Tracker

It's going to be a long four months: Trump and Fox News just keep ramping up the racism Desperate to distract from the coronavirus catastrophe, Trump and his media allies are going full-on rabid racism So now Trump, aided as usual by the massive propaganda apparatus at Fox News, is pushing all his chips on the bet that just enough voters in swing states will disregard all these failures, so long as he keeps escalating the racism. There's no real evidence this will work — his efforts to whip up racist hysterics about a "caravan" that was "invading" the U.S. in the fall of 2018 (it was really a small group of Central American refugees fleeing from violence) did nothing to prevent the Democrats' big midterm win — but Trump is a dull-witted man with few real ideas. Racism is all he has. And if racism isn't working yet, Trump clearly thinks that piling on more and more of it will finally turn the tide. On Tuesday night alone, Trump — who clearly isn't sleeping much, based on his Twitter patterns — went buck-wild with the overt racism. Around 9 p.m., Trump tweeted that at "the request of many great Americans who live in the Suburbs" he is "studying" (ha) "the AFFH housing regulation that is having a devastating impact on these once thriving Suburban areas." The reference may be a little obscure, but the intent definitely isn't. Trump is referring to an Obama-era rule to enforce the 1968 Fair Housing Act, aimed at ending racial discrimination in housing. Or, to put it more bluntly, Trump is suggesting that it ruins suburban life if Black people move in, and he's eager to do whatever he can to stop it. (Trump himself was sued by the Department of Justice for refusing to rent to Black tenants in the 1970s.) Trump's administration has already put a pause on enforcing some Obama-era rules to desegregate housing, even though evidence shows that there continue to be dramatic levels of discrimination against Black people seeking homes to rent or buy. The administration has made some noises to make these moves somehow sound not-racist, but Trump's unsubtle tweeting suggests he sees the racism as a selling point. His theory, one supposes, is that white voters will thrill to hear he's working to keep Black people from moving into their neighborhoods. Later that night, Trump threatened to defund the entire U.S. military if the Senate tries to rename military bases that currently sport the names of Confederate military leaders. Again, not exactly subtle. These bases should never have been named for traitors who took up arms against the U.S. government and killed hundreds of thousands of patriotic American soldiers in the name of white supremacy. With this threat, Trump is pretty clearly saying that racism matters more than patriotism, which is turning out to be a pattern with him. There are reports that some members of Trump's staff think that going full-on white supremacist is a bad look — anonymous White House staffers recently told reporters that they spent three hours trying to get Trump to take down a tweet featuring that infamous video clip of golf-cart-riding supporters shouting "white power" — but the biggest hosts at Fox News think this ramped-up racism is a winning strategy for their orange reality-TV president. https://www.salon.com/2020/07/01/its-going-to-be-a-long-four-months-trump-and-fox-news-just-keep-ramping-up-the-racism/

U.S. Coronavirus Deaths Substantially Higher Than Official Tally, Study Shows The true number of coronavirus-related deaths in the U.S. is likely much higher than the confirmed count, according to a new Yale University study. Researchers used data from the National Center for Health Statistics, comparing the number of excess deaths in the U.S. between March 1 and May 30 to the number of COVID-19 deaths. The researchers found that the number of excess deaths exceeded the number of confirmed coronavirus deaths, suggesting that there are far more deaths related to the virus than previously thoughts. The deaths in the U.S. numbered about 122,300 more than would typically be expected, but only 95,235 of those were attributed to COVID-19. “Our analyses suggest that the official tally of deaths due to Covid-19 represent a substantial undercount of the true burden,” Yale epidemiologist Dan Weinberger told CNBC. https://www.thedailybeast.com/us-coronavirus-deaths-substantially-higher-than-official-tally-study-shows (There is a pandemic flashpoint when so many are infected that the spread can no longer be contained unless by the harshest of measures)

The virus cannot harm you unless you transport it into your body through inhalation or by picking it up on your hands and then into your mouth, nose or the surface of you eyes. And ordinary soap and water will kill the virus- you do not need the sanitizer unless you are outside your home and handling objects that have been contaminated by others.

