Today, the major domestic news was last night’s Axios interview, in which reporter Jonathan Swan challenged Trump’s assertions and revealed just how shallow the president’s understanding of the pandemic, mail-in voting, and so on, really are. The interview showed little that we didn’t already know, but to see the president dismiss the 156,000 deaths from coronavirus, for example, by saying “it is what it is,” was nonetheless shocking.
The Swan interview was beyond belief, which, these days, is getting harder and harder to pull off. But the matter that really interests me -- and appalls me -- is the semi-turnabout that fearless leader made as regards mail-in voting. I say "semi" because it seems to apply only to Florida and other reliably "red" states (although FL is actually purple, and fast becoming a bluish-purple). While this is partly a move on Trump's part to retain power at all costs, it also reveals something disturbing about the Republican mindset as it currently exists.
For a Liberal Republican Democracy to persist, all sides must view the parties out of power to be "the loyal opposition." Disagreements about policy can (and should) be vehement, but those who do disagree must be acknowledged as fellow participants in a common legislative and administrative project. Otherwise you have civil war by other means: each side views the other as ILLEGITIMATE, and seeks to advance the political vision of THEIR side and its "people" only.
This was the view of the right-wing German political theorist Carl Schmitt (1888 -- 1985), who provided a neat rationale for the Nazis. For Schmitt, politics is NOT about cooperative inquiry and rational debate. It is about winning and losing, friends and enemies, and ONLY about that. It does not only permit but REQUIRES contempt for one's political opposition's legitimacy to hold and wield power. There's no sharing: it's a zero-sum, transactional game. (Essentially the ethos of the entire Trump family, excepting Mary.) What we see now is the outcome of the "Republican Revolution" of Gingrich's 1994 Congress -- a revolution of the PARTY into an ideological orthodoxy that required of its members that they fall in line, or else. We're reaping that whirlwind right now.
Trump is the perfect "politician" for these Schmittian times, regardless of his imbecility. The clearest sign of this is his (and Kushner's) abandonment of any national COVID-19 strategy when they concluded -- wrongly -- that the epidemic would be consigned to blue states. Who cares about them? They're not "our people".....
My question is: what does this do to the principle of Federalism? For New Yorkers like myself (and Californians, and Oregonians, and New Jerseyites, etc.) the Federal government has become less than useless: it is positively harmful to our health, both medical and economic. Trump and the Republicans have not only run roughshod over the Constitution and its rule of law: they've effectively undone the principle of Federalism -- that the United States not only "are" but the United States also "IS" -- and have come close to a repeat of Jefferson Davis. I am perplexed by this, and would like to know how true American Federalism can be revived, or if it is a dead letter. I am not hopeful.
<sigh> Kanye West's family speaks honestly about his mental health issues. It would be helpful if Donald Trump's family would do the same about his mental health issues.
I made myself watch all of the Axios interview, and it was horrifying. Nothing about it surprised me, but to see the bald ignorance and callousness in such an unvarnished setting was shocking. Why does he continue to expose himself like that? Does he really have nobody asking him not to talk in public?
I was upset when Kanye West announced he wanted to run for President, but not because I was afraid he would siphon off votes - it was too late for anything approaching an impactful campaign. What upset me was that Kanye was clearly not managing his bipolar disorder properly, and those around him are not doing a sufficient job of helping him manage it.
I feel the same about Trump as I do about Kanye, wishing that there was someone within his orbit who could help him manage whatever it is that is going on with him. But of course, it is exponentially worse with Trump because his cognitive decline and crippling personality disorders wreak havoc on those of us in the real world. This has to end, and those who have enabled Hurricane Trump need to experience some significant consequences for their actions and, in many instances, their inaction.
Swan's interview was unbelievable! My initial thought was gloomy: I bet that the 38% of the population that supports Trump will never watch it. My second thought was brighter: I bet every U.S. senator did (whether they will admit it or not). This has got to shake every R. senator to the core! What will this mean? How will this affect November and down-ballot voting?
I cannot imagine Trump's aides allowing another one-on-one interview -- Swan provides such a great roadmap for how to handle Trump in that situation. What does this means for the debates? Biden should be able to mop the floor as Trump's lies are always predictable and repeated. A little preparation, and boom....
It is so difficult each day to find words sufficient to express the depth of outrage and sadness at what this corrupt administration has done to our country, especially with the mishandling of the pandemic, and the enabling by the Republicans. Seeing the brief segment of him dismissing the 156,000 deaths from coronavirus by saying “it is what it is" was just surreal. What a nightmare. We must not only vote, but encourage everyone we know to also vote in less than 100 days.
