;)
The Commentariat -- June 22, 2020
Afternoon Update:
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here. "As the coronavirus spreads at record speeds around the world, the United States accounted for 20 percent of all the new infections worldwide on Sunday, according to New York Times data, even as the country's population makes up about 4.3 percent of the world's."
Putting Our Money Where His Mouth Is -- In a Hidey-hole. Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "The Trump administration has been sitting on nearly $14 billion in funding that Congress passed for coronavirus testing and contact tracing, according to Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer of New York and Patty Murray of Washington. The top Democrats said in a letter Sunday to Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar that ... Congress passed these funds as part of a coronavirus relief bill in April.... Donald Trump told a crowd of his supporters at his first campaign rally in months Saturday that he wanted to slow down testing for the coronavirus." ~~~
~~~ Jessie Hellmann & Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Monday refused to say whether he told staff to slow down COVID-19 testing to make it look like the U.S. had fewer cases, while White House officials denied he had ever given such an order. Trump has been blaming rising case numbers of coronavirus in the U.S. on increased testing, arguing the country has been doing 'too good a job.'... Trump generated outrage this weekend when he said at his first campaign rally in months that he told staff to 'slow the testing down, please.' Trump aides later said his comments were a joke."”
Shannon Pettypiece & Monica Alba of NBC News: "The White House has stopped conducting mandatory temperature checks for all staffers and visitors entering the grounds, removing another layer of safeguards put in place after two officials became ill with the coronavirus last month. While those who come in close contact with the president and vice president are still having their temperature checked and being questioned about symptoms, the steps are no longer being taken for others who enter the White House campus, said spokesman Judd Deere. Tents that had been manned for the past month by staffers with thermometers were being taken down on Monday.... The White House had already stopped requiring all staffers in the West Wing to wear masks.... The move comes after the virus once again touched on Trump's orbit last week when six staffers preparing for his campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, tested positive for the coronavirus." Thanks to Bobby Lee for the lead. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: @3:40 pm ET, NBC News is reporting that two more members of Trump's Tulsa advance team have tested positive for coronavirus. @4:05 pm ET, CNN reported that the two staffers attended the rally "but were wearing masks." CNN also reported that two Secret Service agents who went to Tulsa tested positive for the virus.
Justine Coleman of the Hill: "... Joe Biden's campaign is committing to participate in three debates in the fall, while President Trump's campaign is pushing for four events. Biden's campaign manager, Jen O'Malley Dilllon, confirmed in a letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates sent on Monday and obtained by The Washington Post that the former vice president would debate Trump on the dates previously scheduled by the commission -- Sept. 29, Oct. 15 and Oct. 22. Biden's running mate, who has not yet been announced, will debate Vice President Mike Pence on Oct. 7.... Biden's commitment to the debates comes days after several Trump aides, including his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, started advocating for another debate and to conduct them earlier in the day than usual. Trump campaign manager Brad Parscale said last week that the aides don't want the debates to compete with football games." Mrs. McC: The candidate who wants more debates is usually the candidate who is losing.
