Trump once appointed this person for a top job at the Department of Homeland Security:
DAVID CLARKE (GUEST HOST): The question is when is government going to do something? Inaction is not a plan. You know what happens with inaction? People take the law into their own hands. Government is leaving them no choice. No choice. I don’t advocate for some of the stuff that’s starting to happen, but I am certainly done — I am through with condemning it. I’m done with that.
I’m just telling people, “Hey, you’re on your own.” Think about it, have a plan. Act reasonably. You have to act reasonably. Then you’re going to have to articulate what you did afterwards. But you can’t have government officials and law enforcement executives telling people, “Do not take the law into your own hands.” Well, you’re forcing them to!
The majority of these gun purchases are first-time gun owners. And when we leave this up to the individual, it’s not going to end real pretty. But I don’t blame them. Have a plan, think it through, be able to articulate it, and be reasonable. It’s all the law requires. You have the right to defend yourself, you don’t need permission from the police or a sheriff.
Clarke withdrew from consideration when his record of plagiarism and revealed and national attention came to all the death of inmates in his jails. But Trump met with him and they discussed the other ways he could help Trump. That was in the beginning of the administration when they still adhered to a few norms and thought they needed to obtain Senate approval.
Today, Trump would appoint him acting Secretary in a heartbeat and that would be that. After all, the current Acting Secretary, Chad Wolf, has no previous experience and is completely unqualified beyond being a lobbyist and eager Trump henchman.
The head-turning number in this new Fox poll: Taken entirely after Kenosha unrest, it has Trump down 5 points in Wisconsin on “policing and criminal justice.” https://t.co/TNTGHqFIj5pic.twitter.com/cUH94kbkRY
He does not know what he’s talking about and he’s very, very angry. It’s hard to know if he’s putting on a show for Dear Leader or if he really is this ignorant about mail-in voting. There are moments when he seems to realize that he’s an idiot and he changes the subject. For instance he can’t deal with Blitzer’sobservation that 5 states already do mail-in voting with no problems so he starts barking about how the country is polarized and we’re “playing with fire.” He obviously doesn’t even know that the ballots all have bar codes and signature matching.
But one thing is clear. The arrogant piece of work will be egging Trump on when he foments chaos after the election, no matter what happens. He made it clear throughout the interview that he believes Trump hs total jurisdiction over the entire country and that federalism is dead (until a Democrat becomes president.)
He sounded nuts in this interview in many ways, for instance his insistence that there’s no such thing as systemic racism and that it’s not racism isn’t the reason Black men are treated differently, it’s “stereotyping.” The man thinks he’s a lot smarter than he is.
An arrogant, deluded, extremely powerful, white man blathering on about something he clearly doesn't understand. https://t.co/Ns5JIBNVCK
Many Republican voters value “keeping America great” more than they value democracy — and, by “keeping America great,” such voters typically mean “keeping America’s power structure white.”
—Eric Levitz commenting on Larry Bartels’s study: “Ethnic antagonism erodes Republicans’ commitment to democracy”
Larry Bartels of Vanderbilt University documents what has been obvious from before Donald Trump descended the golden escalator. From the abstract:
Most Republicans in a January 2020 survey agreed that “the traditional American way of life is disappearing so fast that we may have to use force to save it.” More than 40% agreed that “a time will come when patriotic Americans have to take the law into their own hands.” (In both cases, most of the rest said they were unsure; only one in four or five disagreed.)
Almost half agreed that “Strong leaders sometimes have to bend the rules in order to get things done.” Nearly three-quarters agreed that “It is hard to trust the results of elections when so many people will vote for anyone who offers a handout.”
Bartels finds these attitudes “are grounded in real political values—specifically, and overwhelmingly, in Republicans’ ethnocentric concerns about the political and social role of immigrants, African-Americans, and Latinos in a context of significant demographic and cultural change.”
Translation: Political, religious and social power in the country is shifting, becoming less concentrated in White hands, i.e., away from them. Whites will have to share. The election of Barack Obama brought home the fact that they are on their way to becoming just another minority in this country. And they know how this country treats minorities. They and their forebears have done most of the treating for four hundred years.
Like Trump, they assume others think just as they do. These White Republicans assume others will behave towards them as they behave towards minorities. They are scared shitless.
Trump fuels that fear among his supporters, now as he did in 2016.
David Frum warned of this in January 2018 when he wrote, “If conservatives become convinced that they cannot win democratically, they will not abandon conservatism. They will reject democracy.”
