Last night was the first night that the federal agents sent to Portland by Donald Trump were removed from the job. Instead, the governor of Oregon had state police guard federal property, with orders to de-escalate tensions.
And it worked! My favorite headline is “Portland sees peaceful night of protests following withdrawal of federal agents”. There was no teargas, no stun grenades, or baton rounds. The protesters responded by keeping things peaceful too. In other words, back to the way they were before Trump sent in DHS agents who acted like an occupying army.
Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???
GOP Senator John Cornyn tried to claim that Trump was joking, but the markets did not think it was funny. Immediately afterwards stock markets, oil prices, and the dollar all slid downward.
The economy was the last area where voters trusted Trump more than Biden, but Trump has been slipping. Now that he has personally damaged the US economy, it should get even worse.
Former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain attended Donald Trump’s ill-advised campaign rally in Tulsa Oklahoma. He did not wear a face mask. Ten days later, on June 29, he tested positive for the coronavirus.
Today, after a month-long battle with COVID-19, Cain died. May he rest in peace.
Bill Barr, who is supposedly the US Attorney General but acts like Donald Trump’s personal lawyer and fixer, testified under oath to Congress on Tuesday. Here’s a list of lies and stupid things he said:
Could not answer whether the President has the power to move the date of the election (he doesn’t)
Wouldn’t acknowledge that if a person not suspected of committing any crime is detained, forced into a car where they are not free to leave (“in custody”), driven to an unknown location, and questioned, that the person is under arrest (they are)
Stated that law enforcement are allowed to use force — including pepper spray and tear gas — in a non-emergency situation to disperse peaceful protesters engaged in lawful assembly (peaceful protest is a constitutional right)
Could not immediately state that foreign assistance to a presidential campaign is categorically prohibited (it is)
Had zero evidence (and admitted as much under oath) to back up his statement that large numbers of people who cast their votes by mail could end up “rigging” the election
Unable to explain why the “antifa movement” — which he conceded are loosely-affiliated groups/individuals — are considered “terrorists” (also did not address why the same rationale would not apply to right-wing extremists)
Said he wouldn’t open an investigation even in light of evidence indicating that the president may have committed a crime (specifically in reference to the Stone commutation/quid pro quo)
Would not commit to following DOJ’s policy against releasing politically-sensitive information (i.e., Durham “investigation”) right before election
Declared that there is no such thing as systemic racism in policing
Offered “proof” that there is no systemic racism by noting that 8 unarmed Black people and 11 unarmed White people have been killed by police this year (ignores that the US population is 15% black and 60% white; if you add white Hispanics, it’s 72%)
I want to add some information about #6, where Barr calls anti-fascists terrorists, but won’t use the same label on right-wing extremists. In the last 25 years, anti-fascist attacks have not resulted in any victims killed. Zero. But white supremacists and other right-wing extremists have carried out attacks leaving at least 329 victims dead. (There was actually one anti-fascist attack that lead to a death, but it was the anti-fascist who died).
If you consider all violence (not just attacks) since 2010 comparing left-wing to right-wing violence in the US:
Left-wing violence resulted in 21 victims killed
Right-wing violence resulted in 117 victims killed
For comparison, jihadist attacks resulted in 95 victims killed. So right-wing violence has killed more people than actual Islamic terrorists.
And let’s not even talk about the 150,000 Americans who have died because of Trump’s incompetent response to the coronavirus, the worst in the world.
How do we know he is going to follow this strategy? Because he is already following it. In fact, he seems incapable of even imagining any other strategy.
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Trump is a bully, but when you stand up to him, he backs down like the loser he is. Just this week, he’s retreated several times:
He insisted that Congress cut payroll taxes, but his own party members in the Senate said no. Probably because Trump would have benefited more from such a tax cut than the economy would.
He restarted the coronavirus briefings that he had earlier killed, but without real information from real scientists, nobody cared.
He even admitted that the pandemic was going to get worse before it got better. Duh! So I guess he was either wrong (or just lying) when he kept saying that it would get better soon. Why would anyone believe him?
He tried to get all schools in the country to open in the fall, even threatening their federal aid, but they said no, and he backed down.
He claimed that wearing masks wasn’t necessary, until he did an about-face and not only wore one, but said they were a good idea.