This is more discouraging news about the destruction of our presumed democracy by the partisan efforts of malignant ppl protecting the oligarchy. Earlier in my history with the SSSR we were told it was a struggle between capitalism and communism and we did many destructive wars under that banner. We thot that was what Khrushchev was talking about when he said, “We will bury you.” But he didn’t say when.
So, here we are two generations later, watching the demise of our nation by the U.S. oligarchs colluding with the Russian oligarchs using their imbecile plant in the White House and their conniving operative in the Senate, dismantling all controls by putting Repugnant Partisan hacks in key positions. It looks like the plot of some spy thriller, only it is happening.
Further evidence that the Wharton professor whose class Trump AUDITED (he was too unqualified to be accepted to the school, which back then was not as selective as it is now, which says something about how unqualitied Trump was) was right when he said "Donald Trump was the dumbest freaking (only he didn't say "freaking") student who ever walked in my classroom."
As another commentator said today about the interview, Trump was the kid who wrote his book review without reading the book, and Swan was the teacher who made him get up in front of the class and read that review. Watching him stumble with his graphs - it was clear he was looking at them for the first time and trying to figure out which was what by reading the titles - was embarrassing, only exceeded by his 2 year old's whine "You can't do that!" when Swan corrected him on what the relevant death figure it (percentage of population, not percentage of cases). Calling him "dumber than a bag of rocks" is an insult to rocks.
As far as the rest of the news of the general Republican incompetence, maliciousness, mendacity and malevolence, one is reminded that President Truman was right 72 years ago when he said "The only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies."
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA), and ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Mark Warner (D-VA) were clear that foreign actors are attacking us."
"...these efforts must be deterred, disrupted and exposed,” they wrote."
So why aren't they exposing those efforts?
I would pose the same question to the 4 Democrats that I posed to my Senator, Dick Durbin who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee. I had seen him giving a speech on the Senate floor on C-SPAN claiming that his committee knew from its investigation in the run up to the Iraq Invasion that President Bush's claims that Saddam had WMD were false. In a one on one interview I asked Sen. Durbin why he had not told the American public what he knew as a member of the Intel Committee. He responded that he couldn't becuase he had taken a confidentiallity oath as a member of the committee. I asked him why his oath to the Constitution hadn't precluded or superseded any oath that required him to hide the truth from the public. He grew visibly angry and walked away without responding.
As a progressive Democrat I'm disappointed in Democrats who know the truth about Russian meddling but refuse to reveal that truth to the public while at the same time criticizing the GOP for hiding the same truth. They should honor their oath to the Constitution and tell the public what it needs to know regardless of the consequences to themselves.
Here is a direct quote from yesterday's briefing and how Donald has determined that our numbers are among the lowest in the world. He is EXCLUDING NY and NJ deaths! He is as mad as a hatter. The reporter asks the question at 20:23. Donald Responds at 20:54.
"Well, a lot of our numbers were based on the New York, had a very tough time as you know. New York, New Jersey, that area. And when you take them out, just as an example, take a look at Florida relative to New York. That's not to say anything wrong with New York. It was just a very tough place. People are close together, it's crowded. It's not easy. But when you take that out, our numbers are among the lowest."
Kayleigh McEnany is about the only thing working for Trump now. She's as good at spin as anyone I've seen. Throwing in Martha McSally's name was a clear intent to try to help her not lose in Arizona. And the usual spin blaming the Dems for not agreeing to the Republicans' bill. But we have to trust the American people, that enough have seen what they need to see. And I expect a strong turnout, no matter what Trump's minions try to do.
Trump, well, yeah, he's really losing it, and everyone on his staff is afraid to tell him not to do such stupid things as agree to these interviews, because they'll bear the brunt of his rage. So he's burning his own ship.
But the news about the Republicans excluding reporters is huge. I can't imagine they will try to run someone else, but they are cooking something. I'm curious. And there will surely be leaks. It's an interesting time, if a frustrating, enraging time watching this Republican party do all they can to destroy what they can as fast as they can.
If there's a Democrat who will not be returning to office this year, I'm all in for disclosure of the information. This is out of character for me to suggest but I am so sick of the blatant Republican disregard for the "rules." When they had the briefing that excluded Dems, that was the last straw for me. This information needs to get out!
The interview was disturbing once again! Interesting the “mail in voting” allegations are back firing. Gotta admit, kind of glad to hear it. He said when he went to Oklahoma, covid numbers were down and didn’t spike until after his rally. We teach cause and effect in elementary school! When did killing off your base become a good reelection strategy?! Thank you for all the information! Hope you can get a good restful night now!
The Swan interview was beyond belief, which, these days, is getting harder and harder to pull off. But the matter that really interests me -- and appalls me -- is the semi-turnabout that fearless leader made as regards mail-in voting. I say "semi" because it seems to apply only to Florida and other reliably "red" states (although FL is actually purple, and fast becoming a bluish-purple). While this is partly a move on Trump's part to retain power at all costs, it also reveals something disturbing about the Republican mindset as it currently exists.
