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Reports of protests are overblown. A few incidents around the country, but nothing major.

5 (45.5%)

A few major incidents in capitals, but nothing much in DC.

5 (45.5%)

A major incident in DC, but nothing much around the country.

0 (0%)

More than 10 capitals have major upheavals, but nothing much in DC.

0 (0%)

A major incident in DC plus more than 10 capitals with significant upheavals.

1 (9.1%)

More than half the capitals around the country have problems with protesters, but DC is quiet.

0 (0%)

DC has major problems, while more than half the capitals around the country also have considerable trouble with protesters.

0 (0%)

Huge disruption to the day.

0 (0%)

Total Members Voted: 9

Voting closed: January 19, 2021, 10:49:21 PM

[Echo4]

Coronavirus in Florida: Around 9,000 new pediatric cases within 15 days of schools opening

https://www.wfla.com/news/by-the-numbers/coronavirus-in-florida-around-9000-new-pediatric-cases-within-15-days-of-schools-opening/

Baby killer?

More testing, says Kidshit.

[barton]

I would argue that the ability of corporations to use their resources to influence voters does not make our democracy theoretical, but flawed.

Using the resources and levers of the people's government while in power to stay in power and to go after political opponents and break the law with impunity...that crosses that line.

I really don't know how this will play out,  but I have no argument with the thesis that Trump & Co.  are subverting the rule of law.   Just this morning,  another attack on the First Amendment....

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2020/8/27/1972906/--Please-be-advised-White-House-threatens-reporter-writing-story-on-Trump-s-corruption

[Echo4]

This is gonna piss off a lot of progressives. How you gonna call Biden a ‘neo-liberal’ as an epithet?

“Once you accept that what is good for overall global growth or even for the stock market is not necessarily good for the American worker, it becomes possible to envision a form of economic nationalism that guides U.S. behavior both at home and abroad. This seems to be what Biden has in mind with his plan for a “Made in All of America” agenda. The big investments he plans in infrastructure, education, health care, and research and development would be directed to U.S. firms to create jobs at home. A “pro-American worker tax and trade strategy” would “take aggressive trade enforcement actions against China” but also eliminate tax incentives for U.S. firms to move operations overseas.”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/27/biden-is-getting-ready-to-bury-neoliberalism/

Only if they are more open to learning than their counterparts on the right.

But as I listen to some of them go through their "all the same" bullshit for the umpteenth time, I find myself reminding myself of cognitive bias and that very few people are convinced by facts.

That includes progressives and smart people.

It's really infuriating.

I was, I confess, gratified last night - a long time liberal friend had reposted the meme about Nikki Haley having changed her names (first and last) to hide her ethnicity to make it easier to get elected as a Republican.

I explained that she's had the nickname (as it were) Nikki her entire life and that she took her husband's last name, just like my wife did, just like my friend posting the meme had, and just like Hillary Clinton had.

And finally, after I pointed out that making up a story to besmirch the character of an opponent really feels like a GOP kind of thing to do, she apologized, said she didn't mean to have done that, and removed the post.

But jeeeeeeeeeeez!

I want people to look things up before posting.

I want them to at least check after the first challenge.

And I want them to retract (as I did a few hours ago on the 17 year old's supposed rap sheet) upon looking at information that demonstrates that they are wrong.

And apparently this is way too much to expect of the vast majority of humans!

ARGH!

[Echo4]

“Such training measures are designed to help law enforcement officers recognize these unconscious biases in order to reduce their influence on police behavior.

These reforms, while well-intentioned, leave unaddressed an especially harmful form of bias, which remains entrenched within law enforcement: explicit racism. Explicit racism in law enforcement takes many forms, from membership or affiliation with violent white supremacist or far-right militant groups, to engaging in racially discriminatory behavior toward the public or law enforcement colleagues, to making racist remarks and sharing them on social media. While it is widely acknowledged that racist officers subsist within police departments around the country, federal, state, and local governments are doing far too little to proactively identify them, report their behavior to prosecutors who might unwittingly rely on their testimony in criminal cases, or protect the diverse communities they are sworn to serve.”

https://www.brennancenter.org/our-work/research-reports/hidden-plain-sight-racism-white-supremacy-and-far-right-militancy-law

More facts that Ward and Kid will dismiss.

[Echo4]

I would argue that the ability of corporations to use their resources to influence voters does not make our democracy theoretical, but flawed.

Using the resources and levers of the people's government while in power to stay in power and to go after political opponents and break the law with impunity...that crosses that line.

