| Sources: Russian aggression against U.S. intelligence satellites sparks congressional briefing Posted: 18 Sep 2020 02:41 PM PDT  Over recent days, officials from the U.S. Space Force and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence briefed congressional committees on an "uptick" in Russian military activity in space targeting U.S. defense and intelligence satellites.
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| Pelosi to church: 'Follow science' on COVID-19 restrictions Posted: 18 Sep 2020 10:45 AM PDT  House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pushed back Friday against the Catholic archbishop of San Francisco's criticism of COVID-related restrictions, saying he should "follow science" rather than advocate for fuller in-person gatherings for Mass and worship. Asked about Archbishop Salvatore Joseph Cordileone's recent op-ed protesting limits on larger public gatherings, Pelosi, a practicing Catholic, said he should not be putting people's lives at risk. "With all due respect to my archbishop, I think we should follow science on this," Pelosi said.
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| Southern California jolted by magnitude 4.5 earthquake, another worry after raging wildfires Posted: 19 Sep 2020 04:11 AM PDT  In a region already reeling from wildfires and smoke-filled skies, a magnitude 4.6 earthquake jolted Southern California.
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| T cell shortage linked to severe COVID-19 in elderly; antiseptic spray may limit virus spread Posted: 18 Sep 2020 11:42 AM PDT  A lower supply of a certain type of immune cell in older people that is critical to fighting foreign invaders may help explain their vulnerability to severe COVID-19, scientists say. When germs enter the body, the initial "innate" immune response generates inflammation not specifically targeted at the bacteria or virus. Within days, the more precise "adaptive" immune response starts generating antibodies against the invader along with T cells that either assist in antibody production or seek out and attack infected cells.
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| Poll: Only 22 percent of Americans think the 2020 presidential election will be ‘free and fair’ Posted: 18 Sep 2020 02:36 PM PDT  Just 22% of Americans believe this year's presidential election will be "free and fair," according to a new Yahoo News/YouGov poll — a disturbing loss of confidence in the democratic process that could foreshadow a catastrophic post-election period with millions of partisans refusing to accept the legitimacy of the results.
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| An elementary school teacher asked parents to wear clothes and avoid appearing with 'big joints' in the background of Zoom classes Posted: 19 Sep 2020 07:32 PM PDT  "This is not a party. This is a school," Edith Pride, an elementary school teacher in Boca Raton, Florida, reminded parents.
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| Planned Black community in Georgia draws interest for a reality TV show Posted: 19 Sep 2020 10:05 AM PDT  Last week, nearly two dozen families in Georgia made headlines for pooling money to purchase land in a Georgia town with a vision to build a safe-haven community for Black people. The news garnered widespread attention, including interest from big wigs in the entertainment sphere hoping to develop a reality TV show about the forthcoming community dreamed to be Freedom, Georgia, per TMZ. The group of 19 families, led by Ashley Scott and Renee Walters, bought 97 acres of land in Toomsboro, Georgia, a rural town of about 500 people, according to U.S. Census Bureau estimates, about two hours south of Atlanta.
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| Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg dead at 87 Posted: 18 Sep 2020 04:40 PM PDT  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, the liberal justice who was diagnosed with colon cancer in 1999, died Friday, the court announced in a statement.
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| Pentagon sending troops to Syria after clashes between U.S., Russian military Posted: 18 Sep 2020 12:38 PM PDT  The troops are meant to discourage Russians from crossing into the eastern area where U.S., coalition, and Syrian Democratic Forces operate, say officials.
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| Des Moines says no to governor's demand for classroom return Posted: 20 Sep 2020 07:28 AM PDT  Students in Iowa's largest school system are facing the possibility that this most unusual school year could stretch into next summer, and the district could be hit with crippling bills because of a dispute with the governor over the safety of returning to classrooms during the coronavirus pandemic. Des Moines school officials have repeatedly refused to abide by Republican Gov. Kim Reynolds' order requiring the state's 327 school districts to hold at least half their classes in-person rather than online. For Des Moines, it's a question of trying to keep its more than 33,000 students and 5,000 staffers from contracting the disease.
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| CDC — again — changes COVID-19 guidelines. Now asymptomatic people need a test Posted: 18 Sep 2020 12:37 PM PDT  The change replaces a controversial update from Aug. 24 that said individuals who don't have symptoms don't need to get tested.