And probably worst of all, he kept demanding that he could stroke his own ego by giving a speech at the Republican National Convention to 20,000 people cheering for him. And then pretended to cancel it because he was too busy with the coronavirus. As if.
Trump absolutely hates to change his position. And as we are seeing, even when he does change his mind he can never admit that he was wrong. That makes him a loser.
The Democrats (especially Speaker Nancy Pelosi) figured out that they could stand up to Trump, and it now looks like the Republicans are figuring out the same thing. Thank goodness.
Once your victims stop being scared of you, being a bully stops working. And now everyone knows that Trump is weak.
And one last piece of late breaking news about Donald Trump being a loser. An hour before Dr. Anthony Fauci threw out the first pitch at the baseball season opener, Trump announced that he, too, had been invited to throw out a pitch for a NY Yankees game.
Except that Trump had not actually been invited. His announcement was a complete surprise both to White House staff and to Yankees officials.
According to the New York Times, Trump was so jealous of Fauci getting all this attention, he ordered his aides to call Yankees officials to arrange a pitch for Trump. But the whole thing fell apart, so Trump (again) falsely claimed “Because of my strong focus on the China Virus, including scheduled meetings on Vaccines, our economy and much else, I won’t be able to be in New York to throw out the opening pitch”.
NY Magazine seems to think not. But personally, I don’t want to take any chances. Besides, the only way to stamp out Trumpism is to defeat him and his enablers in a landslide so huge we won’t have to endure such a monstrous attack on democracy as Trump and the Republicans ever again.
The Trump campaign is running this ad on Facebook:
The image on the right is labeled “Chaos & Violence”, meant to invoke the protests against police brutality that have been going on around the US.
As I like to say, there’s just one problem. That photo is not from the US. It is a photo from a pro-democracy protest in Kyiv, Ukraine, taken in 2014. You can see the original (larger) image here, and the photographer has confirmed that it is his photo. So I guess the real message is that Trump is opposed to pro-democracy demonstrations (especially ones that succeed in ousting a tyrant and restoring democracy).
But wait, there’s more! The person who is in charge of sending federal agents to Portland, OR and other US cities is the head of the Department of Homeland Security, Chad Wolf. What’s hypocritical here is that Wolf is only the acting head of DHS. He was never confirmed by the Senate, and wasn’t even nominated by Trump. As explained in the Washington Post:
Trump has made use of acting Cabinet officials in ways with no apparent precedent. As I wrote back in February, by that point he had had acting officials in Cabinet-level jobs for more than 2,700 combined days across 22 jobs — about 1 out of every 9 total days. That compared to about 1 out of every 29 for President Barack Obama. (“I like ‘acting’ because I can move so quickly,” he told CBS’s “Face The Nation” last year, adding, “It gives me more flexibility.”)
This is problematic for several reasons: first, US law says that acting officials can only serve for 210 days. Wolf has served 255 days, which means that legally he cannot be in charge of the DHS. And second, this makes Wolf completely beholden to Trump, because unlike confirmed cabinet posts, Trump can dismiss an acting head at any time, for any reason. And third, the DHS has a legal order of succession, which was violated when Trump elevated Wolf to be the head.
So Trump is saying he is fighting lawlessness, when he is the person who is directly violating the law.
Oh, and incidentally, Facebook has refused to take that ad down, even though it is misleading. And the Trump campaign is still running it.
Ironically, there is another connection from this comic to politics. The song (Don’t stand so close to me) is definitely apropos to the ongoing sex scandal surrounding Jeffrey Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell, both of whom have connections to Donald Trump. Maxwell recruited girls (especially underage ones) for Epstein to sexually abuse, but that didn’t stop Trump from wishing her well (and during a discussion of the coronavirus pandemic, no less).
Just for fun, here are two new ads from the Lincoln Project about Trump’s relationship with Maxwell:
Stephen Colbert’s “Tooning Out the News” interviewed Rick Wilson from the Lincoln Project, makers of viral anti-Trump ads. I have to admit that as I watched this, I was alternately laughing, cringing, and shaking my head in disgust.
So what do you think? Is the Lincoln Project made up of good guys who are saving us from Donald Trump? Alternatively, are they actually comparatively responsible for the horror that is Trump, and are just trying to save their own skins (and will be back to their old tricks once Trump is gone)? Or are they merely amoral grifters who realized that there was lots of money to be made? Or all of the above?
