Trump’s economic plans - tax cuts for billionaires, tariffs to worsen inflation by HRW, ACLU, Brennan Center, agencies USA Nov. 2024 Trump’s victory is a call to action for those who value our system of checks and balances, by Michael Waldman - Brennan Center for Justice I want to share with you a few thoughts about the election. The election was free and fair. The system was strengthened immeasurably since 2020, with election officials and law enforcement pulling together. Voting, overwhelmingly, proceeded without incident. The American people chose national elected leaders who have made clear their authoritarian intentions — who have a fearful, divisive vision of the country, one filled with hatred. Voters did this with eyes wide open. How will we at the Brennan Center respond to this moment? We will stand up to authoritarianism and abuse of power. We will work with allies to explain, call out, and fight. We provide leading expertise on the 18th- and 19th-century statutes that Donald Trump has promised to use to implement mass deportation and stretch executive powers beyond their limits, laws such as the Insurrection Act, the National Emergencies Act, and even the Alien Enemies Act. We will fight the weaponization of the Justice Department. We will stand up against national legislation that aims to make it harder for Americans to vote. And more. And we will continue to expose the growing role of big money in American politics. Both sides had plenty of cash, of course. But, according to the New York Times, one-third of the president-elect’s funds came from a small handful of billionaires. That is something new and ominous. We will ask hard questions. In exit polls, the number one issue was the health of democracy. What do voters mean? How do we deepen that understanding? And we will recognize, too, that our institutions of self-government have failed to produce progress for too many people. We can bring to this moment the ability to think anew and help craft the next agenda. For now, at a moment of maximum peril, we will continue to fight for American democracy. http://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/analysis-opinion/looking-forward-our-democracy Second Trump Term a threat to Rights in US and the World, by Tirana Hassan, Executive Director Human Rights Watch. Donald Trump’s second term as United States president poses a grave threat to human rights in the United States and the world, Human Rights Watch said today. These concerns reflect Trump’s rights-abusing record during his first term, his embrace of white supremacist supporters and ideology, the extreme anti-democratic and anti-rights policies proposed by think tanks led by former aides, and campaign promises, including to round up and deport millions of immigrants and retaliate against political opponents. “Donald Trump has made no secret of his intent to violate the human rights of millions of people in the United States,” said Tirana Hassan, executive director at Human Rights Watch. “Independent institutions and civil society groups, including Human Rights Watch, will need to do all we can to hold him and his administration accountable for abuses.” During Trump’s first term as president, from 2017 to 2021, Human Rights Watch documented his record of rights abuses. These included policies and efforts to expel asylum seekers and separate families at the US-Mexico border, advance racist tropes against Black communities and other people of color, adopt policies that punish low-income families and deprive them of health care, and to fuel a violent insurrection to overthrow the results of a democratic election. Trump’s pledges during his 2024 campaign raise greater cause for concern in a second term, both domestically and internationally. In 2023, he said he would not be a dictator “except for day one” in office. Trump has repeatedly praised autocrats such as Viktor Orban, Vladimir Putin, and Kim Jong Un. He has proposed policies that would weaken democratic institutions that protect fundamental human rights and would lessen checks on presidential authority. The threat of abusing the executive office is of even greater concern because of a recent US Supreme Court decision that grants presidents broad immunity from criminal prosecution for official actions taken in office. Project 2025, a governing plan written by Trump’s former advisers and political allies, details many other abusive, often racially discriminatory policies that the new administration may adopt. Although Trump has denied connections to Project 2025, many of his statements echo its premises. While the presidential campaign cycle featured rhetoric from both candidates that was hostile toward immigrants, Trump made scapegoating immigrants a central pillar of his campaign. He has called for extreme policies that include mass detention of migrants and mass deportations of millions of people, which would tear apart families with deep roots in the US. Such a program would invariably entail racial profiling, lead to heightened abuses by law enforcement during mass roundups, and instigate more xenophobic actions among the wider public. During the campaign, Trump