Mendocino County Today: November 17, 2020

Windy Showers | 1311 Cases | Purple Again | Covid Surge | Seen Silas? | GG Leadership | Noyo Suicide | Mendocino Bluff | Fire Recovery | Scott Dam | Amazon Pharmacy | Zoom Trivia | North Fork Mill | Ukiah Mural | Fractured Wrist | Gualala | Ed Notes | Yesterday's Catch | Nothing Bad | Pacific Lumber | Nuclear Universities | Sherlock Drugs | Radioactive Joe | Sharecroppers | USPS Day | Peoples Park | Miz Powell | Circus Act | End Game | Best Tantrum | Con Man

SHOWERS and occasionally windy conditions are expected through Wednesday. A few thunderstorms will also be possible tonight through Wednesday near coastal areas of Del Norte and Humboldt counties. Dry and cooler weather is expected on Friday and Saturday. (NWS)

FOUR NEW COVID CASES reported in Mendocino County on Monday bringing the total to 1311.

THE STATE PLACES MENDOCINO COUNTY BACK INTO THE PURPLE TIER

There has been an unprecedented increase in COVID-19 cases throughout California, particularly within the last 10 days. Mendocino County has also seen a rise in cases. Within the last seven days, our county’s case rate (average number of new cases per day) has jumped by 69%. Because of this surge, Mendocino County Public Health was alerted by the state that our county has officially re-entered Purple Tier 1, or “widespread” COVID-19 community risk status, effective Tuesday, November 17, 2020. 

www.theava.com/archives/140586

MENTALLY-COMPROMISED MAN LAST SEEN IN MENDOCINO COUNTY; Mother Seeks Public’s Help

27-year-old Silas Callahan Dunn has had mental illness for many years, and since late August has adopted a transient lifestyle in Northern California, according to his mother, Christine Dunn. He has inhabited mental hospitals, homeless shelters, and encampments ranging from Dunsmuir, Eureka, Garberville, Fort Bragg, Boonville, and was most recently reported to be in Willits. 

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mendofever.com/2020/11/15/mentally-compromised-man-last-seen-in-mendocino-county-mother-seeks-publics-help/

AMID LAYOFFS, GOLDEN GATE BRIDGE LEADERSHIP COMES INTO SHARP FOCUS In Sonoma County

Under pressure from union interests, Sonoma County supervisors on Tuesday could jettison the county’s longest-serving board member on the Golden Gate Bridge Highway and Transportation District in favor of a candidate put forward by labor groups who are fighting deep layoffs at the agency.

pressdemocrat.com/article/news/amid-layoffs-golden-gate-bridge-leadership-comes-into-sharp-focus-in-sonom/

BODY FOUND UNDERNEATH FORT BRAGG’S NOYO BRIDGE: Victim of Suicide

According to Captain Greg Van Patten, the Public Information Officer for the Mendocino County Sheriff’s Office, the body below Fort Bragg’s Noyo Bridge is a Fort Bragg resident who “committed suicide by jumping off the bridge.” Captain Van Patten offered that the possible motive was “health problems.”

mendofever.com/2020/11/15/body-found-underneath-fort-braggs-noyo-bridge/

MENDOCINO COUNTY TO HOST VIRTUAL TOWN HALL ON FIRE RECOVERY PROGRAMS

On Thursday, November 19 at 4:00 pm, the County will host a virtual Town Hall Meeting for fire survivors impacted by the Oak Fire and August Complex Fire. The event will follow a webinar format, which will provide residents with the opportunity to submit questions. County representatives will be available to provide resources and address community concerns related to fire recovery programs, including Public Assistance, Individual Assistance, Small Business Administration Loans, and Debris Removal. 