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| Spirit Airlines reiterates mask policy, CDC standards after passenger refuses to swap gaiter Posted: 20 Sep 2020 09:13 AM PDT  Spirit Airlines reiterates its policy for wearing only CDC-approved masks during the COVID-19 pandemic after a passenger insists on wearing a gaiter.
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| Tens of thousands attend Bangladesh Islamist leader's funeral Posted: 19 Sep 2020 03:05 AM PDT  Tens of thousands of people gathered to mourn the controversial leader of Bangladesh's largest Islamist group as his funeral was held on Saturday in a rural southeastern town, police said.
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| Court rulings in critical swing states make it easier to vote this November — but may delay results Posted: 18 Sep 2020 03:00 PM PDT  A Michigan judge ruled Friday that if a mail-in ballot is postmarked by Nov. 2, the day before the election, election officials must count it if it arrives by the end of the day on Nov. 16.
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| Trump says Kamala Harris can't be the first woman to be president because she 'comes in through the back door' Posted: 18 Sep 2020 10:16 AM PDT  President Donald Trump said Kamala Harris, Joe Biden's vice-presidential pick, had acted in "no way for a woman" to become president.
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| Firefighter who died battling California blaze mourned as wildfires rage Posted: 19 Sep 2020 07:27 AM PDT  Blazes in the state have so far destroyed 3.5 million acres.
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| US carrier transits Strait of Hormuz amid tensions with Iran Posted: 18 Sep 2020 09:48 AM PDT  The USS Nimitz aircraft carrier safely transited on Friday through the Strait of Hormuz, the world's most important chokepoint for oil shipments, the U.S. Navy said, as tensions with Iran continue to simmer. In a "scheduled" maneuver, the U.S. sent the carrier and several other warships through the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf, according to the U.S. Navy's Bahrain-based 5th fleet. The Nimitz, America's oldest carrier in active service, carries some 5,000 sailors and Marines.
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| Canadian police make arrests as tempers flare in lobster feud Posted: 19 Sep 2020 12:57 PM PDT  Indigenous people launch their own fishery, bringing them into conflict with commercial operators.
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| NC woman still missing two years after she left baby with family reportedly to visit sick mother in Mexico Posted: 19 Sep 2020 08:02 AM PDT  Nancy Troche Garcia, 28, was last seen in Asheboro, North Carolina on May 20, 2018, when she dropped her baby off with the baby's father. She then reportedly went to the father's sister's house nearby and asked her if she would help care for the baby since she would be traveling to Mexico to care for her sick mother. But her mother told police that she was not sick and there were no plans for Nancy to come to Mexico. Nancy's burgundy 2001 Chevy Impala is also missing. The Asheboro Police
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| Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration are set to deny funding to Connecticut schools over inclusive transgender athlete policies Posted: 18 Sep 2020 12:42 PM PDT  According to The New York Times, Betsy DeVos and the Trump administration are cutting funding to certain Connecticut schools over their participation in the Connecticut Interscholastic Athletic Conference. The conference allows transgender student-athletes to compete with, and against, athletes who share their gender identity, a course of action Trump's administration has repeatedly fought against. If the schools refuse to cut ties with the conference prior to October 1, the education department has vowed to withhold $18 million in desegregation grants.
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| Trump supporters staged a rally at a Virginia polling center during early voting, intimidating voters, election officials say Posted: 20 Sep 2020 06:12 AM PDT  An election official said that voters had been escorted into the polling center because they felt intimidated by protesters, who had gathered outside.
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| Why thousands of starfish washed up on Florida's Navarre Beach after Hurricane Sally Posted: 20 Sep 2020 07:00 AM PDT  Thousands of starfish washed up on Navarre Beach after Hurricane Sally, a grim parting gift from the tropical cyclone that devastated the Florida Panhandle earlier this week.
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| Walmart and Amazon donate to QAnon-promoting lawmaker Posted: 19 Sep 2020 12:58 PM PDT  Walmart, Amazon and other giant companies donated money to the reelection campaign of a Tennessee state lawmaker who used social media to promote the QAnon conspiracy theory.
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| Recipe: Bobby Flay's Salisbury Steak Posted: 20 Sep 2020 04:36 AM PDT  The chef and restaurateur demonstrates for "Sunday Morning" viewers his rendition of a classic ground-beef-and-gravy dish
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| Gore-Tex: Inventor of waterproof fabric Robert Gore dies aged 83 Posted: 20 Sep 2020 05:32 AM PDT  Robert W. Gore's invention has been used in space suits, guitar strings and waterproof jackets.
