You need to quit your obsession with me you weird fuck. You don’t know shit. I told everyone here where I lived when I said I live in one of the richest counties in the country. That is fact. Doesn’t mean it was where I grew up.
Doesn’t matter what my life is like you fucking weirdos are fucking weird and will talk shit about me living in the hood or talk shit about me living lavishly. Doesn’t matter what I say. Y’all are clowns. I am the goat. Y’all are beneath me and I am better than you and you know it. That’s why you’re obsessed.
This afternoon, Trump held a press conference in the Rose Garden of the White House to announce that he had signed into law the Hong Kong Autonomy Act, clearing the way for sanctions on Chinese officials and entities that undermine Hong Kong’s autonomy. As soon as he had made the announcement, he launched into a rambling attack on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, using the official press conference as he had done the official coronavirus briefings when he held them: as an opportunity for a campaign rally-type speech.
A couple of things jumped out about the speech. First, it is clear that Trump is enormously concerned about being attacked for the trade deal he made with China in January, in the early days of the coronavirus epidemic. Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s account of his time in the administration revealed that in June 2019, Trump begged Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win reelection by agreeing to buy more U.S.
agricultural products. This purchase was central to the January trade deal. But the trade deal, which Trump and his people touted as a game-changer for the economy, hurt America’s response to the coronavirus as Trump’s cheery support for Xi Jinping and the way in which the Chinese leader was handling the coronavirus helped slow our own response to the crisis.
Now Trump is eager to distance himself from the earlier deal. The constant refrain of his speech was how hard he has been on China in contrast to how easy Biden had been when he was vice president. “Make no mistake,” Trump said, “We hold China fully responsible for concealing the virus and unleashing it upon the world. They could’ve stopped it. They should’ve stopped it. It would’ve been very easy to do at the source when it happened. In contrast,” he continued, “Joe Biden’s entire career has been a gift to the Chinese Communist Party and to the calamity of — of errors that they’ve made.”
He then launched into a rambling tirade against Biden, including an aside claiming wildly that Biden’s son Hunter “walked out with 1.5 billion,” presumably a reference to a debunked story seeded by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani that China paid Hunter off to curry favor with then-Vice President Biden. Trump’s speech was full of debunked talking points like this one—claiming falsely again, for example, that “the military was totally depleted” when he took office. These claims play well at his rallies but sound unhinged in the Rose Garden in daylight. In a speech that went on for 63 minutes, he characterized Biden’s positions in such wildly exaggerated terms it seemed a caricature. He suggested, for example, that Biden intends to curb carbon emissions by getting rid of windows in homes and offices.
Trump defended his administration’s handling of the coronavirus, claiming it has saved “millions of lives…. It could be 2 to 3 million.” (“But if we had listened to Joe Biden,” he said, “hundreds of thousands of additional lives would have been lost.”)
It was the speech of an embattled man.
It seems clear that pressure is building on him. Coronavirus cases in the U.S. approach 3.5 million and deaths have topped 136,000. Cases of infection are surging across the country. Florida has just set a single day record for deaths and Arizona and Texas are bringing in refrigerated morgue trucks.
Yet Trump continues to insist that schools must open fully and on schedule, and today, in a really unusual public hit on one member of an administration from another, Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro published an op-ed in USA Today attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who is one of the administration’s key advisors on the pandemic. The highly respected 79-year-old Fauci has served every president since Ronald Reagan and has been instrumental in preventing epidemics in the U.S. since the worst part of the AIDS crisis. He insists that Americans must do more to combat the surging disease, and has warned that premature reopening of businesses and schools will continue to spread the illness. Nonetheless, Navarro—who is not a doctor— urges a faster reopening, and announced in his op-ed that Fauci “has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.”
Still, Americans are not eager to put their children into harm’s way. An Axios-Ipsos poll released today revealed that 71% of Americans—including 53% of Republicans—think it is risky to send their children back to school.
Some administrators are listening. Two of the largest school districts in the country, Los Angeles and San Diego, just announced they will resume coursework on-line in the fall. Together, those districts enroll more than 700,000 students. Their resistance to Trump’s edict are paving the way for others.
The administration had tried to pressure colleges and universities to reopen as normal this fall by threatening to deport foreign students if their schools went to online instruction. As universities and 20 states immediately sued, the administration today dropped the plan.
Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh offered today that Americans must “adapt” to the coronavirus, taking our cue from the Donner Party, a group of pioneers snowed into the Sierra Nevada Mountain range on their way to California in 1847, who “had to turn to cannibalism to survive.” “It’s just what was," he said. “They didn’t complain about it, because there was nothing they could do. They had to adapt. This is what’s missing. There seems to be no concept of adaptation. There seems to be no understanding in the Millennial generation that we can adapt to this, and that we’re going to have to.”
Interestingly, Limbaugh left out half the story of what happened to the Donner Party. After it was rescued and news of what had happened to the members of the group raced back east, Americans were horrified. Determined to guarantee that no other travelers would ever have to endure such a fate, Congress backed government policies to place army guides on the route to California and Oregon. The government did its best to make sure that those crossing the dangerous mountains would arrive safely at their destination.
-HCR-7/14
A couple of things jumped out about the speech. First, it is clear that Trump is enormously concerned about being attacked for the trade deal he made with China in January, in the early days of the coronavirus epidemic. Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s account of his time in the administration revealed that in June 2019, Trump begged Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win reelection by agreeing to buy more U.S.
agricultural products. This purchase was central to the January trade deal. But the trade deal, which Trump and his people touted as a game-changer for the economy, hurt America’s response to the coronavirus as Trump’s cheery support for Xi Jinping and the way in which the Chinese leader was handling the coronavirus helped slow our own response to the crisis.
