Has U.S. Democracy Been Trumped?

[y66]

Swan: Oh, you’re doing death as a proportion of cases. I’m talking about death as a proportion of population. That’s where the U.S. is really bad. Much worse than South Korea, Germany, etc.

 

Trump: You can’t do that.

 

Swan: Why can’t I do that?

 

[shyams]

The tragic part of these things is that everyone (media, administration, Dem luminaries) is spending lots of effort/energy on defining the truth or creating a narrative aligned to their own world view. No one seems to be doing anything to reduce the suffering or improve the response to the Covid crisis.

[Winstonm]

The tragic part of these things is that everyone (media, administration, Dem luminaries) is spending lots of effort/energy on defining the truth or creating a narrative aligned to their own world view. No one seems to be doing anything to reduce the suffering or improve the response to the Covid crisis.

 

There is only one megaphone and one person shouting lies and that is Donald Trump. Everyone else is part of an echo chamber.

[Winstonm]

The two faces of Donald Trump:

 

President Donald Trump ramped up his baseless attacks on mail-in voting late Monday by threatening to issue an executive order curbing the practice ahead of the November elections, a move rights groups and experts said would be a flagrant violation of the U.S. Constitution.

 

 

 

 

 

President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that he wanted "all" people to vote by mail in Florida.

 

"Whether you call it Vote by Mail or Absentee Voting, in Florida the election system is Safe and Secure, Tried and True," Trump wrote on Twitter. "Florida's Voting system has been cleaned up (we defeated Democrats attempts at change), so in Florida I encourage all to request a Ballot & Vote by Mail!"

 

 

 

So, to recap - Democrats and Democratic states are not allowed to vote by mail but Florida's Republicans are encouraged to do so. I get it - he's anti-American democracy. There is a word for that.....

[kenberg]

The tragic part of these things is that everyone (media, administration, Dem luminaries) is spending lots of effort/energy on defining the truth or creating a narrative aligned to their own world view. No one seems to be doing anything to reduce the suffering or improve the response to the Covid crisis.

 

Yes, that is so. It's a difficult time. It has become clear that any such efforts will have to take place without the help of our president. If others, working around him, have any success art all he will of course take credit for it. But as a leader in this crisis, he is worse than useless.

 

A major problem right now is education for the young. Most of us see this as complicated. Not Trump. For him the solution is to send everyone back to school, cut funding for any system that refuses, and announce that everything will be ok. The virus was going to go away. Like a miracle. Well, it's a hoax. Or maybe we should stop testing so much . Or something. But not his fault, he explained that it would go away and for some reason it didn't. He did his part, the virus didn't do it's part. Once upon a ti,e you had to go to a carnival to see someone talk like this.

 

We are on our own. The president is useless.

[johnu]

The tragic part of these things is that everyone (media, administration, Dem luminaries) is spending lots of effort/energy on defining the truth or creating a narrative aligned to their own world view. No one seems to be doing anything to reduce the suffering or improve the response to the Covid crisis.

Democratic and a very few Republican led states have done their best to combat coronavirus in their states. The fact of the matter is that state and local government are not set up to battle epidemics/pandemics that are national in scope. They don't have the resources or budget to be effective like a Federal government response could be. One thing to note. State and local governments are required by law to have balanced budgets, unlike the Federal government which literally owns the printing presses and can literally print as much money as they can. The coronavirus has blown huge holes in state and local government budgets in 2 ways. First is the cost of actually combating coronavirus, medically and socially. 2nd is greatly reduced income from taxes and fees as businesses have reduced income or go out of of business, and residents have (greatly) reduced income because their jobs have disappeared or work has been reduced.

 

In a so called unitary presidency country like the US, basically nothing can be done at the Federal level without the president's approval. Unless Republicans in Congress were willing to join with Democrats to force certain actions (that can't happen because the president would send a mean tweet their way), nothing can or will be changed in the coronavirus response. Democrats and the media can complain all they want but unless the president decides he wants to expend political capital to actually put in place the most effective anti-coronavirus measures, we are doomed to be in the place we are in now until there is an effective vaccine.

