Vindictiveness is a key Trump characteristic. How might such a penchant affect who he chooses and his expectations for them, in ostensibly neutral objective positions in government? NYTimes reports:
F.D.A. commissioner Dr. Stephen M. Hahn at the White House on Sunday.Credit...Oliver Contreras for The New York Times
The
head of the Food and Drug Administration ousted its top spokeswoman
[...] after he made erroneous claims that overstated the benefits of plasma treatments for Covid-19 at a news conference with President Trump.
The
decision came just a day after the F.D.A.’s parent agency, the
Department of Health and Human Services, terminated the contract of a
public relations consultant who had advised the F.D.A. commissioner, Dr.
Stephen M. Hahn, to correct his misleading claims that 35 out of 100
Covid-19 patients “would have been saved because of the administration
of plasma.”
The removals come at a
moment when the agency, which will be making critical decisions about
whether to approve coronavirus vaccinesand treatments, is struggling to salvage its reputation as a neutral scientific arbiter.
The
ousted spokeswoman, Emily Miller, had little experience in health care.
She had spent years working in Washington for Republicans, including
the former Texas Congressman Tom DeLay and Senator Ted Cruz of Texas,
and as a journalist for One America News, the conservative cable
network. She was in her agency post for just 11 days.
So what's she doing there, besides showing Trump has respect for or feels obligated toward Tom DeLay and Ted Cruz and particularly the outlet, One America News, which fawns over him? Aside from no experience in healthcare matters, why oust her? She's pretty. Good teeth. Ivanka teeth. Blond.
“This is a low moment for the F.D.A. in at least a generation,” Daniel Carpenter,a
professor at Harvard University who studies the agency, said of Dr.
Hahn’s failure to control the public message about the plasma
authorization. “This was a major self-inflicted wound.”
The
most recent controversy over plasma follows a series of missteps by the
F.D.A. that have fueled concerns that the agency is losing the public’s
trust as the nation faces a presidential election in November and a
pandemic that has taken more than 180,000 American lives.
[...] “The
agency needs to work very hard to regain the trust of the American
people — there have been too many unforced errors,” said Dr. David A.
Kessler, who was F.D.A. commissioner under Presidents George Bush and
Clinton, [...] “It needs to focus on what it does best, which is to put the data in
front of the medical and scientific community and the American public,
and stick with the data.”
[links in original, italics added] Kessler is advising Biden's campaign, but still - focus on the data, stick with the data - is policy beyond reasonable criticism.
A hypothetical - Would you rush out to get self and family vaccinated with something ostensibly fairly tested then approved by this Trumpian clown show?
Or would you wait a bit to see early adopter outcomes?
That is a problem, since it might be good medicine put to the public from bad medicine men. Clowns who have poisoned the well of public trust. Trump style.
UPDATE: At 3000 lives lost via 9/11, Trump's effectively done sixty 9/11s via his outrageous ineffectiveness in addressing the pandemic in a consistent prudent nationwide federal manner. That is 180,000 of US dying while Trump was trusting things to Pence and Jarad in key roles. Neither of whom, like the fired spokeswoman, had any grounding in public health actions and policy matters.
The Hill. Title: "Trump goes after niece who wrote critical book: 'Unstable' and 'shunned' entire life." Donald J. Trump holds the power to launch nuclear way world wide. He can veto things he does not like, and try executive orders to do things others do not like. It is an office to be handled with reserved respect for an entire nation placed under his stewardship. So - per the item:
In multiple morning tweets, the president went after Mary Trump and
others who have written tell-all books about him and his tenure as
president, saying they had to write bad things about him in order to
sell their work.
“About the only way a person is able to write a
book on me is if they agree that it will contain as much bad 'stuff' as
possible, much of which is lies. It’s like getting a job with CNN or
MSDNC and saying that 'President Trump is great.' You have ZERO chance.
FAKE NEWS!” he tweeted.
“Even whether it’s dumb warmongers like John Bolton, social pretenders like Bob Woodward, who never has anything good to
say, or an unstable niece, who was now rightfully shunned, scorned and
mocked her entire life, and never even liked by her own very kind &
caring grandfather!” he added.
Shameful is the only word for it. This incredibly petty use of time from someone entrusted with powers of the nation. Scary in a way but more an unrequested show of simple shamefulness displayed by such a little man with meanness and no virtue. He had no cause whatsoever to "share" such stuff with anyone, much less the public.
What does that show our public and world leaders in Europe, Asia, elsewhere?
The Big Lies about Joe
Biden and the Democratic Party, however, match those about his own
record as exercises in chutzpah. Perhaps Trump can be forgiven for
attributing trade agreements, globalization policies, immigration
legislation, and overseas adventures mostly championed by and entirely
supported by members of his own party to Biden; Trump has attacked
Republicans for them as well. But it probably took three days of speaker
after speaker lying through their teeth in saying that Biden and all
Democrats favor “defunding the police” for Trump to get away with this
assertion:
Make no mistake, if you
give power to Joe Biden, the radical left will Defund Police Departments
all across America. They will pass federal legislation to reduce law
enforcement nationwide. They will make every city look like Democrat-run
Portland, Oregon. No one will be safe in Biden’s America.
And it got worse:
Biden is a Trojan horse
for socialism. If Joe Biden doesn’t have the strength to stand up to
wild-eyed Marxists like Bernie Sanders and his fellow radicals, then how
is he ever going to stand up FOR you? ...If the left gains
power, they will demolish the suburbs, confiscate your guns, and appoint
justices who will wipe away your Second Amendment and other
Constitutional freedoms.
That is what is known as
a pack of lies, uttered in such close succession that it’s tough to
process them all. Bernie Sanders is not a “Marxist.” The suburbs are
rapidly becoming a Democratic base, not places they want to demolish.
Nobody in the Democratic Party has talked about “confiscating” guns, or
even regulating them unless they are assault weapons.
----------snip---------
Perhaps the biggest lie
of all was the twinned assertion that Biden is a prophet of darkness and
division, compared to a president who embodies national unity and
absolutely owns patriotism (as illustrated, presumably, by the
cavalier way in which he appropriated the White House as a campaign
staging area, complete with giant Trump-Pence signs). As Mike Pence
boldly claimed in his gesture of maximum loyalty on night three of the
RNC, Trump’s enemies are fundamentally un-American, while the 45th
president loves real Americans. Yet at the same time, Trump is running
against the “anarchy” in “Democrat-run” cities, for which her is somehow
entirely blameless, and against which he darkly threatens to rain down
fire. The question remains: will it work?