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| Mexico's populist president left embarrassed by failed stunt to sell private jet Posted: 19 Sep 2020 08:57 AM PDT  Mexico's populist president Andrés Manuel López Obrador was voted in on a pledge to stamp out corruption and largess that went all the way to the country's highest office. So when he pledged to sell the presidential plane, with its marble bathrooms and king sized bed, it seemed like an easy win. But the $218 million, purchased under a predecessor in 2012, jet lies on the tarmac after the latest failed bid to find a buyer in a saga that has exposed the socialist leader to ridicule and embarassment. This week's attempt to raffle the plane during the country's Independence holiday ended in predictable disaster. For López Obrador, also known by his initials as Amlo, the plane is a symbol of the opulence and waste of the country's political elite, and he vowed to sell it and return the money to Mexicans during his 2018 campaign. After his landslide victory, the President put it up for sale and has been flying on low-cost commercial flights. But it wasn't that easy. The jet is a used and expensive luxury item with few potential buyers. After spending nearly two years parked for sale in California and spending almost the same amount of money for having it parked than he would have spent using it (about $1.5 million), Amlo decided in February he would just raffle it off during the September 15 Independence holiday. He even had to change the law in order to raffle an item instead of money through Mexico's National Lottery. Only the plane wasn't his to raffle. It turned out the Mexican government hasn't finished paying for it. Amlo moved forward with the raffle but decided to give out the cash equivalent of the jet's market value of about $95 million instead of the actual plane, split it into 100 winning tickets.
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| Manager ordered census layoffs despite judge's ruling Posted: 18 Sep 2020 10:59 AM PDT  Two weeks after a federal judge prohibited the U.S. Census Bureau from winding down the 2020 census, a manager in Illinois instructed employees to get started with layoffs, according to an audio of the conversation obtained by The Associated Press. During a conference call Thursday, the Chicago area manager told supervisors who report to him that they should track down census takers who don't currently have any cases, collect the iPhones they use to record information, and bid them goodbye. It was unclear whether such actions would violate U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh's temporary restraining order prohibiting the Census Bureau from winding down field operations while she considers a request to extend the head count by a month.
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| GOP Laughs at Dems’ Scorched Earth Threats as Supreme Court Battle Begins Posted: 19 Sep 2020 05:06 PM PDT  Democrats—livid and galvanized by the GOP's confirm-at-all costs approach to the new U.S. Supreme Court vacancy—have spent the last 24 hours boosting their 2020 candidates, rallying around the banner of Merrick Garland, and, increasingly, hashing out their own scorched-earth political tactics."Mitch McConnell set the precedent. No Supreme Court vacancies filled in an election year," tweeted Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA), hours after the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on Friday. "If he violates it, when Democrats control the Senate in the next Congress, we must abolish the filibuster and expand the Supreme Court."The idea, previously confined to the party's left flank, is quietly gaining steam among staffers and aides in corners of the Senate Democratic caucus, who were livid on Saturday at seeing Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) and other top Republicans urging a swift confirmation of President Trump's nominee—whoever that person ends up being—after blocking Garland, Obama's nominee, in 2016, by saying the voters should decide who got to fill the slot.On a caucus conference call Saturday to discuss the party's strategy, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) spoke to that anger. "If Leader McConnell and Senate Republicans move forward with this, then nothing is off the table for next year," Schumer told his members, according to a source on the call. "Nothing is off the table." Though Schumer didn't endorse the court-packing idea explicitly, plenty of Democrats interpreted his remarks as a careful nod to it.But if Democrats aimed to present an aggressive posture heading into what's expected to be a brutal confirmation fight, Trump's political orbit reacted with chuckles and yawns to the ratcheted-up rhetoric on court-packing. Six sources across Trumpworld—administration officials, campaign aides, and others close to the White House and the president—told The Daily Beast they weren't worried about such a threat, even in a scenario in which Democrats were to take back the White House and Senate and hold onto the House. Some said such a proposal would inevitably backfire and become politically advantageous for conservatives. Others weren't even sure if Democrats would have the internal support or, ultimately, the guts to actually pull the trigger on packing the court."It almost destroyed FDR. It should really backfire on them," Rudy Giuliani, the former New York City mayor who's served as President Trump's personal lawyer, told The Daily Beast on Saturday night. Asked about his thoughts on Trump's potential next Supreme Court nomination, Giuliani