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Hong Kong's legislature opened Thursday ahead of the planned Newport 100s Box mass resignation of its pro-democracy bloc, one day after the government ousted four of its members.
One of the pro-democracy lawmakers, Lam Cheuk-ting, unfurled a banner from a balcony of the legislative council building saying the city's leader Carrie Lam had brought disaster to Hong Kong and its people.
The group had said they would hand in resignation letters on Thursday, but it was not immediately clear when they would do it or even what the proper procedure was. One said the removal of their four colleagues could sound the “death knell” for democracy in the semi-autonomous Chinese Newport box 100s cigarettes territory.
The resignation of the 15 remaining pro-democracy lawmakers would ratchet up tensions over the future of Hong Kong, a former British colony, regional financial hub and bastion of Western-style civil liberties where China's government has increasingly tightened its control. A new national security law imposed by Beijing this year has alarmed the international community.
The mass departure would also leave Hong Kong’s legislature with only pro-Beijing lawmakers, who already make up a majority but would be able to pass bills favored by Beijing without much opposition.
The lawmakers announced their decision hours after the Hong Newport 100s Box Kong government said it was disqualifying the four legislators — Alvin Yeung, Dennis Kwok, Kwok Ka-ki and Kenneth Leung.
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Some political scientists are arguing that rather than a coup, we Newport Cigarettes Shop should be more concerned that Trump's baseless claims erode faith in democracy. Such moves are often the first step in a longer process towards a future coup — a kind of death spiral for democracy.
In an article in the Washington Post, political scientist Henry Farrell said Trump's baseless claims about voter fraud "corrode American democracy. " In part, Farrell writes, because when Trump's followers and supporters believe his claims, they are saying they don't believe in our democracy. That's borne out by polling: A recent Politico/Morning Consult poll found 70 percent of Republicans say they don't believe the 2020 election was "free and fair, " an alarmingly high percentage. Elie Mystal, who covers the Newport box 100s cigarettes courts, the criminal justice system, and politics, writes that yes Trump is trying to overturn the election, but is not likely to succeed. The main reason is that none of Trump's lawsuits provide evidence of voter fraud.
"Trump's claims that his poll watchers were not allowed to watch the counting of mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania is flatly untrue, and his lawyers have had to admit in court that they were allowed in the room, " Mystal writes. "They've been reduced to arguing that their poll watchers were not close enough, which, whatever. The remedy for that is to move them closer, not throw out tens of thousands of votes. "
As Mystal explains, none of Trump's flawed claims would result in the courts throwing away counted votes because that "is not something that courts do. "
In fact, what Mystal argues is that the Trump campaign is going Online Cigarettes Store USA to put America through 70 days of turmoil all in the name of a grift.
"These lawsuits purportedly challenging the election are a huge money-making opportunity for the Trump campaign, " Mystal writes. "If you read the fine print on the new fundraising e-mails Trump's campaign is sending out to supporters, they say that '60 percent of contributions' will go toward retiring campaign debt. ".
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For the first time in history, an incumbent president is Newport Cigarettes Shop refusing to concede after clearly and indisputably losing a presidential election. That's making observers, citizens, and experts nervous that Trump may be preparing to stage a coup of some sort, or perhaps call again on his supporters to commit violence to sustain his rule.
Though it sounds alarmist, such happenings are certainly not unprecedented in the global arena; the United States frequently interferes with the Democratic process in other countries, and often undermines it in order to provoke a coup or make a citizenry lose faith in a governing party, as US interests did in Bolivia last year. What is more unprecedented is for such a thing to happen in the United States. We've certainly had bitter and controversial presidential elections, including, infamously, in 2000. Moreover, the Founding Newport box 100s cigarettes Fathers prophesied this happening: as my colleague Matthew Rozsa noted, in early American history George Washington warned against Americans electing a president who'd refuse to step down.
But in a historical first, Trump is the first president to flat out refuse to concede, leading some to believe he's setting the gears in motion for a coup d'etat. Since the election was called on Saturday, Trump has tweeted baseless claims that there's a pathway to invalidating counted ballots. In addition to his refusal to concede, he's pushed to fight the election results with evidence-free lawsuits.
As Barton Gellman wrote in The Atlantic before the election, the possibility that Trump might not concede was a prophecy that turned out true. Online Cigarettes Store USA"We have no precedent or procedure to end this election if Biden seems to carry the Electoral College but Trump refuses to concede, " Gellman said, noting that there are "endless happenstances in any election for lawyers to exploit. ".
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Yes. It is legal for Trump to pardon his inner circle, including Cheap Newport 100s cigarettes members of his family.
In 2001, former President Bill Clinton pardoned his own brother, Roger, who was convicted for cocaine possession in Arkansas.