Just can't get enough of these Trump rally fiasco post-mortems: here's one from Alex Isenstadt of Politico, who focusses on Trump's inability to effectively attack Joe Biden. "Trump advisers have long been convinced that if the race is a referendum on him, rather than a choice between him and Biden, Trump will likely lose." ~~~
Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Geoffrey Berman, the former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, refused to sign a letter criticizing New York Mayor Bill de Blasio (D) for okaying protests but not religious gatherings a day before Attorney General William Barr announced he would be replaced, The Wall Street Journal reported Monday. Justice Department supervisors asked both Berman and Eric Dreiband, the head of the agency's civil rights division, to sign the letter, but after a brief back-and-forth, Berman objected to its characterization of de Blasio's handling of the protests as a double standard and said signing the letter would hurt relations between the city and his office, the newspaper reported, citing people familiar with the matter. The letter was never sent. It is unclear whether the episode contributed to the Justice Department's removal of Berman." ~~~
~~~ Quinta Jurecic & Benjamin Wittes in the Atlantic: "The administration's handling of [SDNY U.S. Attorney Geoffrey] Berman's firing was comically -- and typically -- inept.... And yet, for all the drama, the little matter of why Trump and Barr decided to get rid of Berman in the first place remains a mystery.... The most benign explanation -- though not exactly a comforting one -- is simple patronage. According to Barr's original statement, Trump had decided to appoint Jay Clayton ... to the job. Clayton, according to The New York Times, had recently golfed with the president ... and had expressed interest in the U.S. attorney job.... A second, more troubling possibility is that Berman's removal was retaliatory.... Trump has a long history of firing people who cause him trouble -- often those who are investigating him -- as a means of retribution.... Then there is the third possibility, the most sinister: that the removal of Berman was a specific effort to interfere with a specific investigation.... Trump does this as well.... If the goal of Berman's firing was to send yet another message to law-enforcement officials around the country that those who are not on the team will have to look over their shoulders at all times as long as Trump is president and Barr is running the Justice Department -- well, that message has been heard loud and clear."
Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "One of President Trump's most trusted economic advisers will leave the White House this summer amid one of the worst economic crises in decades. Kevin Hassett, who returned to the White House as an unpaid volunteer in March, said in an interview that his departure is in line with the administration's initial plan when he was brought back. Hassett said his agreement was to return to the White House for about 90 days, and he has already stayed for more than that amount of time. But Hassett's upcoming departure -- first reported by Axios -- could alarm critics who worry that the White House lacks respected economic officials to guide the nation through the economic calamity caused by the virus."
Robin Pogrebin of the New York Times: "The bronze statue of Theodore Roosevelt, on horseback and flanked by a Native American man and an African man, which has presided over the entrance to the American Museum of Natural History in New York since 1940, is coming down. The decision, proposed by the museum and agreed to by New York City, which owns the building and property, came after years of objections from activists and at a time when the killing of George Floyd has initiated an urgent nationwide conversation about racism. For many, the equestrian statue at the museum's Central Park West entrance has come to symbolize a painful legacy of colonial expansion and racial discrimination."
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Presidential Race
This Just Gets Better & Better. Jacob Knutson of Axios: "Just under 6,200 people attended President Trump's rally in Tulsa Saturday, well below the BOK Center's total capacity of 19,200, a public information officer for the Tulsa Fire Department told Forbes Sunday.... Trump's campaign had planned to turn the rally into a massive pro-Trump festival to energize his re-election bid amid the coronavirus pandemic and nation-wide protests against police brutality." (Also linked yesterday.)
Monica Alba, et al., of NBC News: "... Donald Trump is 'furious' at the 'underwhelming' crowd at his rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on Saturday evening, a major disappointment for what had been expected to be a raucous return to the campaign trail..., according to multiple people close to the White House. The president was fuming at his top political aides Saturday even before the rally began after his campaign revealed that six members of the advance team on the ground in Tulsa had tested positive for COVID-19, including Secret Service personnel, a person familiar with the discussions said. Trump asked those around him why the information was exposed and expressed annoyance that the coverage ahead of his mega-rally was dominated by the revelation.... 'This was a major failure,' one outside adviser said. (Also linked yesterday.)