gave something of an endorsement of Amy Coney Barrett, a federal judge in Indiana who is considered one of the top choices on Trump's shortlist. "AMY BARRETT WOULD BE EXCELLENT AND I BELIEVE PRESIDENT SHOULD DO IT NOW," messaged Giuliani in all-caps, "WHOMEVER HIS CHOICE IS?"Indeed, there's likely to be substantial opposition to the court-packing idea within the Democratic caucus if they ever get the chance to do it. In any Democratic Senate majority, a handful of moderates are likely to have the greatest sway on key votes—and they're unlikely to ever get on board with the idea.But there's also concern that the rhetoric could backfire, even if its main purpose right now is as a messaging tactic. Democrats' path to capturing the Senate majority runs through states Trump won in 2016, where a slate of moderate candidates are running careful campaigns focusing largely on health care and the COVID-19 response. For example, Cal Cunningham, the Democratic challenger to Sen. Thom Tillis (R-NC), doesn't need to be debating whether he wants to pack the court in the last 40 days of the election, a Democratic operative told The Daily Beast. "That's an argument that doesn't get anywhere," said the operative.Mitch Ready to Steamroll Dems on Ginsburg ReplacementAs Democrats debated the merits of the court-packing issue, key Republicans laid out their plans for the high court vacancy at hand, charting a course that could be equally fraught for the GOP's hold on the White House and the Senate. Heading to a rally on Saturday, Trump said a nominee could be announced as soon as next week; on Friday night, McConnell announced that Trump's nominee for the court "will receive a vote" on the Senate floor."Both the White House and the Senate majority have a moral duty to fulfill the promises they made to the voters, and that is exactly what we are going to do," the president said at a North Carolina campaign rally on Saturday night. Trump has also told the crowd that "I could see most likely [the nominee] would be a woman." Crucially, McConnell didn't specify whether that vote would come before or after the Nov. 3 election. Privately, many Republicans believe it would be tough for McConnell to hold a vote before the election due to the varying political implications of that vote for the GOP majority that is at risk this November. A lame-duck session, which ends on Jan. 3 with the swearing-in of the new Congress, is seen as a more likely venue for a confirmation battle. The high court vacancy is going to sway the election no matter when the vote occurs, however: with a Trump nominee soon to be named, the GOP conference's most vulnerable members will face questions over their views on that pick during the crucial closing days of the election. Some are already being hammered: Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), facing one of the toughest battles in the country, was asked in a Saturday appearance if he stood by his 2016 stance that a vacancy should wait until after the election. He didn't answer the question, instead pivoting to praise of Ginsburg's life and accomplishments.A nominee who clearly views Roe v. Wade as incorrectly decided‚ as some on Trump's shortlist do, is set to be a problem for Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), who defended her vote for Justice Brett Kavanaugh in part because she believed he considered Roe to be settled law. An injection of abortion politics into Collins' battle against Democratic candidate Sara Gideon, who has led in nearly all public polls of the race, is seen by some Democrats as basically sealing Collins' defeat. That Collins announced on Saturday that she will oppose any confirmation vote before the election—and that the winner of the presidential race should get the next pick—is unlikely to ward off the scrutiny.There's also the issue of health care: some members of Trump's shortlist, such as Barrett, have disputed the court's 2012 decision upholding the Affordable Care Act. That law, and GOP attempts to dismantle it, are at the center of Democrats' playbook against vulnerable incumbents like Tillis and Gardner. With the court expected to hear another challenge to Obamacare after the election—this time missing one more liberal justice—Democrats see the health care implications of the fight as central to the politics of the confirmation fight.When it comes to the actual confirmation itself, four Republicans would be needed to join with all Democrats to block a nominee. Democrats acknowledge that this will be a tough task; if Trump selects a strong nominee, it could be even more problematic. A judge reportedly on Trump's shortlist, Barbara Lagoa of Florida, earned 26 Democratic votes in her confirmation to the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals last November—an unusually high number for a Trump nominee. Democrats also see Britt Grant, another 11th Circuit judge on the shortlist, as a formidable pick after a smooth confirmation hearing in 2018. Either way, many Capitol Hill Republicans have the utmost faith in McConnell to handle the situation as he sees fit. "He played things perfectly with Garland and Kavanaugh, and through those instances he has proven to the base that he will assume all sorts of political risk and heat to ultimately get an outcome desirable for conservatives," said a senior GOP congressional aide. "I think everyone has the expectation that he will do that again now."Read more at The Daily Beast.Get our top stories in your inbox every day. Sign up now!Daily Beast Membership: Beast Inside goes deeper on the stories that matter to you. Learn more.
