Mr. trump declares war.

 The trump plan is almost complete. America is heading for a race war, and there seems to be nothing we can do to stop it. 

I watched trump 's speech last night, and as usual he was a garbled and unfocused mess with his delivery. But the overall message and the imagery was clear: This is the new fascist America. All those flags, and the straight up disregard for the law by holding his rally on the lawn of the house that belongs to the American people, was all the proof you needed to see that America is heading to a dangerous place. 

Make no mistake, folks, this is not normal. Sadly, because it's trump, there is no outrage left in us. He has shattered all norms of a decent and law abiding society. 

This is all ironic, of course, because trump's new message is that he is the law and order candidate protecting "decent and God fearing" white folks from marauding mobs of brown people and anarchist. If you listen to all the pundits it will work, because they are white themselves and they know a good strategy to reach white folks when they see it. They are telling Joe Biden that he needs a Sistah Souljah moment to put the left flank of his party in check. 

This is how it has been in America over the last few election cycles. The republicans embrace the far-right, and no one blinks an eye. The democratic party, on the other hand, is called on to put the left wing of their party in check. 

I don't believe all the polls that show Joe Biden up by ten points. trump supporters don't tell pollsters the truth when it comes to their support for Mr. trump. trump's white nationalist message resonates with a lot of them, even though they would never admit it in decent company. This eleIction will be very close. And that's shocking given all that we have seen and heard from Mr. trump over the past three and a half years. 

If Mr. trump does happen to win, I am not sure how my life will change but it could change for a lot of black and brown person who is not as fortunate as I am. Mr. trump will get to appoint two and maybe three justices to the Supreme Court. As someone whose job it is to study the law, I am here to tell you that's a very big deal. 

Of course this all won't matter if America self-destructs as some expect it to do.

"Racism has not been as virulent throughout America since the Civil War, with short fuses burning on a thousand powder kegs. We have seen our greatest law enforcement agency, the FBI, sit for weeks in a stalemate with a small Montana cult, the Freemen, whose leaders preach that the descendants of northern Europeans are "God's chosen people," that Jews are "the children of Satan," and that African Americans and other people of color are by nature dumb and immoral.

We see the Freemen and other hate groups like the Aryan Nation, the skinheads, the Ku Klux Klan, and assorted militias piling up arms for what they say is a coming race war in America that will precede the return of Christ.

These are the adherents of a "Christian Identity" movement whose, followers refuse to pay governmental levies, but collect taxes themselves. They rake in millions through extortion, the widespread use of bogus checks and phony credit cards, and simple extortion.

But local law enforcers and even the FBI are afraid to tangle with them, wary since their disastrous confrontations with the David Koresh cult in Waco, Texas, and the Randy Weaver group at Ruby Ridge in Idaho.

Official, open coddling of these groups pretty much ensures that the race war these white supremacists predict will really come.

I know that these harsh judgments about America as it nears the turn of the century are not what most Americans want to hear. In the wake of the fall of the "Evil Empire" that was the old Soviet Union, with the still-limited development of China and the Third World, and the starkly limited hegemony of European and other "first world" nations, Americans prefer to boast that the United States is the last of the great powers. As proof we cite our nuclear arsenals and the fact that we have the only quick-strike forces capable of moving into Bosnia, Africa, and the Middle East, to wage war or peace, within hours of a White House go-ahead to strike. We like to boast of our economic might, even though we've seen a frightful decline in good, high-paying jobs. We like to think that we are the world's cultural giant because our movies and music, our top television shows, are coveted the world over, this much to the dismay of foreign leaders who think the cultural fare that we export carries the seeds of national destruction.

So much of what Americans boast about nowadays is superficial, even delusionary. Look below the surface. I have done so and concluded that this country, for which I have fought in war and peace, is in precipitous decline. The leaders of Rome, Greece, the Third Reich, the British Empire, never saw the onset of decadence and internal rot in time; we can, and we must, if the United States is not to succumb to its internal hatreds and moral excesses, to be consumed by its own self-destruction. "

-Carl T Rowan-

I'm here to tell you that "harsh judgments about America is exactly what need to hear right now. 

