
128 episodes

The Weekly List Amy Siskind
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- News
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5.0 • 6 Ratings
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The Weekly List is a podcast hosted by Amy Siskind, author of The List. It supplements the popular Weekly List on our website, www.theweeklylist.org, which tracks the ever changing new normals of American politics. The podcast gives greater context to the "not normal" news items from the previous week, and will highlight a few stories and changing norms from the Trump regime that you may have missed.
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After - December
In December, Trump continued to push lies and conspiracy theories about the election, not only failing to concede, but pushing efforts to overthrow the election results. During this month, Trump became increasingly isolated as even loyalists pushed back on his false allegations or resigned, leaving an inner circle composed almost entirely of his family members and conspiracy theorists. Trump continued to avoid the press and the American people, seeming to hide in the White House, other than a brief holiday trip to Mar-a-Lago.
This month the Supreme Court, which Trump had viewed as loyalists who would act at his behest, rejected his election challenges. Other setbacks came on December 8 when the safe harbor deadline passed, and then on December 14 when the Electoral Colleges in each state cast their votes, and ratified Biden’s victory — a typically mundane process that goes unnoticed, which was for first time was broadcast live and closely watched. After the results were ratified, Senate Republican leadership recognized Biden as president-elect, while House leadership continued to demure. Trump raged against all those who refused to go along with his despot coup, while his supporters took to threatening election officials and other subjects of his ire.
This month, a major Russian hacking — perhaps the most significant of modern times — of federal agencies and corporations was revealed. As has been a familiar pattern, Trump refused to acknowledge Russia’s involvement or condemn the attack, which some lawmakers likened to an act of war. December also marked the most deadly month of the worsening pandemic, which Trump almost completely ignored, along with any and all other presidential responsibilities.
Although Trump had yet to admit defeat, he did grant several controversial pardons, including four figures that were subjects of the Mueller probe, as well as Jared Kushner’s father, and employees of a company run by loyalist Erik Prince who were found guilty of murdering Iraqi civilians. As the month came to a close, Trump continued to push for allies to overturn the election and hence America’s still young experiment in democracy. And tragically, many Republicans appeared all too happy to comply with his antics, despite the damage to our democracy and world standing, in order to benefit their own political futures.
Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/after-december/ -
After - November
Summary of the continuing broken norms in the weeks after the election of Joe Biden as the 46th President of the United States.
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Week 208 - Victory
This project could not have ended in a more perfect way (she writes while sipping champagne): Donald J. Trump was defeated shortly before noon on Saturday, the cutoff time each week, and so I was able to gloriously write “THE END” at the end of Week 208 — something I have been waiting to do for four long years.
This week, the U.S. held its election, and it was different than any other due to the pandemic and the resulting record early vote. It took days for the race to be called for Biden, as early votes were counted. Nonetheless, as he telegraphed he would do in the weeks and months leading up to November 3rd, Trump tried to steal the election, declaring victory at a hastily assembled news conference at 2 a.m. on election night.
As you read this week’s list, you can see the intent: dismantle the U.S. Postal Service so mail-in ballots mostly availed of by Democrats don’t arrive in time; have GOP state legislatures disallow early vote counting so Trump can claim a lead and declare victory on election night; and stack the courts so the judicial branch will determine the outcome. Thankfully, the American people voted in numbers too great for these plans to work, with a record 75 million Americans voting for the winning candidate, Joe Biden (with votes still to be counted).
As we leave the final weekly list, we enter the most dangerous phase of the pandemic so far. The week starts with Drs. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Birx taking the unusual step of warning us publicly, ahead of the election, of the dire state of things. By week’s end the nation recorded daily record cases for three days in a row.
On an administrative note, I will continue to document broken norms until inauguration, although not in the weekly format of the past four years. They too will be recorded as part of our road map back to normalcy. -
Week 207 - The Final Countdown
In the final full week heading into the election, the seeds of Trump’s bungled pandemic response came back to haunt him, with the twin challenges of record daily cases and hospitalizations in many states, along with the worst week for the stock market since March. Even as a new outbreak hit Vice President Mike Pence’s staffers, Trump’s chief of staff Mark Meadows all but conceded the regime had thrown the white flag on any federal response, saying, “We are not going to control the pandemic.”