Levitz writes:
When democracy came to America, it was wrapped in white skin and carrying a burning cross. In the early 19th century, the same state constitutional conventions that gave the vote to propertyless white men disenfranchised free Blacks. For the bulk of our republic’s history, racial hierarchy took precedence over democracy. Across the past half century, the U.S. has shed its official caste system, and almost all white Americans have made peace with sharing this polity with people of other phenotypes. But forfeiting de jure supremacy is one thing; handing over de facto ownership of America’s mainstream politics, culture, and history is quite another. And as legal immigration diversifies America’s electorate while the nation’s unpaid debts to its Black population accrue interest and spur unrest, democracy has begun to seek more radical concessions from those who retain an attachment to white identity. A majority of light-skinned Americans may value their republic more than their (tacit) racial dominance. But sometimes, minorities rule.
Many already have abandoned democracy. Decades of increasing and increasingly subtle and complex Republican voter suppression efforts aimed at securing for themselves minority rule demonstrate that clearly. Desperation is in the air. All that’s missing is the flop sweat.
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Texans lined up for miles at a Dallas food bank last month. (Photo CNN via by WMBF News.)
The violence in Kenosha, Wisc. and Portland, Ore. and Acting President Donald Trump’s tweeted shouts of law and order have obscured other concerns, many of them spin-offs of the global pandemic. The death toll mounts. The case count too. One nation under Trump cannot seem to do anything right to control the spread. Trump himself, as the old commercial goes, is a chocolate mess, misleader of an anti-democracy party dismantling America as we know it and flirting with autocracy. His anxious white followers would rather sicken and die than lose their dominant position on America’s social ladder to any mix of persons they perceive as lessers or know-something elites. They’ll see the country burn first, figuratively if not literally.
While Trump tries to Jedi-mind-trick the country into ignoring his epic floundering on the pandemic and turn their attention to crime, more proximate concerns — like food to eat —trouble voters far from Portland and Kenosha. People lined up in cars for miles last month in Dallas to obtain food.
Life as Dana Frank knew it in Santa Cruz is over. Amid the pandemic’s social distancing and the California wildfires, the ash and the evacuations, her mother died at her nursing home in Oakland. For the first time Frank had to pile her things by the front door and make snap decisions about what to leave behind in an evacuation. Seeing America burn in California is no metaphor. The headquarters at nearby Big Basin Redwoods built in the 1930s by FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps has burned to the ground. There’s a metaphor for you.
The CDC “is asking states to expedite the approval process for medical supply company McKesson so it can set up coronavirus vaccination sites by Nov. 1.” Not that there is a vaccine yet, mind you, one that’s been properly tested safe and effective. But Trump needs a desperate, splashy, vaporware headline ahead of the election. If this goes badly, Trump could undermine faith in government for decades in addition to driving a stake through the heart of the world’s once-premier public health agency.
Meanwhile, the New York Times sent reporters across the country to speak to families experiencing food insecurity in the pandemic. Work is slack or nonexistent. Food is whatever is cheap and less perishable. And microwaveable. Families stock what they can afford or obtain it when they can from food pantries:
In long conversations around the country this August — at kitchen tables, in living rooms and sitting in cars in slow-moving food lines with rambunctious children in the back — Americans reflected on their new reality. The shame and embarrassment. The loss of choice in something as basic as what to eat. The worry over how to make sure their children get a healthy diet. The fear that their lives will never get back on track.
The pandemic could virtually wipe out the restaurant industry. In New York City, the industry is on the verge of collapse, reports The Gothamist:
At the moment, the best hope for the industry lies with the RESTAURANTS Act, a bipartisan federal bill introduced this summer that would create a $120 billion fund to aid small and locally-owned restaurants, and would specifically cover the difference between revenues from 2019 and estimated revenues through the rest of the year.
New York magazine’s Rachel Sugar spoke with restaurant owners in New York City:
Is it hopeless to think that indoor dining can return to New York City before a vaccine is widely available? The more I talked to experts, the more it started to feel like it might be. But what I also heard was frustration from operators who just want some sort of proposal in place so they can start making plans of their own. “At this point, I just need to know,” says Tren’ness Woods-Black, the third-generation owner of Sylvia’s in Harlem. “That’s all. I’m not a doctor. I’m not a scientist. I’m not an air-filtration specialist.” If reopening dining rooms isn’t possible this year, then okay, she says. But “I don’t want to feel beat up because I’m asking.”
Unless Congress acts to shore up unemployment benefits, things could get worse fast. Nearly half a million Arizonans could see their benefits drop abruptly from $540 per week to $240. In Pennsylvania, in Massachusetts, in Tennessee and elsewhere, the unemployed fret over how much and when they will receive assistance to make it through a nationwide pandemic with no end in sight. Jobless claims that trended lower over the summer remain at record highs.