and his running mate, JD Vance, spread racist lies about Haitian migrants in particular and fomented disinformation that immigration leads to increased crime in the United States. Abortion rights will be under increased threat during Trump’s second term. His insistence that states should have the power to block access to basic health care allows policies that violate rights, endanger health, lead to preventable deaths, and criminalize private health care decisions. Trump has vowed to retaliate against his political enemies. Throughout speeches and campaign interviews, he has used increasingly dangerous rhetoric, referring to his critics as “the enemy from within.” Trump threatened to order the US Department of Justice to pursue prosecutions against President Joe Biden and others he claims oppose his agenda, including election officials and voters. Trump has also suggested he would invoke the Insurrection Act to deploy the US military and national guard against people in the US who might exercise their right to protest. With respect to foreign policy, during his first term Trump demonstrated little respect for treaties, multilateral institutions, or efforts to protect the human rights of people living under repressive governments. His administration consistently worked against women’s rights and environmental progress at the United Nations and tried to redefine and limit the definition of rights to be protected through the US Department of State. Trump has signaled opposition to funding for humanitarian aid and civilian protection efforts in major conflicts and crises. Likely partnerships with rights-abusing governments during a new Trump administration risk emboldening these governments to further harm people within their purview and perpetuate cycles of abuse and immunity from accountability around the world. “Rights-respecting institutions and officials need to hold the line during the Trump administration,” Hassan said. “World leaders, federal and state workers, activists, and ordinary citizens have a role to play in protecting human rights and keeping Trump from carrying out the abuses he has promised.” http://www.hrw.org/news/2024/11/06/us-second-trump-term-threat-rights-us-world-0 http://www.amnestyusa.org/press-releases/amnesty-international-will-defend-human-rights-during-president-elect-trumps-second-term/ We will fight for our freedoms together, by Anthony Romero, Executive Director American Civil Liberties Union. (ACLU) During the first Donald Trump administration, the ACLU fought his unlawful policies more than 400 times. We’re even more prepared now. The results of the election are in: Donald Trump will be the 47th president of the United States. Trump’s win comes after a campaign in which he consistently targeted immigrants and other vulnerable communities with hateful rhetoric. He also threatened retribution against dissidents and political opponents. I know that many of us fear what these results mean for our communities, our nation and ourselves. We know that a second Trump administration will be even more aggressive and effective than it was before — because Trump has repeatedly said so. As outlined in Project 2025, under a second Trump administration, our federal government will deport immigrants in dragnet raids, target his political adversaries, spy on private citizens, promote discrimination against marginalized communities, and control what we can and can’t do with our bodies. This dystopian view of American life threatens our fundamental freedoms. We know from prior experience that our fear is real. We also know that despair and resignation are not a strategy. At the ACLU, we’re choosing to channel our fear into action. Together, we are powerful enough to change the course of our nation’s history and defend our most fundamental rights and freedoms. That is why the ACLU has a concrete plan to fight back. When President-elect Trump comes for our communities, he’s gotta get through all of us. During Trump’s first term, the ACLU filed 434 legal challenges against his administration, successfully blocking some of Trump’s most egregious policies, like the Muslim ban and separating immigrant families. When Trump once again set his sights on the White House, the ACLU’s legal and advocacy experts drafted a roadmap to combat his administration head-on. On day one, we are prepared to: Defend against the Trump administration’s unlawful mass deportation plan through coordinated action at all levels of government. We’ll also work with states and localities to protect residents to the full extent possible and ensure that a Trump administration can’t hijack state resources to carry out its draconian policies. Provide legal defense to whistleblowers and critics who dare to stand up to Trump’s policies. We’ll also protect freedom of speech and the right to protest against Trump’s agenda. Use the courts to affirm that LGBTQ people are protected from discrimination under federal law. We’ll fight to invalidate Trump administration policies that permit discrimination across the federal government, and to shut down the administration’s efforts to require discrimination at the state and local