Now Trump is eager to distance himself from the earlier deal. The constant refrain of his speech was how hard he has been on China in contrast to how easy Biden had been when he was vice president. “Make no mistake,” Trump said, “We hold China fully responsible for concealing the virus and unleashing it upon the world. They could’ve stopped it. They should’ve stopped it. It would’ve been very easy to do at the source when it happened. In contrast,” he continued, “Joe Biden’s entire career has been a gift to the Chinese Communist Party and to the calamity of — of errors that they’ve made.”
He then launched into a rambling tirade against Biden, including an aside claiming wildly that Biden’s son Hunter “walked out with 1.5 billion,” presumably a reference to a debunked story seeded by Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani that China paid Hunter off to curry favor with then-Vice President Biden. Trump’s speech was full of debunked talking points like this one—claiming falsely again, for example, that “the military was totally depleted” when he took office. These claims play well at his rallies but sound unhinged in the Rose Garden in daylight. In a speech that went on for 63 minutes, he characterized Biden’s positions in such wildly exaggerated terms it seemed a caricature. He suggested, for example, that Biden intends to curb carbon emissions by getting rid of windows in homes and offices.
Trump defended his administration’s handling of the coronavirus, claiming it has saved “millions of lives…. It could be 2 to 3 million.” (“But if we had listened to Joe Biden,” he said, “hundreds of thousands of additional lives would have been lost.”)
It was the speech of an embattled man.
It seems clear that pressure is building on him. Coronavirus cases in the U.S. approach 3.5 million and deaths have topped 136,000. Cases of infection are surging across the country. Florida has just set a single day record for deaths and Arizona and Texas are bringing in refrigerated morgue trucks.
Yet Trump continues to insist that schools must open fully and on schedule, and today, in a really unusual public hit on one member of an administration from another, Trump’s trade advisor Peter Navarro published an op-ed in USA Today attacking Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, who is one of the administration’s key advisors on the pandemic. The highly respected 79-year-old Fauci has served every president since Ronald Reagan and has been instrumental in preventing epidemics in the U.S. since the worst part of the AIDS crisis. He insists that Americans must do more to combat the surging disease, and has warned that premature reopening of businesses and schools will continue to spread the illness. Nonetheless, Navarro—who is not a doctor— urges a faster reopening, and announced in his op-ed that Fauci “has been wrong about everything I have interacted with him on.”
Still, Americans are not eager to put their children into harm’s way. An Axios-Ipsos poll released today revealed that 71% of Americans—including 53% of Republicans—think it is risky to send their children back to school.
Some administrators are listening. Two of the largest school districts in the country, Los Angeles and San Diego, just announced they will resume coursework on-line in the fall. Together, those districts enroll more than 700,000 students. Their resistance to Trump’s edict are paving the way for others.
The administration had tried to pressure colleges and universities to reopen as normal this fall by threatening to deport foreign students if their schools went to online instruction. As universities and 20 states immediately sued, the administration today dropped the plan.
Talk radio host Rush Limbaugh offered today that Americans must “adapt” to the coronavirus, taking our cue from the Donner Party, a group of pioneers snowed into the Sierra Nevada Mountain range on their way to California in 1847, who “had to turn to cannibalism to survive.” “It’s just what was," he said. “They didn’t complain about it, because there was nothing they could do. They had to adapt. This is what’s missing. There seems to be no concept of adaptation. There seems to be no understanding in the Millennial generation that we can adapt to this, and that we’re going to have to.”
Interestingly, Limbaugh left out half the story of what happened to the Donner Party. After it was rescued and news of what had happened to the members of the group raced back east, Americans were horrified. Determined to guarantee that no other travelers would ever have to endure such a fate, Congress backed government policies to place army guides on the route to California and Oregon. The government did its best to make sure that those crossing the dangerous mountains would arrive safely at their destination.
-HCR-7/14
Trump defended his administration’s handling of the coronavirus, claiming it has saved “millions of lives…. It could be 2 to 3 million.” (“But if we had listened to Joe Biden,” he said, “hundreds of thousands of additional lives would have been lost.”)
See lmfaooooo this is who they fuck with bahahahahhahaha hahahahaha
But when I tout they get so mad bahahahhahahahahahhaha Fucking losers. Even though I have 100000000x more reasons to tout than Trump does bahahhahaha FACT stupid stalking stock.
See lmfaooooo this is who they fuck with bahahahahhahaha hahahahaha
But when I tout they get so mad bahahahhahahahahahhaha Fucking losers. Even though I have 100000000x more reasons to tout than Trump does bahahhahaha FACT stupid stalking stock.A couple of things jumped out about the speech. First, it is clear that Trump is enormously concerned about being attacked for the trade deal he made with China in January, in the early days of the coronavirus epidemic. Trump’s former National Security Advisor John Bolton’s account of his time in the administration revealed that in June 2019, Trump begged Chinese President Xi Jinping to help him win reelection by agreeing to buy more U.S. agricultural products. This purchase was central to the January trade deal. But the trade deal, which Trump and his people touted as a game-changer for the economy, hurt America’s response to the coronavirus as Trump’s cheery support for Xi Jinping and the way in which the Chinese leader was handling the coronavirus helped slow our own response to the crisis.
Now Trump is eager to distance himself from the earlier deal. The constant refrain of his speech was how hard he has been on China in contrast to how easy Biden had been when he was vice president. “Make no mistake,” Trump said, “We hold China fully responsible for concealing the virus and unleashing it upon the world. They could’ve stopped it. They should’ve stopped it. It would’ve been very easy to do at the source when it happened. In contrast,” he continued, “Joe Biden’s entire career has been a gift to the Chinese Communist Party and to the calamity of — of errors that they’ve made.”
face)(*^%
Now Trump is eager to distance himself from the earlier deal. The constant refrain of his speech was how hard he has been on China in contrast to how easy Biden had been when he was vice president. “Make no mistake,” Trump said, “We hold China fully responsible for concealing the virus and unleashing it upon the world. They could’ve stopped it. They should’ve stopped it. It would’ve been very easy to do at the source when it happened. In contrast,” he continued, “Joe Biden’s entire career has been a gift to the Chinese Communist Party and to the calamity of — of errors that they’ve made.”
face)(*^%
Who said I “support” trump? He is the president of this country and I respect that position no matter who is in there...Does NOT mean I blindly support everything he says...