Anatomy of a Disaster. Kevin Liptak & Kaitlan Collins of CNN: "Once viewed inside the White House and Trump's campaign as a reset button for a presidency beset by crises and self-inflicted wounds, Saturday evening's campaign rally in Tulsa instead became plagued with pitfalls, a disappointing microcosm of the blindspots, denial and wishful thinking that have come to guide the President as he enters one of the most precarious moments of his first term. By the time he strode out to the strains of Lee Greenwood on Saturday evening into a partially-full Bank of Oklahoma Center, the event had devolved from a triumphant return to the campaign trail after a 110-day pandemic-forced absence into something else altogether. The launch of a new assault on former Vice President Joe Biden fizzled, replaced by recycled grievances and race-baiting. The sparse crowd was a reminder that many Americans, even Trump's supporters, remain cautious of a pandemic that continues to rage in places like Oklahoma...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Maggie Haberman & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "The president, who had been warned aboard Air Force One that the crowds at the arena were smaller than expected, was stunned, and he yelled at aides backstage while looking at the endless rows of empty blue seats in the upper bowl of the stadium, according to four people familiar with what took place.... By the end of the rally, Mr. Trump's mood had improved, advisers said. But after he left the stage, the fight seemed to have left him, at least temporarily. Leaving the arena, he wasn't yelling. Instead, he was mostly muted. When he landed back at the White House and walked off Marine One, his tie hung untied around his neck. He waved to reporters, with a defeated expression on his face, holding a crumpled red campaign hat in one hand.... [Campaign manager Brad Parscale] blamed the news media for the low turnout. 'The fact is that a week's worth of the fake news media warning people away from the rally because of Covid and protesters, coupled with recent images of American cities on fire, had a real impact on people bringing their families and children to the rally,' he said.... In an interview, Mr. Parscale said the empty arena was not his fault, and that local law enforcement in Tulsa had overreacted, making it difficult for supporters to gain entry. He claimed to have thousands of emails from supporters who tried to get into the Bank of Oklahoma Center and were turned away, but he did not share those messages or names of supporters."
The Kids Punked Trump. Taylor Lorenz, et al., of the New York Times: "Hundreds of teenage TikTok users and K-pop fans say they're at least partially responsible [for Trump's disappointment].... TikTok users and fans of Korean pop music groups claimed to have registered potentially hundreds of thousands of tickets for Mr. Trump's campaign rally as a prank. After the Trump campaign's official account @TeamTrump posted a tweet asking supporters to register for free tickets using their phones on June 11, K-pop fan accounts began sharing the information with followers, encouraging them to register for the rally -- and then not show. The trend quickly spread on TikTok, where videos with millions of views instructed viewers to do the same, as CNN reported on Tuesday.... Many users deleted their posts after 24 to 48 hours in order to conceal their plan and keep it from spreading into the mainstream internet.... Twitter users on Saturday night were quick to declare the social media campaign's victory. 'Actually you just got ROCKED by teens on TikTok, Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York tweeted in response to Mr. Parscale, who had tweeted that 'radical protestors' had 'interfered' with attendance." A CNN story is here.
Jose Del Real of the Washington Post: "... while much attention on his Saturday night appearance in Tulsa focused on the sparse turnout..., Trump's litany of racially offensive stereotypes sent a clear signal about how he plans to try to revive his flagging reelection effort.... But today, amid an emerging movement against racism and police brutality, the president's rhetoric on race is increasingly out of step with polling that shows a surge in support for the idea that racial discrimination is a major problem in the United States, including among white voters.... [At his rally,] He attacked several Democratic women of color, in one instance accusing Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) of 'telling us how to run our country.' The congresswoman, who came to the United States when she was 12 as a refugee from Somalia, is a United States citizen. In repeated comments about 'heritage,' the president also embraced those defending the controversial tokens of Confederate history.... As he railed against recent calls by some activists to defund or dismantle police forces, he made up a scenario involving a criminal 'hombre,' the Spanish-language word for man. As he railed against recent calls by some activists to defund or dismantle police forces, he made up a scenario involving a criminal 'hombre,' the Spanish-language word for man."