Another one.

Kenosha Wisconsin has been trending on twitter for the past couple of days, and it has nothing to do with cheese. 

Sadly, once again, another black man was shot and killed by a police officer acting on behalf of the state. This one, like so many state killings before it, were caught on video. You will be hearing the name of Jacob Blake a lot over the next few days, because he was the young man who found himself catching seven bullets in the back from an officer's gun. What's particularly sad about this case is that his three children actually witnessed the shooting. 

I am going to repeat this: Running away from the police (unless you are putting the lives of others in serious danger) should not be a death sentence. It just shouldn't. 

Mr. Blake was fortunate enough to survive the shooting, but we are hearing now that he will most likely never walk again. Seven shots in the back will do that to you. But properly trained police officers would not have felt the need to fire seven shots point blank range into the back of someone who was walking away from you. 

I can't say this enough. Police officers have a tough job. I say this because I know a lot of them, and I deal with them professionally on a regular basis. They themselves will tell you that proper training and screening is essential for them to do their jobs in the right way. When bad apples slip through the cracks the effects are devastating for them, and for society as a whole. Particularly communities of color. 

Let's hope that this family in Wisconsin gets some justice. 

Finally, I am not sure how many of you saw the republican convention kick off last night. There was a lot of screaming, and hate filled rants about America going to hell thanks to the democrats and their socialist pals. They talked a lot about riots and looting in the streets, and the need to take back the cities from the democrats and their brown friends. 

This is all ironic, because just today armed militias stormed the Idaho state House of Representatives and attacked police officers in the process. This is similar to what armed right wingers did in Michigan recently. 

Of course I am pretty sure that we will not be hearing anything about this at the republican convention. Why? Because the people attacking the police with weapons are their ideological soulmates who happen to have the right skin tone. 

Photo by: Brandon Bell, Getty Images for USA Today. 

 

Caption Sunday.

 

I need a caption for this picture. 

 

Stocking the swamp.

 I was talking to a friend of mine today who happens to be black and works in law enforcement, and she told me in no uncertain terms that she was going to vote for Donald trump. Of course I wanted to know why. "A black person supporting Donald trump? Isn't that like a Turkey supporting Thanksgiving?" I was serious. I just couldn't understand that line of thinking. She then proceeded to tell me how the democrats want to defund police departments, how Donald trump is a friend of law enforcement, and how Joe Biden will cuddle criminals. I tried to explain and reason with her, but I could tell it was too late. The trump propaganda machine had already done it's job. 

Of course this young lady worked in law enforcement, and trump's us against them campaign has her thinking that as a law enforcement official she has to ride with team trump or lose her way of making a living. 

The irony of all this, of course, is that Donald trump is the most lawless president in the history of the United States. Just look at the people he surrounded himself with during his rise to power. Most of them are either in jail, served time in jail, or pled to crimes they committed. 

Today, yet another one of trump's cohorts was charged with a crime. 

"Washington — Former White House adviser Stephen Bannon has pleaded not guilty to charges of wire fraud and money laundering Thursday, after federal prosecutors in New York announced that Bannon and three others were indicted for allegedly defrauding donors to a $25 million fundraising campaign to build a wall along the southern border. 

Acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Audrey Strauss said Bannon, Brian Kolfage, Andrew Badolato and Timothy Shea were arrested Thursday morning. Bannon was taken into custody by agents from the U.S. Postal Service off the coast of Connecticut on a 152-foot yacht registered to exiled Chinese billionaire Guo Wengui, law enforcement sources said. The indictment was unsealed Thursday morning. 

Bannon was released on $5 million bond Thursday afternoon, and must forfeit his passport. He can only travel to D.C., Maryland, Connecticut for work, and the Eastern and Southern district of New York."

It doesn't get anymore swampy than this, folks. Defrauding donors who wanted to build a wall because their political leader told them that it was the thing to do. 

Today Mr. trump denied knowing of the scheme, but I am sure we will soon learn that he is lying. It fits his modus operandi. We will see how far he throws Mr. Bannon under the bus. Or, if as he did with Roger Stone, he promises him  pardon if he is convicted.