You support Biden who has been caught numerous times sniffing young children on camera...That makes you a supporter of pedophilia in your line of thinking...
You fail everyday here...
Have you started bowing down and kissing boots since you support BLM blindly and are ashamed of your “white privilege” like they tell you to? You better start or your BLM crew is going to start calling you racist...
As the coronavirus continues to ravage the country, the way the government will collect data about Covid-19 cases changed today. On March 29, Vice President Mike Pence asked hospital administrators to report data about coronavirus through three different systems: the network provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (the CDC), HHS Protect, and TeleTracking. Last Friday, the Department of Health and Human Services announced that, beginning today, hospitals should report daily information about coronavirus cases not through the CDC system, which has been in place for 15 years, but rather through the other two.
This move has met with widespread condemnation as observers worry that Trump is trying to take control of information about the coronavirus in order to conceal it. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has hidden information this way, and Trump has made it clear he believes that if only he downplays the numbers, he can convince people to go back to work and resurrect the economy.
But there is another angle to this change that seems to me likely to be at least as attractive to the president as control over data information. That primary issue is money.
HHS Protect is developed by Palantir Technologies, a data-mining firm that works with the Pentagon and law enforcement agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Peter Thiel, a billionaire Trump supporter, co-founded the company, which last week confidentially filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. An initial public offering (IPO) would have made bucketloads of money in any case, but a federal contract to compile coronavirus information is a sweet addition to its portfolio.
The TeleTracking system also raises suspicions of a financial deal. On June 3, Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) wrote to the director of the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield and the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Robert P. Kadlec, to ask why HHS had awarded a $10 million no-bid contract to create this data system that duplicated the one the CDC already had. Why indeed?
There is, in the letter shifting data collection, a peculiarly nasty stick. Underlined on the first page of the instructions is that “We will no longer be sending out one-time requests for data to aid in the distribution of Remdesivir or any other treatments or supplies. This daily reporting is the only mechanism used for the distribution calculations, and the daily [sic] is needed daily to ensure accurate calculations.”
Remdesivir is one of the two drugs proven effective at combatting Covid-19. Two weeks ago, the Trump administration bought up almost all of the world’s supply of the drug for the next three months.
The rest of the world was outraged at this purchase, but at the time HHS Secretary Alex Azar defended the move by saying “To the extent possible, we want to ensure that any American patient who needs remdesivir can get it. The Trump administration is doing everything in our power to learn more about life-saving therapeutics for Covid-19 and secure access to these options for the American people.”
Now, it appears, in order to get access to it, hospitals will need to use the private data systems the administration supports.
There were two other big stories today.
First, Trump announced tonight he is replacing his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, less than four months before the election. A replacement at this stage of the game indicates trouble for the campaign. Parscale has borne the brunt of Trump’s anger at his dropping polls, which today showed Trump behind the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden by double digits. The debacle of the Tulsa rally, in which Tik Tok users and K-pop fans so badly polluted the data the campaign was harvesting from the event it almost certainly could not be used, appeared to seal his fate. This is a tad awkward for the campaign, since Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump, Jr.’s girlfriend, and Lara Trump, Eric Trump’s wife, have been receiving $15,000 a month through Parscale’s company to avoid disclosure on Federal Elections Commission reports.
Parscale will stay on the campaign as an adviser for data and digital operations.
Bill Stepien, a political operative who worked for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, will replace Parscale. Stepien got embroiled in the 2013 Fort Lee Lane Closure scandal that snarled traffic on the George Washington Bridge for four days. Intended to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for opposing Christie, the scandal instead hurt Christie’s national ambitions. Emails and texts show that Stepien knew of the scheme before it happened. Christie fired him when the communications came to light, but Stepien was never indicted in the case.
Second, this afternoon, Twitter was hacked. Some of the nation’s most prominent politicians and entertainers lost control of their accounts, which mysteriously posted messages sounding like a giveaway. They told readers that if they sent Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, the Twitter user attacked would double the money. Eventually, Twitter was forced to shut down all verified accounts for two hours, silencing official voices on the platform Americans increasingly use to stay on top of breaking news. The attack interrupted tweets from the National Weather Service about a tornado in Illinois, for example, when the verified account providing information was shut down.
The attack was a dramatic illustration of how vulnerable our communications systems are to hackers. Casey Newton, who writes about social media and democracy at The Interface, noted that this hack was a sign of what could come: the incitement of “real-world chaos through impersonation and fraud.” Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and the former chief security officer at Facebook, told the New York Times: “This demonstrates a real risk for the elections. Twitter has become the most important platform when it comes to discussion among political elites, and it has real vulnerabilities.”
-HCR- 7/15
This move has met with widespread condemnation as observers worry that Trump is trying to take control of information about the coronavirus in order to conceal it. In Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis has hidden information this way, and Trump has made it clear he believes that if only he downplays the numbers, he can convince people to go back to work and resurrect the economy.
But there is another angle to this change that seems to me likely to be at least as attractive to the president as control over data information. That primary issue is money.
HHS Protect is developed by Palantir Technologies, a data-mining firm that works with the Pentagon and law enforcement agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Peter Thiel, a billionaire Trump supporter, co-founded the company, which last week confidentially filed paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to go public. An initial public offering (IPO) would have made bucketloads of money in any case, but a federal contract to compile coronavirus information is a sweet addition to its portfolio.