Virtual Town Hall Details: 

What: Virtual Town Hall – Fire Recovery Programs 

When: Thursday, November 19, 2020 at 4:00 pm

Who: Mendocino County, CalOES, and FEMA 

How to attend: 

To join via Zoom, click the link: https://mendocinocounty.zoom.us/j/81147168574

To join via phone, dial: +1 669 900 9128 and enter the webinar ID: 811 4716 8574

The webinar will also be streaming live on the County’s YouTube channel (https://www.youtube.com/mendocinocountyvideo)

How to submit your questions and comments:

E-mail questions and comments in advance to: disasterrecovery@mendocinocounty.org. There will also be a live Q & A feature on the webinar. 

For more information, please contact Mendocino County Disaster Recovery at (707) 234-6303, or visit the Disaster Recovery website at https://www.mendocinocounty.org/community/fire-recovery.

AMAZON DEBUTS ONLINE PHARMACY

The S&P 500 is trading off session lows (-1.1%) with a current 0.5% decline. The drug store industry, meanwhile, is getting hit after Amazon (AMZN 3157.00, +25.94, +0.9%) announced the launch of its online pharmacy business, the timing of which was previously unknown. 

This is a negative for the physical pharmacies since not only will they now have to compete with Amazon for market share and pricing, but they stand to lose ancillary revenue from potential foot-traffic. That will pressure margins and profitability. 

Shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA 40.08, -4.01, -9.1%) and CVS Health (CVS 68.06, -5.42, -7.4%) are down 9% and 7%, respectively. 

(Briefing.com)

AV VILLAGE GENERAL TRIVIA WITH THE COORDINATOR

Tuesday November 17th, 4:30 to 5:30 PM on Zoom

Join us for General Trivia with the AV Village Coordinator and have a little fun and learn some new useful facts?! Please RSVP with the coordinator so we can get an idea of attendance, thank you.

Join Zoom Meeting: https://gmail.us3.list-manage.com/track/click?u=cea1e601922fa82e47579cc80&id=2dd5636747&e=358077c1c9

Meeting ID: 434 337 6734

Passcode: avv

One tap mobile: +16699009128,,4343376734#,,,,,,0#,,490940#

Dial by your location: +1 669 900 9128

FROM UKIAH MURALIST LAUREN SINNOTT:

The last day of painting for the season was today, Veteran’s Day, on the 11th day of the 11th month, which was when the armistice was signed in the 11th hour, ending World War I. My subject matter, unplanned, was military service and I completed the 101st portrait in the mural, that of Stephen C. Brunton, one of 22 servicemen from Mendocino County who lost their lives in Vietnam. 

My great friend (and former colleague in government and transportation) Phil Dow also served in Vietnam and helped me select who to portray and what their stories meant. Petty Officer Stephen Brunton was assigned to US Navy Forces Vietnam, the “Brown-Water Navy” that delivered troops and supplies on the dangerous jungle rivers of the Mekong Delta. These waterways were the only highways in the region. Brunton was leading a column of river craft when the Alpha boat was fired on by machine guns and rockets. He continued forward; the column reached its destination, but not before this Ukiah boy lost his life.

My dreamy, poetic Dad enlisted in WWII when he was 17. He was a gunner’s mate on an LST in the Pacific, and stayed on in Asia after the end of the war. Phil was in the 101st Airborne, serving in combat on the very front lines. Many days he wondered if he would make it home, and when he did, he thought “The rest of my life is gravy.” The 24th panel in the mural, “service,” represents people in several roles serving and protecting the community: firefighters, medical professionals in this time of global pandemic, and members of our military branches. I wanted to honor all of them in the imagery, but especially those who paid the ultimate price.

When I return in the spring, I will add Charles Crain, a US Army Combat Medic who lost his life in a heavy 2-day battle rushing into fire, responding to young men screaming for help. Calvin Barra, a WWII Marine who fell at Iwo Jima will stand next to Stephen, in the next panel, “remembrance.” 

The anonymous figure at the very bottom of “service” is a prone soldier representing this ultimate sacrifice. The gravestone at his head crosses over into the “remembrance” panel. A woman kneels in grief before it. She could be his wife, his sister, or the daughter he never knew.