Gabby Orr of Politico: In 2008, Barack "Obama's campaign stops at churches, sermonlike speeches and his professed belief in Jesus Christ earned him 24 percent of the white evangelical vote -- doubling Democrats' support among young white evangelicals and gaining 3 percentage points with the overall demographic from the 2004 election. Now, allies of ... Donald Trump worry his 2020 opponent, Joe Biden, can do the same -- snatching a slice of a critical voting bloc from Trump when he can least afford departures from his base. Biden, a lifelong Roman Catholic, has performed better in recent polling among white evangelicals -- and other religious groups -- than Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton did in 2016 and is widely perceived as more religious than the current White House occupant."
Mr. Mustache Says. Conor Finnigan of ABC News: 'Donald Trump's longest-serving national security adviser John Bolton condemned his presidency as dangerously damaging to the United States and argued the 2020 election is the last 'guardrail' to protect the country from him. In an ... interview with ABC News, Bolton offered a brutal indictment of his former boss, saying, 'I hope (history) will remember him as a one-term president who didn't plunge the country irretrievably into a downward spiral we can't recall from. We can get over one term -- I have absolute confidence, even if it's not the miracle of a conservative Republican being elected in November. Two terms, I'm more troubled about.'... 'I don't think he's a conservative Republican. I'm not going to vote for him in November -- certainly not going to vote for Joe Biden either. I'm going to figure out a conservative Republican to vote in,' he told Raddatz." Here's the transcript of Martha Raddatz's interview of Bolton.
The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Sunday are here. "Nationwide, cases have risen 15 percent over the last two weeks. Cases are rising in 18 states across the South, West and Midwest. Seven states hit single-day case records yesterday, and five others hit a record earlier in the week.... At the same time, overall deaths have dropped dramatically. The 14-day average was down 42 percent as of Saturday. Strikingly, the new infections have skewed younger, with more people in their 20s and 30s testing positive, Gov. Ron DeSantis of Florida said." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd., Coronavirus Edition. Jessica Silver-Greenberg & Amy Harris of the New York Times: "More than any other institution in America, nursing homes have come to symbolize the deadly destruction of the coronavirus crisis. More than 51,000 residents and employees of nursing homes and long-term care facilities have died, representing more than 40 percent of the total death toll in the United States. But even as they have been ravaged, nursing homes have also been enlisted in the response to the outbreak. They are taking on coronavirus-stricken patients to ease the burden on overwhelmed hospitals -- and, at times, to bolster their bottom lines.... They are kicking out old and disabled residents -- among the people most susceptible to the coronavirus -- and shunting them into homeless shelters, rundown motels and other unsafe facilities..." to make room for more profitable Covid-19 patients. (Also linked yesterday.)
~~~ New York. Sharon Otterman of the New York Times: "New York City's ambitious contact-tracing program, a crucial initiative in the effort to curb the coronavirus, has gotten off to a worrisome start just as the city's reopening enters a new phase on Monday, with outdoor dining, in-store shopping and office work resuming. The city has hired 3,000 disease detectives and case monitors, who are supposed to identify anyone who has come into contact with the hundreds of people who are still testing positive for the virus in the city every day. But the first statistics from the program, which began on June 1, indicate that tracers are often unable to locate infected people or gather information from them. Only 35 percent of the 5,347 city residents who tested positive or were presumed positive for the coronavirus in the program's first two weeks gave information about close contacts to tracers, the city said in releasing the first statistics. The number ticked up slightly, to 42 percent, during the third week.... Contact tracing is one of the few tools that public health officials have to fight Covid-19 in lieu of a vaccine...." (Also linked yesterday.)
Alison Rourke of the Guardian: "China has suspended imports of poultry products from a plant owned by an Arkansas-based meat processor, Tyson Inc, that has been hit by coronavirus, as authorities struggle to bring an outbreak in Beijing under control." --s
Jonathan Swan of Axios: "... President Trump told Axios that his niece, Mary Trump, is 'not allowed' to write her forthcoming book about him because doing so would violate a nondisclosure agreement she signed.... 'You know, when we settled with her and her brother, who I do have a good relationship with -- she's got a brother, Fred, who I do have a good relationship with, but when we settled, she has a total ... signed a nondisclosure.' Trump said his niece's nondisclosure agreement with him was a 'very powerful one. ... It covers everything.'" ~~~
~~~ Speaking of books Donald Trump says should not be published, if you really want to read John Bolton's book but are loathe to see him collect his halfpenny on your purchase ~~~
~~~ AP: "A PDF of 'The Room Where It Happened' has turned up on the internet, offering a free, pirated edition of the former national security adviser's scathing takedown of ... Donald Trump, who has alleged that the book contains classified material that never should have been released."
