Friday, August 28, 2020
Thursday, August 27, 2020
Biden Maintains Lead - Democratic Party Has Slight Lead
The charts above are from the new Economist / YouGov Poll -- done between August 23rd and 25th of a national sample of 1,254 registered voters, with a 3.6 point margin of error.
They show Biden is maintaining his lead over Trump. Will Trump get a bump out of the convention this week? I doubt it. I think most voters have already made up their minds.
The charts below show that the Democratic Party is preferred over the Republican Party by a small margin.
17 Year-Old White Militia Member Arrested For Murder
From Vice.com:
A 17-year-old aspiring cop has been arrested and charged with first-degree murder for his alleged role in a shooting during a protest in Kenosha, Wisconsin, on Tuesday night that left two dead and one injured.
The suspect was identified as Kyle Rittenhouse, of Lake County, Illinois. Prosecutors in Lake County filed the charges at noon Wednesday, and labelled him a fugitive who “fled the state of Wisconsin with intent to avoid prosecution for that offense.”
Tuesday was the third consecutive night of angry protests in Kenosha since police shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, leaving him paralyzed.
Rittenhouse, clad in a green t-shirt, a cap emblazoned with an American flag, and carrying an assault rifle, was seen on video at various points of the night. In several graphic videos, he’s seen opening fire on protesters; one was shot in the head, another in the chest. The victim who survived was shot in the arm.
While it’s not immediately clear why Rittenhouse, a former police cadet, was at the protest, his social media indicates an affiliation with “Back the Blue,” a pro-police movement. In recent months, pro-cop vigilantes have been showing up heavily armed at protests across the country to defend public property, often warmly received by local law enforcement.
Police interacted with the alleged gunman at various locations in Kenosha throughout the night. In one video, Rittenhouse is seen chatting with police who gave him a bottle of water and thanked him for being there.
Not A Convention - A Festival Of Lies By Trump Sycophants
It really seems more like a cult (or a sick and perverted fan club) meeting to praise its leader -- telling lie after lie to keep "dear leader" happy. Reality and facts are not present, and aren't wanted. Facts are not needed by these sycophants, or their leader.
Here's part of how Ezra Klein puts it at Vox.com:
“If you really want to drive them crazy, you say ‘12 more years,’” Trump said as he opened the convention. The crowd happily chanted “12 more years.” It drove me a little crazy, but mostly left me tired. It’s a performance of provocation hiding a convention that had nothing to say, only enemies to fight, social changes to fear.
What is there to say upon hearing Trump described as “the bodyguard of Western civilization?” It’s not an argument so much as a loyalty oath, an offering cut from the speaker’s dignity and burnt for the pleasure of the Dear Leader himself. But the outrageousness is the point. Protest and you’re triggered — just another oversensitive lib who can’t take a joke. Ignore it and you’re complicit. To care is to lose.
The Republican Party on display Monday night didn’t represent an ideology or a governing agenda. It was a personality cult, and a tired one at that. Republicans, in a break with tradition, refused to write a party platform. They chose, instead, to recycle their 2016 platform. But the delegates agreed that if they had met to fashion an actual agenda, they “would have undoubtedly unanimously agreed to reassert the Party’s strong support for President Donald Trump and his Administration,” and as such, “the Republican Party has and will continue to enthusiastically support the President’s America-first agenda.”
They also called “on the media to engage in accurate and unbiased reporting, especially as it relates to the strong support of the RNC for President Trump and his Administration.” And here, I want to fulfill their request: The RNC’s support for President Trump and his administration could not possibly be stronger. I have covered American politics for two decades and never have I seen a party more ferociously committed to supporting whatever it is their leader tells them to support.
The problem for Republicans is that the main thing Trump has told them to support is himself. There are no detailed policy proposals, much less a coherent ideology or set of governing principles. And so speech after speech followed the same template: How was America going to stop the coronavirus? By reelecting Donald Trump. How was it going to revive its economy? By reelecting Donald Trump. How was it going to ensure domestic harmony? By reelecting Donald Trump.
The contradiction at the heart of the convention, of course, is that Donald Trump is currently president. I’m dead serious. How would reelecting Trump resolve these crises that Trump has proven unable to resolve — and has, in many cases, worsened — in office? No one even took a shot at that Rubik’s cube. Instead, the speakers awkwardly talked around the fact of Trump’s incumbency. He was presented, strangely, as both incumbent and challenger; the man who had fixed America’s problems, but also the man needed to fix an America beset by more problems than ever. . . .
The falsehoods flew thick. . . .
The core of Trump’s agenda has always been untethering American politics from factual reality, and among Republicans, at least, he’s been startlingly successful. The convention is a loyalty test for Republicans, and a reality check for the rest of us.
Wednesday, August 26, 2020
Sick And Tired Of Racism And Racial Injustice
If this was an isolated incident, we could talk about "bad apples" among our police and expect city, state, and federal officials to remedy the situation. But it is not an isolated incident -- there have been multiple incidents of unnecessary and unjustified police violence across this nation. And politicians (especially Republicans) at every level have shown us they don't want to deal with the issue.
It brings to mind the quote from activist and American hero Fannie Lou Hamer. She said, "I'm sick and tired of being sick and tired". I understand. We should all be sick and tired of being sick and tired, because we have seen the racism and injustice in this country for far too long.
On Monday night at the Republican convention, former GOP governor Nikki Haley said the United States is not a racist nation. She was lying, and trying to cover up the GOP's refusal to address the issues of racism and injustice in this country.
Let me be clear -- there is no justification for shooting an unarmed person (in the back or anywhere else). And those who try to justify it are wrong. This is happening far too often to Blacks in the United States, and whether we want to admit it or not, it is largely due to the racism that pervades this country. It exists in our police and it exists in our justice system -- and sadly it exists in all of our social institutions (educational, business, government, etc.).
It is time for all Americans to be sick and tired of the racism and injustice in this country. It is time for action. We cannot be silent on this issue, because silence is helping only the racists. We must vote any politician out of office who refuses to deal with these issues. But we must do more. We must make sure there is no racism in our own actions -- and we must object to family and friends who speak or act in a racist way. And we must realize that all of our fellow citizens, regardless of the color of their skin, are our brothers and sisters. Nothing will change until we make it change.
If you aren't already sick and tired, then it's time you got sick and tired!
Biden Maintains A 10 Point Lead Over Trump
The chart above is from the Morning Consult Poll -- done between August 21st and 23rd of a national sample of 1,992 registered voters, with a 2 point margin of error.
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