Covid Test Interpretation and Response
I am seeing stories about people who are taking leave from work because they are infected with covid, and they are expected to return when they are well. So as a kind of ready-reference let me review what the decision process is for ending isolation, according to the CDC:
That is because negative test results don't really mean anything. They do not tell you whether you are sick or well.
One problem with developing an accurate test is determining the standard. To tell if the test works on somebody, you need to know if they are sick or not when you test them. How can you know that -- especially if they are asymptomatic? Researchers test and then test again the next day, to see how consistent a test is. They figure if you're sick the second day, you were probably sick the day before. They know they underestimate the number of errors this way but it is the best method they have.
A physician interpreting the test takes prior probability into account. For instance, they will consider the infection rate in the region. They will adjust their prior probability estimate if you have traveled to a place with a high rate, or have engaged in risky behaviors like going out without a mask or attending a concert or party, have been exposed to a sick person, or if you have symptoms of covid-19. Then they take the test result and make a diagnosis. The Bayesian math is more than we need here, but the point is that they do not just look at the test result.
The positive result is pretty good on its own -- if the test sees enough viral RNA to trigger a reaction then the result is positive. It seems that positive test results are about 98 percent accurate; if it says you're sick, you're sick.
But what if the result is negative? A false negative test has serious consequences, for instance it can lead an infected person to interact with others with minimal precautions. Because there is no true gold standard, researchers can only estimate the false negative rate. One review of five studies estimated false negative rates up to 29 per cent, but those estimates have been questioned and are probably low.
The point is that a negative test result does not mean you are not infected.
The BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal) has published guidelines in an article titled, sensibly, "Interpreting a covid-19 test result." Their interest is professional, they are mostly advising doctors about when they can return to their practice without infecting their patients. Here's what they say:
The worrisome thing to me is that employers are using the test as a binary decision-maker. If your test is positive, then they let you stay home, but if it's negative they interpret that to mean that you should get back to the office and get to work. That kind of decision is going to send a lot of sick people back into a risky environment, which will in turn drive up the numbers, put more people in danger, and perpetuate the chaos of this pandemic.
In the face of a negative test result, a responsible physician should make an informed diagnosis.
Here is how the BMJ piece suggests doctors explain it to patients:
We should play this safe. Supplement a negative test result with a medical diagnosis. If you are sick, remain isolated until you meet the CDC criteria given above.
You can be around others after:You will notice that there is nothing in that list about "getting a negative test result."
- 10 days since symptoms first appeared and
- 24 hours with no fever without the use of fever-reducing medications and
- Other symptoms of COVID-19 are improving*
*Loss of taste and smell may persist for weeks or months after recovery and need not delay the end of isolation
That is because negative test results don't really mean anything. They do not tell you whether you are sick or well.
One problem with developing an accurate test is determining the standard. To tell if the test works on somebody, you need to know if they are sick or not when you test them. How can you know that -- especially if they are asymptomatic? Researchers test and then test again the next day, to see how consistent a test is. They figure if you're sick the second day, you were probably sick the day before. They know they underestimate the number of errors this way but it is the best method they have.
A physician interpreting the test takes prior probability into account. For instance, they will consider the infection rate in the region. They will adjust their prior probability estimate if you have traveled to a place with a high rate, or have engaged in risky behaviors like going out without a mask or attending a concert or party, have been exposed to a sick person, or if you have symptoms of covid-19. Then they take the test result and make a diagnosis. The Bayesian math is more than we need here, but the point is that they do not just look at the test result.
The positive result is pretty good on its own -- if the test sees enough viral RNA to trigger a reaction then the result is positive. It seems that positive test results are about 98 percent accurate; if it says you're sick, you're sick.
But what if the result is negative? A false negative test has serious consequences, for instance it can lead an infected person to interact with others with minimal precautions. Because there is no true gold standard, researchers can only estimate the false negative rate. One review of five studies estimated false negative rates up to 29 per cent, but those estimates have been questioned and are probably low.
The point is that a negative test result does not mean you are not infected.
The BMJ (formerly British Medical Journal) has published guidelines in an article titled, sensibly, "Interpreting a covid-19 test result." Their interest is professional, they are mostly advising doctors about when they can return to their practice without infecting their patients. Here's what they say:
While positive tests for covid-19 are clinically useful, negative tests need to be interpreted with caution, taking into account the pre-test probability of disease. This has important implications for clinicians interpreting tests and policymakers designing diagnostic algorithms for covid-19... False negatives carry substantial risks; patients may be moved into non-covid-19 wards leading to spread of hospital acquired covid-19 infection, carers could spread infection to vulnerable dependents, and healthcare workers risk spreading covid-19 to multiple vulnerable individuals. Clear evidence-based guidelines on repeat testing are needed, to reduce the risk of false negatives.
The worrisome thing to me is that employers are using the test as a binary decision-maker. If your test is positive, then they let you stay home, but if it's negative they interpret that to mean that you should get back to the office and get to work. That kind of decision is going to send a lot of sick people back into a risky environment, which will in turn drive up the numbers, put more people in danger, and perpetuate the chaos of this pandemic.
In the face of a negative test result, a responsible physician should make an informed diagnosis.
Here is how the BMJ piece suggests doctors explain it to patients:
- No test is 100% accurate
- If your swab test comes back positive for covid-19 then we can be very confident that you do have covid-19
- However, people with covid-19 can be missed by these swab tests. If you have strong symptoms of covid-19, it is safest to self-isolate, even if the swab test does not show covid-19
We should play this safe. Supplement a negative test result with a medical diagnosis. If you are sick, remain isolated until you meet the CDC criteria given above.
posted by JimK at 2:57 PM
200 Comments:
Democratic nominee Joe Biden said that as president he would be prepared to shut the United States down again to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus if that is what the scientists recommended.
“I would shut it down. I would listen to the scientists,” Biden told “ABC World News Tonight” anchor David Muir in a clip released Friday ahead of a full interview to be aired Sunday.
Biden said he was “prepared to do whatever it takes to save lives because we cannot get the country moving until we control the virus.”
“That is the fundamental flaw of this administration’s thinking to begin with,” the presidential candidate continued. “In order to keep the country running and moving and the economy growing and people employed, you have to fix the virus, you have to deal with the virus.”
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, continues to face widespread criticism for his administration’s disastrous handling of the public health crisis.
Trump downplayed the risk of COVID-19 for months as cases surged worldwide. He later pushed for the premature easing of lockdown restrictions in a bid to boost the economy ahead of the 2020 election.
The president has also hyped unproven treatments for the disease and sent mixed messages on the need to wear masks to prevent its spread....
https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/08/22/joe-biden-listen-to-scientists-shut-down-country-again-if-needed/24596593/
People have died from following Trump's advice to drink bleach or disinfectants.
IMPORTANT!
You don't need to mail in your ballot! States allow for in-person drop off at your County Clerk or Registrar, or your local Board of Election. Look online for your county and find where to drop it off. Don't let Trump's sabotage of the Post Office take away your right! Pass this on!!!
The White House asked the Supreme Court on Thursday to reverse a lower court ruling that said President Donald Trump’s practice of blocking critics on Twitter ran afoul of the Constitution’s First Amendment.
The request to the high court renews a debate about the nature of the president’s use of social media.
A federal appeals court ruled last year that the president used his account as “an official channel of communication.” On that basis, the unanimous three-judge panel of the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said Trump has effectively created a public forum, and was forbidden from blocking users based on their political views.
The full appeals court declined to revisit that decision in March.
But in a petition submitted to the justices, acting Solicitor General Jeffrey Wall told the court that the appeals panel inappropriately failed to distinguish the president’s official communications on Twitter from the personal nature of his decision to block users he disagreed with.
“President Trump’s ability to use the features of his personal Twitter account, including the blocking function, are independent of his presidential office,” Wall wrote. “Blocking third-party accounts from interacting with the @realDonaldTrump account is a purely personal action that does not involve any ‘right or privilege created by the State.’”
Wall said that Trump’s decision to block users does not prevent them from criticizing the president, noting that they could still view his tweets while not logged into the social media platform and post screenshots of the messages.
Wall said the appeals court ruling will hamstring public officials’ ability “to insulate their social-media accounts from harassment, trolling, or hate speech without invasive judicial oversight.”
The case was originally brought in 2017 by the The Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, which sued on behalf of seven users whom the president blocked after they had replied to one or more of his tweets.
Jameel Jaffer, the Knight Institute’s executive director, said in a statement on Thursday that the case “stands for a principle that is fundamental to our democracy and basically synonymous with the First Amendment: Government officials can’t exclude people from public forums simply because they disagree with their political views.”
“The Supreme Court should reject the White House’s petition and leave the appeals court’s careful and well-reasoned decision in place,” Jaffer said.
If the Supreme Court agrees to hear the case, it would likely do so in its term beginning in October. A decision would come by June, months after the November contest between Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
While Trump is not the first president to use social media, he has deployed it with more enthusiasm than his predecessors, often using his Twitter feed to signal political positions, terminate officials and threaten military action.
The case is Trump v. Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, No. 20-197.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "we were discussing whether Priya lied when she said Mueller referred Trump to CONGRESS for prosecution".
I can't imagine how you're going to try and claim he didn't, the report went to Congress for Congress to prosecute and try. That's documented all over the place. But who am I to tell you to not to deny reality.
Republicans said they wouldn't uphold their oath to do fair and impartial justice and they didn't. So now Trump rightfully has the impression Republicans have put him above the law.
Thanks for standing up for us transgender folk, Good Anonymous.
Good anonymous posted "“This crisis demands change to improve policing and hold the police departments accountable for their failure to protect transgender people..."."
In the meantime Wyatt and Regina Hardiman make the situation worse for transpeople referring to us as a "gangrene" and "a virus", the same thing the Nazis did with the Jews - dehumanize marginalized people to encourage violence against them.
In this thread Wyatt/Regina advocated imprisoning gays while graciously offering that executing them would be a step too far:
I said "Bad anonymous left out one situation where the Uganda law called for the death penalty - if the person was a repeat "offender".
That meant if you had sex with more than one same sex partner, or more than once with the same partner they proposed putting you to death."
Wyatt/Regina/Bad anonymous responded at December 11, 2009 3:55 PM: "yes, Robert said that too I didn't leave it out on purpose, I didn't know about it. Of course, penalties should increase with repeated offenses but the death penalty would be wrong".
As time went on they decided it would be all right to execute people for having same sex sex as well:
In this thread at September 22, 2011 3:10 PM Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous approved of executing people for being gay.
"in the U.S., you can be executed for doing nothing in Iran, you have to commit a serious crime, like h*sexuality"
They later reaffirmed their support for criminalizing same sex sex:
Inthis thread: at December 11, 2013 2:10 PM Wyatt/Regina/Bad anonymous said "here's a fun story: India's Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated a ban on gay sex in the world's largest democracy"
And here's Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous advocating sticking the heads of lgbt schoolchildren in toilets filled with feces and urine:
In this thread at January 14, 2016 12:12 PM Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous sad "girls" with guy parts don't belong in the girls' room they belong in the boys' room, where they will get a special swirly welcome"
"if they want to dress like a girl when they're a guy and they wander into the boys' room that way, they'll likely get a swirly welcome no real harm done, just a little social discipline to maintain decorum the answer: don't come to school dressed like a girl if you're a guy problem solved"
"Priya thinks a swirly is a "vicious assault"? it's not a big a deal just ask Ward he survived"
"a new study out shows that Swirly Reparative Therapy actually works same gender sexual attraction is reduced up to 59% among gays treated to a swirly every 4 hours the only down side is having to wake up in the middle of the night for treatment a small price to pay for a chance at a normal life for these people another triumph in the treatment of a mental disease once thought incurable"
"and don't pull that old line that you can't change because you were "born that way" there are many methods to alter behavior worse comes to worse, have Ward give you a swirly again"
No doubt when Wyatt and Regina go to church on Sunday they disingenuously tell people they don't hate lgbt people, they love us. But the truth is in their posts, deep in their hearts they want lgbt people to be assaulted, imprisoned, or executed.
Wyatt and Regina may tell you they were "joking" when they said these things by psychologists will tell you when someone makes "jokes" about harming others they really are expressing their true feelings and desires.
President Trump on Saturday baselessly accused the Food and Drug Administration of impeding enrollment in clinical trials for coronavirus vaccines and therapeutics for political reasons, as he broadened and escalated his attacks on administration scientists.
“The deep state, or whoever, over at the FDA is making it very difficult for drug companies to get people in order to test the vaccines and therapeutics,” he said on Twitter. “Obviously, they are hoping to delay the answer until after November 3rd. Must focus on speed, and saving lives!” He tagged FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn in the tweet.
A second tweet reiterated Trump’s displeasure that the agency in June withdrew emergency authorization for hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug that is unproved as a treatment for covid-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus. It has been identified as potentially risky for covid-19 patients, and yet the president still touts its use.
The tweets represent a new turn in the president’s ongoing attacks on administration scientists. For months, he has undercut Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, for citing evidence that contradicts the president’s opinions on issues including the wearing of masks and whether in-person learning and the football season should resume. Several weeks ago, Trump described White House coronavirus task force coordinator Deborah Birx as “pathetic” after she said the virus was “extraordinarily widespread.”
Until recently, Trump had praised the FDA for moving quickly on coronavirus treatments and vaccines. But on Wednesday, he claimed the FDA was delaying authorizing convalescent plasma, an old treatment used for other infectious diseases but the effectiveness of which for covid-19 has not been proved. “You have lot of people over there that don’t want to rush things,” he said at a White House briefing. “They want to do it after Nov. 3.” That is Election Day.
The FDA did not respond to a request for comment on the president’s Saturday tweets.
...Trump’s tweets drew swift criticism from scientists and former FDA officials, some of whom have warned for months that he might try to pressure regulators into clearing a coronavirus vaccine before the election, even if it has not been adequately vetted for safety and effectiveness.
“All I can say is that for vaccines, what the President wrote on Twitter this morning is not true,” Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, said in an email. Hotez said the FDA and NIH have been “working day and night to accelerate Operation Warp Speed vaccine clinical trials, but expediting things in a way so as not to compromise the safety of the human volunteers."
Paul Offit, director of the Vaccine Education Center at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, said “he is creating a villain: FDA.”
Offit, who is part of a group helping advise companies and the federal government on vaccine development, said the FDA is requiring companies to go through carefully designed phases of testing, including large Phase 3 trials designed to test effectiveness and safety, to minimize the risk that a product given to healthy people causes harm.
Peggy Hamburg, an FDA commissioner during the Obama administration, said she was “saddened to see that the president clearly does not understand how FDA does its important work or appreciate the value of this unique agency and the contribution it makes to protect the health of Americans.”
“This is no time to politicize the work of FDA,” she added. “It has to have the independence to do its job without fear of retaliation.”
Representatives of the drug industry said the agency is not delaying vaccines for political reasons.
“Everyone is eager to deliver the treatments we need to eradicate this pandemic as quickly as possible, but we can only move as fast as the science allows us,” Rich Masters, Biotechnology Innovation Organization’s executive vice president for public affairs, said in a statement. “We are confident everyone is moving as fast as possible to ensure any vaccine or new therapy is both safe and effective for patients to use.”
Trump and his top advisers have also clashed with top officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
Why are Republicans allowing the Democrats to have ridiculous Post Office hearings on Saturday & Monday, just before and during our Convention. Let them hold them NOW (during their Convention) or after our Convention is over. Always playing right into their hands! @senatemajldr
11:20 AM · Aug 19, 2020
"People have died from following Trump's advice to drink bleach or disinfectants."
about a week or so ago, Randy said there's no examples of him lying
as if we hadn't all read his repetitious lies
then, just like someone who has spent significant time institutionalized for mental illness, he has seemingly tried hard to provide those examples
so, here's another lie
Randy is just a hardcore psycho
"I can't imagine how you're going to try and claim he didn't, the report went to Congress for Congress to prosecute and try. That's documented all over the place. But who am I to tell you to not to deny reality."
the investigation was done at the request of Trump's Justice Department and the report was submitted to them
the report was released also to the public
Congress only got a copy because they asked to see it
but Mueller didn't prepare it for them
after the Lewinsky affair, Congress eliminated the special prosecutor statute although they could theoretically ask for one to be appointed
by that's not what happened
beside that, Congress doesn't prosecute criminals
if it decided a President committed a crime, they could remove him from office but couldn't go any further
"Republicans said they wouldn't uphold their oath to do fair and impartial justice and they didn't. So now Trump rightfully has the impression Republicans have put him above the law."
if you mean Republicans in Congress, they aren't authorized to dispense justice
they can remove a President but not for purposes of justice, but for the good of the country
it's worth noting that the Democratic controls the impeachment process and they chose not to because there is no case
it doesn't make any sense to say it was because they knew the Senate wouldn't convict because they later impeached him for something else
"Thanks for standing up for us transgender folk, Good Anonymous."
one of the paranoid delusions Randy suffers from is that everyone is out to get him
in the US, transgenders receive the same protection that everyone else does
and then some!
it's true in Canada too, where Randy lives
Joe Biden is being accused of plagiarizing the words of a left-wing Canadian politician in his convention speech.
In his highly anticipated convention speech on Thursday, the Democratic nominee said, “Love is more powerful than hate. Hope is more powerful than fear. And light is more powerful than dark.”
Canadians were quick to point out that those words were extremely similar to the dying message of Jack Layton, the leader of Canada’s New Democratic Party, who in 2011 wrote, “My friends, love is better than anger. Hope is better than fear. Optimism is better than despair."
CBC correspondent Alexander Panetta pointed out the similarities on Twitter.
This was not Biden’s first brush with plagiarism. His 1988 presidential campaign ended after he was accused of lifting portions of a speech made by British Labour Party leader Neil Kinnock. In an address to the Welsh Assembly, Kinnock asked, ''Why am I the first Kinnock in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Why is Glenys the first woman in her family in a thousand generations to be able to get to university? Was it because all our predecessors were thick?''
In a speech at the 1987 Iowa State Fair, Biden used extremely similar language.
''I started thinking as I was coming over here, why is it that Joe Biden is the first in his family ever to go to a university? Why is it that my wife who is sitting out there in the audience is the first in her family to ever go to college?” He continued, ”Is it because our fathers and mothers were not bright? Is it because I'm the first Biden in a thousand generations to get a college and a graduate degree that I was smarter than the rest?''
“Over four nights, President Trump’s 2020 Convention will honor the great American story, the American people that have written it, and how President Donald J. Trump's Make America Great Again agenda has empowered them to succeed,” the campaign said in a statement announcing the list of speakers which will include at least one person from Trump’s family on each of the four nights.
Rump's American successes include a thousand dead Americans each day, millions of Americans sick with coronavirus, millions of Americans unemployed, thousands of American small businesses shuttering, thousands of Americans being evicted from rental homes, and too many American veterans and elderly wait for their mailed medications to be delivered by a Rump-sabotaged USPS because as Rump himself said “You know, there's nothing wrong with getting out and voting, you get out and vote. They voted during World War I and World War II, and they should have voter ID because the Democrats scammed the system. But, two of the items are the Post Office and the $3.5 billion for mail-in voting. Now, if we don't make a deal, that means they don't get the money...That means they can't have universal mail-in voting, they just can't have it.”
So Rump wants Americans to go ahead and vote in person like we did during two World Wars that were not on our soil nor killing a thousand Americans each day.
Rump's sister is on audiotape saying Rump had someone take the SATs for him so he could lie about how smart he is but Rump himself pretend to be John Barron and then lied about how rich he was.
So get ready for the LIE FESTIVAL by the lying GOP of Donald Rump -- America's liar in chief.
New Lincoln Project Ad: Jared Kushner Is Evil [VIDEO]
As the Republican National Convention begins in the midst of the worst pandemic of our lifetime, The Lincoln Project today released a new ad reminding Americans who is actually responsible for the failed response to COVID.
The ad, “Evil,” shows that Jared Kushner prioritized the President’s reelection above public health, ignoring testing from states with Democratic leadership, resulting in the loss of nearly 200,000 lives and counting.
“The failed leadership of this administration is staggering from the top down,” said Reed Galen, co-founder of The Lincoln Project.
“Playing politics with public health is disgusting enough, but ignoring early warning signs coming from testing in the most populous states in the nation simply because the states are run by Democrats is a level of evil that has, unfortunately, become commonplace in Trump’s America.
“More Americans have been killed due to the President’s lack of response in COVID than were killed in World War I, Pearl Harbor, Vietnam, or 9/11.”
I said "People have died from following Trump's advice to drink bleach or disinfectants."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "about a week or so ago, Randy said there's no examples of him lying as if we hadn't all read his repetitious lies then, just like someone who has spent significant time institutionalized for mental illness, he has seemingly tried hard to provide those examples
so, here's another lie
Randy is just a hardcore psycho"
People are having seizures, losing vision and dying after drinking hand sanitizer, CDC warns
Now, as the moral person you claim you are, don't you think you should apologize for lying about me and condemning me unfairly?
Just like I said, people have died from taking Trump's advice to drink disinfectants.
Lying Wyatt and Regina Hardiman still have no examples of me telling a lie. They follow the Nazi propaganda book "Accuse others of that which you are guilty of."
Like when Wyatt and Regina said Obama failed to restock the supplies of personal protective equipment during his term when in fact he tried to and the Republican controlled Congress blocked him from doing so. Its been a non-stop stream of lies like this from these two, not me.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous tried to claim The Mueller Report wasn't presented to Congress for prosecution.
The truth is Bob Mueller did up the obstruction of justice part of the report with all the documents and formalities used in arguing a court case in the criminal justice system. Because the FBI arbitrarily decided it wouldn't criminally prosecute a sitting president the report was done to allow Congress to prosecute the case against the president and remove him from office just as one would otherwise prosecute a crime.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Congress doesn't prosecute criminals"
I wasn't trying to suggest it does, I meant Congress would prosecute and remove him from office. I thought that was obvious to everyone. Not you apparently.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "just like someone who has spent significant time institutionalized for mental illness,"
See, now you're lying about me again. I never said how long I'd been in the psych ward when I was hospitalized, but you just make up the claim that it was "significant time"
How about you apologize for making up stuff about me to try to make me look worse than I am?
I'm telling the truth about you. You hate harmless lgbt people and you'd like to see us assaulted, imprisoned and even executed. That's why you refer to us as "a gangrene" and "a virus", to encourage society to hate and abuse us, which is a slippery slope to executing us. Its too easy for 30% of the population to go from "joking" about executing gays to actually doing it.
You're trying to do to us what Hitler did to the Jews.
Moral people would apologize for lying about me.
Moral people would use my current legal name and female pronouns when addressing me.
Wyatt and Regina Hardiman are not moral people. I suppose that's no surprise when you take your moral beliefs from a religion based on the most grotesque injustice imaginable - infinite punishment for finite crimes. When you're bizarrely taught this is "just and loving" and that people are so unimportant their creator can destroy them on a whim or for no reason at all its pretty tough to elicit regular moral behaviour in people from that corrupt foundation.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "in the US, transgenders receive the same protection that everyone else does"
That's a lie. It recently improved with job protections but trans people can still be evicted from their homes or refused service, something that can't be done with christians. And Wyatt/Regina has opposed equality for transpeople at every step.
As evangelical christian Tony Perkins said "We want to be at the head of the government, not the tail" - christians have used the first amendment to give themselves legal superiority over everyone else and to escape following the anti-discrimination laws everyone else has to follow.
Christians don't deserve more rights than harmless lgbt people.
As Democrats and their presidential nominee Joe Biden gear up to attack the president's response to COVID-19, they must grapple with a harsh reality: a third of all U.S. coronavirus deaths occurred in just three states controlled exclusively by Democrats.
Biden has sharply criticized Trump's handling of the pandemic since the first case was confirmed in the U.S. in late January.
The Democratic presidential candidate claimed last week that Trump has allowed the disease to ravage the country and kill more than 170,000 citizens.
"Just judge this president on the facts," Biden said during his acceptance speech during the Democratic National Convention. "Five million Americans infected with COVID-19. More than 170,000 Americans have died. By far the worst performance of any nation on Earth."
Biden's assessment is only partly factual.
The U.S. has indeed recorded the highest total number of COVID-19 deaths in the world, but adjusted for population the nation falls to number 10, behind numerous countries in Europe and South America, including the United Kingdsom and Spain.
Perhaps more notably, more than a third of the American deaths Biden cited have occurred in the Democrat-run states of New York, New Jersey and California.
According to the data-gathering website Worldometers, 33% of deaths in the U.S.—just under 61,000—come from three Democratic states: New York, New Jersey and California.
All three are headed by Democratic governors, and the statehouses of all three are controlled entirely by Democratic politicians.
Democrats have thus far skirted around those uncomfortable figures, with the messaging out of the party's convention this week being one of how the Trump administration has failed to properly manage the pandemic.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, who instituted one of the strictest state lockdowns in the country in March in an effort to head off the virus, said during a convention address this week that Trump "tried to deny the virus, then tried to ignore it, and then tried to politicize it," and that the Trump administration revealed itself as "dysfunctional and incompetent" in its handling of the pandemic.
Whether that message resonates with voters may depend on how much Trump presses the issue.
Last week the president accused Biden of "wanting to shut down our economy and close our schools and grind society to a halt."
Regardless if that is an accurate description of Biden's planned coronavirus response, it does happen to be precisely what the three hardest-hit states in the country did starting in March—all of them run by Democrats.
What remains to be seen is whether those state-level policies had any effect on the course of the disease.
A range of policies appear to have had varied effects elsewhere.
California, another Democratic stronghold, has also been under strict lockdown measures for months, and its adjusted death rate is comparatively low at number 28 in the nation.
South Dakota, whose Republican governor has famously refused to institute the lockdown measures of most other states, is even better at number 39.
As November approaches, Biden may continue to criticize the U.S. as having "the worst performance" of any country worldwide, with the blame laid at the feet of the current Republican administration.
Democratic-run New Jersey and New York's respective adjusted death tolls, meanwhile, both remain roughly three times the national average.
After coronavirus cases surged in June and July, the number of new reported cases were day in the United States began to level off, then drop, though the infection rate remains one of the world's highest.
Of the states that are driving the decrease, all have at least some local mask mandates, and most have paused or reversed statewide reopening policies, again closing bars, gyms, and theaters. Many of those states with the biggest decreases per million people also had some of the country's worst outbreaks in July.
Experts said that the drop in reported cases could not be attributed simply to the recent drop in testing volume. They explained that decreased hospitalizations and a lower share of positive tests indicated that the spread has most likely slowed.
The July surge in Florida affected young people in particular. Statewide bar closures following earlier reopnenings and local mask mandates are among the policies that have helped reverse the trend, said Dr. Mary Jo Trepka, chair of the Florida International University epidemiology department.
Arizona also had a sharp drop. Dr. Joe Gerald, an associate professor of ruble health policy at the University of Arizona, attributed the decrease to mask orders in the state's biggest cities, news media coverage of the heightened risk and also the closure of bars, gyms and theaters after they started reopening in May.
After the New Orleans area experienced one of the country's most severe outbreaks in April, a second surge in July hit other parts of Luoisiana. Susan Hassig, an epidemiologist at Tulane University, attributed the drop in cases since the second peak to a statewide mask mandate and the closure of bars on July 13. "That's when we started seeing cases plateau," Dr. Hassig said.
South Carolina does not have a statewide mask mandate, but jurisdictions with local mask requirements had nearly a 50 percent greater decrease in cases than those without any such rule, the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control announced Aug. 12.
A flattened curve does not mean the case counts are low. The United States still has one of the worst outbreaks in the world.
And many of the states with the biggest decreases continue to have new case counts per million that are higher than many of the 10 countries with the worst outbreaks.
The flattening -- albeit still high -- numbers are a positive sign, experts say. But they caution that resurgence can and will happen again as schools reopen and hurricane season begins.
"We basically have 50 laboratory experiments going on right now, and every state has a slightly different policy approach," Dr. Gerals said. "If we get complacent, this thing could get out. of control again. And we'll have even less safety margin to manage it because we're starting from a higher place.
A circuit judge in Tallahassee has ruled that Florida's schools reopening order, requiring "brick and mortar" schools to be open amidst a coronavirus pandemic, is unconstitutional.
But the 17-page decision, rendered Monday, will be automatically put on hold should the state appeal, which is expected by the end of the day.
Circuit Judge Charles Dodson granted a request for a court order to bar enforcement of the directive from Gov. Ron DeSantis and state Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran.
Dodson wrote in his decision that the Florida Education Association (FEA) established that irreparable harm would be caused if schools were to reopen on a date set by officials in Tallahassee.
He struck down any requirement that brick-and-mortar schools be open at least five days a week and that reopening plans have to be approved by Corcoran.
Dodson wrote that schools should “reopen when the local decision-makers determine” it's safe to do so after the advice of medical experts. And that should happen without the threat of a financial penalty from the state affecting the decision.
FEA President Federick Ingram said that was all the teachers had asked for: To let the decision be made by local elected officials and health experts.
“The Court simply stated the obvious: Schools should reopen when the local decision makers determine upon the advice of local health experts that it is safe to do,” Ingram said.
Instead, Dodson said the state's order took the decision away from elected school boards and superintendents and forced them under the risk of financial penalty to comply.
DESANTIS = RUMPIDIOT
LISTEN TO THE SCIENTISTS!
Covid is under control in New York because they closed down, did social distancing and used masks. Now New York is opening up.
Meanwhile, months after Wyatt/Regina claimed everything was fine and the epidemic would shortly be over cases exploded in Red states that opened prematurely.
Over 1000 Americans are dying ever day when months ago Wyatt and Regina told us the numbers would shortly be under 200 a day. Red state governors have even banned local governments from requiring people to wear masks.
Red states need to follow the lead of New York and follow the advice of medical experts as they did.
This could be over in eight weeks if everyone would wear a mask. In one police station the Republican in charge has banned his staff and visitors from wearing masks. Conservatives demand to hold church services and attack those who wear masks by spitting on them or otherwise attacking them.
Just watch Republicans, as soon as thing start to improve significantly they'll demand to go to bars and parties and refuse to wear masks and they'll start yet another wave of Covid-19 infections.
Have the Republicans done a Dylann Roof tribute yet?
Lying Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous tried to claim that Dylann Roof killed all those black people because they were christians when he really killed them because they were black.
That's typical Wyatt/Regina for you, taking the persecution of black people and falsely claiming its persecution of christians.