The TeleTracking system also raises suspicions of a financial deal. On June 3, Chair of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor & Pensions Senator Patty Murray (D-WA) wrote to the director of the CDC, Dr. Robert Redfield and the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response at the Department of Health and Human Services, Dr. Robert P. Kadlec, to ask why HHS had awarded a $10 million no-bid contract to create this data system that duplicated the one the CDC already had. Why indeed?
There is, in the letter shifting data collection, a peculiarly nasty stick. Underlined on the first page of the instructions is that “We will no longer be sending out one-time requests for data to aid in the distribution of Remdesivir or any other treatments or supplies. This daily reporting is the only mechanism used for the distribution calculations, and the daily [sic] is needed daily to ensure accurate calculations.”
Remdesivir is one of the two drugs proven effective at combatting Covid-19. Two weeks ago, the Trump administration bought up almost all of the world’s supply of the drug for the next three months.
The rest of the world was outraged at this purchase, but at the time HHS Secretary Alex Azar defended the move by saying “To the extent possible, we want to ensure that any American patient who needs remdesivir can get it. The Trump administration is doing everything in our power to learn more about life-saving therapeutics for Covid-19 and secure access to these options for the American people.”
Now, it appears, in order to get access to it, hospitals will need to use the private data systems the administration supports.
There were two other big stories today.
First, Trump announced tonight he is replacing his campaign manager, Brad Parscale, less than four months before the election. A replacement at this stage of the game indicates trouble for the campaign. Parscale has borne the brunt of Trump’s anger at his dropping polls, which today showed Trump behind the presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden by double digits. The debacle of the Tulsa rally, in which Tik Tok users and K-pop fans so badly polluted the data the campaign was harvesting from the event it almost certainly could not be used, appeared to seal his fate. This is a tad awkward for the campaign, since Kimberly Guilfoyle, Donald Trump, Jr.’s girlfriend, and Lara Trump, Eric Trump’s wife, have been receiving $15,000 a month through Parscale’s company to avoid disclosure on Federal Elections Commission reports.
Parscale will stay on the campaign as an adviser for data and digital operations.
Bill Stepien, a political operative who worked for New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, will replace Parscale. Stepien got embroiled in the 2013 Fort Lee Lane Closure scandal that snarled traffic on the George Washington Bridge for four days. Intended to punish the Democratic mayor of Fort Lee for opposing Christie, the scandal instead hurt Christie’s national ambitions. Emails and texts show that Stepien knew of the scheme before it happened. Christie fired him when the communications came to light, but Stepien was never indicted in the case.
Second, this afternoon, Twitter was hacked. Some of the nation’s most prominent politicians and entertainers lost control of their accounts, which mysteriously posted messages sounding like a giveaway. They told readers that if they sent Bitcoin, a cryptocurrency, the Twitter user attacked would double the money. Eventually, Twitter was forced to shut down all verified accounts for two hours, silencing official voices on the platform Americans increasingly use to stay on top of breaking news. The attack interrupted tweets from the National Weather Service about a tornado in Illinois, for example, when the verified account providing information was shut down.
The attack was a dramatic illustration of how vulnerable our communications systems are to hackers. Casey Newton, who writes about social media and democracy at The Interface, noted that this hack was a sign of what could come: the incitement of “real-world chaos through impersonation and fraud.” Alex Stamos, director of the Stanford Internet Observatory and the former chief security officer at Facebook, told the New York Times: “This demonstrates a real risk for the elections. Twitter has become the most important platform when it comes to discussion among political elites, and it has real vulnerabilities.”
-HCR- 7/15
Today two leading Republican politicians attempted to stake out turf for the 2024 (that's not a typo) presidential race, as Trump tried to strengthen his hand for the 2020 election.
This morning, Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican who has won high marks for his response to the coronavirus crisis in his state, published an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Still Standing. The excerpt tells the story of how Hogan’s Korean-born wife, Yumi Hogan, made the connections to get 500,000 coronavirus testing kits from South Korea when Trump—whom he eviscerates-- refused to help. (The excerpt does not mention that the kits themselves did not have swabs or reagents, and thus could not be used immediately, prompting critics to accuse Hogan of wasting the $9 million cost of the kits for a publicity stunt. The kits are now functional, and Maryland Deputy Health Secretary Fran Phillips said they would be put to use in the fall.)
Hogan is clearly trying to emerge from this crisis as the voice of the anti-Trump Republicans. The description of the book explains what readers will find inside: “In his own words and unique, plain-spoken style, Larry Hogan tells the feel-good story of a fresh American leader being touted as the ‘anti-Trump Republican.’ A lifelong uniter at a time of sharp divisions. A politician with practical solutions that take the best from all sides. An open-hearted man who has learned important lessons from his own struggles in life.”
Even before the 2020 election, Hogan is staking out turf for the election after that. The description says: “Still Standing reveals how an unlikely governor is sparking a whole new kind of politics—and introduces the exciting possibilities that lie ahead.”
Hogan is not the only one eying the future. Today Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote a Washington Post op-ed and gave a fiery speech in Philadelphia to launch the draft report of the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, a committee he organized a year ago to reexamine “the nation’s founding principles.” To chair the committee, he tapped conservative legal scholar Mary Ann Glendon, who is staunchly and vocally opposed to abortion.
The commission’s report looks laughably like a campaign document, and, of course, Pompeo has been in hot water for throwing official dinners clearly designed to build his own political base. In the report’s 60 pages are large images of America’s most famous leaders—the Framers, Abraham Lincoln, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Ronald Reagan—and at pride of place, on its second page, is a big color photo of Pompeo himself. Trump is nowhere to be seen.
The report lays out a version of American history and human rights designed to appeal to the evangelicals who count Pompeo as their own. It begins by stating that the primary tradition “that formed the American spirit” was “Protestant Christianity… infused with the beautiful Biblical teachings that every human being is imbued with dignity and bears responsibilities toward fellow human beings, because each is made in the image of God.”