Trump Freaks Out Over Black Lives Matter Mural to Be Painted Outside Trump Tower President Donald Trump lashed out on Twitter on Wednesday morning after New York City Mayor Bill De Blasio announced that a Black Lives Matter mural would be painted on the street in front of Trump Tower on Fifth Avenue. The president called the mural a “symbol of hate” and said it would “denigrating this luxury Avenue” and “further antagonize” New York City police officers. Trump said the money spent on the mural should be spent “fighting crime instead.” Similar murals have been painted on streets around the country. Washington, D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser started the trend in June with a huge, yellow mural painted along 16th Street leading to the White House in a two-block section renamed Black Lives Matter Plaza. https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-freaks-over-black-lives-matter-mural-to-be-painted-outside-his-manhattan-trump-tower?ref=home

As Trumpism proves to be a spent force, expect the dead-enders to become more dangerous Trump’s dismal poll numbers are just starting to register broadly with Republicans, and we’re already seeing white supremacist terror attacks by the Boogaloo Bois and other groups, massive voter suppression efforts from state government officials, the demonization of Democrats and delegitimization of peaceful protesters and the ginning up of a coordinated propaganda campaign of fear that that makes the Willie Horton ads that sank Michael Dukakis’s candidacy 30 years ago look like child’s play. That said, America can’t go back to business as usual after we stave off a potential Trumpian coup. If Democrats manage to sweep the 2020 elections, progressives need to “occupy” the American information and political battle-spaces, reform the police and secure justice and equal access for all citizens. Most importantly, we will need to remain vigilant, and continue to stamp out and suppress all anti-democratic ideologies and movements. We forced the Germans to adopt a law that specifically outlaws the use of symbols of fascism – one that has been applied quite broadly and effectively. I am saddened and ashamed to admit this, but we need such a law in the U.S. https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/trumpism-is-a-spent-force-expect-the-dead-enders-become-more-dangerous/

There is a phenomenom called "fishing in troubled waters" wherein someone deliberately incites conflicts in order to intervene to affect events to their benefit. This has been the Russian aim, and it has been adopted by American interests such as the GOP, the Koch brothers and so forth. Times of turmoil can often cause the fearful to look to a strong leader or one perceived as strong and delegate their thinking and power to that person. If Trump and the GOP incite hatred and ensuing chaos, it can served their ends as well as a victory at the polls.

The day he was briefed about Russian bounties Trump was busy meeting actors for play about Peter Strzok and Lisa Page Today is the day that the Gang of Eight—both Democratic and Republican leaders in the House and Senate—are set to be briefed on the intelligence behind Russia’s scheme to murder American soldiers and destroy the peace process in Afghanistan by offering bounties to Taliban militants. Naturally, this briefing begins with a tweet from Donald Trump describing the entire story as a “hoax” cooked up by The New York Times. Which naturally ignores that the information has now been confirmed by the Washington Post, CNN, NBC … pretty much everyone. Intelligence even has the receipts showing transfer of funds from Russia to the Taliban. Really, the only questions on the matter seem to be the ones that have been hauled out so many times they’re getting more than a little tattered: What did Trump know, and when did he know it? Even the answer to that should be obvious, as reports indicate that John Bolton briefed Trump on the issue over a year ago. However, Bolton has refused to provide any details out of concern over “national security.” Meaning, of course, that he’s fishing for a new book deal. That leaves the one other time when it’s absolutely known Trump was given the information on Russia’s cash-for-corpses plan: The daily brief on February 27. However, there remains the possibility that Trump never read that brief, because it was a very busy day. That’s the day Trump not only met with Diamond and Silk, he spent the morning talking with the lead actors in a play about the love notes between Peter Strzok and Lisa Page. https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/the-day-he-was-briefed-about-russian-bounties-trump-was-busy-meeting-actors-for-play-about-peter-strzok-and-lisa-page/

Do not ascribe Trump's lack of carpet bombing to any moral choices on his part. His pathology is such that he has the attention span of a fruit fly about anything that does not benefit him.

If you assume that CNN's statistic pf 4.8% mortality rate is accurate, that translates to 4,800 COVID deaths per day.

The current league minimum is barely enough to attracr decent athletes, and if it drops to 35Gs, that just isn't enough.

The GOP’s grotesque plan to cope with COVID-19 Harking back to the embarrassing days of Gov. Rick “Oops” Perry, my state of Texas is once again saddled with a Republican gubernatorial goober. Greg Abbott is this guy’s name, and he’s another incompetent right-wing ideologue whose botched handling of our state’s COVID-19 crisis makes President Donald Trump look like a master administrator of public health. Unfortunately for you non-Texans, Gov. Abbott’s extreme gooberness is now surging across our borders to afflict people in your state. Before we go there, though, ponder his slapstick performance here, where he’s been swatting futilely at the fast-moving coronavirus. First, as a small-minded, small-government zealot, he obsequiously followed Trump’s lead of do-nothingism, pretending the bad thing would just drift away. As a result, droves of Texans were dying, so he rushed out to express astonishment and concern. Yet, he cravenly refused to offend his corporate and far-right backers by implementing such life-saving measures as business closures, masks required in public and stay-at-home orders. Worse, the petty, little potentate infuriated local officials by banning them from taking protective actions in their communities. Bizarrely, Abbott declared he was focused not on preventing infections but on making sure there were enough hospital beds for those who get infected. He might as well have bragged that providing an adequate number of graves was his priority. For sure enough, thousands more Texans were soon dying because of his incompetence. Finally, the relentless death toll forced Abbott the Absent to enact a stay-at-home mandate … but he even bungled that by declaring it was not a stay-at-home order! Instead, he called its provisions “Essential Services and Activities Protocols.” Then he got really strange. After banning local officials from requiring mask-wearing in public, he playfully hinted that he’d hidden a trick door in that executive order allowing locals to take action — IF they could divine the riddle. The trick was that while mayors and others could not require face masks in public, they could require stores, bars offices, factories and other businesses to require masks. https://www.alternet.org/2020/07/the-gops-grotesque-plan-to-cope-with-covid-19/