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| A Florida bar owner is banning customers from wearing masks and asking them to leave if they do Posted: 19 Sep 2020 09:42 AM PDT  Gary Kirby, owner of Westside Sports Bar and Lounge, said that anyone who refuses to take off their face covering will be asked to leave.
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| What Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s death means for immigration and the Supreme Court Posted: 18 Sep 2020 06:58 PM PDT  Dan Stein of Fed for American Immigration Reform discusses how immigration will be handled in the Supreme Court following the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
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| Firefighter who hung brown doll from neck in Wisconsin station suspended, chief says Posted: 18 Sep 2020 12:54 PM PDT  Milwaukee's fire chief called it a "gross lack of judgment."
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| It’s Time to Rein in the Fed Posted: 19 Sep 2020 03:30 AM PDT  At the Kansas City Federal Reserve's virtual Jackson Hole economic-policy symposium, Fed chairman Jerome Powell drove a final stake into the legendary inflation fighter Paul Volcker's Fed. The new orthodoxy promises easy money as far as the eye can see and holds that inflation is good -- not Venezuelan and Zimbabwean hyperinflation of course, just a moderate dose -- thus ensuring that a dollar every year is worth less. Americans should be afraid.Powell announced the Fed's new inflation-averaging strategy. The central bank is changing how it defines and attempts to achieve the 2 percent inflation target, which it adopted on its own authority in 2012. Henceforth, the Fed will attempt to catch up for past inflation shortfalls. Powell warned that inflation below "its desired level," which our enlightened central bankers have decreed is 2 percent, can lead to an "unwelcome reduction" in inflation expectations, causing lower inflation. Joe and Sally Sixpack, however, would view gas, steak, and dental check-up prices not rising as welcome.Additionally, the Fed chairman declared the central bank would not, as it has in the past, preemptively raise interest rates to stave off higher inflation when unemployment falls below its natural rate.The new policy has an asymmetric pro-inflation bias. America's central bankers are not contemplating deflationary policies to offset excessive past inflation. If inflation were 5 percent in period one, the Fed would try to bring it down to 2 percent in period two, not to negative 1 percent.The Fed is a masterful political actor. Powell touted "The Fed Listens" events as "connecting with the American people." All well and good, but it is Congress, which represents the American people, that the Fed is supposed to heed.The Fed isn't independent or the policymaker. It is an instrument of Congress, which by statute directs it to conduct monetary policy to achieve "stable prices," maximum employment, and moderate long-term interest rates. Stable prices mean inflation hovering around zero, not prices doubling every 35 years. If a 200-pound MMA fighter's weight increased 2 percent every year to 244 pounds after a decade, nobody would suggest his weight was stable.Shame on the Fed for "redefining" its role under the law. But shame on Congress for not insisting the central bank hew to statute.If Congress wants inflation, it should pass legislation changing the Fed's mandate to that effect, which President Trump or Biden would likely sign. But while many congressional cravens may want inflation, few want to go on record voting for it.Powell allowed, "Many find it counterintuitive that the Fed would want to push up inflation." No kidding. Money is a unit of account, a means of exchange, and a store of value. Stable money is a sine qua non of stable, prosperous, free societies. There's enormous value in the dollar remaining constant for consumers and firms planning, transacting, and saving. Imagine a world where a yard continually changed.The received wisdom is that deflation is bad. Precipitous deflation is harmful. However, gentle deflation benefits many firms and individuals. During much of the 19th century the U.S. enjoyed mild deflation.To bolster inflation the Fed is keeping real wholesale interest rates negative.Interest rates are the price of present versus future investment and consumption. They are the economy's most important price, dynamically signaling where and when capital should be allocated to maximize value.Keeping interest rates artificially low, as the Fed has done for nearly two decades, causes systemic malinvestment, incentivizes excessive risk-taking, and sustains zombie firms, making society poorer, and is sowing the seeds for the next crisis. It punishes savers and creditors.There are, however, powerful constituencies for easy money. America's biggest borrower, the federal government, loves it. Real-estate developers and brokers and much of Wall Street also vigorously support cheap debt.With everyone focused on the COVID-19 pandemic and recession, inflation is low on people's list of concerns, but it's brewing. From December 2019 to August 24, 2020, the monetary base (M1) increased 35 percent. The Fed's real benchmark interest rate is negative. The pandemic has crimped production. As America limps out of the crisis and the velocity of money -- the rate at which money turns over -- recovers, it's a recipe for inflation.Since the Fed's creation in 1913, its policies have massively debased the dollar and caused or contributed to multiple economic crises, including the Great Depression and the Great Recession, devastating job and wealth creation. While the central bank can affect price levels, easy money can't increase sustainable long-term employment and wealth. Congress should, therefore, eliminate any doubt about what the Fed can and should do by doing away with its "dual" mandate, narrowly focusing it on maintaining stable prices, something that it is equipped to deliver.