Jennifer Senior of the New York Times: "... it's precisely because Trump feels overwhelmed and outmatched that I fear we've reached a far scarier juncture: he seems to be attempting, however clumsily, to transition from president to autocrat, using any means necessary to mow down those who threaten his re-election....Trump has torn through almost all of [the honorable civil servants & appointees] and replaced them with loyalists. He now has a clear runway. What we have left is an army of pliant flunkies and toadies at the agencies, combined with the always-enabling Mitch McConnell and an increasingly emboldened attorney general, William Barr."
Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: Journalist Maria "Ressa was convicted, in her native Philippines, on trumped-up charges of cyber libel.... While [a highly-respected journalist in] the Philippines' fragile democracy was under attack by the authoritarian Rodrigo Duterte, a Trump appointee was purging highly respected news executives within the United States taxpayer-funded agency whose intended role is to counter disinformation around the world.... All of [the] departures stemmed from Trump's appointment of Michael Pack, a conservative filmmaker and associate of his longtime adviser Stephen K. Bannon.... [According to John Bolton,] at a summer 2019 meeting in New Jersey, Trump said journalists should be jailed so they have to divulge their sources, according to the former national security adviser's account. 'These people should be executed. They are scumbags,' Trump said. Maybe he didn't mean that literally, but it's still language that ought to shock every American." (Also linked yesterday.)
David Edwards of RawStory: "Attorney General William Barr suggested recently that the investigation into Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election was similar to the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln. During an interview that aired Sunday on Fox News, host Maria Bartiromo posed [a] question to Barr. 'A source said to me a couple of years ago, speaking of the Russia collusion story, that this was the closest the United States ever came to a coup to take down a president since the assassination of Lincoln,' Bartiromo told Barr. 'Is that an appropriate statement?' Barr agreed: 'In this sense, I think it is the closest we have come to an organized effort to push a president out of office.'" --s
Sarah Westwood of CNN: "House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler said Sunday that he believes Attorney General William Barr deserves to be impeached, but that pursuing it would be a 'waste of time' because of the Republican-controlled Senate. Nadler, a New York Democrat, told CNN's Jake Tapper on 'State of the Union' that House Democrats would instead work to withhold $50 million from the Department of Justice in an effort to punish Barr.... Nadler called the Republican Senate 'corrupt' over its decision earlier this year to acquit Trump on on two articles of impeachment, and he stressed there was nothing to be gained from pursuing Barr's impeachment because it would likely end in the same not guilty vote."
Susan Page of USA Today: "If he had been a senator during ... Donald Trump's impeachment trial earlier this year, John Bolton says he probably would have voted for a conviction. There's a certain irony in that, given that ... [Bolton] refused to testify in the House impeachment hearings and then offered to testify in the Senate trial if subpoenaed; Senate Republicans predictably declined before voting to acquit.... One tantalizing passage in the book suddenly seemed prescient this weekend when the Trump administration fired Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. When Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan complained in December 2018 about the office's investigation into a Turkish state-owned bank, Bolton wrote, 'Trump then told Erdogan he would take care of things' once he replaced Southern District prosecutors with 'his people.'"