ARE U BETTER OFF? Depends on who you ask…Stock mkt has returned to record levels. Sellers of boats, pools & other high-end goods are reporting blockbuster demand. Meanwhile, almost 11% of U.S. households didn’t have enough to eat in the previous 7days 👇 https://t.co/su0nqmQko8
On Wednesday, Trump traveled to North Carolina to announce in front of the battleship North Carolina he is declaring Wilmington the first World War II “Heritage City.” He could have found famed WWII carriers and battleships in South Carolina, Texas, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Hawaii, Virginia or Alabama. He chose North Carolina. A mystery, huh?
Donald Trump couldn’t find his aft with both hands. And he cannot bluster his way out of a pandemic, nor help desperate Americans plagued by his administration. He is too busy trying to get himself reelected.
This November’s election is not about who controls the country, but about whether there will be one left to control. People are getting desperate.
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CNN’s Brianna Keilar is consistently very good. Today’s “factcheck” was excellent:
With two months until Election Day, @brikeilarCNN has a wide-ranging fact check on claims made by President Trump and his allies about coronavirus, conspiracy theories and Joe Biden’s health. (1/2) pic.twitter.com/O9axmetx4E
Amid the Trump administration’s troubled response to the coronavirus pandemic, senior White House aide Peter Navarro has refashioned himself as a powerful government purchasing chief, operating far beyond his original role as an adviser on trade policy.
But U.S. officials say the abrasive figure’s shortcomings as a manager could influence how well prepared the United States is for a second wave of coronavirus infections expected this fall.
Navarro’s harsh manner and disregard for protocol have alienated numerous colleagues, corporate executives and prominent Republicans. In a previously undisclosed incident, the White House Counsel’s Office in 2018 investigated Navarro’s behavior in response to repeated complaints and found he routinely had been verbally abusive toward others. Navarro narrowly avoided losing his job, but the abuse has continued as the White House has grappled with the pandemic, multiple administration officials said.
On Monday, the administration terminated one contract that Navarro had directly negotiated — for 42,900 Philips ventilators. A Department of Health and Human Services spokesperson said the cancellation was “subject to internal HHS investigation and legal review.” The contract had been criticized by a House oversight subcommittee, which concluded that the government had overpaid for the ventilators by $500 million.
The cancellation came after another transaction Navarro championed, a government loan to fund Eastman Kodak’s transformation into a drugmaker, unraveled and became embroiled in a securities investigation. The watchdog panel says it is broadening its inquiry to examine all of Navarro’s deals.
Navarro remains unbowed, scorning critics inside and outside the White House as disloyal and leaning heavily on his one true ally: President Trump. The trade specialist’s ascent from economics professor and failed California political candidate to one of the most central figures in the White House is a testament to his tenacity, indifference to bureaucratic formalities and ability to stay in the president’s ear.A
For much of Trump’s presidency, Navarro has been an adviser, critiquing existing U.S. trade deals without responsibility for negotiating better ones. But since March, he has been in charge of coordinating the federal government’s purchases of vital medical supplies using the Defense Production Act in a position Trump says is “more important, probably, than it’s almost ever been in our country.”
This article is based on interviews with 28 current and former administration officials, congressional aides and business executives, along with a review of government statements and securities filings. Many of those interviewed spoke on the condition of anonymity to disclose private conversations or because they feared retaliation by Navarro.
Trump consistently puts the worst, unqualified people in charge and, surprise, they screw everything up. Over and over again.
This guy is particularly bad in every way:
Complaints over Navarro’s combustible demeanor crested in the previously undisclosed 2018 investigation of his workplace conduct ordered by then-Chief of Staff John F. Kelly, according to a former senior Trump adviser.
He apparently verbally abuses female assistants and treats female colleagues disrespectfully. He spent a great deal of time trying to undermine other senior officials. So John Kelly did an investigation and concluded that it was no big deal because he treats everyone like dirt, not just women!
Apparently he calmed down for a while but he’s back at it. And as the article states, he’s doing a terrible job.
If Trump wins, I expect he’ll be Treasury Secretary.
So basically Biden is running ahead in the popular vote at the moment by about 8 points.The conventions don’t seem to have changed things much and Trump’s fearmongering isn’t taking, at least not yet. Let’s just say I wouldn’t want to be Trump.