For a Liberal Republican Democracy to persist, all sides must view the parties out of power to be "the loyal opposition." Disagreements about policy can (and should) be vehement, but those who do disagree must be acknowledged as fellow participants in a common legislative and administrative project. Otherwise you have civil war by other means: each side views the other as ILLEGITIMATE, and seeks to advance the political vision of THEIR side and its "people" only.
This was the view of the right-wing German political theorist Carl Schmitt (1888 -- 1985), who provided a neat rationale for the Nazis. For Schmitt, politics is NOT about cooperative inquiry and rational debate. It is about winning and losing, friends and enemies, and ONLY about that. It does not only permit but REQUIRES contempt for one's political opposition's legitimacy to hold and wield power. There's no sharing: it's a zero-sum, transactional game. (Essentially the ethos of the entire Trump family, excepting Mary.) What we see now is the outcome of the "Republican Revolution" of Gingrich's 1994 Congress -- a revolution of the PARTY into an ideological orthodoxy that required of its members that they fall in line, or else. We're reaping that whirlwind right now.
Trump is the perfect "politician" for these Schmittian times, regardless of his imbecility. The clearest sign of this is his (and Kushner's) abandonment of any national COVID-19 strategy when they concluded -- wrongly -- that the epidemic would be consigned to blue states. Who cares about them? They're not "our people".....
My question is: what does this do to the principle of Federalism? For New Yorkers like myself (and Californians, and Oregonians, and New Jerseyites, etc.) the Federal government has become less than useless: it is positively harmful to our health, both medical and economic. Trump and the Republicans have not only run roughshod over the Constitution and its rule of law: they've effectively undone the principle of Federalism -- that the United States not only "are" but the United States also "IS" -- and have come close to a repeat of Jefferson Davis. I am perplexed by this, and would like to know how true American Federalism can be revived, or if it is a dead letter. I am not hopeful.
<sigh> Kanye West's family speaks honestly about his mental health issues. It would be helpful if Donald Trump's family would do the same about his mental health issues.
I made myself watch all of the Axios interview, and it was horrifying. Nothing about it surprised me, but to see the bald ignorance and callousness in such an unvarnished setting was shocking. Why does he continue to expose himself like that? Does he really have nobody asking him not to talk in public?
I was upset when Kanye West announced he wanted to run for President, but not because I was afraid he would siphon off votes - it was too late for anything approaching an impactful campaign. What upset me was that Kanye was clearly not managing his bipolar disorder properly, and those around him are not doing a sufficient job of helping him manage it.
I feel the same about Trump as I do about Kanye, wishing that there was someone within his orbit who could help him manage whatever it is that is going on with him. But of course, it is exponentially worse with Trump because his cognitive decline and crippling personality disorders wreak havoc on those of us in the real world. This has to end, and those who have enabled Hurricane Trump need to experience some significant consequences for their actions and, in many instances, their inaction.
Swan's interview was unbelievable! My initial thought was gloomy: I bet that the 38% of the population that supports Trump will never watch it. My second thought was brighter: I bet every U.S. senator did (whether they will admit it or not). This has got to shake every R. senator to the core! What will this mean? How will this affect November and down-ballot voting?
I cannot imagine Trump's aides allowing another one-on-one interview -- Swan provides such a great roadmap for how to handle Trump in that situation. What does this means for the debates? Biden should be able to mop the floor as Trump's lies are always predictable and repeated. A little preparation, and boom....
It is so difficult each day to find words sufficient to express the depth of outrage and sadness at what this corrupt administration has done to our country, especially with the mishandling of the pandemic, and the enabling by the Republicans. Seeing the brief segment of him dismissing the 156,000 deaths from coronavirus by saying “it is what it is" was just surreal. What a nightmare. We must not only vote, but encourage everyone we know to also vote in less than 100 days.
This is more discouraging news about the destruction of our presumed democracy by the partisan efforts of malignant ppl protecting the oligarchy. Earlier in my history with the SSSR we were told it was a struggle between capitalism and communism and we did many destructive wars under that banner. We thot that was what Khrushchev was talking about when he said, “We will bury you.” But he didn’t say when.
So, here we are two generations later, watching the demise of our nation by the U.S. oligarchs colluding with the Russian oligarchs using their imbecile plant in the White House and their conniving operative in the Senate, dismantling all controls by putting Repugnant Partisan hacks in key positions. It looks like the plot of some spy thriller, only it is happening.
I found this opinion piece interesting especially since there has been discussion here about what we can do.