 

Or we can drink Clorox smoothies, pop hydroxychloroquine pills, and take UV light enemas like Typhoid Donald suggests.

[johnu]

Yes, that is so. It's a difficult time. It has become clear that any such efforts will have to take place without the help of our president. If others, working around him, have any success art all he will of course take credit for it. But as a leader in this crisis, he is worse than useless.

 

A major problem right now is education for the young. Most of us see this as complicated. Not Trump. For him the solution is to send everyone back to school, cut funding for any system that refuses, and announce that everything will be ok. The virus was going to go away. Like a miracle. Well, it's a hoax. Or maybe we should stop testing so much . Or something. But not his fault, he explained that it would go away and for some reason it didn't. He did his part, the virus didn't do it's part. Once upon a ti,e you had to go to a carnival to see someone talk like this.

 

We are on our own. The president is useless.

Maybe we should fire all the coroners in the US and close all the funeral homes. No more causes of death, death certificates, and the death toll from COVID-19 would start to approach zero right away. If we could stop all coronavirus testing which would result in no new cases, we would completely stop coronavirus in its tracks. Who needs a vaccine?

[kenberg]

By coincidence I came home and saw that some states are getting together.

 

 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/coronavirus-state-testing-compact/2020/08/04/8b73bed8-d66f-11ea-9c3b-dfc394c03988_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_virustesting-110pm%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

 

Yes, this is good.

 

Back a couple of hundred years, 1787 comes to mind, we thought it would be useful to have a federal government that could respond to some national problems. I am sure they did not anticipate the total incompetence that we see today. Naive of them, I guess.

[Winstonm]

By coincidence I came home and saw that some states are getting together.

 

 

https://www.washingt...age%2Fstory-ans

 

Yes, this is good.

 

Back a couple of hundred years, 1787 comes to mind, we thought it would be useful to have a federal government that could respond to some national problems. I am sure they did not anticipate the total incompetence that we see today. Naive of them, I guess.

 

1776 comes to mind - only need 7 more states and we can have a whole new country.

[Zelandakh]

Essential viewing (in full) for all US voters and anyone with an interest in American politics.

[y66]

The fact of the matter is that state and local government are not set up to battle epidemics/pandemics that are national in scope. They don't have the resources or budget to be effective like a Federal government response could be.

True. But that does not absolve states and local governments from their responsibility to make sure states, local governments and the feds have a credible plan for responding to a pandemic threat which we obviously did not have when we needed it. It's encouraging to see the governors of Maryland, Virginia and other states working together on the testing front (see WaPo story kenberg linked) now that we are in month 6 of a full blown crisis. No doubt we will be somewhat better prepared for the next one.

[Winstonm]

True. But that does not absolve states and local governments from their responsibility to make sure states, local governments and the feds have a credible plan for responding to a pandemic threat which we obviously did not have when we needed it. It's encouraging to see the governors of Maryland, Virginia and other states working together on the testing front (see WaPo story kenberg linked) now that we are in month 6 of a full blown crisis. No doubt we will be somewhat better prepared for the next one.

Whether of not we will be better prepared in the future depends entirely on the make-up of the government at that future time. Obama left a roadmap for handling pandemics - Donald Trump and John Bolton ripped it apart as a waste of resources.

 

This is and has always been the flaw in Republican/conservative ideology - that running the government should be the same as running a business when the government is the only entity with deep enough pockets to provide a plan and the monetary backing for black swan events. The hue and cry over deficits and the national debt is nothing but red herrings to distract from maximizing profits for businesses.

[Winstonm]

Anyone who thinks Donald Trump is the only problem is not keeping up with the world:

 

Germany has a problem. For years, politicians and security chiefs rejected the notion of any far-right infiltration of the security services, speaking only of “individual cases.” The idea of networks was dismissed. The superiors of those exposed as extremists were protected. Guns and ammunition disappeared from military stockpiles.