--------snip-------
CNN's review:
"Taken in total, the speech felt like a mash-up of a State of the Union
address and an opposition research dump. And one that you'd seen and
heard before." Politico:
"It wasn’t a terribly effective address. The speech lacked structure
and thematic discipline. [...] This hodgepodge of oratory was
wrapped around a warning to America-- that Joe Biden, 'a Trojan horse
for socialism,' would destroy this country as we know it... [D]espite
the statements and overstatements, Trump’s speech was most notable for
what it lacked. Call it humility. Or self awareness. Or introspection.
What the president failed to do Thursday is what he's refused to do
throughout his presidency: acknowledge the thing that makes so many
people dislike him."
Unlike Jared, Ivanka, Don Jr., i.e., family and others around the man who are treasured worldwide. Because each is so lovable. Steven and Stephen, Mnuchin and Miller. Mr. Barr. Pompeo. Wolf. Conroy and her daughter. Bannon. The Post Office killers, Wilbur Ross . . .
More FOX, an image being enough to show that in this time of nationwide hardship, flag sellers do okay. And then some. Virtual reality -- In form-over-substance Trumpland. Ivanka. With so much to say. Balm for troubled minds who hunger for her words. It's true. Trust me.
This past week I have been traveling all around Minnesota. I talked with Minnesotans about issues important to communities throughout the state, as well as how folks are dealing with the pandemic. The stories people share are so important to me, and I carry them with me throughout my work.
One thing that never fails to amaze me is how resilient Minnesotans are. Even in crisis, our communities have found ways to help each other and come together. That spirit is what makes me so proud to represent this state.
But, our race was just moved from “Lean Democrat” to “Toss-up.” We need your help to make sure I get re-elected this November and that Democrats take back the Senate and the White House.
Thanks so much for your ongoing support. It means the world to me.
—Tina
Running against Jason Talk Radio, and "toss up?" Biden-Harris can hurt down ticket. Tina's chum Amy helped knife Bernie. This Biden-Harris cramdown has me thinking, don't vote, top ticket, down ticket. Still thinking it out. It would have been better if Dayton had appointed a progressive to the me-tooed seat. But no. Gee.
Bernie would have strengthened down ticket. He would have easily won 2020. As he would have, 2016. Party moguls had their way. With hell to pay. But they only care about the big-money donors who are still there for them. Bless the big money donors. They invest, they prosper. To use Tina's word, the big money is "resilient."
Current Affairs, dated 16 Aug 2020, "An Ineffectual Biden Presidency Is Better For The Left Than An Actively Authoritarian Trump Presidency - The election must be evaluated purely in strategic terms." by Nathan J. Robinson
A bit, but hit that site for the full argument:
The most aggravating part of this is that we are, in fact, backed into a corner here. Because everything possible does
have to be done to prevent Trump’s reelection, and in the situation as
it is now, that means actively trying to bring about a Biden presidency,
nauseating as it is to consider the prospect of coming to the aid of
someone who has done nothing for us.
The facts are these: if Donald Trump is reelected, it could well be
the end of American democracy as we know it. Yes, yes, we’re leftists,
so we’re cynical: “Democracy! You call this democracy? We’ve never had
democracy! We have a ruling corporate elite that lets us press a button
every four years to legitimize itself!” But it is important to make sure
one is only as cynical as the facts require. It’s certainly
true that there is an “illusion of choice” in many ways. But it is also
true that we have elections, and many people do get to vote in them
(unless they have been disenfranchised), and that those elections decide
which party has power, and sometimes the results make a difference.
Republicans are far worse than corporate Democrats. This should not be controversial. Climate change? The Obama administration put new environmental regulations in place. Some had loopholes with bad consequences. But Donald Trump essentially wants to let corporations do exactly what they please. If he has his way, there won’t be any such thing as an environmental regulation.
This is one of the most important and consequential issues of our day,
and “LET IT BURN” versus “We want sensible but utterly inadequate
emissions policies” are hugely different positions to take on the issue.
Look at the COVID-19 crisis. The Obama administration actually saw pandemics as a potential problem, though one can expect
they, like several Democratic governors, would have handled this the
way they handled nearly every important issue: disappointingly. But
there is a huge difference between “doing too little” and actively
causing mass death by refusing to believe that the virus is real, promoting quack solutions, trying
to punish political enemies by withholding medical supplies from them,
and encouraging people to flout public safety guidelines and rise up against state governments that try to enforce them. It is the Republican Party
that has been most hostile to extending the basic financial cushion
that has been keeping many people at a level of subsistence.
[links in original]
_________UPDATE________
In excerpting above the start of the Robinson post was quoted. There is much mid-item content, all aimed at why uninspiring Joe should get your vote, presuming you are a progressive. Some of it:
The time we buy cannot be wasted. “Pressuring Biden” is only a small
part of what we have to do. These years will need be used to actually
organize and build the left. We know that a Biden presidency will be
next to useless, despite all the insistence from his camp that he has
The Most Progressive Platform In History. (I remember how Obama talked
on the campaign trail and how he governed. You can’t fool me twice.) The
main project is to actually build left institutions: independent
sources of political power like the DSA, Black Lives Matter, the Sunrise
Movement, democratic labor unions, media organizations, etc. We have to
come out of this with a powerful movement that can defeat centrist
politics.
Ah, but Biden sucks. He sucks! I know he sucks, I’ve spent the whole
election cycle writing about how much he sucks, I’ve spent hours upon
hours of my life exhaustively researching the million ways in which he
sucks. But I do not view elections as moments to declare my ultimate
values. I see voting as something that should take five minutes of
thought and is based on an assessment of how it helps or hurts us. We
can look at elections as strategic opportunities that need to be
measured solely by their consequences. I was fine with voting for Hillary Clinton,
even though she sucks too. I do not care about my pride. I do not care
about showing the DNC that the left won’t be pushed around. The way to
show them this is not to press the “destroy everything” button. It is to
organize and throw them out. We must be the Count of Monte Cristo,
carefully planning our revenge. I do not care if Biden and Harris go
into the White House with smirks on their faces, knowing that they beat
us. I am not going to destroy the country over a smirk. Biden and Harris
are awful, unprincipled people, and I hate when such people win things,
because it seems to prove that there is no justice in the world. But
frankly, they do not matter to me. Let them think they have beaten the
Left. It’s just a skirmish. We will come back in larger numbers soon.
But we cannot do this if we are fighting just to keep this country
from lapsing into dictatorship, which is what we will be doing under a
Trump second term. Let me ask you this: if Trump did start throwing
activists into Guantanamo, what would you be able to do about it? Do you
think the courts would save us? Do you think Congressional Democrats
would do much more than put out a statement? Never assume that things
cannot get worse. History is full of nightmares that nobody saw coming
until they were too late.
This election worries me. It worries me because Biden is such an
uninspiring candidate, and his campaign is so poorly run. And Trump is
formidable. [...]
