D.C. Residents Oppose Trump Takeover - Say It Won't Reduce Violent Crime

 

The charts above reflects the results of the Washington Post / Schar School of Public Policy at George Mason University Poll -- done between August 14th and 17th of 604 Washington D.C. adults, with a 4.1 point margin of error.

Takeover Of D.C. Police Is Political Theater (To Distract From Economy And Epstein)

Paul Krugman on Trump's latest bit of political theater:

Ever since that latest weak jobs report, Trump has been frantically trying to convince the American public that the economy is doing great. He is failing, and predictably so. Experience shows that trying to talk up the economy when people don’t perceive it as good never works, even if the data are favorable. It’s even less likely to work when the data actually aren’t good.

On the other hand, telling people things are bad even when they’re actually good canwork. This is sometimes true when it comes to the economy. It’s definitely true when we’re talking about crime.

In his press conference announcing that he was seizing power in the District of Columbia, Trump declared that

"Our capital city has been overtaken by violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged out maniacs and homeless people."

The media were in general pretty good at pointing out that crime in DC has in fact been falling rapidly. According to the U.S. attorney’s office, violent crime is at a 30-year low.

But will Trump be universally ridiculed for his absurd claims? Will people understand that what we’re seeing, aside from an attempt to seize even more power, is an attempt to change the subject from the weakening economy and the Epstein affair?

I’m not sure.

Residents of DC will surely notice that Trump’s description of a violence-ridden dystopia bears no resemblance to the city they actually inhabit. But we know that crime is an issue on which people tend to believe that things are getting worse even when they are getting markedly better.

One possible answer is that there are lies, damned lies and statistics. Maybe official crime numbers are, as Trump would say, RIGGED — although that would be really hard to do with murders, which are kind of hard either to fabricate or to conceal, and have fallen even more than overall crime. Or maybe people’s lived experience just doesn’t match what the crime data say.

part of the answer is that many Americans believe that crime is running rampant — just not where they happen to live. Fox News tells suburban and small-town Americans that New York and Los Angeles are crime-ridden hellscapes, and they believe it.

According to Gallup, last year 56 percent of Americans believed that crime in the United States was an extremely or very serious problem — but only 14 percent said it was an extremely or very serious problem “in the area where you live.”

Anyone who either lives there are looks at crime data knows that this is malicious nonsense. But we can’t take it for granted that the rest of the country will understand that that he’s lying.

And if I may say, it’s the responsibility of the news media to make that clear. Don’t say “Trump makes contentious claims about DC crime.” Don’t say that there’s “dispute over DC crime data.” Just say that he’s lying. 

D.C. Mayor Sends Donald Trump A Bold Message

From NBC News:

District of Columbia Mayor Muriel Bowser on Friday had "Black Lives Matter" painted on the street that leads to the White House where protesters have been demonstrating following George Floyd’s death in police custody.

"There was a dispute this week about whose street this is," John Falcicchio, chief of staff for Bowser, a Democrat, said in a tweet. "Mayor Bowser wanted to make it abundantly clear that this is DC's street and to honor demonstrators who (were) peacefully protesting on Monday evening."

People were seen painting the words "Black Lives Matter" on Friday morning in large block letters in yellow across 16th street, which leads to Lafayette Square and the White House.

Bowser tweeted later in the morning that that particular section of 16th Street has been renamed "Black Lives Matter Plaza.". . .

This comes several days after Trump ordered the U.S. Park Police and National Guard troops forcefully removed demonstrators who were peacefully protesting outside the White House on Monday evening. The crowd was dispersed so Trump could walk out of the White House to St. John’s Episcopal Church for a photo-op in which he held up a Bible.

Bowser blasted Trump for what occurred, tweeting, "I imposed a curfew at 7 pm. A full 25 minutes before the curfew & w/o provocation, federal police used munitions on peaceful protestors in front of the White House, an act that will make the job of@DCPoliceDept officers more difficult. Shameful! DC residents — Go home. Be safe."