I really don't know how this will play out,  but I have no argument with the thesis that Trump & Co.  are subverting the rule of law.   Just this morning,  another attack on the First Amendment....

https://www.dailykos.com/story/2020/8/27/1972906/--Please-be-advised-White-House-threatens-reporter-writing-story-on-Trump-s-corruption

It's quite outrageous, but it is exactly the sort of thing that got him labeled a Libel Bully.

Nothing says optimism on the last day of the RNC than threatening a reporter for doing his job.

The irony here is that it is not the Trump Organization telling the reporter to cease and desist from attacking the blend of White House and Trump business/expenses, but the White House spokesman saying "leave the Trump org alone!"

https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/27/media/white-house-dossier-journalists/index.html

The White House said in a story published Thursday that it was compiling a "very large" dossier on a Pulitzer Prize-winning Washington Post reporter and others who it said are a "disgrace to journalism and the American people."

The astonishing revelation about the White House's efforts to discredit reporter David Fahrenthold came after The Post requested comment for a Thursday story he wrote with two colleagues. The story, co-bylined by reporters Josh Dawsey and Joshua Partlow, detailed how President Trump's company "charged the U.S. government more than $900,000" for hotel rooms fees among other services at Mar-a-Lago.

In a statement, White House spokesperson Judd Deere accused The Washington Post of "blatantly interfering with the business relationships of the Trump Organization" and demanded "it must stop."

"Please be advised that we are building up a very large 'dossier' on the many false David Fahrenthold and others stories as they are a disgrace to journalism and the American people," Deere said.

[barton]

I appreciated the recanting on the Kenosha killer's rap sheet.   

I think an interesting thread here (a propos your poll this month) would be one devoted to the health of democracy and where diagnostic stories can be posted,  maybe call it "watching the threat of emerging dictatorship," or similar.   All posts would have to reference solidly documented cases of attacks on the constitution, especially the First Amendment, or other usurpation of the judicial or legislative branches by the executive branch.   

[Echo4]

https://www.medialaw.org/component/k2/item/3470-donald-j-trump-is-a-libel-bully-but-also-a-libel-loser
Donald J. Trump Is A Libel Bully But Also A Libel Loser

https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/25/us/politics/donald-trump-lawsuits-american-bar-association.html
Fearing Trump, Bar Association Stifles Report Calling Him a ‘Libel Bully’

They are from 2016. I posted the latter one here then.

From the first one is this gem, which is among the things that is going to help hoist his pitard once he is in court on his lies about his properties, his loans, and his taxes (especially real estate):

Trump was even more unreliable in his testimony about his net worth:

Q: Now Mr. Trump, have you always been completely truthful in your public statements about your net worth of properties?

A: I try.

Q: Have you ever been not truthful?

A: My net worth fluctuates, and it goes up and down with markets and with attitudes and feelings, even my own feelings but I try.

Q: Let me just understand that a little bit. Let's talk about that for a second. You said that the net worth goes up and down based on your own feelings?

A: Yes ....[29]

The court concluded that "Trump's estimates of his own worth changed substantially over time and thus failed to provide ... reliable" evidence that proved O'Brien's book false.[30] In other words, Trump ran to the court complaining that the book falsely debunked Trump's claim of being a billionaire but utterly failed to provide any reliable evidence to prove falsity.

Trump later complained about the dismissal of the lawsuit, displaying his misunderstanding of the law of public figure and actual malice. "Essentially, the judge just said, 'Trump is too famous,'" he told the Atlantic magazine in 2013. "'He's so famous that you're allowed to say anything you want about him.'"[31] No wonder Trump wants to change libel law; he doesn't understand it.

Trump later boasted to the Washington Post that he didn't mind losing after five years of litigation. "I spent a couple of bucks on legal fees but they spent a whole lot more. I did it to make [O'Brien's] life miserable, which I'm happy about."[32]

That, ladies and gentlemen, is a paradigm SLAPP lawsuit: good at harassing and draining the bank accounts of critics, but ultimately a loser in court. New Jersey does not have an anti-SLAPP statute.

[Echo4]

I appreciated the recanting on the Kenosha killer's rap sheet.   

I think an interesting thread here (a propos your poll this month) would be one devoted to the health of democracy and where diagnostic stories can be posted,  maybe call it "watching the threat of emerging dictatorship," or similar.   All posts would have to reference solidly documented cases of attacks on the constitution, especially the First Amendment, or other usurpation of the judicial or legislative branches by the executive branch.

Interesting thought.

Hey, given that we have all the space we want and are about to do housecleaning, there is no particular reason not to - and to establish the rules for it from the outset so that nobody can complain the rules changed on them (with any veracity).

I fear, though, that to even discuss the idea seriously might require that space!