Then, as it begins a strange meander through its version of American history, it seems to urge hard-core Republicans to rebel against a government that they perceive as infringing on their religious rights as Christians and on their property rights by regulating business and levying taxes. The commission’s report highlights the statement in the Declaration of Independence that if “any Form of Government becomes destructive of” unalienable rights, the people have the right “to alter or abolish” their government and to build a new one.
The report hits again and again on the words “unalienable rights,” which refers to rights that cannot be “alienated” from someone, that is, they cannot be given away or taken away. In the Declaration of Independence, the Founders identified the key unalienable rights of individuals as the right to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Although it claims to speak “from the founders’ point of view,” Pompeo’s commission disagrees. “Foremost among the unalienable rights that government is established to secure,” it writes, “are property rights and religious liberty. A political society that destroys the possibility of either loses its legitimacy.”
The commission goes on to limit support for human rights to those issues that are covered in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are “widely recognized and accepted by the American people, through their democratically elected political representatives,” and are accepted by most peoples around the world as legitimate. This leaves out LGBTQ individuals, of course, as well as many women and girls. It also puts the definition of human rights in the hands of whichever party controls Congress, indicating that Pompeo expects Republicans to do so for a long time.
Pompeo’s op-ed was more extreme, even, than the report. In the Washington Post, Pompeo insisted “never before have America’s founding principles been under such relentless assault,” and he singled out the New York Times and its 1619 project--which highlighted the role of human enslavement in the founding of America-- as well as the removal of Confederate statues, as an example of “outrageous efforts to erase American history.”
His Philadelphia speech went even further. “Today, the very core of what it means to be an American, indeed the American way of life itself, is under attack,” he said. “Instead of seeking to improve America, leading voices promulgate hatred of our founding principles.” He continued: “They want you to believe the Marxist ideology that America is only the oppressors and the oppressed…. The Chinese Communist Party must be gleeful when they see the New York Times spout their ideology.”
It seems Hogan is bargaining that Republicans will reject Trumpism and move left; Pompeo is bargaining that he can pull the party even further rightward to a theocracy. That the two men felt comfortable tipping their hands less than four months before the next election suggests they have decided that Trump is no longer a real threat to their future.
For his part, Trump is doubling down on the idea that “LAW & ORDER” as he tweets it, will win him reelection, or, more ominously, fire up his base enough that they will contest a Democratic win long enough to throw it into the Supreme Court, or even the House of Representatives, where he might be able to pull off a win.
Under Trump’s executive order to protect monuments and federal property, in early July, the administration sent Homeland Security officers to Portland, Oregon, ostensibly to protect federal property after protesters defaced the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse with graffiti, shattered a glass door, and threw fireworks inside.
The people who broke the door and threw the fireworks were arrested immediately, but Trump maintains that Oregon’s Democratic leaders are unwilling to stop the protests, which were sparked by George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police in May. The Fox News Channel has repeatedly claimed that the protesters have done $23 million in property damage, and that claim has gotten national attention, although in fact independent analysts attribute that number almost entirely to lost sales from Pioneer Place mall due to coronavirus.
Last weekend, federal officers in Portland shot a “less-than-lethal” munition at a protester standing peacefully across the street from them, fracturing his skull and face. The outcry over that attack has not stopped the police violence. For at least two days, federal law enforcement officials without identification have been cruising downtown Portland, Oregon and detaining protesters.
Today, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf went to Portland to see the courthouse. He claimed in a letter that “Portland has been under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob while local political leaders refuse to restore order to protect their city.” But Portland leaders say they did not ask for federal troops, and do not want them.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown (D) accused Trump of trying to drum up a confrontation to win voters. “This political theater from President Trump has nothing to do with public safety,” she said in a statement. “The President is failing to lead this nation. Now he is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets of Portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government.”
-HCR- 7/16
Hogan!!!!!!!! Great Republican right there. Take notes ladies.
This morning, Governor Larry Hogan of Maryland, a Republican who has won high marks for his response to the coronavirus crisis in his state, published an excerpt from his forthcoming book, Still Standing. The excerpt tells the story of how Hogan’s Korean-born wife, Yumi Hogan, made the connections to get 500,000 coronavirus testing kits from South Korea when Trump—whom he eviscerates-- refused to help. (The excerpt does not mention that the kits themselves did not have swabs or reagents, and thus could not be used immediately, prompting critics to accuse Hogan of wasting the $9 million cost of the kits for a publicity stunt. The kits are now functional, and Maryland Deputy Health Secretary Fran Phillips said they would be put to use in the fall.)
Hogan is clearly trying to emerge from this crisis as the voice of the anti-Trump Republicans. The description of the book explains what readers will find inside: “In his own words and unique, plain-spoken style, Larry Hogan tells the feel-good story of a fresh American leader being touted as the ‘anti-Trump Republican.’ A lifelong uniter at a time of sharp divisions. A politician with practical solutions that take the best from all sides. An open-hearted man who has learned important lessons from his own struggles in life.”
Even before the 2020 election, Hogan is staking out turf for the election after that. The description says: “Still Standing reveals how an unlikely governor is sparking a whole new kind of politics—and introduces the exciting possibilities that lie ahead.”
Hogan is not the only one eying the future. Today Secretary of State Mike Pompeo wrote a Washington Post op-ed and gave a fiery speech in Philadelphia to launch the draft report of the State Department’s Commission on Unalienable Rights, a committee he organized a year ago to reexamine “the nation’s founding principles.” To chair the committee, he tapped conservative legal scholar Mary Ann Glendon, who is staunchly and vocally opposed to abortion.
The commission’s report looks laughably like a campaign document, and, of course, Pompeo has been in hot water for throwing official dinners clearly designed to build his own political base. In the report’s 60 pages are large images of America’s most famous leaders—the Framers, Abraham Lincoln, the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Ronald Reagan—and at pride of place, on its second page, is a big color photo of Pompeo himself. Trump is nowhere to be seen.
