RSN: Marc Ash | Interview With Greg Palast on His New Book "How Trump Stole 2020" (Alarming)

04 August 20

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RSN: Marc Ash | Interview With Greg Palast on His New Book "How Trump Stole 2020" (Alarming)

Marc Ash, Reader Supported News
Ash writes: "I recently interviewed journalist and author Greg Palast about his new book, How Trump Stole 2020. I got more than I bargained for. One big takeaway, as Palast put it: 'Yes, Trump has stolen the election. We need to steal it back.' He made the case."
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Voters at a polling precinct. (photo: WP)

What You Need to Know About Today's Elections in Kansas, Michigan and Missouri
Nathaniel Rakich and Geoffrey Skelley, FiveThirtyEight
Excerpt: "Call it Super Tuesday III: The last big primary day of the season is upon us. Today, millions of voters in Arizona, Kansas, Michigan, Missouri and Washington go to the polls.....

— or, more likely, fill out an absentee ballot — to decide the Republican and Democratic nominees for congressional and state office. There are over a dozen races worth watching today, but here’s the skinny on the most consequential.

Kansas

Kansas’s Republican primary for U.S. Senate might be the biggest down-ballot primary of the year. Although Kansas is normally a blood-red state, Democrats will have a real shot to win a Senate seat here for the first time since 1932 (their longest drought anywhere in the nation) if the GOP nominates former Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach.

For reasons ranging from his quixotic pursuit of voter fraud to his far-right views on immigration, legal troubles and an incompetent campaign, Kobach is such a weak candidate that he already lost the 2018 race for governor to Democrat Laura Kelly. And internal GOP polling has reportedly found that nearly 30 percent of Republicans would support Democratic state Sen. Barbara Bollier this November if Kobach is the nominee for Senate. That’s enough to put Kobach and Bollier in a virtual tie in the few public polls of the race we’ve seen recently.

That’s not to say Republicans don’t have an alternative. The problem is, they have two: Rep. Roger Marshall and plumbing and HVAC mogul Bob Hamilton. And thanks to his ability to self-fund, Hamilton had spent the most as of July 15 ($2.7 million), saturating the airwaves with campaign ads — and that’s on top of the years’ worth of kitschy commercials his company is locally famous for.

However, Marshall has the support of the party establishment: In addition to the $2.3 million spent by Marshall’s campaign, the Senate Leadership Fund has spent $1.9 million to help him. Marshall also has the endorsements of a prominent Kansas pro-life group, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and retiring Sen. Pat Roberts. But one big name has yet to weigh in: President Trump. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has reportedly urged the president to endorse Marshall, but (so far at least) he’s been unwilling to lift a finger against Kobach, his ideological doppelgänger.

A new super PAC with ties to McConnell, Plains PAC, has spent heavily ($3.3 million) this month on negative ads associating Kobach with white supremacists. But the biggest spender in the Republican primary is actually a super PAC with Democratic ties: Sunflower State PAC, which has spent $5.3 million, including on an ad “attacking” Kobach for being “too conservative” and actually attacking Marshall for being “phony” and “soft on Trump.” It’s not unheard of for parties to meddle in the other side’s primary like this to land their preferred opponent, but rarely have they gone so all-in on it.

Public polling of the race has been sparse; the latest data we have is an internal Republican poll (reported by Politico) that put Marshall at 33 percent and Kobach at 30 percent, with Marshall further behind. But you know what we say about internal polls — and be extra careful with this one; we don’t know which pollster even conducted it.

Remarkably, that is not the only race in Kansas in which a tainted nominee could cost Republicans the election in November. Dogged by allegations of adultery, unwanted sexual advances, campaign-finance violations and inflating his résumé, Rep. Steve Watkins of the 2nd Congressional District was already facing a vigorous challenge from state Treasurer Jake LaTurner, the youngest statewide elected official in the country at age 32. Then, on July 14, Watkins was charged with three felonies and a misdemeanor for voting from an address where he does not live. The scandal prompted Watkins to step down from his committee assignments in Washington and neighboring Rep. Ron Estes to endorse LaTurner. (However, Republican brass such as House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy have stuck with Watkins.)

Although this eastern Kansas district voted for Trump by 18 points in 2016, it’s looking competitive this fall — and could be especially vulnerable if Watkins wins the primary. According to a poll from LaTurner’s campaign (mind you, hardly an unbiased source), Democratic Topeka Mayor Michelle De La Isla leads Watkins 50 percent to 37 percent, while De La Isla and LaTurner are locked in a virtual tie.

