Last Call For Orange Meltdown, Con't

As Joe Biden continues to lead the polls, Donald Trump has decided that scaring voters into reelecting him or else he leaves America in a position where Democrats can't save the economy from a depression is his best choice for winning in November.

President Trump seems to believe that stirring up “American carnage” benefits him. He imagines he’ll be better off as things get worse for the rest of us. Is that a winning strategy?

It would be a mistake to overestimate Trump’s ethics (non-existent) and to underestimate his political talent (considerable). He beat down the Republican establishment and defeated a favored opponent in 2016. Four years ago, he knowingly took advantage of foreign interference in the campaign. Back then, Americans wondered whether the Russian intervention was about Trump or about chaos. It was about both.

Chaos was the plan. The worse for America, the better for Russia.

Today, Trump faces a totally different situation in this campaign than he did in 2016, and he knows it. Four years ago, he did not have to win. Had he lost, he could have claimed victory, mocked Hillary Clinton on Twitter, and schlocked his way to retirement. The carefree attitude he evinced back then is notably absent today. The advisers of 2016 are now convicted felons or charged with felonies. By now, Trump himself has been thoroughly investigated, and the prosecutors are lining up. Only the office of the presidency saves him, as he understands.

Like all authoritarians, he aims to die in a comfortable bed rather than in prison. He cannot bear to lose, and he is smart enough to know he is losing. Since he cannot coast and expect victory, he has two options: the democratic one of making things better to attract votes, and the lawless one of courting strife.

He is certainly not making things better. He let covid-19 spread on the logic that it would spare “his people,” but does nothing now even though it is killing his constituents. He could save countless lives by modeling good hygiene, but he will not. He could improve the economy by insisting on meaningful unemployment compensation, but he will not. A democratic politician would work against pestilence and depression; Trump understands that rage can be redirected.

The worse, the better: from the Leninists to the Putinists, one tyrannical tactic has remained the same — let people suffer, transform the anger into killing, blame an invisible conspiracy for your own deeds, and then try to pick up the pieces.

If Trump goes down, he's leaving America an ungovernable wasteland with massive unemployment, deep in the throes of a deadly pandemic, and on the edge of a white supremacist race war. He has now given up on improving anything before the election.

President Trump told reporters at a Labor Day briefing on Monday that he is "taking the high road" by not meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top Democrats to negotiate the next coronavirus stimulus package.
Why it matters: Unemployment benefits have expired for millions of Americans, but House Democrats and the White House are no closer to a deal — while nearly one in eight households are struggling to get enough to eat.

What he's saying: "I don't need to meet with them to be turned down," Trump told reporters. "They don't want to make a deal because they think if the country does as badly as possible ... that's good for the Democrats." 

"I am taking the high road. I'm taking the high road by not seeing them," he added.

If he goes down, he's taking millions of us with him.  And he could coerce millions of votes this way.

He knows the only thing awaiting him is Hell.

He wants us to make the journey with him.

Trump's Race To The Bottom, Con't

NY Times columnist Peter Baker finally calls Trump what he is: the most vocal defender of a white America.

Not in generations has a sitting president so overtly declared himself the candidate of white America. While Mr. Trump’s campaign sought to temper the culture war messaging at the Republican National Convention last month by showcasing Black and Hispanic supporters who denied that he is a racist, the president himself has increasingly made appeals to the grievances of white supporters a centerpiece of his campaign to win a second term.

The message appears designed to galvanize supporters who have cheered what they see as a defiant stand against political correctness since the days when he kicked off his last presidential campaign in 2015 by denouncing, without evidence, Mexicans crossing the border as “rapists.” While he initially voiced concern over the killing of George Floyd under the knee of a white police officer in Minneapolis this spring, which touched off nationwide protests, he has focused since then almost entirely on defending the police and condemning demonstrations during which there have been outbreaks of looting and violence.

He has described American cities as hotbeds of chaos, played to “suburban housewives” he casts as fearful of low-income people moving into their neighborhoods, sought to block a move — backed by the Pentagon and Republican lawmakers — to rename Army bases named for Confederate generals, criticized NASCAR for banning the Confederate flag, called Black Lives Matters a “symbol of hate” and vowed to strip funding from cities that do not take what he deems tough enough action against protesters.

In effect, he is reaching out to a subset of white voters who think the news media and political elites see Trump supporters as inherently racist. Mr. Trump has repeatedly rejected the notion that America has a problem with systemic racial bias, dismissing instances of police brutality against Black Americans as the work of a few “bad apples,” in his words.

“Trump is the most extreme, and he has done something that is beyond the bounds of anything we have seen,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, the president of the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. “Playing with racism is a dangerous game. It’s not that you can do it a little bit or do it slyly or do it with a dog whistle. It’s all dangerous, and it’s all potentially violent.”