The report lays out a version of American history and human rights designed to appeal to the evangelicals who count Pompeo as their own. It begins by stating that the primary tradition “that formed the American spirit” was “Protestant Christianity… infused with the beautiful Biblical teachings that every human being is imbued with dignity and bears responsibilities toward fellow human beings, because each is made in the image of God.”
Then, as it begins a strange meander through its version of American history, it seems to urge hard-core Republicans to rebel against a government that they perceive as infringing on their religious rights as Christians and on their property rights by regulating business and levying taxes. The commission’s report highlights the statement in the Declaration of Independence that if “any Form of Government becomes destructive of” unalienable rights, the people have the right “to alter or abolish” their government and to build a new one.
The report hits again and again on the words “unalienable rights,” which refers to rights that cannot be “alienated” from someone, that is, they cannot be given away or taken away. In the Declaration of Independence, the Founders identified the key unalienable rights of individuals as the right to “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
Although it claims to speak “from the founders’ point of view,” Pompeo’s commission disagrees. “Foremost among the unalienable rights that government is established to secure,” it writes, “are property rights and religious liberty. A political society that destroys the possibility of either loses its legitimacy.”
The commission goes on to limit support for human rights to those issues that are covered in the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, are “widely recognized and accepted by the American people, through their democratically elected political representatives,” and are accepted by most peoples around the world as legitimate. This leaves out LGBTQ individuals, of course, as well as many women and girls. It also puts the definition of human rights in the hands of whichever party controls Congress, indicating that Pompeo expects Republicans to do so for a long time.
Pompeo’s op-ed was more extreme, even, than the report. In the Washington Post, Pompeo insisted “never before have America’s founding principles been under such relentless assault,” and he singled out the New York Times and its 1619 project--which highlighted the role of human enslavement in the founding of America-- as well as the removal of Confederate statues, as an example of “outrageous efforts to erase American history.”
His Philadelphia speech went even further. “Today, the very core of what it means to be an American, indeed the American way of life itself, is under attack,” he said. “Instead of seeking to improve America, leading voices promulgate hatred of our founding principles.” He continued: “They want you to believe the Marxist ideology that America is only the oppressors and the oppressed…. The Chinese Communist Party must be gleeful when they see the New York Times spout their ideology.”
It seems Hogan is bargaining that Republicans will reject Trumpism and move left; Pompeo is bargaining that he can pull the party even further rightward to a theocracy. That the two men felt comfortable tipping their hands less than four months before the next election suggests they have decided that Trump is no longer a real threat to their future.
For his part, Trump is doubling down on the idea that “LAW & ORDER” as he tweets it, will win him reelection, or, more ominously, fire up his base enough that they will contest a Democratic win long enough to throw it into the Supreme Court, or even the House of Representatives, where he might be able to pull off a win.
Under Trump’s executive order to protect monuments and federal property, in early July, the administration sent Homeland Security officers to Portland, Oregon, ostensibly to protect federal property after protesters defaced the Mark O. Hatfield federal courthouse with graffiti, shattered a glass door, and threw fireworks inside.
The people who broke the door and threw the fireworks were arrested immediately, but Trump maintains that Oregon’s Democratic leaders are unwilling to stop the protests, which were sparked by George Floyd’s murder at the hands of Minneapolis police in May. The Fox News Channel has repeatedly claimed that the protesters have done $23 million in property damage, and that claim has gotten national attention, although in fact independent analysts attribute that number almost entirely to lost sales from Pioneer Place mall due to coronavirus.
Last weekend, federal officers in Portland shot a “less-than-lethal” munition at a protester standing peacefully across the street from them, fracturing his skull and face. The outcry over that attack has not stopped the police violence. For at least two days, federal law enforcement officials without identification have been cruising downtown Portland, Oregon and detaining protesters.
Today, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf went to Portland to see the courthouse. He claimed in a letter that “Portland has been under siege for 47 straight days by a violent mob while local political leaders refuse to restore order to protect their city.” But Portland leaders say they did not ask for federal troops, and do not want them.
Oregon Governor Kate Brown (D) accused Trump of trying to drum up a confrontation to win voters. “This political theater from President Trump has nothing to do with public safety,” she said in a statement. “The President is failing to lead this nation. Now he is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets of Portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government.”
-HCR- 7/16
Hogan!!!!!!!! Great Republican right there. Take notes ladies.
Dianne Feinstein(Democrat)-60 years working in government.
Chuck Schumer(Democrat)-45 years working in government.
Maxine Waters(Democrat)-47 years working in government.
Patrick Leahy(Democrat)-54 years working in government.
Nancy Pelosi(Democrat)-33 years working in government.
Joe Biden(Democrat)-51 years working in government.
Donald Trump(Republican)-3 years working in government.
Yet The Don is the problem?....LOL
Case closed mob...Case fucking closed.
Chuck Schumer(Democrat)-45 years working in government.
Maxine Waters(Democrat)-47 years working in government.
Patrick Leahy(Democrat)-54 years working in government.
Nancy Pelosi(Democrat)-33 years working in government.
Joe Biden(Democrat)-51 years working in government.
Donald Trump(Republican)-3 years working in government.
Yet The Don is the problem?....LOL
Case closed mob...Case fucking closed.
Trump is shifting his reelection pitch, and it has frightening implications for the country.
Over the weekend, the federal crackdown in Portland, Oregon continued, with people in unmarked camouflage uniforms arresting peaceful protesters and taking them away in unmarked vehicles. And then, they appeared—for now—to let them go. The administration appears to be constructing a scene of violence and disorder for the news media to show to viewers.
It seems clear that the Trump campaign—which got a new director last Wednesday-- is going to make its case for reelection on the idea that there is violence in America’s cities that must be addressed with federal force, and that only Trump is willing to do so.
