning of the scheduled visit, Trump said, “Why should I go to that cemetery? It’s filled with losers.” In a separate conversation on the same trip, Trump referred to the more than 1,800 marines who lost their lives at Belleau Wood during World War II as “suckers” for getting killed.

Belleau Wood is a consequential battle in American history, and the ground on which it was fought is venerated by the Marine Corps. America and its allies stopped the German advance toward Paris there in the spring of 1918. But Trump, on that same trip, asked aides, “Who were the good guys in this war?” He also said that he didn’t understand why the United States would intervene on the side of the Allies.

From June 4 to June 12, a truly remarkable thing happened in the United States. Former Secretaries of Defense, many General’s and military commanders condemned President Trump use of the active military to quell protests in the United States over the death of George Floyd. It all began on June 4 with former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis. Former Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis is a retired United States Marine Corps general who was appointed by President Donald Trump to serve as the 26th US Secretary of Defense. After Mattis spoke out, the flood gates were opened and current and former military commanders spoke out condemning Trump’s use of the military against the American people who were protesting.

Others that spoke out included Air Force General Mike Hayden, Former director of the CIA and NSA under Bush and Obama, Marine Corps General John Allen, the Former commander of US forces in Afghanistan, Navy Admiral James Stavridis, Former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO, Air Force General Richard Myers, Former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under George W. Bush, William Perry, the Former Defense Secretary served under President Bill Clinton, Navy Adm. William McRaven, Former commander of US Special Operations Command, Ash Carter, the Former Defense Secretary, former Republican Secretary of State Colin Powell, a retired general.

A link to a related blog article is here:

https://www.petedinelli.com/2020/06/14/our-us-military-know-who-they-have-sworn-to-serve-and-protect-we-the-people-and-our-constitution-a-breathtaking-week-that-was/

REFUSING TO CONCEDE

On Thursday, November 25, President Trump said he will leave the White House if the Electoral College votes for President-elect Joe Biden. This is the closest statement he ever made to conceding the election to Biden. Trump also reiterated false claims of massive voter fraud. Trump said it would be hard for him to concede under the current circumstances and declined to say whether he would attend Biden’s inauguration. The electors are scheduled to meet on December 14 and simply put Biden will win and Trump will lose.

COMMENTARY AND ANLALYSIS

In chapter six of Mein Kamp entitled “War Propaganda”, Adolph Hitler reviewed the use of propaganda during World War I. Hitler writes the way Trump communicates to his supporters:

“All propaganda must be popular and its intellectual level must be adjusted to the most limited intelligence among those it is addressed to. Consequently, the greater the mass it is intended to reach, the lower its purely intellectual level will have to be.
…
The art of propaganda lies in understanding the emotional ideas of the great masses and finding, through a psychologically correct form, the way to the attention and thence to the heart of the broad masses. The fact that our bright boys do not understand this merely shows how mentally lazy and conceited they are.
…
The receptivity of the great masses is very limited, their intelligence is small, but their power of forgetting is enormous. In consequence of these facts, all effective propaganda must be limited to a very few points and must harp on these in slogans until the last member of the public understands what you want him to understand by your slogan. As soon as you sacrifice this slogan and try to be many-sided, the effect will piddle away, for the crowd can neither digest nor retain the material offered. In this way the result is weakened and in the end entirely cancelled out.”

MILITARY LOYALTY TO AMERICAN PEOPLE AND UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION MADE A DIFFERENCE

One thing that Hitler and Trump do not have in common that likely helped save the United States democracy from Trump Fascism is that our United State Military is loyalty to the American people and our United States Constitution. Nazi Germany’s military was absolutely loyal to Hitler and willing to engage in genocide against Jewish German citizens. The United States military takes an oath to preserve and protect the Constitution of the United States and not the President of the United States.

Our military academies are some of the very best institutions of higher learning educating the cream of the crop of their generation. Cadets taught in our military academies learn the importance of preserving our country with the lessons learned from our civil war, World War I and especially World War II fighting Germany’s, Italy’s and Japan’s fascism.

When Trump first entered office, he surrounded himself with retired generals in key roles. The retired generals included Jim Mattis as Defense Secretary, John Kelly as Homeland Security Secretary and later Chief of Staff, and H.R. McMaster as National Security Adviser. All 4 generals were thought to be solid appointments. All 4 brought a sense of stability to the White House in the minds of the public. They were viewed as true patriots that would at least keep Trump in check and not allow Trump to start a war.

Trump went so far to call his appointments “my generals”. Soon all the relationships disintegrated between Trump and the former generals and there was no trust. All were forced out by Trump, no doubt because they were too loyal to the country and the people they served. They told Trump simply things he did not want to hear. Their sin in Trump’s mind is that they dedicated their lives to protecting the public, did not make money and were “chumps” for their willingness to give their lives for their country and fight for the freedoms we all enjoy.

Trump wanted their absolute loyalty to him and him alone, and when they left his service, he disparaged them in no uncertain terms saying they were not up to their jobs.