See my friend and mural helper Mike Jamieson's video from today here:

KATY TAHJA WRITES: How NOT to end a day in town: Go shopping for everything for the holidays including a $50 frozen organic turkey. Stop by the local thrift store and trip and throw your arm out to break your fall, realize your wrist is now screwed up. Pay for your purchase of a good book since if you're going to be screwed up you might as well have something fun to read. Drive yourself to the emergency room. Call family and ask someone to drive to town and rescue the groceries since any visit to a hospital takes HOURS. Have doctors x-ray the wrist and say it's only fractured but has to be splinted and I have to come back Monday. Drive myself home, luckily it's not too painful. Not the best afternoon. PS. The x-ray tech who isn't supposed to make pronouncements held up the x-ray and said “At least all the bones are pointed in the right directions…”

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ED NOTES

MENDO'S back in the purple due to a sudden rise in confirmed covid cases, and innumerable small businesses have either gone under or a treading water in an ocean of bankruptcies.

FORT BRAGG NATIVE COMMENTS: “I still cannot see why they allow tourists to travel freely. Fort Bragg is overrun with people from all over the US. This year we have seen the rudest, grouchy, unfriendly , and just plain rude tourists ever. If you have local people, who are following guidelines, it doesn’t make sense to allow open travel for pleasure! These people are not here to work, unless you can haul stuff on a sedan for work. I think a 100 percent shutdown for 2 weeks could change the whole outlook. Sure it would hurt a lot of pocketbooks, but what is more important, your money or yours and your loved ones health?”

A TABLOID STORY says that movie star Olivia Wilde “leapt to the defense of Harry Styles as she hit back at Candace Owens' criticism of him wearing a dress in his new Vogue shoot. The 26-year-old pop hunk made history as the first ever solo male movie star of US Vogue in its 127-year history, and opted to shake things up with his sartorial choices. However, conservative commentator Candace, 31, took umbrage to the star's shoot, writing on Twitter: 'There is no society that can survive without strong men. The East knows this. In the west, the steady feminization of our men at the same time that Marxism is being taught to our children is not a coincidence'.”

UH, Marxism being taught to our children is the road to feminization of male children? Wrong and wrong. “Marxism” is now being invoked by the rightwing as a synonym for liberal. Marxists, if you can find one, deploy in real life as puritanical. Men wearing dresses would be evidence of “bourgeosie decadence.” Among Castro’s first acts upon securing the Cuban Revolution was to confine all identifiable homosexuals to the Isle of Pines, basically a gay concentration camp. Ms. Wilde, incidentally, is probably one of the few actresses in Hollywood who knows the diff between the isms, being from the Cockburn family of writers and intellectuals.

PREDICTABLY, when the mild socialist Bernie Sanders said over the weekend that the minimum wage should be at least $15 an hour, that medicare for all should be adopted now and college tuition-free, he was as usual denounced as impossibly “far left.” In living fact, Bernie, a social democrat in practice, cited a September survey by Public Agenda which found that 72 per cent of surveyors supported raising the minimum wage, more than 60% of Americans were in favor of guaranteed health care for everyone and free college tuition. Broken down, that translated to 62 per cent of Republicans, 69 per cent of Independents and 87 per cent of Democrats.

FOR THOSE of you confused about Kunstler’s neo-support for Trump, he spells out his principles: “I’m against the suppression of free speech, against cancel culture, identity politics, political use of the FBI and CIA to harass and ruin US citizens, riots, looting, and arson, destruction of public monuments, ‘white privilege’ coercion, valorization of sexual confusion and mental illness, and many more features of Democratic Party policy-and-ideology — as well as the party’s epic bad faith and by-any-means-necessary approach to public affairs. I do not want them governing the country.”