So, no apology from Wyatt/Regina for falsely claiming I was lying when I said people had died from drinking bleach or disinfectant. They were really obnoxious about their false claim too.
Moral people apologize when they're wrong and publicly admit it. Not Wyatt and Regina, though. What do you expect from people who say "there are many situations where its appropriate to lie.".
There is nothing Donald Trump could do that would cost him the support of Wyatt and Regina Hardiman. He could certainly shoot someone on fifth avenue and not lose their vote. If he succeeds in blocking millions of democratic votes Wyatt and Regina will vigorously defend him doing so.
"Just like I said, people have died from taking Trump's advice to drink disinfectants."
this is a lie by a hardcore psycho, veteran of the nuthouse
Donald Trump never advised anyone to drink disinfectants
"Covid is under control in New York because they closed down, did social distancing and used masks. Now New York is opening up."
actually, New York is not opening up
it's one of the few places in America where indoor dining is not permitted
while Cuomo has probably destroyed the NYC economy permanently, other places around the country have done the hard work of figuring how to stay open safely
"tried to claim that Dylann Roof killed all those black people because they were christians when he really killed them because they were black."
suuuure they did, Priya
it couldn't be, all these years later, they you are twisting words out of context, could it?
no, you'd never do something like that
it's just so unfair...
no one ever believes the guy from the nuthouse
but they see things the rest of us don't
everyone's out to get 'em!!!!!!!!!
you should tell your psych and see if he can approve a visit to the funny farm for you
sometimes you gotta go, where everybody knows your name
and they're always glad you came
Thanks for standing up for nuthouse folks, Good Anonymous.
"The truth is Bob Mueller did up the obstruction of justice part of the report with all the documents and formalities used in arguing a court case in the criminal justice system."
actually, no he didn't
"Because the FBI arbitrarily decided it wouldn't criminally prosecute a sitting president"
the FBI?
it is a long-standing policy of the Justice Department
the FBI doesn't prosecute anyone
Comey was fired for publicly claiming to make such a decision in the Hillary Clinton case
"the report was done to allow Congress to prosecute the case against the president and remove him from office just as one would otherwise prosecute a crime."
the report was submitted to the Attorney General
it does not mention being prepared for use of the Congress
Randy is lying again!!!!!!!!!!!
"A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposedly we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. (To Bryan) And I think you said you’re going to test that, too. Sounds interesting, right?"
"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful."
I posted "People have died from following Trump's advice to drink bleach or disinfectants."
Wyatt and Regina viciously attacked me and called me a liar. But here's the proof I was telling the truth:
People are having seizures, losing vision and dying after drinking hand sanitizer, CDC warns
Now Wyatt/Regina claim they meant "Donald Trump never advised anyone to drink disinfectants".
I barely missed the mark, he advised people to inject disinfectants, not to drink them as I posted above. That's still incredibly stupid and dangerous advice, people have died because of this advice as the link above shows.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "the FBI?"
Yes, I had a brain fart, I meant the Justice Department.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Comey was fired for publicly claiming to make such a decision in the Hillary Clinton case"
You lie, Trump admitted in an interview with Lestor Holt that he fired him over Russia. Comey says the firing of Comey was part of the 12 counts of obstruction of justice Mueller referred to Congress for prosecution.
I posted "the report was done to allow Congress to prosecute the case against the president and remove him from office just as one would otherwise prosecute a crime."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "the report was submitted to the Attorney General it does not mention being prepared for use of the Congress"
The formalities of it are irrelevant. Mueller knew his report was going to Congress as the Justice Department wasn't going to prosecute Trump. He wrote it knowing Congress would be the body to act on it so he did it up just as one does up the documents for an obstruction of justice case that is to be criminally prosecuted. He laid it out just as though he was going to court in a criminal case and he did that knowing it was for Congress and for Congress to prosecute.
Over 1400 former prosecutors said if any other American had done what Mueller reported on Trump doing they'd have been in jail. But Republicans failed to hold Trump accountable and now he's taken steps to prevent millions of mostly Democratic votes from being counted in the upcoming election.
"viciously attacked me and called me a liar"
so, Randy thinks calling someone a liar
since he does that regularly, we can only conclude that he either thinks:
viciousness is a virtue
or
he is a hypocrite
we'll leave everyone to form their own opinion about which is true
about a week or so ago, Randy said there's no examples of him lying as if we hadn't all read his repetitious lies then, just like someone who has spent significant time institutionalized for mental illness, he has seemingly tried hard to provide those examples
today, he's saying he didn't lie because someone drank disinfectant
and then he admits that Trump didn't tell anyone to drank disinfectant but then tells another lie: that Trump told people to inject disinfectant
and, amazingly, he says this right after he had posted a quote from Trump that, while out of context, still shows that Randy is lying
"out of context" is Randy's favorite method of interpretation, btw
here's what happened:
Trump during a news conference, which include an exchange with some medical professionals, threw out an idea that maybe they could study ways to inject disinfectant to localized infected areas
not necessarily a radical idea, it's similar to how cancer is treated, although obviously from a layman's perspective
he never advised anyone to do anything
if people acted on anything it was media that regurgitated the same lie Randy told
btw, as far as I know, no one has injected disinfectant
"I meant the Justice Department."
did you?
I assumed you were just ignorant of something you try to pretend you are knowledgeable of
we'll leave everyone to form their own opinion about which is true
"You lie, Trump admitted in an interview with Lestor Holt that he fired him over Russia."
oh, Trump says a lot of things
he also said he fired him because Rod Rosenstein, second in the DOJ, sent him a memo advising him to fire Comey
and Rosenstein mentioned Comey's handling of the Hillary case as his rationale
"Comey says the firing of Comey was part of the 12 counts of obstruction of justice Mueller referred to Congress for prosecution."
Comey is not credible
he committed several acts of perjury during Congressional testimony
"The formalities of it are irrelevant. Mueller knew his report was going to Congress as the Justice Department wasn't going to prosecute Trump. He wrote it knowing Congress would be the body to act on it so he did it up just as one does up the documents for an obstruction of justice case that is to be criminally prosecuted."
under Randy's way of thinking, everyone who says anything publicly must intend it for Congress
Mueller's did not mention Congress or suggest any action they should take
he sent the report to the attorney general
"Over 1400 former prosecutors said if any other American had done what Mueller reported on Trump doing they'd have been in jail."
the statement makes no sense because these are things only a President could do
no other American could fire the Director of the FBI
"But Republicans failed to hold Trump accountable"
the power to impeach belongs to the House, which is controlled by Dems
they didn't because there is no case
"and now he's taken steps to prevent millions of mostly Democratic votes from being counted in the upcoming election."
when people vote, we have always checked their ID and matched their photo ID to their face
why?
to prevent voter fraud
now, suddenly, this is considered a tactic to keep Dems from voting?
every fraudulent cancels out a legitimate one
effectively the same as preventing them from voting
"The formalities of it are irrelevant. Mueller knew his report was going to Congress as the Justice Department wasn't going to prosecute Trump."
so Randy lied when he said the Mueller referred Trump to Congress for prosecution?
I can't believe that!
he always says he is the perfect example of a completely moral person
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo sent a cable to all U.S. diplomatic missions last month warning American diplomats that under federal law they should not take overt sides in the presidential campaign. On Tuesday, he plans to ignore his own warning by speaking to the Republican National Convention endorsing President Donald Trump for a second term.
Pompeo's message to State Department employees reminding them of restrictions on political activity under the Hatch Act was not unusual. Similar, if not identical, cables have been sent by successive secretaries of state every presidential election year. None of his predecessors, however, has disregarded those instructions so obviously.
Despite State Department assurances that Pompeo will be speaking to the convention in his personal capacity and won’t violate the Hatch Act, Democrats and other critics have cried foul. They accuse the country’s top diplomat of inappropriate political behavior that has been anathema to his predecessors and of trashing his own admonition to State Department staffers.
“The department works to advance the national interest abroad on behalf of all Americans in a non-partisan fashion," Pompeo said in the July 24 cable. Known as an ALDAC, short for the distribution list to “ALL DIPLOMATIC AND CONSULAR” posts, the cable was sent over Pompeo's signature as are all such messages from State Department headquarters.
"It is important to remember that in order to avoid any confusion or misperception in this regard, the department’s longstanding policy is that U.S. citizen employees and family members may not engage in partisan political activity while posted or on TDY abroad, even on personal time,” the cable said. TDY is an acronym for Temporary Duty.
“Similarly, presidential and political appointees and career (senior executives) are subject to significant restrictions on their political activity; they may not engage in any partisan political activity in concert with a partisan campaign, political party, or partisan political group, even on personal time and outside of the federal workplace,” the cable said.
The cable was released late Monday by Rep. Eliot Engel, D-N.Y., the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and a fierce Pompeo critic who is engaged in multiple battles with the secretary over what he believes to be inappropriate and possibly illegal partisan behavior. The Associated Press obtained a copy of the cable independently and verified its authenticity.
“Once again, the rules go out the window for Secretary Pompeo when they get in the way of serving his political interests and Donald Trump," Engel said in a statement. "Mr. Pompeo should show real respect for American law, diplomacy, and diplomats, and should follow his own guidance, cancel the speech, and watch the RNC from his hotel room after the workday is done.”
The United States is no longer the world’s only rich country still suffering through a major coronavirus outbreak. So is Spain.
Spain’s number of cases has surged in the last month. Over the last week, its per capita rate of new cases has been five times larger than France’s, six times larger than Portugal’s and 15 times larger than Japan’s. Adjusted for population, Spain’s outbreak has even surpassed the U.S. outbreak over the last few days.
How has it happened? Health experts are still trying to figure that out. But some of the early answers may sound familiar to Americans.
Lack of a clear national message. Spain’s prime minister — Pedro Sánchez, of the Socialist Workers’ Party — has not promoted medical disinformation, as President Trump has. Yet Sánchez has recently handed back control of virus policy to regional governments, instead of continuing to provide clear leadership about how people should behave. “In the past month, regions have announced new measures almost weekly, and they have often differed,” Raphael Minder, who’s based in Madrid for The Times, told me.
Last week, Sánchez went on vacation and didn’t address the public as the crisis mounted, Rodrigo Orihuela of Bloomberg reported.
Premature reopening. Spanish officials, like their American counterparts, made the mistake of thinking they could help the economy by prioritizing it over public health. Bars and nightclubs reopened. British tourists — a major source of revenue — were allowed to travel to Spain without restriction, in what María Ramírez of El Diario called “a desperate attempt to save the summer season.”
In truth, the only way to help the economy is to control the virus. “We wanted to return to normality too quickly,” Magda Campins, a Barcelona doctor, told El País.
Not enough testing and contact tracing. The shortages have made it “difficult for health authorities to identify and isolate potential virus carriers,” according to The Wall Street Journal.
There is a set of consistent lessons from around the world about how to beat back the virus: Mass testing. Rapid quarantines, contact tracing and, when necessary, lockdowns. Limited social gatherings, especially indoors. Widespread mask wearing.
After taking these steps, many countries, including Canada, Australia and much of Europe and Asia, have the virus under control. Spain itself followed this strategy in the spring and also sharply reduced new cases — before lifting its state of emergency on June 21 and reopening less carefully than its neighbors.
Since then, it has joined the U.S. as a classic exception that proves the rule.
cases are also back up to a thousand a day in Italy, despite it's draconian lockdown
Britain is also doing poorly
truth is, government can't do it
people need to be on board, which is why the chaotic media messaging is the biggest problem in the US
wear a mask in indoor public spaces and outdoors when you are likely to be close to someone for more than a few seconds
it's not rocket science
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=43&v=SgXg36ztMCg&feature=emb_logo
"people need to be on board, which is why the chaotic media messaging is the biggest problem in the US"
No, the biggest problem is that President Rump has politicized mask wearing, so that many people on the right think that having to wear a mask is impinging on their freedom, making them look weak, and taking away their rights.
"Frank Bruni argues that the message from the White House is that “masks are emblems, maybe the best ones, of the Trump administration’s disregard for, and degradation of, experts and expertise.” Lippman and Lizza wonder whether the rejection of masks says something like “I don’t have to wear a mask because I have access to regular testing,” adding that “in that sense, being in close proximity to people without covering your face is a kind of new status symbol for the pandemic era.” Liz Plank argues that Trump would rather endanger himself and others. Anna North makes a parallel argument: “Such militaristic, tough-guy messaging, along with Trump’s refusal to wear a mask, may encourage ordinary people—especially men—to minimize the risk of coronavirus for the sake of appearing manly.” North further points out that American racial bias also plays a fundamental role in the refusal to cover one’s face: Whereas young black men are perceived as doubly dangerous when they are masked, some white men like to perform their own immunity from criminal consequences by refusing to cover up.
And that is the point. Trump and Pence’s public defiance of the guidance that suggests covering one’s face is best for your own safety and the safety of others is itself contagious. When Trump visited Phoenix recently, some of his fans harassed and insulted local journalists who were wearing masks, insisting that the reporters were “only wearing masks to instill fear,” BrieAnna Frank, with the Arizona Republic, later said. She posted a viral Twitter thread of journalists derided for being “on the wrong side of patriotism” and “like communists.” One man said of assembled male journalists in masks, “It’s submission, it’s muzzling yourself, it looks weak—especially for men.” Around the country, we’ve seen retail workers and restaurant employees violently assaulted for asking customers to cover up. The guiding theory seems to be that since only the weak will die, the burden shifts to them alone to protect themselves."
"it's not rocket science"
Indeed, it's public health science.
You should tell that to the idiot in the White House that thinks windmills cause cancer, so he can run the country like a president - rather than a reality TV star.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "like someone who has spent significant time institutionalized for mental illness... "
That's a lie. I have not spent "significant time institutionalized for mental illness" or even any time institutionalized for menta illness.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "and then she admits that Trump didn't tell anyone to drank disinfectant but then tells another lie: that Trump told people to inject disinfectant"
Its the truth, Trump suggested injecting disinfectant - I provided the quote farther upstream.:
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Trump during a news conference, which include an exchange with some medical professionals, threw out an idea that maybe they could study ways to inject disinfectant to localized infected areas"
He did not say "localized area", he referred to injecting in general. His suggestion that people ingest disinfectants to fight Covid was so dangerous a flood medical professionals released advisories telling people not to drink or inject disinfectants. Obviously he came across as advocating internally ingesting disinfectants. Wyatt/Regina like the pharisees is ignoring what he said in general to hide behind technical details.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "it's worth noting that the Democratic controls the impeachment process and they chose not to because there is no case"
They chose not to impeach him over the 12 count indictment for obstruction of Justice because Republicans said they wouldn't convict him. Instead they did up articles of impeachment they thought Republicans might honour but they instead refused to hold Trump accountable in any way.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous posted "Comey was fired for publicly claiming to make such a decision in the Hillary Clinton case"
I posted "You lie, Trump admitted in an interview with Lestor Holt that he fired him over Russia. Comey says the firing of Comey was part of the 12 counts of obstruction of justice Mueller referred to Congress for prosecution."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "oh, Trump says a lot of things".
So, now Wytt and Regina admit they lied when they said Trump fired Comey for publicly claiming to make a decision not to charge Hillary over her nothing-burger emails, they agree he said he fired Comey because he started the investigation into Trump/Russia collusion.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "he also said he fired him because Rod Rosenstein, second in the DOJ, sent him a memo advising him to fire Comey and Rosenstein mentioned Comey's handling of the Hillary case as his rationale".
That was before he admitted to Lestor Holt he fired Comey over Russia. Trump told Rosenstein to send him that memo advising Trump to fire Comey - it was all part of the coverup and part of the obstruction of Justice Mueller referred to congess for action.
I said "Comey says the firing of Comey was part of the 12 counts of obstruction of justice Mueller referred to Congress for prosecution."
Comey is not credible he committed several acts of perjury during Congressional testimony".
And somehow Trump and Barr never prosecuted him for perjury...uhuh. Trump's told near 20,000 lies, Comey is far, far more credible than Trump.
"The formalities of it are irrelevant. Mueller knew his report was going to Congress as the Justice Department wasn't going to prosecute Trump. He wrote it knowing Congress would be the body to act on it so he did it up just as one does up the documents for an obstruction of justice case that is to be criminally prosecuted."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "Mueller's did not mention Congress or suggest any action they should take he sent the report to the attorney general"
Like the pharisees Wyatt/Regina focuses on the irrelevant technical details and formalities while ignoring the substance and spirit.
Mueller knew his report was going to Congress as the Justice Department wasn't going to prosecute Trump. He wrote it knowing Congress would be the body to act on it so he did it up just as one does up the documents for an obstruction of justice case that is to be criminally prosecuted."
I posted "Over 1400 former prosecutors said if any other American had done what Mueller reported on Trump doing they'd have been in jail."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "the statement makes no sense because these are things only a President could do no other American could fire the Director of the FBI"
Mueller's 12 count indictment for obstruction of Justice went far beyond just the firing of Comey with corrupt intent. You'll have to forgive me, I'm going to take the word of 1400 former prosecutors over your uneducated self and everyone else will too.
I posted "But Republicans failed to hold Trump accountable"
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "the power to impeach belongs to the House, which is controlled by Dems they didn't because there is no case".
Democrats DID impeach him. It wasn't over obstruction of justice because Republicans were clear they wouldn't convict him on that so Democrats impeached him over other things thinking maybe Republicans would honour their oath to do fair and impartial justice. Instead they announced they'd violate their trial oath and refuse to take seriously any crimes by Trump.
I posted "and now he's taken steps to prevent millions of mostly Democratic votes from being counted in the upcoming election."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "when people vote, we have always checked their ID and matched their photo ID to their face why? to prevent voter fraud"
That's a lie. Photo IDs are a relatively new thing introduced by Republicans to make it harder for black people to vote because large numbers of them do not have photo ID, or a car or driver's license to take time off work they can't afford to take several trips to round up the documents needed to get photo ID. For example, many black people were never issued birth certificates making this a huge barrier in the way of blacks voting. White people have cars and driver's licenses and photo ID already. This is one of over 80 laws Republicans introduced to make it harder for blacks and minorities to vote.
A much larger percentage of Democrats say they plan to vote by mail compared to Republicans. So Trump put one of his big campaign donors with no experience in charge of the Post Office to drastically slow down mail delivery and change policies so mail in ballots are thrown away if not immediately delivered. This is what dictators do, they use the levers of government to rig the election in their favour.
This election is Americans' last chance to get rid of Trump and save democracy from his dictatorial ambitions. Even Wyatt and Regina Hardiman know this but they don't care because they'll happily trade their democratic government for a dictatorship that severely oppresses or even executes harmless lgbt people.
There's been a lot of cheating going on in this election and all of it by Republicans.
Vote as early as possible, drop off your mail in ballot at drop off locations as soon as possible. For information on where you can drop your mail in ballot off text VOTE to 30330
Don't let the dictator in chief steal your democracy!
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "people need to be on board, which is why the chaotic media messaging is the biggest problem in the US wear a mask in indoor public spaces and outdoors when you are likely to be close to someone for more than a few seconds"
Good advice but Republicans are fighting this tooth and nail and even spitting on people wearing masks. If you really believe this why aren't you demanding that Trump implement a national mask mandate???
Trump could get rid of this in 8 weeks if he'd issue a mandatory mask wearing order. But as good anonymous said, he won't do it because Republicans have made not wearing a mask a display of support for Trump and his pretending that this is not a serious issue.
RI Trump Boat Parade Turns Ugly With Threats To Park Rangers, Gun Threat Over Masks, Homophobic Slur
Lying Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous are now trying to pretend Republicans support wearing masks - that's obviously not the case. Conservatives are viciously hostile to people who wear masks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Responding to an outcry from medical experts, Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn on Tuesday apologized for overstating the life-saving benefits of treating COVID-19 patients with convalescent plasma.
Scientists and medical experts have been pushing back against the claims about the treatment since President Donald Trump’s announcement on Sunday that the FDA had decided to issue emergency authorization for convalescent plasma, taken from patients who have recovered from the coronavirus and rich in disease-fighting antibodies.
Trump hailed the decision as a historic breakthrough even though the treatment’s value has not been established. The announcement on the eve of Trump’s Republican National Convention raised suspicions that it was politically motivated to offset critics of the president's handling of the pandemic.
Hahn had echoed Trump in saying that 35 more people out of 100 would survive the coronavirus if they were treated with the plasma. That claim vastly overstated preliminary findings of Mayo Clinic observations.
Hahn's mea culpa comes at a critical moment for the FDA which, under intense pressure from the White House, is responsible for deciding whether upcoming vaccines are safe and effective in preventing COVID-19.
The 35% figure drew condemnation from other scientists and some former FDA officials, who called on Hahn to correct the record.
“I have been criticized for remarks I made Sunday night about the benefits of convalescent plasma. The criticism is entirely justified. What I should have said better is that the data show a relative risk reduction not an absolute risk reduction,” Hahn tweeted.
The FDA made the decision based on data the Mayo Clinic collected from hospitals around the country that were using plasma on patients in wildly varying ways -- and there was no comparison group of untreated patients, meaning no conclusions can be drawn about overall survival. People who received plasma with the highest levels of antibodies fared better than those given plasma with fewer antibodies, and those treated sooner after diagnosis fared better than those treated later.
Hahn and other Trump administration officials presented the difference as an absolute survival benefit, rather than a relative difference between two treatment groups. Former FDA officials said the misstatement was inexcusable, particularly for a cancer specialist like Hahn.
“It’s extraordinary to me that a person involved in clinical trials could make that mistake,” said Dr. Peter Lurie, a former FDA official under the Obama administration who now leads the nonprofit Center for Science in the Public Interest. “It’s mind-boggling.”
The 35% benefit was repeated by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar at Sunday's briefing and promoted on Twitter by the FDA's communication staff. The number did not appear in FDA's official letter justifying the emergency authorization.
Hahn has been working to bolster confidence in the agency’s scientific process, stating in interviews and articles that the FDA will only approve a vaccine that meets preset standards for safety and efficacy.
Lawrence Gostin of Georgetown University said Hahn's performance Sunday undermined those efforts...
Another group of maskless, gun-toting lying GOPers tried to take over the Idaho state capital, like they did in Michigan.
The rally in Sturges has lead to new COVID-19 cases in South Dakota, Montana, and Nebraska.
America will never stop COVID-19 until we all work together toward the same goal of stopping it.
We need a leader like Joe Biden who will listen to the scientists and follow their recommendations.
What we're doing now under Rump's BS leadership is killing over a thousand Americans every day.
Today's tally in the USA is 5.79 million coronavirus cases and 178,000 coronavirus deaths.
Until we all follow our doctors' advice, coronavirus will continue its death march through America.
"It's a pandemic, not a TV show, and it's not going to disappear like a miracle"
well, it won't disappear
after all, the Spanish flu from the early 20th century is still around
but Trump is kind o right
as soon as the election is over, it will disappear as an apocalyptic crisis, as portrayed by the Dems and media
it will be like a miracle
We are so sorry the press reports facts you and Rump find discomforting.
Facts about COVD are discomforting to all of us, but in this case, ignorance means death, not bliss.
Rump is the wrong president for this pandemic because he imagines himself to be smarter than top scientists when he is merely delusional.
Inject bleach, what a moron!
We have been warned by the scientists at the CDC:
Influenza Updates:
-Laboratory-confirmed flu activity is low at this time.
-Elevated influenza-like-illness is likely related to COVID-19.
CDC Recommends:
-Stay home as much as possible and avoid close contact with others.
-Learn more about COVID-19.
Will there be changes in how and where flu vaccine is given this fall and winter?
How and where people get a flu vaccine may need to change due to the COVID-19 pandemic. CDC works with healthcare providers and state and local health departments to develop contingency plans on how to vaccinate people against flu without increasing their risk of exposure to respiratory germs, like the virus that causes COVID-19, and has released Interim Guidance for Immunization Services During the COVID-19 Pandemic. More information is available in the ‘Administering Flu Vaccines during the COVID-19 Pandemic’ section below.
Some settings that usually provide flu vaccine, like workplaces, may not offer vaccination this upcoming season, because of the challenges with maintaining social distancing. For more information on where you can get a flu vaccine, visit www.vaccinefinder.orgexternal icon. Information on getting a flu vaccine safely this season is available in the ‘Getting a Flu Vaccine during the COVID-19 Pandemic’ section below.
Will there be flu along with COVID-19 in the fall and winter?
While it’s not possible to say with certainty what will happen in the fall and winter, CDC believes it’s likely that flu viruses and the virus that causes COVID-19 will both be spreading. In this context, getting a flu vaccine will be more important than ever. CDC recommends that all people 6 months and older get a yearly flu vaccine.
Can I have flu and COVID-19 at the same time?
Yes. It is possible have flu, as well as other respiratory illnesses, and COVID-19 at the same time. Health experts are still studying how common this can be.
Some of the symptoms of flu and COVID-19 are similar, making it hard to tell the difference between them based on symptoms alone. Diagnostic testing can help determine if you are sick with flu or COVID-19.
Sounds like a fun post-election winter huh?
Stay home but if you must go outside, be sure to wear a mask and keep your social distance unlike the GOPer idiots around the country crying for their freedom go maskless 24/7, endangering us all.
White nationalist Richard Spencer reiterated his support for Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden Tuesday.
Replying to a tweet Tuesday morning, Spencer wrote that he recognized how "ineffective, useless, and traitorous the GOP is," reaffirming his decision to vote for Biden in the November election.
Spencer, one of they key figureheads of the alt-right movement, initially voiced his plan to vote for Biden Sunday, tweeting the following day that "Liberals are clearly more competent."
Spencer reiterated his support of the former vice president while responding to a tweet from professor and author Michael Rectenwald, who wrote Monday that Spencer's decision could be explained through Spencer's "rightwing collectivism."
"Spencer is a collectivist, and he found that Trump is not. But Biden and the Democrats are collectivists," Rectenwald wrote.
Collectivism is a movement which prioritizes the needs and goals of an entire group rather than those of individuals. Right-wing collectivism, as demonstrated during the 2017 "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, is "fascism, or, in its German form national socialism, nazism," writes professor Deirdre McCloskey in the preface to Jeffrey Tucker's book "Right-Wing Collectivism: The Other Threat to Liberty."
Spencer responded to Rectenwald's tweet Tuesday morning, agreeing with him.
Spencer, 42, has been credited with creating the term "alt-right," according to the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), who called him "a suit-and-tie version of the white supremacists of old."
"I wrote at the time that we're in the battle for the soul of this nation. Well, that's even more true today. We are in the battle for the soul of this nation," Biden said.
"Inject bleach, what a moron!"
you're lying
trump never told ayone to injec bleac
after hearing Richard Spencer is supporting Joe Biden, CNN praises Melania Trump's speech:
Immediately following Melania Trump’s speech from the White House Rose Garden, wrapping up night two of the Republican National Convention, a CNN panel had nothing but praise for the First Lady. In her speech, Melania called for unity and understanding, and said she didn’t want to attack the other side because that kind of talk only serves to divide. In Jake Tapper’s observation, in doing so, Melania brought something new to the convention.
President Donald Trump hass walked back what he said during an April 23 coronavirus press briefing about using disinfectants to treat COVID-19 patients.
"I was asking a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside," he said during a briefing in the Oval Office on April 24. "But it does kill it, and it would kill it on the hands, and that would make things much better. That was done in the form of a sarcastic question to the reporters."
The president first posed the question April 23 after William Bryan, undersecretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, presented a study that found sun exposure and cleaning agents like bleach have an adverse effect on the coronavirus. Bryan was referring to the use of disinfectants on surfaces and in aerosols, but Trump asked whether the chemicals could be used in a potential COVID-19 treatment, as well.
Trump’s remarks caused some companies and state agencies to issue warnings about ingesting disinfectants. The maker of Lysol said in a statement that "under no circumstance" should its products be used in the human body.
We don't need sarcasm, we need a leader like Joe Biden, who cares about US citizens more than his ratings.
"A question that probably some of you are thinking of if you’re totally into that world, which I find to be very interesting. So, supposedly we hit the body with a tremendous, whether it’s ultraviolet or just very powerful light, and I think you said that hasn’t been checked, but you’re going to test it. And then I said supposing you brought the light inside the body, which you can do either through the skin or in some other way. (To Bryan) And I think you said you’re going to test that, too. Sounds interesting, right?"
"And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me. So, we’ll see, but the whole concept of the light, the way it kills it in one minute. That’s pretty powerful."
"The president first posed the question April 23 after William Bryan, undersecretary for science and technology at the Department of Homeland Security, presented a study that found sun exposure and cleaning agents like bleach have an adverse effect on the coronavirus. Bryan was referring to the use of disinfectants on surfaces and in aerosols, but Trump asked whether the chemicals could be used in a potential COVID-19 treatment, as well."
here you confirm you were lying
he asked a question
didn't reject an expert's advice
didn't tell anyone to inject bleach
"We don't need sarcasm, we need a leader like Joe Biden, who cares about US citizens more than his ratings."
Biden has run many times before and always been rejected for lack of character
truthfully, the more people see of him, the less they like him
he won't be able to use the basement game through November
"Trump's words, unedited said..."
out of context would be a more accurate description
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "transgendersim is antiwomen and sexist: a ngangrene on society".
I challenge you to show who has been hurt by me living as a woman and society treating me as a woman.
MSNBC host Nicolle Wallace said there's a big problem with the Republican National Convention.
"If you look at what a convention is supposed to di, it's supposed to put you over the edge with the swing voter," she said. "And there just wasn't much for them."
Instead, she said, Republicans are trying to shore up President Donald Trump's base with appearances by people such as Mark and Patricia McCloskey, also known as the "St. Louis Gun Couple."
"If you are still speaking to people who are moved by the McCloskeys, you are bleeped with your based," Wallace said. "They may remind your base what they liked about you," but not those swing voters.
Swing voters are seeing a picture of a "scary America" with reminders of crime and lawlessness during Trump's tenure.
"A sing voter's going to say, "Well, if America is scary now, Donald Trump's running America," she said. "It's not a message you give if you've locked up your base."
Wallace also said Trump's use of the White House and official functions for the campaign events (breaking yet another norm) showed "the audacity of the grift on full display all night."
"What strikes me is we are still four years in so ill-equipped for the depth of the griftiness of the Trump family and the audacity of the lies they tell," she said. "We can't keep up with the propaganda."