levels. Challenge the Trump administration’s dangerous attacks on reproductive freedom, including any attempts to weaponize the Comstock Act to ban abortion nationwide or to take medication abortion off the shelves. We’ll also protect access to birth control and family planning services. As soon as the 119th Congress is sworn in, we will urge members to use their constitutional powers to provide oversight, investigate wrongdoing, and reject restrictive executive branch policies. At the state level, we’ll work with lawmakers to build a firewall for freedom and enact laws that protect people from government abuse. In our communities, we’re working to educate people on what is at risk, what happens next, and how we can fight for our freedoms together. This is my sixth presidential election as executive director at the ACLU and there is not a doubt in my mind that our organization is the best equipped to meet this moment. We have more than a century of experience in combating political repression, we have some of the nation’s best legal and political advocates, we have our nationwide network of ACLU affiliates, and we have all of you. The Trump administration’s anti-liberty and fundamentally anti-American policies will be met by the ACLU, our allies, and the commitment of the American people. The next four years will be challenging, but we’re ready to put up the fight of the century. You can count on it. http://www.aclu.org/our-47th-president-donald-trump Nov. 2024 Donald Trump can’t stop global climate action. If we stick together, it’s the US that will lose out, by Bill Hare, a climate scientist and chief executive of Climate Analytics. Donald Trump’s re-election to the White House is a major setback for climate action but ultimately it’s the US that could end up losing out, as the rest of the world will move forward without it. The US is the world’s biggest economy and its second biggest emitter. Positive US engagement on climate has been important to landmark leaps forward, like getting the Paris agreement over the line, and just last year committing to transitioning away from fossil fuels. The US missing in action in the latter half of this critical decade for climate action is nobody’s idea of a good outcome. President-elect Trump has promised to leave the Paris agreement and reports have emerged that he could be thinking of pulling out of the underlying United Nations framework treaty on climate change. But we’ve been here before and the truth is that a second Trump presidency can’t stop climate action, just like his denial of human-induced climate change won’t spare the US from its impacts. The energy transition is now well under way. The economics of renewable technologies are so attractive that they have become an energy juggernaut. Since the Paris agreement was signed in 2015, global investment in clean energy has increased by 60%. Nearly US$2tn a year is now invested in clean energy projects, almost double that spent on new oil, gas and coal supply. Before the pandemic, this ratio was closer to 1:1. The US added 560 gigawatts of renewable capacity in 2023. That’s about six times the size of Australia’s entire electricity capacity, added in just one year. Domestically, Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act has set wheels in motion for climate investment that will be hard, and politically unpopular, to undo. Famously, no Republicans voted for the legislation but red states have been the main beneficiaries of the money, projects and jobs it has created. House Republicans have even pushed back against their peers to protect some of the act’s clean energy tax credits. Climate impacts are accelerating in pace and scale that is untenable to ignore. Hurricanes Helene and Milton, supercharged by climate change, are expected to cost more than US$50bn. Fires in California, heatwaves in the sunbelt states, and flooding in the US South are wreaking huge damage on Americans. Last year a poll showed a majority of them feel that climate change is already causing serious effects. None of this stops the day Trump re-enters the White House. Internationally, we’ve been in this position before. In 2001 George W Bush quit the 1997 Kyoto deal. Last time Trump was in power, he left the Paris agreement, albeit for a short time. I don’t want to downplay the impacts of Trump, or the Project 2025 agenda to which he has been linked, but climate action didn’t stop then and it will not stop now. Other players, notably China, are increasingly moving into a leadership position on the issue, because of the strategic policy and economic interests it advances. The European Union is moving ahead with its green economic development agenda despite a rightward shift in the balance of power across the EU27 – with action on the climate emergency driving the economic development needed for this region of 350 million people. The US, if Trump does enact the changes he has campaigned on, will find itself falling behind on new technologies and markets. How damaging the second Trump presidency is to climate action depends very much on how other countries react. If many follow Trump in either rolling back – or slowing