This is an apparent attempt to overshadow the increasingly alarming news about the coronavirus, which is now burning across the country with renewed vigor. Even as Republican governors are backtracking and asking people to wear masks, Trump continues to insist—falsely-- that our spiking numbers are because of increased testing and that the virus will eventually disappear.
In an interview tonight with Chris Wallace on the Fox News Channel (remember, Wallace is an actual reporter, not an entertainment personality like Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity), Trump claimed—again, falsely—that some of the states are rolling back their reopening not because of the ravages of new coronavirus infections, but because they are trying to hurt his chances of reelection. “Many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day. They have the sniffles and we put it down as a test. Many of them -- don't forget, I guess it's like 99.7 percent, people are going to get better and in many cases they're going to get better very quickly,” he said.
When Wallace asked him how he would “regard your years as President of the United States,” Trump said: “I think I was very unfairly treated. From before I even won I was under investigation by a bunch of thieves, crooks. It was an illegal investigation.” Wallace tried to steer him back on track: “But what about the good—” Trump interrupted: “Russia, Russia, Russia.”
Wallace: “But what about the good parts, sir?
Trump: No, no, I want to do this. I have done more than any president in history in the first three and a half years, and I’ve done it through suffering through investigations where people have been—General Flynn, where people have been so unfairly treated….”
He went on, rehashing his grievances, until Wallace finally bade him goodbye.
From this wreckage, the campaign is trying to find a new, winning issue in law and order.
The footage from Portland shows what looks like a war zone, but the Department of Homeland Security’s own list of the actions of the “violent anarchists” in the city consists of graffiti, torn down fences, and fireworks, all situations the local police insist they can handle. The mayor, both senators, and the governor of Oregon have all asked for the federal troops to be removed, but the administration refuses. Yesterday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said the protests were winding down before the federal troops came in and escalated the situation.
In an interview today on the Fox News Channel, Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said that Trump is working with Attorney General William Barr and Acting Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf to roll out a new plan to “go in” to make sure communities-- like Chicago and Milwaukee—across the country are safe. People are assuming that means more federal troops in those-- and other-- cities, but Meadows did not, in fact, say that explicitly.
The Trump campaign immediately retweeted Meadows’s interview. Trump himself tweeted: “We are trying to help Portland, not hurt it. Their leadership has, for months, lost control of the anarchists and agitators. They are missing in action. We must protect Federal property, AND OUR PEOPLE. These were not merely protesters, these are the real deal!” The argument appears to be that we should not pay attention to the administration's failure to protect us from coronavirus because it promises now to protect us from "violent anarchists."
On Friday, The US. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Billy Williams, recognized that the administration's tactics in Portland had gone too far. He stated: “Based on news accounts circulating that allege federal law enforcement detained two protesters without probable cause, I have requested the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General to open a separate investigation directed specifically at the actions of DHS personnel.”
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum didn’t wait for an investigation. On Friday, she sued the Department of Homeland Security and the Marshals Service in federal court to try to get a court order to stop federal agents from arresting people in Portland. The complaint blames the federal agents for “the current escalation of fear and violence in downtown Portland.”
On Sunday, the chairs of the House Judiciary Committee, the House Homeland Security Committee, and the House Oversight Committee, wrote a letter to the inspectors general of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice asking them to investigate “the Trump Administration’s use of federal law enforcement to violate the rights of our constituents.” They tied the events in Portland to the larger story of the attack on protesters at Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., and to the deployment of cold water cannons, pepper spray, and tear gas on those protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline across the Standing Rock Reservation.
But, they noted, they had an even broader concern. “The legal basis for this use of force has never been explained—and, frankly, it is not at all clear that the Attorney General and the Acting Secretary are authorized to deploy federal law enforcement officers in this manner. The Attorney General of the United States does not have unfettered authority to direct thousands of federal law enforcement personnel to arrest and detain American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. The Acting Secretary appears to be relying on an ill-conceived executive order meant to protect historic statues and monuments as justification for arresting American citizens in the dead of night. The Administration’s insistence on deploying these forces over the objections of state and local authorities suggest that these tactics have little to do with public safety, but more to do with political gamesmanship.”
The letter went on: “This is a matter of utmost urgency. Citizens are concerned that the Administration has deployed a secret police force, not to investigate crimes but to intimidate individuals it views as political adversaries, and that the use of these tactics will proliferate throughout the country. Therefore, we ask that you commence your review of these issues immediately.”
It is not just officials who are objecting to the administration’s authoritarian demonstrations. There was a new force on the Portland streets this weekend: moms. Dressed in yellow shirts, wearing helmets and masks, several hundred women are forming chains between the officers and the protesters. They call themselves the Wall of Moms, and are chanting: “I don’t see no riot here; take off your riot gear,” and “Feds stay clear, moms are here!” Officers tear gassed them last night, but they came back tonight in bigger numbers.
Tonight’s protest was one of the largest this month.
-HCR- 7/19
Wild stuff
Over the weekend, the federal crackdown in Portland, Oregon continued, with people in unmarked camouflage uniforms arresting peaceful protesters and taking them away in unmarked vehicles. And then, they appeared—for now—to let them go. The administration appears to be constructing a scene of violence and disorder for the news media to show to viewers.
It seems clear that the Trump campaign—which got a new director last Wednesday-- is going to make its case for reelection on the idea that there is violence in America’s cities that must be addressed with federal force, and that only Trump is willing to do so.
This is an apparent attempt to overshadow the increasingly alarming news about the coronavirus, which is now burning across the country with renewed vigor. Even as Republican governors are backtracking and asking people to wear masks, Trump continues to insist—falsely-- that our spiking numbers are because of increased testing and that the virus will eventually disappear.