Its getting interesting for the Faux News trying to spin all the Trump-generated crap into some sort of believable blame-everyone-else scenarios. Reminds me of the phlogistin debate where the proponents of the phlogisitin concepts had to go to more and more insane arguememts to try to support their untenable position before fianlly collapsing.

The current minimum salary should remain as is.

I would bet that every CFL quarterback or superstar would play for $250,000 plus playoff bonuses. Time for financial sanity in the league.

‘Straight up fascism’: Trump’s disturbing propaganda meme draws sharp blowback President Donald Trump once again is under fire, this time after posting an old, dark meme that’s appeared on literally hundreds of web pages on social media sites like Twitter and Reddit. Oddly, it’s not the first time Trump has posted this meme. He did so the day the House impeached him. The text reads: “In reality they’re not after me they’re after you. I’m just in the way.” It’s also another Trump tie to neo-Nazis and white supremacists – unless it’s just a coincidence the meme has exactly 14 words, a common dog whistle to those abhorrent groups. The image itself is being called “evil,” and Trump “paranoid” for posting it – which he did a half hour before the only event on his schedule today: a 3:30 PM intelligence briefing. (If anyone is still hanging onto delusions that Trump has not gone full-on fascist, here is all the proof needed. This is barely short of calling his minions to grab their AR-15s and take to the streets)

There is a yawning gap in American law that allows a sitting president to hamper or stop inquiries into his/her conduct and pardon anyone who is convicted of offences related to that president or order their charges or sentences to be ameliorated. This gives any such president de facto immunity from prosecution or even investigation. The law ought to bar the president from interfering from any such investigation and, if convicted, the penalties (jail/fines) ought to kick in as soon as the president leaves office if these convictions or impeachments do not result in a removal from office.

Anything other than reported figures is speculation- nothing more. There were probably a lot more deaths due to the virus that have gone unidentified because the victims were found deceased as well as many others who were misidentified before the virus was made public knowledge.

You have nothing but invective to use in your criticism of Trudeau. The "scandal" that Butts was involved in consisted of a female cabinet minister who threw a hissy-fit over being moved to another portfolio and claimed that it was discrimination. Gerald Butts, I understand is a well-respected civil revant who has had a respected career. Compare that to Brian Mulroney, Devine and so forth.

According to figures posted by CNN, there are 2,620,250 active cases and 127,272 deaths reported. That is a mortality rate of 4.8%- much higher than seasonal influenza deaths and this should put an end to the "it's just another harmless flu" rebuttal to how serious this really is. But it won't.The reality is that the mortality rate is probably higher.

Yeah, that'll fix everything. That's the ticket.

And she was handed the helm of a rapidly sinking ship.

The Pentagon leaks an explosive story of Trump’s dereliction of duty — widening the rift between the military and the White House The news late yesterday was chilling: Russians have been paying Taliban militants to kill Americans in Afghanistan even as peace talks with the Taliban were under way, intelligence sources told The New York Times. And Donald Trump has known about this intelligence since the beginning of March and has done nothing about it. (The US military has begun to turn on Trump in response to his ignoring their advice and his attacks on and interference with military personnel.) https://www.alternet.org/2020/06/the-pentagon-leaks-an-explosive-story-of-trumps-dereliction-of-duty-widening-the-rift-between-the-military-and-the-white-house/

Death is not the extinguishing of the light. It is putting out the lamp because dawn has come”. -Rabindrath Tagore

So your point is that it ok to break the promise you made to get elected so long as it is popular? Sounds like a typical Conservative ploy. My views of the Conservatives in Canada are based in the realities of Brian Mulroney, Gary Filmon, Peter McKay, Grant Devine, Steven Harper, John Diefenbaker and Andrew Scheer, to name a few. Then there is all the internal back-stabbing, the tolerance of racism and the willingness to abandon principles for power. The only two principled federal Conservative leaders in memory were Joe Clark and Robert Stanfield, and both were done in by their own parties. When was the last meaningful initiative done by federal Conservative prime ministers? Not all Conservatives are self-serving idealogues- I am not a big fan of Pallister but he has handled the current Coronavirus crisis very well, as has Ford in Ontario.