---------snip---------
I am not Team Joe. I will never be Team Joe. I do not Vote Blue No
Matter Who. I vote blue when the consequences of not voting blue are
worse than the consequences of voting blue. This election must be
thought of as a war to stop an authoritarian government from
consolidating power. We must assume we are likely to lose that war until
we are certain we have won it. Otherwise, we will look back in a few
years and wonder why the hell we let our hatred of Joe Biden lead us to
an immediate, outright slide into fascism. I intend to spend the next
four years ruthlessly criticizing Joe Biden, exposing every single one
of his crimes, and exhorting the left to overthrow the Democratic
establishment. A Biden presidency buys us four years before the next
right-authoritarian tries to seize power. We have to use that time to
organize; we do not get to take a breather.
I am not a liberal, I do not make excuses for anything Biden has
done, and I will not be making them in the future. I believe in working
to get Biden elected solely because it creates the most favorable
conditions for ultimately eliminating the kind of politics Biden
represents.
It is a premise expanded at length, but how good is the premise? It is the half-a-loaf argument with saying the half-loaf is moldy and unpalatable, but . . .
The item does not say, by 2024, such and such will differ. The Republican wing of the Democratic Party will have become more entrenched, with greater hubris, and the pattern of featuring actual declared Republicans for some obscure reason may persist, despite its stupidity. Again, this is what exists to rebut Robinson, by enraging the young and progressives with a "fuck you very much" remark from one practiced in such stylistics:
The man is pure nasty poison, and proud over the Biden cramdown after Hillary screwed things up and the pair choose to blame Comey and Bernie.
It is a challenge, but what best reaction it deserves is the question. Robinson makes his case one way, the thought the other way is deny the likes of that bastard the spoils again, and his cohorts might become disenchanted with such a result.
The donors own both tickets and hence do not care which takes November. The insiders lining up with each of the two sides want a win, and will prosper less with a loss. A win will strengthen them.
However - Four more Trump years will undeniably be worse against progress than the four first Trump years, and that frames the dilemma.
BOTTOM LINE: How awful a Biden-Harris presidency will be for four years, or perhaps two in terms of 2022 midterm possibility; and can it be weathered? How can it be worse than Trump having four more years? The fact is, it could be worse.
Robinson downplays that chance, and all "Trump must go" rhetoric ignores: How awful and in how many ways for young and old would a Biden-Harris presidency be, and a reality is it could end up worse than four more Trump years while strengthening the hold the donors and other plutocrats have on the Democratic Party; strengthening Clintonian politics, which have the aim of embracing all the wealthy-class entrenched enemies of progressive hope. What a choice. What a blind bit of guesswork.
_________FURTHER UPDATE________
The past shall be the future; two videos, the short one; the longer one. This is how austerity gets packaged and propagandized as a way to frustrate treating the citizenry decently. It's easy, and the hushed quick exchange in the wings is what "Biden bipartisanship" is. Mediate, on the austerity hoax situation, back then. Clinton not saying Ryan was totally blowing smoke, but that Ryan's austerity proposal was one the Democrats should counter with their own. Not that a postulated need for austerity was pure BS, but that we have to BS it our way. Expect exactly that from Biden-Harris. Cut Pentagon spending, undo the Trump-McConnell-Ryan tax cut and replace it with fair taxation of the wealthy and their accumulated wealth, and Medicare for All can be funded with regular citizens, US, having lower taxation because oligarchs would be contributing a fair share.
Just remember, austerity is a word for unfairness to the 99%.
Remember Obama-Biden, "Yes we can," and then they didn't do it? CHANGE sold out. HOPE sold out. The Obamas now having waterfront Martha's Vineyard. That way, "Yes they could."
Fooled once? Expect it again. Biden knows the hand that feeds him.
"A now-deleted Facebook page that appears to belong to Rittenhouse
featured almost exclusively pro-police imagery and photos of the suspect
carrying guns. At some point, he changed his profile image to a “Blue
Lives Matter” sign and held a fundraiser for a police nonprofit called
“Humanizing The Badge."
Heard with my own ears on the scanner in Kenosha last night: "I can't
tell if those are protestors or our guys" - says a cop as a group of 100
or so people was moving from one area to another. He was referring to
the armed vigilantes "our guys" of course. #DefundThePolice
There are more reports like these, which, of course, will either go viral, or go unreported by the media most people read and listen to.
Systemic Change by Non-Systemic Means
It's more than obvious by now that cops are siding with right-wing
thugs, using them even, against whoever stands with the protesters. When
will this end?
...until those elections are backed by the kind of organized, 1960s-style movement...
Mario Savio, leader of the Berkeley Free Speech
Movement, speaks to assembled students on December 7, 1964. (AP Photo / Robert W. Klein)
...that adds the critical mass of the people, chaotic and unruly, to the
orderly exercise of power by elected officials who, frankly, with cops,
also want the real left to lose.
The nation may not be to that point yet, but it's not far away. That's why big-media outlets like the New York Times
want to paint these protests, all of them, as either "chaotic" or
left-wing-violent only, and why they hide the state violence that
incites and encourages those violent responses. A real left-wing
movement — a 1960s-style revolt, a real rising of the people — is the stuff of nightmares for editors at the Times, and many of its readers as well.
We need a general strike, or the gumption of the Yellow Vests. Race is a sub-issue. We need a constant focus that a class defense is what's needed against the ruling class being what it always is, was, and will be. They are in an ongoing class warfare which they started back before Teddy Roosevelt, and propaganda repetition is their key weapon. Be smart.
NEVER, NEVER EVER forget that smarmy smart-ass Clinton "video thank you" hat tip to Clyburn, for sabotage of Bernie. Not Clyburn alone, but Clyburn in concert with the likes of Michael Bloomberg. Across race lines, the servants of Mammon keep their boat afloat, where we should be rocking it to sink it. Their ship of fools. Right now steaming to the iceberg. Or worse, just steaming along as always, cognizant of who they are and loving it. Without consequences. For them. The suffering left to fall on US.
____________UPDATE__________
Racism is not the aim of the rich. It is a tool they callously but effectively use. Divide and conquer is the aim. Never forget, racism has identity politics as its handmaiden divide and conquer tool. Identify with how you are economically exploited, not by your assigned bloc, much as grade school assigned seats - there is your assigned identity bloc, for indoctrination, so sit down, listen and recite it back.
On Tuesday, two days after the shooting of Jacob
Blake by police in Kenosha, Wis., Cheryl Reeve was asked if she was
conflicted about holding games in Florida while larger issues raged
around the country.
“I know it’s crossed all our minds,” the Lynx coach and general manager said. “We’re going, ‘What are we doing here?’ ”
Reeve woke up Wednesday
thinking her team might not be playing that night even though there was
a game against Los Angeles on the schedule. It turns out she was right —
and the Lynx were hardly alone.