Don’t Believe the Lie That Voting Is All You Can Do https://nyti.ms/3fqA3EG
I also have to remind myself that giving up means "they" have won. Which is part of the strategy...
Further evidence that the Wharton professor whose class Trump AUDITED (he was too unqualified to be accepted to the school, which back then was not as selective as it is now, which says something about how unqualitied Trump was) was right when he said "Donald Trump was the dumbest freaking (only he didn't say "freaking") student who ever walked in my classroom."
As another commentator said today about the interview, Trump was the kid who wrote his book review without reading the book, and Swan was the teacher who made him get up in front of the class and read that review. Watching him stumble with his graphs - it was clear he was looking at them for the first time and trying to figure out which was what by reading the titles - was embarrassing, only exceeded by his 2 year old's whine "You can't do that!" when Swan corrected him on what the relevant death figure it (percentage of population, not percentage of cases). Calling him "dumber than a bag of rocks" is an insult to rocks.
As far as the rest of the news of the general Republican incompetence, maliciousness, mendacity and malevolence, one is reminded that President Truman was right 72 years ago when he said "The only 'good Republicans' are pushing up daisies."
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA), Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY), House Intelligence Committee Chair Adam Schiff (D-CA), and ranking member of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Mark Warner (D-VA) were clear that foreign actors are attacking us."
"...these efforts must be deterred, disrupted and exposed,” they wrote."
So why aren't they exposing those efforts?
I would pose the same question to the 4 Democrats that I posed to my Senator, Dick Durbin who sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee. I had seen him giving a speech on the Senate floor on C-SPAN claiming that his committee knew from its investigation in the run up to the Iraq Invasion that President Bush's claims that Saddam had WMD were false. In a one on one interview I asked Sen. Durbin why he had not told the American public what he knew as a member of the Intel Committee. He responded that he couldn't becuase he had taken a confidentiallity oath as a member of the committee. I asked him why his oath to the Constitution hadn't precluded or superseded any oath that required him to hide the truth from the public. He grew visibly angry and walked away without responding.
As a progressive Democrat I'm disappointed in Democrats who know the truth about Russian meddling but refuse to reveal that truth to the public while at the same time criticizing the GOP for hiding the same truth. They should honor their oath to the Constitution and tell the public what it needs to know regardless of the consequences to themselves.
Here is a direct quote from yesterday's briefing and how Donald has determined that our numbers are among the lowest in the world. He is EXCLUDING NY and NJ deaths! He is as mad as a hatter. The reporter asks the question at 20:23. Donald Responds at 20:54.
"Well, a lot of our numbers were based on the New York, had a very tough time as you know. New York, New Jersey, that area. And when you take them out, just as an example, take a look at Florida relative to New York. That's not to say anything wrong with New York. It was just a very tough place. People are close together, it's crowded. It's not easy. But when you take that out, our numbers are among the lowest."
Link to transcript & recording
https://www.rev.com/transcript-editor/shared/yBrcQgO3CZ8_KIPB_U87qU_0wMtuqvqwD935feRz180jmOeq2ANxJZ16htl219NDAW9REU8kv2ONDzIh7_mQB3ACa0I?loadFrom=PastedDeeplink&ts=1254.19
Kayleigh McEnany is about the only thing working for Trump now. She's as good at spin as anyone I've seen. Throwing in Martha McSally's name was a clear intent to try to help her not lose in Arizona. And the usual spin blaming the Dems for not agreeing to the Republicans' bill. But we have to trust the American people, that enough have seen what they need to see. And I expect a strong turnout, no matter what Trump's minions try to do.
Trump, well, yeah, he's really losing it, and everyone on his staff is afraid to tell him not to do such stupid things as agree to these interviews, because they'll bear the brunt of his rage. So he's burning his own ship.
But the news about the Republicans excluding reporters is huge. I can't imagine they will try to run someone else, but they are cooking something. I'm curious. And there will surely be leaks. It's an interesting time, if a frustrating, enraging time watching this Republican party do all they can to destroy what they can as fast as they can.
Dem Senators need to grow a pair and tell Americans what Russia is doing for trump in 2020 election!
Trump is anti-Yosemitic
If there's a Democrat who will not be returning to office this year, I'm all in for disclosure of the information. This is out of character for me to suggest but I am so sick of the blatant Republican disregard for the "rules." When they had the briefing that excluded Dems, that was the last straw for me. This information needs to get out!
That Axios' interview was epic! Worth the money I pay for HBO 😊
The interview was disturbing once again! Interesting the “mail in voting” allegations are back firing. Gotta admit, kind of glad to hear it. He said when he went to Oklahoma, covid numbers were down and didn’t spike until after his rally. We teach cause and effect in elementary school! When did killing off your base become a good reelection strategy?! Thank you for all the information! Hope you can get a good restful night now!