Preet Bharara in a New York Times op-ed: "Forcing out a well-performing U.S. attorney of the same party, without explanation, on the eve of election, in favor of a less qualified candidate who golfs with the president (as [nominee Jay] Clayton does), in the midst of investigations known to be irksome to the president, does not reflect a commitment to law enforcement independence. Within the Department of Justice, hardworking public servants ... are angry, dismayed and demoralized.... They are disheartened by the bad faith of Bill Barr and his determined efforts to undermine prosecutorial independence. On Saturday, finally assured his well-regarded and principled deputy, Audrey Strauss, would take over the reins, [Geoffrey] Berman left S.D.N.Y. with his head held high. I believe the wrong Department of Justice official left office that day."
John Zenor of the AP: "A noose was found in the garage stall of Black driver Bubba Wallace at the NASCAR race in Alabama on Sunday, less than two weeks after he successfully pushed the stock car racing series to ban the Confederate flag at its tracks and facilities. NASCAR said it had launched an immediate investigation and will do everything possible to find out who was responsible and 'eliminate them from the sport.'" --s
AP: "A Tennessee newspaper said on Sunday it was investigating what its editor called a 'horrific' full-page advertisement from a religious group that predicts a terrorist attack in Nashville next month. The paid advertisement that appeared in Sunday's editions of the Tennessean from the group Future For America claims Donald Trump 'is the final president of the USA' and features a photo of Trump and Pope Francis. It begins by claiming that a nuclear device will be detonated in Nashville and that the attack will be carried out by unspecific interests of 'Islam'.... According to its [Future for America] website, the group's ministry warns of so-called end-of-the-world Bible prophecies whose fulfillment 'is no longer future_for it is taking place before our eyes'." --s
Natasha Bertrand of Politico (June 19): "The Trump administration is warning law enforcement and public safety officials that a far-right extremist movement known as 'boogaloo' may be setting its sights on the nation's capital. On Monday, the National Capital Region Threat Intelligence Consortium, a fusion center for Washington, D.C., that provides support to federal national security and law enforcement agencies, warned in an intelligence assessment that 'the District is likely an attractive target for violent adherents of the boogaloo ideology due to the significant presence of US law enforcement entities, and the wide range of First Amendment-Protected events hosted here'."
Daniel de Simone & Ali Winston of BBC: "Secret efforts to groom and recruit teenagers by a neo-Nazi militant group have been exposed by covert recordings. They capture senior members of The Base interviewing young applicants and discussing how to radicalise them. The FBI has described the group as seeking to unite white supremacists around the world and incite a race war.... Rinaldo Nazzaro, founder of The Base, is a 47-year-old American. Earlier this year the BBC revealed he was directing the organisation from his upmarket flat in St. Petersburg, Russia.... The BBC investigation reveals the real identity of a man who is both a senior member of The Base and the creator of a successor online forum linked to several UK terrorism prosecutions involving teenagers. Matthew Baccari, an unemployed 25-year-old from Southern California, used the alias 'Mathias' to run a notorious website called Fascist Forge, where terrorism and sexual violence were openly encouraged." --s
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Reader Comments (14)
Commented last night on the Senior op-ed before I took early to bed that while the methodology and conclusions of the Milgrim experiment she writes about have been called into question, there is no question whatsover that in 2016 millions of our citizens decided to run an experiment in national governance, thoughtlessly volunteering all of us as test subjects, including the 3 million plus majority who didn't like or trust an obvious charlatan who promised ("What do you have to lose?") he could bully socio-economic lead into gold.
Have wondered how the Pretender and his cadre of social media manipulators have managed to manipulate so many millions of nitwits with their lies, and still don't get the degree and depth of credulousness buying all that crap must require, but thought it a delicious reversal that Tik Tok users (watch out, youth vote!) availed themselves of the same technologic opportunities to goose the Pretender's equally dumb gander.
Ken's "Tik Tok users (watch out, youth vote!) availed themselves of the same technologic opportunities to goose the Pretender's equally dumb gander," is right on the money as they say in certain circles. Poor Puny piss ass Prez done got his goose cooked to perfection by the young-ins who have their ears to the ground and their eyes on the prize.