81,000 PEOPLE, most of them presumably men, have come forward with sex-abuse claims against the Boy Scouts of America, describing a decades long accumulation of assaults by chomo Scout leaders across the nation. The number of claims against the Scouts eclipses even abuse accusations against the Catholic Church. Paul Mones, a lawyer who has been working on Boy Scouts cases for nearly two decades, said the prevalence of abuse detailed in the filings against the Boy Scouts “might reflect only a fraction of victims.” That seems like an awful lot of vics, but then the most dedicated pervs are apparently at it all the time.

LIFE BEING pretty much a series of psychic shocks, one shock to my tender psyche at age 8 or 9 is peripherally related to the Boy Scouts. I didn’t make it past Cub Scouts myself, which I dimly recall as being uninteresting and dominated by ambitious adults intent upon getting their undeserving, incompetent little Scout every achievement badge the organization offered. A lot of the little chiselers looked like tiny Russian generals, their chests covered with badges. So, one day, my chums and I were playing a ball game in the street outside the home of a man named Godfrey Brown, a Scoutmaster, when we heard the sound of breaking glass and looked over to see him methodically punching out each pane of glass of his multi-paned glass front door, and then sawing his wrist back and forth on the remaining glass fragments. The police and an ambulance were soon on-scene, Godfrey was strapped to a gurney and hauled off. That was the last anyone saw of him. I only knew him as the husband of the most beautiful woman in the area, and I knew her from my dentist’s office where she worked as an assistant. Even as a child, I could see that she broke the local mode, which was pure frump. I still remember her walking past a guy I delivered papers for, and when she was safely out of sight, him exclaiming, as he grabbed his crotch, “Christ Jesus spare me!” Of course as a child I was confused by this violent sexual reaction to a kindly, pretty woman who I knew as Mrs. Brown, and it was certainly a violently inappropriate reaction considering that it was delivered solely for the benefit of a child bewildered by it. (Kids weren’t cosseted in them days.) I remember Mr. Brown as a short, chubby guy, and even as a kid it seemed to me that Mr. and Mrs. Brown didn’t fit as a couple. I can’t recall any gossip that had the poor guy pegged as a perv, but maybe he wigged out from the pressure of knowing that wherever she and he went men were violently disturbed by her. 

VAL MUCHOWSKI, fanatical Democrat, posts a lot of stuff from the AVA on her Facebook page. Not that we mind but she should attribute the re-posts to us rather than imply they came from her. Also note that Val never ever re-posts our criticisms of the Democrats.

CATCH OF THE DAY, November 16, 2020

MICHAEL COWEN, Lodi/Ukiah. Suspended license, probation revocation.

JENNIFER GARCIA, Ukiah. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

TAMMY GILCHRIST, Willits. Burglary, under influence, probation revocation.

BRAYAN GONZALEZ, Santa Rosa/Ukiah. DUI.

LUIS PINEDA, Fort Bragg. Felon with stun-gun, controlled substance, probation revocation.

JAMES VOGUS, Talmage. Disorderly conduct-alcohol.

NOTHING BAD EVER HAPPENS TO ME

Nothing bad ever happens to me
Why should I care?

A man broke into my neighborhood
He threatened the family with a loaded gun
He tied them all up and beat 'em real good
He took everything and he got away clean
And I can't believe that anyone would 
Wanna do such a terrible thing
But why should I care?

Did ya hear about Fred? He's unemployed 
They threw him away like a useless toy
He went down the drain after 20 long years
No warning, no pension, and nobody's tears
And I can't believe that anyone would
Wanna do such a terrible thing
But why should I care?
Why should I care?

Every time I look around this place
I see them scream, but I hear no sound
And the terrible things happen down the road
To somebody else that I don't even know

Nothing bad ever happens to me
Why should I care?

Have you heard about the Joneses, my, my, my
It happened so quick, and no one knows why
Their teenage son, he seemed okay
But his suicide ruined everyone's day
And I can't believe that anyone would
Wanna do such a terrible thing
But why should I care?

