Yesterday, Sunday, my wife and I drove over to Northwest River Park to go for a walk. Coming and going we passed by Hickory Ridge Farm which was having a seasonal pumpkin event. The parking lot was overflowing and the grounds were packed with families enjoying an outing. The hay rides were literally stuffed with people. Several hundred people – at least – were in attendance. A very large percentage of the people in this crowd were not wearing masks and there was zero sign of social distancing. This, IMHO, is a manifestation of the pernicious influence of Republican wishful thinking about the pandemic. It would only take a few people with the virus to turn a gathering like this into a super spreader event with dire consequences for everyone in the community. It is no wonder that the pandemic is back with a vengeance. Wishful thinking or social distancing fatigue will not make it stop.
Author: Paul Murphy
The nightmare of every Republican pol is coming to pass. Thanks Trump!
https://www.seattletimes.com/nation-world/black-americans-rush-to-polls-in-surge-of-emotion/
Building a political movement on Birtherism, race-baiting, White Supremacy and voter suppression comes with a price. The Democrats have always struggled with turnout and supporter apathy. This year, not so much. I am put in mind of Admiral Yamamoto’s remark after Pearl Harbor . . . “I fear all we have done is to awaken a sleeping giant and fill him with a terrible resolve.” So, Thanks Trump!
What should Joe Biden say about SCOTUS?
Next-President Biden has promised to say more about the future of the Supreme Court before November 3. In this essay, the author puts the question into historical context and offers some alternatives.
“Suburban women, will you please like me? I saved your damn neighborhood, OK.” – DJT
https://www.thedailybeast.com/trump-begs-suburban-women-will-you-please-like-me
My oh my. How did he do that? Easy peasy. He issued an EO that made it marginally more difficult for developers to create “low income housing” in those lovely suburbs. As he pleaded with these suburban women he went on to add that he won 52% of women in 2016. Whoops. That would be 52% of white women. Counting ALL women he was down by about 15 points.
No race-baiting by the Birther-in-chief here. Move along. Move along.
The Qanon Presidency
https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2020/10/trump-qanon-denounce/616751/
In the NBC Town Hall last night Trump tried to walk back his earlier refusal to disavow White Supremacy. Good for him. Small steps are better than none. But then, as the late Texas Governor Anne Richards might say “Bless his heart, he cannot help himself” because he went on to refuse to disavow QAnon saying only that pedophilia is bad.
So, what is Qanon?
From the Washington Post . . . “It’s a concoction of allegations against Democratic politicians, celebrities and supposed members of a “deep state” bureaucracy against whom Trump is seen as valiantly battling. Purported pedophilia rings are central to the conspiracy theory, along with Satanism and secret judicial proceedings. QAnon believers await the ‘Great Awakening,’ or the moment the general public realizes the conspiracy exists, and the ‘Storm,’ when thousands of wrongdoers face justice. “
Does Trump actually believe this bizarre and dangerous nonsense? Or does he understand his base and does not want to de-motivate them? Who knows. Either answer is bad for this country.
Fat cats tipped off. The people – not so much.
For those who cannot read the story, the gist is that at the same time that Trump was “down playing” the threat from the virus senior members of his administration gave private briefings to the Board of the conservative Hoover Institution and other major supporters that were far less sanguine. A hedge fund consultant wrote a memo about these briefings which circulated among the fat cats and fueled the sell-off that we saw.
From the article . . . “But the memo’s overarching message — that a devastating virus outbreak in the United States was increasingly likely to occur, and that government officials were more aware of the threat than they were letting on publicly— proved accurate.”
From the article . . . “traders spotted the immediate significance: The president’s aides appeared to be giving wealthy party donors an early warning of a potentially impactful contagion at a time when Mr. Trump was publicly insisting that the threat was nonexistent.”
Another MAJOR scandal in this Scandal-a-day Presidency.
Unmasked!
Another of Dear Leader’s politically motivated “investigations” of his political opponents crashes and burns. For lying liars reality is a cruel mistress. In normal times, the President using the DOJ as his opposition research arm trying to “lock up” his enemies would be the cause of a Constitutional crisis. With this jackass in the White House it is just another Ho Hum moment.
Russians? or Republicans?
Could be either behind this. Or both.
Trump picks a fight with the wrong guy.
In a typical bit of Trump’s sleazy dishonesty he has taken a snippet of video of Dr. Fauci out of context and used it in an ad to make it appear that Dr. Fauci is endorsing him. Dr. Fauci is not having it and letting anyone who will listen what he thinks of such sleazy nonsense.
Trump “cured” by murdered baby!
The irony is heavy on this one. The “miracles coming down from God” that Trump says have cured him of Covid-19 depend on research done with cells from aborted fetuses – research that Trump says he opposes and research that could become criminal if Trump’s so-called “pro-life” supporters get their way.
The headline above uses the “pro-life” term for an aborted fetus. Just one more circle for hypocrite “Christians” to try to square as they continue their Faustian bargain to get the courts to back their plans for a theocracy.
