The swamp reigns in Trump's Washington

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QAnon has rapidly spread from a fringe conspiracy theory to a mainstream belief, with some adherents expected to win Republican congressional seats next week. QAnon will take over the Republican Party if not combatted aggressively, and Republican Congressman Denver Riggleman of Virginia is standing up to do just that, by co-sponsoring a House resolution condemning it. We invite our TOPLINE readers to join Evan McMullin and me for a conversation with Rep. Riggleman about the dangers of QAnon on Thursday at 7pm ET. If you agree with us that there is no place for conspiracy theories like QAnon in our political discourse, please sign up here ([link removed]) for this important Zoom event. We hope you'll join us. —Mindy Finn

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** Doing business the Trump way
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Back in 2008, Donald Trump and his family hoped the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago would cement their company's reputation as one of the world's marquee developers of luxury real estate. Instead, it became another disappointment in a portfolio filled with them. The Chicago experience is a textbook example of the Trump MO—strong-arming major financial institutions and exploiting the tax code to cushion the blow of his repeated business failures. Since 2010, lenders have forgiven about $287 million in debt that Trump failed to repay. The vast majority was related to the Chicago project. —The New York Times ([link removed])
* — Fill the swamp. Since his first month in office, Trump has used his power to direct millions from U.S. taxpayers—and from his political supporters—into his own businesses. In all, he has received at least $8.1 million from these two sources since he took office, according to documents and publicly available records. Trump's visits to his properties turned the government into sort of a captive customer, forced to buy anything it needed from Trump's company. —The Washington Post ([link removed])
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* — About those trade bailouts. Trump's trade war with China led to a substantial bailout program to keep American farmers afloat. But are those subsidies effectively helping to underwrite Trump's presidential campaign? While it's no surprise that red states are disproportionately rural and dependent on agriculture, the data suggest that the Trump Administration may be manipulating the payments to support states that are particularly important for the president's re-election prospects. —World Politics Review ([link removed])
*
* — Hacked. Trump's campaign website fell victim to hackers last night. The "world has had enough of the fake news spreaded daily" by the president, a post on the website said. The message also said it had information that "discredits" the president and his family, and it demanded cryptocurrency to either release or withhold the information. The site was restored shortly afterwards. —NBC News ([link removed])

MORE: Jennifer Rubin: Four big constitutional fixes we need —The Washington Post ([link removed])


** Protests and violence engulf Philly
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Pennsylvania's largest city was wracked by mass demonstrations for a second consecutive night on Tuesday over the fatal police shooting of a 27-year-old Black man on Monday. About 1,000 protesters marched through the streets of West Philadelphia demanding justice for Walter Wallace, Jr. ([link removed])
* — Wallace died after two Philadelphia police officers shot him multiple times while responding to a call reporting a man with a knife. His family members, who say he suffered from mental health issues, had called for an ambulance to take him to the hospital for medical care, but police showed up instead. ([link removed])
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* — Following a smaller protest that turned destructive on Monday, Gov. Tom Wolf authorized the state's National Guard to help police protect property and quell unrest. Monday's demonstrations and looting left shops damaged and at least 30 officers injured. ([link removed])
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* — As the protests spread out from West Philadelphia into several other parts of the city and grew increasingly volatile last night, the Philadelphia Police Department issued a request for residents near the unrest to stay home and remain indoors. —The Washington Post ([link removed])


** Whitmer: Returning to civility and shared values
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"I grew up in a bipartisan household, with a dad who worked for a Republican governor and a mom who worked for the Democratic state attorney general. This was a time when, as the late Rep. John Dingell wrote in his last words to America, leaders 'observed modicums of respect even as we fought, often bitterly and savagely, over issues that were literally life and death.' Our leaders knew that at the end of the day, we are all Americans; we all deserve to be treated with humanity and respect. And they were bound by their calling to public service." —Gretchen Whitmer in ([link removed]) The Atlantic ([link removed])

Ed. Note: Gretchen Whitmer is the 49th governor of Michigan.

MORE: Trump lashes out at Whitmer as crowd reprises 'lock her up' chant —The Hill ([link removed])


** 'He's jealous of Covid's media coverage'
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As President Trump tweeted again this morning to complain about the heavy media coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, the White House took the unusual step of including "ending the coronavirus pandemic" on a list of the Trump Administration's first-term accomplishments. Despite nearly half a million positive cases of COVID-19 being diagnosed in just the past week, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy made the claim yesterday in a news release highlighting the administration's science and technology achievements over the past four years. —CNN ([link removed])
* — Medical community blasts baseless claim. At a rally in Wisconsin on Saturday, Trump said "doctors get more money and hospitals get more money" if they report that their patients died of COVID-19, insinuating that the death toll from the virus can't be trusted. The American College of Emergency Physicians called the assertions "reckless and false," and the American College of Physicians denounced the allegations as "a reprehensible attack on physicians' ethics and professionalism." —The Boston Globe ([link removed])
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* — "We believe in science." California Gov. Gavin Newsom assured Californians yesterday that his vaccine safety group will not delay the distribution of a potential COVID-19 vaccine, as three more states committed to the vaccine safety effort. Washington, Nevada, and Oregon have joined California's Vaccine Review Group to put a second set of eyes on an eventual FDA-approved vaccine before distributing it within these states. —KRON ([link removed])
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* — Covid, Covid, Covid. Former President Barack Obama harshly criticized Trump's pandemic response while campaigning for his former vice president, Joe Biden, in Florida yesterday. "More than 225,000 people in this country are dead. More than 100,000 small businesses have closed," he said. "And what's his closing argument? That people are too focused on Covid." He continued, "If he had been focused on Covid from the beginning, cases wouldn't be reaching new record highs across the country this week." —CNN ([link removed])