Michigan

In Michigan, there are three interesting House primaries, but the one grabbing the most national attention is probably the rematch in the 13th Congressional District between Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib and Detroit City Council President Brenda Jones.

This is a race with a lot of history, too. After the resignation of Democratic Rep. John Conyers in December 2017, the seat hosted two elections in November 2018 — a regular race for Congress and a special election to complete Conyers’s unexpired term. Tlaib and Jones faced off in crowded primaries, with Tlaib ultimately winning the regular primary and Jones the special. Jones tried to mount a write-in campaign against Tlaib last November but lost, meaning Jones represented the district for a few weeks before Tlaib took office.

Now, though, Tlaib and Jones are the only primary contenders, which might help Jones in the majority-Black, Detroit-based district as she is African American herself. In 2018, however, African American voters didn’t coalesce around a single candidate. Instead, Tlaib, who is Palestinian American, came out on top. However, this year Jones has the endorsement of every other Democrat who ran in 2018, and she’s taken aim at Tlaib’s sometimes-controversial national profile as a member of “The Squad,” claiming Tlaib is prioritizing celebrity over her constituents.

For the moment, though, Tlaib appears to have the upper hand, in part because she held a massive 40-to-1 cash-on-hand advantage over Jones as of July 15. Tlaib has also attacked Jones for not living in the district, and it probably helps Tlaib that Jones has her fair share of controversies, too, including alleged violations of state campaign finance laws. A July survey from Target Insyghts found Tlaib ahead 52 percent to 24 percent, so it looks as if this is Tlaib’s race to lose.

Over in western Michigan, we’re also keeping an eye on the Republican primary for the 3rd Congressional District, a Grand Rapids-based seat currently held by Rep. Justin Amash, a Libertarian and former Republican who isn’t seeking reelection. The principal GOP contenders are state Rep. Lynn Afendoulis and Peter Meijer, a U.S. Army veteran and scion of the family that owns the eponymous Midwestern retail chain — which probably helps with his name recognition.

Meijer appears to have the upper hand, too, as he has support from House Republican leaders and leads the money race. As of July 15, he had raised a little over $1 million in contributions, compared to Afendoulis’s $625,000. Not to mention, he had a $400,000 to $140,000 cash edge for the home stretch (Meijer has also loaned his campaign $475,000; Afendoulis has given hers $256,000). Still, Afendoulis argues she’s the only candidate with legislative experience and is the only conservative for the job, having earned an endorsement from Susan B. Anthony List, which opposes abortion rights. She’s also questioned Meijer’s loyalty to Trump and the GOP, slamming him as a “Never Trumper” who helped Democrats by working for With Honor, a bipartisan group that aims to elect veterans to Congress.

A mid-June survey from Meijer’s campaign found him ahead of Afendoulis by 24 points, 41 percent to 17 percent, although we should take internal polls with a grain of salt. Ultimately, the Republican winner will advance to face attorney Hillary Scholten, who is unopposed in the Democratic primary. And although Trump carried this district by about 10 points in 2016, 52 percent to 42 percent, election handicappers only give the GOP a narrow advantage in the race.

In the last district we’re watching, three Republicans are vying to replace retiring GOP Rep. Paul Mitchell in Michigan’s 10th District, which lies north of Detroit in “The Thumb” and is the most Republican-leaning seat in the state.

First up, state Rep. Shane Hernandez has enjoyed the backing of groups promoting limited government like the Club for Growth and Americans for Prosperity. The Club’s political arm has spent about $1.5 million to help Hernandez, which includes ad buys featuring Mitchell endorsing Hernandez and emphasizing Hernandez’s support for Trump. Meanwhile, businesswoman Lisa McClain had spent $1.6 million on the race as of July 15 — about four times as much as her opponents — and has run ads calling herself a conservative outsider and pro-Trump Republican. McClain has also questioned Hernandez’s Trump bona fides by running an ad claiming that Hernandez opposed Trump and the idea of building a border wall in 2016. A super PAC backing McClain has also spent nearly $500,000 boosting her. A third candidate, retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Doug Slocum, has little outside support, but he’s stressed his early support for Trump and his extensive military service as a pilot in the Air Force and as commander of Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Macomb County, which is in the district.

The only recent survey of the race comes from Hernandez’s allies at the Club, which in mid-July found him narrowly leading McClain by 6 points, 33 percent to 27 percent, with Slocum in a distant third at 10 percent.