Reeve’s inkling grew as
she heard NBA teams were considering not playing in protest of Blake’s
shooting — and that if such a thing happened, the WNBA was likely to
follow suit. That’s exactly what happened Wednesday in a historic
display of athletes making their voices heard and actions felt.
The Milwaukee Bucks
started the chain when they went on strike and decided not to take the
floor for their afternoon playoff game against Orlando. By the end of
the night, 14 games across four U.S. leagues were postponed — all three
apiece in the NBA and WNBA, three in MLB and five in MLS.
“Now maybe white owners
that have a hard time with a player kneeling, maybe if you don’t have
us at all, maybe if it really hits you where it hurts you will listen,”
Reeve said. “But isn’t that sad? That might be the only way you make
progress is if the billionaires don’t make their billions off of Black
athletes? These are all things that are on our minds. It’s heavy. It’s
really heavy. I don’t know how we could have played a game.”
This is a basketball coach talking, a part of a professional team's management, endorsing and in sympathy with - a strike. Strikes might help open dialog.
Right now, mammon is in the cat bird's seat, loving it and per that Clinton segment, being assholeishly smug in the process. Smug about things falling rote into place, their way. A boat needing some rocking.
As a guess, it will subside. It should not, but will.
With Kenosha vigilante excess shown in an undeniably stark and direct fashion; what's next?
Supplementation: here, here and for an hour and a half, here.
Can Joe do it? Does Joe want to do it? Does he only kiss the hands of donors, win or lose? Is Joe just not getting it, or is he getting a clear message he is in agreement with, to not give a shit about US?
Do the donors care, Biden or Trump? They get their Tweedle either way - Dee or Dum makes no difference to those owning both Tweedles. Joe needs courage and more.
So far, the table is set to where plutocrats can gorge. And will. Trump or Biden. Biden or Trump. The taste is the same. The Lincoln Project is window dressing. To be feared for what its actual truth is, and certainly not to be trusted an inch.
Using the embed so that readers could see and judge. See, cringe, and judge.
Different gender, yet Abigail Whelan comes to mind?
Possibly like Whelan, is this Sandmann fellow knotted up over where trans people pee? He does do the embryo sobbing thing against choice. So, other kinks?
Hopefully not as far afield as Whelan. In any event, Zombie land. But Zombie land IS today's convening GOP.
The board at Liberty U and all the clucking ones are less free than Fallwell has now become. Where he ends up on the Mammon side of Liberty U is presently unclear. Knives are sharp and ready. It's the nature of the line of business, the family business, he inherited. He followed dad in a sense, also following his instincts, and when there was a conflict, he lied, but not entirely.
Whatever happened to go forth and sin no more? Preachers dropped it, loving more if you sin you need me. Which of course nobody needs, so that propaganda gets honed.
Put Biden and Trump in context as who each is. And compare Fallwell and Pence.
Sirota, himself, authors one of the items dated Aug 24, "Corporate Dems Want You To Shut Up While They Get Loud -- Progressives are told to keep quiet until after the election — meanwhile, corporate Dems are blasting out divisive ideological messages that could demoralize Democratic voters and depress turnout."
The second is authored by Walter Bragman, "Joe Kennedy Touted Commission That Proposed Social Security & Medicare Cuts -- The Democratic Senate challenger lauded the Simpson-Bowles proposal as “the right blueprint forward.”
No excerpting of the Joe Kennedy item, read it all at Sirota's site, but the first item does mention a pain-in-the-ass clucking former Obama advisor and former Chicago mayor, now a direct rather than covert servant of the rich:
Indeed, at the very moment many good progressives are blunting their
criticism and making clear that defeating Trump is of utmost importance,
Corporate Democrats aren’t being asked to wait or hold their tongues.
In fact, they are doing the opposite: Rahm Emanuel — who has been advising
Biden — just went on television to show that the corporate wing of the
party is intent on using the stretch run of the Most Important Election
Of Our Lifetime™ not to doggedly focus on actually winning the election,
but to instead try to predetermine post-election policy outcomes.
Emanuel and his ilk depict themselves as evincing a non-ideological “just win, baby”
attitude. But they are most decidedly pushing a very clear corporate
ideology — and they are doing so in dangerously divisive ways that could
depress the big turnout that’s desperately needed to defeat Trump.
‘There’s No New Green Deal, There’s No Medicare For All’
The larger dynamic at play was exemplified by Emanuel’s television appearance
on a CNBC segment dubbed “Democrats 2020 Agenda: What’s at stake for
business?” As progressives are being told to keep quiet and not even so
much as tweet their concerns, Emanuel used the platform to demand that
during this health care and climate emergency, a prospective Biden
administration must reject the two major initiatives that polls show are popular.
“Two
things I would say if I was advising an administration,” said Emanuel,
who left the Chicago mayoralty in disgrace after his city officialssuppressed
a video of the police murder of a teenager. “One is no there’s no new
Green Deal, there’s no Medicare For All, probably the single two topics
that were discussed the most. That’s not even in the platform.”
Rather than give individual links for each item, simply go to Sirota's site's opening page, which solicits paying subscribers to keep the effort alive:
If you've money you are not sending to incumbent Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey who is running against young Kennedy's deeply funded austerity binge, use it to subscribe to Sirota, or do both. Consider that Kennedy while preaching austerity especially aimed at the elderly, had ol' Nancy Pelosi endorse the whippersnapper against one almost of her age, with better thinking than her.
And do note that Pelosi did that endorsement against an incumbent of her own party. Kennedy is well connected and can rain cash into conservative-Dem political causes - but surely Pelosi has higher reasons than mammon for making her curious choice. Such as not liking Markey's policy because it is more progressive than things Pelosi donors want. The donors are her constituency.
Markey supports Green New Deal and Medicare for All; unlike the former Obama guy, Rham E., who gloats over Biden dodging any support for either of those two extremely popular policy proposals. Biden, Emanuel, Pelosi - will Trump-hate stuff (see the below video) put out without mention of Biden and without including any issues and policy position helpful for US have enough steam to push ol' Joe across the finish line ahead of Trump?
Or will he need turnout from progressives and the young, blocs he ignores or even disdains, to not be Hillary II in losing to Donald J. Trump? It is getting late for the Biden-Harris ticket and its backers to keep giving the middle finger to progressives and the young while expecting a win without either of those largely overlapping blocs.
Amy Goodman, Democracy Now! Two commentators, one a active progressive. Each a black female. This struck me, Aimee Allison speaking, with Briahna Joy Gray, the former Bernie campaign spokesperson now expressing views of her own after Bernie solidly endorsed Biden being the other voice, and less supportive of Harris.
Allison speaking, a full four paragraph quote:
Let me just tell you and be very clear: Black women and women of
color were never confused about who Donald Trump is. We voted in record
numbers against him in 2016, and we will, despite the fact that we face a
lot of challenges voting and getting our votes counted. What he says
does not matter.