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous posted "Trump's words, unedited said..."
out of context would be a more accurate description"
You often claim that when a Republican says something horrific but you never try to put it in the context you suggest makes it all right. There's a reason for that.
Wyatt/Regina/bad anonymous said "truthfully, the more people see of [Joe Biden], the less they like him"
Right, that's why he's ahead in the polls by a likely insurmountable 8 point average lead. More than Hillary or Obama at this point.
Obviously the more people see of Trump the less they like him.
"I was asking a very sarcastic question to the reporters in the room about disinfectant on the inside,"
And yet the videotape of Rump making this remark shows Dr. Birx literally squirm in her seat when Rump made that remark.
Rump's comment was not sarcastic.
Rump certainly is stupid enough to think injecting disinfectant could kill coronavirus inside a person.
Dr. Birx, who saw how Rump mistreated and sidelined Dr. Fauci, actually tried to defend Rump on Fox News before Rump did his about face, claiming his remark had been sarcastic:
"White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx defended President Trump in an interview on "Watters' World" that aired Saturday, saying the president meant no harm by inquiring about using disinfectant to possibly treat coronavirus.
[That's right, Rump is literally stupid enough to come up with the idea of using disinfectant "by injection inside or almost a cleaning" with what he claims is his "very fine brain"]
Trump, in his White House coronavirus task force briefing Thursday, appeared to suggest that light and disinfectants, respectively, might have the potential to treat the coronavirus -- prompting a number of stories condemning the comments, others seeking to defend the president and a scathing tweet from presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The president has since said he was being "sarcastic" with his comments."
Claiming his comment was sarcasm was JUST ANOTHER LIE RUMP TOLD TO COVER HIS OWN STUPIDITY.
CDC Change: Asymptomatic Don’t Need To Be Tested
The New York Times reports:
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly modified its coronavirus testing guidelines this week to exclude people who do not have symptoms of Covid-19 — even if they have been recently exposed to the virus.
Experts questioned the revision, pointing to the importance of identifying infections in the small window immediately before the onset of symptoms, when many individuals appear to be most contagious.
Models suggest that about half of transmission events can be traced back to individuals still in this so-called pre-symptomatic stage, before they start to feel ill — if they ever feel sick at all.
“This is potentially dangerous,” said Dr. Krutika Kuppalli, an infectious disease physician in Palo Alto, Calif. Restricting testing to only people with obvious symptoms of Covid-19 means “you’re not looking for a lot of people who are potential spreaders of disease,” she added. “I feel like this is going to make things worse.”
CDC says asymptomatic people don’t need testing, draws criticism from experts https://t.co/DsygqX2O3l pic.twitter.com/ncmF9JGi6u
— The Hill (@thehill) August 26, 2020
**This is just another example of Trump putting his political fortunes ahead of the public health. He's forcing an under count of the number of COVID cases so he can mislead the public into thinking things aren't as bad as they are.
KENOSHA, Wis. (AP) — A white, 17-year-old police admirer was arrested Wednesday after two people were shot to death during a third straight night of protests in Kenosha over the police shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake.
Kyle Rittenhouse, of Antioch, Illinois, was taken into custody in Illinois on suspicion of first-degree intentional homicide. Antioch is about 15 miles from Kenosha.
Two people were killed Tuesday night and a third was wounded in an attack apparently carried out by a young white man who was caught on cellphone video opening fire in the middle of the street with a semi-automatic rifle.
“I just killed somebody,” the gunman could be heard saying at one point during the rampage that erupted just before midnight.
In the wake of the killings, Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers authorized the sending of 500 members of the National Guard to Kenosha, doubling the number of troops. The governor's office said he is working with other states to bring in additional National Guard members and law officers. Authorities also announced a 7 p.m. curfew, an hour earlier than the night before.
“A senseless tragedy like this cannot happen again,” the governor, a Democrat, said in a statement. “I again ask those who choose to exercise their First Amendment rights please do so peacefully and safely, as so many did last night. I also ask the individuals who are not there to exercise those rights to please stay home and let local first responders, law enforcement and members of the Wisconsin National Guard do their jobs.”
In Washington, the Justice Department said it is sending in the FBI and federal marshals in response to the unrest.
The dead were identified only as 26-year-old Silver Lake, Wisconsin, resident and a 36-year-old from Kenosha. The wounded person, a 36-year-old from West Allis, Wisconsin, was expected to survive, police said.
“We were all chanting ‘Black lives matter’ at the gas station and then we heard, boom, boom, and I told my friend, `‘That’s not fireworks,’” 19-year-old protester Devin Scott told the Chicago Tribune. “And then this guy with this huge gun runs by us in the middle of the street and people are yelling, ‘He shot someone! He shot someone!’ And everyone is trying to fight the guy, chasing him and then he started shooting again.”
Scott said he cradled a lifeless victim in his arms, and a woman started performing CPR, but “I don’t think he made it.”
46 Texans Poisoned By Drinking Bleach This Month
Dallas’s CBS News affiliate reports:
Following 46 cases of bleach ingestions in the North Texas Poison Center region since the start of August, experts are again warning people that drinking the chemical won’t prevent COVID-19.
The organization pointed to “misleading and inaccurate information circulating online about how to prevent the spread of COVID-19,” for an uptick in poisonings.
The FDA has long warned that drinking chlorine dioxide products can lead to “severe vomiting, severe diarrhea, life-threatening low blood pressure caused by dehydration and acute liver failure.” Bottom line — do not drink bleach, under any circumstance, ever.
Trump Holds Illegal Naturalization Ceremony At RNC
August 26, 2020 Trump Administration, Trump Corruption
The Washington Post reports:
Trump arrived at a lectern set up in the White House’s Great Hall. There, acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf waited, along with five candidates for naturalization: two men and three women, one in a headscarf and another in a traditional Indian sari. The five were presented to Wolf.
“On behalf of everyone here today,” Wolf said at the outset of the event, “I’d like to express my gratitude to you, Mr. President, for hosting this naturalization ceremony here at the White House.”
The Hatch Act broadly bars government officials from using government time or buildings — like the White House — for advancing a political effort. The law has been regularly ignored by members of Trump’s administration, but rarely so ostentatiously as it was in the campaign’s naturalization event.
The New York Times reports:
“Today, America rejoices as we welcome five absolutely incredible new members into our great American family,” he told them in a 10-minute ceremony that had been taped in the afternoon.
It was not the first time Mr. Trump has presided over such a ceremony. But the willingness to use the trappings of presidential power during a campaign convention was a stunning departure from the past, in which prior presidents have avoided seeming to blur the lines between official actions and political activity.
This is un f’n believable. The most anti-immigrant President in history staging a naturalization ceremony in the WH, with military in uniform, FOR A POLITICAL CONVENTION. infuriating.
— Claire McCaskill (@clairecmc) August 26, 2020
Dystopian. A racist xenophobe using a naturalization ceremony and the people’s house as a campaign prop. So sickening.
— Terry McAuliffe (@TerryMcAuliffe) August 26, 2020
The Hatch Act is a law designed to separate politics from public service. Those lines are being erased tonight.
— Valerie Jarrett (@ValerieJarrett) August 26, 2020
@jacobsoboroff notes: There are literally tens if not hundreds of thousands of people who are eligible and awaiting their own naturalization ceremonies and they are being prevented from having them because the Trump admin refuses to hold those ceremonies via zoom.
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 26, 2020
Mike Pompeo Delivers Illegal, Lie-Filled RNC Speech
Fox News reports:
“What stands out to me is that about two or three weeks ago, Donald Trump suggested that he might make his acceptance speech at the White House,” Fox News host Chris Wallace said Tuesday night. “And there was an uproar in Washington. Republican Senate leaders said, ‘That can’t happen. We can’t have that.’ That barrier was completely blown away tonight, for good or for ill.”
“We do need to point out that secretaries of state have never participated in political speeches,” he said. “In fact, it’s a regulation of the State Department that nobody that’s in the State Department can attend a political event, let alone participate in it. The State Department said, ‘Well, he’s operating in his personal capacity.’ But I don’t know what personal capacity a secretary of state has.”
The Insider reports:
Much of what Pompeo said was at odds with reality. He claimed, for example, that “NATO is stronger” because of Trump. But the president has spent the past several years bashing the historic alliance while raising the nerves of US allies in the process, and he’s repeatedly made misleading assertions about how NATO is funded.
At another point, Pompeo said, “In North Korea, the president lowered the temperature and against all odds, got the North Korean leadership to the table.”
But the primary point of Trump sitting down with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was to get the rogue state to denuclearize, which it has not yet done as it continues to engage in aggressive activities that have made US allies in the region uneasy.
The Washington Post reports:
Every U.S. citizen who enters government service agrees to give up some of their rights to engage in politics. The Hatch Act prohibits civil servants from running for partisan office or using their title, office or any sort of government resource while engaging in political activities, and the law imposes even tighter restrictions on those who work on national security matters.
Diplomats, meanwhile, face an added set of restrictions that prohibit them and their families from engaging in any partisan political activity while serving overseas, even in their personal capacities. These transgressions are perhaps unsurprising in an administration so habitually norm-breaking that some White House staffers reportedly view Hatch Act violations as a thing of pride.
BREAKING: Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s decision to speak at the RNC tonight is now under investigation by the House.
— Ayman Mohyeldin (@AymanM)
Choosing Pam Bondi, who took a corrupt bribe from corrupt Trump to not investigate corrupt Trump University, to be tonight's spokesperson to denounce corruption is HILARIOUS.
The way white supremacists see it corruption has nothing to do with financial crimes nor the misuse of positions of power, to them it is entirely a racial term. They will insist that Obama is corrupt by default and Trump the very embodiment of being incorruptible.
"Right, that's why he's ahead in the polls by a likely insurmountable 8 point average lead. More than Hillary or Obama at this point.
well, I hope Biden believes his "lead" is insurmountable
it will be more fun that way
"Obviously the more people see of Trump the less they like him."
that's not really true
one thing Trump has been is visible - people couldn't possibly see more of him
and most people have their opinion of him set
Biden, on the other hand, is remarkably little known for someone who's been around so long
the only two times he really did anything was in he 70s when he led the backlash against using busing to desegregate schools and the 90s when he sponsored a bill that resulted in a generation of young black men being incarcerated
people seem to have forgotten that the last time he ran for President he had to quit the race because he plagiarized a speech
surprised Randy's not taking a few days off after being caught in a couple of blatant lies this week
1. Trump did not advise anyone to "drink bleach or disinfectants"
2. Robert Mueller did not refer Trump to Congress for prosecution
other than a few lies every now and then - like, daily, Randy's a very kind, loving, and MORAL fellow
Both parties have adapted deftly to the virtual format. Democrats invented an amusing roll-call procedure, showing people from each state touting its virtues, and Republicans even improved on it a little.
Democrats did a good job of highlighting Joe Biden’s attractive personal qualities by showing people he’s helped and comforted.
Republicans showed President Trump’s attractive qualities — he actually has some — by showing him interacting with people as he pardoned one reformed bank robber and swore in five new citizens.
The Republicans had the advantage of going second, as the incumbent presidential party traditionally does, and they capitalized on it.
After the Democrats confidently assumed that everyone thinks Trump is a racist and xenophobe, his convention spotlighted former Gov. Nikki Haley, the daughter of Sikh immigrants from Punjab, India, and Sen. Tim Scott, whose family “went from cotton to Congress in one lifetime.”
The message is that America is not permeated with “systemic racism,” as the New York Times’s 1619 Project would have you believe but rather is a land of opportunity.
Even Haley’s and Scott’s South Carolina. And progress is both possible and in fact happening.
Scott holds the seat once held for 35 years by segregationist “Cotton Ed” Smith.
Another contrast: Democrats had their virtual sessions introduced by Hollywood figures, one of whom somehow got the idea that it would be funny to mispronounce the current vice president’s one-syllable surname.
Republicans interspersed their first two sessions with ordinary people from target states who have come to support Trump strongly.
There may be some demographic groups who value the insights of Hollywood figures with multimillion-dollar mansions in Bel Air or Brentwood.
But probably more voters will be swayed by the pro-Trump testimony of lobsterman Joe Lane of Damariscotta, Maine; dairy farmer Cris Peterson of Grantsburg, Wisconsin; and trucker Geno DiFabio of Youngstown, Ohio.
What goes unmentioned is sometimes as important as what’s mentioned.
Viewers of the Democrats’ virtual proceedings heard much less about abortion than viewers of their more conventional conventions, even though it’s an issue that, according to dial groups, helped Democrats in previous presidential and vice presidential debates.
One reason is that Democrats have moved way left on the issue.
Joe Biden has abandoned four decades of opposing government-funded abortions.
And Democratic legislators have delighted in passing laws authorizing abortions in all nine months of pregnancies.
Republicans’ Tuesday speakers included former Planned Parenthood clinic head Abby Johnson who provided “pretty graphic” descriptions of abortion procedures.
The best a squirming Washington Post “fact-checker” could do, as National Review’s Ramesh Ponnuru noted, was to argue that there aren’t that many (actually, several thousand yearly) post-viability abortions.
Left utterly unmentioned by the Democrats were the continued violence and the sharp increases in murders in major cities across the country — in Portland and Seattle, Minneapolis and Washington, Chicago and New York, and in smaller places, like Kenosha, Wisconsin, this week.
They may have hoped that friends in the “mainstream media” (or at least that's the term employed by the famously libeled Covington Catholic teen Nicholas Sandmann) would continue to shield viewers from uncomfortable footage of rioting, assaults, and arson, as it’s been doing.
They may hope that they won’t notice that reports describing “mostly peaceful” demonstrations are standing in front of raging fires or when CNN yanked a chyron from the screen and deleted the adjective “violent” before the noun “protest.”
The broadcast networks and cable also-rans MSNBC and CNN obviously hope that viewers won’t notice horrifying damage that reflects badly on the partly Marxist-led Black Lives Matter movement or the Biden-Harris campaign.
They had some basis for believing that covering up the news would work when, in the immediate aftermath of the death of George Floyd May 24, polls found that most voters supported Black Lives Matter and were sympathetic to its argument that American policing is “systemically racist.”
But current polling, after nearly three months of violence and destruction and rising murder rates shows much less support for depolicing cities large and small.
In 2016, Democrats were smugly confident, until 9:00 p.m. EDT on election night, that demographics would guarantee them victory.
This year, they’ve been confident that Trump’s low job approval, COVID-19, and the lockdown’s economic devastation would do the same, even as Democrats stake out extreme political stances that Bill Clinton in his prime would have shunned.
This week, Trump’s Republicans are having their say.
Signaling its complete disregard for laws, statutes, protocols, and tradition, Trump's Republican Party has spent convention week gleefully violating a long-standing law prohibiting federal employees and property from being used for political purposes, and specifically used to try to sway an election. In defiance of that, 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue has been used as a central prop for the GOP convention.
"In open violation of the Hatch Act, President Trump turned the White House into a convention stage," noted Jonathan Chait in New York. "He even held an immigration ceremony on camera, and had his secretary of State deliver a speech in explicit violation of State Department regulations." This comes after Trump has routinely used his office and taxpayer money for campaign events.
Republicans used to care about the Hatch Act. As then-Congressman David McIntosh (R-IN), insisted when there was a Democrat in the White House, "Very clearly, it is wrong to use government property, government assets for political purposes."
Not anymore. "Nobody outside of the Beltway really cares," claims Trump’s Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, when asked about the Trump administration's obvious disregard in keeping government and politics separate.
Somebody tell Al Gore.
GOPers had a much different response when Democrat Gore was accused of violating the Hatch Act for making campaign fundraising phone calls from his White House office as Vice President. Compared to Trump's pay-for-play corruption of today, Gore's alleged sin seems quaint.
The GOP-led Senate held three months worth's of hearings, and Republicans in the House spent $7.4 million investigating Gore's phone calls.
Is Moscow Mitch going to do the same for Rump's use of the White House as a backdrop for the 2020 RNC?
What do you think?
The GOP is not only a group of liars, they are hypocrites as well.
Homosexuals have no need for abortion.
Neimat Awadelseid had looked forward to the moment she would become a U.S. citizen for years — but she never dreamed her naturalization ceremony would happen at the White House.
Even after she received a call inviting her to the White House for the ceremony, she did not know the president would be there until moments before it began. Nor did she know that it would become a featured segment of the Republican National Convention.
On Tuesday, millions of viewers watched as Awadelseid and four others were sworn in as naturalized Americans by acting Department of Homeland Security chief Chad Wolf as President Trump watched. The moment, which was taped before it was featured in prime time, was perhaps the most powerful moment of the night.
The moment drew an intense backlash from critics who accused the president and the Republican Party of cynically using the carefully curated ceremony to paper over the harsh anti-immigrant policies and rhetoric that have defined his administration over the past four years...
Awadelseid, who is originally from Sudan, said she had a citizenship interview about three weeks ago. It marked the end of a long path. She had applied for citizenship in 2018, she said, but had been in the United States since the early 2000s through a student visa and temporary protected status program. She was able to become a permanent resident earlier this decade, she said, through her brother’s sponsorship...
Critics have pointed out that stories like Awadelseid’s have become increasingly unlikely because of the Trump administration’s immigration policies.
The administration sought to end the temporary protected status program for several countries, including Sudan, in 2018, but was prevented from doing so by a ruling in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
Earlier this year, Trump issued a proclamation that banned citizens of Sudan, along with those of several other African countries, from applying to move to the United States through a diversity visa lottery, citing national security concerns.
The president has also repeatedly derided family-sponsored migration over the years, referred to by some as “chain migration.”
“It is painful, what he did, his policy toward my country. It is very hard because it affects everybody. But I want to stop there. I don’t want to talk about it,” said Awadelseid...
President Trump plans to visit the Trump International Hotel in Washington on Thursday to meet with donors and supporters, according to guidance issued by the White House. The trip is scheduled to occur at midday, hours before his speech on the South Lawn of the White House.
The hotel has been a hub of activity all week for top donors and Trump supporters, with panels and private events ahead of the convention speech.
Some Trump family members, officials and allies have spent time in a private suite there before and after their speeches. Thursday’s event is arranged by Trump Victory, a joint fundraising committee for the Trump campaign and the Republican National Committee, the officials said.
"Is Moscow Mitch going to do the same for Rump's use of the White House as a backdrop for the 2020 RNC?
What do you think?"
everyone who lives outside the beltway thinks this:
there is a pandemic going on
Beijing Biden gave his speech from his residence
why shouldn't Trump give his speech from his residence?
the Hatch Act is likely unconstitutional, especially regarding the President's activities
but even if not, this isn't what Congress had in mind
"Homosexuals have no need for abortion."
true, you must participate in creating your kids' lives before you can kill them
homosexuals have no potential to participate in the creation of life
it's why "homosexual marriage" is an oxymoron!
"the Hatch Act is likely unconstitutional, especially regarding the President's activities"
BS, very stable genius lawyer.
Even if someone suspects a law is unconstitutional people are still expected to comply with it.
Stop and frisk was executed for years before it was declared unconstitutional - the victims of it were still expected to comply with orders from the police. Not complying with it could put them in jail or worse.
If the Rumpster really thinks it's unconstitutional, he has a Supreme Court that Mitch loaded up with lackeys for him to appeal to.
Is it really too much to ask that the president follow the law?
"BS, very stable genius lawyer."
really?
can you tell me how many violations of this law were prosecutes since I was written?
ballpark will do...
"Even if someone suspects a law is unconstitutional people are still expected to comply with it."
are you American or a foreign troll?
this statement is preposterous
we are a nation of rights, not laws
"Stop and frisk was executed for years before it was declared unconstitutional - the victims of it were still expected to comply with orders from the police. Not complying with it could put them in jail or worse."
you may notice that police possess deadly force
it's just prudent to comply with their unconstitutional demands
"If the Rumpster really thinks it's unconstitutional, he has a Supreme Court that Mitch loaded up with lackeys for him to appeal to."
well, the House could impeach but unless they are acting in accord with their constituents and the Constitution, that wouldn't be prudent
"Is it really too much to ask that the president follow the law?"
when the law is unconstitutional, yeah
"can you tell me how many violations of this law were prosecutes since I was written?"
I can't even tell what you were trying to type here.
It's still early, lay off the booze!
"homosexuals have no potential to participate in the creation of life
it's why "homosexual marriage" is an oxymoron!"
The same is true for barren people.
"why shouldn't Trump give his speech from his residence?"
Rump's residence is in FL.
It's the state where Rump and Trophy Wife #3 mail their absentee ballots.
"you may notice that police possess deadly force
it's just prudent to comply with their unconstitutional demands"
Wow, that's disgusting.
"It's prudent to comply with the unconstitutional demands of those who possess deadly force" sounds like something the Nazis told their Jewish citizens.
The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Thursday issued new guidance for coronavirus testing, days after a quiet change sparked protests from the scientific and medical communities.
In a statement, Director Robert Redfield said those who come into contact with confirmed or probable COVID-19 patients could be tested themselves, even if they do not show symptoms of the virus.
“Testing is meant to drive actions and achieve specific public health objectives. Everyone who needs a COVID-19 test, can get a test. Everyone who wants a test does not necessarily need a test; the key is to engage the needed public health community in the decision with the appropriate follow-up action,” Redfield said.
The CDC revised its testing guidance earlier this week, limiting tests to those who show symptoms. That change prompted backlash among public health experts who pointed to the role asymptomatic people play in spreading the virus, and concern that the revision had been dictated by political appointees outside of CDC.
Redfield said the guidelines issued on Monday had been coordinated with the White House coronavirus task force. The new guidance comes as the number of coronavirus tests across the United States has fallen in recent weeks.
But even his Thursday statement falls short of previous guidance, in which the CDC recommended contacts of those infected with the virus be tested specifically because of the threat of asymptomatic or presymptomatic transmission.
After reaching a peak of nearly a million new tests a month ago, the number of tests conducted on a daily basis has declined to fewer than 700,000 over the last four days, according to data maintained by the COVID Tracking Project, an independent group of researchers.
Hurricane Laura tears down Confederate statue that officials voted not to remove
Protesters had asked officials to take down the statue, called The South’s Defenders Monument, but local officials voted 10-4 earlier this month to leave it where it stands outside the Calcasieu Parish Courthouse in Lake Charles.
Hurricane Laura apparently had other ideas. The Category 4 storm left carnage in its wake after making landfall early Thursday morning as one of the strongest storms ever to hit the state, with sustained winds of 150 mph.
When the worst had passed, the monument lay toppled on the grass, surrounded by debris.
The statue was dedicated in 1915 to recognize Confederate soldiers in the area and other Southern towns, the American Press in Lake Charles reported.
Donald Trump four years ago:
“The crime and violence that today afflicts our nation will soon come to an end. Beginning on January 20th, 2017, safety will be restored.”
Jacob Blake handcuffed to hospital bed despite being paralyzed
The father of Jacob Blake, the Black man shot multiple times by a white Wisconsin police officer on Sunday, is outraged over his son being handcuffed to his hospital bed.
29-year-old Blake remains hospitalized with multiple injuries and is paralyzed from the waist down. Doctors do not know if his paralysis will be permanent, theGRIOpreviously reported.
Blake’s father, Jacob Blake Sr., was left “heartbroken” when he visited his son at the Wauwatosa, Wisconsin hospital, and saw he was handcuffed to the bed. When asked why his son had been arrested, he reportedly received no answer.
“This is an insult to injury,” Justin Blake, the uncle of the victim, told CNN on Thursday. “He is paralyzed and can’t walk and they have him cuffed to the bed. Why?”
Gov. Tony Evers appeared to condemn Blake’s treatment, noting his concern about him being handcuffed, the report states.
“I would have no personal understanding why that would be necessary. I can’t imagine why that’s happening and I would hope that we would be able to find a better way to have him get better and recover,” said Evers.
The Blake family attorney, famed civil rights attorney Benjamin Crump, said it would take a “miracle” for Blake to be able to use his legs again.
“The medical diagnosis right now is that he is paralyzed, because those bullets severed his spinal cord,” Crump said at a press conference on Tuesday.
“He will need a miracle to walk again. He is currently in surgery as we speak, to try and save his life. And return to some semblance of the man he once was,” he added.
Former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang shared Thursday that he spoke with Blake Sr. about his son.
“His father actually used the words ‘chains.’ He said my son is chained up,” Yang told CNN.
“When asked what message I could share on his family’s behalf, #JacobBlake Sr. said to me, ‘Tell them my son is a human being,'” Yang tweeted.
Fact-checkers shake their heads at the RNC's 'parade of dishonesty,' 'fire hose of false or misleading' claims
"The first night of the 2020 Republican National Convention was a fire hose of false or misleading claims, mostly drawn from President Trump’s arsenal of falsehoods," The Washington Post fact-checker team reported Monday night, focusing on a modest 19 such claims. The Associated Press concentrated on Trump's "dizzying array of misleading claims about voting fraud and health care," both pre-existing conditions and the COVID-19 pandemic.
"At times," The New York Times reports, "the speakers and prerecorded videos appeared to be describing an alternate reality: one in which the nation was not nearing 180,000 deaths from the coronavirus; in which Mr. Trump had not consistently ignored serious warnings about the disease; in which the president had not spent much of his term appealing openly to xenophobia and racial animus; and in which someone other than Mr. Trump had presided over an economy that began crumbling in the spring."
And the "parade of dishonesty" from the RNC speakers stood "in stark contrast with last week's Democratic convention," CNN's fact-check team wrote. "While CNN also watched and fact-checked the Democrats, those four nights combined didn't have the number of misleading and false claims made on the first night of the Republicans' convention." One member of the CNN team, Daniel Dale, tweeted that the RNC's first night has been "exponentially more dishonest than the entire four nights of the Democratic convention," and "it's important for objective journalists to note how wildly imbalanced the dishonesty is between the current parties."
If you are interested in reading about or second-guessing the truth-squadding of the RNC's first night, read the fact-checks at The Washington Post, AP, CNN, and The New York Times.
A lot of people like to think both parties are the same, but survey after survey shows Democratic politicians are far more honest than Republican politicians.
You can see it here, I'm honest, Wyatt and Regina Hardiman shoot out lies with a firehose.
Four people who attended the portion of the Republican National Convention that was held in Charlotte, North Carolina, earlier this week have tested positive for COVID-19.
Mecklenburg County officials said Friday that two convention attendees and two individuals supporting the event have tested positive so far. The individuals have been told to quarantine and their known contacts have been issued isolation instructions as well.
Mecklenberg County Public Health said additional details would be published later in an “After Action Report” unless a “recognized threat” to public health requires their more urgent release.
RNC attendees and support staff took a total of nearly 800 COVID-19 tests during the Charlotte event, including prior to and immediately after delegates’ arrival.
But photos and video from the event itself, where more then 300 delegates gathered at the Charlotte Convention Center for an in-person roll call on Monday, show attendees largely ignored MCPH’s public health guidelines.
Few of the delegates wore masks as they stood close together, and some shook hands with one another. President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence both attended in person, making surprise speeches.
Mecklenburg Public Health Director Gibbie Harris told the Charlotte Observer that she expressed concern to the RNC on Monday after witnessing delegates’ conduct via the convention livestream.
“I have just shared concern about the lack of mask wearing and social distancing in the room at the RNC Roll Call Meeting,” Harris said.
“I have been assured that they are working hard to address these issues. All attendees agreed to comply with the requirements prior to attending and were informed that these requirements would be enforced.”
The 2020 DNC had better Nielsen ratings for total households on all four nights than the 2020 RNC did.
PRESS ROOM | 08-18-2020
MEDIA ADVISORY: FIRST NIGHT OF 2020 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION DRAWS 19.7 MILLION VIEWERS
PRESS ROOM | 08-19-2020
MEDIA ADVISORY: SECOND NIGHT OF 2020 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION DRAWS 19.2 MILLION VIEWERS
PRESS ROOM | 08-20-2020
MEDIA ADVISORY: THIRD NIGHT OF 2020 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION DRAWS 22.8 MILLION VIEWERS
PRESS ROOM | 08-21-2020
MEDIA ADVISORY: FOURTH NIGHT OF 2020 DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL CONVENTION DRAWS 24.6 MILLION VIEWERS
PRESS ROOM | 08-25-2020
MEDIA ADVISORY: FIRST NIGHT OF 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION DRAWS 17 MILLION VIEWERS
PRESS ROOM | 08-26-2020
MEDIA ADVISORY: SECOND NIGHT OF 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION DRAWS 19.4 MILLION VIEWERS
PRESS ROOM | 08-27-2020
MEDIA ADVISORY: THIRD NIGHT OF 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION DRAWS 17.3 MILLION VIEWERS
PRESS ROOM | 08-28-2020
MEDIA ADVISORY: FOURTH NIGHT OF 2020 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION DRAWS 23.8 MILLION VIEWERS
Poor little Donnie boy. Is he going to go on a twitter rampage against Nielsen now?
The presidential race between Joe Biden and Donald Trump has tightened after this week’s Republican National Convention, according to a new Yahoo New-YouGov poll, with Biden’s lead shrinking to his smallest margin in months.
The convention appears to have boosted perceptions of Trump’s “strength” and convinced a small number of former Biden supporters to move toward the president.
For its latest Yahoo News survey, which was conducted from Aug. 27 to Aug. 28, YouGov recontacted respondents who participated in Yahoo News-YouGov poll one month earlier to gauge how the RNC and other events have affected their views.
That shift is mostly the result of registered voters switching from Biden to Trump and a smaller number who previously said they would not vote now saying they will vote for Trump.
These small changes were enough to transform a big Biden lead into a tight race.
Since the Democracy Institute poll in August - a crucial month which saw the Democrat and Republican conventions - the President has gained points in the swing states while his opponent has lost points.
Significantly, the latest poll shows that 21 percent were positively influenced to vote Trump after the Republican convention but a negligible eight percent were inspired to vote Biden after the Democrat convention.
Trump is set to win in Minnesota 48 to 45, Florida 47 to 44 and New Hampshire, where he just held a major rally, 47 to 43.
It also appears clear that US voters have already made up their minds with a mere 3 percent of Trump voters and 9 percent of Biden supporters suggesting they could have a change of heart on polling day on November 3.
Patrick Basham, the director of the Democracy Institute, said that the polls confirm that the Democrats completely misread the effect of the Black Lives Matter protests and the desire of Americans to restore law and order in the wake of riots and anarchic protests.