There is an exchange between Chris Wallace and Mercedes Schlapp on Huff-po that I'd link but it's such a repetition of yakkidy yak by Fatty's fatuous females that it's not worth your while. (Chris, by the way, does a good job trying to shame her) but I got to thinking how interesting that the most arduous defenders of this dotard are women:
Mercedes Schlapp
Kellyann Conway
Sarah Huckabee Sanders
Kali Mc Ninny
I wonder why.
Last night watched the entire series of "The Family" based on the book by Jeff Sharlet whose piece in Vanity Fair we mentioned some days ago. I'd highly recommend it––-Jesus becomes the guiding light to a group whose influence here and abroad became front and center and helped those who helped themselves of its mythical message.
Some years back when Rachel did a whole program on this K street group, she showed pictures of the apartment complex where congress critters lived. On the grass in the front of this place was one of those statues of a black jockey holding a whip. In this film the apartment is shown but nary a jockey do I spy and I wonder whether someone at sometime after Rachel 's program said it might be prudent to remove said statue. Ya think??????
Yes, it looks as if the kids did a good head-fake the rally numbers, but as I think the campaign manager said, the campaign got a huge new data set, and they have the full force of the compliant government agencies to dig to the root of those email addresses.
As my wife said this morning, an angry Oval Office Occupier is a dangerous OOO.
This is a video captured in Rosedale, N.Y. 42 years ago showing the horrific racist attack by white mobs on their black neighbors that was first seen on Bill Moyers program. This video is now being shown in sociology classes––but I betcha not in certain states.
These scenes break my heart––all over again. Listen to how a young black boy answers the question "Will you forgive them." He was right.
https://www.nytimes.com/video/nyregion/100000006654178/rosedale-documentary-where-are-they-now.html?smid=pl-share
The Maggie Haberman & Annie Karni article is interesting, and shows how much spin was involved in the run up to the Tulsa rally and then explaining the outcome. The whole Brad Parscale show in Tulsa was transparent; he's like his boss. One million advance ticket requests? Did it occur to anyone else that that is a suspiciously round number? Or that it was almost exactly 50 times the arena capacity? Auditors love round numbers - they are often a sign of lazy lying. Nisky Guy is surely correct about the emails; I would add that Parscale will use his emails with the same corrupt intent as Rove and Cheney used the emails and donor information. These guys are long-term carpet bombers of Democrats and democracy. Look for Brad Parscale's future involvement in Liz Cheney's campaigns.
Anatomy of the End
Last week I re-watched the film “The Lives of Others”, an intense and gripping examination of the way the East German Stasi (not so secret police—they seem to be everywhere and on everyone’s minds) not only surveilled its citizens, but took action against those they disliked, forcing other, innocent citizens, to become complicit in their police state activities to manipulate, control, and destroy the lives of others.
The central issue is wrapped up in several layers of both amoral and immoral actions leading to the eventual distrust on the part of nearly all citizens in the government. The moral turpitude and self serving, paranoia rampant under authoritarian states such as the GDR become the proximate causes for the collapse of these states. Party officials, under the guise of protecting the state, use whatever means they can devise to serve their own interests, whether that might be forcing unwilling citizens into sexual service (“grabbing them by the pussy” because they can), revenge, or personal promotion and gratification.
It’s impossible to watch something like this and not recognize that it’s an easy jump from the abuses, lies, subterfuge, and viciousness of the Communist Party to the abuses, lies, subterfuge, and viciousness of the Republican Party.
From the Bush-Cheney illegal surveillance of American citizens to the authoritarian abuses of the Trump regime one can follow a clear line from the Powell Memo, through Reagan, both Bushes, and now the Orange Monster, tracing the contours of the same sort of loss of faith in government and its amoral, self-serving, hypocritical “leaders” that brought about the death of states like East Germany and the Soviet Union.