The issue, though, with We’ve Got Your Back [an organization with Allison in leadership] is bigger than party.
It’s bigger than Trump. It’s that this country, although the base of the
Democratic Party in recent polls has demonstrated that they want a
Black woman in leadership — and so now we have a Black woman at the top
of the ticket, a woman of color at the top of the ticket — despite that,
racist and sexist comments dismissing the readiness of many of the
women of color, particularly Black women, who were being vetted for VP,
already had started. And it wasn’t just from Republicans. It also came
from quarters like former Senator Chris Dodd. So, what we have to do is
be vigilant. We learned a lot from the attacks on Hillary Clinton as a
white woman running for president. We know that the racist and sexist
attacks are going to continue fast and furious against Senator Harris
and other women who are standing for leadership.
So, what we ask from the media is to focus on the issues, is to not tolerate headlines like they had in L.A. Times,
which is likening Kamala Harris to receiving a rose on the island and
silly things like that. We don’t want any conversation about her hair or
her clothes. What are the issues? What are we trying to do with this
country? What are the essential values of the political game? What is
the plan? And when we take the conversation, particularly for women of
color, away from characterizing the personal attributes and dismissing
women of color with words like “ambitious” and holding women of color to
a different standard, we actually get a better political result.
So, in all, what we’re doing, as women of color and broadly, is we’re
leading a larger movement to create political space for women of color
to lead — not just Senator Harris, but women of color everywhere. We are
the fastest-growing voting bloc. We are the most underrepresented at
every level of government. And for us to be able to assert ourselves in a
multiracial democracy, we have to push back hard against racism and
sexist attacks, and celebrate and uplift our ability and willingness to
govern.
The opinion here - Progressives are the most underrepresented party bloc - while of mixed identity they go unheard on the issues; not an identity specific/exclusive bloc, not in that sense. Tilted toward the young, and on issues, tilted left.
Allison's assertion that black women will vote in large numbers is doubtlessly true. As in 2016. When it was not enough. The young are not being enchanted by Joe Biden, and they are not being mobilized, energized or really accorded attention. Effort to drive age wedge politics, where age diversity needs to be heard and countered. Young women, independent of race, have to be worried about college debt. Solidarity comes because elderly are also worried about federal funding cuts.
Some in politics and funding it would not mind a wholesale gutting of Social Security or trimming of Medicare, while tuition charges climb precipitously - so that the two age groups ideally should be allies in spirit and on policy. Not two sole players in a zero sum game.
Cut Pentagon spending, free up funds for what people in poll after poll want - economic security, non-crony contracting, fair federal taxing and needed spending decisions tempered with restraint and caution. Attention to people's needs, over corporate aims and desires. Hearing the will of the governed over the voices and investments made by oligarchs. Utopia.
And back to Allison's keying on "issues." There she is dead right, but Biden is on record, having said to wealthy people at an early Biden closed door fundraiser "nothing will fundamentally change." Biden could have chosen a bright young activist black woman, such as Gray, on the ticket, but he is owned by his donors and frozen into conservative positions with his key transition person saying, don't expect much because Trump's run deficits.
Austerity with retained or boosted military budgeting was his virtual convention message with Repubicans Powell and Kasich having an extended voice. Precommitment against change, "fundamentally" or in any other sense, renders the second spot yet more irrelevant than otherwise. Especially with Joe in his acceptance speech disarming all the death's door/senile stuff.
Biden and Trump are close in age - Harris younger than Pence. Young voters would have trouble trying to guess an age difference, Biden to Trump, existed at all.
Harris has not earned an embrace from the young.
Biden, Trump, and Pence will never get any such embrace.
Back to the featured content, Democracy Now! co-host Juan Gonzales speaking:
I wanted to ask both of you about the — we’ve heard the preliminary
lineup for the Democratic convention next week. And your sense of the
focus of the Democratic Party being largely the Obamas, the Clintons,
and, of course, Jill Biden and Joe Biden as the main speakers at the key
hours when all the national networks are tuned in? I’m wondering your
response to the big tent of the party, why, for instance, Bernie Sanders
is not being given a more prominent speaking role in this convention.
Is that signaling something to that same expanded Democratic base?
Enemies of Western CIVILIZATION, held at bay by club-wielding bodyguard, willing to rough it.
Kirk in his speech continuously touted, "the American Way of Life." Is this it? Or just Western CIVILIZATION at risk unless trimmed of all the fat?
Or is Western CIVILIZATION's American Way of Life chasing Trump-like good real estate business, via nonprofit usage tax-wise?
Fallwell and Trump, aside, Western CIVILIZATION IS ARMED. Even with having a bodyguard. They - they come and walk our sidewalks while we stand our ground.
And day two of the TV show is next. Is Kirk speaking again?
________FURTHER UPDATE________
So you know, Fallwell's real estate dealings, tax exempt it seems, are not the threat to Western CIVILIZATION that others pose.
_________FURTHER UPDATE__________
What's Western CIVILIZATION, its charm, its worth, without Mammon here, Mammon there? Why need a bodyguard otherwise?
The Atlantic, "When Kamala Was a Top Cop - If elected, can the candidate be trusted to hold government officials accountable and oversee a progressive criminal-justice system? Her past says no. - August 25, 2019 By: Conor Friedersdorf - Staff writer at The Atlantic"
She is said, in another Atlantic item, to be a politician able to test winds of change and to adapt to them. Good or bad? It seems a questionable trait.
Balanced judgment and evolution of outlook over time is one thing. Political chameleon is another.
Rebuilding U.S. deterrence to preserve peace through strength must
be our Nation’s top priority. The unprecedented era of peace that
followed World War II revealed that the free world is safest when
America is strongest. The slow depletion of our military in recent years
has resulted in an escalation of threats the world over, which
President Trump is committed to reversing.
Lost your job? Lost your employer provided healthcare coverage? Take splendor in this, and a Blue Angels fly-over. Kill an Iranian general - it will fix the pandemic.
Ja’Ron Smith, the highest-ranking Black
official in the Trump White House, is set to speak on the final night. A
handful of supportive House members, including Representatives Matt
Gaetz and Jim Jordan, also have speaking slots.
“The
Democratic convention was a Hollywood-produced, Old Guard-laden
convention, if you ask me,” Kellyanne Conway, Mr. Trump’s counselor,
told reporters at the White House on Friday, adding that viewers “are
going to see and hear from many Americans whose lives have been
monumentally impacted by this administration’s policies.”
No Roger Stone. No Bannon. No Flynn. 160,000 pandemic deaths because of GOP ineptitude. None speaking. Dead men tell no tales. But each, "monumentally impacted by this administration's policies."
The dog speaks every night. No pony.
Will there be a bible walk reenactment?