He said: “In any political campaign, there’s a moment that tells you which way the electoral wind is blowing. In this year’s American presidential campaign, that moment arrived on Wednesday.
"Joe Biden restated his support for peaceful protests but, crucially, condemned the violence that has come to dominate the months-long nationwide protest movement.
According to the poll President Trump has 48 percent of the popular support over former Vice President Biden’s 45 percent
"When a candidate changes his tune three quarters of the way through a race, it is not because he knows he holds a winning hand. He does so because the electoral ground is shifting beneath his feet.
"The Biden campaign made this move for one simple reason. Its own internal polling numbers revealed what Democracy Institute/Sunday Express polls have shown for the past three months: the overwhelming majority of Americans, including Black voters, are opposed to the organised anarchy – looting, vandalism, mayhem, and murdering of innocent people – explicitly and implicitly cheered on by a considerable cabal of Democratic politicians, while an even large number simply turned a blind eye.”
According to the poll law and order is clearly the top political issue with 37 percent putting it as the most important followed by 27 percent for the economy.
According to the poll 74 percent favour of “all lives matter” over 26 percent “black lives matter an increase in the gap by two percent since August showing that US voters are tired of the protests.
Almost two thirds of them think that Biden has not been tough enough in his language condemning the violence.
Almost eight in ten voters disapprove of statues being pulled down and 26 percent of voters say the latest violence in Wisconsin makes them more likely to vote Trump compared to 10 percent Biden.
The decision by Joe Biden to make Kamala Harris, a mixed race woman senator, his running mate has had minimal impact with 11 percent more likely to support him and 12 percent less likely.
You can almost smell the sweat. The Democrats and their media handmaidens are starting to panic about Joe Biden’s prospects.
The proof comes in their efforts to wish away the wave of crime and violence engulfing many American cities. Their argument can be boiled down to two false claims. First, it’s President Trump’s fault. Second, it’s not that big of a wave.
The first is patently absurd on its face. Democratic mayors running nearly all those cities are pulling back cops and rejecting federal help. The blood is on their hands.
The second claim is outrageously cold-hearted. It means the left sees hundreds of murders, mostly of black men, and the wholesale destruction of property as small prices to pay for putting Biden in the White House.
And so they whistle as they pass the graveyards.
The GOP convention was surprisingly good in many ways, but especially effective in exploiting the huge mistake Dems made at their own virtual gathering. By failing to mention, much less condemn, the riots and arson growing out of the George Floyd protests and the subsequent surge in violent crimes, Biden practically invited Republicans to paint him as soft on crime and unwilling to stand up against the thugs.
Which is exactly what they did. Night after night, the GOP hammered Biden for ignoring the carnage. As Vice President Mike Pence put it, “you won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America.”
The bluntness of the language, combined with the daily images of burning buildings and armed gangs striking fear into law-abiding citizens, drew a sharp contrast between the candidates.
Still, it was only when the polls started picking up signs that Trump was cutting into Biden’s lead that the Dems decided they had to respond.
Biden started addressing the violence in basement interviews, albeit in sanitized ways that did not alarm Black Lives Matter and other far leftists backing him. He called the destruction “needless” and said it wouldn’t solve anything.
He was timid out of fear; he would tear apart the fragile coalition he built if he called for a police crackdown. After all, much of his party, including the mayors in the burning cities, have embraced the anti-police activists.
How would it look if their presidential nominee suddenly came out in favor of law and order?
Predictably, the anti-Trump media are also rushing to offer Biden and the Dems other escape hatches. The most obvious is the silly claim that the protests are “mostly peaceful,” even as TV reporters stand in front of burning buildings.
The bright orange glow at night is an irresistible backdrop for their stories, even as it contradicts what they are saying. They look and sound foolish, but politics, not journalism, is the life they’ve chosen.
Leave it to The New York Times to go the extra mile in distorting reality. The Gray Lady took its funhouse mirror on a survey of the crime scene and discovered that the whole Trump argument is much ado about very little.
In fact, Saturday’s edition should be put in a museum as Exhibit A of how a once-great newspaper has become a partisan propaganda sheet. Among the usual lineup of page-after-page of anti-Trump editorials masquerading as news stories, two stood out for their mendacity.
A laughably biased story on the campaign dynamics called the president’s handling of the coronavirus the most important issue and reduced crime to a “wedge” issue, meaning it is divisive without being significant. No pollster told them that; it’s just the reporters’ convenient opinion.
On the facing page, a whole article was devoted to downplaying the bloodletting. The headline captured the reporter’s convenient conclusion: “Apocalyptic Scenes in City Streets? Actually, Urban Crime is Still at Historic Lows.”
Sure, murder is up 35 percent over last year and there are 87 percent more shootings in New York. But, declared the Times, the reasons are “complex.”
The reporter should try selling that sophistry to the grieving families of the additional 85 dead men and women, nearly all of them nonwhite, who comprise that 35 percent increase in Gotham’s murders.
Or he could go to Chicago, where murders were up 22 percent through June, or New Orleans, where they’re up 44 percent and say it’s all just “complex.”
Add in the staggering increase elsewhere and the result is that hundreds and hundreds of additional murders have taken place this year — and we’re still in August.
Ah, but hold on, the Times argues. These numbers sound so dramatic because, overall, “crime remains at a generational low.” So the dead are dead but really, have some perspective.
How comforting. We’re supposed to be grateful that we’re not yet living in a repeat of the ultra-bloody 1970s, ’80s and ’90s, which marked the high-water mark for murder.
The AP, naturally, followed a similar argument, insisting that despite Trump’s attacks on Biden, “The reality on the ground is much more nuanced.”
By that standard, the 180,000 deaths from COVID are not that big of a deal because 330 million Americans didn’t die.
What the media won’t say is as revealing as what they do say. It was policing — broken-windows policing — that turned the murder tide, first in New York under Rudy Giuliani and then nationally. But to mention that history, the Times and AP would have to acknowledge that handcuffing the cops in recent years — a policy they both support relentlessly — is contributing to the comeback of violence.
So instead, they push the heartless idea that it could be worse and that Trump is wrong to make a big deal out of it.
Yes, crime could be worse and it will be worse as long as left-wing journalists and left-wing politicians make dumb excuses and peddle nonsense instead of confronting the horrific bloodletting.
The left allegedly cares about society’s victims, but what it really cares about is defeating Trump. Everything else — and everyone else — are expendable.
Filmmaker Michael Moore warned Democrats that President Trump appears to have momentum behind his reelection campaign in key battleground states, with the progressive activist saying enthusiasm for Trump is "OFF THE CHARTS" compared with Democratic nominee Joe Biden.
Moore pointed to polling in battleground states such as Minnesota and Michigan in making the case that Trump was running ahead of Biden in key areas, setting himself up for another upset in November.
"Are you ready for a Trump victory? Are you mentally prepared to be outsmarted by Trump again? Do you find comfort in your certainty that there is no way Trump can win? Are you content with the trust you’ve placed in the DNC [Democratic National Committee] to pull this off?" Moore wrote in a Facebook post on Friday.
"I’m warning you almost 10 weeks in advance. The enthusiasm level for the 60 million in Trump’s base is OFF THE CHARTS! For Joe, not so much," he added. "Don’t leave it to the Democrats to get rid of Trump. YOU have to get rid of Trump. WE have to wake up every day for the next 67 days and make sure each of us are going to get a hundred people out to vote. ACT NOW!"
The Republicans have now forced the Democrats to change course and tactics, shed their narcissistic complacency, and recognize that they are in the fight of their lives.
When the history of this astonishing political year is written, there will be amazement that the Democrats ever imagined that they could preserve the entire election as a referendum on Trump based on the question of whether the population is content, and leave the president floundering in blustery self-justification while their nominee fielded soft pre-agreed questions from his home.
The Democratic National Convention was essentially centered in a Wilmington catacomb and featured an unexciting procession of former officeholders, incanting that Donald Trump had completely failed in the coronavirus crisis and was personally responsible for 180,000 unnecessary deaths and massive unemployment. The nominees socially distanced from each other and the party heaved a sigh of relief when their candidate limped monotonously through a teleprompter acceptance speech. The Obamas, the Clintons, and the nominees all repeated variations of the theme that it was self-evident that the incumbent president was a corrupt and incompetent reactionary, and they adjourned to wave to a parking lot and serenely await the voters’ confirmation of their victory in November.
This will be exposed as the most mistakenly overconfident launch of a major party campaign for the White House since the renomination of Governor Thomas Dewey of New York against President Harry Truman in 1948. The combination of the two sequential conventions and the performance of the Democratic media in covering them will be a shattering blow to the Democratic strategists who retrieved Joe Biden and Kamala Harris from the prenomination ash heap and put them forward as a respectable camouflage for the party’s outright Marxist program. Whatever possessed them to imagine that they could avoid any comment on the most widespread and most destructive urban rioting in America in over 50 years, could lay the public health crisis entirely upon the president, could maintain their advocacy of an immigration policy that would ultimately result in every poverty-stricken person in the world moving to the United States, while ignoring this administration’s reduction of illegal immigration by 90 percent; all of this and many other issues will be as much a matter of interest to psychiatrists as to historians.
Donald Trump demonstrated again his talents as a showman; he actually turned a virtual convention to advantage: an extraordinarily interesting group of speakers succeeded each other with brief and highly informative scripts. No time was wasted with windy ex officio speeches, floor demonstrations, and public tumult, as occurs in regular conventions. Most of the speakers told interesting and sometimes heartrending stories about themselves and each was targeted precisely at a block of voters.
Victims of foreign terrorists and mob violence made their points with great eloquence. A female surgeon who had also been a full colonel in the United States Army, and was now a nun, spoke (in her habit) to the nearly half of Americans who are pro-life. Farmers, small businessmen, sports promoters, manufacturers, a fisherman, police chiefs, all unpretentious and persuasive advocates of their particular interests, alternated with the most attractive coming politicians in the Republican Party. Women and representatives of minority groups together vastly outnumbered white males, who were chiefly represented by members of the articulate and highly presentable Trump family.
This is a choice between a quavering geriatric mediocrity riding a mad tiger and an unabashed impresario who, like him or not, is a great star.
No one from the Bush administrations or the failed McCain and Romney campaigns was in evidence and were not missed. In the ragged procession of Democratic convention speakers, none was more pitiful than the second runner-up to the Republican nomination for years ago, former Ohio Governor John Kasich. In American politics, traitors to their party have a brief afterlife as useful idiots and then vanish.
The Republicans made the most powerful pitch in their party’s history to women, African-Americans, and Latinos. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina and Kentucky Attorney General David Cameron led a long succession of outstanding African American speakers who recounted the positive initiatives that the Trump Administration has taken for their community, especially economic incentives, and penal reform.
Where the Democratic speakers falsely stated that America’s COVID-19 performance was the worst of any country in the world, the Republican response from the president and many others naturally dwelt on the shambles of public health emergency response bequeathed to them, on Biden’s noisy denunciation of the closing of direct air travel from China and then Europe, and the recitation of this administration’s success in producing everything necessary to combat the virus, the enormous expansion, and facilitation of testing, and the acceleration of the pursuit of a vaccine. Biden made a catastrophic error in promising to shut down the country if the coronavirus could not be exterminated, and he will not be allowed to forget it. And the Republicans hung the urban rioting and corrupt Democratic municipal misgovernment around Biden’s neck like a putrid albatross.
After Melania Trump’s tour de force on Tuesday night, the Democratic networks were reduced to speculating that there was a rift between the conciliatory Mrs. Trump and her bombastic husband. After the president’s somewhat overlong (70 minutes) closing on Thursday night, the same desperately predictable and rabidly biased commentators complained that the president’s audience on the White House lawn were not masked social distancers.
It was indicative of the dilapidation of Democratic confidence that their nominees went before television cameras and minimal numbers of viewers on Thursday afternoon, trying to preempt what they had finally realized would be a heavy blow from the president on Thursday evening. Biden attacked urban violence directly and let it be known that he would campaign in some of the so-called battleground states.
But the Democratic National Committee issued an unimaginably fatuous complaint as the Republicans closed with one of the greatest fireworks displays in American history over the Washington Monument that the absence of precautions against COVID-19 for the president’s speech was illustrative of his “complete corruption.” Their campaign of terror about the pandemic has failed with Biden’s quasi-promise to shut down the country again. They will pay for their ambiguity about urban violence and their encouragement of defunding of police forces. Their cleverest and most egregious strategist, David Axelrod, whined that the Republicans were verging on racism by upholding the police (though most newsworthy police chiefs are black).
The Democratic convention was full of gloom and national self-criticism and nominated relatively unfrightening figureheads and the Republican convention exposed this as scaffolding for a giant pustule of policy extremism, and countered with a comprehensive and optimistic program. “Orange Man Bad” won’t do it; this is a choice between a quavering geriatric mediocrity riding a mad tiger and an unabashed impresario who, like him or not, is a great star. Trump exaggerates when he says this is the most important election in American history and he has had the most productive first term of any president in American history. Without the election of Lincoln in 1860 the country would have broken up, and without the reelection of Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1940 Britain and Canada would have had to make peace with Germany and leave Hitler in control of most of Europe.
Trump has had the fourth most successful first term in history, after Lincoln, FDR, and Richard Nixon. And barring another providential catastrophe to favor the Democrats on the scale of the coronavirus, this president will be reelected, and he will finally enjoy a honeymoon and be the only chief executive in U.S. history whose second term was more successful than his first
Republicans must prevent President Donald Trump’s reelection and vote for former Vice President Joe Biden.
Trump's immoral character, incompetence, and mental instability has harmed our nation in ways too numerous to detail here. We’ll highlight some.
Trump's incompetence in the face of a pandemic has contributed to tens of thousands of deaths. He treated the coronavirus as a campaign crisis and dithered away ten weeks that could've been used to slow the spread of the disease. He still hems and haws, downplaying the threat and the ongoing bungling of the government’s response, and pushing for unsafe behavior. As of this writing, at least 1.5 million Americans have the virus and more than 91,000 have died from it. COVID now leads all other causes of death in the United States. The economy is in tatters, and more than 36 million people have become jobless this spring.
COVID-19 isn't Trump's fault, but his ineptitude expanded the lethality of the virus and the economic devastation beyond what it would have been with even a minimally qualified leader.
Trump’s race-baiting has energized white supremacist movements in the United States. “Fine people” marched alongside the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville in August 2017. We saw these same types of low travelers proudly waving their Confederate flags and assault rifles, along with their Trump merchandise, at the Capitol in Lansing twice during the past month. We can expect to see them in Lansing again this week – and next.
Trump's xenophobia separated kids from their families and effectively shut down the refugee program that had aided many fleeing religious and political persecution. Trump intentionally pursued these cruel policies to deter immigration. At least seven children died in border patrol detention in a single year as a result of this policy.
Trump's witlessness makes him easily duped by our geopolitical foes. Putin has expanded his influence in Ukraine and Syria, thanks in part to Trump. Kim Jong-un's pursuit of nuclear missiles continues while Trump claims, "he's a man of his word."
Trump's narcissism leads him to equate his desires with the national interest. He uses presidential authority for personal gain rather than the needs of the U.S.
He tried to extort the president of Ukraine to make a public statement to hurt Biden. A whistleblower foiled that attempt with a complaint, leading to his impeachment. On April 3, he fired Michael Atkinson, the intelligence community inspector general who delivered the whistleblower complaint to Congress. Other inspectors general have been fired since. Plus, Attorney General Bill Barr has indicated a desire to prosecute Trump's perceived enemies in the intelligence community. Given the willingness of Senate Republicans to protect him, Trump's use of government power to shield himself from oversight and target political foes will undoubtedly continue. If given a second term, Trump's authoritarian impulses would find full fruition.
We at the Lincoln Project are conservatives and have been leaders in the Republican Party for decades. As such, Joe Biden would typically not be our first choice.
There will be many battles between the Trumpists and actual conservatives in the Republican Party in the years ahead. The Lincoln Project looks forward to these fights. But first, Trump must be defeated at the ballot box. Like chemo for cancer cells, this is a painful but necessary step toward recovery for both conservatism and the GOP.
Our call, however, is not primarily about the future of conservatives and Republicans, but a much higher, more critical mission: the future of our great country.
A Joe Biden presidency would steady our path, restore our equilibrium, and stabilize our relations around the world. For the Lincoln Project, that means we would work with him on areas of common ground, oppose him where we disagree, and continue to fight for what is best for America. But before we can even look that far ahead, we must deal with the immediate threat of the mad king.
Vice President Joe Biden will not be perfect. Still, we’ll sleep better at night, without worrying about caged kids, mobilized neo-Nazis, corrupted justice, empowered dictators, and feeble crisis management. We will undoubtedly sleep better than Donald Trump does most nights as he rage tweets about The Lincoln Project, and others, in the wee hours of the mornings. As former Republican leaders who care about our nation above our party, we are voting for Joe Biden and encourage our fellow Republicans to do the same.
Jennifer Horn is co-founder of the Lincoln Project and the former Chairman of the NH Republican Party. Jeff Timmer is and advisor to the Lincoln Project, the former Executive Director of the Michigan Republican Party, and has spent 30 years getting Republicans elected.
Four and a half years ago I considered myself a Republican, but then Donald Trump became the Republican nominee for president. Once his nomination was secured and it was clear the GOP would welcome his rhetoric with open arms, the party as I knew it was long gone.
This is the first year that I watched the Democratic National Convention without a Republican lens and found myself agreeing with the issues, speakers and most of all the positive rhetoric. The Democrats spoke of love and family, showing just how personal this election is for so many. Despite the doom and gloom that surrounds us, somehow the DNC was able to showcase the best of America and convey that the Joe Biden-Kamala Harris ticket is fighting to not only restore America but to make her more equal and just for all.
In 2008, when I voted in my first presidential election, it was for Sen. John McCain and Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin. If you had told me that eight years later I would leave the Republican Party and that 12 years later I would be voting for Biden and Harris, I would have thought you were crazy. But in every life, there comes a time for important decisions and principled stands. Disowning the GOP and being one of the first to condemn Trump and his rhetoric is one of the proudest moments of my life.
My first vote was for McCain-Palin
It certainly wasn’t easy and the backlash was awful, but four years later I know I did the right thing. While many public Never Trumpers went on to support the president, I was steadfast and remain so today. I believe that the Republican Party has truly lost its way and that it is on the wrong side of history. What’s more, the Democrats have welcomed me and other former Republicans with open arms and have shown truly what a big tent party they can be.
The past four years have been full of reckless policy, hateful rhetoric, authoritarian decision-making, lack of leadership, nepotism and blunder after blunder. Think about all that has happened since 2016: the #MeToo movement, the Brett Kavanaugh nomination, the coronavirus pandemic, the impeachment investigation, an economic recession, the lack of decorum, and the rise of the #BlackLivesMatter movement as a result of police brutality and racial tensions in our country.
Trump conned his supporters into believing he would “Make America Great Again,” but all he did was make America the worst and weakest it has ever been and expose a dark and dangerous underbelly of our country, full of hate for those of different colors, creeds and genders. His main mission was to paint a dark picture of “us vs. them” and, unfortunately, he has succeeded.
But, after a week of watching virtual convention speeches, I couldn’t be more hopeful that on Election Day, America will do the right thing and vote like our lives depend on it. I recognized just how many of my views of the Democratic Party were shaped by the talking points of the GOP and just how wrong that was. Over the past four years, my eyes have been opened and my views forever changed. I have come to realize that all along, I aligned more with the moderate wing of the Democratic Party.
I used to have some friends who joked that I was a closet Democrat or a bleeding heart liberal because I did so much community service and volunteer work, as though service to others was a bad thing. Well, I guess they were right — deep down, the Democratic Party has always aligned more with my values; it just took me a while to get there.
Decorum and professionalism
That the Democrats chose to highlight systemic racism and domestic violence at their convention shows how committed they are to fighting injustice and making America more beautiful by embracing its diversity. The telling contrast this week will be the Republican National Convention showcasing the party's white male privilege while touting the greatness of America — without a nod to the cultural shift taking place in our country.
In the America of President Donald Trump and Vice President Mike Pence, women are photo ops and political props as they are continuously degraded and objectified and white privilege is glorified. In the America of Biden and Harris, women will have real seats at the table, and they will include women of color. Our country must value different voices and the perspective they bring, and the Biden-Harris ticket will do just that. What’s more, it will bring decorum and professionalism to the Oval Office — something that has been missing since Trump arrived. It’s high time to rid the White House of sexist and racist rot.
Outside of Alabama Sen. Doug Jones in 2018, this is the first time I’ve donated to a Democratic candidate. Most important, this November, I am proud to be casting my ballot for a Democratic presidential ticket for the first time.
In many ways 2020 has been a nightmare of a year, but in November we have a chance to wake up from the nightmare and voters have the chance to restore an American dream rooted in justice and equality for all.
Independent Ashley Pratte, a former Republican, is a communications strategist and a board member of Republican Women for Progress. Previously she was director of media relations and a consultant for Better for America.
"Trump's incompetence in the face of a pandemic has contributed to tens of thousands of deaths."
that's untrue
"He treated the coronavirus as a campaign crisis and dithered away ten weeks that could've been used to slow the spread of the disease."
he appointed experts and took their recommendations
no Democrats, especially Biden, who opposed closing borders, had better ideas
indeed, regions run by Democrats suffered the worse in those days, and spread the virus to the rest of the country
if you took away the NYC and Boston metropolitan areas, America did very well
"He still hems and haws, downplaying the threat and the ongoing bungling of the government’s response, and pushing for unsafe behavior."
it's not he who encouraged hundreds of thousands to huddle together in the streets of America
prior to that, America was wearing its masks and physically distancing
after that, the virus began surging because young people saw through the hypocrisy of local Dem officials, who were arresting people going to their grandmothers' funerals but sitting back watching thugs smash windows, incinerate cars, and destroy public monuments
"As of this writing, at least 1.5 million Americans have the virus and more than 91,000 have died from it. COVID now leads all other causes of death in the United States."
actually, as of this writing, the overall death rate from all causes is close to the average prior to COVID
"The economy is in tatters, and more than 36 million people have become jobless this spring."
yes, because Dems insist on locking everything down instead of seeking safe ways to reopen
Dems own the lockdowns
"COVID-19 isn't Trump's fault,"
no, he isn't
"but his ineptitude expanded the lethality of the virus and the economic devastation beyond what it would have been with even a minimally qualified leader."
the death would be significantly higher now under Biden
he would have made the same mistakes nationally that Cuomo made locally
"Trump’s race-baiting has energized white supremacist movements in the United States. “Fine people” marched alongside the neo-Nazis in Charlottesville in August 2017. We saw these same types of low travelers proudly waving their Confederate flags and assault rifles, along with their Trump merchandise, at the Capitol in Lansing twice during the past month. We can expect to see them in Lansing again this week – and next."
the claim that Trump said white supremacists were "fine people" is a lie just like when Randy last week said that Trump told people to drink bleach
if the entire statement from Trump is read, he specifically said he wasn't referring to white supremacists
the rally is Charlottesville was originally about whether to remove Confederate statues
Trump was saying there are good people on both sides of that debate
the truth is, black people are starting to realize how full of crap Dems are
at this crucial time, empowering them will result in advancing their cause
empowerment comes from employment opportunities, school choice, and the justice reforms that Trump pushed through, eliminating the Biden sponsored crime bill that sent a generation of young blacks to jail
the scary thing right now is we have a Marxist organization, deceptively called "Black Lives Matter" trying to incite a race war in order to install a Communist dictatorship in America
when Trump wins in November, this group may turn up the throttle on the violent protest currently engulfing America;s cities
"Trump's narcissism leads him to equate his desires with the national interest. He uses presidential authority for personal gain rather than the needs of the U.S."
can you give us an example?
"Attorney General Bill Barr has indicated a desire to prosecute Trump's perceived enemies in the intelligence community."
there is no "perceived" about it
these people lied in court and Congress to try to overturn the results of a fair democratic election
they will pay for their crimes
Donald Trump has incited racist fears since he came down the gold escalator in 2015 to announce his presidential campaign. He had peaceful protesters gassed and deployed camouflaged troops to Portland, Ore., to grab protesters off the street without probable cause. He has used pictures of mayhem and violence (either from scenes playing out under his own administration or from foreign events) to instill fear in White Americans. He vowed to keep suburbs (read: White suburbs) safe from integrated housing (read: Black people). He encouraged police not to be “too nice” in handling suspects. He denies systemic racism and instead paints all protesters as anarchists, socialists and violent extremists. He has refused to condemn police officers who kill unarmed Black men and women or White armed groups engaged in violence. He invited to the Republican National Convention a couple charged with a felony for brandishing weapons at Black Lives Matter marchers. President Trump’s senior adviser Kellyanne Conway confesses the more violence in the streets, the better for him.
This phenomenon — reveling in violence from racial divisions they stoke — is part of the white supremacist playbook, specifically the phenomenon known as “accelerationism.” The Brookings Institution reports:
"Some white supremacists already see the riots and broader polarization as vindication of this idea, and law enforcement and civil society activists concerned about the growth of extremism should watch to see if this idea takes further hold within white supremacist groups and organizations in the coming weeks and months.
Accelerationism is the idea that white supremacists should try to increase civil disorder — accelerate it — in order to foster polarization that will tear apart the current political order. … Accelerationists hope to set off a series of chain reactions, with violence fomenting violence, and in the ensuing cycle more and more people join the fray. When confronted with extremes, so the theory goes, those in the middle will be forced off the fence and go to the side of the white supremacists."
Trump amplifies White fears. Brookings explains: “His efforts to claim that the legitimate protesters are all Antifa, blame ‘liberal Governors and Mayors’ for the unrest, and declare that ‘when the looting starts, the shooting starts’ all exacerbate tensions. Such statements are likely to provoke strong and divergent reactions from across the political spectrum rather than bring Americans together in outrage over George Floyd’s murder and the need to reject violence in favor of genuine reform.”
Republican elected officials feel comfortable reverting to the Southern Strategy, portraying themselves as the only thing standing between White people and violent Black people. It is a tune they have been singing since 1968...
...Naturally then, the news media is holding Trump accountable for violence, insisting that he condemn police excesses and … no, that is not happening. Instead, they amplify Trump’s demand that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden do something about the violence. Biden’s weak-kneed supporters (playing into Trump’s hands) blame Biden for not denouncing violence — which Biden has repeatedly done. That in turn generates a spate of “Democrats worried violence hurts Biden” articles. The media focus on the same few incidents of violence drowns out reports (mostly in print, rarely on TV news) explaining White instigators’ role in these events. (When the role of White provocateurs does make the news, there is rarely video to accompany the brief reference to White agitators.) And you wonder how Trump gets away with rabid race-baiting?
A few Democrats have figured out what is going on. Appearing on CNN, House Intelligence Committee Chairman Rep. Adam B. Schiff (D-Calif.) observed, “They believe the violence is helpful to them. And the president is only motivated by one thing: ‘What is in it for him?’ He sees this violence — and his ability to agitate more of it — as useful to his campaign.” He added, “What it does to the country, the loss of life, he doesn’t care.”
Biden is now planning to travel on Monday (not clear where he will go) to — again — denounce the violence. But he should also go on offense. Trump incites violence. Trump encourages vigilantism. Trump refuses to acknowledge that slogans such as Blue Lives Matter can encourage vigilantes. (The White suspect who allegedly killed two people in Kenosha, Wis., apparently attended a Trump rally and brandished the Blue Lives Matter slogan.) Biden should demand Trump denounce shootings of unarmed Black men, stop Republican obstruction to police reform, cease veneration of symbols of white supremacy such as the Confederate flag and decry White armed groups.
Democrats will not win by cowering in fear that Trump will blame them for the violence he provoked. They win by making the case that Trump has made America more violent and increased racial tension for his own political benefit.
I don’t think a lot of Americans understand how fragile democracy is. One of the early signs of a troubled democracy is when people decide that they’re no longer going to address their political differences at the ballot box — or in elected legislatures or in Congress — but they’re going to do it on the street, and they’re going to do it with guns. Police officers, district attorneys, leaders in law enforcement here and across the country have to make it unambiguously clear to anyone that it is not their job — it is the role of law enforcement — to defend property. Militia groups are not hearing that message from enough leadership in law enforcement. And this takes us down a very, very dangerous path.
"America is a democracy. We must work together to keep it and build it back better"
that's a great idea
OK, so your part is to burn buildings, tear down statues, and shoot people who don't agree with you
and the role of big city police is to watch and keep their mouths shut
sounds like a plan!
let's give that plan a name:
the Biden Doctrine
https://nypost.com/2020/08/30/blm-activists-celebrated-as-trump-supporter-killed-devine/
"if the entire statement from Trump is read, he specifically said he wasn't referring to white supremacists"
Yes, we know that.
The problem is that the whole Unite the Right Rally was originated, organized, and attended by White Supremacists. That was made pretty clear by the long lines of people holding burning tiki-lamps and yelling "Jews will not replace us" the night before.
So on one side you had people protesting Confederate statues.
On the other side you had a bunch of White Supremacists.
Rump said there were "very fine people on both sides."
It totally undermined his obligatory condemnation of White Supremacists earlier in the statement. When you condemn a group in one breath and then call them "very fine people" in the next, it means you really didn't condemn them in the first place.
How is that so difficult to understand?
The Unite the Right rally[4] was a white supremacist and neo-Nazi[5][6][7][8] rally that took place in Charlottesville, Virginia, from August 11 to 12, 2017.[9][10] Protesters were members of the far-right and included self-identified members of the alt-right,[11] neo-Confederates,[12] neo-fascists,[13] white nationalists,[14] neo-Nazis,[15] Klansmen,[16] and various right-wing militias.[17] The marchers chanted racist and antisemitic slogans and carried weapons, Nazi and neo-Nazi symbols, the Valknut, Confederate battle flags, Deus Vult crosses, flags, and other symbols of various past and present anti-Muslim and antisemitic groups.[8][9][18][19][20][21][22] The organizers' stated goals included unifying the American white nationalist movement[11] and opposing the proposed removal of the statue of General Robert E. Lee from Charlottesville's former Lee Park.[21][23]
The rally occurred amidst controversy generated by the removal of Confederate monuments by local governments following the Charleston church shooting in 2015, in which a white supremacist shot and killed nine black members, including the minister (a state senator), and wounded others.[7] The event turned violent after protesters clashed with counter-protesters, resulting in more than 30 injured.[24][25]
A masked, umbrella-wielding man accused of helping incite riots and looting in the aftermath of George Floyd's police-involved death has been identified as a member of a white supremacist group that aimed to stir racial tensions amid largely peaceful Black Lives Matter protests, according to police.