— Danny Elfman

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SCHOOLS OF MASS DESTRUCTION

American universities in the US nuclear weapons complex

An ICAN report

Universities across the United States are identified in this report for activities ranging from directly managing laboratories that design nuclear weapons to recruiting and training the next generation of nuclear weapons scientists. Much of universities’ nuclear weapons work is kept secret from students and faculty by classified research policies and undisclosed contracts with the Defense Department and the Energy Department. The following is the executive summary from ICAN’s report: Schools of Mass Destruction, with some changes made for timeliness.

Over the next ten years, the Congressional Budget Office estimates U.S. taxpayers will pay nearly $500 billion to maintain and modernize their country’s nuclear weapons arsenal, or almost $100,000 per minute. A separate estimate brings the total over the next 30 years to an estimated $1.7 trillion. In a July 2019 report, National Nuclear Security Administrator Lisa Gordon-Haggerty wrote, “The nuclear security enterprise is at its busiest since the demands of the Cold War era.”

In addition to large amounts of funding, enacting these upgrades requires significant amounts of scientific, technical and human capital. To a large extent, the U.S. government and its contractors have turned to the nation’s universities to provide this capital. 

At the same time, the United States is shirking its previous commitments to nuclear arms control and reducing nuclear risks despite its obligation under Article VI of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to pursue good-faith measures towards nuclear disarmament. 

Full article: beyondnuclearinternational.org/2020/11/15/schools-of-mass-destruction/

BIDEN-HARRIS AGENDA EMBRACES DANGEROUS SMALL MODULAR NUKE REACTORS

Biden-Harris must reject the nuclear path.

The Biden-Harris energy plan hits all the right notes in its opening paragraphs, focusing on a goal of net-zero emissions by 2050 and emphasizing infrastructure, international collaboration and the protection of poor communities of color, who suffer the most harm from unfettered polluters. 

As we know from his public statements, Biden will bring the US straight back into the Paris Agreement on climate and sees the climate crisis as the “number one issue facing humanity”. The Paris Agreement isn’t enough, but the US absence weakens it further. 

Still on the right track, the Biden-Harris climate plan looks to the rights and wellbeing of workers and jobs creation. It will adhere to “science, not fiction” and recognizes that energy efficiency has an essential role to play. 

And then it goes very badly — if predictably — wrong. 

In the section entitled “Biden’s Year One Legislative Agenda on Climate Change,” the document proclaims “We have to get rid of the old way of thinking,” then reverts precisely to that, clinging on to nuclear power as a necessary component of its plan. 

So the Biden-Harris agenda lists small modular reactors under its “game-changing technologies.” In a way, that’s correct. Diverting money into small modular reactors will be game-changing. It will put us firmly on the road to climate failure. 

The good news is that nuclear power does not play much of a role in the Biden-Harris plan. But the bad news is that, when it comes to nuclear power, the Biden camp has indeed chosen fiction over science. 

A bullet point called “Identify the future of nuclear energy” reverts right back to the failed Obama “all of the above” approach to “look at all low- and zero-carbon technologies”, instead of recognizing that nuclear power, a failed 20th century technology, does not have a future. 

Full article: beyondnuclearinternational.org/2020/11/15/science-or-nuclear-fiction/

ON LINE COMMENT OF THE DAY

National day of action tomorrow, November 17th, led by the American Postal Workers Union, to call for a thriving, public Postal Service

The original idea of the postal service, sending letters to each other, was scrapped when the USPS gave cheap rates to advertisers. Those cheap rates were balanced by expensive rates for private mail. That's where we are today. Nothing will improve at the USPS until it decides to charge advertisers and huge shippers like Amazon what it really costs to deliver their mailers and packages. Telling postal workers we appreciate them is a fine idea, kindly and healing. However, not much will change until the structural problem of unfair mailing rates is addressed. The USPS has become a corporate partner of large advertisers and shippers, instead of focusing on delivering our mail. As he's done with several aspects of government, Trump simply brought the hidden corruption in the USPS out into the open and used it for his benefit. 