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| Thailand protests: Activists challenge monarchy by laying 'People's Plaque' Posted: 20 Sep 2020 12:10 AM PDT  Protesters cement a "People's Plaque" in a park and march in Bangkok calling for political reforms.
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| China launches counter-mechanism to US sanctions list Posted: 18 Sep 2020 10:38 PM PDT  China said Saturday it had launched a mechanism enabling it to restrict foreign entities, a much-anticipated move seen as retaliation to US penalties against Chinese companies such as telecom giant Huawei.
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| Wildfires and hurricanes disrupt final weeks of 2020 census Posted: 20 Sep 2020 08:31 AM PDT  Already burdened by the coronavirus pandemic and a tightened deadline, the Census Bureau must now contend with several natural disasters as wildfires and hurricanes disrupt the final weeks of the nation's once-a-decade headcount. The fires on the West Coast forced tens of thousands of people to flee homes in California and Oregon before they could be counted, and tens of thousands of others were uncounted in Louisiana communities hit hard last month by Hurricane Laura. Nearly a quarter million more households were uncounted in areas affected this week by Hurricane Sally.
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| Trump says he expects to have coronavirus vaccine for every American by April Posted: 18 Sep 2020 12:27 PM PDT  President Donald Trump said on Friday he expects to have available enough doses of a coronavirus vaccine for every American by April. "Hundreds of millions of doses will be available every month, and we expect to have enough vaccines for every American by April," Trump told a news conference. "In a short time we'll have a safe and effective vaccine and we'll defeat the virus," Trump said.
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| Election Violence Could Arrive Long Before November Posted: 18 Sep 2020 09:06 PM PDT  Matthew Egler appeared unwell. In the hours leading up to July 24, he was emailing Arizona officials, claiming to have an intimate relationship with Ivanka Trump, and stating that he might be the next Republican vice president. Then, shortly after midnight, he allegedly drove to the Arizona Democratic Party headquarters in Phoenix, smashed a glass door, and lit a fire that completely destroyed the party's field office in what might be one of the most hotly contested counties in the upcoming presidential election. In social media posts reviewed by The Arizona Republic, Egler issued Trumpian talking points about Democrats "fixing" the election for Joe Biden. He appeared to confess to the fire as a political message. "I BOMBED THIS BUILDING" he wrote. "LISTEN TO WHAT IM SAYING."As America hurtles toward one of the most contentious elections in its history, law-enforcement officials and security experts are warning of increased potential for violent attacks targeting the vote. Recent election cycles have been marked by unrest, but 2020's chaotic combination of pandemic and protests has led everyone from the feds to activist groups to sound the alarm.Factor in an increasingly mobilized far right, a president who routinely accuses Democrats of fraudulent schemes, and preemptive right-wing chatter about stopping that imagined fraud, and the resulting atmosphere, some extremism-watchers warn, is an explosive one.The Left Secretly Preps for MAGA Violence After Election DayMike German, a fellow with the Brennan Center for Justice and former FBI special agent focusing on terrorism, made no predictions about election violence, but noted that this election comes amid a flare-up of violent tensions, especially on the far right."Here we have not just the very contentious election," German told The Daily Beast, "but an election in the midst of considerable amount of far-right violence directed at Black Lives Matter protests, and at law enforcement, despite the seemingly friendly relationship these [far-right] groups seem to have cultivated with law enforcement."Egler, who is accused of arson and has pleaded not guilty, does not appear to be a member of any organized extremist group. In fact, rather than a longtime Donald Trump supporter, he was a former attempted volunteer for the Democratic Party in Maricopa County, Arizona. Party officials declined his help, with one seeking a protective order against him in early 2017; an attorney for Egler did not respond to a request for comment for this story.Instead, his social media suggests a strange trajectory into violent themes, election-related conspiracy theories, and confused ramblings, often implying that he thought Ivanka Trump was in a relationship with him ("she talks to me, sends me hearts," he wrote in one tweet). Suffice it to say there is plenty of precedent for Trump supporters turning to violence.His alleged attack on the office forced the Maricopa County Democrats headlong into an issue that's "always on the back of our minds," communications director Edder Diaz-Martinez said."The entire building was gone," Diaz-Martinez told The Daily Beast. "That's where people, mostly volunteers, congregated to do the organizing and the strategizing and to hold our meetings... I think it's been a wake-up