The 32-year-old, dubbed "Umbrella Man," was captured in a viral video back in May wearing a black hooded outfit and a black gas mask as he smashed store windows with a sledgehammer and encouraged people to steal, according to a search warrant affidavit filed in court this week.
His actions quickly led to the first of several arson fires that police say transformed peaceful protests into local danger zones, the affidavit said. He's also accused of spray painting the words "free s--- for everyone zone" on the doors of an AutoZone before he allegedly smashed in the windows. The store was broken into and set on fire shortly after, the affidavit said.
"This was the first fire that set off a string of fires and looting throughout the precinct and the rest of the city," Erika Christensen, a Minneapolis Police Department arson investigator, wrote in a search warrant affidavit filed in court this week. "Until the actions of ... 'Umbrella Man,' the protests had been relatively peaceful."
"The actions of this person created an atmosphere of hostility and tension. Your affiant believes that this individual's sole aim was to incite violence," she added.
Investigators said the suspect is associated with the Aryan Cowboys, which the warrant describes as a "known prison gang out of Minnesota and Kentucky." The Anti-Defamation League lists the Aryan Cowboys as a white supremacist prison and street gang, although the group's Facebook page claims it doesn't care "about a person's color."
Christensen, the arson investigator, said police identified the suspect after an emailed tip last week. The tipster described the man as someone who "wanted to sow discord and racial unrest by breaking out the windows and writing what he did on the double red doors."
Police did not reveal exactly how they corroborated the tip, but they said the man also was present during "an incident in Stillwater Minnesota where a Muslim woman was racially harassed by a group of motorcycle club members wearing Aryan Cowboy leather vests."
Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey warned residents of the possibility that white supremacists could be trying take advantage of increased racial tensions.
"In the last few days, both our city and state law enforcement capacities have been overwhelmed by simple math -- an overwhelming ratio of rioters that even our unified effort has been unable to push back," Frey tweeted on May 30 as the state deployed the National Guard to help calm the streets. "We are now confronting white supremacists, members of organized crime, out of state instigators, and possibly even foreign actors [seeking] to destroy and destabilize our city and our region."
Floyd's death ignited waves of protests throughout Minnesota, the U.S. and eventually the world as cellphone video captured the 46-year-old Black man gasping his last breaths as a white Minneapolis police officer pinned his neck to the ground with his knee.
The four Minneapolis Police Department officers involved in the incident all were fired, arrested and charged within a week amid protests and calls from anti-police brutality advocates.
They all have pled not guilty.
Over the weekend protests across the country became violent as outside agitators and federal officers escalated violence against otherwise peaceful Black Lives Matter protests.
This included protests in Richmond, Virginia, where peaceful demonstrations on Saturday and Sunday night turned violent following infiltration of the protests by white supremacists, according to local officials.
“There were white supremacists marching under the banner of Black Lives Matter, attempting to undermine an otherwise overwhelmingly peaceful movement towards social justice,” said Mayor Levar Stoney during a Sunday news conference.
Police are now investigating incidents that took place over the weekend, causing property damage and a city dump truck to be set on fire. Police Chief Gerald M. Smith told reporters that fliers promoting the rallies and people arrested over the weekend came from outside of Richmond.
“We have identified some individuals who have been seen with the Boogaloo boys and some Antifa groups around the area,” Smith said on Sunday. “The majority of those individuals who were there last night were caucasian.”
The Boogaloo boys, who were photographed attending the Richmond protests, are a group of anti-government right-wing extremists who have taken advantage of social justice activism to cause chaos. A member of the group, which promotes cop-killing rhetoric, is currently facing murder charges for the death of two law enforcement officers in June during Black Lives Matter rallies in California.
Richmond police arrested nearly two dozen demonstrators over the weekend, though it’s unclear how many of these arrests include actual BLM protestors. Mayor Stoney told reporters that agitators carried signs that read “Black Lives Matter” as an attempt to denigrate the movement and shield their identity.
“The mission is simple,” Stoney said. “To undermine the months of peaceful, community-driven protests that this city has seen.”
The far-right faction currently getting the most scrutiny is the Boogalooers, also known as Boogaloo Bois.
“They want to capitalize on any type of event, whether it’s a hurricane or the pandemic or these civil disturbances, to try to add fuel to the fire and destabilize society so they can instigate a race war or civil war, overthrow the government,” said Daryl Johnson, a former terrorism analyst for the Department of Homeland Security.
Those tracking extremist activity say the movement is growing, fueled by what followers see as government overreach in dealing with the coronavirus pandemic.
The Tech Transparency Project, a group that monitors technology companies, issued a report in April that said it had found 125 Facebook groups devoted to the Boogaloo. Of those, it said, 63 percent were created between February and April, with nearly half the members — 36,117 — joining in the previous 30 days.
But the Boogaloo network is difficult to define, said J.J. MacNab, a fellow at George Washington University’s Program on Extremism who has spent years monitoring anti-government extremists.
“They share jargon, outfits, a love of firearms, and a desire to use violence to gain power, but they don’t actually share a common goal once power is achieved.”
▪ A 29-year-old Texas bodybuilder who prosecutors said “has been tied publicly with the anti-government Boogaloo movement” was charged June 5 in federal court with conspiracy to sell steroids. At his detention hearing, prosecutors argued that Philip Russell Archibald was a threat to the community, saying he used his social media accounts to advocate vigilante “guerrilla warfare” against the National Guard patrolling Black Lives Matter protests.
▪ Three alleged Boogaloo adherents were arrested May 30 in Las Vegas for what authorities said was a plot to spark violence at Black Lives Matter protests. The men, ages 23 to 40, were charged in federal court with conspiracy to damage and destroy by fire and explosive and possession of an unregistered destructive device. According to the complaint, FBI agents arrested the men as they were heading to a protest with materials to make Molotov cocktails to lob at police.
▪ The man charged with ambushing and killing one deputy and critically wounding another in Santa Cruz County, California, on June 6, scrawled phrases associated with the Boogaloo movement on the hood of a car shortly before his arrest, a federal prosecutor said Tuesday. Steven Carrillo, an Air Force sergeant, wrote the words in what appeared to be his own blood, U.S. Attorney David Anderson said at a news conference. Anderson added that a ballistic vest found in a van linked to Carrillo had a patch with a Boogaloo flag on it.
Authorities also announced that Carrillo had been charged with the May 29 murder of a Federal Protective Services officer in a drive-by shooting outside the federal building in Oakland. The attack occurred as a large George Floyd protest was underway nearby.
“The concern is law enforcement getting overwhelmed with too many things to do,” Johnson said. “You had the anti-lockdown protests, now you have the civil unrest. Could this be a potential dry run for what we’re going to see later in the year as we approach the election — even post-election? Is this going to continue to grow and get more violent? That’s the concern.”
"Over the weekend protests across the country became violent as outside agitators and federal officers escalated violence against otherwise peaceful Black Lives Matter protests."
sure.....all the rioting and violence prior to this weekend was just imaginary
conspiracy theories will get you nowhere
"conspiracy theories will get you nowhere"
Conspiracy theories are what got Rump into the White House in the first place, starting with the conspiracy theory about his birth certificate.
Conspiracy theories are what the political right operates on these days, whether it's a peodophile ring run by Hillary and Soros out of Comet Pizza, or BLM being a front for Marxists to take over the country, or Q Anon theories about the "Deep State" trying to undermine Rump while he secretly dismantles a world-wide pedophile ring.
Just because conspiracy theories are what the right operates under, you shouldn't project your schizophrenic tendencies onto the left.
Rump is the queen of conspiracy theories -- we all remember his on-going birther lying BS.
Reality check: How many of Rump's campaign managers and staff have been indicted now??
"OK, so your part is to burn buildings, tear down statues, and shoot people who don't agree with you
and the role of big city police is to watch and keep their mouths shut
sounds like a plan!
Anonymous said...
let's give that plan a name:
the Biden Doctrine"
You are such a GOPer liar, just like Rump!
Go check Biden's views.
They are easily found right here:
https://joebiden.com/joes-vision/#
You will not find him suggesting anyone burn, tear down or shoot anyone or telling police not to do their jobs.
GOPers are LIARS just like Rump
Rump proudly tells his base things like "when the looting starts, the shooting starts"
"I've heard that phrase for a long time. I don't know where it came from or where it originated," Trump said.
You can be ignorant like Rump or choose to learn some history:
https://www.npr.org/2020/05/29/864818368/the-history-behind-when-the-looting-starts-the-shooting-starts
There is absolutely no proof that voter fraud has ever happened.
Unless you consider a confession to prove anything!
A top Democratic operative says voter fraud, especially with mail-in ballots, is no myth. And he knows this because he’s been doing it, on a grand scale, for decades.
Mail-in ballots have become the latest flashpoint in the 2020 elections. While President Trump and the GOP warn of widespread manipulation of the absentee vote that will swell with COVID polling restrictions, many Democrats and their media allies have dismissed such concerns as unfounded.
But the political insider, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he fears prosecution, said fraud is more the rule than the exception. His dirty work has taken him through the weeds of municipal and federal elections in Paterson, Atlantic City, Camden, Newark, Hoboken and Hudson County and his fingerprints can be found in local legislative, mayoral and congressional races across the Garden State. Some of the biggest names and highest office holders in New Jersey have benefited from his tricks, according to campaign records The Post reviewed.
“An election that is swayed by 500 votes, 1,000 votes — it can make a difference,” the tipster said. “It could be enough to flip states.”
The whisteblower — whose identity, rap sheet and long history working as a consultant to various campaigns were confirmed by The Post — says he not only changed ballots himself over the years, but led teams of fraudsters and mentored at least 20 operatives in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania — a critical 2020 swing state.
Congressional candidate Kimberly Klacik said black voters “are definitely listening” to President Trump’s platform and messaging.
“We are definitely listening to that message, and it is resonating. This is an administration that actually has real results coming into the community,” Klacik said on Sunday.
“A lot of people don’t talk about the fact that criminal justice reform is something that many black Americans thought President Obama would tackle. He failed to do that. He didn’t even attempt to do it,” she added.
Klacik is running for the late Elijah Cummings’ congressional seat in a Maryland district that includes parts of Baltimore. She is an outspoken supporter of Trump and said Sunday that he’s the candidate campaigning on an optimistic platform.
“They also saw, if you looked at the RNC convention versus the DNC convention, we seem to be the party of optimism and hope. You know, we talked about things we’re going to continue to do. President Trump talked about things he’s been doing, and he’s going to continue to do, and that’s what’s important,” she said.
“We don’t want just paint on the streets,” she added, referring to Black Lives Matter murals on some city’s streets. “We want careers and opportunity, and we want equality. And I think people are understanding that you’ll get that from President Trump rather than what we had in the past.”
She also discussed a new poll that found support for Trump from black voters jumped 9 percentage points during the Republican National Convention.
Klacik went viral this month for an ad that featured her “exposing what life is like in Democrat run cities.”
“Do you care about black lives?” Klacik asked viewers of the ad. “The people that run Baltimore don’t. I can prove it. Walk with me. They don’t want you to see this.”
“This is the reality for black people every single day: crumbling infrastructure, abandoned homes, poverty, and crime,” Klacik said as she walked by dilapidated buildings. “Baltimore has been run by the Democrat Party for 53 years. What is the result of their decades of leadership?”
"The whisteblower — whose identity, rap sheet and long history working as a consultant to various campaigns were confirmed by The Post — says he not only changed ballots himself over the years, but led teams of fraudsters and mentored at least 20 operatives in New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania — a critical 2020 swing state."
Interesting... so this Democratic operative has been changing votes for years but only now decides to tell people a couple of months before democrats want to vote out the worst Republican president since... GW Bush. Ok, so it hasn't been long, but he's been AWFUL. Something sounds terribly convenient for this revelation to come out from a "secret source" right now.
Why don't we look for some cases that actually went to court?
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2020/07/10/west-virginia-mail-carrier-guilty-election-fraud-altered-ballot-requests/5412010002/
A West Virginia postal carrier pled guilty to mail and election fraud after admitting he changed the political affiliation on multiple voter ballots from Democrat to Republican.
Thomas Cooper, 47, admitted to attempted election fraud and injury to the mail Thursday after an affidavit was filed against him in May.
Cooper held a contract with the U.S. Postal Service to pick up mail in three towns in Pendleton County.
In April, per a statement from the Department of Justice, the county clerk found absentee ballot requests from eight voters that were tampered with a black ink pen, five of which had their party affiliation switched to Republican. Three others that had their affiliation already set to Republican were altered, but did not have their political party changed. All ballots were located in Pendleton County.
Bennie Cogar, a West Virginia Attorney General's Office investigator working on behalf of the secretary of state's office, said in the affidavit filed in May that Cooper admitted to having tampered with some of the requests he delivered "as a joke." He did not know any of the voters whose requests he changed.
Despite ongoing accusations about mail-in voter fraud, including those by President Trump, cases have been minimal — and Trump himself has voted absentee. State leaders from both parties have granted more absentee ballots to residents during the coronavirus pandemic.
https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/14/kansas-gop-rep-watkins-indicted-for-voter-fraud-362072
Kansas GOP Rep. Steve Watkins was charged Tuesday with three felony counts of voter fraud related to the 2019 municipal elections, according to court records.
But the freshman lawmaker dismissed the charges as politically motivated, claiming the prosecutor bringing the case has ties to a GOP primary opponent.
Watkins was charged by Shawnee County District Attorney Michael Kagay with “Interference with a law enforcement officer, falsely report a felony intending to obstruct; voting without being qualified; and knowingly mark/transmit more than one advance ballot,” according to Shawnee County court records.
https://www.npr.org/2019/07/30/746800630/north-carolina-gop-operative-faces-new-felony-charges-that-allege-ballot-fraud
Prosecutors in North Carolina filed new felony charges against a Republican political operative accused of ballot tampering in a congressional election in 2018.
Leslie McCrae Dowless was charged Tuesday with two counts of felony obstruction of justice, perjury, solicitation to commit perjury, conspiracy to obstruct justice and illegal possession of absentee ballots, according to a statement by Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman.
The charges relate to the tainted 9th congressional district election last year in which Republican Mark Harris led in the unofficial vote tally by a margin of about 900 votes over Democrat Dan McCready. But the election results were overturned by the state after an investigation into an absentee ballot operation on Harris' behalf suggested that Dowless had improperly collected and possibly tampered with ballots.
Harris was not mentioned in the indictment and he chose not to run in the new election to be held this fall. That race will pit McCready against Republican Dan Bishop.
Dowless was indicted along with seven alleged co-conspirators. The operative was the alleged ringleader in a scheme instructing his co-conspirators to sign certifications that falsely stated they had seen a voter vote by absentee ballot, and improperly mailing in absentee ballots for someone who had not mailed it themselves.
This is the second set of charges for Dowless, who was arrested in February and accused of interfering in the district's primary election. He was charged then with three counts of felonious obstruction of justice, two counts of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and two counts of possession of absentee ballots.
State and federal authorities are still investigating the case, according to Freeman's statement.
you lunatics are priceless
you have been swearing up and down that voter fraud never happens
then, the second someone accuses the Dem of voter fraud, you suddenly come up with several GOP cases
Something sounds terribly convenient
LOL!!
it's obvious to anyone who's IQ has 3 digits, that mail-in voting provides a huge opportunity for fraud that will be virtually undetectable
A new Emerson poll conducted just days after the Republican National Convention has Donald Trump trailing Joe Biden by just two percentage points, 49% to 47%. This is remarkable considering Biden's huge lead in the dismal failing states of New York and California.
A particular bright spot for the Trump campaign in the Emerson survey is his support among African Americans: Trump wins the backing of 19%. The RNC featured numerous African American speakers, including former pro football players Herschel Walker, Jack Brewer and Burgess Owens, as well as Georgia Democrat Vernon Jones, all testifying to Trump's character and policies as reasons for their backing.
Another encouraging sign for the president: His approval rating is up to 49% in the current survey, while his disapproval is down to 47%.
The Republican convention was so substantive compared to the vacuous Dem convention that all types of voters are flocking to Trump.
The Emerson poll, conducted Aug. 30-31, of 1,567 likely voters has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.4 percentage points.
After three months of violence, vandalism, and arson in our biggest cities, all of it excused and encouraged by Democrats, we’re supposed to be impressed that the party’s presidential nominee released a statement calling it “unacceptable.”
The national media will no doubt declare the note, posted Sunday night on Biden’s campaign site, a display of true leadership — because nothing arouses them more than a statement with words like “unequivocally” and “condolences.”
But it’s far too late for Democrats to pretend that they didn’t overtly advocate for and make excuses for this horror show. They've only changed their tune now because street violence, chaos, death, and fiery destruction are not exactly political winners — who knew?! That doesn’t mean we should forget that right up until last week, they thought and said that it was fantastic.
Biden’s running mate, Kamala Harris, said back in June that “everyone beware” because the protests are “not going to let up, and they should not, and we should not.”
Democratic Rep. Ayanna Pressley of Massachusetts said in an interview on MSNBC, “There needs to be unrest in the streets.”
In 2018, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi questioned why there weren’t yet “uprisings all over the country” over Trump’s policies.
Then, of course, the media was there with a helpful assist in attempting to distinguish the mass rioting from the “mostly peaceful” protests even as reporters stood in front of buildings and streets that had literally been turned into bonfires.
Last week, in Kenosha, Wisconsin, CNN correspondent Omar Jimenez was on camera with the city clearly up in flames behind him, and yet the screen graphic hilariously said that the riots were “fiery but mostly peaceful.”
In another segment, a producer at CNN had to check themselves after a screen graphic described the protests in Kenosha as “violent.” That word was swiftly taken out a moment later.
And who can forget Ali Velshi at MSNBC, standing in front of burning police building in Minneapolis, carefully noting that the protests were “not, generally speaking, unruly”?
Now that the polls show support for the Black Lives Matter protests cratering, the Biden campaign has released a strongly worded statement. Good for him. I wonder whether voters will be impressed, given that, for three months, Democrats have been creating and encouraging this mess and resisting every effort from federal authorities to restore order to our cities.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/31/world/europe/coronavirus-covid-spain-second-wave.html?smid=fb-nytimes&smtyp=cur&fbclid=IwAR31tsxjCd_ORkD4t0cDQiIi9xV-kbihL9-M2YyQ0Ej7yzrUOt0XWnB34Ok
not long ago, TTF was rhapsodizing how wonderfully the pandemic had been handled in other countries
it was noted how those countries are back to normal, going to the movies and eating out
well, right now, the rate of new infection per millions is higher in Spain than the US and the rest of Europe is catching up
of course, adjusted for size of the population, the US was never the worst country in the world
looks like the handling of the virus is not going to be a political plus for Dems
people are horrified at Biden's ridiculous suggestion of a three month mandatory mask law, enforced at the Federal level, and consideration of new lockdowns
it's kind of like how the riots they encouraged won't be a big winner at the ballot box
it's amazing to think that the Dems are finding a way to lose a second election to a guy that is so universally disliked
WOW!
well, cheer up
you'll always have California
LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
TTF, in June:
"the pandemic has hit everywhere in the world, and it is not the big story in most places. It was a known quantity, a contagious respiratory disease, it required a coordinated campaign to stop it, and most countries in the world figured out a way to do that. There were lots of solutions, from shutdowns to contact-tracing and isolation to masks and distancing, and they have worked. While we are dying and dreading the next wave, some countries have zero cases and are going to the beach and the movies like normal.
So the big story is not the pandemic but the ineptness of the government that we relied on to manage it."
reality, in September:
"in the past week, Spain has recorded the most new cases on the continent by far — more than 53,000. With 114 new infections per 100,000 people in that time, the virus is spreading faster in Spain than in the United States"
in January, the world, that handled the virus so well, will be lining up to get us to give them the vaccine our "inept" country developed in record time
also, in January, President Trump will be sworn in for his second term
and we will have a new crisis
how to bend the curve so that mental institutions won't exceed capacity from a wave of liberals suffering nervous breakdowns from their Trump Derangement Syndrome horror
Who remembers this:
May 4, 2020 As states push ahead with reopening, CDC warns coronavirus cases and deaths are set to soar
As nearly half of U.S. states begin to ease restrictions that were put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is quietly projecting a stark rise in the number of new cases of the virus and deaths from it over the next month.
Modeling from the CDC, incorporated into a chart prepared by the Federal Emergency Management Agency and circulated within the administration, was obtained by the New York Times. It projects 200,000 new daily cases of the coronavirus by the end of May and 3,000 daily deaths in the U.S. At present, approximately 25,000 new cases are reported each day, with roughly 1,750 deaths.
Without disputing the accuracy of the modeling used by the CDC, the White House quickly distanced itself from the projections.
“This data is not reflective of any of the modeling done by the task force or data that the task force has analyzed,” White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in a Monday statement. “The president’s phased guidelines to open up America again are a scientific-driven approach that the top health and infectious disease experts in the federal government agreed with.”
Despite the growing risk of exposure and death from COVID-19, many states are proceeding with a relaxation of restrictions that were meant to slow the spread of the virus, which have brought the nation’s economy to a virtual halt. Those moves in states like Georgia and Texas do not follow the phased federal guidelines issued by President Trump’s coronavirus task force on April 16.
The guidelines were announced at a White House press briefing, where Trump proclaimed that “now that we have passed the peak in new cases, we’re starting our life again, we’re starting rejuvenation of our economy again, in a safe and structured and very responsible fashion.” There were 32,076 new cases in the U.S. on that day, a number that has been exceeded on at least four days since.
While the implementation wasleft to the discretion of state governors, the guidelines were clear that no state should attempt to ease restrictions until it had observed a “downward trajectory” of new cases of the virus over a 14-day period. Yet, as of this weekend, no state in the nation could make that claim.
On “Fox News Sunday,” anchor Chris Wallace pressed Dr. Deborah Birx, one of the leading health experts on the coronavirus task force, on that point.
“Not a single state has met the White House gating guidelines of two weeks of steady decline in new cases. Are you concerned about this patchwork reopening, and why leave it up to the governors?” Wallace asked Birx. “Why not set a firm, if not binding, a firm national policy on when states can reopen?”
“Well, I think federal guidelines are pretty firm policy of what we think is important from a public health standpoint,” Birx responded. “We also made it possible for states to open counties independently of the entire state, because, again, some of these outbreaks are very local and have to be studied and understood that way.”
Reopening the country without ramping up testing, building an army of contact tracers or having a plan in place to isolate those who test positive for the virus is certain to result in a spike of new cases, numerous health experts have warned.
Yet at least 26 states intend to test that prediction, many of them starting this week....
AND YESTERDAY WE REACHED SIX MILLION COVID CASES
..
"how to bend the curve so that mental institutions won't exceed capacity from a wave of liberals suffering nervous breakdowns from their Trump Derangement Syndrome horror"
Your brown nose stinks
...On July 21, the Republican speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, Larry Householder, was awakened by federal agents converging on his southeastern Ohio farmhouse. They were there to arrest him in connection with a $60 million racketeering and bribery investigation. Four others — lobbyists and Householder associates — were also arrested around the state in connection with the probe.
According to the criminal complaint, Householder funneled millions of dollars in contributions from Akron-based electric utility FirstEnergy Solutions into a non-reportable account. He then used the funds both for personal expenses and to support the 2018 election of Republican lawmakers — dubbed “Team Householder” — who would be loyal to him, back his bid to become speaker and then push for legislation providing a $1 billion taxpayer bailout for two nuclear power plants in northern Ohio.
Indeed, as planned, Householder was elected speaker last year in a close vote after he cut a deal with Democrats. The bailout bill passed the legislature and was quickly signed into law by Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine. A referendum effort to overturn the bill was opposed by FirstEnergy, Householder and others using money and tactics that also factor into the federal charges.
“This is likely the largest bribery, money-laundering scheme ever perpetrated against the people of the state of Ohio,” said U.S. Attorney David DeVillers. “This was a quid pro quo. This was pay to play.”
After the scandal broke, DeWine and others initially resisted calls to repeal the tainted legislation. “The policy is good policy,” the governor said on July 22. “Because people did bad things does not mean the policy is not a good policy.” But the next day, DeWine reversed course. “No matter how good this policy is, the process by which this bill was passed is simply not acceptable,” DeWine said. “That process, I believe, has forever tainted the bill and now the law itself.”
By week’s end, DeWine and almost all Republican House members called for Householder’s removal as speaker, which was soon accomplished by a unanimous vote of his colleagues, including Team Householder members. FirstEnergy and the officials caught up in the probe, meanwhile, deny wrongdoing...
DeVillers, the federal prosecutor, said after the initial arrests: “We’re not done with this case. There are a lot of federal agents knocking on a lot of doors.” The state’s major newspapers are following the money, reporting on which House members were supported by funds from the same sources tied to Householder.
There’s no telling what could happen between now and November, especially if new information comes to light. In presidential elections that are increasingly decided by the shift of a handful of votes, a widespread perception that Republicans are corrupt could put Biden over the top. As Weaver acknowledged, the state of the race could easily change “with another round of arrests.”
As pundits prepare their list of possible October surprises, the scandal engulfing Ohio’s Republican leaders is one to watch.
"As nearly half of U.S. states begin to ease restrictions that were put in place to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is quietly projecting a stark rise in the number of new cases of the virus and deaths from it over the next month."
the CDC was making foolish statements then, just like they are now
whether deaths rise is dependent on what safety measures are taken, not whether there is a complete lockdown
how will Dems take their inevitable loss in November?
more rioting?
more Russian conspiracy theories?
leave the country?
dirty little secret: without monolithic support among African Americans, Dems would not have won a presidential election in the last 50 years
looks like that's history
President Trump’s approval rating among Black voters jumped by 60% during the Republican National Committee even as Democrats and progressives sought to brand the Republican president as racist.
A HarrisX-Hill poll released Friday showed Mr. Trump’s net approval with Black voters from Aug. 22-25, which included the first two days of the RNC, rose to 24%, up from 15% in the pollster’s Aug. 8-11 survey.
The surge of support from Black voters reflects Mr. Trump’s outreach to minority communities as well as the convention’s showcasing of conservative Black lawmakers and luminaries.
Sen. Tim Scott, South Carolina Republican, was featured prominently Monday, the first night of the RNC, while Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron gave a speech Tuesday challenging some of former Vice President Joseph R. Biden’s pronouncements on race.
VA-02: Freshman Democratic Rep. Elaine Luria's new commercial goes after Republican Scott Taylor over the ongoing investigation into his 2018 campaign's signature-gathering scandal. A woman named Bet Cake tells the audience that the last place she thought she'd see her husband's signature "was forged on election forms two months after his death." Cake continues, "Scott Taylor knew about these signature efforts. A judge called it 'out and out fraud.'" She concludes, "I call it hurtful, Mr. Taylor. And disqualifying."
Back in 2018, when Taylor was the incumbent, his staff was exposed forging signatures on behalf of Democrat-turned-independent Shaun Brown, who was later booted off the ballot by a judge. Taylor's campaign acknowledged that August that the congressman knew of his team's plans to aid Brown, but Taylor insisted he hadn't known anything illegal was happening. He even dismissed the entire matter as a "nothing burger" and defended his staffers' involvement in helping Brown with the least sincere of declarations: "That's democracy."
Democrats, though, ran ad after ad slamming Taylor's campaign for its illegal scheming. Luria ended up flipping this swingy Virginia Beach-based seat by unseating Taylor 51-49: Now that's democracy.
Taylor tried to strike a contrite note when he announced in January that he'd try to regain this seat, saying, "I was devastated to learn about wrongdoing on the team. But in the end, I'm responsible for it, and I think some voters held me accountable for it."
But if Taylor thought this would put the matter behind him, he was very wrong: In March, a former Taylor staffer pleaded guilty for her part in the scheme, and Special Prosecutor John Beamer added we were "likely to see more" indictments to come. A second former Taylor staffer was charged two weeks later, and she's set to go on trial in September for election fraud.
Five more months passed with little news, but Taylor himself helped put the scandal back in the headlines in August when he sent a cease-and-desist letter to Luria demanding that she stop making statements claiming that he is under investigation for ballot access fraud. When the local ABC affiliate 13News Now asked Beamer if Taylor wasn't under investigation, though, he responded, "No, that's not true. The entire campaign is under investigation." Beamer added that more indictments were also possible.
60 percent in new poll say federal government's response making pandemic worse
09/01/20
"The majority of respondents in a poll released Tuesday said the federal government’s response to the coronavirus pandemic is making the U.S.’s recovery from the outbreak worse.
Sixty percent of respondents thought the federal government’s actions were making the pandemic recovery worse compared to 39 percent who said the federal government was making the crisis better, according to a poll released by Axios-Ipsos.
Respondents’ views on the federal government’s management of the pandemic showed a partisan divide.
Among Democrats, 19 percent thought the federal government was making the recovery better, while 80 percent said it was making it worse. For Republicans, 74 percent agreed that the federal government was improving the recovery, while 25 percent said it was making it worse.
A total of 32 percent of independents said the federal government’s actions were making the recovery better, compared with 68 percent who said they were making recovery worse.
The poll also found a dip in trust in the federal government since the beginning of the pandemic — 32 percent of respondents surveyed said they expect the government to look out for their best interest. By contrast, in late March, more than half of participants said they trusted the federal government to look out for their best interest.
But a majority of participants expressed optimism for the future. Fifty-seven of those surveyed said they’re somewhat or very hopeful the pandemic will be under control in the U.S. within the next six months. Forty-three percent were not too hopeful or not hopeful at all.
The new survey comes just two months before the 2020 election, where the government's handling of the pandemic will play a large part.
The levels of trust in Democratic candidate Joe Biden and President Trump have remained steady after the conventions. Forty-five percent of people said they trusted Biden and 31 percent said they trusted the president."
President Trump's support among black voters rose 9 percentage points amid the Republican National Convention, a new Hill-HarrisX poll finds.
Twenty-four percent of registered black voters in the Aug. 22-25 survey, which included the first two days of the convention, said they approve of the job Trump is doing as president, while 76 percent said they disapprove.
That is up 9 points from the previous survey conducted Aug. 8-11, where the President received 15 percent support among this group.