"I haven’t been dealing with him at all. I know nothing about the project other than I didn’t like what I read about it,” Trump said. “I thought that was a project that was being done for showboating reasons. I don’t know that he was in charge. I didn’t know any of the other people either, but it’s sad. It’s very sad.”

After that, a reporter confronted Trump with a list of his former allies and campaign officials who have been convicted for criminal conduct over the course of his presidency. Specifically, the president was asked “what’s it say about your judgment” that he has a “culture of lawlessness” surrounding himself.

Trump dodged the question at first to speak about “the great lawlessness in the Obama administration,” but then he went back to stress that he was not involved in Bannon’s crowdfunding campaign. He went on to claim “we built a very powerful wall,” continued to disown Bannon’s campaign, and said the wall should be made by the government rather than a privately financed endeavor."

That didn't take long. 

 

Birtherism=Racism.

Now this from Oliver Contreras writing for Mother Jones:

It's all about the birtherism stupid.

"President Trump is back on his birtherism bullshit.

At his Thursday afternoon press conference, a reporter asked if he thought Sen. Kamala Harris met the legal requirements to run for vice president. “I heard today that she doesn’t meet the requirements,” Trump responded, adding that he’d look into it.

'Holy shit. Trump pushes a baseless, birther-style theory about Kamala Harris that holds she's not a citizen because birthright citizenship isn't a thing.

"I just heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements … I have no idea if that's right."' pic.twitter.com/ZIXYrleuVf

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) August 13, 2020

Before we get into this, let’s be clear: Harris was born in Oakland, California.

But an opinion article in Newsweek written by the law professor John Eastman spurred the social media frenzy leading to this moment. In the article, Eastman uses discredited theories to suggest that Harris would be ineligible for the vice presidency because her parents were not naturalized citizens at the time of her birth.

Trump could have simply shot this down. Keep in mind that in 2008, when a woman at a campaign event called Barack Obama an “Arab”—a notion Trump helped spread— John McCain snatched the microphone from the woman’s hand and said, “No ma’am. He’s a decent family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues, and that’s what this campaign is all about.”

But, Trump being Trump, the president opted to fan the conspiratorial flames.

“The lawyer that wrote that piece is a very highly qualified, very talented lawyer,” he began, never confirming the theory explicitly but not discounting it, either.

Eastman is not, in fact, the man Trump describes. As my colleague Pema Levy wrote in 2018, he is a member of a group of extreme theorists about citizenship:

The [14th amendment] states, ‘All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States.” The condition “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” is widely understood as a narrow carve-out for the children of foreign diplomats, enemy combatants on US soil, and American Indian tribes. But according to Eastman, “subject to the jurisdiction thereof” actually means that in addition to being born in the United States, a child must have at least one parent who owes allegiance to the US government by being a permanent legal resident­…

Scholars on both sides of the aisle have pushed back against this idea. Garrett Epps, a liberal constitutional scholar, wrote in The Atlantic in July, “Erler’s work is, at best, scholarly malpractice. Anton’s reliance on this work is the constitutional equivalent of flat-earthism.” The congressional record, Epps argues, clearly shows that the members of Congress who wrote the 14th Amendment intended for it to include anyone born in the United States, with only narrow exceptions including the children of diplomats.

In Eastman’s hands, a faux nitpicking of legal theory provides a decoy for racism.

'White supremacy is a belief system based on the idea that ppl of color, esp Black ppl, are fundamentally illegitimate as equal citizens or human beings.

Calling into question the citizenship of elected officials of color, esp when the answer is obvious, is one way it manifests.'

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) August 13, 2020

The man who jumpstarted his political career by claiming President Obama was not born in the United States couldn’t resist. “You’re saying that she doesn’t qualify because she wasn’t born in this country?” Trump said.

“She was born in this country,” the reporter clarified, “but the claims say that her parents did not receive their permanent residence at that time.”

“I don’t know about it,” Trump said. “I just heard about it. I’ll take a look.”