We could call it...

Antifa!

(I like the idea and take it seriously, but... the notion was too hard to pass up!)

[Echo4]

[Echo4]

https://www.boston.com/news/health/2020/08/27/schools-water-legionella

Problems with the water in some schools, discovered upon reopening.

Last week in Ohio, officials found Legionella at five schools in an assortment of towns. On Friday, a district in Pennsylvania also announced it had found Legionella at four of its schools.

“It is unusual to hear about nine schools in a one-week period having a detection of Legionella,” said Andrew Whelton, an associate professor of civil, environmental and ecological engineering at Purdue University in Indiana who has been studying the effects of lockdown on water systems. He said that more schools may be testing for the bacteria than in a typical year.

In MD, some school water fountains have been closed for years because of lead.

Remember: 3000 municipalities in the United States have worse water than Flint, predominantly in areas with heavier minority presence.

[LarryBnDC]

This is gonna piss off a lot of progressives. How you gonna call Biden a ‘neo-liberal’ as an epithet?

“Once you accept that what is good for overall global growth or even for the stock market is not necessarily good for the American worker, it becomes possible to envision a form of economic nationalism that guides U.S. behavior both at home and abroad. This seems to be what Biden has in mind with his plan for a “Made in All of America” agenda. The big investments he plans in infrastructure, education, health care, and research and development would be directed to U.S. firms to create jobs at home. A “pro-American worker tax and trade strategy” would “take aggressive trade enforcement actions against China” but also eliminate tax incentives for U.S. firms to move operations overseas.”

https://foreignpolicy.com/2020/08/27/biden-is-getting-ready-to-bury-neoliberalism/

Only if they are more open to learning than their counterparts on the right.

But as I listen to some of them go through their "all the same" bullshit for the umpteenth time, I find myself reminding myself of cognitive bias and that very few people are convinced by facts.

That includes progressives and smart people.

It's really infuriating.

I was, I confess, gratified last night - a long time liberal friend had reposted the meme about Nikki Haley having changed her names (first and last) to hide her ethnicity to make it easier to get elected as a Republican.

I explained that she's had the nickname (as it were) Nikki her entire life and that she took her husband's last name, just like my wife did, just like my friend posting the meme had, and just like Hillary Clinton had.

And finally, after I pointed out that making up a story to besmirch the character of an opponent really feels like a GOP kind of thing to do, she apologized, said she didn't mean to have done that, and removed the post.

But jeeeeeeeeeeez!

I want people to look things up before posting.

I want them to at least check after the first challenge.

And I want them to retract (as I did a few hours ago on the 17 year old's supposed rap sheet) upon looking at information that demonstrates that they are wrong.

And apparently this is way too much to expect of the vast majority of humans!

ARGH!

The difference will be in the implementation of policy.

[LarryBnDC]

Republican campaign messaging




“Joe Biden is both a Washington insider and a stooge of the radical left”

“Donald Trump made America great, and only Donald Trump can save America”

[Echo4]

One of the ways to recognize an out-liar poll:

https://www.270towin.com/2020-polls-biden-trump/michigan/

The Trafalgar group overwhelmingly comes in substantially below almost everybody else. There are another couple that are with them, but so out of whack with the majority that it makes them look like they are pandering to a specific party.

[kidcarter8]

 

Huh.

I found OPERATE FIREARM WHILE INTOXICATED far more damning.

In 2016 he was 13.

Or maybe 12. And already in trouble with booze and a gun. A kid who should never have been given that gun and dropped off in the middle of conflict.

Huh.

I found OPERATE FIREARM WHILE INTOXICATED far more damning.

In 2016 he was 13.

Or maybe 12. And already in trouble with booze and a gun. A kid who should never have been given that gun and dropped off in the middle of conflict.

Exactly.
Total madness.

And irrelevant, perhaps, it turns out:

"Editor’s Note: Here is where we original (sic) posted criminal charges according to investigative reporting of Latino Empowerment Administrator Duane Bryght, but it has been pointed out that some or all of the criminal charges originally shared attributed to the Kenosha protest killer Kyle Rittenhouse actually belong to another Kyle Rittenhouse. Kyle Joseph Rittenhouse who is 31-years-old. The shooter is Kyle Howard Rittenhouse who is 17-years-old. We like to thank our readers for pointing that out to us so we can make the correction. While we pride ourselves on our research and facts we provide, it is equally important to correct what we may have occasionally gotten wrong."

Heh

Fucking ma-roons.

[NeedsAdjustments]

Heh

Fucking ma-roons.

Always interesting to see who kiidcarter8 identifies as the victim and stands up for.