The survey found support among Hispanic voters also grew by 2 percentage points, from 30 percent in the last poll to 32 percent in this most recent survey.
Forty-four percent of overall registered voters in the Aug. 22-25 survey approved of Trump's job as president, a 1 percentage point dip from the last poll.
Eighty-two percent of Republican voters approve of Trump, a 1 point increase from the last poll, while 18 percent disapprove.
Eighty-seven percent of Democratic voters disapprove of Trump along with 64 percent of independent voters.
The survey found the president remains underwater with suburban voters and urban voters, at 42 percent support each.
His support remains steady among rural voters, at 53 percent.
Thursday, Trump officially accepted the 2020 Republican presidential nomination during the last night of the RNC.
The Hill-HarrisX poll was conducted online among 2,861 registered voters between Aug. 22-25. It has a margin of error of plus or minus 1.83 percentage points.
For the second time in as many days, President Trump claimed without evidence that a plane filled with left-wing agitators either was or had been traveling somewhere within the U.S.
“A person was on a plane, said that there were about six people like that person, more or less, and what happened is the entire plane filled up with the looters, the rioters, the anarchists, people that were obviously looking for trouble and the person felt very uncomfortable on the plane,” Trump said Tuesday at Joint Base Andrews before departing to visit Kenosha, Wisconsin.
Trump’s recent talk of planes filled with “the looters, the rioters” is confusing even some of the president’s allies and those who ignore his sometimes bizarre tangents. Trump has spent the last several weeks attempting to link his Democratic rival Joe Biden to the unrest in a number of American cities this month, but now appears to have taken that line of argument in a more conspiratorial direction.
The president has yet to reveal the identity of the person who allegedly saw the left-wing activists on the plane. “I will see whether or not I can get that person to speak to you but this was a first-hand account of a plane going from Washington to wherever and I’ll see if I can get that information for you, maybe they’ll speak to you, maybe they won’t,” he said Tuesday.
Trump initially brought up this plane in an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham that aired Monday evening. The president linked the plane to how “people that you've never heard of, people that are in the dark shadows” were controlling Biden.
“What does that mean?” asked Ingraham, a staunch supporter of the president who seemed flummoxed by what he was saying. “That sounds like conspiracy theory, dark shadows. What is that?”
“No. People that you haven't heard of. They are people that are on the streets, they're people that are controlling the streets. We had somebody get on a plane from a certain city this weekend,” Trump said. “And in the plane, it was almost completely loaded with thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms with gear and this and that. They're on a plane.”
“Where is this?” asked Ingraham.
“I'll tell you sometime, but it's under investigation right now,” said Trump. “But they came from a certain city, and this person was coming to the Republican National Convention. And there were like seven people on the plane like this person and then a lot of people were on the plane to do big damage.”
NBC News reported earlier Tuesday that Trump’s claim is very similar to a viral Facebook post from June 1 that falsely claimed “at least a dozen males got off the plane in Boise from Seattle, dressed head to toe in black.” The post by an Idaho resident warned residents to “Be ready for attacks downtown and residential areas,” and claimed one passenger had “a tattoo that said Antifa America on his arm.”
Trump and his administration have continued to push fear of left-wing mobs while ignoring right-wing violence. After saying believers in the violent QAnon conspiracy theory “are people that love our country” last month, on Monday Trump said Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old accused of killing two people in Wisconsin last week, may have acted in self defense.
“That was an interesting situation. You saw the same tape as I saw and he was trying to get away from them I guess it looks like,” Trump said. “He fell and then they very violently attacked him and it was something that we’re looking at right now and it’s under investigation. But I guess he was in very big trouble ... he probably would have been killed.”
What if Democrats could enact their agenda, with no opposition? They could implement the Biden-Sanders manifesto and eliminate cash bail, “reimagine policing,” and get law enforcement to “change their approach.”
It might look a little like Portland, Ore., which voted 73% for Hillary Clinton, and only 17% for Donald Trump. The last time Portland had a Republican mayor was in 1980. The city defunded the police by $15 million in June. Riots have persisted for over 90 days. Police are nowhere to be found when mobs beat people in the street. The chaos resulted in a counter-protester being killed over the weekend. Antifa has no remorse.
Likewise, Seattle went 69% for Clinton, 21% for President Trump. The last Republican mayor there served in 1969. Seattle defunded its police by $23 million in August. Two young men were killed during Mayor Jenny Durkan’s “summer of love” in the town’s “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone.”
Perhaps Biden and Kamala Harris’s America would look like New York City, where 86% voted for Clinton, just 9% for President Trump. The city defunded the police by $1 billion in June, and ended cash bail last year. Violent crime is skyrocketing. Homicides are up 29%, shootings up 84%, but arrests are down nearly 40%.
The District of Columbia voted over 90% for Clinton, just 4% for President Trump. Since home rule began in 1967, D.C. has never had a Republican mayor. The D.C. Council voted unanimously to defund the police by $15 million in June. Now roving mobs block traffic and launch firecrackers at people’s homes in the middle of the night.
In Minneapolis, 63% voted for Clinton. Their last Republican mayor was Dick Erdall, who in 1973 served for a single day. The City Council voted unanimously to dismantle the police in June. “Build back better”? Months later, amid the debris of his business destroyed in the riots, immigrants like Ibrahim Demaag are sent the bill from his left-wing government.
Five cities run by Democrats who were elected by Democrats. Trump supporters account for just 15% of their residents, on average. Not exactly “Donald Trump’s America.” For months, Democrats and the media called what’s happening there “peaceful.” Yet now they say you cannot be safe in … cities totally controlled by Democrats who have enacted the Biden-Harris agenda. Only Biden and Harris can stop the violence – after they literally helped bail out those perpetrating it in Minneapolis, including sex offenders and criminals who shot at police. What changed? The left-wing mob came to Kenosha, a swing county in Wisconsin. Suddenly, the chaos went from being condoned by Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi to condemned as President Trump’s fault. It’s illogical, but that’s never stopped Democrats before.
Just days ago Ted Wheeler, the Democrat mayor of Portland, bragged about rejecting President Trump’s help to restore order. It could have prevented another night of senseless violence and a man’s death. Rather than take responsibility, Democrats try to shift blame to the president, who has consistently condemned rioting and protected federal property. He signed the Safe Policing for Safe Communities executive order to increase transparency and training for law enforcement. Democrats, led by Kamala Harris, blocked legislative police reform, to appease radical activists. Interested in solutions, President Trump launched Operation Legend to fight violent crime, which has quickly led to over 1,500 arrests, including the suspected killer of Kansas City 4-year-old LeGend Taliferro.
President Trump continues to offer help, urging governors to activate the National Guard, which can quickly restore order, as seen in Kenosha and Minneapolis once Democrats finally made the call.
Rather than accept this help in Portland, Democrats stoked division. Nancy Pelosi and Jim Clyburn compared law enforcement to Nazi “stormtroopers” and the “gestapo.” Democrats dismissed the riots as “some protesters at some building.” Biden did not call the tactics of antifa, who throw feces and try to blind cops with lasers, “egregious.” He reserved that term for federal agents.
The results are as predictable as Democrats falsely blaming President Trump. Left-wing politicians are enacting left-wing policies, but it’s not appeasing the left-wing mob. The more police are told to pull back, the more lawlessness ensues. The fewer rioters prosecuted, the more emboldened they become. The more Democrats control, the less responsibility they take.
Democrats now say the only way to stop left-wing mobs in cities run by far-left Democrats is to elect more far-left Democrats. Biden’s prescription is the same as Democrats’ failed policies at local levels: resist using the National Guard, defund the police, increase tensions by smearing all Americans as “racist,” let a mob run under cover of “peaceful” protest, excusing criminality because they just can’t help but be “incited.”
At their convention, Republicans made their case to the entire country, including Americans living in Democrat cities, that there is another better way. When they left, they were accosted by screaming leftist lunatics. That’s Joe Biden’s America. And one a free and civil society must reject
A Florida man who called himself “the Antifa hunter” as he waged an online campaign to terrorize and harass those who opposed his white supremacist ideology was sentenced on Monday to more than three years in prison.
Daniel McMahon, 32, of Brandon, Florida, pleaded guilty in April to using social media to threaten a Black activist to deter the man from running for office in Charlottesville, Virginia. McMahon also admitted that he threatened to sexually assault the young autistic daughter of a North Carolina woman who protested against white nationalists.
A federal judge in Virginia sentenced McMahon to three years and five months in prison. McMahon declined an opportunity to make a public statement beforehand, but he heard from his victims during the hearing, which was conducted remotely by video conference.
In a written statement read aloud by a court employee, the North Carolina woman said McMahon methodically “cultivated a culture of fear and chaos” in her community of anti-racist activists
“There is seemingly nothing that Daniel McMahon will not do in the name of white supremacy,” she wrote.
A Florida man who called himself “the Antifa hunter” as he waged an online campaign to terrorize and harass those who opposed his white supremacist ideology was sentenced on Monday to more than three years in prison.
Daniel McMahon, 32, of Brandon, Florida, pleaded guilty in April to using social media to threaten a Black activist to deter the man from running for office in Charlottesville, Virginia. McMahon also admitted that he threatened to sexually assault the young autistic daughter of a North Carolina woman who protested against white nationalists.
A federal judge in Virginia sentenced McMahon to three years and five months in prison. McMahon declined an opportunity to make a public statement beforehand, but he heard from his victims during the hearing, which was conducted remotely by video conference.
In a written statement read aloud by a court employee, the North Carolina woman said McMahon methodically “cultivated a culture of fear and chaos” in her community of anti-racist activists.
“There is seemingly nothing that Daniel McMahon will not do in the name of white supremacy,” she wrote.
Most of McMahon’s cyberstalking victims knew him as “Jack Corbin.” Under that pseudonym, he posted social media messages intended to deter a Black activist, Don Gathers, from running for a seat on Charlottesville’s city council. He called himself “the Antifa hunter,” a reference to anti-fascist, leftist militant activists who confront or resist neo-Nazis and white supremacists at demonstrations.
McMahon accused Gathers of “attacking” a white supremacist group member who later pleaded guilty to attacking counterprotesters at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville in August 2017. McMahon called for using a “diversity of tactics” against Gathers, which authorities interpreted as a euphemism for violence.
The FBI notified Gathers of McMahon’s threats. Instead of kicking off his campaign at a January 2019 event, Gathers announced he wouldn’t run for office. “Hail Victory!” McMahon wrote in response.
On Monday, Gathers told McMahon that he prays he may find a way to forgive him some day.
“But today is not that day,” Gathers added. “I despise all that you and others like you represent.”
After McMahon’s arrest, the North Carolina woman called federal prosecutors to report that he had threatened her and her daughter, a severely autistic minor, over Facebook and tried to extort personal information from her about another counterprotester.
The woman said McMahon sent her hundreds of threatening messages, including some detailing how he would sexually assault her daughter. He posted the girl’s photo on a racist social media platform, she added. He also did a Google search for the term “sex with autistic girls” a day before his arrest, according to a court filing.
“Only a deeply disturbed individual would do this, a monster,” the woman wrote. “I will never feel completely safe about my child again.”...
...Prosecutors say the contents of McMahon’s computer revealed his obsession with racially motivated violence and hatred of Black people, including images of white supremacist James Fields plowing his car into a crowd of Charlottesville counterprotesters, killing a woman.
A folder with a racist slur for a title contained photos of dead Black men, including a lynching victim. McMahon also saved graphic images of Trayvon Martin after the Black teenager was shot and killed by a neighborhood watch member in Florida in 2012, according to prosecutors.
Other folders on McMahon’s computer contained personal information about his targets, including photos of their children. One target was a woman whose child had died, a tragedy that McMahon tried to exploit to extort information from her about antifascists, prosecutors said.
The FBI found 278 files with the word “owned” in the title, signaling that he had harassed that victim to his satisfaction. All told, prosecutors said, McMahon compiled 35 gigabytes of data that he could “weaponize” against his targets.
McMahon pleaded guilty to cyberstalking and bias-motivated interference with a candidate for elective office. U.S. District Judge Norman Moon wasn’t bound by sentencing guidelines that called for a prison term ranging from two years and nine months to three years and five months.
Moon accepted prosecutors’ recommendation to impose the maximum under the guidelines, saying McMahon’s conduct was “as egregious as it could be.”
“It may not have been physically violent, but it couldn’t have been more violent to one’s mental health or feeling of well-being,” the judge said.
Defense attorney Jessica Phillips asked the judge to sentence McMahon to a year and a half in prison and give him credit for time served since his Sept. 18, 2019, arrest.
Phillips said her client made “bad choices” but is remorseful and took full responsibility for his crimes. She attributed McMahon’s behavior to an untreated mental health disorder, alcohol abuse and a “lack of social stability.”
“While he did not realize the impact of his words at the time, he certainly does now,” Phillips wrote in a court filing.
Gathers told McMahon that “a new day, a different day, is coming” for those who share his “pitiful views.”
“Like it or not, Black lives matter,” he said.
Like it or not, voters will reject mob rule.
More than 200 people on Monday night marched to the Pearl District condominium tower where Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler lives to demand his resignation.
The demonstration quickly turned destructive as some in the crowd lit a fire in the street, then placed a picnic table from a nearby business on top of the fire to feed the blaze. People shattered windows and broke into a ground-floor dental office took items including a chair, also added to the fire, and office supplies.
Shortly after 11 p.m., a bundle of newspapers was set ablaze and thrown into a ground-floor storefront in the residential building.
Around the same time, police arrived and warned over a loudspeaker that the gathering had been declared an unlawful assembly, then a riot. Officers ordered people to leave to the west.
The 16-story building contains 114 residences. The fire didn’t appear to spread and was quickly extinguished. Police used crowd-control munitions and released smoke into the air as they pushed the crowd west.
They ultimately arrested nearly 20 people. Police later said arson investigators were looking for the person who started the fire.
The demonstration came during the 96th consecutive night of protests since the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis Police, and it was days after a man associated with a conservative group was shot dead in downtown Portland during a car caravan in support of President Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is not known for his soaring rhetoric, but his speech at Mount Rushmore was one of the rhetorical highlights of his presidency. In addressing the nation as he enters the home stretch of another presidential campaign, the president would do well to recall the words of Abraham Lincoln, one of the four American presidents chiseled into the South Dakota mountaintop -- and the first to be elected on the Republican Party ticket.
In 1838, the 28-eight-year-old Lincoln delivered what would later be considered his first great political speech to the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Ill. In it, he warned against the dangers of mob violence. In the cases he discussed, vigilante groups had not waited for justice to be done to lawbreakers, but had savagely murdered the men (most of them black) accused of committing the crimes. Here were two explosive issues, mob violence and race, that together threatened the preservation of our political institutions.
The foundational problem with mob rule, as Lincoln saw it, was that it alienates decent, law-abiding citizens from their government. When “good men, men who love tranquility, who desire to abide by the laws, and enjoy their benefits, who would gladly spill their blood in the defense of their country; seeing their property destroyed, their families insulted; their persons injured; and seeing nothing in prospect that forebodes a change for the better; become tired of, and disgusted with, a government that offers them no protection,” Lincoln warned.
The United States, he asserted, was far more likely to “die by suicide” than by foreign conquest.
Today, the same toxic mix again threatens the survival of our political institutions, and more broadly, our American way of life. But the two situations are largely reversed, with Black Lives Matter (along with their white “antifa” allies) pillaging and destroying some of America’s great cities and threatening to bring their violence to a town or suburb near you. As Attorney General William Barr observed while testifying before the House Judiciary Committee, not one Democratic member of the committee was prepared to denounce what Lincoln called “the mobocratic spirit,” despite the graphic nine-minute video he showed at the opening of his testimony. The mainstream media has largely covered up the violence and lawlessness, while liberal politicians have doubled down on the problem by supporting proposals to defund the police.
In recent years, Republicans have enjoyed a big advantage with military personnel and veterans. By painting Democrats as weak on defense and wrapping themselves in the flag, they have outmaneuvered Democrats in states with a significant number of military or former military voters, including reserve forces and National Guard members (e.g., Texas, Florida, Virginia).
It came as a shock, then, when the Military Times reported on Monday: “In the latest results — based on 1,018 active-duty troops surveyed in late July and early August — nearly half of respondents (49.9 percent) had an unfavorable view of the president, compared to about 38 percent who had a favorable view. Questions in the poll had a margin of error of up to 2 percent.” Forty-two percent had a very unfavorable view of President Trump. The bottom line: “Among active-duty service members surveyed in the poll, 41 percent said they would vote for Biden, the Democratic nominee, if the election was held today. Only 37 percent said they plan to vote to re-elect Trump.”
There are plenty of reasons that military and ex-military might dislike Trump, who infamously got five deferments to get out of serving in Vietnam. Trump failed to confront Russian President Vladimir Putin on bounties put on the heads of U.S. troops. He has smeared the intelligence community, betrayed national security by extorting Ukraine, used the military as props for border security, attacked our NATO alliance, groveled before Putin, abandoned the Kurds when bugging out of Syria, pulled troops out of Germany and attacked voting by mail — a principal way in which troops overseas vote. He commuted the sentences of convicted war criminals, an insult to every military man or woman who upholds his or her oath. He smeared and removed Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman from his White House post after he testified truthfully about Trump’s call with Ukraine’s president. He skipped a commemoration ceremony for those killed in World War I because it was raining. He used the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark A. Milley, to try to legitimize his gassing of peaceful protesters. He insulted the late John McCain and all POWs because he said he doesn’t like people who get captured.
The Military Times poll confirms some of their concerns. For example, “Only about 17 percent of those surveyed felt the White House has properly handled reports that Russian officials offered bounties for Afghan fighters to target and kill American troops, an issue Trump has dismissed as unreliable intelligence. Nearly 47 percent disagreed with his statements.” When it comes to deploying troops domestically to quell protests, as Trump has suggested repeatedly, 74 percent of respondents were opposed. Interestingly, “Troops agreed with Trump’s assessment of China as a national security threat (nearly 87 percent called it a significant concern) but ranked Russia (81 percent) well above Iran (58 percent). Only about 21 percent of troops saw immigration as a significant national security issue, but 48 percent identified white nationalists as a concern.”
In short, military voters understand that Trump poses a national security threat. He cannot identify or does not want to confront real threats (e.g., Russia, White nationalists), and invents threats that undermine national unity and waste resources (e.g., the “deep state”). It is quite a rebuke to a president who has tried so desperately to associate himself with military pomp and pageantry, from his militarized Fourth of July event in 2019 to his desire, according to an upcoming book by a friend of the first lady, to have an inauguration that looks “like North Korea.”
Trump treats the military like toy soldiers and their equipment like props. He tries to glorify himself by associating with them while his administration causes havoc in its ranks (e.g., expelling transgender personnel, threatening to deport “dreamers” currently serving, ordering surprise withdrawals). Trump refuses to grasp basic concepts such as honor, military discipline and the chain of command, making America weaker and endangering the lives of those who put their lives on the line to protect America. No wonder so many military men and women want a new commander in chief.
"In short, military voters understand that Trump poses a national security threat."
never trust a TTFer going "short"
"short" is code for "let me extrapolate a few facts into my preferred world view"
"He invents threats that undermine national unity and waste resources (e.g., the “deep state”)."
where did the poll find this?
"his desire, according to an upcoming book by a friend of the first lady, to have an inauguration that looks “like North Korea.”"
how does a friend of the first lady know his desire to have an inauguration that looks “like North Korea.”?
"Trump treats the military like toy soldiers and their equipment like props."
where did the poll find this?
"He tries to glorify himself by associating with them while his administration causes havoc in its ranks (e.g., expelling transgender personnel, threatening to deport “dreamers” currently serving,"
where did the poll find this? military personnel are concerned that not enough transgenders and illegal aliens are in the military?
I don't think keeping people with delusions about gender put of the military causes much havoc? Most military people agree.
"Trump refuses to grasp basic concepts such as honor, military discipline and the chain of command,"
where did the poll find this?
"making America weaker"
where did the poll find this?
"and endangering the lives of those who put their lives on the line to protect America."
where did the poll find this?
"No wonder so many military men and women want a new commander in chief."
according to TTF, all America wants a new commander in chief
why, then, is Joe Biden acting so panicked?
on election night, will he smash the furniture in his hotel suite and wait til the morning to give his concession speech in a purple pants suit, like Hillary?
The link I posted twice above is to Jennifer Rubin's column about the military poll findings.
In her piece, readers will find a link to the Military Times who provided the poll results.
You will have to click on Rubin link to find the Military Times link and read their report.
Unless you're so much like like Rump you prefer pictures to text, you will handle your own reading.
I suggest you read carefully and try to absorb the facts reported by Military Times.
U.S. President Donald Trump suggested Wednesday that people in the state of North Carolina should vote twice in the November election, once in person and once by mail, although doing so is a crime.
“Let them send it in and let them go vote,” Trump said in an interview with WECT-TV in Wilmington, North Carolina, when asked about the security of mail-in votes. “And if the system is as good as they say it is then obviously they won’t be able to vote” in person.
Voting more than once in an election is illegal.
“President Trump outrageously encouraged” North Carolinians “to break the law in order to help him sow chaos in our election,” state Attorney General Josh Stein said in a tweet. “Make sure you vote, but do NOT vote twice! I will do everything in my power to make sure the will of the people is upheld in November.”
"The link I posted twice above is to Jennifer Rubin's column about the military poll findings.
In her piece, readers will find a link to the Military Times who provided the poll results.
You will have to click on Rubin link to find the Military Times link and read their report.
Unless you're so much like like Rump you prefer pictures to text, you will handle your own reading.
I suggest you read carefully and try to absorb the facts reported by Military Times."
it's not worth your time
polls are notoriously unreliable and, as someone who interacts with military personnel daily, I can tell you this one is no exception
as a matter of fact, the questions posed above by "homosexuality never produces life, two of 'em ain't ever a marriage" are not based on any poll finding but baseless extrapolation
btw, this is a blog
the points should be succinct and self-evident, not relying on the clicking of links
try it, you can do it
Nancy Pelosi should know that appearances matter in politics. A lot. Which is why her decision to have her hair done indoors at a shop in San Francisco makes so little sense.
In security footage obtained by the media, Pelosi is shown inside the salon without a mask. The owner of the salon, Erica Kious, was angry that Pelosi had been allowed to violate the rules put in place during the coronavirus pandemic that mandates haircuts can only be given outside. Kious said it was "a slap in the face that she went in, you know, that she feels that she can just go and get her stuff done while no one else can go in, and I can't work."
"This business offered for the speaker to come in on Monday and told her they were allowed by the city to have one customer at a time in the business," Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill said. "The speaker complied with the rules as presented to her by this establishment."
Pelosi responded later Wednesday by saying, "It was a setup. So I take responsibility for falling for a setup."
The problem is that Pelosi was told wrong. Hair salons can operate outdoors, according to new San Francisco regulations that went in place last Friday. Which she should have known. When you are the Speaker of the House and a very vocal critic of President Donald Trump's flouting of best practices to limit the spread of Covid-19, you can't rely on what a hairstylist tells you. You double check whether you are allowed to go into a salon. And whether you need to always be wearing a mask.
Joe Biden wants the public to believe that he’s always deemed violence “unacceptable,” even when it’s perpetrated by leftists. But when he and his party held the national spotlight just two weeks ago, they were cheering on the same thugs as “peaceful protesters.”
“I condemn violence of every kind by anyone, whether on the left or the right,” Biden said on Monday.
That’s certainly news to anyone of the millions who watched his acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. Biden had absolutely nothing whatsoever to say about the ongoing violence around the country. Zip. Zero. Nada.
By the time he made his acceptance speech, more than two dozen people had died in “protests.” Dozens of police officers had been injured and at least one lost his life. Many dead are “African Americans, compounding the tragedy for black families,” the Associated Press reported well before Biden’s speech.
The financial toll of the riots is measured in billions of dollars.
Yet the only time the word “violence” appeared in Biden’s convention address was when he brought up the 2017 mayhem of Charlottesville, Virginia, which he used only to set up his Big Lie that President Donald Trump had praised white supremacists by saying there were “very fine people on both sides.”
What is it that the left says these days? Oh, yeah: “Silence is violence.”
During the entire four days, with tens of millions of people tuning in and the chance to “condemn violence of every kind,” not a single speaker at the Democrats’ convention did so. Every one of them was silent.
We searched through the transcripts of the four days, and the only time the word “protesters” was uttered was after the adjective “peaceful” — seven times on day one of the convention, in fact.
Sen. Bernie Sanders, in one invocation of the term, complained that Trump had “deployed the military and federal agents against peaceful protesters.”
There was no mention of violence in the streets, or burning or looting, or deaths and injuries. No one defended the police who were being targeted by rioters. In fact, any mention of police was almost always in the context of police brutality or negligence.
Biden’s vice presidential pick, Sen. Kamala Harris, blamed “the excessive use of force by police” on “structural racism.”
The word “riot” was never uttered.
Democrats did talk about “gun violence” a lot (more than a dozen times, to support Biden’s gun control measures), as well as “violence against women” (to praise Biden for his role in the 1994 Violence Against Women Act).
Outside the convention, Democrats at the federal, state, and local levels were bending over backward to make excuses for rioters and defend looters. They kept them out of jail, let them run roughshod over the police, and refused offers by the Trump administration to help restore law and order.
As The Heritage Foundation’s James Carafano put it, “organized crime of all kinds thrives when it can exploit weak enforcement and gaps between local, state, and federal law enforcement.”
So when Democrats suddenly tell you that they “condemn” the violence that has been going on for months, ask them why they ignored it during their carefully staged convention.
Ask them why they didn’t use that massive bully pulpit to attack the violent mobs who were terrorizing people across the country.
Ask them why they didn’t aggressively denounce left-wing groups for organizing and planning violent actions.
Ask them why, when they had the nation’s attention, they didn’t stand up for the innocent people – many of them black – who have suffered physically, emotionally and economically from “racial justice” mobs.
If Democrats were being honest, they would answer by saying that they couldn’t condemn the riots — sorry, mostly peaceful protests — for fear of alienating their far-left base. So instead they spent four days blaming Trump for COVID-19 and spinning dark conspiracies about the postal service.
It was only after Democratic pollsters started to notice that the lawlessness was hurting their electoral chances that they decided to acknowledge it at all. And every supposed denunciation of the murderous leftists is merely an excuse to blame Trump.
Biden even had the audacity to demand Trump “join me” in calling for an end to the violence.
Silence equals violence, all right. And up until now, the Democrats’ silence on the left-wing riots has been deafening.
"polls are notoriously unreliable"
And yet in the past, whenever you could find one that showed the republican candidate in the lead - even if it was only an outlier and went against all the other polls - you made a point of posting it here, as if to "prove" your inevitable assertions of their "inevitable win."
As if no one is going to notice that you will do or say absolutely ANYTHING to promote your tribe - even if it contradicts what you've said before.
If the polls were going in Rumps favor now, you'd be posting them every single day.
"Trump suggests voters cast ballots twice, which if done intentionally is illegal
President Trump, on Wednesday during a trip in battleground North Carolina, urged voters to vote twice, once by mail and once in person, to test the protections intended to guard against double voting.
Trump, who has claimed the 2020 election will be rife with fraud and rigged against him, was asked by a local television reporter whether he had confidence in the vote-by-mail system.
“Let them send it in and let them go vote, and if their system’s as good as they say it is, then obviously they won’t be able to vote. If it isn’t tabulated, they’ll be able to vote,” Trump said.
Intentionally voting twice is illegal, and in many states, including North Carolina, it is a felony.
The president also greeted supporters on the tarmac upon landing in Wilmington, N.C., and made nearly identical comments, encouraging them to send in their ballot “and then go in and vote.”
“So send it in early and then go and vote,” Trump said. “You can’t let them take your vote away; these people are playing dirty politics. So if you have an absentee ballot . . . you send it in, but I’d check it, follow it and go vote.”"
But if you do vote twice intentionally, you may get arrested for committing a felony in NC and serve time in jail, all so Rump can contest his bitter election defeat by Joe Biden
Any legal advice given by a person without a law degree is questionable at least. Rump dispensing legal advice without a law degree could be illegal in some states.
"If the polls were going in Rumps favor now, you'd be posting them every single day."
actually polls are going in Trump's favor
right now, if Trump wins two of PA, OH, & MI
or one of them and one of MN & WI
he wins
and he's ascendant, with momentum, in all five
in January, President Trump will be sworn in for his second term
and we will have a new crisis
how to bend the curve so that mental institutions won't exceed capacity from a wave of liberals suffering nervous breakdowns from their Trump Derangement Syndrome horror
Here’s senator Joni Ernst from Iowa, the latest COVID hot spot in America:
"Reporter: You mentioned something I want to clariy about the COVID numbers and maybe being inflated by health care providers inorder to get more reimbursement. I want to give you maybe an opportunity to clarify your thought here?
Ernst: Well, and again, this is what I’ve heard from health care provider and others. I cant actually look at that information, but I have heard it from health care providers, that they do get reimbursed higher amounts if it’s Covid-related illness or death., So, because of the additional expense for PPE and the treatment that might be necessary for Covid-19.
Reporter: Do you think the numbers are being inflated because of that?
Ernst: That I’m not sure. And again, that’s why I want somebody to really go back and do a good fact check on this. And I don’t have the means to do that …
But I do think that should be discussed because I heard the same thing on the news. You know, traveling across the state today, is that they’re thinking there may be 10,000 or less deaths that were actually singularly COVID-19."
https://wcfcourier.com/news/local/ernst-in-rural-waterloo-says-senate-race-will-be-expensive-close/article_c29ee1b6-be44-5dc7-ab11-7261353cda39.html#tracking-source=home-top-story-1
The assertion that Covid-19 cases are overcounted has been debunked by US health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
But lying and fake suspicions are favorite Rump tactics so of course Nervous Ernst is reaching for them.