Clinton pardoned about 450 people, including a Democratic Party donor, Marc Rich, who fled the country because of tax evasion charges.
WHO ELSE COULD TRUMP PARDON?
Trump has said he could pardon Michael Flynn, his former national security adviser, who pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about discussions he had with a Russian official before Trump took office in 2017.
While awaiting sentencing, Flynn sought to withdraw his plea, claiming he was set up the FBI.
The Justice Department has been seeking a judge's permission Newport 100s Box to drop the case.
There has also been speculation that Trump would preemptively pardon his personal lawyer, former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani.
Federal prosecutors in Manhattan are investigating whether Giuliani broke lobbying laws in his dealings in Ukraine.
The investigation into Giuliani is tied to the case against two of his associates, who are accused of campaign finance-related violations. Giuliani has denied breaking any laws and has not been accused of criminal wrongdoing by prosecutors.
CAN TRUMP PARDON HIMSELF?
There is not a definitive answer to this question. No president Newport Cigarettes Shop has tried it before, so the courts have not weighed in.
"When people ask me if a president can pardon himself, my answer is always, 'Well, he can try, '" said Brian Kalt, a constitutional law professor at Michigan State University. "The Constitution does not provide a clear answer on this. ".
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U. S. President Donald Trump could issue a flurry of pardons during Cheap Newport 100s cigarettes his final days in power.
Trump has granted clemency to supporters before, most notably earlier this year when he commuted the criminal sentence of Roger Stone, who was sentenced to prison after being convicted of lying under oath to lawmakers.
In 2018, Trump even said he had the "absolute right" to pardon himself - a claim many constitutional law scholars dispute.
Here is an overview of Trump's pardon power, Newport 100s Box which is sweeping but not absolute.
ARE THERE LIMITS ON TRUMP'S PARDON POWER?
The pardon power, which comes from the U. S. Constitution, is one of the broadest available to a president. The nation's founders saw the pardon power as a way to show mercy and serve the public good.
While pardons are typically given to people who have been prosecuted, pardons can cover conduct that has not yet resulted in legal proceedings.
A pardon is not reviewable by other branches of government and the president does not have to give a reason for issuing one.
A pardon wipes out a criminal conviction. A different form of executive clemency, known as a commutation, leaves the conviction intact Newport Cigarettes Shop but wipes out the punishment.
But the pardon power is not absolute. Crucially, a pardon only applies to federal crimes. That means pardons would not, for example, protect Trump associates from the criminal investigation being conducted by Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance, a state prosecutor.
Vance’s probe, which began more than two years ago, stemmed from hush money payments that the president’s former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen paid before the 2016 election to two women - an adult-film star and a former Playboy model - who said they had sexual encounters with Trump. Trump has denied the encounters and has said the probe is politically motivated.
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An Associated Press analysis reveals that in 376 counties with Online Cigarettes Store USA the highest number of new cases per capita, the overwhelming majority — 93% of those counties — went for Trump, a rate above other less severely hit areas.
Most were rural counties in Montana, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Wisconsin — the kinds of areas that often have lower rates of adherence to social distancing, mask-wearing and other public health measures, and have been a focal point for much of the latest surge in cases.
Taking note of the contrast, state health officials are pausing for Newport box 100s menthol cigarettes a moment of introspection. Even as they worry about rising numbers of hospitalizations and deaths, they hope to reframe their messages and aim for a reset on public sentiment now that the election is over.
“Public health officials need to step back, listen to and understand the people who aren’t taking the same stance” on mask-wearing and other control measures, said Dr. Marcus Plescia of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
“I think there’s the potential for things to get less charged and Cheap Newport 100s cigarettes divisive, " he said, adding that there’s a chance a retooled public health message might unify Americans around lowering case counts so hospitals won’t get swamped during the winter months.
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An Associated Press analysis reveals that in 376 counties Online Cigarettes Store USA with the highest number of new cases per capita, the overwhelming majority — 93% of those counties — went for Trump, a rate above other less severely hit areas.
Most were rural counties in Montana, the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Iowa and Wisconsin — the kinds of areas that often have lower rates of adherence to social distancing, mask-wearing and other public health measures, and have been a focal point for much of the latest surge in cases.
Taking note of the contrast, state health officials are pausing for a moment of introspection. Even as they worry about rising numbers of Newport box 100s menthol cigarettes hospitalizations and deaths, they hope to reframe their messages and aim for a reset on public sentiment now that the election is over.
“Public health officials need to step back, listen to and understand the people who aren’t taking the same stance” on mask-wearing and other control measures, said Dr. Marcus Plescia of the Association of State and Territorial Health Officials.