Thanks to the dedication of postal workers across the country, more than 65 million Americans were able to successfully cast their votes by mail for Election Day. Postal workers put in long hours, did special sweeps of facilities and made extra deliveries to make sure our votes were delivered. But, now that the election is over DeJoy plans to resume his disastrous policies that created delays and chaos this summer and fall. Which is why there’s a national day of action tomorrow, November 17th, led by the American Postal Workers Union, to call for a thriving, public Postal Service. Here’s how you can participate: 

Attend an event near you tomorrow to celebrate postal workers.

Call your senators at 833-924-0085 to demand $25 billion in COVID relief funds for the USPS and to put a permanent end to DeJoy’s delays.

Share why the USPS matters to you on social media tomorrow using the hashtag #SaveThePostOffice

A strong Postal Service is crucial to a healthy democracy. Not just during elections, but all the time. The dedication of postal workers kept mail ballots moving through Election Day, but the Postal Service’s finances are still devastated by COVID. The House has passed $25 billion in COVID relief twice, this administration refused to deliver that aid before the election.

Join us November 17 to demand funding and reverse DeJoy’s delays.

Please sign the MoveOn petition calling upon the United States Postal Service Board of Governors to fire Postmaster General DeJoy.

https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/board-of-governors-of-the-united-states-postal-service-remove-louis-dejoy

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DON’T MESS WITH MIZ POWELL

by James Kunstler

That’s a headline from — where else? — The New York Times, Monday morning edition. The paper no longer prints news stories, it releases DNC talking points, such as this one referring to conspiracy theories, one of their faves. The catch, of course, is: when an organization, say, the Democratic Party, meddles in election vote tabulation, you have…what? A plan acted on by a group to do something unlawful. That would be… a conspiracy. They surely had the motive and, apparently, the means. You can play rhetorical games with the theory part, but then there’s the evidence trail, and how it comports with reality. The word theory, you see is not a synonym for a falsehood — as they pretend it is. Many theories are proven true.

An eerie silence oppressed the election news-space much of last week as Mr. Trump and his people seemed to lay low, Br’er Rabbit style, and a lot of folks wondered what was going on in that-there briar patch. Towards the weekend, Rudolf Giuliani methodically described some of the evidence at hand about janky ballot reporting, but that must have been too plodding for the Big Media gang. Then another Trump lawyer, Sidney Powell, came on Lou Dobbs’s Friday evening news show and some people started paying attention to some things she said, like, “I’m going to release the kraken” — referring to the largest and most feared sea monster in Old Norse mythology. Miz Powell, she means bidness. She went on, “We have staggering statistical evidence; we have staggering personal testimony… we’re beginning to collect evidence on the financial interest of the governors and secretaries of state who bought into the Dominion [vote tabulation] systems… President Trump won this election in a landslide, it is irrefutable… we are gonna go after it, and I am going to expose every one of them.”

Well, that might have put the fear of Gawd in some people. In case anyone in the back-of-the-class wasn’t paying attention, Miz Powell went back on the air Sunday morning with Maria Bartiromo and said, “We’re fixing to overturn the results of this election in multiple states… President Trump won not by hundreds of thousands of votes but by millions of votes that were shifted by this software that was designed expressly for that purpose…. We have so much evidence I feel it’s coming in like a firehose.”

Is Ms. Powell bluffing? Why would she try, since the time left in this game is short and her only play is to show her cards? “I never say anything I can’t prove,” she declared.

Combine the software with crooked poll-workers and a pattern emerges: votes added and subtracted in a behind-the-scenes drag-and-drop operation, with bundles of paper write-in ballots trucked in desperately to support the fraud during the hours-long blackout periods late on election night when it became obvious that the Trump vote was more overwhelming than anticipated. The Dominion voting system appears to have been connected to the Internet despite election rules that it was not allowed to be. Affidavits indicate that USB ports on the machine, supposedly only for diagnostic purposes, were repeatedly fed thumb drives during the blackout hours.