 

The government is now waking up. Cases of far-right extremists in the military and police, some hoarding weapons and explosives, have multiplied alarmingly. The nation’s top intelligence officials and senior military commanders are moving to confront a problem that has become too dangerous to ignore.

 

 

 

[johnu]

True. But that does not absolve states and local governments from their responsibility to make sure states, local governments and the feds have a credible plan for responding to a pandemic threat which we obviously did not have when we needed it. It's encouraging to see the governors of Maryland, Virginia and other states working together on the testing front (see WaPo story kenberg linked) now that we are in month 6 of a full blown crisis. No doubt we will be somewhat better prepared for the next one.

States and local governments have absolutely no control over the Federal government's lack of any coherent plan for a pandemic. Just like Portland had no way to stop the Manchurian President from sending in Federal secret police forces to Portland and creating mayhem in the streets. How do you expect them to have any influence whether there is a Federal pandemic plan???

 

As far as the Maryland-Virginia consortium plan to work together on getting testing supplies, remember back in May when a consortium of 7 NE states came up with a plan to buy PPEs? That was 3 months ago and still there is no national PPE plan. Yes, the states can band together to form bigger buying groups, but they still have to compete with Feds. The Federal government can institute controls against price gouging and buy at wholesale prices directly from the manufacturers. Even if the states band together into various groups, they are still competing among themselves, as well as the Feds, as well as other countries for limited supplies since the Grifter in Chief won't invoke the Defense Production Act for these supplies.

 

And state and local governments have limited budgets for these things. Those budgets are being shredded by the economic effects of the pandemic.

 

I don't see states banding together as a positive sign. I see it as a sign of desperation as a result of failure by the Federal government to provide leadership.

 

Without strong Federal leadership, you have the spectacle of Maryland going through hoops trying to protect a private shipment of N95 masks from being confiscated by the Feds. Instead of N95 masks, you can substitute COVID-19 testing supplies of all kinds.

[y66]

Whether of not we will be better prepared in the future depends entirely on the make-up of the government at that future time. Obama left a roadmap for handling pandemics - Donald Trump and John Bolton ripped it apart as a waste of resources.

 

This is and has always been the flaw in Republican/conservative ideology - that running the government should be the same as running a business when the government is the only entity with deep enough pockets to provide a plan and the monetary backing for black swan events. The hue and cry over deficits and the national debt is nothing but red herrings to distract from maximizing profits for businesses.

Trump did not invent governing by train wreck. But he has definitely taken it to a new level.

 

I would not impute Trump's moronic approach to all conservatives. The Bush II administration took pandemic planning pretty seriously. I would be surprised if the Obama playbook is much more than a bunch of tweaks to a Bush II administration playbook.

 

A playbook is obviously only as good as the actual types of experience it's based on and the extent to which it reflects a reality of preparedness based on actual relevant experience, thorough testing and leaders with good judgment.

[shyams]

Essential viewing (in full) for all US voters and anyone with an interest in American politics.

 

It makes for difficult viewing. My mind often kept going back to thoughts like "him? really? President?? how???". His lack of even basic understanding of the situation is mindboggling.

 

I remember when W. was President and everyone used to ridicule his abilities. Trump's incoherence makes W. look like a smart/savvy guy in comparison.

[Zelandakh]

It makes for difficult viewing. My mind often kept going back to thoughts like "him? really? President?? how???". His lack of even basic understanding of the situation is mindboggling.

 

I remember when W. was President and everyone used to ridicule his abilities. Trump's incoherence makes W. look like a smart/savvy guy in comparison.

There is an old test for candidates that sounds silly but actually seems to work more often than not. I watched some of the 2000 election campaign, particularly the debates. Al Gore came across to me as intensely unlikable. The sort of guy that thinks he is always the smartest in the room and that everyone around him is inferior. In short, an arrogant pr!ck. W on the other hand may not have been an intellectual but at least he was personable and displayed some minimal ability to connect with people. So the test is "Who would I rather go drinking with?" and in that election W was, for me, the clear winner in that category. So it was not a huge surprise when he won despite Gore being widely seen as the stronger candidate.

