We can open the bars, but oh, no, we better delay the election

Donald Trump is desperate to cling to power for as long as he can, so his latest trial balloon is to suggest delaying the election because — wait for it — the pandemic. You know, the pandemic he’s been downplaying for months. The disease that he claims is controlled by hydroxychloroquine and prayers by a woman who believes it’s caused by demon semen. The coronavirus he and his advisors want to pretend doesn’t exist or is just a kind of flu so they can reopen the economy. Only now he’s claiming it is so severe that he wants to hold up the November election.

To which I’d say, vote by mail — that’s what I’m planning to do — but no, he wants to block that, too. Here’s what he’s really doing:

Trump appears to be doing everything in his power to undermine the credibility of November’s vote, in which a record number of Americans are predicted to rely on mail-in voting to avoid the risk of exposure to the coronavirus. He’s repeatedly made false and misleading claims about the reliability of the mail balloting and suggested broad conspiracy theories. Critics warn that he could be laying the groundwork for contesting the results – although the purpose may be simply to give him a scapegoat if he loses.

Trump’s Thursday morning tweet could also be an attempt to divert attention away from the truly dismal second-quarter economic numbers just released. He’s been relying on a financial turnaround to breath life into his re-election campaign, and instead the outlook appears exceedingly gloomy.

If you are optimistically confident that there will be a smooth transition in power in a few months, and that the criminal-in-chief will surely obey the law and quietly leave office in January, I’ve got news for you. We’re going to have to go into the Oval Office with meathooks and claw him out in pieces, while his partisans are waving AR-15s and shooting up federal buildings all over the country. He’s clearly beginning to panic.

So…you’re saying we’ve been living in a police state for decades?

This is an 18 year old trans woman getting violently arrested by a swarm of cops.

Nicki Stone, the woman being forced into an unmarked car, must be extremely strong and scary, because look how many men in shorts and t-shirts to control her. And then they need so many cops on bicycles to control the crowd.

But the real revelation is the NYPD using the ‘we’ve always been this way’ excuse.

The NYPD issued a statement on Twitter saying that Stone was wanted for damaging police cameras, and she was detained by the Warrant Squad, which uses unmarked vehicles to carry out arrests. NYPD Lt. John Grimpel told NBC News that the Warrant Squad has used unmarked vehicles to detain people for “decades.”

If we’ve been abused by bad cops and bad policing techniques for at least 20 years, isn’t it about time we got around to ending it?

How did we get here?

“Here” is a country where millions believe in loony conspiracy theories and vote for a fascist like Trump, and yet they close their eyes to black clad militarized police whisk citizens off the street into unmarked cars. We’ve become simultaneously hyperconscious of outrageous nonsense promoted on the internet, and desensitized to it. Well, most of us are desensitized — about 30% seem to have become the base of the Republican party.

There’s a lot of blame to go around. This documentary pins it on a couple of sources: Alex Jones and Roger Stone, and the conscienceless, manipulatory algorithms of YouTube and Facebook that enabled these terrible people, culminating in the election of Donald Trump. I think there are even more people responsible, but this is a good start.

Almost an hour of concentrated Jones and Stone is agonizing, but sit through it and bear the suffering. There’s a deep injustice here, that Noah Pozner’s parents get to suffer while Alex Jones got rich, and Trump got the presidency. Fox News is the mainstream version of Alex Jones.

Where da boaters at?

When Donald Trump beckons, the media fall all over themselves to answer. For instance, lately Trump has been obsessing over “boat parades” and how much boaters love him, so the Washington Post indulges in overwrought analysis and puts together some fancy data visualization to show that yes, people who can afford boats tend to be Republican. Whether the boater population is a significant slice of the demographic pie, and whether they will be a significant factor in the election, and whether it is at all appropriate or useful for a newspaper to focus a microscope on such a trivial question is an exercise left for the reader.

“A state where the dark-red slice of Republican boaters is larger than the light-red slice of Republicans overall is a state where the boating community is more densely Republican.”