down – their action, the damage will be severe, long-lasting and difficult to overcome. On the other hand, if countries stick together and, as they should, deepen their commitments aligning with the Paris agreement’s 1.5C limit, the damage will be significant but not severe. There is no time to waste on this. COP29 starts in Baku in a few days and real leadership will be needed urgently to maintain the momentum needed to get agreement on the difficult issues that need to be solved to maintain action globally. Oct. 2024 AP: Trump’s economic plans would worsen inflation, experts say. With characteristic bravado, Donald Trump has vowed that if voters return him to the White House, “inflation will vanish completely.” It’s a message tailored for Americans who are still exasperated by the jump in consumer prices that began 3 1/2 years ago. Yet most mainstream economists say Trump’s policy proposals wouldn’t vanquish inflation. They’d make it worse. They warn that his plans to impose huge tariffs on imported goods, deport millions of migrant workers and demand a voice in the Federal Reserve’s interest rate policies would likely send prices surging. Sixteen Nobel Prize-winning economists signed a letter in June expressing fear that Trump’s proposals would “reignite’’ inflation, which has plummeted since peaking at 9.1% in 2022 and is nearly back to the Fed’s 2% target. The Nobel economists noted that they aren’t alone in sounding the alarm. “Nonpartisan researchers,” they said, “predict that if Donald Trump successfully enacts his agenda, it will increase inflation.” Last month, the Peterson Institute for International Economics predicted that Trump’s policies — the deportations, import taxes and efforts to erode the Fed’s independence — would drive consumer prices sharply higher two years into his second term. Peterson’s analysis concluded that inflation, which would otherwise register 1.9% in 2026, would instead jump to between 6% and 9.3% if Trump’s economic proposals were adopted. Taxes on imports — tariffs — are Trump’s go-to economic policy. While in office, Trump started a trade war with China, imposing high tariffs on most Chinese goods. He also raised import taxes on foreign steel and aluminum, washing machines and solar panels. He has still grander plans for a second term: Trump wants to impose a 60% tariff on all Chinese goods and a “universal" tariff of 10% or 20% on everything else that enters the United States. Trump insists that the cost of taxing imported goods is absorbed by the foreign countries that produce those goods. The truth, though, is that U.S. importers pay the tariff — and then typically pass along that cost to consumers in the form of higher prices, which is how Americans themselves end up bearing the cost of tariffs. “There’s no question that tariffs are inflationary,’’ said Kent Smetters of the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Wharton Budget Model, which studies the costs of government policies. Kimberly Clausing and Mary Lovely of the Peterson Institute have calculated that Trump’s proposed 60% tax on Chinese imports and his high-end 20% tariff on everything else would, in combination, impose an after-tax loss on a typical American household of $2,600 a year. Trump has made some implausible claims for protectionist policies. Asked how he would lower grocery prices — a particular irritant to many Americans — Trump has said the nation should limit the importation of food because America’s farmers are “being decimated’’ by foreign competition. “It’s sort of nonsensical to say that I am worried about high food prices, so I want to put a tax on food imports,” said Clausing, who is also a UCLA economist specializing in tax policy. “As you tax them, the food in the grocery store absolutely gets more expensive.” A huge proportion of food consumed in the United States — about 60% of fresh fruit and 38% of vegetables — are imported, according to Department of Agriculture data. “Trump is using tariffs as a political device to signal his strong skepticism around globalization broadly — ‘America First,’ ” said Mark Zandi chief economist at Moody’s Analytics. “That this policy stance is inflationary is very difficult for most voters to grasp, especially when they are being told the opposite." Moody’s Analytics noted that the sheer magnitude of Trump’s new tariff proposals. “The former president is now talking about tariffs on over $3 trillion in imported goods across all countries." “While Trump promises to ‘make the foreigners pay,’ the researchers concluded in their Peterson report, ”our analysis shows his policies will end up making Americans pay the most.” http://apnews.com/article/trump-inflation-tariffs-taxes-immigration-federal-reserve-a18de763fcc01557258c7f33cab375ed http://www.foreignaffairs.com/united-states/true-dangers-trumps-economic-plans http://www.brookings.edu/articles/tariffs-on-all-imports-would-create-chaos-for-business/ http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25247867-23-nobel-economists-sign-letter-saying-harris-agenda-vastly-better-for-us-economy http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/trump-musk-economy-lower-tax-cuts-for-the-rich-higher-costs-for-everyone-else-by-joseph-e-stiglitz-2024-11 