July 21, 2020

Charles P. Pierce: Are We Supposed to Pretend We Aren't in the Hands of a Madman?

https://www.esquire.com/news-politics/politics/a33381103/donald-trump-federal-law-enforcement-protests-american-cities/

Are We Supposed to Pretend We Aren't in the Hands of a Madman?
This is crazy bananas stuff aimed at scaring white people who live no closer to, say, Baltimore than they do to the moon.
By Charles P. Pierce
Jul 21, 2020


Should I be alarmed that the president* seems to want to set off a kind of civil war so he can butch himself up for television ads boosting him for re-election? Should I assume we’ve driven that deeply into the trackless frontiers of Crazyland?

Why the hell not?

From The New York Times:



What happens the first time a state trooper or a city cop draws down on one of the nameless federal goons in camo in Philadelphia or Milwaukee? Worse, what happens the first time a Fed kills or wounds a citizen and the local LEO’s stand aside and do nothing? In either case, El Caudillo del Mar-a-Lago wins because he gets the chaos in which he thrives plus great B-roll for the gang down in the video shop. And it’s not like he’s hiding it or anything.

snip//

This is crazy bananas stuff aimed at scaring white people who live no closer to, say, Baltimore than they do to the moon. It also is using the most serious power the government in such a transparently self-serving way that Juan Peron would stop and say, “Chill, jefe. Don’t be so obvious.”



The Coast Guard?

Are we supposed to pretend this is all normal? Are we supposed to pretend we aren’t in the hands of a madman?

I’m going to need some guidance very soon.

July 21, 2020

Matt Gaetz demands Liz Cheney be removed from House GOP leadership

https://www.axios.com/matt-gaetz-liz-cheney-house-republicans-caaf5ece-96f6-4744-9a2a-e7411d476a8b.html

10 mins ago
Matt Gaetz demands Liz Cheney be removed from House GOP leadership
Axios


Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) called on House Republican Conference chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) to "step down or be removed" after a heated conference meeting on Tuesday.

The backdrop: Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio) and other members of the conservative House Freedom Caucus attacked Cheney, the most senior female Republican in the House, for breaking with President Trump on several occasions and supporting a primary opponent against Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), Politico first reported and Axios can confirm.

What they're saying: "Liz Cheney has worked behind the scenes (and now in public) against @realDonaldTrump and his agenda," Gaetz tweeted. "House Republicans deserve better as our Conference Chair. Liz Cheney should step down or be removed. #MAGA"



Behind the scenes: About five or six members of the House GOP conference are upset at Cheney, but the majority support how she has carried herself, a source familiar with the meeting told Axios' Alayna Treene.

July 21, 2020

AOC accosted by GOP lawmaker over remarks: 'That kind of confrontation hasn't ever happened to me'

Who's a flaming POS?

https://thehill.com/homenews/house/508259-ocaasio-cortez-accosted-by-gop-lawmaker-over-remarks-that-kind-of

Ocasio-Cortez accosted by GOP lawmaker over remarks: 'That kind of confrontation hasn't ever happened to me'
By Mike Lillis - 07/21/20 08:45 AM EDT



Tensions flared on Capitol Hill this week when a Republican lawmaker challenged Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) on issues of crime and policing in an unusual — and decidedly personal — confrontation on the Capitol steps.

Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) was coming down the steps on the east side of the Capitol on Monday, having just voted, when he approached Ocasio-Cortez, who was ascending into the building to cast a vote of her own.

In a brief but heated exchange, which was overheard by a reporter, Yoho told Ocasio-Cortez she was "disgusting" for recently suggesting that poverty and unemployment are driving a spike in crime in New York City during the coronavirus pandemic.

"You are out of your freaking mind," Yoho told her.

Ocasio-Cortez shot back, telling Yoho he was being "rude."

The two then parted ways. Ocasio-Cortez headed into the building, while Yoho, joined by Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas), began descending toward the House office buildings. A few steps down, Yoho offered a parting thought to no one in particular.