Donald Trump walks back to the White House after his photo-op in Lafayette Park in Washington, DC, on June 1, 2020. Brendan SmialowskiAFP via Getty Images
The
president’s sensitivity to TV production values has also raised
pressure on Republican aides to pull off a glitch-free affair.
The Democrats’ relatively smooth experience belied the complexity of mounting a virtual event,
from juggling dozens of remote video feeds to avoiding embarrassments
like losing picture or sound. To ensure professionalism, the Democrats
relied on Ricky Kirshner, the producer of the Super Bowl halftime show
and the Tony Awards.
The
Republicans’ celebration is being coordinated by longtime Trump
loyalists including Ms. Conway; Justin Clark, the deputy campaign
manager; Hope Hicks, a senior White House adviser; and Lara Trump, the
president’s daughter-in-law. Tony Sayegh, a former Treasury Department
official who was brought on as a consultant to help handle the
convention, is overseeing plans with Max Miller, a former White House
official who took charge of campaign events after Mr. Trump’s
sparsely-attended rally in Tulsa, Okla., and who has little experience
in television production.
The team is
consulting with Mr. Kim, who served as Mr. Burnett’s head of business
development for about a decade, earning production credits on “The
Celebrity Apprentice” and “The Voice.”
Mr. Kim, whose production firm has received $54,274 in payments
from the Republican Party’s convention committee, has a relatively low
profile in the TV industry. Several producers who worked on “The
Apprentice” said last week they had never heard of him. In 2010, he
served as a judge for the Miss Universe pageant, with an official bio saying he “negotiates, packages and manages deals with brands and agencies” for Mr. Burnett’s programs.
Chuck
LaBella, the other consultant, has a long relationship with Mr. Trump
dating to his time as a talent wrangler on “The Apprentice”; he also
worked on pageants for Miss Universe and Miss USA. He was linked to Mr.
Trump’s inner circle after Michael D. Cohen, the president’s former
lawyer, steered Mr. LaBella
to Keith Davidson for legal work. Mr. Davidson was the Hollywood lawyer
who negotiated payments on behalf of two women who said they had
affairs with Mr. Trump.
A company
owned by Mr. LaBella has received $81,603 in payments from the
Republican convention committee, according to financial disclosure
reports. (Republican aides declined to make Mr. Kim or Mr. LaBella
available for interviews.)
Slush, with both parties guilty. SuperBowl halftime shows suck. They are plain awful. It's when fans at home get up to pee. That's the Dems. Trump remembers friends from Apprentice days, and they get paid. People don't need mediocre entertainment types getting richer. They need sound government.
(They get mediocre entertainment types getting richer.) Kayne West.
It does not even mention Joe Biden. It probably makes more sense that it does not.
Deep State says no to Trump.
So?
Is that news? Progressives are surely not howling, "Joe, Joe, Joe," and if they were we'd hear it. Kasich and Powell did not convince me Joe has any answer, just that he's the only anti-Trump available, sad as that is, sad as each of the two is. Austerity and war are not progressive mainstays. But what, Biden trotting out big Pharma and Comcast executives, his actual support base? That would have been no help. Tom Perez? DWS?
After
Pelosi's endorsement of Joe Kennedy III infuriated progressives-- not as
much because of the pick as because of Pelosi's disgusting hyocrisy--
AOC sent her followers a fundraising letter from her own campaign but
for for Markey, a staffer explaining the double standard:
Last year,
the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee instituted a new
blacklist-- targeting staffers and companies who worked for primary
challengers. Unsurprisingly, that overwhelmingly targeted people who
worked with progressives. Now, it’s
clear: That blacklist was never just meant to "protect incumbents." It
was meant to block progressive leaders from being elected, like Ayanna
Pressley, Jamaal Bowman, Cori Bush, or even Alexandria in 2018. ...Markey
is not taking the safe route. He’s causing good trouble in Washington,
fighting for international peace, a Green New Deal, and dismantling ICE.
These are hard fights to win. Many look at them and back down. But not
Ed Markey. Markey is
listening to the next generation of leaders-- the young folks on the
ground working day in and day out to change the world-- and does
everything in his power to amplify their voices on Capitol Hill. If
Washington had more leaders like Ed Markey, we’d be a lot better off.
Scary that
Pelosi is no longer self-aware enough to understand that her endorsement
really is a kiss of death in most places in the country-- even in as
blue a state as Massachusetts. Isn't she supposed to be retiring now and
passing along her seat to her daughter? You know, the dynasty thing--
like the Kennedys.
Pelosi said that Markey’s campaign had crossed a hallowed line by running a negative campaign against the Kennedy dynasty.
“I
wasn’t too happy with some of the assault that I saw made on the
Kennedy family,” she told The Post’s opinion columnist Karen Tumulty,
“and I thought, Joe didn’t ask me to endorse him, but I felt an
imperative to do so.”
In
an official statement, Pelosi, 80, signaled that it was time for a new
crop of leaders who would represent “this party’s future,” a shot at
Markey, 74, who has been in Congress for 44 years.
[italics added] How crass. If Pelosi really felt newer younger blood mattered, then she and Steney should step aside. She should have told Kennedy in 2018 when he was a money machine for her chair opportunity to stay in the House and she'd hand the gavel to him, if sincere about a need for the newbies to flex.
“When we get in, the pantry is going to be bare,” Biden aide Ted
Kaufman said. “When you see what Trump’s done to the deficit …forget
about Covid-19, all the deficits that he built with the incredible tax
cuts. So we’re going to be limited.”
BI, in context, reports AOC calling bullshit on that line as soon as the creep said it.
And that's only one Rep. calling out things, per a single online report.
There's more. But first, call things as they are: Biden and his people are being swine.
"When we get in . . ." the operative said. Screw 'em. Don't vote them in if they are ALREADY backing away from promises - and not yet "in." It is the definition of pure lying, to lie in advance, to set the table. It is what Trump's done, and he's at least the liar we know.
Put another way, you get your mail-in ballot, wait. Instant turn-around is not necessary. Pay out rope to Biden and his awful people. If they hang themselves, Trump at least has not started any new ground wars.
Trump inherited Afghanistan and seems amenable to it, but starting a trade war is different than starting a live one, such as the military in justification of their disproportionate budget might crave.
Make the son-of-a-bitch and Kamala earn your progressive vote. Do that. Don't make it an "Oh well, lesser evil" vote as a knee-jerk reflex.
You are a progressive.
So insist upon progress. No progress, no change. Just as good a slogan as "No justice. No peace."
Now, BI has its story and its opening paragraph link. Beyond that Breitbart on the far right took notice:
Biden Confidant Downplays Campaign’s ‘Build Back Better’ Spending Promises
The chair of Joe Biden’s transition team is
lowering expectations about the spending proposals the former vice
president has pledged to implement if elected this November.