Aides said Mr. Trump’s actions were aimed at eliminating pernicious views that actually exacerbate prejudice. “President Trump believes that all men and women are created equal, and he will stand against anti-American philosophies of all kinds that promote racial division,” Kayleigh McEnany, the White House press secretary, said on Sunday.

Public views of Mr. Trump flow through a racial prism. A poll by CBS News last week found that 66 percent of registered voters believed Mr. Trump favored white people, versus 4 percent who said he worked against their interests. By contrast, 20 percent thought he favored Black people and 50 percent said he worked against Black people. Among Black voters, 81 percent said he worked against their interests.

In the poll, Mr. Trump led former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., his Democratic challenger, among white voters by 51 percent to 43 percent, but trailed among Black voters with just 9 percent support, compared with 85 percent for Mr. Biden. Among Hispanic voters, Mr. Biden led by 63 percent to 25 percent.

I mean I've been saying this for years now, but to see a white Times columnist admit it is something else. And yes, he's 100% correct. Trump is the candidate of white grievance politics, pure and simple. It's a smart move on his part, the American electorate is 70% white, and in battleground states it's at least 70% white, if not 80% or even 90%. It's basic math.

Let's take a look at 2016 Wisconsin, where Trump won by 23k votes out of almost 3 million total votes, or 0.75%. CNN's exit poll of the state shows a pretty bleak picture for one of the biggest Rust Belt union manufacturing states.



Wisconsin's electorate was 86% white then. It's probably going to be a couple points less now, but even a small shift in these categories could have changed the race.  Also, Libertarian Gary Johnson's presence almost certainly made Trump's victory smaller than it would have been without him in the race.

Biden is specifically doing better than Clinton with white college-educated men, and with non-college educated white women. That's where he's getting his lead from.  But Trump doesn't need a lot in order to shift the race back to him in states like Wisconsin, Michigan, Pennsylvania and even Minnesota.

So far, Biden's lead in Wisconsin polling is remaining remarkably steady at right at seven points.



That also means that there remains a healthy chunk of undecided/other voters out there too. And they all broke for Trump in the last two weeks of the election. Trump is playing the final strategy, and it's his best card for a reason.

What I'm saying is, we have work to do up to the election and for years afterward.

Climate Of Destruction, Con't

Over the weekend, California broiled like the desert it is, with temps in the LA basin hitting 121 degrees.

As a historic heat wave left Southern California broiling, Woodland Hills on Sunday recorded an all-time high of 121 degrees, which the National Weather Service said was the hottest temperature recorded at an official weather station in Los Angeles County.
It broke the old record of 119 degrees set in July of 2006 and was one of several records to fall on Sunday. The NWS said Riverside hit its highest temperature ever for September at 117 degrees; Santa Ana hit a record high for the day at 106.

Escondido achieved an all-time high of 115 degrees, shattering a record set in 1909. Idyllwild hit 103, tying an all-time record.

Woodland Hills is one of the hottest parts of Los Angeles and often records extreme temperatures. But the 121 degree reading — taken at Pierce College — marked the highest temperature from an official NWS station from both only L.A. County but also Ventura, Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties.
In some areas, Sunday was even hotter than Saturday, where the mercury hit historic levels in some areas. Officials said at least three areas tied or topped all-time record highs Saturday: Alpine (113), El Cajon (114) and Idyllwild (103). The weather service said Burbank appeared to tie an all-time record at 114 degrees.

A slight cooling trend should begin Monday. Even though areas could see temperatures drop by 10 degrees, many locations will remain in the triple digits.

Officials, meanwhile, are warning of possible rolling blackouts because of demand on the power supply brought on by the heat.

The California Independent System Operator, which runs the electric grid for much of the state, declared a Stage 2 Emergency on Saturday night and warned it could order utilities to institute rotating power outages.

Keep in mind also that this is happening in September, and not July.

Extreme climate change is already here, now.  Temps will only get hotter in the years ahead. Large parts of the US will be rendered unsustainable pretty soon unless we do something about it.

And I know this sounds like a broken record, but that all starts with getting rid of Trump and taking back the Senate. Republicans will never allow us to deal with climate change, period.

They have to go.

StupidiNews!

• A federal judge has ordered the Trump regime to continue the 2020 Census, the regime had previously stated that it would "wind down" door-to-door surveys this month.
• Japan's top Olympic official says that the Tokyo Summer Games should be held "at any cost" next year rather than being canceled, the Games have been suspended due to COVID-19 concerns.
• New Hampshire and Rhode Island voters go to the polls today for primary contests, New Hampshire is a battleground state and Trump has endorsed both GOP Senate and House candidates there.
• Multiple pharmaceutical companies have joined together to pledge that there will be no safety shortcuts in the COVID-19 vaccine process as the race to bring one to market continues.
• Microsoft is confirming the existence of the Xbox Series S, a less-expensive model of the next-gen XBox Series X game console scheduled for release next year.

