A coup or coup d’état is the removal of an existing government from power, usually through violent means. Typically, it is an illegal, unconstitutional seizure of power by a political faction, the military, or a dictator.

CNN report this evening: President Donald Trump convened a heated meeting in the Oval Office on Friday, including lawyer Sidney Powell and her client, former national security adviser Michael Flynn, two people familiar with the matter said, describing a session that began as an impromptu gathering but devolved and eventually broke out into screaming matches at certain points as some of Trump’s aides pushed back on Powell and Flynn’s more outrageous suggestions about overturning the election.

Flynn had suggested earlier this week that Trump could invoke martial law as part of his efforts to overturn the election that he lost to President-elect Joe Biden — an idea that arose again during the meeting in the Oval Office, one of the people said. It wasn’t clear whether Trump endorsed the idea, but others in the room forcefully pushed back and shot it down.

The meeting was first reported by the New York Times.

A “take-over” is a synonym for coup.

Democracy is a Representative form of government. The Antonym is Dictatorship.

Donald Trump dreams of a bloodless coup. It appears he is willing to accept a Coup d’état if he doesn’t get his way peacefully.

I have started a new blog titled Bidenism.  It will be a continuous tracking of the Joe Biden presidency.  As followers of this blog already know I have been critical of Joe Biden.  His history as a senator has not been supportive of minorities.  He opposed forced busing and the 1994 crime bill that he sponsored resulted in long incarceration of minorities for what most people consider minor offenses.

I will try to be even handed but I will apply criticism when necessary.

Bidenism (wordpress.com)

OK maybe it was a mistake but this is the same author with a new ocean view. I thought I would try something new. I cannot recover the old format. I may be trying a few alternate layouts. Thanks for reading my opinions.

The 2020 edition of Black Friday did not offer the usual scenes of bustling stores and shoppers lined up outside discount chains and electronics retailers. Instead, most people bought online, if they bought at all.

American malls are dying out. Retail complexes all over the US are being clobbered by store closures sweeping the country. Retailers announced more than 8,600 closings in 2019 and according to a report done by Credit Suisse, between 20% to 25% of malls will close by 2022.

One of the biggest reasons that so many stores are failing is that people aren’t shopping the same way they used to. Rather than spending whole afternoons walking around the mall, many people prefer to shop in their pajamas at home. Shopping isn’t a pastime like it used to be — it’s more transactional.

The Covid-19 pandemic is putting another nail in the mall coffin. “It’s not Black Friday. It’s not people waiting in line the way we’re used to,” said Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at The NPD Group. Cohen said in hours of driving around retail centers, he saw lines only outside Macy’s flagship New York City store and a suburban Best Buy. “All the other stores, you would have thought it was like any other Friday in November,” he said.

I drove around my nearby Westfield Topanga Mall in Canoga Park California. The traffic cones were in place to guide the cars but there were no cars to guide. Visitors had no problem driving into the parking structure.

Mall giant Simon Property Group’s pursuit of Brooks Brothers, Lucky Brand and J.C. Penney illustrates how deeply the pandemic has reshaped the retail sector. Simon Property Group operates 175 U.S. malls and outlets, including the King of Prussia mall outside Philadelphia.

The Famed Mall of America in a suburb of the Twin Cities in Minnesota has three anchor stores and one is vacant. It’s behind on its mortgage payments, but has entered into a forbearance agreement with the special servicer on its loan that could help the megamall avoid foreclosure, even as it wrestles with lower customer traffic during the Covid-19 pandemic.

It all seems like a fool’s errand. Growing numbers of Americans have decided there are better ways to spend an afternoon than walking through a mall. The virus only reinforces that decision.