RCP Average Iowa Senate race: Greenfield 45.0 Ernst 44.7. +0.3 Greenfleld
RCP Ranking: Toss Up
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/senate/ia/iowa_senate_ernst_vs_greenfield-7072.html
Meanwhile, in the real world Iowa’s coronavirus hospitalizations continue to rise
"The assertion that Covid-19 cases are overcounted has been debunked by US health officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases"
really?
how did he do that?
give us some details how he knew that Covid-19 cases aren't overcounted
"including Dr. Anthony Fauci"
oh, we can trust him
he admitted lying about masks in March and, back in February, he told Trump that COVID is not contagious
"right now, if Trump wins two of PA, OH, & MI
or one of them and one of MN & WI
he wins
and he's ascendant, with momentum, in all five"
He maybe ascendent in your five but he's losing to Biden in all six battleground states at RCP
9/3/20 RCP Top Battlegrounds: Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Florida, Arizona.....Biden 48.3%....Rump 45.1.....Biden +3.2
Wisconsin.....Biden 48.5.....Rump 44.5.....Biden +4.0
North Carolina.....Biden 47.8.....Rump 47.2.....Biden +0.6
Florida.....Biden 49.0.....Rump 45.3.....Biden +3.7
Pennsylvania.....Biden 48.4.....Rump 45.0.....Biden +3.4
Michigan.....Biden47.3.....Rump. 44.7.....Biden+2.6
Arizona.....Biden. 49.0.....Rump. 44.0.....Biden+5.0
Biden leads Rump in your other two states:
RCP Average: Ohio.....Biden 47.0.....Rump 4.7.....Biden +2.3
RCP Average: Minnesota.....Biden 49.3.....Rump 44.0.....Biden +5.3
No wonder Rump is so panicked!!
"he [Dr. Fauci] admitted lying about masks in March and, back in February, he told Trump that COVID is not contagious"
How soon they forget.
In late February and early March as the COVID-19 outbreak began accelerating in the US, hospitals and health facilities experienced severe shortages of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers. In response, experts like Fauci and the US Surgeon General Jerome Adams advised Americans against wearing masks.
"I don't regret anything I said then because in the context of the time in which I said it, it was correct. We were told in our task force meetings that we have a serious problem with the lack of PPEs and masks for the health providers who are putting themselves in harm's way every day to take care of sick people."
"When it became clear that the infection could be spread by asymptomatic carriers who don't know they're infected, that made it very clear that we had to strongly recommend masks."
"And also, it soon became clear that we had enough protective equipment and that cloth masks and homemade masks were as good as masks that you would buy from surgical supply stores. So in the context of when we were not strongly recommending it, it was the correct thing."
Dr. Fauci on Trump criticism: ‘I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances’
"White House coronavirus advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday defended his work advising the public on the coronavirus pandemic, saying he has not misled the American public “under any circumstances.”
The comment came in response to retweets by President Donald Trump on Monday evening. The posts, which have since been removed, accused Fauci of misleading Americans and promoted hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug touted by Trump as a potential treatment for the coronavirus.
“The overwhelming prevailing clinical trials that have looked at the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine have indicated that it is not effective in coronavirus disease,” Fauci said during an interview Tuesday on ABC’s “Good Morning America.” “I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances...
In a scathing op-ed earlier this month, Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro said Fauci “has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.” Similarly, during an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity, Trump said, “Dr. Fauci’s a nice man, but he’s made a lot of mistakes.”
“They’ve been wrong about a lot of things, including face masks,” Trump said. “Maybe they’re wrong, maybe not. A lot of them said don’t wear a mask, don’t wear a mask. Now they’re saying wear a mask. A lot of mistakes were made, a lot of mistakes.”
Even with the recent criticism, Fauci told “The Atlantic” magazine in a recent interview that he tries to avoid politics and hasn’t thought about resigning.
“I think the problem is too important for me to get into those kinds of thoughts and discussions,” he said, according to an edited transcript of the interview. “I just want to do my job. I’m really good at it. I think I can contribute. And I’m going to keep doing it.”
Fauci was appointed director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 1984 and has worked under six U.S. presidents. Infectious disease experts have praised Fauci’s public health efforts against the coronavirus, which has infected more than 16 million people worldwide and killed at least 650,918 as of Tuesday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
Last week, Fauci said it is unlikely the coronavirus will ever be eradicated, contradicting Trump, who said the virus would “disappear.”
No wonder Dr. Fauci's approval ratings are so much higher than liar Rump's.
You can't believe things Rump says because he lies, lies, lies.
"RCP Average: Ohio.....Biden 47.0.....Rump 4.7.....Biden +2.3"
That should read:
RCP Average: Ohio.....Biden 47.0.....Rump 44.7.....Biden +2.3
"of the four national candidates, only Kamala's ancestors owned slaves" said "the points should be succinct and self-evident, not relying on the clicking of links"
Points should be truthful too, an alien concept to GOPers like you.
It's clear you don't like being taught the facts that debunk your lies.
There's an easy solution to your problem.
Don't post lies.
"He maybe ascendent in your five but he's losing to Biden in all six battleground states at RCP"
when you're ascendant, averaged polls are less significant
Trump clearly has momentum
Biden is only an empty vessel representing opposition to Trump
is not well-liked himself, nor does he any positions he's committed t0
the best thing you can say about him is that he is probably lying to the far-left candidates he is kowtowing to
he won't keep his promises to them
"No wonder Rump is so panicked!!"
he's not the one changing his positions and tactics every time he reads a poll
Biden is
good or bad, trump remains himself
"In late February and early March as the COVID-19 outbreak began accelerating in the US, hospitals and health facilities experienced severe shortages of personal protective equipment for healthcare workers. In response, experts like Fauci and the US Surgeon General Jerome Adams advised Americans against wearing masks.
"I don't regret anything I said then because in the context of the time in which I said it, it was correct. We were told in our task force meetings that we have a serious problem with the lack of PPEs and masks for the health providers who are putting themselves in harm's way every day to take care of sick people."
"When it became clear that the infection could be spread by asymptomatic carriers who don't know they're infected, that made it very clear that we had to strongly recommend masks.""
he lied
yes, it had a motive
but he lied
"Dr. Fauci on Trump criticism: ‘I have not been misleading the American public under any circumstances’"
well, he did on masks
"The comment came in response to retweets by President Donald Trump on Monday evening. The posts, which have since been removed, accused Fauci of misleading Americans and promoted hydroxychloroquine, the malaria drug touted by Trump as a potential treatment for the coronavirus."
hydroxychloroquine has been shown to lower the death rate when given early and combined with Zinc
to deny that is a lie
"Fauci was appointed director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in 1984 and has worked under six U.S. presidents."
yes, the gay community demonized during the early days of the AIDS epidemic
"Infectious disease experts have praised Fauci’s public health efforts against the coronavirus,"
interesting that they say Trump has caused a crisis and, yet, they have praised the one he put in charge of the effort
"Last week, Fauci said it is unlikely the coronavirus will ever be eradicated, contradicting Trump, who said the virus would “disappear.”"
word games
Trump obviously meant it would disappear as a crisis
we're almost there now
the overall death rate is close to converging with the average overall death rate before the epidemic
once that happens, crisis over
"Points should be truthful too, an alien concept to GOPers like you."
if you think something I've said is untruthful, let us know what
"It's clear you don't like being taught the facts that debunk your lies."
how could that be clear when it hasn't happened here?
"There's an easy solution to your problem."
what problem?
"Don't post lies."
I don't
TTFers do all the time. Here's a few recent ones:
-Trump told everyone to drink bleach
-Trump said white supremacists are fine people
-rioters are peaceful protesters
-Robert Mueller referred Trump to Congress for prosecution
-Trump colluded with Russia
-voter fraud won't happen with mail-in voting
-Biden would make a good President
-homosexuality is normal
if you would stop all this lying, you might be better equipped to advocate for your ideas
And there we have it, the pirouettes of pussy grabber fan.
Sometimes pundits try to put the 183,000 covid-19 deaths in context by noting that cumulative deaths per capita in the United States are double those of Canada, quintuple those of Germany, 20 times those of Australia, 90 times those of South Korea, and so on.
But let’s be real: Lots of Americans don’t care about international comparisons. So here’s a different way to contextualize this national trauma: The number of lives lost to covid-19 is roughly equal to the death toll of 60 9/11 attacks.
Or, if you’d prefer a more recent ghoulish reference for quantifying mortality, the coronavirus death toll is about 46,000 Benghazis. Somehow, for years, the four tragic deaths in Benghazi consumed the agenda of six GOP-controlled congressional committees and the programming of the most-watched cable news channel. But today, a deadly shock magnified by government ineptitude that has led to 46,000 times as many lives lost “is what it is.”
Similarly, perhaps we could put recent jobs changes into perspective by using much-ballyhooed, Trump-approved benchmarks.
For example, shortly after winning the presidency in 2016, Trump took credit for saving approximately 700 jobs at an Indiana plant run by Carrier. The achievement received oodles of adoring right-wing media coverage, and is still cited by acolytes as evidence of the president’s economic prowess.
Last week alone, though, 1.6 million people newly applied for unemployment benefits. That’s the equivalent of 2,300 Carrier plants.
Then there’s the alleged misuse of taxpayer funds to “pick winners and losers,” a sin right-wing media often attributed to Democrats (especially Barack Obama). There are plenty of Trump-era examples to choose from — subsidies for failing coal plants, say, or farmers harmed by Trump’s own trade wars. But let’s use as our case study the record of a single White House official, Peter Navarro, in bungled contracts related to the pandemic response.
According to congressional investigators, Navarro negotiated a contract that resulted in the government overpaying for ventilators by $500 million. (The contract was canceled Monday.) He also championed a $765 million federal loan to Eastman Kodak to transform it into a drugmaker. (The loan has since unraveled and is the subject of a securities investigation.)
So how many taxpayer dollars was Navarro involved in wasting through these two deals alone? Measured in units that should be familiar to consumers of right-wing news, it’s roughly two Solyndras.
On Wednesday, the Congressional Budget Office projected that the national debt will reach about $22 trillion in the coming fiscal year. This means that, for the first time since right after World War II, the debt would eclipse the size of the overall U.S. economy. For all those fair-weather fiscal hawks who long complained of Obama’s profligacy: The debt increase under Trump during a single term is on track to surpass that under Obama across two terms.
Likewise: For each Hillary Clinton private email scandal (one), there are at least eight senior Trump officials who have reportedly used private email to conduct official business. For every Obama-era incident involving supposed retaliation against political opponents, there are literally dozens of instances of Trump trying to use the power of his office to punish perceived enemies, whether through tweets or regulatory actions. Including, this week, a likely illegal order to block federal funding from going to Democratic-led cities.
Die-hard Trump followers have long been fans of alternative math, so perhaps this mental exercise might prove useful. Or maybe they’ll finally admit that any scale of crisis, failure or scandal remains acceptable, so long as their man is in office.
"Sometimes pundits try to put the 183,000 covid-19 deaths in context by noting that cumulative deaths per capita in the United States are double those of Canada, quintuple those of Germany, 20 times those of Australia, 90 times those of South Korea, and so on."
of course, the honest ones note that there are many countries worse than us, based cumulative deaths per capita, and that the geographic distribution is uneven: the NYC and Boston areas accounted for a large chunk of the deaths
"But let’s be real: Lots of Americans don’t care about international comparisons. So here’s a different way to contextualize this national trauma: The number of lives lost to covid-19 is roughly equal to the death toll of 60 9/11 attacks."
let's be even realer: the 1969 flu caused over 100K deaths in the US, the 1957 flu 116K, the 1918 flu 675K
adjusted for population increase, COVID isn't unusual
never before has the entire society locked down
after the world got spooked out by SARS in the early 21st century, the lockdown strategy was devised by a couple of scientists in New Mexico, who weren't epidemiologists
it's hard to say what would have happened if the lockdowns didn't happen but areas that didn't lock down, like Arkansas and South Dakota, have been hit the least
maybe after we address your inane attempt to put the COVID outbreak "into context", we can waste time with your other absurd comments
Former Vice President Joe Biden, who calls himself “a kid from Scranton,” has lost his wide lead over President Trump in his native Pennsylvania, where the 2020 presidential race is a dead heat.
The latest Rasmussen Reports poll showed that both are tied at 46%.
And, significantly, said the poll analysis, among the 82% of voters who said that they are “certain” how they will vote, Trump holds a 51%-49% advantage.
Rasmussen is the second poll in two days to show the race in Pennsylvania, a key battleground state, has become a tie. The Monmouth University Poll said Wednesday that Biden had a lead of 1 point.
Just two weeks ago, Biden had an 8-point lead in the state. Trump’s surprise 2016 victory came after he upset Hillary Rodham Clinton in traditionally Democratic states including Pennsylvania, which both Trump and Vice President Mike Pence have campaigned in.
It also confirmed another trend that is hurting Biden. Black voters, who Biden is depending on, are not enthusiastic about his candidacy, despite having Sen. Kamala Harris on the ticket. Rasmussen found that just 67% of black people in Pennsylvania support Biden, while 27% back Trump.
The analysis said, "Worrisome for the former vice president is his 67% black support, low for a Democrat, with the incumbent earning 27% of the black vote in Pennsylvania. Trump leads among whites and other minority voters."
In a second survey released by Rasmussen, Trump has a 50% approval rating.
The Rasmussen poll is key because it includes only “likely voters” and uses a ratio of Democrats to Republicans that is more in line with national voting patterns.
For the 42nd month in a row, Trump is smarter than economists surveyed:
Nonfarm payrolls increased by 1.37 million in August and the unemployment rate tumbled to 8.4% as the U.S. economy continued to climb its way out of the pandemic downturn.
The unemployment rate was by far the lowest since the coronavirus shutdown in March, according to Labor Department figures released Friday.
Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been expecting the jobless rate to decline to 9.8% from 10.2% in July.
The Keystone state will be the keystone is the yuuuge Dem defeat in November:
LATROBE, Pennsylvania — President Trump unveiled a union endorsement as he promised to protect blue-collar jobs in a campaign speech in the critical battleground state of Pennsylvania.
He railed against Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s ambivalent stance on fracking and claimed his opponent's embrace of green energy policies could cost hundreds of thousands of jobs in the state.
Both candidates are laser-focused on Pennsylvania, which Trump won by about 44,000 votes in 2016 by flipping some of the counties in the central and western areas of the state.
Trump arrived in Latrobe, close to Pittsburgh, on Thursday evening to deliver a speech in front of hundreds of supporters crowded into an airport hangar.
He paraded his blue-collar credentials with the endorsement of the Boilermakers Local 154 union, which has 1,500 members.
“They work hard, they do great,” he said. “We really put them back to work because this state was in real trouble.”
Earlier, John Hughes, business manager for Boilermakers Local 154, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, praised Trump’s effort to cut regulation in the fossil fuel industries and promote American energy production.
“My members and their families are dependent on these industries, and it is imperative that we continue to develop new opportunities and energy infrastructure in America,” he said.
In a typically free-ranging speech, Trump laid out his familiar attacks on Democrats, accusing them of drifting to the left and being weak on protecting American statues and monuments, before claiming Biden would “appease” domestic terrorists.
“This election is about safety, and this election is about jobs,” he said, pivoting to his main theme, followed by an attack on Biden and his 47 years “betraying” the American people and Pennsylvania workers with lopsided trade deals, supporting China's entry into the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Agreement.
“Joe Biden’s agenda is made in China. My agenda is made in America,” he said to the loudest cheers of the night.
“After years and years of rebuilding other countries, we are finally rebuilding our country. It’s called America first.”
is the best way to delude yourself.
"Cherry picking Rasmussen again is the best way to delude yourself."
two other polls got the same result and Rasmussen is the only pollster to poll likely voter
Donald Trump saved Kenosha. Period.
Despite the ridiculous caption on CNN that said, “Fiery But Mostly Peaceful Protests After Police Shooting” while a reporter stood in front of a burning inferno, the City of Kenosha was filled with violence, fire and mayhem just a week ago. Now, the residents of Kenosha are living in relative peace.
Local Congressman Bryan Steil called the White House asking for federal assistance to restore law and order. Donald Trump answered his call. The president immediately ordered his Chief of Staff Mark Meadows to reach out to the current governor of Wisconsin. Initially, Democratic Gov. Tony Evers didn’t return Mr. Meadows’ call. They got back to Mr. Meadows, but amazingly it was to turn down the offer of help from the federal government.
Only after three nights of chaos and, tragically, two deaths, Mr. Evers accepted help from the White House. Thankfully, things have calmed down in Kenosha since then as the rioters realize local law enforcement now has the support they need to keep the community safe.
The fundamental role of government at any level is to keep people safe. Donald Trump and Bryan Steil passed the test. Joe Biden and Tony Evers failed
Republicans say President Trump’s decision to make Hispanic voters a priority is boosting his support with this critical bloc in public opinion polls and threatening Democratic nominee Joe Biden’s prospects in key battleground states.
Trump received 28% of the Hispanic vote four years ago. But a fresh national poll from Quinnipiac University pegged the president’s support with this demographic at 36%. In swing states that will determine the outcome of the presidential race, that level of Hispanic support could push Trump over the top in a close race.
Republicans credit Trump’s management of the economy, at least before the advent of the coronavirus, for his improving performance with Hispanics. But more significant, they say, has been the Trump campaign’s sustained presence in Hispanic communities and outreach to Hispanic voters since the end of the president’s first campaign at the same time that Democratic insiders have expressed concern that the Biden campaign has not targeted this segment of the electorate as aggressively as it should.
“There’s a saying in Spanish that goes … tell me what you give your attention to, and I’ll tell you who you are,” said Daniel Garza, president of the Libre Initiative, a conservative group that advocates for conservative issues in the Hispanic community. “I think, in a real way, the party ... and the campaign, Latinos for Trump, has really stepped up, and you can see it.”
Trump now leads in Florida
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/fl/florida_trump_vs_biden-6841.html
In recent months, the debate over mail-in balloting has evolved into a battle between Team Trump's worries about fraud and the claims of Democrats and their news media allies that such concerns are an unwarranted effort at disenfranchising voters.
It wasn't always this way.
Fifteen years ago this very month, a bipartisan panel of American statesmen and stateswomen — from ex-President Jimmy Carter and ex-Senate leader Tom Daschle on the left to former Secretary of State James Baker and former House Minority Leader Bob Michel on the right — studied the future of U.S. elections and issued strong words of caution that the expansion of mail-in voting that began a few years earlier in Oregon posed real fraud risks, especially in close elections.
"To improve ballot integrity, we propose that federal, state, and local prosecutors issue public reports on their investigations of election fraud, and we recommend federal legislation to deter or prosecute systemic efforts to deceive or intimidate voters," the Commission on Federal Election Reform urged in 2005. "States should not discourage legal voter registration or get-out-the-vote activities, but they need to do more to prevent voter registration and absentee ballot fraud."
Moreover, the commission strongly urged that voter identification was a key to preventing cheating, something some liberals today claim provides xenophobic "new barriers to the ballot box."
"The electoral system cannot inspire public confidence if no safeguards exist to deter or detect fraud or to confirm the identity of voters. Photo IDs currently are needed to board a plane, enter federal buildings, and cash a check. Voting is equally important," the commission said.
The commission, created by American University and supported by several liberal nonprofits, looked at ways of increasing voter participation and reducing fraud and saved some of its strongest words of concern for mail-in balloting, which was just beginning en masse in Oregon.
"While vote by mail appears to increase turnout for local elections, there is no evidence that it significantly expands participation in federal elections,” the commission wrote. "Moreover, it raises concerns about privacy, as citizens voting at home may come under pressure to vote for certain candidates, and it increases the risk of fraud."
Mercer County, Pennsylvania
Attending the annual Civil War reenactment here this past weekend, I half-expected a mob of crazed progressives to show up shouting “RACISTS!!!” at the mock Confederate soldiers. But this was clearly a Trump crowd, as evidenced by the guy next to me wearing a red-white-and-blue t-shirt heralding “GOD GUNS TRUMP.” He was hardly atypical.
Also evident throughout this territory are, frankly, an extraordinary number of Trump-Pence signs — far more, it seems, than even in November 2016, when Trump beat Hillary in Pennsylvania. On my rural street alone, nearly every other house has a Trump sign or flag. Take a left onto the main road and there are massive signs on buildings, like this one: “BUY AMERICAN HIRE AMERICAN VOTE TRUMP.” Think about that. Thirty years ago, a comparable sign here in the Rustbelt would have urged: “BUY AMERICAN HIRE AMERICAN VOTE DEMOCRAT.” Not anymore.
“There’s no question, I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris stated to loud liberal applause in a CNN presidential townhall on Climate Change in September 2019. In the state of Pennsylvania, that’s an outrageous position for a politician.
Most striking, on my way to the office, just blocks from the old, abandoned Bessemer plant, I pass two flags (thus far) that insist, “TRUMP 2020: NO MORE BULLS**T.”
Two months ago, Donald Trump’s numbers in Pennsylvania didn’t look good. Now, given this sudden grassroots groundswell, I’m convinced Biden is the one in trouble. That’s no B.S. And it’s Biden’s leftward lurch that has hurt him, especially with the highly ill-advised pick of Kamala Harris, who folk in this area see as a West Coast leftist whose “progressive” bona fides include an unwavering opposition to fracking.
Yes, fracking. Do not underestimate the significance of that issue to this region, and to the kind of guys posting the signs I’m describing. These guys are not white-collar businessmen. No, these are the blue collar, big labor, union hardhats that the Democratic Party once owned. They are totally for Trump.
Fracking is a relatively new procedure for oil and natural gas production, based on a process of hydraulic fracturing that extracts gas and oil from shale rock. It has been a huge job producer and energy saver for countless citizens throughout Pennsylvania, especially in western Pennsylvania (and for eastern Ohio as well). For thousands of young men, whose fathers and grandfathers and great grandfathers worked in the mills and the mines, these jobs have been a lifeline.
“Pennsylvania is one of the most robust economies in the country,” Jeff Nobers, executive director of the Builders Guild of Western Pa., told the New York Times. “And it’s mostly fueled by, yeah, the gas industry, the burgeoning petrochemical industry, manufacturing.” The Times also quoted Jim Kunz, business manager of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 66: “I can tell you, in 2010, my local was at about 10% unemployment. Natural gas started to come here in about 2010. Within a year to a year and a half, we went from 10% unemployment to actually over-employment. I had to look for people. We went to full employment, and we’ve been at or near full employment, and occasionally over employed.… If we end up with a Democratic candidate that supports a fracking ban, I am going to tell my members that they either don’t vote or vote for the other guy.”
Pennsylvania workers realize this. Pennsylvania citizens realize this. Pennsylvania voters realize this.
Joe Biden has struggled to stake a position on fracking that appeals to moderates and to liberals, knowing how crucial Pennsylvania is to his campaign. His position plainly has not been clear, and was subject to a tune-up again this past week. Like on so many issues during the primary (see: Biden and the Hyde Amendment on abortion), Biden very disappointingly allowed his party’s extremists to push him into hard-left stances that he now will regret.
“No more, no new fracking,” said Biden in March, alongside Bernie Sanders. That remark has been charitably interpreted by Biden apologists as no new licenses under a Biden administration — i.e., he would leave the door open to existing fracking, but, by golly, no more after that!
Kamala Harris, however, opposes fracking, period. “There’s no question, I’m in favor of banning fracking,” Harris stated to loud liberal applause in a CNN presidential townhall on Climate Change in September 2019.
In the state of Pennsylvania, that’s an outrageous position for a politician. It’s not only a job killer but a vote killer, which is why Biden scurried to Pittsburgh this week to insist, “I am not banning fracking. Let me say that again. I am not banning fracking no matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me.”
This is Donald Trump’s fault, Joe?
President Donald Trump once again told Americans to vote twice during a rally in Pennsylvania, his latest effort to undermine an expected surge in mail-in ballots this November.
Speaking to a crowd at a nearly two-hour rally in Latrobe, Pennsylvania, the president criticized efforts to keep voters safe during the election amid ongoing concerns about the coronavirus pandemic, which has infected more than 6 million people in the U.S.
“These mail-in ballots are a disgrace, and they know it,” Trump said Thursday of states that have extended absentee voting provisions. He went on to urge members of the crowd to send in their absentee ballots, then suggested they vote again in person and leave it up to election officials to weed out the duplicates.
Of course, voting twice is illegal.
And when voting officials have to throw out duplicate votes, Rump will say "See they're throwing out Republican votes!" Angering his base, and throwing the election results into doubt, if not completely undermining them. And if he doesn't actually win the vote, he will claim it was because of election fraud - which he himself promoted.
Sounds like a perfect plan for a fascist to steal an election and keep himself in power - or at the very least, sow chaos in the electorate.
The man has a plan.
America will suffer for it.
Mining Industry Pro on Trump’s Promises To Bring Back Coal: ‘He’s Lying’
More Coal Plants Shut in Two Years Than in Obama’s First Term
WASHINGTON – For more than 50 years, Art Sullivan has worked as a coal miner, mine manager and industry consultant in the U.S. and around the world. When CNN asked him about President Trump’s promises to miners that he will save their jobs, Sullivan was blunt:
“He's trying to get their votes,” said Sullivan, of Washington, Pa. “He’s lying to them.”
Despite Trump’s repeated promises as a candidate and as president that he would bring back the dying coal industry, more plants have closed during his first two years in office than during former President Obama’s entire first term.
“No group of Americans has been lied to more often by President Trump than coal miners and their families,” said EWG president Ken Cook. “Clinging to the promises of a President who peddles in falsehoods every day will not bring coal jobs back.”
The pace of coal plant shutdowns has not slowed since the Trump administration announced the rollback of key Obama-era regulations to cap smokestack pollution from coal plants and the U.S. pullout from the Paris climate change accord.
The administration has made repeal of the Obama rules to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from coal plants the centerpiece of its failed ploy to save the industry, arguing these efforts will reduce the economic burden on the industry and allow it to flourish once more.
Trump’s dishonesty with miners started during his run for the White House.
At a May 2016 campaign rally in Charleston, W.Va., Trump told the crowd: “If I win, we’re going to bring those miners back. You’re going to be so proud of your president.”
“For those miners, get ready, because you’re going to be working your asses off,” candidate Trump told the crowd at the end of the rally.
At a November 2018 rally in West Virginia, President Trump told the state’s coal miners: “You’re back in business.”
But the following month, the federal Energy Information Administration released projections that showed coal consumption by utilities had dropped to its lowest levels since 1979. The use of coal by the U.S. power sector dropped 4 percent in 2018, to levels not seen since Jimmy Carter was president. And the EIA predicts that decline will double to 8 percent in 2019.
The rapid decline of the coal industry as the leading electricity source in the U.S. is not triggered by federal regulations but by economics. Coal, as well as nuclear power, simply can’t compete with cheaper, cleaner and safer renewable energy from solar and wind.
Instead of false promises, Art Sullivan told CNN, “What you need to say to coal miners is ‘We’re going to figure out a way to give you better, safer, healthier jobs.’”
And statistics show that the way to do that is through renewable energy.
EWG’s analysis of reports last summer from the nonprofits Clean Energy Trust and E2 found that in the Great Lakes region – including the coal mining states of Illinois, Indiana and Ohio – renewable energy jobs outnumber those in coal and nuclear by more than four to one. As of 2017, an estimated 160,000 clean energy jobs had been created in the rural Midwest.
For comparison, this chart shows coal mining jobs in the US over the years:
https://fred.stlouisfed.org/series/CES1021210001
JAN 2017: 50,900 Start of Rump administration
SEP 2017: 52,300 Peak during Rump administration
APR 2020: 41,900 Lowest level in entire dataset, starting at 1985
AUG 2020: 45,600 Most recent data available
Big, beautiful coal.
Former Michigan governor Rick Snyder said “I'm an American first, before I'm a partisan political person or belonging to a party. I believe in civility. I believe that success happens in this nation when we all work together for the common good. And I believe Joe Biden can deliver on that.”
Snyder was encouraged by his children and other young adults to voice his support of Biden. He said, “I got some good advice from some young people on this one.”
“We need to take care of everyone because we need to create an environment where it's not about someone winning and someone losing,” said Snyder. “We need an America where we can win together. Where we find common ground. We grow the economy together. We benefit together. And I believe Joe Biden can deliver on that.”
The Commander in Chief said, “I never called … John a loser and swear on whatever, or whoever, I was asked to swear on, that I never called our great fallen soldiers anything other than HEROES."
That's at least one more Rump lie easily proven because President Bonespurs himself tweeted those exact words about Vietnam Veteran and hero, John McCain back in 2015:
Donald J. Trump
@realDonaldTrump
“Donald Trump: John McCain Is ‘A Loser’
ALSO "NOT A WAR HERO" || By @FITNEWS ||
Billionaire real estate mogul Donald Trump's "say...
5:45 PM · Jul 18, 2015
President Never-Served avoided doing his duty in the United States Armed Services and has disparaged veterans too many times.
The bonespur faker isn't fit to be our Commander in Chief.
Hmmm, you'd think old Phoney Boney would have mentioned his bone spurs while explaining his tiny step little old lady walk down the ramp at West Point.
A top correspondent for Fox News confirmed part of the Atlantic's report about disparaging remarks President Trump allegedly made about fallen soldiers.
The report by the magazine's Editor-in-Chief Jeffrey Goldberg, published Thursday and reliant on anonymous sources, said Trump referred to fallen soldiers as "losers" and dead Marines as "suckers" during an overseas trip in 2018.
The report also claimed the president refused to visit the Aisne-Marne American Cemetery in France, saying it was a place "filled with losers" and that he didn't want his hair to be ruined by rain. In addition, the report said Trump asked staff planning for a military parade to keep wounded veterans away.
Jennifer Griffin, Fox's national security correspondent, said on Friday that two former senior Trump administration officials confirmed to her that Goldberg's report was true in regard to disparaging veterans and not wanting to visit the cemetery.
While she did not specifically confirm the "losers" and "suckers" comments, she reported that Trump said that anyone who fought in the Vietnam War was a "sucker," citing a former senior U.S. official. The "suckers" comment alleged in the Atlantic's report was in regard to U.S. marines in World War I.
"My source, a former Trump administration official, told me when the president spoke about the Vietnam War, he said, 'It was a stupid war. Anyone who went was a sucker,'" Griffin said on Fox's Bill Hemmer Reports. "The president would say about American veterans 'what’s in it for them? They don't make any money.' The source said it was a character flaw of the president. He could not understand why someone would die for their country. Not worth it."
Regarding the 100th anniversary of World War I, Griffin said a source told her Trump was not in a good mood that day and asked why he had to visit two cemeteries as opposed to one.