Here’s the Economist analysis of the electoral college vote today:
As for the details, they differ somewhat in the various polls but I think one by Quinnipiac, which has Biden up by 10 points, asks some of the most interesting questions:
On the heels of back-to-back political party conventions and a climate of growing unrest in the country, likely voters support former Vice President Joe Biden over President Donald Trump 52 – 42 percent in a Quinnipiac (KWIN-uh-pea-ack) University national poll released today. This is the first survey of likely voters in the 2020 presidential election race by the Quinnipiac University Poll, and cannot be compared to results of earlier surveys of registered voters. Democrats go to Biden 93 – 6 percent, Republicans go to Trump 90 – 8 percent, and independents back Biden 50 – 40 percent.
COUNTRY BETTER OR WORSE OFF THAN 2016?
Likely voters say 58 – 38 percent that the country is worse off than it was in 2016, the year of the last presidential election. Republicans say 84 – 15 percent the country is better off, Democrats say 95 – 4 percent it is worse off, and independents say 60 – 36 percent it is worse off.
“With six in ten likely voters feeling the country has lost ground, the president stares down a big gap to make up in a short time,” said Quinnipiac University Polling Analyst Tim Malloy.
BIDEN VS. TRUMP: THE ISSUES
Likely voters are split 48 – 48 percent when asked whether Biden or Trump would do a better job handling the economy.
Asked about handling four other key issues, Biden holds a clear lead:
On handling racial inequality, Biden would do a better job 58 – 36 percent;
On handling the response to the coronavirus, Biden would do a better job 56 – 40 percent;
On handling health care, Biden would do a better job 55 – 41 percent;
On handling a crisis, Biden would do a better job 53 – 43 percent.
MORE SAFE, LESS SAFE
Fifty percent of likely voters say having Donald Trump as president of the United States makes them feel less safe, while 35 percent say it makes them feel more safe, and 14 percent say it doesn’t have any impact on how they feel.
Forty-two percent of likely voters say having Joe Biden as president of the United States would make them feel more safe, while 40 percent say it would make them feel less safe, and 16 percent say it wouldn’t have any impact on how they feel.
“While the president has been pushing the issue of safety to the center of the presidential campaign, it raises the question: Who most has your back, the current administration, or the challengers? As racial strife, a seemingly endless pandemic, and an economy on life support unnerve Americans, voters foresee a more reliable lifeline in the Biden Harris ticket,” added Malloy.
FAVORABILITY RATINGS: BIDEN AND HARRIS
Biden receives a mixed favorability rating, as 45 percent have a favorable opinion and 48 percent have an unfavorable opinion.
For Democratic Vice Presidential candidate Kamala Harris, 40 percent of likely voters have a favorable opinion of her, 34 percent have an unfavorable opinion, and 25 percent haven’t heard enough about her.
FAVORABILITY RATINGS: TRUMP AND PENCE
Likely voters give Trump a negative favorability rating with 56 percent having an unfavorable opinion and 41 percent viewing him favorably.
Vice President Mike Pence’s favorability rating is also underwater as 47 percent of likely voters have an unfavorable opinion of him and 38 percent view him favorably.
MAIL-IN & ABSENTEE BALLOTS, EARLY & IN-PERSON VOTING
More than 4 in 10 of likely voters, 45 percent, say they think they will vote in person on Election Day. Just over one-third, 35 percent, say they think they will vote early by mail or absentee ballot, and 16 percent say they think they will vote at an early voting location. There are sharp divides along political party lines when it comes to the most popular mode of casting a ballot. A majority of Republicans, 64 percent, think they will vote in person, while a slim majority of Democrats, 51 percent, think they will vote by mail or absentee ballot. Among independents, a plurality, 45 percent, say they think they will vote in person.
TRUMP JOB APPROVAL
President Trump receives a negative job approval rating with 43 percent of likely voters approving of the job he’s doing and 54 percent disapproving.
He gets higher marks on his handling of the economy, with voters split 49 – 49 percent.
CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE
Forty-one percent of likely voters approve of the way President Trump is handling the response to the coronavirus, while 57 percent disapprove.
More than half of likely voters, 55 – 39 percent, think President Trump is hurting rather than helping efforts to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
Overall, likely voters are evenly split on whether the coronavirus situation in the United States is getting better, getting worse, or staying about the same. Thirty-three percent say better, 32 percent say worse, and 32 percent say the same. Along party lines, a majority of Republicans, 64 percent, say it’s getting better, while a majority of Democrats, 56 percent, say it’s getting worse. Independents are mixed: 38 percent say the same, 32 percent say better, and 27 percent say worse.
More than six in ten likely voters, 61 percent, say they either personally know someone who’s been infected with the coronavirus or have been infected themselves.