It’s not that hard to simply not engage in conspiracy theories—for anyone other than Trump."

Sadly, trump's racism and his racist conspiracy theories have rubbed off on many of his supporters. 

"Trump national delegate “Damn” Dean Peterson defended a racist post that referred to Senator Kamala Harris as “Aunt Jemima” by arguing that believing others would see the post as racist is “racist within itself.”

Peterson spoke at a Luray Town Council meeting this week in defense of Republican Mayor Barry Presgraves, who faces calls for his resignation after he posted a racist meme that read “Joe Biden has just announced Aunt Jemima as his VP pick” a few weeks ago.

A MAGA-hatted Peterson introduced himself as “Damn Dean Peterson,” and began by boasting “I am also an elected national delegate to elect President Donald Trump to a second term of office. Of which I have done and gotten my name known within the 6th congressional district by outing unethical behavior and conduct by those in power and making sure they are held accountable when it comes time to vote. Of which I took care of another one on Saturday.”

“This is what I do because our Bible is at the ballot box against socialism, which is vile evil, which goes along with identity politics, which is nothing but racist thinking from within itself,” he continued, then added “When you subdivide and categorize citizens by the color of their skin it is racist. And to assume that everyone who would see that post would think it’s racist is racist within itself.” [Source] 

You read that correctly. To call out racism in trump's America means that you are in fact the racist. 

It's Kamala.

After all the waiting and suspense, Uncle Joe gave us Kamala as his Robin. (I see you Bison Nation) As a first generation Jamaican, I couldn't be more thrilled that a yawdie, once again, is in the national spotlight. For the record, the lady who was by all accounts the runner-up, also has Jamaican roots. (Shout out to Susan Rice.) 

Anywhoo, Mr. trump and his crew are going crazy in their efforts to tarnish Harris, and they have been doing a terrible job of finding a cohesive message to attack her with. They have called her everything from a left wing radical to being too tough on crime when she was a prosecutor. Mr. trump, in just a couple of days, has called her nasty, horrible, mean spirited, disrespectful, and just about every other name in the book. All of that pales in comparison to what he did today: Revived his racist birther attack.

In his press conference this evening, Mr. trump told the American people that Harris might not be eligible to be the Vice President of these Divided States of America because she is an anchor baby or some such foolishness. For the record, Harris was born in Oakland, California. The problem for trump and his supporters is that she was not born with the right skin color. And so, as we did with former president Obama, we have to live through this racist birther foolishness. This is the female version.

“I heard it today that she doesn’t meet the requirements, and by the way the lawyer who wrote the piece is highly qualified, very talented,” Trump said in his coronavirus press conference. He was referring to a Newsweek column in which conservative law professor John Eastman claimed that Harris may not be considered a natural-born citizen — a requirement for those at the top of the ballot — because of what he calls the original understanding of the citizenship clause of the 14th Amendment. As Axios notes, “Eastman’s view on birthright citizenship and presidential eligibility is not accepted by constitutional law scholars.”

Of course most of us would   have been shocked if Mr. trump did what every other decent human being would have done, and told the reporter that the whole idea of Harris not being eligible to be VP was both silly and unworthy of discussion. That's what the now deceased John McCain did when he checked an old racist who tried to bring him down to her level. 

“No ma’am,” he says. “[Obama’s] a decent family man, citizen, that I just happen to have disagreements with on fundamental issues.”

Imagine if Donald trump had said this today: "That's a silly question. Of course Kamala Harris is eligible. Let's focus on the issues and other things of substance and not get sidetracked with these silly theories that just distract from more meaningful things. 

It would never happen, of course. Not with this guy. It's just not in him. Unlike John McCain, there is not a decent bone in his body.  

Caption Monday.

 

I need a caption for this picture. 

*Image from terence-hawkins.com 

Field Poll.

Dear Field Hands, as we approach the 2020 presidential elections, we are being bombarded with poll after poll. And, as is to be expected, they are all over the place. Most of them have Uncle Joe up on President Orange, but there are some polls that have the candidates pretty much even at this point. 