"Fucking bitch," he said.

snip//

"Obviously, I'm no stranger to this," she said.

But the confrontation with Yoho was something new.

"In all these intense news cycles, I have never, ever been treated that way by another member before," she said. "I'm frankly quite taken aback."

July 21, 2020

Only Events Can Save Trump Now

https://politicalwire.com/2020/07/21/only-events-can-save-trump-now/

Only Events Can Save Trump Now
July 21, 2020 at 7:52 am EDT By Taegan Goddard 11 Comments





https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/21/opinion/trump-polls-election-2020.html
Can Trump Come Back?

July 21, 2020

Rachel Maddow Praises Biden For Demonstrating How A Real Commander In Chief Stands Up To Russia

Posted on Mon, Jul 20th, 2020 by Sean Colarossi
Rachel Maddow Praises Biden For Demonstrating How A Real Commander In Chief Stands Up To Russia


Rachel Maddow praised former Vice President Joe Biden’s tough stand against Russia on Monday, saying it’s a sign that if the former VP wins in November, the United States will again have a president who holds foreign adversaries accountable.



The MSNBC host also pointed out that Biden’s line in the sand against Vladimir Putin will put Republicans in a corner.

“What about Republican candidates, Republican senators, Republican members of the House? Do they agree?” Maddow asked. “I mean, do they think we should try to protect ourselves from this stuff and punish countries that do it to us?”

“Interesting test for the Republican party after this much Trump,” she added.

https://twitter.com/i/status/1285384090250862592

more...

https://www.politicususa.com/2020/07/20/rachel-maddow-praises-biden-for-demonstrating-how-a-real-commander-in-chief-stands-up-to-russia.html

July 20, 2020

WE ARE THE WORST

&fbclid=IwAR2bvA99ZR9UqhnUh0Aasa0_gnTaYYewcfjkFJea46-MoqRwAlMemDZz3os


WE ARE THE WORST - Founders Sing Parody of Song First Performed by Stevie Wonder & Co.

July 20, 2020

Juan Williams: We must not become numb to Trump's abnormality

Juan Williams: We must not become numb to Trump's abnormality
By Juan Williams, opinion contributor — 07/20/20 06:00 AM EDT


Normal?

How about a summer in which Americans are not allowed to travel to Canada or Europe? Seriously. That’s due to President Trump’s failure to halt the high rate of coronavirus infections in the United States.

That’s not normal.

Is it normal for an American president to stand in the White House Rose Garden and begin ranting? Trump said if presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden wins this year’s election, Biden will do away with the suburbs and windows.

Yes, he really said that.

There is so much that is not normal at the Trump White House that Rachel Maddow, the MSNBC host, recently spent an entire segment reading off a stunning list of scandalous acts now accepted as normal in the Trump era.

Is it normal, she asked, that Trump “put his son’s wedding planner in charge of federal housing in the northeastern United States ... fired one inspector general who was investigating the secretary of State ... advertised his wife’s jewelry line on the White House website?"

Any of the Trump scandals, Maddow said, would have amounted to “the biggest scandal to ever afflict any other presidency — but by virtue of the sheer number of scandals that surround [Trump] like flies around a pigpen ... [they] have just become part of what we expect, right?”

more...

https://thehill.com/opinion/white-house/508047-juan-williams-we-must-not-become-numb-to-trumps-abnormality

July 20, 2020

Trump's "Bored" With Coronavirus, But Some Republicans May Finally Be Waking Up

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2020/07/donald-trumps-bored-with-coronavirus-but-some-republicans-may-finally-be-waking-up


Trump’s “Bored” With Coronavirus, But Some Republicans May Finally Be Waking Up
It’s getting harder for the GOP to live in Trump’s state of denial as COVID-19 spikes across the Sun Belt.
By Eric Lutz
July 20, 2020


In the same week Donald Trump again minimized COVID-19 as mere “sniffles” for most that will “disappear” from America on its own, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was sounding a different note. “I think the straight talk here that everyone needs to understand is this,” he said in Kentucky last Wednesday. “This is not going away until we get a vaccine.” There is “no question” that expert guidelines must be followed in reopening schools, McConnell said, and Anthony Fauci, the victim of a White House smear campaign in recent days, continues to have his “total” confidence.” Masks, he said during his home state swing, should be worn by all, regardless of political party. “The coronavirus,” said McConnell, “is not involved in American politics.”