call, certainly."The view isn't universal. The party's chair in another traditionally bellwether county said he wasn't worried about election-related violence. "I don't see anything different from any other year," Ed Bruley, chairman of Michigan's Macomb County Democrats, told The Daily Beast.Still, a pair of August reports by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) suggest that terror-watchers are keeping a close eye on voting sites.In a recent bulletin to law enforcement, reviewed by Yahoo News last week, the FBI warned that extremists "across the ideological spectrum likely will continue to plot against government and election-related targets to express their diverse grievances involving government policies and actions."The bulletin warned that it had observed a pattern of election-related violence this cycle, including "threatening 2020 political candidates or events, including threats against current candidates for President, presidential conventions, and counter protestors at campaign rallies, as well as individuals committing arson or sending threatening packages targeting political party offices."Although the bulletin omits ideologies from its descriptions, one incident appears to describe a previously unreported plot by members of a far-right militia who discussed plans to storm their state capitol and kill everyone inside. "Members stated the need to act prior to a possible Democratic presidential administration, due to the belief that stricter firearms regulations would be enacted quickly thereafter," the bulletin reads. The document reportedly goes on to describe a plot by an extremist in Ohio to set off a bomb that would spark a race war if Trump did not win re-election. (The FBI declined to comment on the memo, telling The Daily Beast that it routinely shares intelligence with law enforcement.)A DHS report from mid-August on "physical threats to the 2020 election season," first reported by the extremism news site Left Coast Right Watch, also warned of potential unrest. The memo, which highlighted campaign gathering, polling places, and voter registration sites as the most likely targets, noted that COVID-19 and racial justice protests "have likely exacerbated the typical election-season threat environment."The report cited two arsons or attempted arsons on Republican party offices in Wyoming and North Carolina, in 2018 and 2016, respectively, as well as a self-proclaimed anti-Trump man who allegedly drove a van into a tent where Republican Party volunteers had been registering voters in February.DHS terror assessments might be taken with a grain of salt, a department whistleblower alleged last week. In a complaint, a former high-level DHS employee alleged that department leadership this year repeatedly ordered him to downplay the threat posed by white supremacists and inflate the threat posed by the left, namely the anti-fascist movement. Recent reports from independent groups like the Center for Strategic and International Studies, as well as a DHS draft of a document on potential terror attacks, cite white supremacists as the country's greatest terror threat. The FBI has also specifically labeled far-right conspiracy theories like QAnon as a terror threat. And this election is the first in which the "Boogaloo" movement, a coalition of far-right and libertarian personalities that has been implicated in multiple violent attempted plots, has been in play.Trump's rhetoric around the election could serve to aggravate far-right violence, which has been significantly more deadly than activity corresponding with the left. In recent months, Trump has repeatedly attempted to discredit mail-in voting—which Democrats encourage as a COVID-19 safety measure—as a vehicle for fraud, and has claimed that people might catch COVID-19 from touching ballot dropboxes, or that the boxes might be tampered with. Increasingly, Trump has also claimed that anti-fascists are going to burn down his supporters' neighborhoods. "ANTIFA THUGS WILL RUIN SUBURBS," a recent Trump campaign text read. Another Trump text, days later, read "ANTIFA ALERT. They'll attack your homes if Joe's elected."Although "antifa" is not a single, unified entity, one organized anti-fascist group in a swing state said they were worried about election-related violence, particularly after Trump's remarks."We're concerned," a spokesperson for Atlanta Antifascists, an activist group in that city, told The Daily Beast, noting increasingly mobilized QAnon and militia movements, and attacks on Black Lives Matter events.Trump and supporters "paint a picture of the country being on the verge of some sort of Bolshevik takeover, somehow with Biden at its head," the group said. "We don't know when or if violence will take place, but of course believers are being primed for it. It will be an interesting next few months."German said Trump's language "certainly raises the potential for far-right violence. And as we have seen, once police don't respond to that far-right violence, it's not surprising to see communities rely on self-help measures." Recent left-right clashes around protests have led to at least four deaths, two at the hands of a right-wing militia member, one at the hands of an anti-fascist, as well as the death of that same anti-fascist at the hands of law enforcement. (The