Former Sen. Ted Kaufman (D-DE), a longtime Biden confidant who now
chairs the nominee’s presidential transition task force, told The Wall Street Journal there
was little viability for a large increase in federal spending in the
near future. Kaufman, in particular, argued that President Donald
Trump’s wide-sweeping tax cut in 2017 had created the need for
constrained spending, even before the novel coronavirus outbreak.
“When we get in, the pantry is going to be bare,” Kaufman said on
Thursday. “When you see what Trump’s done to the deficit … forget about
Covid-19, all the deficits that he built with the incredible tax cuts.
So we’re going to be limited.”
Kaufman’s remarks, however, stand in contrast to the spending
proposals Biden, himself, has made in recent months. As the coronavirus
has ravaged the United States and caused the economy to crater, the
former vice president has begun emphasizing a broader economic and
social agenda to “transform” the country. Biden’s program, known simply as “Build Back Better,”
has its foundation in an international disaster relief program designed
by the United Nations. It is not only ambitious, setting its goal as
the building of a new, progressive, and more globally connected economy,
but also pricey.
For instance, as part of “Build Back Better,” Biden is championing a “Buy American”
proposal that his campaign claims will create five million domestic
manufacturing jobs. The proposal is anchored around a $400 billion
federal procurement program, along with a $300 billion investment in
U.S.-based research and development.
Similarly, the former vice president has proposed an ambitious and
costly plan to protect the environment. Biden’s plan, heavily influenced
by the recommendations of
a unity task force set up earlier this year by the presumptive nominee
and his vanquished primary rival, Bernie Sanders, suggests spending $2 trillion over four years to combat climate change.
A major portion of the money will be used to create one million new
jobs in the auto industry by boosting the production of energy-efficient
vehicles. In order to achieve the goal, Biden is backing legislation,
introduced by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), to
incentivize individuals to trade in their gas-powered vehicles for ones
running on either electricity or hydrogen.
Given the price tag associated with “Build Back Better,” Kaufman’s
comments on Thursday surprised progressives, many of whom have struggled to warm up to the former vice president.
Struggled to warm up ... really means struggled to trust him. Based on his record.
Beyond BI and Breitbart, not your left-leaning outlets, The Nation weighs in:
Biden Cannot Win (or Govern) as a Deficit Hawk Deficit hawk rhetoric and austerity economics will undermine the winning coalition Biden needs to build. By John NicholsTwitter - August 21, 2020
Joe Biden finally got to accept the Democratic presidential nomination that he began seeking in the 1980s, and he did so with a graceful turn, promising, “We can and will overcome this season of darkness.”
[...] But acceptance addresses are always aspirational, and voters know
that candidates often promise more than they deliver. So Biden still
has work to do. And so do the progressives who have provided so many of
the ideas that Biden touched on in an address where he spoke of tackling
Four historic crises. All at the same
time. A perfect storm. The worst pandemic in over 100 years. The worst
economic crisis since the Great Depression. The most compelling call for
racial justice since the ’60s. And the undeniable realities and
accelerating threats of climate change.
To meet those challenges, the federal government must spend
money. Biden acknowledged this by referencing a predecessor who
dramatically expanded the role of government:
Nearly a century ago, Franklin
Roosevelt pledged a New Deal in a time of massive unemployment,
uncertainty, and fear. Stricken by disease, stricken by a virus, FDR
insisted that he would recover and prevail and he believed America could
as well. And he did. And so can we.
These are appropriate and necessary ambitions—as was Biden’s June
proposal for the $2 trillion investment in clean energy and
infrastructure.
Unfortunately, even as the candidate was putting the finishing
touches on his speech, creating doubts about whether the nominee is
prepared to match words with deeds.. “When we get in, the pantry is
going to be bare,” longtime Biden aide Ted Kaufman toldThe Wall Street Journal
in an article published Wednesday, the third day of the convention.
“When you see what Trump’s done to the deficit…forget about Covid-19,
all the deficits that he built with the incredible tax cuts. So we’re
going to be limited.”
The Journal explained that Kaufman “predicted…that a large increase in federal spending would be difficult to achieve in 2021.”
Ted Kaufman is not some Biden campaign hanger-on. He’s the head of the transition team.
When someone in his position starts talking about limited options,
alarm bells should go off.This is the kind of talk you heard in 1993
when Bill Clinton, after winning the presidency with a campaign that
talked big about all that he would accomplish, suddenly became a deficit hawk.
Similarly, in 2009, after George W. Bush handed Barack Obama a Great
Recession, right-wing Republicans and centrist Democrats leaped in to
tell the newly elected president everything he could not do.
When Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders heard that Kaufman was laying the
groundwork for another austerity, Sanders said, “He is dead wrong.”
Dead wrong morally. Dead wrong economically. Dead wrong politically.
Americans have grown cynical about whether Democrats in government
will address the fundamental challenges facing the nation. Kaufman fed
that cynicism. If his thinking takes hold, the Democrats will be tripped
up; austerity won’t cut it this time. Democrats and the party’s new
leader, Biden, have to communicate that they are willing to spend what
is necessary to provide health care, housing, and employment, and to
ensure justice. To that end, economist Dean Baker says, “Biden’s people should be prohibited from ever whining about the government debt.”
[italics added] The more Biden flexes his "winner" muscles, the more he looks and talks, in person or via his key people, like the Republicans he loves and features.
John Kasich.
That embrace by Joe has to make progressives puke, and he knew it when he did it.
It, more than cheap words says very, very much about who Joe Biden really is. That his record has not been forced by compromise, but by choice, and that record is a big-time problem for its disdain toward helping regular people and the war-weary, as well as its will to court and aid the rich and to feed the imperial will. IRAQ.
Rolling Stone posted suitable skepticism, also featuring Ted Kaufman's middle finger salute to the people of our nation - closing with a freightening thought:
So far, the concessions Biden has made to progressives come in the
form of changes to his campaign platform. But additions to an official
platform mean exactly nothing unless a president later devotes the time
and political capital needed to pass them into law. And progressives are
wary of being ignored in a Biden administration. Those anxieties were
heightened Thursday after Ted Kaufman, the head of Biden’s transition
team, said Trump-era additions to the national debt would make it
difficult to increase federal spending — a prerequisite for the
progressive agenda.
“When we get in, the pantry is going to be bare,” Kaufman told the Wall Street Journal.
“When you see what Trump’s done to the deficit…forget about Covid-19,
all the deficits that he built with the incredible tax cuts. So we’re
going to be limited.”
Ocasio-Cortez responded on Twitter: “This is extremely concerning.
The pantry is absolutely not bare. We need massive investment in our
country or it will fall apart. This is not a joke. To adopt GOP
deficit-hawking now, when millions of lives are at stake, is utterly
irresponsible. Hold the line. Win. Lead.”