EVICTION DAY IS JANUARRY 20, 2021

The White House is under the concurrent control of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and the United States Secret Service. Come January 20, 2021 at 12:00 Noon when Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46 President of the United States, if Trump and his wife, and 14-year-old son and family members are not moved out of the White House, they will be forcefully evicted.

Trump is already making it known that he wants to run again in 2024 and telling his supporters he wants to keep his options open. As he has done for the last 4 years, he promotes hostility and mistrust amongst his supporters undercutting our democracy for the sake of holding onto power. Most assuredly, the country has not seen the last of its once and future fascist who became president .

Trump’s Republican party is supporting his efforts to discredit the election with the likes of Republican Senators Mitch Mc Connell, Lindsay Graham and Rudy Giuliani supporting his legal challenges. McConnell, the Senate majority leader said that “President Trump is 100% within his rights to look into allegations of irregularities and weigh his legal options,” while chastising Democrats for expecting Trump to “accept preliminary election results”. Trump may have the right to legally challenge election results, but he does not have the right to press on in a court of law without absolutely no proof and just lying that the election was rigged.

Trump still has a strangle hold on the Republican party that will play into his thirst to regain power after he leaves office. A Reuters/Ipsos poll found that 52% of Republicans believe Trump “rightfully won” the U.S. election and that the election was stolen from him by widespread voter fraud. The poll found that just 26% of Republicans said they thought Biden’s win was “legitimate.”

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/world/2020/11/18/half-of-republicans-say-biden-won-because-of-a-039rigged039-election-reutersipsos-poll

Whether or not Trump actually runs in 2024 is not what is dangerous. What is dangerous are his supporters and the Republican Senators that they intend do over the next 4 years to undermine President Joe Biden. Least anyone forget, it was Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnel that said his intent was to make sure President Barack Obama was a one term President. It was McConnel who made sure in 2016 that the President Obama’s last nomination for Supreme Court never was given a hearing 11 months before a Presidential election, yet he made sure Trump’s last nominee was crammed down the Senate Democrats throats.

Princeton historian Sean Wilentz put it this way:

[Imagine]a counter-government, administered by tweets, propped up by Fox News or whatever alternative outlet Trump might construct for himself — a kind of Trumpian government-in-exile … telling his tens of millions of supporters as well as his congressional backers to reject Biden’s presidency … Trump would be trying to establish a center of power distinct from and antagonistic to the legitimately elected national government — not formally a separate government like the Confederacy but a virtual one, operating not just out in the country but inside the government, above all in Congress. … Two things could stop Trump: either his legal troubles become so severe that he can’t continue, or the Republican Party decides he’s hurting more than helping. … I would not bet on either one of these coming to pass.”

FINAL COMMENT

Hilter’s end came when he committed suicide in a bunker. Now that the election is over, it is hoped that our criminal justice system works just as well as our democracy. There is a good chance that Trump will be forced to move his residence from the State of Florida back to the State of New York. If our criminal justice system indeed works as it should, Trump will be residing in the gated community known as the “Attica State Corrections Facility” to live out his remaining years with members of his family.

The link to a related blog article is here:

Trump’s Big Lie: “The Election Is Being Rigged!”

On Tuesday, November 24, after seven hours of debate and discussion, New Mexico lawmakers passed a bipartisan coronavirus relief bill that will provide a onetime $1,200 check to all types of unemployed workers and up to $50,000 for certain businesses. Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham called for the one-day special session as the state is confronting spiking infection and death rates. House Bill 1 easily passed both chambers. It passed in the House on a 50-11 vote and passed the Senate on a 33-5 vote.

The total approved expenditure is $330 million. A total of $319 million is unspent funds the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) relief funding previously assigned to New Mexico. The money must be used by the end of the year or it reverts back to the federal government. An additional $10 million in state general funds were allocated for Covid 19 testing and tracing efforts.

The bill allocates $100 million to support businesses with 100 or fewer employees. The New Mexico Finance Authority will be distributing the grants, which can be up to $50,000. Businesses in the hospitality and leisure industry, which are the businesses severely harmed financially by New Mexico’s public health orders, would get priority. The Finance Authority has wide discretion about who will be chosen. The Finance Authority is instructed to focus on the service industry. The bill instructs the Finance Authority to make sure recipients are spread out geographically and that it not be concentrated in the tourism and Democrat-heavy cities of northern New Mexico.

Marquita Russell, CEO of the New Mexico Finance Authority, said businesses can apply online for the money, which would then be distributed in phases. According to Russell:

“We don’t want to make 100% of it available on Day One, because that disadvantages some businesses.”

The enacted legislation provides smaller stimulus checks to immigrants without legal status in the country and dependents, as well as additional funds for food banks, virus testing and contact tracing efforts. Also included the enacted legislation is spending to help food banks and people struggling to pay their rent or mortgage.

BREAKDOWN OF RELEIF FUNDING

On Wednesday, November 25, Governor Mitchel Lujan Grisham signed into the law the House appropriation bill. Governor Lujan Grisham had said the day before it was critical to get “economic relief to New Mexicans who are hurting and not able to go to work.”