Trump barn-stormed battleground states, all of which were facing surges in cases, and continued to hold rallies with supporters packed together without face masks. Unthinkable. Polling showed nearly 6 in 10 Americans disapproved of Trump’s rallies, and evidence continued to come out that the rallies were leading to sickness and death.
This week Amy Coney Barrett was confirmed as a Supreme Court justice, for the first time in 151 years without a single vote from the minority party, heading into a highly litigious election with Republicans and the Trump campaign bringing hundreds of lawsuits in an effort to suppress voting. Nevertheless, a record 90 million Americans had voted by the end of the week, two-thirds of the total 2016 vote, as the country braced for violence on Election Day.
Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-207/ -
Week 206 - Record-Setting Week
This week, with Election Day nearing, the coronavirus raged out of control, with a record number of new daily cases on Thursday, and then again Friday, topping 83,000. Hospitalizations also soared in many states, and the death toll started to rise. Trump meanwhile continued to hold campaign rallies in battleground states, almost all of which were in the midst of surging cases. His supporters stood packed together, shoulder-to-shoulder, and mostly without face masks. It was unthinkable that a leader would do such a thing — but Trump proved once again his care is only for himself and his re-election, even though many of his supporters will end up getting sick and some will die.
Meanwhile, Americans voted in record number, by Thursday topping the early votes for all of 2016, and by week’s end, 56 million had voted, 40% of all who voted in 2016. Record turnout continued in multiple states, with registered Democrats far outpacing Republicans. Despite the huge turnout, Senate Republicans continued to push through Trump’s Supreme Court nominee — even as Democrats boycotted the Judiciary Committee vote — and while eschewing a Covid relief bill, as 8 million more Americans descended into poverty.
Trump spent the week all over place: attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci, then “60 Minutes” anchor Lesley Stahl, and gaining no ground as Americans voted and Election Day neared. News of foreign interference loomed large, as did acts of violence and intimidation from far-right groups.
Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-206/ -
Week 205 - Early Voting
This week, despite millions of Americans having voted already, Senate Republicans started the process of confirming Trump’s nominee for the Supreme Court. With Republicans in control of the Senate, there was little Democrats could do to address the hypocrisy and outrage over Trump’s actions, other than show up to vote, which they did in record numbers.
Behind in the polls, Trump got out on the campaign trail, claiming he was no longer contagious and holding daily rallies in states, many of which were experiencing coronavirus outbreaks. As the virus surged nationally, there was no federal government response, and in fact Trump seemed increasingly to lean on Dr. Scott Atlas, who continued to push the notion of herd immunity. Trump also made increasingly desperate statements at his rallies, indicating he did understand the gravity of Election Day approaching and Biden’s lead.
State officials braced for violence on Election Day, as Trump continued to give credence to the QAnon conspiracy theory, and encouraged an “army” of supporters to sign up as poll watchers. Meanwhile, Attorney General Bill Barr remained conspicuously absent from the public eye, as the “unmasking” probe quietly and unceremoniously ended, and he had yet to comment on the alleged plot against Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer. Trump allies Rudy Giuliani and Stephen Bannon introduced a supposed hard drive belonging to Hunter Biden in a “smoking gun” story at the New York Post, that was soon under investigation by the F.B.I. as a possible Russian intelligence operation.
Read the full list here: https://theweeklylist.org/weekly-list/week-205/
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The best resource
Amy Siskind has provided the most comprehensive list of actions by the current administration. I am so very grateful for her hard work to keep us informed of the abnormal activities and destruction of democracy invoked every day.
Thank you Amy Siskind
The fact that there are people out there working as hard as Amy to try and make us aware of what is happening in the United States at the moment gives one hope that the world hasn’t gone completely crazy.