http://www.crfb.org/papers/fiscal-impact-harris-and-trump-campaign-plans http://itep.org/a-distributional-analysis-of-donald-trumps-tax-plan-2024/ http://www.cbpp.org/research/federal-tax/the-2017-trump-tax-law-was-skewed-to-the-rich-expensive-and-failed-to-deliver http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-tax-plan-wealthy-corporations-oil-billionaires-musk-1235107554/ http://accountable.us/new-campaign-spotlights-the-billionaires-and-corporations-fighting-for-wealthy-tax-cuts/ http://www.newyorker.com/podcast/political-scene/what-billionaires-see-in-donald-trump http://www.americanprogress.org/article/project-2025s-tax-plan-would-raise-taxes-on-the-middle-class-and-cut-taxes-for-the-wealthy/ http://www.americanprogress.org/article/an-american-democracy-built-for-the-people-why-democracy-matters-and-how-to-make-it-work-for-the-21st-century/ http://www.cbpp.org/research/food-assistance/house-committee-farm-bills-30-billion-snap-cut-other-harmful-proposals http://www.prri.org/research/challenges-to-democracy-the-2024-election-in-focus-findings-from-the-2024-american-values-survey/ http://www.brookings.edu/events/democracy-at-a-crossroads/ 27 Oct. 2024 CNN: More than a thousand religious leaders endorsed Kamala Harris on Sunday. Among those backing the vice president is the Rev. William J. Barber II, a North Carolina-based faith leader: “In a moment like this, I am compelled to be clear that every voter must make a choice, and the choice is to oppose the dangerous politics that Donald Trump and the MAGA movement have unleashed by supporting the ticket that can defeat this potential for American fascism,” Barber said in a statement to CNN. Rev. Adam Russell Taylor: "Donald Trump’s escalating rhetoric, especially over the past few months, calls for moral clarity: It is time to state emphatically that Trump’s rhetoric is increasingly and dangerously fascist. Since we know that this kind of language creates a permission structure to justify and incite violence, Christians of all stripes must condemn language that crosses that line". "Trump has long exhibited authoritarian tendencies, including his attempts to weaken the legitimacy of his critics and political opponents as well as his efforts to sow distrust in the integrity of the election. But what makes his recent rhetoric veer into fascism is his willingness to use the military to go after his opponents". Other prominent faith leaders who have signed on to the endorsement include Rev. Kevin R. Johnson of New York City's Abyssinian Baptist Church; Rev. Teresa L. Smallwood, vice president and dean of academic affairs at North Carolina's United Lutheran Seminary; and the Rev. Andrea C. White, who teaches theology at New York City's Union Theological Seminary. http://sojo.net/articles/opinion/christian-faith-requires-us-speak-out-against-fascist-rhetoric http://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/22/us/politics/john-kelly-trump-fitness-character.html http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2024/10/25/opinion/what-trump-says.html http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/liz-cheney-hits-back-trumps-violent-rhetoric-dictators/story?id=115389921 http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/11/trump-liz-cheney-war/680485/ http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2024/10/trumps-escalating-rhetoric-washington-week/680419/ http://www.npr.org/2024/10/21/nx-s1-5134924/trump-election-2024-kamala-harris-elizabeth-cheney-threat-civil-liberties http://www.bostonglobe.com/2024/10/30/nation/trumps-new-york-rally-reflects-party-where-hate-speech-has-become-mainstream/ http://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/27/us/trump-msg-rally.html http://www.politico.com/news/2024/10/12/trump-racist-rhetoric-immigrants-00183537 2 Nov. 2024 Vote to End the Trump Era. (New York Times Editorial Board) "You already know Donald Trump. He is unfit to lead. Watch him. Listen to those who know him best. He tried to subvert an election and remains a threat to democracy. He helped overturn Roe, with terrible consequences. Mr. Trump’s corruption and lawlessness go beyond elections: It’s his whole ethos. He lies without limit. If he’s re-elected, the G.O.P. won’t restrain him. Mr. Trump will use the government to go after opponents. He will pursue a cruel policy of mass deportations. He will wreak havoc on the poor, the middle class and employers. Another Trump term will damage the climate, shatter alliances and strengthen autocrats. Americans should demand better. Vote". 