The distribution of federal funding includes:

$194 million to pay for the one-time $1,200 checks to unemployed workers. About 160,000 people could get the money, but it isn’t clear what would happen if the number of claims exceeds the $194 million appropriated by lawmakers, according to legislative analysts.

$100 million for a new grant program targeting small, local businesses and nonprofit groups. It will authorize grants of up to $50,000, with help for the hospitality and leisure industry a priority. To qualify, the business must have 100 employees or fewer, and about 4,000 companies are expected to get grants.

$15 million to help homeless people and New Mexicans struggling to pay their rent or mortgage.

$5 million to provide checks of up to $750 to low-income households who — because of immigration status or some other factor — didn’t receive a federal stimulus check this year.

$5 million to food banks throughout the state.

$10 million from the state general fund to help distribute COVID-19 vaccines when they’re available and cover increased costs in the court system for protective equipment and similar expenses.

https://www.abqjournal.com/1521351/lujan-grisham-signs-pandemic-aid-package.html

RELIEF CHECKS

In October, New Mexico’s unemployment rate was 8.1% above the national rate of 6.9%. In September, New Mexico depleted its unemployment insurance fund and began borrowing money from the federal government to fulfill claims.

According to the Department of Workforce Solutions, New Mexico has 130,000 people on the unemployment rolls. There is a high unemployment rate in New Mexico oil fields as the global demand for oil has bottomed out and oil fields are shut down. Further the pandemic closures has hit the state’s restaurant and tourism industry.

The onetime only $1,200 relief checks will go at least to 1,515 people who have exhausted all of their state and federal unemployment benefits. The relief checks comprised the largest portion of the relief act funding at $194 million. According to Workforce Solutions, payments will start going out to those eligible by mid-December using a similar framework the state used previously to distribute stopgap funding from the Federal Emergency Management Administration. New Mexico already owes the federal government $124 million. The amount is expected to spike to an alarming $400-500 million by the summer of 2021.

An additional $5 million will be distributed in the form of a $750 payment to residents who were ineligible for the federal stimulus sent to most American citizens and permanent residents earlier this year. Those eligible include dependents like children and the elderly as well as immigrants in the country without legal permission.

Bill Mc Camley, the Governor’s cabinet Secretary of the Department of Workforce Solutions, said in an interview with Channel 13 that he gets constant phone calls, emails and pleas on social media from people and had this to say:

“I hear all the stories, all the stories about how am I going to take care of my kids? How am I gonna afford my rent? How am I gonna afford my truck payment?”

https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/new-mexico-legislature-passes-330-million-virus-relief-bill/

Democrat State Senator Candace Gould had this to say regarding the unemployment assistance relief:

“Essential workers that are on the front lines. We want to keep them working and not going into the unemployment lines. … It’s imperative that we keep them out there, providing the services that are essential. So, this is a way to reward them and tell them that they matter too. We hear them and see them and that we’re going to give them a little help as well.”

HOUSE REPUBLICAN OPPOSITION NOTED

House Republicans were split on the bill. During debate, Republicans repeatedly slammed Governor Lujan Grisham’s public health orders and restrictions on in-person business activity. However, some Republican lawmakers supported the final bill saying the economic aid was necessary.

House Minority Leader James Townsend, R-Artesia had this to say:

“We are trying to reach out and help many families across New Mexico that are hurting and hurting for a variety of reasons. … They’re hurting because of the effects of COVID and hurting because of measures the state has taken in addressing COVID.”

COMMENTARY AND ANALYSIS

The second Special Legislative Session of the year was better late than never in that under the CARES Act $319 million would have reverted back the Federal Government had the legislature not acted by December 31 to spend it. Why it took so long no doubt is because Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham felt the need to wait until after the election given the increasing criticism of her handling of the pandemic and Republican opposition.

When the New Mexico regular 60-day legislative session begins on January 19, 2021, the state’s finances will continue to be in shambles as the State continues to deal with the spiking of covid cases, dealing with the dramatic decline in oil and gas royalty revenues and the declining gross receipts tax revenues from business closures. Now that the Presidential election is over, its more likely than not another federal CARES Act allocation will have to be made by congress.

With any luck, by the end of January, 2021 a vaccine will be available and this country’s second nightmare will begin to come to an end. We do know for sure that the first nightmare we have been experiencing for 4 years will come to an end on January 20, 2021 when President Joe Biden is sworn in as the 46 President of the United States.

Links to sources and related news are here:

https://www.krqe.com/news/politics-government/new-mexico-legislature-passes-330-million-virus-relief-bill/

https://www.koat.com/article/lawmakers-pass-massive-relief-bill/34778953

https://www.kob.com/new-mexico-news/lawmakers-debate-how-to-spend-millions-of-dollars-during-special-session/5933865/?cat=500

https://www.abqjournal.com/1521146/nm-lawmakers-send-pandemic-relief-bill-to-lujan-grisham.html

https://www.abqjournal.com/1521351/lujan-grisham-signs-pandemic-aid-package.html