The shady Dominion voting system company has US headquarters in Denver, but is based in Canada. Its voting systems are used in thirty US states including all the “swing” states. Dominion machines and software are implicated in the manipulation of elections in Venezuela and the Philippines. In 2009, Dominion entered into a partnering agreement with Smartmatic, a vote tabulation software add-on, whose chairman, Lord (Baron) Mark Malloch Brown, is former vice-chairman of George Soros’ Investment Funds. Dominion formed a development partnership with the Canada-based DELIAN Project in 2014, with financial support from the Clinton Foundation. Both Dominion and Smartmatic have swapped ownership of Sequoia Voting Systems, the company implicated in Venezuelan ballot fraud.

Sidney Powell stated that these international relationships point to possible “foreign interference” in US elections, the very charge that the Democratic Party flogged into the three-year-long RussiaGate affair. At least, it raises the issue: why are US elections using voting machines and software affiliated with foreign countries?

In her weekend statements, Ms. Powell did not refer to the two CIA (or DIA?) election manipulation programs, #Hammer and #Scorecard, though she called explicitly for the firing of CIA chief Gina Haspel. Ms. Haspel, remember, was head of the CIA’s London desk when the US intel community was busy cooking up the Hillary Clinton-sponsored Steele dossier, assembled by former British MI-6 agent Christopher Steele. She also assisted in arrangements to entrap General Michael Flynn at a conference run by intel asset Stefan Halper, at Magdalene College (Cambridge, UK).

It’s a pretty rich gameboard out there and the clock is ticking. The possible outcomes are several: The state legislatures in disputed states could choose their own elector slates. In short order, the President’s lawyers will take their case to the US Supreme Court, which might invalidate the disputed states’ elections and send the contest into the House of Representatives a la the 1876 Hayes-Tilden election. The Department of Justice could level felony charges before December 8 at a long list of companies and persons involved in demonstrable ballot fraud. This could amount to decapitation of the Deep State. Would Mr. Barr dare? A lot of people doubt it. I’m sure readers can conjure up other possibilities.

In any case, a final victory for Joe Biden would hopelessly taint any administration he leads and would lead to much harsher resistance coming from the other side this time — while he is trying to govern during an economic calamity worse than the Great Depression of the 1930s. Maybe ex-CIA chief John Brennan never should have messed with General Mike Flynn. Just sayin’.

(Support Kunstler’s writing by visiting his Patreon Page.)

TRUMP’S ONGOING CRIME WAVE REQUIRES A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR

by Ralph Nader

There are many reasons why loser Trump refuses to concede. Yes, delusion has been the counterfeit coin of his fantasy realm – “I won this election by a lot” he tweeted with all caps last Saturday. In his fevered mind – nourished by a bullying career – all victories are his triumphs, and all losses are fake due to fraud or theft. Unfortunately, for decades he has gotten away with all sorts of abuses, violations, and exaggerations.

Trump is now being told that the courts don’t agree with his desperate lawsuits brought by firms such as Jones Day, whose lawyers can’t resist the lucrative billings that client Trump generates. Trump is also seeing that Republican Senators are starting to distance themselves from their roles as dittohead minions. Even puppet Mike Pence is not parroting Trump’s wild, flailing fictions.

All this bluster is, however, more than the fluster of a failed gambling czar going off the rails. There are lootings to be done. By refusing to concede, Trump is raising millions of dollars from his supporters. Trump’s defiance also distracts the media from the Executive Branch that is on a rampage of wreckage and revenge garnished by profiteering that will fill the defeated President’s days until January 20, 2021.

The firing of top officials who strayed from Trump fuels his fulminating tweet machine. The first official to go was Secretary of Defense Mark Esper who opposed the use of the U.S. Army against the American people speaking freely in the streets. More officials are being removed and replaced by Trump’s hardliners. Installing “acting” high officials without Senate confirmation is Trump’s latest impeachable offense and should render the authority of these henchmen illegal. Remember dictator Donald Trump has declared that “With Article II, I can do whatever I want as president.”