vigilante accused of killing two, 17-year-old Illinois resident Kyle Rittenhouse, was able to walk past police unimpeded after the shooting in Kenosha, Wisconsin.)'Antifa' Is Literally Never Mentioned in the First Prosecutions of Protest Violence"As that cycle of violence continues, certainly the rhetoric isn't helping, especially when it is giving support to far-right militancy," German said. Trump has recently dismissed concerns about supporters who fired paintballs at the left in Portland, and defended the actions of Rittenhouse.Some of that cycle is still in its planning stages, with left- and right-wing groups attempting to forecast the other side's plans and respond accordingly. Earlier this year, a bipartisan group called the Transition Integrity Project offered predictions on possible street-level outcomes, should the election not immediately result in a clear winner. One possible situation involved Trump refusing to concede defeat, leading to violent unrest. The bipartisan group forecasted that some 4 million Biden supporters might protest in his defense, but that the Trump campaign was more likely to be "ruthless" and take measures like tapping "surrogates to embed operatives inside protests to encourage violent action" or deploying unorthodox law enforcement to protests.Based on those predictions, a left-leaning coalition called Fight Back Table recently held discussions about how to protest, should Trump contest the election results. Those discussions, first reported by The Daily Beast, led to conservative media headlines about imminent lefty protests.In another game of dangerous left-right telephone, the Canadian media company Adbusters launched a campaign calling for a 50-day "siege" of the White House, which was really a call to protest in a park across from the building. Nevertheless, right-wing groups portrayed the protest call as an urgent threat to violence, and upped the ante on social media, with prominent figures calling to further militarize the area around the White House and to "shut down all movement into & out of DC."Many of those cascading concerns stem from Trump's claims and attendant fears on the right that Democrats will cheat at the polls, and fears on the left that Trump will attempt to overturn a Biden victory."He's also alleging fraud in the election, which is one more motive for these groups to resort to violence," German said of the president.At least one far-right operation already claims to be organizing in-person actions against elections officials in the event of perceived fraud, Right Wing Watch reported last week. Republican operative Ali Alexander, who has previously associated with alt-right personalities and advised a PAC that received a $60,000 donation from GOP mega-donor Robert Mercer, announced an initiative to "stop the steal" of the election, presumably by Democrats. Despite the Trump talking point being completely unfounded, Alexander claimed to be organizing a physical operation targeting "bad" election officials. "In the coming days, we will launch an effort concentrating on the swing states, and we will map out where the votes are being counted and the secretary of states," Alexander said in a broadcast. "We will map all of this out for everyone publicly and we will collect cell phone numbers so that way if you are within 100 mile radius of a bad secretary of state or someone who's counting votes after the deadline or if there's a federal court hearing, we will alert you of where to go." Alexander, who has not been accused of violence, told The Daily Beast that the action was "legal, peaceful civic engagement" that he had conducted in 2018 in Florida "without incident." Diaz-Martinez, the Maricopa County Democrats official, said the attack on his organization's offices were a reminder to have their own plan in place. "Somebody coming in in the middle of the night and throwing some sort of explosive into your building is something you can't mitigate," he said. "But what you can mitigate is something like having a plan in place for potential incidents that may occur after or before the election."His organization is encouraging mail-in and early voting (which is easier in Arizona, which has extended early voting), as well as encouraging people to become poll monitors. The latter has been challenging during the COVID era, he noted, but he said younger volunteers have risen to the task."We're working closely with authorities," he said, adding that the fire was a call to action. "The temperature in the air is rife with contentiousness because people are very passionate on both sides."German, for his part, said law enforcement needs to understand that the far right is a threat to them, too, and that the presence of police might not always be welcome at polling sites, even—or especially—in a charged environment."The ability to have a free and fair election often means that law enforcement needs to stay away from the polling places as well," he said. "Having police monitoring polling sites, particularly where there's a history of racism or discrimination in that police department, is problematic and creates a chilling effect."Read more at The Daily Beast.Got a tip? Send it to The Daily Beast hereGet our top stories in your inbox every day. 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