Last Call For Going Postal, Con't

Yesterday we learned that as CEO of a North Carolina logistics firm, Postmaster General Louis Dejoy pressured his workers into donating to Republicans and then reimbursed them with bonuses to cover the cost, a campaign finance felony violation that also apparently included lying to Congress about the exact scheme last month. It was DeJoy's skill at fundraising that got the attention of Trump, and of course he was appointed as the ultimate American logistics firm head as Postmaster General.

Not only is the New York Times confirming the Washington Post's story from over the weekend, but we now find out that one of the major Republicans DeJoy was fundraising for was current NC GOP Sen. Thom Tillis, locked in his own reelection battle with Democratic challenger Cal Cunningham.

Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a major donor to President Trump and fund-raiser for the Republican Party, cultivated an environment at his former company that left employees feeling pressured to make donations to Republican candidates, and rewarded them with bonuses for doing so, according to former employees.

The arrangement was described by three former employees at New Breed Logistics, Mr. DeJoy’s former company, who said that workers would receive bonuses if they donated to candidates he supported, and that it was expected that managers would participate. A fourth employee confirmed that managers at the company were routinely solicited to make donations. The four former employees spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of professional retaliation.

The former employees did not say how explicit Mr. DeJoy was about linking the campaign contributions he was encouraging to the extra compensation, but three of them said it was widely believed that the bonuses were meant to reimburse the political donations, an allegation first reported by The Washington Post. Federal campaign finance law bars straw-donor schemes, in which an individual reimburses someone else to donate to a political campaign in order to skirt contribution limits. But it is legal to encourage employees to make donations, as Mr. DeJoy routinely did.

A review of campaign finance records shows that over a dozen management-level employees at New Breed would routinely donate to the same candidate on the same day, often writing checks for an identical amount of money. One day in October 2014, for example, 20 midlevel and senior officials at the company donated a total of $37,600 to the campaign of Senator Thom Tillis, Republican of North Carolina, who was running to unseat a Democratic incumbent. Each official wrote a check for either $2,600, the maximum allowable donation, or $1,000.

Similar patterns of donations — including to the Republican National Committee and every Republican presidential nominee from President George W. Bush to Mitt Romney — stretch back to 2003, campaign finance records show. Mr. DeJoy’s wife, Dr. Aldona Wos, was the vice chairwoman of Mr. Bush’s North Carolina fund-raising team, and Mr. Bush later appointed her to serve as the ambassador to Estonia. Mr. DeJoy, a Republican megadonor, served as the chief executive of New Breed from 1983 to 2014, until the company was sold to XPO Logistics.

Monty Hagler, a spokesman for Mr. DeJoy, said in a lengthy statement provided to The New York Times that the former New Breed executive “consistently provided family members and employees with various volunteer opportunities to get involved in activities that a family member or employee might feel was important or enjoyable to that individual.”

So now not only does DeJoy have a huge problem on his hands, so does Sen. Tillis.

The other issue is now that there's clearly grounds for legal investigation, and the corrupt Barr Justice Department isn't going to lift a finger, it's up to North Carolina Attorney General Josh Stein to take a look.

Any credible allegations of such actions merit investigation by the appropriate state and federal authorities. Beyond this, it would be inappropriate for me as Attorney General to comment on any specific matter at this time. 2/2

— Josh Stein (@JoshStein_) September 6, 2020

So many Trump regime cronies need to be serving prison time for massive corruption, and that starts with getting rid of the people protecting them: Donald Trump, and Bill Barr.

Orange Meltdown, Con't

Trump continues to try to shift the news cycle away from his 200,000 COVID-19 deaths with all new fascist outrages on a near-daily basis, and today is no exception.

President Donald Trump is continuing to wage battle against interpretations of history which he claims are un-American. 

In a Sunday morning tweet, the President said the US Department of Education would investigate whether California schools are using the New York Times' "1619 Project" in public school curriculum. The Pulitzer-Prize winning collection reframes American history around the date of August 1619, when the first slave ship arrived on America's shores. 

"Department of Education is looking at this. If so, they will not be funded!" he wrote on Twitter, citing a message from an unverified account saying it was being taught in schools there. 

The message came after the President on Friday night banned federal agencies from conducting racial sensitivity training related to "white privilege" and "critical race theory." 