In an interview tonight with Chris Wallace on the Fox News Channel (remember, Wallace is an actual reporter, not an entertainment personality like Tucker Carlson or Sean Hannity), Trump claimed—again, falsely—that some of the states are rolling back their reopening not because of the ravages of new coronavirus infections, but because they are trying to hurt his chances of reelection. “Many of those cases are young people that would heal in a day. They have the sniffles and we put it down as a test. Many of them -- don't forget, I guess it's like 99.7 percent, people are going to get better and in many cases they're going to get better very quickly,” he said.
When Wallace asked him how he would “regard your years as President of the United States,” Trump said: “I think I was very unfairly treated. From before I even won I was under investigation by a bunch of thieves, crooks. It was an illegal investigation.” Wallace tried to steer him back on track: “But what about the good—” Trump interrupted: “Russia, Russia, Russia.”
Wallace: “But what about the good parts, sir?
Trump: No, no, I want to do this. I have done more than any president in history in the first three and a half years, and I’ve done it through suffering through investigations where people have been—General Flynn, where people have been so unfairly treated….”
He went on, rehashing his grievances, until Wallace finally bade him goodbye.
From this wreckage, the campaign is trying to find a new, winning issue in law and order.
The footage from Portland shows what looks like a war zone, but the Department of Homeland Security’s own list of the actions of the “violent anarchists” in the city consists of graffiti, torn down fences, and fireworks, all situations the local police insist they can handle. The mayor, both senators, and the governor of Oregon have all asked for the federal troops to be removed, but the administration refuses. Yesterday, Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler said the protests were winding down before the federal troops came in and escalated the situation.
In an interview today on the Fox News Channel, Trump’s chief of staff, Mark Meadows, said that Trump is working with Attorney General William Barr and Acting Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf to roll out a new plan to “go in” to make sure communities-- like Chicago and Milwaukee—across the country are safe. People are assuming that means more federal troops in those-- and other-- cities, but Meadows did not, in fact, say that explicitly.
The Trump campaign immediately retweeted Meadows’s interview. Trump himself tweeted: “We are trying to help Portland, not hurt it. Their leadership has, for months, lost control of the anarchists and agitators. They are missing in action. We must protect Federal property, AND OUR PEOPLE. These were not merely protesters, these are the real deal!” The argument appears to be that we should not pay attention to the administration's failure to protect us from coronavirus because it promises now to protect us from "violent anarchists."
On Friday, The US. Attorney for the District of Oregon, Billy Williams, recognized that the administration's tactics in Portland had gone too far. He stated: “Based on news accounts circulating that allege federal law enforcement detained two protesters without probable cause, I have requested the Department of Homeland Security Office of the Inspector General to open a separate investigation directed specifically at the actions of DHS personnel.”
Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum didn’t wait for an investigation. On Friday, she sued the Department of Homeland Security and the Marshals Service in federal court to try to get a court order to stop federal agents from arresting people in Portland. The complaint blames the federal agents for “the current escalation of fear and violence in downtown Portland.”
On Sunday, the chairs of the House Judiciary Committee, the House Homeland Security Committee, and the House Oversight Committee, wrote a letter to the inspectors general of the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Justice asking them to investigate “the Trump Administration’s use of federal law enforcement to violate the rights of our constituents.” They tied the events in Portland to the larger story of the attack on protesters at Lafayette Square in Washington, D.C., and to the deployment of cold water cannons, pepper spray, and tear gas on those protesting the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline across the Standing Rock Reservation.
But, they noted, they had an even broader concern. “The legal basis for this use of force has never been explained—and, frankly, it is not at all clear that the Attorney General and the Acting Secretary are authorized to deploy federal law enforcement officers in this manner. The Attorney General of the United States does not have unfettered authority to direct thousands of federal law enforcement personnel to arrest and detain American citizens exercising their First Amendment rights. The Acting Secretary appears to be relying on an ill-conceived executive order meant to protect historic statues and monuments as justification for arresting American citizens in the dead of night. The Administration’s insistence on deploying these forces over the objections of state and local authorities suggest that these tactics have little to do with public safety, but more to do with political gamesmanship.”
The letter went on: “This is a matter of utmost urgency. Citizens are concerned that the Administration has deployed a secret police force, not to investigate crimes but to intimidate individuals it views as political adversaries, and that the use of these tactics will proliferate throughout the country. Therefore, we ask that you commence your review of these issues immediately.”
It is not just officials who are objecting to the administration’s authoritarian demonstrations. There was a new force on the Portland streets this weekend: moms. Dressed in yellow shirts, wearing helmets and masks, several hundred women are forming chains between the officers and the protesters. They call themselves the Wall of Moms, and are chanting: “I don’t see no riot here; take off your riot gear,” and “Feds stay clear, moms are here!” Officers tear gassed them last night, but they came back tonight in bigger numbers.
Tonight’s protest was one of the largest this month.
-HCR- 7/19
Wild stuff
When Wallace asked him how he would “regard your years as President of the United States,” Trump said: “I think I was very unfairly treated. From before I even won I was under investigation by a bunch of thieves, crooks. It was an illegal investigation.” Wallace tried to steer him back on track: “But what about the good—” Trump interrupted: “Russia, Russia, Russia.”
Wallace: “But what about the good parts, sir?
Trump: No, no, I want to do this. I have done more than any president in history in the first three and a half years, and I’ve done it through suffering through investigations where people have been—General Flynn, where people have been so unfairly treated….”
Loves to tout but when asked to be specific about the “good parts” of his presidency. He says, “he doesn’t want to do this.”
Lmfao. Because there are no good parts. Complete failure. Scotland warned us.
Wallace: “But what about the good parts, sir?
Trump: No, no, I want to do this. I have done more than any president in history in the first three and a half years, and I’ve done it through suffering through investigations where people have been—General Flynn, where people have been so unfairly treated….”
Loves to tout but when asked to be specific about the “good parts” of his presidency. He says, “he doesn’t want to do this.”
Lmfao. Because there are no good parts. Complete failure. Scotland warned us.