In the spirit of the season, I would like to conduct my own Field Negro poll to get a an idea of where we are at this point in the presidential horse race. 

Please simply leave a comment and tell me who you will be voting for and why. 

Thank you for your cooperation. 

   

Coronavirus 1 The Economy 0

Kevin McCarthy was bragging on twitter today that Mr. trump is not done yet, and that just like he did in 2016, he might have some more tricks up his sleeve.

He might be right. I am sure that with the help of his friends in Russia, along with GOP voter suppression, anything is possible.  Although this virus is not going away, and it's starting to have an impact in the area that Mr. trump is proudest of when it comes to his time in office.

Here is an oped from Robert Reich regarding that very issue:

“The recovery has been very strong,” Donald Trump said on Monday. Then the commerce department reported the US economy contracted between April and June at the fastest pace in nearly three-quarters of a century, which is as long as economists have been keeping track. The drop wiped out five years of economic growth.

But pesky facts have never stopped Trump. Having lied for five months about the coronavirus, he’s now filling social media and the airwaves with untruths about the economy so he can dupe his way to election day.

The comeback “won’t take very long”, he reassured Americans on Thursday. But every indicator shows that after a small uptick in June, the US economy is tanking again. Restaurant reservations are down, traffic at retail stores is dwindling, more small businesses are closing, the small rebound in air travel is reversing.

What’s Trump’s plan to revive the economy? The same one he’s been pushing for months: just “reopen” it.

He wants the public to believe the shutdown orders that began in March caused the economy to tank in the first place, so reversing them will bring the economy back.

People can’t go back to work because there is very little work for them to do

Rubbish. It was the virus that caused the downturn, and its resurgence is taking the economy down again. The virus is surging back because governors reopened prematurely, before the virus was under control – at Trump’s repeated insistence.

The sequence of cause-and-effect is clear. The virus has surged most in states that were among the first to reopen, such as Florida, South Carolina, Texas and much of the rest of the sun belt.
Because of this resurgence, many states are pausing plans to reopen and some are reimposing restrictions. But these restrictions are not the reason the economy is slowing. They are the necessary consequence of allowing the pandemic to get out of control.

Even the White House’s own coronavirus taskforce concludes that 21 states have outbreaks serious enough to justify more restrictions.

Notably, the economy is sliding again even though the government has pumped trillions of dollars into it. What happens when the money stops?

We’re about to find out. Senate Republicans can’t agree among themselves, let alone with House Democrats, about more funding, while Trump says “we really don’t care” about reaching a spending agreement.

That means starting this week more than 30 million Americans will no longer receive $600 in extra weekly employment benefits. As a result, tens of millions will not be able to make rent or mortgage payments. More will go hungry, including children. The economy is likely to slide even further.
The White House argues that the extra unemployment payments have discouraged workers from seeking jobs because some are receiving more money in benefits than they would earn by working.
“We don’t want to create disincentives to work,” says Trump adviser Larry Kudlow.

More rubbish. A study by Yale economists finds “no evidence” that people who have lost their jobs are choosing to stay unemployed because of the extra federal aid. In fact, “workers facing larger [unemployment] expansions generally appear to be quicker to return to work than others, not slower.”
People can’t go back to work because there is very little work for them to do. Fourteen million more people are unemployed than there are jobs.

Related: Paul Begala on Trump: 'Nothing unites the people of Earth like a threat from Mars'
In fact, the extra benefits have been keeping some 3 million employed because the money has gone into the pockets of people who spend it, thereby sustaining economic activity. Shrinking those benefits will put less money into consumer pockets, with the result that millions more jobs will be lost.

Lies about the economy are harder to spot than lies about the coronavirus because the virus’s grim death count is painfully apparent while the economy is complicated. But Trump’s economic lies are no less egregious, and they’re about to cause a great deal of unnecessary suffering.
Trump and Senate Republicans may not like it, but that’s the painful truth." [Article]

Mr. trump is learning the hard way that you can't lie your way out of a pandemic. Science and facts can be really stubborn when it comes to these types of things.