The painting of the phrase Black Lives Matter came as Bowser shared a letter addressed to Trump from Thursday in which she requested that he withdraw "all extraordinary federal law enforcement and military presence from Washington, D.C." now that she has ended the state of emergency for the city and the Metropolitan Police Department didn't make any arrests on Wednesday night.

Clinton Wins The Last Primary (D.C.) By A Huge Margin

The primary season is over. On Tuesday night, the District of Columbia held its Democratic primary, and they had the last scheduled primary.

As expected, it was a very good night for Hillary Clinton. She won the primary 79% to 21% for Bernie Sanders -- a whopping 58 point margin of victory. That will propel her to the Democratic National Convention, which she will enter as the presumptive nominee -- and exit as the official nominee for president of the Democratic Party.

Here is the current Bloomberg Politics delegate count for Clinton and Sanders:

PLEDGED DELEGATES

Clinton...............2219
Sanders...............1832
difference...............387

TOTAL DELEGATES

Clinton...............2800
Sanders...............1881
difference...............919

It takes 2383 delegates to secure the nomination, which means Clinton now has 417 delegates more than is necessary to to be the party's nominee.

Some die-hard Sanders supporters are still hoping 418 super delegates will change their support from Clinton to Sanders. That is NOT going to happen, and there is no reason why it should. Clinton won the most primaries/caucuses, the most votes, and the most pledged delegates. It would subvert the will of the people to deny her the nomination.

It's time now to unify, and make sure Donald Trump is defeated in November -- and I expect Sanders to join that effort very soon now.

Majority In U.S. Still Wants Marijuana Legalized

On election day, the number of states that have voted to legalize marijuana doubled -- as Oregon and Alaska join Colorado and Washington in legalizing the recreational use and possession of marijuana for adults. The District of Columbia also voted to legalize the gentle herb, but it wouldn't surprise me to see the Republican Congress overturn the will of the people in D.C.

And there's a good chance that some other states will soon follow suit, since a majority of Americans nationally still support legalization. It will probably be states from either the East or the West, since 57% of the people in those regions support it. It will probably take a little long for voters in the South (47%) and Midwest (45%) to get on board.

The chart above was made from information in a recent Gallup Poll -- done between October 12th and 15th of a random national sample of 1,017 adults, with a 4 point margin of error.

Should The District Of Columbia Be Granted Statehood ?

These charts were made from information in a new YouGov Poll -- done on September 18th and 19th of a random national sample of 1,000 adults, with a margin of error of about 4 points.

More than 649,000 people live in the District of Columbia, but they have no voting representation in Congress. They have no senators, and only one representative (Eleanor Holmes Norton) who cannot vote. That means there are well over half a million Americans living here in the continental United States without any congressional representation.

This brings up the question of whether the District of Columbia should be granted statehood status. That would give them two voting senators and one voting representative -- just like other small states. Unfortunately, Americans don't seem to want D.C. to become a state. Only 27% said they should be a state, while 49% said they should not (and the other 24% didn't know what to think). And when the poll was broken down demographically, only three groups had a plurality in favor of statehood (Blacks, Hispanics, and Democrats) -- while no group had a majority favoring statehood. Meanwhile, six groups had a majority opposing statehood (men, 45 to 64 year-olds, those 65 and over, Whites, Independents, and Republicans).

This seems a little strange to me -- especially for a country that started it's war for independence with the phrase "No Taxation Without Representation". Do the American people no longer believe as their Founding Fathers did? Is taxation without representation only bad when done by the British, and perfectly OK when done by the American government? The citizens of the District of Columbia certainly have to pay the same federal taxes that all other Americans have to pay, so why is it OK for them to have no congressional representation?

I can understand why the Republicans would oppose statehood for the District of Columbia. They know the district would likely elect minority senators and a representative -- and they would probably be Democrats, since the Republican Party has become a haven for racists that continues to harbor anti-minority policies. But why would other groups deny one of the basic tenets of our Founding Fathers -- a tenet that was a primary cause of our own war for independence? Does that even make sense?