Category: 2020 Election

Jobs recovery is slowing, but congressional CPR not expected

The weak jobs numbers are unlikely to break the legislative impasse that’s taken hold of Capitol Hill

The August jobs report showed America’s economic recovery slowing down, but Washington analysts doubt the figures will be enough to jostle Congress out of its deadlock over additional stimulus.

The economy added 1.4 million nonfarm jobs in August, bringing the unemployment rate down to 8.4 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. That’s less than the revised 1.7 million nonfarm jobs added in July, and the 4.8 million added in June. Economists worry that the slowing pace of job creation may smother hopes for the economy’s quick convalesce from the havoc wreaked by the coronavirus.

“The labor market recovery has slowed down a fair bit and while things are improving for some people, the hopes of a quick and complete recovery are gone,” said Nick Bunker, director of research at Indeed Hiring Lab. “Unless there is some big reversal in terms of public policy or the virus itself, we’re not going to see a sharp return to where we were before the virus.” Continue reading.

Trump employs images of violence as political fuel for reelection fight

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President Trump has reverted to using graphic depictions of violence as a centerpiece of his reelection campaign strategy, using his Twitter account, his stump speech and even the White House podium as platforms for amplifying domestic conflict.

His 2016 focus on radical Islamist terrorism and undocumented-immigrant crime, which he credited with helping him win the Republican nomination, has been replaced by warnings of new threats as he elevates gruesome images of Black-on-White crime, street fights involving his supporters and police-misconduct unrest nationwide.

The pattern continued over the holiday weekend, when he tweeted video of a melee in Texas between protesters and security officers during an event for a Trump-affiliated group and two celebratory videos of a protester in Portland, Ore., with his feet on fire. One of the videos was scored to the Kenny Loggins song “Footloose,” and the second featured mocking play-by-play commentary by a mixed-martial-arts announcer. Continue reading.

Senate to vote on scaled-down coronavirus relief package

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Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on Tuesday that he will force a vote on a GOP coronavirus relief package after weeks of closed-door talks between Republican senators and the White House. 

“Today, the Senate Republican majority is introducing a new targeted proposal, focused on some of the very most urgent healthcare, education, and economic issues. … I will be moving immediately today to set up a floor vote as soon as this week,” McConnell said in a statement.

The Republican bill is expected to include a federal unemployment benefit, another round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding, and more money for coronavirus testing and schools, as well as liability protections from lawsuits related to the virus. McConnell didn’t release a price tag for the forthcoming bill, but it is expected to be at least $500 billion — half of the $1 trillion package Republicans previously unveiled in late July.  Continue reading.

Portland and Kenosha violence was predictable – and preventable

The U.S. reached a deadly moment in protests over racial injustice, as back-to-back shootings in Kenosha, Wisconsin, and Portland, Oregon, on Aug. 25 and 29 took the lives of three people and seriously injured another. 

It was tragic – but not surprising. 

The alleged shooters were at the protests for different reasons: One was a pro-police supporter who believed he was protecting local businesses in Kenosha and the other an “antifa supporter” and “fixture of anti-police demostrations” in Portland. The victims included apparent supporters of Black Lives Matter protests and a supporter of a far-right group. Together, they reflect an escalating risk of spontaneous violence as heavily armed citizen vigilantes and individuals mobilize at demonstrations and protests. Continue reading.

Drug companies issue rare joint pledge on vaccine safety amid political fears

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Nine pharmaceutical companies on Tuesday issued a rare joint pledge seeking to reassure the public about the safety and efficacy of their potential vaccines for coronavirus. 

The statement from the top drug companies working on coronavirus vaccines, including Pfizer, AstraZeneca and Moderna, comes amid fears of political pressure from President Trump on the vaccine approval process and doubts among the public about taking a vaccine. 

The joint pledge states that the companies will not seek Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for their vaccines until a rigorous phase 3 clinical trial shows that it is safe and that it works.  Continue reading.

A study of more than 10,000 protests this year found 95% were peaceful

President Trump would have you believe that the past several months of social justice protests against police violence and racial inequality represent a fundamentally violent threat that only he — aspiring strongman that he is — can crush with overwhelming force. But according to a new report from the Armed Conflict Location and Event Data Project, working in conjunction with Princeton University’s Bridging Divides Initiative, the latest wave of nationwide demonstrations have been “overwhelmingly peaceful,” despite politically motivated narratives to the contrary.