“I think there’s the potential for things to get less charged Cheap Newport 100s cigarettes and divisive, " he said, adding that there’s a chance a retooled public health message might unify Americans around lowering case counts so hospitals won’t get swamped during the winter months.
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Republicans brushed back challengers in some of Newport box 100s menthol cigarettes the most competitive Senate contests, bolstering the party's hopes of retaining control of the chamber and erecting a powerful firewall against a potential Joe Biden administration.
As of Wednesday night, the Senate map stood at 48 Republicans and 48 Democrats, with four races yet to be called. Republican senators were ahead in North Carolina and Alaska and races for both Republican-held seats in Georgia were undecided. Democratic Sen. Gary Peters was reelected to his seat in Michigan in a race called Wednesday night.
Further disappointing Democrats, and surprising Newport box 100s cigarettes even many Republicans, the GOP was poised to cut into the Democratic majority in the House. Democrats had been widely expected to add to their ranks, based on their advantages in polls and fundraising.
In the Senate, the best outcome Democrats can hope for at this point — assuming North Carolina and Alaska stay in GOP hands — is to push both of the Georgia races into Jan. 5 runoffs. That would set the Senate at 50 Republicans and 48 Democrats with two runoffs that could flip control of the chamber to Democrats if Biden wins the presidency. With those kinds of stakes, dual contests in Georgia would prompt a flood of campaign spending and attention for a bruising battle.
One of the Georgia contests, involving appointed Republican Newport 100s Box Sen. Kelly Loeffler, was already heading to a runoff. In the other, Republican Sen. David Perdue hoped to hang onto his slight lead, just over the 50% vote threshold, to avoid being forced into a second runoff.
Democrats will be just one agonizing seat short of a majority. There will be one, and possibly two runoffs in Georgia on Jan. 5 that could conceivably hand Biden a working 50-50 Senate majority. If Collins hangs on to her seat, however, a GOP Senate is a done deal.
One thing we can say with some certainty: What Democrats Newport box 100s menthol cigarettes hoped for most of all, a Biden landslide, did not materialize last night. While they will celebrate removing the president from office if and when the results are certified, Democrats wanted a more resounding repudiation of Trumpism and a chance to govern with congressional majorities for the first time in a decade. President Trump is already sending ominous signals that he will refuse to go quietly, declaring victory in the middle of the night and proclaiming on Twitter this morning that he had won the election before states started counting "surprise ballots, " and he is likely to spend the next two months sowing doubt about the outcome, stoking further divisions in an already traumatized, volatile country, and doing as much damage as possible to Biden and the country on his way out.
Perhaps the hardest thing to accept might be this: Newport box 100s cigarettes Trump's disgraceful, years-long strategy of turning Americans against one another very nearly worked. Just four years ago, a fluke confluence of circumstances — the historic unpopularity of Hillary Clinton, the media's bizarre obsession with an email server she hadn't used in four years, the last-minute intervention of former FBI Director James Comey in the election, and two relatively well-known third party candidates — handed an unpopular and unprepared candidate and his party total control of Washington, D. C., despite lacking anything approaching majority support even on Election Day.
Rather than taking office with humility, President Trump interpreted his unlikely and unrepeatable victory as an invitation to speak to, govern Newport 100s Box for, and care about only his hardest-core supporters and to regard every other American and their hopes, dreams, and fears as not only irrelevant but illegitimate. He didn't spend a single moment of a single day in office reaching out to people who didn't vote for him, or pretending to care about states that he would likely lose in 2020. Each day of his presidency he discovered new and previously unimagined ways to undermine American democracy and to debase himself and his party.
Trump adopted Florida as his new home state, wooed its Latino Newport Pleasure community, particularly Cuban-Americans, and held rallies there incessantly. For his part, Biden deployed his top surrogate — President Barack Obama — there twice in the campaign’s closing days and benefitted from a $100 million pledge in the state from Michael Bloomberg.
Control of the Senate was at stake, too: Democrats needed to net three seats if Biden captured the White House to gain control of all of Washington for the first time in a decade. But Republicans maintained several seats that were considered vulnerable, including in Iowa, Texas and Kansas.
The parties traded a pair of seats in other early results: Democratic Newport 100s Box former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper defeated incumbent Sen. Cory Gardner, and in Alabama Republican Tommy Tuberville knocked off Sen. Doug Jones. The House was expected to remain under Democratic control.
As the results began to come in, the nation braced for what was to come — and an outcome that might not be known for days.
Biden was watching from home with family and close aides. Trump was watching the results come in with a small group of allies in the White House residence as other staff and advisers floated between a party at the White House residence and various offices throughout the executive mansion complex.
Outside, a new anti-scaling fence was erected around the White Newport box 100s cigarettes House, and in downtowns from New York to Denver to Minneapolis, workers boarded up businesses lest the vote lead to unrest.