I can’t afford a boat, and I have no interest in owning a boat, so I guess I won’t be cruising around Lake Minnewaska waving a big blue “Trump Sucks!” flag. Is this a meaningful datum? All it tells me is that wealth has a positive correlation with supporting an establishment party that panders to money. (Well, actually, both parties pander to money, but one is more overt than the other.)

By the way, the WaPo is at least willing to point out what a narcissistic flibbertigibbet Trump is. He had earlier announced that he was “too busy” to throw out the first pitch at a major league baseball game, then abruptly, to the surprise of his staff, announced at a press conference that he was going to throw out the first pitch for the New York Yankees…which was also a surprise to the Yankees. What prompted the about face?

He learned that Anthony Fauci was throwing out the first pitch for the Washington Nationals.

Trump was irritated that Fauci was given the honor, the Times reported, citing an official familiar with his reaction. Not to be outdone, he reportedly told his staff to get in touch with the Yankees and take Levine up on his offer, but then the president went ahead and threw a curveball at the coronavirus briefing with his claim that he would take the mound on Aug. 15.

Jesus. The country is run by petty high-schooler.

Only we call them “contract security personnel” rather than “mercs”

Marcus Ranum asks a really good question: who are all these mysterious masked strangers dressed in black armor who show up at the best of the federal government to crush protests? It’s not the lone ranger. They seem to appear out of an undocumented pool of semi-professional thugs. That suggests an answer.

I’ve been puzzled by the fact that nobody seems to be talking about where these “federal troops” have come from.

They’re not well-trained and they’re not particularly brave, but they have spiffy gear that someone bought them from an online Tactical(tm) store. They’re fond of hitting people, especially people who can’t defend themselves. They act like they’re an occupying force; Amerikkka come to the inner city to bust some heads. Sound familiar?

Where has Trump friend Erik Prince been, lately? Because the smell of Blackwater is wafting all around; it’s unmistakable.

Could our government be hiring mercenaries to put down citizens who don’t like injustice? As Marcus suggests, there is a good opportunity for journalistic investigation here.

Here’s how they operate: four thugs abruptly attack a 14 year old girl in Eugene, Oregon.

I guess she was a dangerous threat.

Minnesota has mandated face masks in public

Meanwhile, down at the Wal-Mart…

Stupid people will find a way to obey the letter of the law, while still parading their ignorance and hatefulness.

You know, I hate to tell you this, but if you merely want to be offensive you can buy “Make America Great Again” facemasks on the internet. I’ll still despise you, but I won’t think of you as an ahistorical idiot promoting genocide, mostly.

The feds are trying to saturate Portland with tear gas

It doesn’t seem to be particularly effective.

According to CripDyke, it isn’t, and neither are the leafblowers, which I can believe. Keep on fighting back, Portland!

That Yoho yahoo got his butt kicked

Man, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is an effective speaker, and Yoho is lower than slime. Fortunately, Yoho is not running for re-election and will not have to show his shameful face around congress much longer.

You watched it all, I hope. That was strong stuff from AOC.

Bonus! Alexandra Petri stuffs Yoho’s not-pology back up the bunghole it came out of!

The way he’s talking about it, I suspect this is the first time Trump has passed any test

He took a trivial cognitive ability test, and passed it. Now he won’t shut up about it. I guess he’s really impressed by the fact that he can remember six words, but the rest of us should be unimpressed by his obsession with it.

Oh well, at least we can agree: this was the high water mark of his presidency. Take that test and stick it to the refrigerator with a magnet!

About time, Minnesota

We’re finally going to be required to wear masks around here.

Gov. Tim Walz announced a statewide mandate Wednesday requiring Minnesotans to wear face masks in stores, public buildings and other places where people gather indoors, a dramatic extension of his emergency powers in the midst of a COVID-19 pandemic that still appears on the upswing in many states.

I’ll be curious to see if we get the kind of reaction in opposition we’ve seen in other states.