The study, officially titled “Demonstrations & Political Violence in America: New Data for Summer 2020” tracked “more than 10,600 demonstration events across the country” between late May and the end of August. It found that “over 10,100 of these — or nearly 95% — involve peaceful protesters. Fewer than 570 — or approximately 5% — involve demonstrators engaging in violence.”

What’s more, the report concluded that “in many urban areas like Portland, Oregon, for example, which has seen sustained unrest since [George] Floyd’s killing, violent demonstrations are largely confined to specific blocks, rather than dispersed throughout the city.” Continue reading.

The signs that democracy is under attack are growing increasingly dire

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Earlier this week, New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo warned that American democracy is ending. He pointed to political violence on the streets, the pandemic, unemployment, racial polarization, and natural disasters, all of which are destabilizing the country, and noted that Republicans appear to have abandoned democracy in favor of a cult-like support for Donald Trump. They are wedded to a narrative based in lies, as the president dismantles our non-partisan civil service and replaces it with a gang of cronies loyal only to him.

He is right to be worried.

Just the past few days have demonstrated that key aspects of democracy are under attack. Continue reading.

Teacher Who Voted For Trump Takes Her Regrets Public In Union Ad Campaign

In 2016, Pennsylvania special education teacher Jane Scilovati voted for Donald Trump, because “I thought he was going to shake up the system.” In 2020, she’s so committed to not voting for Trump that she appears in an American Federation of Teachers ad against Trump. 

The AFT is putting six figures into a digital ad campaign featuring the ad. “Pennsylvania voters know that Trump has failed to work for their families because his Administration has prioritized politics and enriching himself and his cronies over responding to a global pandemic,” AFT President Randi Weingarten said in a statement. “Make no mistake,” she added, “there are more teachers like Jane who recognize how dangerous a second Trump presidency would pose for both education and for our kids’ future.”

Continue reading.

‘Amazing’: Watch this stunning fact check on Trump’s claims about economic recovery

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MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough was astonished by a detailed analysis of the economic pain suffered by many American workers — but not all of them.

“Morning Joe” contributor Steve Rattner, a former economic adviser to President Barack Obama, brought charts to fact check claims by President Donald Trump and his advisers about the recovery since the coronavirus pandemic destroyed the U.S. economy.

“The pace of job recovery is actually slowing fairly dramatically,” Rattner said. “One other small point, the 8.4 percent unemployment rate is really 9.1 percent — the Department of Labor said there was a misclassification error, so that number isn’t as good either. Let’s turn to this question whether we’re dealing with a broad-based recovery of jobs or something more narrow. What you can see on the next chart are the disparities in how different Americans have fared. This is because the pandemic or the economic crisis didn’t hit every industry equally, travel, recreation, restaurants, so on, where people of color, lower income, women work and it was hit disproportionately hard.”

Continue reading.

Returning To His Roots, Trump Promotes Racial Discrimination In Housing

As polls show his base stagnant and his poll numbers dropping, Donald Trump has decided to replay an old favorite. While trying to strike fear of the invading “other” is right out of the 1968 playbook of both Richard Nixon and George Wallace, it’s also a tactic Trump honed at his father’s knee. It makes perfect sense for Trump in trouble to return to what he knows — and he knows all about shutting the literal and figurative door on Black folks moving into white neighborhoods.

In the 1970s, Trump and his father, Fred Trump — president and chairman, respectively, of Trump Management — were named as defendants in lawsuits brought by the Justice Department, accusing them of turning away African Americans who applied to rent apartments in some of the company’s buildings. That would be breaking the letter and spirit of the Fair Housing Act of 1968, something that was by no means the exception among property owners of the time.

The reaction, though, was pure Donald Trump. Rather than settle the lawsuits quietly, as some did, he called the charges “absolutely ridiculous,” denied them, countersued and said the government was trying to make him rent to “welfare recipients,” all sadly predictable. Though the Trumps eventually settled without admitting guilt, test renters of different races received different treatment, and investigations found that certain discarded applications were marked with “C” for “colored.” Continue reading.