 

2016 has some similarities. Hillary also came across as unlikable and unapproachable, not as badly as Gore but still not great. And she was a politician, near enough the most disliked category of person, up against a reality TV star. Now for me Trump also came across as completely unable to connect with people and add to that his racism and misogyny and, well, Hillary is winning by a nose. But I could equally understand why people chose Trump 4 years ago and even wrote here in the WC about how easy it would be for Trump to win.

 

In 2020 I feel things are different. Whereas 4 years ago it was possible to convince oneself that the racism and misogyny might be overblown by the media, now it is surely not for all but the most ostrich-like Americans. Add to that that the experiment is costing American lives and it seem impossible that enough moderates will still be willing to say "I would rather go for a drink with Donald". You may think that such a question is a crazy way of electing a leader for a country like the USA. But, in those now immortal words, it is what it is. In this case though "it" is democracy rather than >150000 American corpses.

[Winstonm]

https://jspp.psychopen.eu/article/view/750/html

 

No one factor describes Trump’s supporters. But an array of factors – many of them reflecting five major social psychological phenomena can help to account for this extraordinary political event: authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, prejudice, relative deprivation, and intergroup contact. Research on the topic demonstrates that these theories and concepts of social psychology prove centrally important in helping to understand this unexpected event. This paper describes the supporting data for this statement and demonstrates the close parallels between these American results and those of research on far-right European supporters.

[Winstonm]

Couldn't happen to a more deserving group:

 

August 6, 2020 at 10:42 a.m. CDT

The chief executive of the National Rifle Association and several top lieutenants engaged in a decades-long pattern of fraud to raid the coffers of the powerful gun rights group for personal gain, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday by the New York attorney general, draining $64 million from the nonprofit in just three years.

 

In her lawsuit, Attorney General Letitia James called for the dissolution of the NRA and the removal of CEO Wayne LaPierre from the leadership post he has held for the past 39 years, saying he and others used the group's funds to finance a luxury lifestyle.

 

She also asked a New York court to force LaPierre and three key deputies to repay NRA members for the ill-gotten funds and inflated salaries that her investigation found they took.

 

 

[Winstonm]

What was it that Barr said - Oh, yeah, this:

 

“Is it ever appropriate, sir, for the president to solicit or accept foreign assistance in an election?” Cicilline asked, prompting Barr to stammer and reply: “It depends what kind of assistance.”

 

Facebook said Thursday it took down accounts running a deceptive campaign out of Romania pretending to be Americans supporting US President Donald Trump ahead of the coming election.

 

The leading online social network removed 35 Facebook accounts, three pages, and 88 Instagram accounts as part of an ongoing fight against "coordinated inauthentic behavior," according to security policy head Nathaniel Gleicher.

 

 

 

[shyams]

https://youtu.be/jnZUHQHGTYM?t=60

 

Noam Chomsky (though he might be reading off a script provided by the organisation).

 

 

PS: An afterthought. I wonder what these "reluctant voter" Democrats will do if he chose Michelle Obama as his VP pick.

[y66]

https://youtu.be/jnZUHQHGTYM?t=60

 

Noam Chomsky (though he might be reading off a script provided by the organisation).

 

 

PS: An afterthought. I wonder what these "reluctant voter" Democrats will do if he chose Michelle Obama as his VP pick.

Very happy to see Chomsky sending this message presumably to disaffected Sanders supporters who are partially responsible for Trump's election victory in 2016.

 

You don't have to worry that Chomsky was reading from someone else's script. Never has. Never will.

[y66]

These two stories both appear in today's NYT (web version):

 

Here’s How to Crush the Virus Until Vaccines Arrive by Michael T. Osterholm and Neel Kashkari. To save lives, and save the economy, we need another lockdown.