THE ECONOMY
Sixty percent of likely voters describe the economy as “not so good” or “poor,” while 37 percent describe it as “excellent” or “good.” Views on the economy vary greatly depending on political affiliation. Seventy-four percent of Republicans describe it as “excellent” or “good,” 88 percent of Democrats describe it as “not so good” or “poor,” and 64 percent of independents describe it as “not so good” or “poor.”
RACISM: A BIG PROBLEM IN THE U.S.
Three-quarters of likely voters do agree on one thing: that racism is a big problem in the United States. Overall, 75 percent say it’s a big problem, while 23 percent say it is not a big problem. Broken down by party, Democrats say 97 – 2 percent it’s a big problem, and independents say 72 – 25 percent it’s a big problem. Republicans, however, are split with 51 percent saying it’s a big problem and 45 percent saying it is not.
“Overall, the majority of likely voters agree as to what has been described as America’s original sin. They see racism as pervasive,” added Malloy.
I know it’s wrong to compare them to holocaust deniers but really, it’s in the same ballpark.
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, biut 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 tha 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.
Arrrrrgh!
Dr. Tom Friedan former head of CDC:
There is a plain and simple truth here. More than 200,000 Amricans died in excess of historical rates between March and July. The death rate is a fact. Everything else is inference.
If you die from cancer and you also have diabetes, that doesn’t mean you didn’t die from cancer. That means you had another condition. If you die from COVID and you also had diabetes that doesn’t mean you didn’t die from COVID. The fact here are extremely clear. The US death rate and the most reliable way of measuring this is what we call the excess mortality rate, the number of deaths beyond the historical base line…. And it is extremely clear there are well over 200,000 excess deaths in the US already.
That’s a combination of three things.
1. someone who died and the doctor said, it was COVID. That’s the 185,000 number
2. people who died from COVID but there wasn’t a test or they died at home or it wasn’t recognized to be COVID
3. people who might have had aheart attack or other serious problem and they didn’t go to get care because they were afraid or the health care system was overwhlemed.
That’s the bottom line. We’ve lost over 200,000 American lives, many of them preventable, because the response to this pandemic here in the US has not been nearly as effective as many other countries have done.
I cannot believe anyone has to explain that even one adult person, much less a US Senator and the president of the United States:
After an exchange about death from the pandemic, they cut to this question — “Mr. President, are you still having fun?” https://t.co/hgq3FazFpi
This is astonishingly stupid but it does clear one thing up. Ernst believes the best hope of getting re-elected is to lash herself as tightly to Trump and QAnon as possible. I have to assume that’s because she’s a true believer herself.
And this loon is on theJudiciary and Armed Services Committee.
Joe Biden held a press conference today. It was quite good.
Biden on what he'd do differently to respond to unrest in places like Kenosha: "I would not incite violence. I would condemn it when it occurred … protesting is a right & free speech is a right, but to engage in violence, burning, looting, in the name of protesting, is wrong." pic.twitter.com/7J8gVpa3pt
Biden on public health measures for Covid: "I talk about patriotism. Why do you wear a mask? To protect your neighbor. To keep someone else from getting sick … I call that patriotic. This is the USA. Every generation has made sacrifices to help others in moments of crises." pic.twitter.com/x5CSAVrF5g
Biden was leaving the press conference after taking questions from several reporters when he noticed Fox News’s Doocy’s raised hand. “I know you always ask a hostile question, but go ahead,” said the former vice president.
Doocy asked Biden why he held campaign rallies in March if he claimed he had warned President Donald Trump of the pandemic in January.
“I said you got to take this seriously. You’ve got to insist that we have access to Wuhan. Insist we have access to China to find out for ourselves,” Biden explained. “We had 44 people from the CDC there. You cannot continue to talk about the president of China saying he’s done a marvelous job, he’s doing a great job.”
He added that he was the first person to call for the Defense Production Act back in March, noting that he was worried about the lack of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) in hospitals at the time.
“We actually had a conversation. I can’t remember when it was, I think it was March, maybe it was April. In that range. He said if Biden wants to help, I want to talk to him. So I talked to him,” he added. “I laid out what I thought should be done to be able to reopen safely and the things we should do and he was very polite, he listened and said he’d think about it and that was the end of it.”
He explained that once scientists discovered how easily the coronavirus could spread, his team decided to stop holding large campaign rallies.
Remember, Trump held rallies in June.
And here was Trump from January through March on China:
All Trump cared about was his stupid trade deal which he clung to for months. And then he briefly took it seriously before immediately pivoting to “I want to put people in the pews for easter.” He is responsible for tens of thousands of preventable deaths.
