https://www.lawfareblog.com/what-heck-are-federal-law-enforcement-officers-doing-portland Interesting read.
Yep, the problem is obviously not the people that have been destroying personal and public property for the past 50 days straight. They're fucking angels being preyed upon by an oppressive government that demands they quit destroying shit that's not theirs. God forbid that they be held to some sort of standard of civilized behavior. Fuck the police. Fuck the system. Fuck the country. Fuck you. That's exactly where this headed.
It is. And the city of Portland dropped all charges against the people arrested for rioting and pillaging. So, the local police did do their job. And their local government decided "Naw, let them destroy shit" As far as I'm concerned, let them foul their own nest. Keep the feds out of it. When everything reaches critical mass, and it will, let them deal with the bullshit they allowed to happen.
“The test asks you to identify an elephant.” Chris Wallace has to do the most basic of interview work to let Trump trip all over himself like a drunk vaudeville act.
In case anyone wants to see the test trump is so proud of passing, here it is. https://lasvegassun.com/news/2020/jul/19/trump-says-he-aced-this-cognitive-test-can-you/ I will let you guys decide if this is something to be proud of.
Hogan's Op-Ed on the testing: https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/07/16/larry-hogan-trump-coronavirus/?arc404=true Hogan is Republican and somehow wildly popular in blue MD. He recognizes that he needs to distance himself from El Tangerino if he wants to keep his job, and all indications are that he has a bright future in GOP politics, assuming they return to sanity. You know what they say about assumptions.... I forget where I read it, but with so much Republican talent retired, sidelined or straight up out of the game (Mark Sanford, Paul Ryan, Jeff Sessions, Nikki Haley, and others), the folks winning GOP nominations seem to be too crazy for the Tea Partiers, the quote was "this is no longer a gentleman's game". No. Shit. The next iteration of the GOP is more personality-driven, and that isn't going so well. It's kind of the only recourse, as there's no coherent conservative platform anymore. They can't claim to be fiscally conservative, racking up debt. They can't claim the moral majority, when supporting Trump. They can't claim to be patriots, and support people like Ted Cruz (Canadian). The dog-whistle racism isn't even silent, Siri can hear that shit. Right now, Trump is losing by double digits, and everyone down-ballot has damp pants, with the smart rats who have already abandoned this ship looking at 2022 and 2024. For example, Jamie Harrison in SC out-raised Lindsey Graham in SC. Jamie is a black Democrat, which might as well be as electable as Dieter the Nazi Elephant Rapist in SC. Don't get me wrong, Graham will win, but he's getting nervous. So, your 2020 election decision is cult of personality or semi-competent governance based on nostalgia. Not liberal or conservative. https://www.politico.com/news/2020/07/15/trump-replaces-campaign-manager-parscale-stepien-365176 Called it!
I see no reason to think this assumption holds; the base is far too batshit insane. Someone like Baker can do well in Massachusetts, but the national base would despise him and never nominate him, so they can't win with a sane candidate. This crazy conspiracy-theory-nationalism is also showing its cracks, and if Trump loses in November it'll be clear they can't win that an insane candidate either. At that point things will get weird.
This interview is apparently a big deal because reportedly Fox News did an actual journalism thing. Clips: full thing from Fox:
The Great Pumpkin's latest strategy is to cover up the facts in hopes people will forget about the cluster of a raging pandemic we're in. Yeah, that will go well. https://twitter.com/noamscheiber/status/1285021444343320582
Fascinating read on the GOP war against reality: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/republican-response-coronavirus.html
Has anything like this ever happened before? "Former Ohio Governor John Kasich is expected to speak at the DNC in August on Joe Biden’s behalf, in a show of support for the Democratic presidential nominee, the Associated Press reports. Kasich is a life-long Republican who rose to prominence in the Tea Party Movement and has been a vocal critic of President Trump's handling of the COVID-19 pandemic." https://apnews.com/99d19335011e2fb19035dc83ac2fb481
I often have to keep reminding myself that twitter isn't real life. At least when it comes to the voting populace. Its decent for getting news disseminated and cancel-culture people like to use it. But it is far too misrepresented as a good indicator of the actual voting public.
I see the cure Twitter like Madonna. If you stop looking at it, it will have no choice but to die. It can never improve, but it continues to exist and divide everyone it touches. A toxic sludge.