White House adviser (and white nationalist) Stephen Miller’s grandmother has died from the coronavirus this month. Miller’s uncle (son of the grandmother) said that the Trump administration is partly responsible for her death because of their incompetent handling of the pandemic.
In response, the White House issued a statement denying that Miller’s grandmother died from the virus:
This is categorically false, and a disgusting use of so-called journalism when the family deserves privacy to mourn the loss of a loved one. His grandmother did not pass away from COVID.
There’s just one problem. Her death certificate lists the cause of death as “respiratory arrest” caused by “COVID-19”.
When informed of this, the White House doubled down, saying “Again, this is categorically false.”
I mean, who are you going to believe, the President of the United States, or your own lying eyes?
On Wednesday, trying to justify his sending federal agents into multiple cities, Donald Trump said the following:
No mother should ever have to cradle her dead child in her arms simply because politicians refused to do what is necessary to secure their neighborhood and to secure their city.
Trump seems unaware that the whole point of the BLM protests is because black people — like George Floyd, and including a 12-year-old boy holding a toy gun — are actually dying. And Trump (who, is a politician, or at least is trying to play one) is unwilling to do anything about it. In fact, he seems hell-bent to make the situation worse. But I guess when Trump envisions a mother and her dead child, he sees only white people.
Speaking of Trump playing a politician, former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge had a great quote on Wednesday, where he made fun of Trump’s “reality TV approach”.
I’m not even sure they have a plan. Have they talked to the mayor? Have they talked to the chief of police? Have they talked to the US attorney? They’ll leave in a couple of weeks and the lawlessness will reemerge, and they still haven’t dealt with the social and economic conditions that underpin the lawlessness. It’s a very disappointing response to a serious problem, but it’s typical of somebody who thinks reality TV is real.
Ridge also had some choice words on Tuesday, saying that the Department of Homeland Security “was established to protect America from the ever-present threat of global terrorism. It was not established to be the President’s personal militia.” He also said “It would be a cold day in hell before I would give consent to a unilateral, uninvited intervention into one of my cities.”
This is a powerful video from the Washington Post:
Speaking of what is going on in Oregon, does anyone remember when Ammon Bundy (son of rancher Cliven Bundy) led a takeover of the Malheur National Wildlife Refuge in Eastern Oregon? That was a bunch of armed men taking over and destroying federal property illegally, which is exactly what Donald Trump is accusing the protesters in Portland of doing, except worse.
Can you imagine if Barack Obama had sent in federal agents to storm the refuge headquarters using tear gas and other munitions? The right would have gone crazy ballistic. But now, when the shoe is on the other foot in Portland, all they can talk about is “law and order”, and the need to protect federal property.
So much hypocrisy. And here’s one last little bit. The Malheur takeover was a protest over the arson conviction of two Oregon ranchers, a father and son named Hammond, for deliberately setting multiple large fires on federal land and making death threats against federal employees.
For decades, conservative activists and leaders have warned that “jackbooted thugs” from the federal government were going to come to take away Americans’ civil rights with no due process and no recourse. Now they’re here—but they’re deployed by a staunchly right-wing president with strong conservative support.
While Republicans have often portrayed themselves as devoted to law and order and defending the police, there’s also a strong libertarian current in the conservative movement that bristles at the growth of federal law enforcement. This became especially strong following the deadly federal sieges at Ruby Ridge, Idaho, in 1992, and Waco, Texas, in 1993. The ATF in particular became a bête noire.
Yet on Thursday, as reports emerged from Portland of heavily armored federal agents attacking law-abiding citizens, the NRA announced it was endorsing Trump for a second term, praising him for “stand[ing] tall for the constitutional freedoms in which our members believe.”
The silence of many high-profile conservatives (with some exceptions) in the face of Trump’s attempt to create a national police force to crush dissent has much to do with the specifics. The subjects of the government’s repression are not white, rural gun owners, as at Ruby Ridge, but a multiracial coalition of urban residents, who tend to lean liberal, and who are protesting police violence against people of color. (The NRA has been conspicuously quiet when police violate Black people’s right to bear arms.)