11 Oct. 2024 US meteorologists face death threats as hurricane conspiracies surge. (Guardian News) Meteorologists tracking the advance of Hurricane Milton have been targeted by a deluge of conspiracy theories that they were controlling the weather, abuse and even death threats, amid what they say is an unprecedented surge in misinformation as two major hurricanes have hit the US. A series of falsehoods and threats have swirled in the two weeks since Hurricane Helene tore through six states causing hundreds of fatalities, followed by Milton crashing into Florida on Wednesday. The extent of the misinformation, which has been stoked by Donald Trump and his followers, has been such that it has stymied the ability to help hurricane-hit communities, according to the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema). Katie Nickolaou, a Michigan-based meteorologist, said that she and her colleagues have borne the brunt of much of these conspiracies, having received messages claiming there are category 6 hurricanes (there aren’t), that meteorologists or the government are creating and directing hurricanes (they aren’t) and even that scientists should be killed and radar equipment be demolished. “I’ve never seen a storm garner so much misinformation, we have just been putting out fires of wrong information everywhere,” Nickolaou said. “I have had a bunch of people saying I created and steered the hurricane, there are people assuming we control the weather. I have had to point out that a hurricane has the energy of 10,000 nuclear bombs and we can’t hope to control that. But it’s taken a turn to more violent rhetoric, especially with people saying those who created Milton should be killed.” One post aimed at Nickolaou said: “Stop the breathing of those that made them and their affiliates.” She responded: “Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes. I can’t believe I just had to type that.” “People have called me a plethora of curse words, people telling me to shut up and sit down, people who think it’s OK to take out Doppler radar because they think it is controlling the weather,” Nickolaou said. “It is eating up a lot of work and free time to deal with all of this. It’s very tiring.” A wide range of misinformation has been spread as Helene and then Milton gathered pace in the Gulf of Mexico, such as claims spread by Trump that Fema had run out of cash for hurricane survivors because it has been given to illegal immigrants. Violent threats have also become common, with posts across TikTok, Facebook and X (formerly known as Twitter), alleging that Fema workers should be beaten or “arrested or shot or hung on sight”. More outlandishly, several of Trump’s closest allies have baselessly asserted that the federal government is somehow controlling hurricanes. “Hurricane Helene was an ATTACK caused by Weather Manipulation,” claimed a video shared by Michael Flynn, a former national security advisor to Trump. “Yes they can control the weather,” Marjorie Taylor Greene, a far-right congresswoman, wrote on X last week. “It’s ridiculous for anyone to lie and say it can’t be done.” This steep rise in falsehoods has drawn a sharp response from Joe Biden, who has blamed Trump for an “onslaught of lies” and told the former president to “get a life.” “It’s beyond ridiculous,” Biden said of the claims being made around weather control. “It’s so stupid. It’s got to stop.” Although humans can worsen hurricanes by burning fossil fuels, creating a hotter ocean and atmosphere that gives hurricanes more energy, they cannot create, control or steer individual storms. Also, Fema’s disaster relief fund for hurricane-hit communities is separate from and unaffected by the money spent on giving shelter to migrants. But for meteorologists, the experiences around Helene and Milton are just an extreme continuation of a trend where the public is increasingly getting its information from extremist figures online rather than experts, according to Chris Gloninger, a former TV meteorologist and climate scientist who faced threats for talking about the climate crisis during his forecasts. “The modern Republican party has an army of people who are on social media with huge followings who just disseminate this misinformation,” Gloninger said. “I’m seeing my former colleagues getting threats, I’m getting messages that we are steering hurricanes into red states. It’s mindblowing, I’ve never seen anything like this in any disaster.” Gloninger said that meteorologists are “going to reach a point of burnout. What other profession are people targeted for simply doing their job? All we are trying to do is protect life and property during extreme weather.” http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/11/meteorologists-death-threats-hurricane-conspiracies-misinformation http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/oct/10/trump-hurricane-lies-conspiracy-theories http://blog.ucsusa.org/marc-alessi/hurricanes-helene-and-milton-further-proof-were-not-ready-for-fossil-fuel-caused-climate-change/ http://blog.ucsusa.org/category/science-and-democracy/ Oct. 2024 Trump sparks outrage after calling for army to handle enemies on election day. (news agencies) Donald Trump has provoked an angry backlash from Democrats after calling for the US armed forces to be turned against his political adversaries when voters go to the polls at next month’s presidential election. In comments that further fuelled fears of an authoritarian crackdown if he recaptures the White House, the Republican nominee said the military or national guard should be deployed against opponents that he called “the enemy within” when the election takes place on 5 November. He singled