Missouri

Progressive challengers have already unseated incumbent Democratic congressmen in two districts this year — could Missouri’s 1st Congressional District be next? A Clay — either current Rep. Lacy Clay or his father, Bill — has represented St. Louis in Congress continuously since 1969, but registered nurse and Black Lives Matter activist Cori Bush is determined to bring that streak to an end. Clay defeated Bush 57 percent to 37 percent in the Democratic primary here in 2018, but it’s a much fairer fight this time around: Instead of being outspent more than three to one like she was in 2018, Bush has spent nearly $442,000 this year to Clay’s more than $548,000 (as of July 15).

In addition, outside group Fight Corporate Monopolies has dropped six figures on an ad attacking Clay for fighting the Obama administration on Wall Street reform. Generally, though, Clay has a pretty progressive voting record: He’s more liberal than 83 percent of Democrats in the current Congress, according to DW-Nominate, and, like Bush, supports both single-payer health care and the Green New Deal. On the other hand, the nationwide movement against police violence may help Bush, as she first rose to prominence amid the 2014 protests over the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, which is in the district. But whoever wins the primary will likely punch their ticket to Congress, since the 1st District is overwhelmingly Democratic.

Missourians statewide will also vote on Amendment 2, a ballot measure that would make Missouri the 39th state to expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act. In the face of opposition from Republican governors and legislatures, proponents of Medicaid expansion have had a lot of success recently at the ballot box — Idaho, Nebraska and Utah passed it in 2018, and Oklahoma did so just a month ago — and Missouri looks like it could follow suit. A June poll from Remington Research Group found Amendment 2 leading 47 percent to 40 percent, and as of July 27, supporters had outraised opponents by the shocking margin of $10.1 million to less than $112,000. If the amendment passes, an estimated 230,000 people would newly become eligible for Medicaid starting in 2021.

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Hundreds of Black Lives Matter protesters hold their phones aloft on Monday, July 20, 2020, in Portland, Oregon. (photo: Noah Berger/AP)

House Intelligence Committee Investigating DHS Office That Compiled 'Intelligence Reports' on Journalists and Protesters
Shane Harris, The Washington Post
Harris writes: "The House Intelligence Committee is opening an investigation into the activities of the Intelligence and Analysis Office (I & A) at the Department of Homeland Security, which has compiled 'intelligence reports' on journalists and protesters."
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Natasha Blunt poses for a portrait in New Orleans, Friday, July 31, 2020. Blunt owes thousands of dollars in back rent after she lost her banquet porter job. She has yet to receive her stimulus check and has not been approved for unemployment benefits. Her family is getting by with food stamps and the charity of neighbors. (photo: Dorthy Ray/AP)

Wave of Evictions Expected as Moratoriums End in Many States
Regina Garcia Cano and Michael Casey, Associated Press
Excerpt: "Tenants are crowding courtrooms - or appearing virtually - to detail how the pandemic has upended their lives."
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New findings come as some school districts are still debating reopening, and the U.S. battles a surge in Covid-19 cases. (photo: Halfpoint/iStock)

What Scientists Are Learning About Kids and Covid-19 Infection
Lois Parshley, Vox
Parshley writes: "A CDC report on the Georgia camp joins a rapidly growing body of desperately needed evidence of how the coronavirus impacts children and young people."
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A Mapuche indigenous woman shouts slogans during a march commemorating the police killing of an activist in Santiago, Chile. (photo: Luis Hidalgo/AP)

Chile: Legislators Urge to Stop Violence Against Mapuche People
teleSUR
Excerpt: "The human rights commissions of the Senate and the House of Representatives Sunday condemned the acts of violence against the Mapuche community in the Araucania Region."
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Inside a rock shelter in Australia. (photo: Weave Films)

Australian Mining Company Blew Up Ancient Indigenous Gorge Rock Shelters for Profit
Calla Wahlquist and Lorena Allam, Guardian UK
Excerpt: "Rio Tinto could have chosen one of three options to expand its iron ore mine that would not have damaged a 46,000-year-old highly significant Aboriginal heritage site in Juukan Gorge, but chose a fourth option that did damage the rock shelters 'in order to access higher volumes of high-grade ore.'" 

io Tinto could have chosen one of three options to expand its iron ore mine that would not have damaged a 46,000-year-old highly significant Aboriginal heritage site in Juukan Gorge, but chose a fourth option that did damage the rock shelters “in order to access higher volumes of high-grade ore”.

In a submission to a Senate inquiry on the destruction of the Juukan Gorge rock shelters, Rio Tinto acknowledged that “various opportunities were missed to re-evaluate the mine plan in light of this material new information” on the significance of one of the sites.

It repeated earlier public comments that the destruction of the rock shelters, dubbed Juukan 1 and Juukan 2, “should not have occurred”.