In total, the remarks constituted a striking departure from the president—whose response to the pandemic, to the extent he’s had one, has been almost entirely political—and underscored the extent to which even Trump’s typically loyal allies are breaking from him over coronavirus. For months, when New York and other left-leaning cities bore the brunt of the virus, they seemed content to live in Trump’s state of denial. But now, with the crisis centering hitting the Sun Belt the hardest and cases skyrocketing across the country, they seem increasingly tired of his negligence. “The president got bored with it,” David Carney, an adviser to Texas Governor Greg Abbott, told the New York Times on Sunday, noting that the hard-hit state is now channeling requests to Vice President Mike Pence instead of Trump.

Indeed, with Trump largely ignoring the virus—focusing instead on his regular golf outings with Lindsey Graham and defending the Confederacy—Republican leaders seeking help for their states have increasingly gone around the president, seeking out Pence and others in the administration they see as more attuned to the crisis. No longer able to easily dismiss the danger posed by the virus, state leaders like Abbott, Doug Ducey of Arizona, and Tate Reeves of Mississippi have reversed course to one degree or another on the mask requirements and public safety precautions they once opposed. And on Capitol Hill, several GOP lawmakers have lobbied the administration to take a more serious approach to the pandemic—particularly in an election year, in which Trump’s COVID response will likely weigh on voters’ minds as they cast ballots.

snip//

But the president’s dismissals—like much of his actions in recent months, including his authoritarian crackdown on racial justice protesters and his spirited support for all things Confederacy—don’t seem to hold much appeal outside of his most hardcore base. Polls have consistently shown him badly trailing Joe Biden, who is looking to capitalize on what seems to be a growing number of Republicans weary of the president’s act. (John Kasich, a former Republican Governor of Ohio, has reportedly been approached to speak at the Democratic National Convention). The polls may tighten as election day nears—and, of course, there’s reason to be concerned that Trump won’t leave the White House quietly even if he loses. But it’s clear that, even if he can’t bring himself to care about the good of the country, for the sake of his own political prospects it would make sense to take the pandemic seriously. That he still cannot and will not is an outrage that is becoming harder and harder for even Republicans to ignore—even as they continue to avoid rebuking their party leader directly. “The more they turn the briefings over to the professionals,” Republican Senator Roy Blunt told the Times, “the better.”

July 20, 2020

"The fact is, whether he knows it yet or not, he will be leaving."

https://politicalwire.com/2020/07/20/bonus-quote-day-311/

Bonus Quote of the Day
July 20, 2020 at 9:02 am EDT By Taegan Goddard

July 19, 2020

Florida Rep. Donna Shalala: "I'm terrified for the first time in my career"

https://www.axios.com/florida-donna-shalala-coronavirus-e2b1c2c3-ea2e-4217-94f9-196ab4f45631.html

Florida Rep. Donna Shalala: "I'm terrified for the first time in my career"
Fadel Allassan


Rep. Donna Shalala (D-Fla.) said on ABC's "This Week" Sunday that she has asked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) to issue another stay-at-home order and that she's "terrified" for the first time in her career because of the lack of leadership during the coronavirus crisis.

Why it matters: Florida is the new global epicenter of the pandemic, reporting a record number of daily new infections for any state and twice breaking its own record for daily deaths all in the last week.



What she's saying: "We have community spread, which means the virus is out of control," said Shalala, a former Health and Human Services secretary under President Clinton.