out the California congressman, Adam Schiff, who was the lead prosecutor in the ex-president’s first impeachment trial, as posing a bigger threat to a free and fair election than foreign terrorists. Trump’s comments, to Fox News in response to a question on possible election “chaos”, triggered an angry reaction from Kamala Harris’s campaign, which likened them to previous remarks that he would be a dictator “on day one” of a second presidency and his suggestions that the US constitution should be terminated to overturn the 2020 election result, which he falsely claims was stolen by Joe Biden. Trump and the vice-president are locked in a tight contest as election day looms. Most national polls put Harris narrowly ahead, but in the crucial swing states which will decide the election, the contest appears much tighter. Adam Schiff responded by accusing Trump of inciting violence in the same manner as he was widely accused of doing on 6 January 2021, when a mob attacked the US Capitol in an effort to stop certification of Biden’s election win. “Today, Trump threatened to deploy the military against the ‘enemies from within.’ The same thing he has called me,” Schiff wrote. “Just as he incited a mob to attack the Capitol, he again stokes violence against those who oppose him.” Harris’s campaign issued a more extensive condemnation. “Donald Trump is suggesting that his fellow Americans are worse ‘enemies’ than foreign adversaries, and he is saying he would use the military against them,” a campaign spokesperson, Ian Sams, said. “Taken with his vow to be a dictator on ‘day one’, calls for the ‘termination’ of the constitution, and plans to surround himself with sycophants who will give him unchecked, unprecedented power if he returns to office, this should alarm every American who cares about their freedom and security. “What Donald Trump is promising is dangerous, and returning him to office is simply a risk Americans cannot afford.” While Trump, being out of power, will be in no position to deploy troops on election day, his call for military power to quell political opposition is familiar, recalling his demand that soldiers be deployed in the streets of Washington DC in 2020 to disperse thousands of demonstrators protesting against the death of George Floyd. Gen Mark Milley, the then chairperson of the joint chiefs of staff, reportedly came close to resigning over the demand. Milley, who has since fallen foul of Trump, is quoted in a new book by Bob Woodward – the journalist who, along with Carl Bernstein, helped to expose the Watergate scandal of the 1970s – as calling the ex-president “a total fascist” and has voiced fears that he could be recalled to service and court-martialled if he returns to office. http://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/officers-fought-jan-6-mob-praise-harris-reclaiming-site-trumps-speech-rcna178001 http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/14/trump-military-enemy-within-armed-forces-election-day http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/10/trump-authoritarian-rhetoric-hitler-mussolini/680296/ http://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/22/politics/trump-fascist-john-kelly/index.html http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2024/10/trump-military-generals-hitler/680327/ http://www.theatlantic.com/if-trump-wins/ http://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/19/politics/military-leaders-sound-the-alarm-trump/index.html http://www.nytimes.com/2024/10/06/us/politics/trump-speeches-age-cognitive-decline.html http://newrepublic.com/article/185622/finally-top-journo-erupts-media-ignoring-trumps-mental-state http://www.npr.org/2024/10/24/nx-s1-5163293/la-times-editor-resigns-trump-msnbc-washington-post http://www.npr.org/2024/10/22/nx-s1-5156184/elon-musk-trump-election-x-twitter http://www.npr.org/series/973275370/untangling-disinformation http://counterhate.com/research/musk-misleading-election-claims-viewed-1-2bn-times-on-x-with-no-fact-checks/ http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/nov/02/elon-musk-donald-trump-us-presidential-elections http://www.mediamatters.org/ http://library.witness.org/product/tipsheet-on-combating-misinformation-disinformation-in-elections/ http://cpj.org/thematic-reports/on-edge-what-the-us-election-could-mean-for-journalists-and-global-press-freedom/ http://www.justsecurity.org/104407/authoritarianism-plutocracy-press-freedom/ http://rsf.org/en/usa-rsf-report-shows-press-freedom-shortcomings-key-swing-states-ahead-2024-election http://rsf.org/en/usa-trump-verbally-attacked-media-more-100-times-run-election http://www.justsecurity.org/92714/american-autocracy-threat-tracker/ http://www.justsecurity.org/tag/january-6th-attack-on-us-capitol/ http://apnews.com/article/trump-jack-smith-election-supreme-court-0b9969b480036bb1f7c61a73980d406c http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25182548-chutkan http://apnews.com/article/capitol-riot-judges-election-ebb54ab9badccfcb2b1bc2fa0de5bf21 http://www.americanprogress.org/series/project-2025-exposing-the-far-right-assault-on-america http://www.propublica.org/article/video-donald-trump-russ-vought-center-renewing-america-maga http://www.ips-journal.eu/topics/democracy-and-society/a-second-trump-term-could-mean-mayhem-7889/ http://www.propublica.org/topics/democracy http://lincolnproject.us/latest-news/ http://blog.ucsusa.org/chitra-kumar/project-2025s-assault-on-epa-human-health-and-the-environment-must-never-be-put-into-action http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2024/oct/28/donald-trump-climate-change-environment http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/climate-change-action-depends-on-the-2024-election/ Visit the related web page |