Russell Vought, director of the Office of Management and Budget, instructed heads of federal agencies to dramatically alter racial sensitivity training programs for employees, deeming them "un-American propaganda" in a two-page memo. 

Like that memo, it's unclear the extent of the phenomenon the President is identifying. Some schools have said they will adopt the 1619 Project into their lessons -- though how many isn't known. 

The 1619 Project was launched by the New York Times Magazine last year. After the launch, the Pulitzer Center was named an education partner for the project and announced its education team would develop educational resources and curricula for teachers to use. The 1619 Project curriculum is available online for free through the center. 

Arkansas Sen. Tom Cotton, a Republican, has introduced legislation that would prevent schools from teaching the curriculum. The legislation, titled the Saving American History Act of 2020, "would prohibit the use of federal funds to teach the 1619 Project by K-12 schools or school districts. Schools that teach the 1619 Project would also be ineligible for federal professional-development grants." 

The legislation appears unlikely to gain any significant traction in the Senate but stands as a way for Cotton to send a message. 

The moves follow a pattern by the President of disparaging attempts to process or reckon with the country's fraught racial history. In his convention acceptance speech, the President said "Americans are exhausted, trying to keep up with the latest lists of approved words and phrases, and the ever more restrictive political decrees. Many things have a different name now, and the rules are constantly changing." 

"We want our sons and daughters to know the truth," Trump went on. "America is the greatest and most exceptional nation in the history of the world. Our country wasn't built by cancel culture, speech codes, and crushing conformity. We are not a nation of timid spirits."

America was built, quite literally, by slave labor, and then by indentured servitude for freed slaves and Chinese and Japanese immigrants, and then by poor Irish, Scots, Romani and Italian laborers who formed unions because they were white, and then by unions who were shattered and bloodied by corruption and strikebreaking, and then by machines that replaced the labor.

That's besides the point though, which is that Trump is threatening defunding and censorship made patently illegal by a host of US laws and the Constitution. He can't actually do anything, but he can continue a culture war to anger his followers and motivate them towards hatred in time for the election season as it gets under way for real this week.

All this is a problem, but it's a petty distraction while Trump is proclaiming he is the final arbiter of truth in America, it's a distraction from Trump's chosen path of genocidal neglect from COVID-19 deaths.

Keep that in mind.

Also vote early.

Deportation Nation, Con't

Just a reminder that in the COVID-19 era, the Trump regime still keeps migrant kids in cages and separates them from their parents in order to deport them to an unknown fate.

A 2-year-old boy locked in detention wants to be held all the time. A few girls, ages 10 to 15, say they’ve been doing their best to feed and soothe the clingy toddler who was handed to them by a guard days ago. Lawyers warn that kids are taking care of kids, and there’s inadequate food, water and sanitation for the 250 infants, children and teens at the Border Patrol station.

The bleak portrait emerged Thursday after a legal team interviewed 60 children at the facility near El Paso that has become the latest place where attorneys say young migrants are describing neglect and mistreatment at the hands of the U.S. government.

Data obtained by The Associated Press showed that on Wednesday there were three infants in the station, all with their teen mothers, along with a 1-year-old, two 2-year-olds and a 3-year-old. There are dozens more under 12. Fifteen have the flu, and 10 more are quarantined.

Three girls told attorneys they were trying to take care of the 2-year-old boy, who had wet his pants and had no diaper and was wearing a mucus-smeared shirt when the legal team encountered him.

“A Border Patrol agent came in our room with a 2-year-old boy and asked us, ‘Who wants to take care of this little boy?’ Another girl said she would take care of him, but she lost interest after a few hours and so I started taking care of him yesterday,” one of the girls said in an interview with attorneys.

Law professor Warren Binford, who is helping interview the children, said she couldn’t learn anything about the toddler, not even where he’s from or who his family is. He is not speaking.

Binford described that during interviews with children in a conference room at the facility, “little kids are so tired they have been falling asleep on chairs and at the conference table.”

She said an 8-year-old taking care of a very small 4-year-old with matted hair couldn’t convince the little one to take a shower.

“In my 22 years of doing visits with children in detention, I have never heard of this level of inhumanity,” said Holly Cooper, who co-directs University of California, Davis’ Immigration Law Clinic and represents detained youth.

This repulsive inhumanity makes grim sense when you remember our federal government is run by a lifelong white supremacist eugenicist who hired other lifelong white supremacist eugenicists in order to dehumanize migrants and immigrants on purpose (committing human rights violations on a massive scale) as a deterrent to end immigration period.

When you remember that this regime believes tens of millions of Americans should be stripped of their citizenship and rights, and be shipped off to who knows where, everything they have done in the last four years clicks into place.

They are hateful on the scale of 1930's Germany and we have one chance to stop them.