 

‘If We Get It, We Chose to Be Here’: Despite Virus, Thousands Converge on Sturgis for Huge Rally by Mark Walker.

 

Maybe Osterholm and Kashkari should have published their op-ed in Rider magazine.

[johnu]

One in Three Americans Would Not Get COVID-19 Vaccine

 

While Gallup has consistently seen that U.S. party preferences play a strong role in Americans' views on COVID-19, the new poll extends that to willingness to be vaccinated. Eighty-one percent of Democrats are willing to be vaccinated today if a free and FDA-approved vaccine were available. That compares with 59% of independents and just under half of Republicans, 47%.

 

Overall, 35% of Americans say they would not get vaccinated for coronavirus. And I don't know what's going on with Republicans. They don't want to wear masks, social distance, or even get vaccinated. I didn't get the memo. Is getting vaccinated against COVID-19 against the will of God, or do Republicans still think COVID-19 is a Democratic hoax? :rolleyes:

 

Minimum effectiveness for initial coronavirus vaccines is supposed to 50% according the FDA. 50% :o That's the minimum so hopefully the best vaccines will be substantially better. But since the US can't force adults to get vaccinated, that means potentially ~2/3 of the population are potential coronavirus victims. Herd immunity is estimated to require about 70% of the population to be successfully vaccinated or have recovered from COVID-19 and have an effective amount of antibodies. So even if a successful vaccine(s) is widely available (and it will take many months, maybe a year+ to vaccinate everybody, especially if multiple shots are required) the coronavirus pandemic will not disappear anytime in the foreseeable future.

[shyams]

I think the US media is so focused on sensationalising every piece of political news that they are missing out on the substantive arguments made by either candidate (although in the case of one, nothing qualifies as substantive).

 

There was this interview where Biden made a remark about the diversity of the Latino community where he said something about how the African-American community is much less diverse etc. It became big news... so I searched out and viewed the entire video of that press conference. Let's say I was bored, so I also made some notes as I listened to the interview (see below):

 

 

(The video. Note: the actual broadcast begins 4m:50s from the start of the video)

 

Question Set 1: VP pick? Clear & cogent answers. Missed an opportunity to lighten the mood before the interviewer did it for him (by laughing); otherwise I liked his response.

 

QSet 2: Slowing the reopening Excellent start to the answers although he does dither for a few seconds midway. He had a very good set of replies. He was very impactful in responding about school reopening, the vaccine and Trump's absence of a clear plan.

 

QSet 3: Medicare4All vs Obamacare I might disagree with the answers but it does not detract from the clarity and impact of his position. Lulu Garcia-Navarro asked Biden about healthcare for undocumented workers; I thought he skillfully avoided pitfalls in wording his response to that question & follow-ups.

 

QSet 4: Legislative goals, Filibuster. Voting validity etc. I really liked his responses to these questions. He pretty much believes that the filibuster, if used properly, is a useful Senate tool but he also clarified that he will move to remove filibustering if the Republicans continue to be obstreperous (beautiful word, used so naturally by him in his speech)

 

QSet 5: Latino community & immigration Again, all the answers were clear and cogent. His "insensitive" remark was, according to me, not at all what it was projected to be --- it was fairly innocuous. Biden was given ample opportunities to slip-up by the journalists who posed genuine but tricky questions. He did not falter even once.

 

One-off Questions:

* He did slip up when asked about cognitive abilities. Others can judge how bad/harsh that was, I found it a bit insensitive but not terrible. I guess it is for the African-American community to decide if what he said was outrageous.

* The questions about trade with China yielded responses which, I thought, were rather weak. If I were a Republican strategist, I would use some words from this portion to paint Biden as ineffectual vs. China's trade tactics.

 

I thought Biden did very well throughout the interview, something that is not at all reflected in any media. It is sad that the US media (and some British media as well) focused entirely on salacious reporting of the meeting.