“Rio Tinto has unreservedly apologised to the Puutu Kunti Kurrama and Pinikura people (PKKP), and we reaffirm that apology now,” the submission states. “For the benefit of current and future generations of Australians, we are determined to learn the lessons to ensure that the destruction of heritage sites of exceptional archaeological and cultural significance, such as the Juukan rock shelters, never occurs again.”

Rio said it “failed to meet our own internal standards in relation to the destruction of the Juukan rockshelters in May 2020”. Former senior employees of Rio Tinto also made submissions to the Senate inquiry saying the same thing.

The Rio Tinto chief executive, Jean-Sébastien Jacques, is due to appear before the inquiry on Friday.

The rock shelters, in the Hammersley ranges in the Pilbara region of Western Australia, were damaged in a mining blast on 23 May as part of the expansion of Rio Tinto’s Brockman 4 iron ore mine, despite the PKKP repeatedly saying they wanted to preserve the site and issuing an urgent request to stop the blasts five days before the detonation.

In their 46-page submission, Rio Tinto said the company had drilled 382 blast holes and loaded them with explosives by 13 May, the day before the PKKP learned of the upcoming destruction. They said they engaged an independent expert to see if the blast holes could be safely unloaded, but that a management committee, including the iron ore chief executive, Chris Salisbury, “did not consider it feasible to remove the shot from the holes to protect Juukan 1 and Juukan 2”.

“There was insufficient time to do so safely given the limitations on the stability of the explosives and the unacceptable environmental and safety risks,” the submission said. Salisbury toured the site with representatives from the PKKP in early June and found they were “impacted but not entirely destroyed”.

The submission said Rio Tinto was made aware in 2014, and again in 2018, that one of the rock shelters, Juukan 2, was of “the highest archeological significance in Australia”, as reported by archeologist Dr Michael Slack, who conducted excavation and salvage works on the two rock shelters in 2014.

In his 2018 report, which Rio Tinto received in December of that year and forwarded to the PKKP in January, Slack wrote that “the Juukan 2 rock shelter has the amazing potential to radically change our understanding of the earliest human behaviour in Australia”.

“To date, there is no other site of this age with faunal remains in unequivocal association with stone tools. The significance of this cannot be overstated.”

Rio obtained ministerial consent to destroy or damage the sites from the Western Australian government under that state’s Aboriginal Heritage Act in 2013, following consultation with the PKKP and their then representatives, the Yamatji Marlpa Aboriginal Corporation, and said it did not reconsider that agreement in light of the new information from the 2014 digs.

It also said the PKKP had signed a financial agreement with Rio Tinto in 2011, and again in 2013, not to oppose any applications to destroy or damage heritage under section 18 of the Aboriginal Heritage Act, “provided Rio Tinto used its reasonable endeavours to minimise impacts of those operations on Aboriginal heritage sites and consulted with the PKKP about the means of doing so”.

It said that of the four options considered for the open-cut iron ore pit in 2013, before ministerial consent was sought, “three avoided the shelters to varying distances. The fourth option impacted the rock shelters in order to access higher volumes of high-grade ore, and was the option that was chosen by Rio Tinto.”

The Western Australian government submission to the Senate inquiry admitted its current laws were in dire need of an overhaul.

It said the Aboriginal Heritage Act has “been a source of conflict involving Aboriginal people and land use proponents” because it “does not encourage protection of Aboriginal heritage through co-existence with compatible land uses or modification of proposals to avoid or minimise impacts”, lacks dispute resolution processes, and any “penalties for infringement are very low in comparison to other Australian states and territories.”

It said new legislation has been under discussion for several years and would be introduced in 2020. However, it also said the federal Aboriginal heritage act, while “outdated”, gives the environment minister, in this case Sussan Ley, the “power to make a declaration to protect an area, object or class of objects from a threat of injury or desecration”.

It is a power used sparingly. The federal environment department’s submission, also lodged on Tuesday, said that of 541 applications received since 1984, seven have resulted in long-term declarations of protection.

Environment ministers have made at least 21 declarations for short-term or emergency protection, but in a majority of the cases “there was insufficient evidence for the minister to conclude that the areas specified in the applications were significant Aboriginal areas” as defined in the act.

The federal government’s submission does not directly address questions about whether the minster was approached to use the power to prevent the explosion at Juukan Gorge but states “the minister cannot make a declaration unless an Indigenous person (or a person representing an Indigenous person) has made an application for it”.

The WA and federal governments are also scheduled to appear at the inquiry’s first public hearings on Friday.

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