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** Johnson & Greenblatt: Political violence must be thoroughly condemned
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"Above all else, our national leaders must, through their own words and deeds, put this nation back on the path toward recompilation and a more perfect American union. ... Leaders who command the national stage actually do have the ability to lead and to set a climate for the nation. Leaders who refuse to condemn hate and bigotry lower the bar for all the rest of us, make the previously deplorable acceptable, and—for the dangerous few who lurk among us—make violence inevitable." —Jeh Johnson and Jonathan Greenblatt in The Hill ([link removed])

Ed. Note: Jeh Johnson is the former secretary of Homeland Security, where he served from 2013 to 2017. Jonathan Greenblatt is CEO and national director of the Anti-Defamation League.

MORE: The White extremist group Patriot Front is preparing for a world after Donald Trump —BuzzFeed News ([link removed])


** Global roundup
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Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is urging the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan to respect a U.S.-negotiated ceasefire that fell apart minutes after its implementation on Monday, when Azerbaijan accused Armenia of launching artillery attacks. Pompeo and other officials held weekend discussions in Washington with the foreign ministers of the warring countries in an effort to reinforce two previously negotiated ceasefires to halt the fighting over the contested territory of Nagorno-Karabakh. —The Hill ([link removed])
* — Chile. The fireworks and street celebrations are over in Chile, where on Sunday, the nation voted overwhelmingly to hold a constitutional convention to draft a new charter. The process of drawing up a new constitution, replacing the charter introduced during military rule decades ago, is expected to take many months in the affluent Latin American country, which more recently has experienced social and economic inequality. —PBS ([link removed])
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* — Iraq. Iraqi protesters clashed with security forces in Baghdad on Monday, a day after mass anti-government demonstrations took place nationwide. Thousands of Iraqis took to the streets on Sunday to mark the first anniversary of the 2019 revolt dubbed the "October Revolution," which demands the overthrow of the entire ruling class, which the protesters accuse of ineptitude and corruption. ([link removed])
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* — Thailand. Thousands of pro-democracy protesters marched on the German embassy in Bangkok on Monday to ask for an investigation of the Thai king's activities during lengthy stays in Germany. Berlin has said it would be unacceptable for King Maha Vajiralongkorn to conduct politics in Germany, and German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said the country is looking into his behavior during his long sojourns in Bavaria. —Al Jazeera ([link removed])

MORE: Treaty to prohibit nuclear weapons passes important threshold —The New York Times ([link removed])


** Brandom: It's time to get serious about power and accountability
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"[U]nderneath it all, we need to rethink the way we relate to our government. Politics isn't a TV show, and it's not a debating society. The more we focus on the daily circus, the harder it is to keep an eye on what the government is actually doing and hold it accountable for the ways it's falling short. We need to focus less on which leaders are rising or falling in power and more on how their actions are impacting the world at large. We're making real moral choices with real impacts on people's lives—all of us, as a country, together. Facing an ongoing pandemic, ecological crisis, and economic collapse, the stakes have rarely been higher." —Russell Brandom in ([link removed]) The Verge ([link removed])

Ed. Note: Russell Brandom is the policy editor at
The Verge.


** A race to kindness
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There's no arguing that the coronavirus pandemic has left the world reeling, but it's also taught us some invaluable lessons about the nature of perseverance, the courage of conviction, and the gift of compassion. Few are more dedicated to those ideals than North Texas 5th-grader Orion Jean, who is on a mission to donate 100,000 meals to those in need by Thanksgiving. ([link removed])
* — This isn't his first philanthropic venture. Last summer, Orion took first place in the Think Kindness National Speech Contest. He used the $500 award to organize a "Race to 500 Toys" drive to collect toys for children in Dallas-area hospitals. ([link removed])
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* — For his current humanitarian outing, he is encouraging people to go to a "Race to 100,000 Meals" drop-off point and donate a packed meal containing a bottle of water, a piece of fruit, a tuna pouch or applesauce cup, a granola bar, and a positive message. ([link removed])
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* — "I'm asking everyone to join me in a race to kindness," Orion said. "This has been a rough year for everybody, and now it's more important than ever to show support and love to anyone who needs it." —Good News Network ([link removed])

Ed. Note: Would you like to suggest "An American Story" from your local news? If so, please forward a link to the story to [email protected] (mailto:[email protected]) . Thank you!

Concerning the new 6-3 conservative-majority Supreme Court, it makes me sick that LGBTQ people now have to worry that the rights they fought so hard for could potentially be taken away. I'm worried for my friends and for everyone this affects. They all deserve so much better than this. —Lauren A., New Jersey
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** The views expressed in "What's Your Take?" are submitted by readers and do not necessarily reflect the views of the editorial staff or the Stand Up Republic Foundation.
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