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People in poverty continue to pay the high price of a debt crisis not of their making by Olivier De Schutter Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights 17 Oct. 2024 The international financial system is failing to address the catastrophic debt crisis that is engulfing developing countries and causing misery for hundreds of millions of people, the UN’s poverty expert said today. “The debt crisis is not just a fiscal issue; it is a full-blown human rights crisis,” said the UN Special Rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Olivier De Schutter, on the International Day for the Eradication of Poverty. “In the poorest countries of the world people are struggling to eat, access health services or send their children to school, while their governments shell out billions of dollars to pay back loans to wealthy creditors. “Making a bad situation worse, countries with the highest levels of debt also tend to be those most vulnerable to climate change, but are being forced to prioritise debt repayments over addressing the severe consequences of the climate crisis.” The expert warned that rocketing interest rates since the Covid-19 pandemic were sinking countries in the Global South further into debt. In 2023, a record 54 developing countries allocated 10% or more of government revenue to paying off the interest on their debt, leaving “little room for countries to spend on poverty-busting public services such as education or social protection”. 3.3 billion people live in countries that spend more on interest payments than on either education or health. Interest rates demanded from developing countries are also much higher than those paid by rich countries. African countries borrow money at almost four times the rate paid by the United States, despite the astronomical level of US debt. “This perverse scenario has been playing out in the Global South for years, accelerating the freefall into poverty seen since the pandemic,” De Schutter said. “Creditors have responded too little, too late. The G20’s ‘Common Framework’, agreed in 2020 to bring international financing institutions (IFIs), individual states and private lenders together to speed up debt restructuring, is simply not working.” De Schutter called for immediate debt relief for countries in crisis and urgent reform of the international financial system to align with human rights. “Banks and hedge funds have become huge players in the world of sovereign debt and should not be exempt from their human rights responsibilities. It is abhorrent that debt repayments to the world’s richest corporations are being paid at the expense of children’s education or healthcare. Governments must introduce legislation to compel private creditors under their jurisdiction to participate in debt relief for low income countries. “Comprehensive reform of the international financial architecture, as advocated by the recently agreed Pact of the Future, is also needed. The current system within the IFIs, characterised by unequal representation between high and low-income countries, unfavourable lending conditions, and unfair debt restructuring is trapping too many countries in a cycle of poverty.” The Special Rapporteur lamented the conditions attached to bailout packages from IFIs which, with their demands for austerity measures, sale of state assets and, at times, surcharges already denounced by UN human rights experts, make it near impossible for states to comply with their human rights obligations and lock countries into unsustainable growth patterns that have only worsened poverty and inequality. “With Pakistan recently agreeing to its 24th bailout from the International Monetary Fund, which hinged on the country accepting what the Prime Minister called ‘conditions beyond imagination’, it is clear that people in poverty will continue to pay the high price of a debt crisis that is not of their making,” the expert said. “The solution to the debt crisis is neither to stimulate economic growth at all costs, nor to impose austerity policies. It is to cancel or restructure debt, and to focus on public investment, particularly in social protection, that will restore the prospect of long-term prosperity.” http://www.srpoverty.org/2024/10/17/statement-international-financial-system-not-fit-for-purpose-to-address-catastrophic-debt-crisis-un-poverty-expert/ http://www.srpoverty.org http://www.ohchr.org/en/special-procedures/sr-poverty Visit the related web page |
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