"According to this former official, the president was not in a good mood," Griffin said. "French President [Emmanuel] Macron had said something that made him mad. He questioned why he had to go to two cemeteries. 'Why do I have to do two?' His staff explained he could cancel, but he was warned they, the press, 'are going to kill you for this.' The president was mad as a hornet when they did, according to this source."
The source told Griffin the president could have driven to the Aisne-Marne cemetery without any kind of security risk, but he "just didn't want to go."...
"The man has a plan.
America will suffer for it."
the solution is simple: have everyone vote in person
I know, I know
it's too dangerous
it's so touching, Dems are always thinking of others
the solution is simple: install voting machines in front of Costco
everyone is in line there anyway!
the only problem is that it would mess up Dem plans to buy voting ballots from poor people and fill them out for them
but Dems can find another way to cheat
they're always resourceful when it comes to dishonesty
"Big, beautiful coal."
you might want to warn coal miners that Biden secretly wants to save coal
because they're convinced he wants to end it
"I'm an American first, before I'm a partisan political person or belonging to a party. I believe in civility. I believe that success happens in this nation when we all work together for the common good. And I believe Joe Biden can deliver on that.”
why didn't Biden speak up for civility and unity when Dems were executing their Russian hoax?
National security adviser Robert O’Brien on Friday said he agrees with the assessment from Attorney General William Barr and others that China is more aggressive in its efforts to meddle in the election in November.
“Yes I agree with him, 100%,” he said at a White House press briefing.
Barr was asked on CNN which country was more assertive and aggressive in election meddling.
“I believe it’s China,” Barr said. “Because I’ve seen the intelligence, that’s what I’ve concluded.”
Last month, the intelligence community warned that a variety of countries are seeking to influence policy and elections -- with Iran seeking to undermine President Trump and Russia working to denigrate Democratic nominee Joe Biden. Officials also said China “prefers” that Trump does not win in November.
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told Fox News last month that China poses “a greater national security threat economically, militarily and technologically to the United States than any other nation.
“That includes threats of election influence and interference,” Ratcliffe had said
WASHINGTON ― President Donald Trump’s numerous lies on military issues, from claims of delivering historic pay raises to providing brand new ships and planes, do not appear to be working with service members, with polling suggesting he could lose this traditional Republican voting bloc this November.
Democratic nominee Joe Biden leads Trump, 41% to 37%, in a survey of more than 1,000 subscribers to the Military Times. Trump held a 20-percentage-point lead over Hillary Clinton in the same poll before the 2016 election.
In the recent survey, Trump may even have caught a break because it was taken several weeks before Thursday’s Atlantic magazine article revealed new details of his disdain for those who serve in the military. Trump called service members who get injured or killed “suckers” and “losers,” according to the article, and he called off a planned 2018 visit to a cemetery in France where 1,800 World War I U.S. troops are buried because he didn’t want the rain to ruin his hair.
The weak polling numbers for Trump also were recorded despite his repeated claims that he has done more for the military than any previous president, including providing “brand new” ships, planes, tanks and rockets, the largest budgets, the highest pay raises and programs like VA Choice, which lets veterans seek private doctors if the wait periods at Veterans Affairs clinics and hospitals are too long.
“I got soldiers brand new equipment, brand new jets, brand new rockets, brand new ― $2.5 trillion. I did more for the military than any president that’s ever had this office,” he told Fox News in July.
“I’ve done more, I think, than almost anybody to help our military, to get the budgets of our military, to get the pay raises for our military,” Trump said again late Thursday night on the tarmac at Joint Base Andrew after returning from a rally near Pittsburgh.
In fact, each one of his claims is at best an exaggeration and at worst a lie. While his total military budgets are larger than those in predecessor Barack Obama’s second term when House Republicans insisted on cutting spending, they are smaller than those in Obama’s first term, after adjusting for inflation. Similarly, the pay raises he brags about are the cost-of-living increases that have been standard for years.
New ships, planes and other hardware take many years to design and build, so new equipment coming online now is thanks to Obama or his predecessor, Republican George W. Bush. And the VA Choice Act, which Trump has now lied about over 150 times, was passed in 2014 and signed into law by Obama.
Trump has peddled other falsehoods about the armed forces, including the notion that they had no ammunition at the end of Obama’s presidency or, more bizarrely, that the F-35 fighter is actually invisible, rather than difficult to detect on radar.
He also tried to claim as successes events that were clear failures ― including the very first military operation he approved just five days after taking office: a counterterrorism raid into Yemen he authorized over a social dinner with then-chief strategist Stephen Bannon and son-in-law Jared Kushner – rather than with his National Security Council staff. It killed 25 civilians, including nine children under 13, as well as Navy SEAL William “Ryan” Owens, in addition to losing a $75 million tilt-rotor Osprey helicopter.
Trump was berated for that decision by Owens’ father at the return of the SEAL’s body at Dover Air Force Base on Feb. 1, 2017, rattling him so badly that he stopped attending “dignified transfer” ceremonies for two years. As of today, three-and-a-half years into his presidency, Trump has only attended four such ceremonies, of the 96 that have taken place.
“As we see the American public tire of the constant, absurd lying from Donald Trump, we’re seeing the same from our military,” said Jon Soltz, an Iraq War veteran with the progressive group VoteVets. “Our troops know they never ran out of ammunition. Who in the military does he think he’s kidding? It’s just patently insulting to service members to be lied to.”
“What I hear consistently from military families is that they know it’s all fake. The pay raises were no bigger than any in the past and many families have been pushed out of using military health care facilities so they’re paying copays off post,” said Fred Wellman, a retired Army helicopter pilot with 22 years of service who now works with the anti-Trump Lincoln Project. “They don’t believe the lies because they are living it every day. You can’t fool people who are living day to day with the truth.”
Wellman added that the Atlantic article is likely to erode Trump’s support even further. “I think this one cuts to the core of our values and culture,” he said. “Yeah, there are a lot of loud voices screaming ‘fake news,’ but I am being pummeled with fellow veterans who are outraged. I’ve never seen this much anger before.”
How much, exactly, the new revelations might hurt Trump in November are unclear. His support among service members is already at a historic low in modern presidential elections for a Republican, and particularly a GOP incumbent.
In 2004, still in the shadow of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, exit polls showed that Bush still won the vote of service members and veterans, 57% to 41%, over Bronze Star and Purple Heart recipient John Kerry, the Democratic nominee.
In Trump’s 2016 win, exit polls showed he won the military vote 60% to 34% over Clinton, even though Trump avoided the Vietnam War by claiming non-existent “bone spurs” to get a medical deferment.
That support, however, has been eroding steadily, notwithstanding Trump’s repeated claims of how much the military loves him. Upon taking office, service members surveyed by the Military Times approved of him, 46% to 37%. That had fallen to 44%-43% by 2018, and sank deep into negative territory in the latest poll, with 50% disapproving and only 38% approving.
Rosalinda Maury, director of Applied Research and Analytics at Syracuse University’s Institute of Veterans and Military Families, said that while the military is absolutely a conservative institution, the poll is revealing a “disagreement with policy and decision-making as it relates to national security.”
According to the Military Times survey, service members oppose Trump on his intervention in the military justice system by pardoning officers in controversial war-crimes cases, on his failure to confront Russia about the reported bounties for the killing of U.S. troops, and of his desire to deploy active-duty military to control protests in U.S. cities.
The publication, working with Maury’s group, surveys its subscribers, a cohort that tends to include officers and enlisted personnel who view the military as a career, rather than people who join with the intention of remaining just a few years.
Peter Feaver, a political science professor at Duke University who served on the National Security Council staff under both Democratic President Bill Clinton and Republican Bush, said Trump’s “brand” of flouting establishment norms does not help with an organization like the military.
“The military as an institution is very establishment and built on norms,” he said.
Apart from disagreements over policy, though, are more pragmatic considerations. When Trump could get neither Mexico nor Congress to pay for a wall he had promised his supporters he would build along the southern border and raided funds from the military budget instead, it was military families who felt that pain, Wellman said.
In Fort Campbell, Kentucky, home of the 101st Airborne, that pain involved seeing money that had been slated for a school head south to build steel fencing.
“He took money for a new middle school and sent it to build a wall,” Wellman said. “So at some point, military families do notice. And they are. They get it. They’re not important to him.”
"the solution is simple: install voting machines in front of Costco"
Here’s a reason to go to a National Basketball Association (NBA) arena on November 3, 2020.
It doesn’t have to do with dribbling whether it’s on the court or for “National Sandwich Day,” which happens to be on November 3 if you haven’t already marked it with mustard on your calendar. No, that day, NBA teams will be offering their facilities as voting locations for the 2020 U.S. general election. According to a joint statement from NBA Players Association (NBPA) Executive Director Michele Roberts and NBA Commissioner Adam Silver: “In every city where the league franchise owns and controls the arena property, team governors will continue to work with local elections officials to convert the facility into a voting location for the 2020 general election to allow for a safe in-person voting option for communities vulnerable to COVID.”
So it’s natural to wonder what will happen come November 3. Voting may conjure up images of waiting in long lines and stepping into enclosed indoor voting booths that have been used by numerous other people. Without enough precautions and assurances, you may be wary about going to vote. After all, aren’t politicians supposed to make you sick after you vote for them, rather than when you are voting?
Therefore, it will be important to have as many safer voting options as possible. Election officials should be taking all the necessary infection prevention precautions. This includes providing enough space for you to socially distance yourself from others throughout the voting process, including while you’re waiting in line. Remember, social distancing means staying at least one Denzel apart from everyone else. (A Denzel is six feet, since that’s the approximate height of Denzel Washington. A Denzel is also equivalent to a Gosling, as in a Ryan Gosling, or British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wearing a four-inch tall brick on his head.) Additionally, voting locations should keep voting booths clean and disinfected, enforce face covering use, and offer hand washing and hygiene options.
Having a reasonably safe place to vote may be no problem if you live in a wealthy voting district and can take your limousine or hot air balloon to the voting location. If getting enough Snickerdoodle in your Caramel Snickerdoodle Macchiato was your biggest cause of stress before the pandemic, then chances are that voting won’t be too much of a hardship for you in 2020.
But what if you live in a neighborhood that doesn’t have the resources to keep things safe? What if your typical voting location is at a crowded indoor location? What if you have to travel significant distances in unsafe conditions to the location? What if your standard voting location isn’t even open because of the pandemic? Wouldn’t it help to have more voting locations that have a little more space or maybe even a lot more space?
Gee, what kind of location has lots of space, has plenty of places to wash your hands, and is used to dealing with crowds? How about sports arenas and stadiums?
So there probably won’t be people using T-shirt launchers to give you the ballots or the jumbotron showing you voting in slow motion. Nonetheless, this plan is pretty cool NBA arena news, even bigger than the 2018 American Airlines Center decision to have avocado-centric concession stands. Thus, it’s not surprising that the announcement garnered praise on social media.
Hard to argue with these steps by NBA teams because when it comes to sandwiches, underwear sizes, and ways to vote, more options tends to be better than fewer options. Unless, of course, for some reason, you don’t want more people to vote.
The NBA plans to help the vote in other ways too. The joint statement offered the following as well: “If a deadline has passed, team governors will work with local elections officials to find another election-related use for the facility, including but not limited to voter registration and ballot receiving boards.”
The statement emerged after meetings between NBA players, coaches, and team governors. The 2020 NBA playoffs in the Orlando, Florida, social bubble have been on hold since Wednesday when NBA players protested against the police shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wisconsin, by sitting out of Wednesday's scheduled NBA playoff games. Looks like the meetings were productive with today’s joint statement and NBA Playoff games scheduled to resume tomorrow.
The joint statement also indicated that the NBA and its players will “establish a social justice coalition, with representatives from players, coaches and governors, that will be focused on a broad range of issues, including increasing access to voting, promoting civic engagement, and advocating for meaningful police and criminal justice reform.” Also, expect “advertising spots in each NBA playoff game dedicated to promoting greater civic engagement in national and local elections and raising awareness around voter access and opportunity.”
These moves by the NBA and NBAPA are important public health moves. Social justice is certainly good for the overall health of society. (Although, people perpetrating social injustice may not be so happy about it. Maybe they can form a “who are we going to oppress now,” support group.) Offering more safer voting options can prevent further transmission of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronvairus 2 (SARS-CoV2). Besides being a month with “National Calzone Day”, “National Vanilla Cupcake Day,” and the very specific “National Pizza with the Works Except Anchovies Day”, November is when Fall weather begins segueing into Winter weather. That means November may not be a great month to avoid many respiratory viruses or to seek pizza with anchovies. Since flu activity tends to pick up around that time, the concern is that SARS-CoV2 transmission may really surge as well. Who knows what will be happening around then and whether lock-downs will be necessary again.
Therefore, it will be important to expand voting options, offering more and safer locations as well as mail-in options. Providing more options to vote is in general a good thing. The more opportunities to vote, the more people will vote, increasing the chances that the leaders elected will actually be whom the entire country actually wants. Unless, of course, for some reason, you don’t want this to happen.
"Therefore, it will be important to expand voting options, offering more and safer locations as well as mail-in options."
expand?
every person has an opportunity to vote and always has
"mail-in" voting raises the possibility, indeed, the probability of fraud
people who previously didn't think it was worth the trouble to vote will be happy to give their ballots to Dem operatives who can fill 'em out and send 'em in
a commission that included Jimmy Carter concluded mail-in voting risks this
and there are now people who claim they have done this
of course, Dems say we can't just take their word for it
but they are happy to do that when a former disgruntled employee makes outrageous claims that Trump privately insulted the military
"Providing more options to vote is in general a good thing."
when it is assured that citizens are voting
every fraudulent vote cancels out the vote of an American citizen
voting in unused arenas is great
the intent of mail-in voting is to facilitate fraud
"The more opportunities to vote, the more people will vote, increasing the chances that the leaders elected will actually be whom the entire country actually wants."
decreases that chance
we have a thriving democracy
"the entire country" never wants the same thing
that claim is only made in dictatorships like North Korea
if you actually mean most of the country, Trump won most of America except for the coasts in 2016 and Dems have been trying to overturn that for almost four years
not they will have an opportunity to do that legitimately, by voting, and they are trying to game that
based on the trends, it looks like "the entire country" is going to reject them dumb Dems again
you thought you could get away with defunding the police with riots going on and trying to take down Jefferson and Washington?
Look at all this right wing crapolo the FOX and Moonie Rag confirmation of Rump's disgusting treatment of soldiers who made the ultimate sacrifice for the USA has brought out in the MAGA hatted troll!!!
It sucks to be you -- a supporter of the pussy grabbing US military insulting loser.
"if you actually mean most of the country, Trump won most of America except for the coasts in 2016 and Dems have been trying to overturn that for almost four years"
No, Rump won most of the land - he didn't win most of the voters.
By "most of the country" most people mean most of the voters - not most of the empty space thanks to the electoral college.
"not they will have an opportunity to do that legitimately, by voting, and they are trying to game that"
And yet it is the Rumpster actually TELLING people to vote twice - which is fraud and punishable by jail time. Why would any elected leader do this? What kind of moron is he?
"based on the trends, it looks like "the entire country" is going to reject them dumb Dems again"
You always find a "trend" somewhere to claim republicans are going to win, no matter what the trends or polls are actually doing. Your prognostication skills are absolutely worthless, because in your world, your candidate is ALWAYS going to win. Why don't you tell us again how Huckaby is going to win...
...or about McCain or Romney's inevitable win. You could be replaced be a rock with "R" painted on the bottom of it. When we wanted to know who you thought would win, we could just ask the rock, turn it over, feign surprise, and say "oh, the republicans are going to win."
"you thought you could get away with defunding the police with riots going on and trying to take down Jefferson and Washington?"
Sounds terrible, until you realize that Rump's staggering ineptitude has made America the Greatest loser in the world in COVID-19 deaths, with 1,000 people a day still dying from it. But you keep worrying about those statues.
Why don't you tell us again why Hillary's missing e-mails are such a threat to our democracy, or why the 4 people who died in Benghazi make her unfit for office.
Or how she and George Soros are running a pedophile ring out of the basement of a DC pizza parlor.
There are now 3.3 times as US citizens who died this past 7 months from Coronavirus as there were US casualties in the 9 years of the Vietnam War.
One has to wonder if Rump is trying to win by killing off those unlikely to vote for him.
He himself said "I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn't lose voters." He knew then (Jan 2016) that people in New York City aren't going to vote for him.
He is in no hurry to stop the virus.
If you want a republican party after 2020, you should vote for Biden too. With some luck you might be able to purge Rump and come up with a reasonable candidate in 2024. Otherwise, you'll be stuck with a disastrous cult of personality, and what was left of the republican party will just be a bunch of obsequious toadies helping him run America like a mafia boss.
"the only problem is that it would mess up Dem plans to buy voting ballots from poor people and fill them out for them
but Dems can find another way to cheat"
2019: McCrae Dowless, the political operative at the center of the 9th District election fraud case, was arrested Wednesday after being indicted on charges related to collecting absentee ballots in the 2018 primary and 2016 election.
Dowless, 63, faces three felony charges of obstruction of justice, two charges of conspiracy to commit obstruction of justice and two charges of possession of absentee ballot.
The indictment from Wake County District Attorney Lorrin Freeman said Dowless’ actions “served to undermine the integrity of the absentee ballot process and the public’s confidence in the outcome of the electoral process.”
The charges represent the first criminal prosecution in the absentee ballot fraud case that rocked the 9th Congressional District and resulted in the first new election ordered for fraud in North Carolina history. And according to Freeman, the charges may not be the last...
Read more here: https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article226864674.html#storylink=cpy
McCrea Dowless was GOP.
And not only did he cheat at voting in the swing state of NC, costing his GOP candidate his election, Dowless has been. indicted this year for Social Security fraud.
Political operative McCrae Dowless accused of Social Security fraud in new indictment
Read more here: https://www.newsobserver.com/news/politics-government/article242174111.html#storylink=cpy
And don't forget:
At the center of the scandal was the Republican operative Harris had employed in Bladen County, Leslie McCrae Dowless, whose operation, according to investigators, included filling out at least a thousand mail-in-ballot requests, many without voters’ knowledge, and deploying a team of friends, family members, and other associates to pose as election officials and collect them. Votes for Democrats were allegedly tossed out, and everything else was cast—or altered—for Harris. Among the important questions to be answered at the hearings was what Harris knew about Dowless’s scheme, and when he knew about it...
Ever since the scandal broke, in late November, 2018, Harris’s son, John, a twenty-nine-year-old federal prosecutor in Raleigh, had restricted contact with his father, speaking to him only at holiday gatherings and after Harris was hospitalized for a severe infection, in early 2019...
“I thought what [Dowless] was doing was illegal, and I was right,” John said during his testimony. Dowless, he added, had told his parents and other campaign associates that “he wasn’t doing any of this, and they believed him.” Seated near the front of the room, about twenty-five feet away from his son, Harris placed three fingers over his mouth and silently wept.
Read more here: https://www.newyorker.com/news/dispatch/the-tearful-drama-of-north-carolinas-election-fraud-hearings
President Donald Trump “will do anything and everything” to win the 2020 election, his former personal lawyer Michael Cohen has warned in a new interview.
The president may manipulate the ballots and “even go so far as to start a war in order to prevent himself from being removed from office” if he loses, Cohen told NBC’s Lester Holt in a clip released Friday.
“My biggest fear is that there will not be a peaceful transition of power in 2020,” the former attorney added.
Cohen’s comments came ahead of Tuesday’s publication of his tell-all memoir about the years he spent as Trump’s fixer, titled “Disloyal: A Memoir: The True Story of the Former Personal Attorney to President Donald J. Trump.”
The book reportedly contains salacious details about Trump and contains details about an alleged incident involving “golden showers in a sex club in Vegas,” according to the foreword written by Cohen.
The White House has dismissed the tell-all as “fan-fiction.”
Cohen was in 2018 sentenced to three years in prison for crimes including lying to Congress amid the Russia investigation and violating campaign finance laws. He served the first year in prison before being released under house arrest because of the coronavirus pandemic.
Cohen’s full interview with Holt will air on NBC Tuesday.
It's nice to know the president has so many ex-employees that think so highly of him.
President Donald Trump may soon be angrily tweeting insults to Fox News after the conservative news network corroborated reports that he has shown contempt for the military.
On Thursday, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg published a report alleging Trump referred to U.S. service members who died in World War I as “losers” and “suckers.”
The story by the magazine’s editor-in-chief was based largely on what he identified as “four people with firsthand knowledge” of the matter; quickly confirming it independently, based on anonymous sources, were The Associated Press and The Washington Post.
On Friday, Fox News risked upsetting the easily angered president by reporting that two former Trump administration officials had confirmed details in the story.
In addition, national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin quoted one official who said Trump called the Vietnam War “a stupid war” and that “anyone who went was a sucker.’”
Jennifer Griffin
@JenGriffinFNC
Replying to @JenGriffinFNC
According to one former senior Trump administration official: "When the President spoke about the Vietnam War, he said, 'It was a stupid war. Anyone who went was a sucker'."
4:08 PM · Sep 4, 2020
Rump, of draft age during the war, received medical exemptions due to "bone spurs" in his feet.
Considering Fox News typically is so supportive of the president that some wags have called it “state TV,” many Twitter users took note that one of its reporters was corroborating a negative Trump story.
As a result, “Even Fox News” became a trending term Friday afternoon.
Skepticism also abounded that Griffin’s reportage of Trump’s comments would have any effect on his supporters.
Retired Capt. Chesley “Sully” Sullenberger, America’s favorite airline pilot, is “disgusted” by the “current occupant of the White House,” he tweeted Friday in an uncharacteristic attack on President Donald Trump.
The easygoing pilot, who safely landed a crippled commercial airliner in the Hudson River 11 years ago to save every one of his 155 passengers, erupted over a report Thursday in The Atlantic about Trump’s shocking insults labeling fallen service members as “losers” and “suckers.”
As part of his nine-tweet attack, Sullenberger began by honoring his father, who, like him, was a war veteran. “His generation saved the world from fascism,” he wrote. Sullenberger, an Air Force veteran, volunteered for military service during the Vietnam War.
“I have long known that serving a cause greater than oneself is the highest calling, whether in the military or in civilian life,” he added in a following tweet. “And I have always tried to be a voice of reason and to speak in a measured way.”
But “this situation calls for a much more direct approach. It is time to call out egregious behavior for what it is,” he flatly stated.
“For the first time in American history, a president has repeatedly shown utter and vulgar contempt and disrespect for those who have served and died serving our country,” Sullenberger noted.
“While I am not surprised, I am disgusted by the current occupant of the Oval Office. He has repeatedly and consistently shown himself to be completely unfit for and to have no respect for the office he holds,” Sullenberger added.
“He cannot understand selflessness because he is selfish. He cannot conceive of courage because he is a coward.”
He concluded: “We owe it not only to those who have served and sacrificed for our nation, but to ourselves and to succeeding generations to vote him out.”
Sullenberger is a registered Republican who was approached by the GOP in 2009 about running for Congress. He endorsed Democratic nominee Joe Biden for president earlier this year.
Rump said it. Rump knows John Kelly knows he said it. So, like all the other troops he’s demeaned and degraded as losers and suckers and the like, he’s now doing it to John Kelly. Rump might as well have just confirmed the story.
But let’s ask ourselves what kind of person would say these things to a retired 4 Star General who lost his son on the battlefield. I think it’s a power trip, saying these grotesque things to someone he knows will have to sit there and take it or make a huge gesture and walk off the job. I’m sure he knew it was offensive to Kelly. That was the point.
Sociopath.
Two members of the 417 Second Amendment Militia group from Missouri traveling to Kenosha, Wisconsin, were arrested Thursday by federal officials and charged with illegally possessing a cache of weapons.
Michael M. Karmo and Cody E. Smith were separately charged and ordered to be temporarily detained until their bail hearings on September 8 at 10:30 a.m. in front of Magistrate Judge Stephen C. Dries.
Karmo, 40 and Smith, 33, were roommates for a month, worked together and were members of the 417 Second Amendment Militia, a pro-law enforcement group, according to the criminal complaint.
They traveled by car to Kenosha to "see for themselves" what was going on at the protests, attended a "Make America Great Again" rally and planned to go to Portland to "take action" if police were defunded, according to Karmo's criminal complaint.
"Kenosha Police Department advised FBI that a law enforcement agency in Iowa had received a tip that Karmo and an unidentified male were in possession of firearms and traveling from Missouri to Kenosha, Wisconsin," prosecutors said in a statement Thursday.
FBI agents found in their hotel room an Armory AR-15 rifle, a Mossberg 500 AB 12-Gauge shotgun, two handguns, a silencer, ammunition, body armor, a drone, a twisted cable survival saw, a dagger and other materials, prosecutors said.
They each have criminal records and were not authorized to have any firearms of ammunition, prosecutors said.
Their criminal complaints contained screenshots of Karmo's Facebook page where he posed in all black attire and in one photograph is allegedly holding a gun with a laser.
An attorney was not listed for Karmo, according to the online court file. A request for comment from Smith's attorney Craig Albee was not returned on Friday.
If convicted they each face up to 10 years in prison for each charge.
There’s nothing left of the Republican Party but Trump’s Maniacal Cackle
The Republican platform — and the Republican Party itself — has been reduced to one word: Trump.
With our national election looming, someone should put up “lost dog” signs in every neighborhood saying, “Missing: Republican Party Platform.”
Voters won’t find one though, for this so-called major political party has decided not to produce a specific statement of what it stands for this year, nor will it offer to voters an itemized set of policies its public officials would try to enact if elected.
Indeed, the GOP hierarchy is so disdainful of the electorate that it says the party will not present a platform until 2024 — four years after the election!
They even imposed their policy silence on their own grassroots delegates, decreeing that any attempt by them to adopt new platform proposals at the Republican National Convention would “be ruled out of order.”
Instead of a political party, the GOP of 2020 has become a pathetic puppet show of weakling officials and sycophantic subordinates being jerked around by the maniacal whims of a bloated ego with despotic fantasies. The once respectable Republican National Committee has meekly ceded its authority, duty, respect, and relevance to a single unhinged authoritarian.
In essence, they’re saying that the platform — and the party itself — is one word: Trump.
Whatever poppycock the Glorious Leader utters today, whomever he attacks tomorrow, whichever fantastical conspiracy he embraces next week, the GOP will applaud, bow, and in unison reply “Amen.” Sad.
Republican senators, governors, captains of industry, elders, and others who once had power, prominence, some prestige, and maybe even a little pride now meekly wear Trump’s collar and kowtow to his conceits, leaving an entire party with a sole operating principle: “What he said” — even when they can’t figure out what he’s actually saying, or why, or what it means for the U.S. and its people.
That’s not a party, it’s a national embarrassment.
Back in 1984 when I was running for Congress, I ran into older people who explained why they could not support me, saying, “I didn’t leave the Democratic Party. It left me.”
Even in those days, the Democratic Party still had many conservatives who were loyal adherents. They had grown up in the times when the Democratic Party was more conservative than the other party. Some of those older Democrats were slow to give up their heritage and break away from the group in which they grew up.
But the support in the Democratic Party for school desegregation, voting rights, civil rights, equal treatment in the workplace and expanding the role of government in providing public resources to meet the needs of poor and underserved communities were viewed with skepticism by once loyal Democrats.
Republicans responded with a “Southern strategy” that played to these concerns and, more and more, as time passed, former Democrats left their party.
“I didn’t leave my party. It left me.”
Even after more than 35 years I remember that refrain.
Today, in the age of President Donald Trump, some North Carolina Republicans are, with regret, leaving their party, explaining, “I didn’t leave my party. It left me.”
In the Aug. 24 edition of The New Yorker, Peter Slevin wrote about three Republican members of the Transylvania County Board of Commissioners who have given up their party affiliation.
Forgive this personal aside. One of the happiest summers of my life was spent in that mountain county in 1958 when I was a counselor at Camp Carolina near Brevard. On overnight hikes, I told my campers ghost stories about Dracula. I had them believing that there was a connection between Dracula’s home in Europe’s Transylvania region and the Transylvania County where they were camping.
The three commissioners party change began when the board’s chair, Mike Hawkins, heard about Trump’s speech at East Carolina University on July 17, 2019. The president attacked four Democratic congressional representatives and women of color, saying that they were “hate-filled extremists” and “You know, they don’t love our country.”
In response to the attack on Rep. Ilhan Omar, the crowd at ECU chanted, “Send her back!”
According to Slevin, at the next board meeting, Hawkins “called out the president, saying that what happened was racist. It’s important that people identify hate for what it is — a poison to our state and to our country. And I wanted to say in a very public way that for whatever time I have remaining as an elected official, I will oppose this poison every way I can.”
After Hawkins, two other Republicans on the board, Page Ives Lemel and W. David Guice, offered words of support. Five months later, all three resigned from the Republican Party.
They could have been saying, “We didn’t leave our party. It left us.”
Guice had been a longtime, active Republican and served two terms in the General Assembly.
Page Lemel owns and runs Camp Keystone near Brevard, as did her late father, Bill Ives, whom I knew when he served in the General Assembly in the 1990s. Bill Ives was conservative, public-spirited, open-minded and open-hearted, like his daughter.
Another prominent Republican in the mountains, former state Supreme Court Justice Robert Orr, has broken with the president. He spent his life supporting the party and working for good causes until 2016, when he could not support Trump’s candidacy.
This year, he is working hard against Trump, but refuses to leave his party. Obviously, he thinks he is more of a real Republican than the president.
Lemel says she has no intention of reversing her decision. That, Slevin writes, raises questions about the future of the G.O.P. History and logic suggest that the party must pivot toward the center to remain viable in the years ahead.
Or others will be saying, “We didn’t leave our party. It left us.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhfWFDdyWBE&feature=emb_logo
In case you think Trump was more honest, intelligent and articulate in the past, you might want to watch this interview with Dan Rather from 21 years ago.
At the 6:00 mark he makes a derogatory remark about John McCain, proving that Trump really believes that POWs are losers. It’s not a political tactic. But this was out there in 2016. He called McCain a loser on the campaign trail. And more than 60 million Americans voted for him anyway. So unless something shifts dramatically, I’m not sure that he’ll lose any voters over the latest revelations that he has the historical knowledge of a second grader and thinks that soldiers are suckers and losers.
But if you’ve got a few minutes, watch the whole interview. He has always been a monumentally pompous ignoramus and con artist. The only thing different is that he now wears orange make-up and dyes his hair canary yellow.
Post a Comment
<< Home