The Republican Party has had, as a primary goal, the dissolution of a government of, for, and by the people. Government, if it exists at all for this Party, serves now only as a vehicle for making money and ensuring the increased wealth and power of a select few, who will help them retain power, through whatever means. Their only other interest is in using the power of the state to push the ideological requirements of their shrinking base of if equally self-serving voters.
Another four years of this could be fatal. For such as Trump and Barr, the lives of others exist only as pawns to be moved around and sacrificed, oh, but not before there’s some fun tormenting those citizens. They would be right at home (especially Barr) in an organization like the Stasi.
By the way, has anyone heard from the GDR lately?
Everything must be fine on the C-19 front: Monica Alba, of NBC reports that White House tents that have been staffed and doing temperature checks, and asking health questions are being taken down.
Probably a zoning violation.
I know this is Steve Benen's hobby horse (and thesis of his new book) but it is pretty remarkable that the Oval Office Occupier spent over 100 minutes in Tulsa whining and making excuses, but not time saying what he wants to do to make America a better place for all Americans.
https://www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddow-show/president-who-wants-remain-power-who-won-t-say-why-n1231715
I see that the lying halfpence will be debating Biden’s running mate (TBD).
I’d pay good money to watch this little theocratic gay bashing shit debate a talking dog. He’d get his ass kicked. But even worse (for the traitors, sycophants, crooks, and misogynists) would be for the halfpence to try to debate a woman.
Would he need momma to be onstage to hold his hand and make sure his tiny R pecker didn’t disappear up behind his Potemkin ball sack when some mean Democratic woman asked him why he can’t say “Black Lives Matter” without a fire hose diarrhea attack?
And while I’m on this subject, Joe needs to lay off the women in the Senate. He pulls Warren, he’ll end up with a Republican replacing her. Yes, Harris would be a good choice (Dem guv), but both Warren and Harris are ensconced in powerful committees. He needs all the Dems he can get in the Senate if he wants to bury Rich Mitch on the Letter Steaming Committee.
I’m all for Stacey Abrams.
But either Warren or Harris would scare the bejesus out of the little halfpence. Not even momma could keep his unmentionables from being soiled beyond repair.
All the best people, right donnie, you fat fuck?
Now 30 states with Rt values 1.0 or greater.
Making America really great.
AK - much as I love Stacey Abrams, Biden needs to pick someone who could be a credible, effective President within a year or two (not expecting that it would happen but we need to be ready) and Stacey Abrams isn’t it. Neither is Val Demings or Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, who are also great. Harris would be ready but I’d almost rather have her as Attorney General (with Warren as Secretary of the Treasury). Susan Rice is looking good to me. No electoral experience but she’s got serious foreign policy chops and has been in the White House so knows her way around.
AGREE with Rockygirl: Stacy Abrams is too green, even though she is fabulous with regard to potential. I vote for Stacy and the Rev. Wm. Barbour for queen and king of the general Deep South-- they make so much sense... That leaves out all those chicken governors...ugh, what a group. I think I love the MANY girl governors in the rest of the country-- they are fabulous and brave and smart. Love them. BUT: okay, that is enough of the caps lock... I vote for Susan Rice also, so we don't starve the senate when we need to eviserate the losers there.
ABSENT(ee) BALLOTS
Today’s New York’s Primaries.
I live in NYC.
My ballot finally arrived late this afternoon.
Called Jerry Nadler(my Senator)’s office and was told ‘The Board of Elections messed up big-time’. Called The Board and was informed, since my P.O. had now closed, that I was out-of-luck: today’s postmark was needed. Only by conversation’s end was it suggested - off-handedly - that I might try stopping by my voting site (where I had planned to avoid). Thankfully, my ballot was accepted there. Learned from our Block Association’s V.P. that many have not recieved their ballots.
I fear (anticipate) more of the same come November.
Will be thrilled if my pessimism’s proven wrong.