Trump and his outlaws can do serious damage before they get the boot in January. Expect that Trump and his cronies will do the following:

• Destroy or steal documents, emails, transcripts, fabrications, and alter any incriminating evidence. House Committee Chairs have written a letter warning Trump that violating the Public Records Act is a federal crime. The Trumpsters laugh at Congress knowing that the House Democrats have declined to exercise their full power under the Constitution.

• Expand the funneling of unexpended monies and unauthorized funds to favor corporate cronies and other interests pumping up the Trump family businesses.

• Continue to defy over one hundred House subpoenas and demands for information. These subpoenas will expire with the new Congressional session in January.

• Issue Executive Orders illegally overriding statutory requirements and establishing immediate benefits for his business and political friends.

• Expand the repeal of existing regulation of corporations, no matter how administratively unlawful.

• Drop pending court cases, and sign sweetheart settlements with corporate crooks without public disclosure. Attorney General Barr specializes in secret settlements. He may even close out grand juries, such as the one now investigating Boeing and its 737 MAX crimes. (See the Democratic House Chairman Letters).

• Open further the floodgates of corporate subsidies, handouts, giveaways, and bailouts, including awarding leases and licenses corruptly to commercial interests.

• Give contracts to favored companies and cronies and revoke other contracts awarded earlier to people Trump wants to punish.

• Order his toady Attorney General to issue subpoenas for bogus, vindictive purposes so as to stigmatize his critics and cause them legal costs.

• Pardon or commute the sentences of large numbers of people, some of them worthy, for cover, and others who are Trump cronies wanting to avoid prosecution or prison terms. A seasoned escape artist from the law, Trump will want to pardon loyalists and his family members for any federal crimes and then figure out how to pardon himself. Trump might even resign so Mike Pence can briefly become President and pardon Trump and collaborators.

• Give the Presidential Medal of Freedom to odious characters, such as he did to Rush Limbaugh earlier this year, to curry favor and to reap future paybacks.

• Make a living hell for Joe Biden’s transition teams to keep them from discovering Trump administration crime scenes and to impair the work of the new administration in a perilous age of Trump’s Covid-19 expanding casualty toll.

To those who shout, “He can’t legally do that,” Trump laughs and says – “So sue me; I’ve been pardoned and, anyhow, I’ve got six votes on the U.S. Supreme Court.” (He can’t, however, escape state criminal prosecutions as those rising in New York).

These Trumpian maneuvers must not deter Biden and his Attorney General from establishing a Special Prosecutor Task Force to bring the Trumpsters to justice and assure that crime does not pay. Conservative columnist Max Boot said, “Trump’s wrongdoing is so pervasive and brazen that he must be prosecuted to uphold the rule of law and deter even greater lawbreaking by future presidents. If elected, Biden should appoint a special counsel of unimpeachable integrity — a widely respected former U.S. attorney or federal judge — with a wide-ranging mandate to investigate Trump and his administration.”

What Trump would like to do, health permitting, is make tons of money from all his presidential favors, continue to control the GOP with mass rallies, mass media coverage, and his own media company, and run for president in 2024. He knows very well that despite his colossal, dangerous, lying, betraying, and wrecking of America in so many ways, (See our book, Wrecking America: How Trump’s Lawbreaking and Lies Betray All) 70 million voters stayed with him.

Such is the historic default, at both the Congressional and state levels, of the corporatized, cowardly Democratic Party against the overtly worst Republican Party in 166 years!

A READER WRITES: Trump is not just a sore loser, he is a con man. By contesting the election, he can continue to ask his supporters for money; I had a phone call from him this morning asking to contribute to his emergency fund. If he announces that he is running for the 2024 election, he can continue to solicit funds for the next four years. He has already siphoned off $2.5 million for his personal use. If he concedes the election, he doesn't get anything.