The task of bridging those divides will fall in part to a primary
candidate who ran to Biden’s left but Sanders’ right: Kamala Harris.
Blind ambition will not fix a thing, but will feather the nest of the successfully ambitious. That Harris thing should send a cold chill among the world.
IN TERMS OF GOOD POLITICS, BIDEN SHOULD FIRE KAUFMAN IMMEDIATELY.
TO ATTEMPT MERELY WALKING BACK THE HARM WILL NOT BE ENOUGH AND TAKING TOO LONG TO CLEAN THE MESS WILL BE PROOF OF UNTRUSTWORTHY PROMISING WHILE CATERING TO THE BIG-MONEY DONOR CLASS TOO EXTENSIVELY.
SO FIRE THE DUDE.
DO IT, JOE. YOU REALLY, REALLY NEED CRED. SO FAR YOU HAVE NONE. WORDS ARE CHEAP. PLATFORMS ARE UNTRUSTWORTHY.
FIRE KAUFMAN. TAKE THAT TANGIBLE STEP.
..............
In closing, two additional clarion call posts arose from Kaufman hedging on barely uttered promises. As if the promise was a ploy to delude, and the Kaufman thing being the reassurance to the extensive network of fat cat donors that - what else, Nothing will fundamentally change.
New York Mag Intelligencer, here: vision 2021 - Aug. 20, 2020 Biden Has Nothing to Fear But Fear of Deficits Itself By Eric Levitz
The Week, here: This is how Democrats get shellacked in 2022 August 20, 2020 Author: Ryan Cooper
Both of those headlines are aptly worded cautions to a man, not of the people, but of the oligarchs - and to that man's inner party's self-ambitious operatives. The South Bend mayor doubtlessly would have more advancement potential if the Dems do not get "shellacked in 2022" and he is not alone in wanting a feathered nest from a Joe Biden presidency. He won't get it, Biden has promised those he cares about at the start, nothing will fundamentally change.
Don't you find that a really inspiring thing from a really inspiring man? No? Gee.
Well go vote Trump. Snicker. Trotting out the rotten old lesser evil ploy, voters be damned. It is how since Bubba Clinton that the party has prospered. Everybody owns a share.
..........................
Just saying. Fucking Biden had better start flying right.
The Biden-DNC convention had Kasich, a GOP budget hawk of the Newt Gingrich Bubba Clinton Austerity days, as a featured Dem Party speaker endorsing Biden. The last thing we need is Austerity (or hints of it) imposed upon Medicare, Social Security, food stamps, and other civilian assistance programs when a pandemic and inept Jarad/Trump federal reaction to it caused massive job loss and consequent health coverage loss, as well as effort wasted via dead end chasing of treatment ghosts. So -
More posting by embedded video (hopefully posts are working for readers). The below MSNBC (anti-Trump outlet) item begins with a Lincoln Project hit piece, and piles on more.
Jimmy Dore gives us an alternative view of today's choices per an honestly reviewed status quo.
MSNBC:
Jimmy Dore.
The entire bit about Russian bounties for dead U.S. soldiers came across from day one as being as phony as a three-dollar bill. A credible allegation reported is that the whole story was planted by Afghan intelligence agents to frustrate a U.S. troop pull-out Trump was planning.
Readers can believe whatever, but, really . . . THINK. Use a "sniff" test.
UPDATE: Put in simplest terms, if Biden's people and backers intend a war with Iran, I will gladly embrace four more Trump years as a more sane alternative, (although Trump could do the same but has the history of not instigating an Iran War in the four years he's had.) Sabre rattling is not helping ol' Joe's belief he can steal earlier Trump middle-road voting veterans to where he's enough votes to be happy dumping a load on progressives, as he has done and is doing. (Not even Medical for All, despite the humongous popularity of that policy with the 99% not profiting indecently from entrenched rapacious norms of insurance, big Pharma, and hospital bean counters.)
Expecting nothing, give it no time. However, out of deference to the two party stranglehold on our nation, each party in turn owned by corporations and money people; it's the old Tweedle story; Alice not able to differentiate. That said, Gary Gross posted of his expectations, so the easy thing is, without further comment, to post a copy of his post, in case any Crabgrass reader cares.
The expectations for the Democratic National Convention weren’t high
considering who their primetime speakers were. Still, they managed to
not meet expectations. Most importantly, the Democratic National
Convention didn’t do what Democrats needed it to do. Next week,
Democrats will yield the stage to Republicans, who will hold their
quadrennial convention.
Expectations are higher because the speakers’ talent is higher. According to this article, the speakers will be “former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley, U.S. Senators Tim Scott and Joni Ernst, and South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem.”
The article continues, saying “Other speakers will include Nick Sandmann,
who sued several media outlets for libel over the portrayal of his role
in a confrontation with a Native American group on the National Mall in
2019 when he was a high school student, and Mark and Patricia McCloskey,
a Missouri couple who face charges from a local prosecutor after
brandishing guns at Black Lives Matter protesters marching in their
neighborhood last month.”
Each night will also feature “a speaker who lived under socialism.”
Then there’s this:
Alice Marie Johnson, whose life sentence was commuted by
Trump following intervention by Kim Kardashian West, has confirmed that
she will speak. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will deliver
taped remarks. A previous report suggested he would skip the convention,
but his campaign said that was a “miscommunication.” While Jared
Kushner was not originally scheduled to speak alongside Trump’s adult
children, CNN reports that “it’s now under consideration.”
This sounds interesting. At least, the RNC won’t feature one
past-their-prime politician after another. It’s great that the primetime
speeches will be live. I hope that Kim Klacik speaks at the convention,
too, even if it’s just to introduce Tim Scott or Alice-Marie Johnson.
I’m betting that Alice-Marie Johnson will highlight the First Step
Act, which President Trump signed into law in December, 2018. The First
Step Act is fixing some of the injustices created by the 1994 Crime Bill
that then-Sen. Joe Biden co-authored. Biden is now the Democrats’
presidential nominee. I’m betting that Nick Sandman will talk about the
media mob. I’m betting that the McCloskeys will highlight Soros
prosecutor Kim Gardner’s unjust prosecution of them for defending
themselves.
This will be a livelier convention than the DNC. That isn’t exactly difficult to accomplish.
Again, without comment beyond intro remarks. How about the Timberwolves getting the Number One pick in the NBA draft? With no obvious front runner talent; kind of like the two parties. (Well, without any further comment beyond that.)
__________UPDATE__________
Gary is partisan Republican. A differing view, more partisan in flavor, here.
Truth likely lies between the two partisan views, with propaganda being all each convention is about; so why watch or care about either? Look more for telling detail the propagandists miss. Truth will be there.
Big question: How can well paid consultants produce such crap for their paychecks, as we see in political conventions, virtual or in person? The Clinton balloon drop being my standard of crass irrelevance.
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