Category: 2020 Election

We’ve Reached Peak Libertarianism — And It’s Literally Killing Us

We have now reached peak Libertarianism, and this bizarre experiment that has been promoted by the billionaire class for over 40 years is literally killing us.

Back in the years before Reagan, a real estate lobbying group called the Foundation for Economic Education (FEE) came up with the idea of creating a political party to justify deregulating the real estate and finance industries so they could make more money. The party would give them ideological and political cover, and they developed an elaborate theology around it.

It was called the Libertarian Party, and their principal argument was that if everybody acted separately and independently, in all cases with maximum selfishness, that that would benefit society. There would be no government needed beyond an army and a police force, and a court system to defend the rights of property owners. Continue reading.

Trump steps up attacks on Biden over economy

The Hill logoPresident Trump is stepping up his economic attacks on Joe Biden, seeking to regain strength on an issue once seen as his golden ticket to reelection.

A number of polls still show that voters on net approve of Trump’s performance on the economy, but some surveys now show his presumptive Democratic opponent with an edge on the issue over him as the coronavirus pandemic wreaks havoc on the economy.

Biden also has sought to press an advantage and in recent days has rolled out his own economic proposals on how to bring about a recovery. Continue reading.

Biden: After intel briefings, warns of election interference

Joe Biden said Friday night that he’s begun receiving intelligence briefings as he warned that Russia, China and other adversaries were attempting to undermine the upcoming U.S. election in November.

The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee wasn’t specific and offered no evidence while addressing a virtual fundraiser with more than 200 attendees. But, in the process, he confirmed receiving classified briefings after saying as recently as late last month that he wasn’t getting them but might request one about reports of Russian bounties being offered on U.S. troops in Afghanistan.

“We know from before, and I guarantee you I know now because now I get briefings again. The Russians are still engaged, trying to de-legitimize our electoral process. Fact,” Biden said Friday. “China and others are engaged as well in activities designed for us to lose confidence in the outcome.” Continue reading.

From ‘Sleepy Joe’ to a destroyer of the ‘American way of life,’ Trump’s attacks on Biden make a dystopian shift

Washington Post logoPresident Trump has launched a slash-and-burn campaign against an exaggerated caricature of his Democratic opponent, casting former vice president Joe Biden as a destroyer of basic freedoms and a threat to voters’ safety who would “let terrorists roam free” and “abolish the American way of life.”

His new dystopian vision, with militant and extreme language not typical in American politics, marks a sharp departure from Trump’s previous effort to cast Biden as “Sleepy Joe,” an establishment politician with deteriorating mental abilities. It marks the latest effort, orchestrated by Trump’s advisers, to shift the conversation from rising coronavirus infections and deteriorating public support for the president’s pandemic response.

In new advertising, tweets and public statements that began to appear earlier this month, Trump has argued that the presumptive Democratic nominee is a harbinger of chaos and destruction, depicting a fantastical scarecrow largely divorced from reality.

Trump turns White House into backdrop for political events

The Hill logoPresident Trump walked onto the South Lawn of the White House on Thursday to applause from supporters as he prepared to tout his efforts to roll back regulations.

He was flanked on one side by a blue truck weighed down by “years of regulatory burden” and on the other by a red truck that had an empty bed to illustrate “regulatory freedom.” Overhead, an industrial sized crane had the words “Trump administration” printed in clear view.

The president proceeded to give a speech that offered no new policy announcements but was heavy on attacks on presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden and his platform. Continue reading.

Trump’s agents are sweeping peaceful citizens off the streets. This is not America.

Washington Post logo“Congress shall make no law … abridging the freedom of speech … or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.”

Something terrible, something dangerous — and, yes, something unconstitutional — is happening in Portland, Ore. It must be stopped.

“Federal law enforcement officers have been using unmarked vehicles to drive around downtown Portland and detain protesters since at least July 14,” reports Oregon Public Broadcasting. “Personal accounts and multiple videos posted online show the officers driving up to people, detaining individuals with no explanation of why they are being arrested, and driving off.”

The report continues: “The tactic appears to be another escalation in federal force deployed on Portland city streets, as federal officials and President Donald Trump have said they plan to ‘quell’ nightly protests outside the federal courthouse and Multnomah County Justice Center that have lasted for more than six weeks.” Continue reading.

Trump Promotes Caricature of What Conservatives Want

New York Times logoA series of events during his White House tenure has made clear that Mr. Trump views the voters he calls “my people” through the lens of what he imagines they like.

Standing in the White House colonnade this week, President Trump told an interviewer that he’s “comfortable” with “freedom of speech” extending to the Confederate flag.

“People love it,” Mr. Trump told Catherine Herridge of CBS News, when she asked about a flag that many Americans equate with the brutal history of slavery in the United States. “I know people that like the Confederate flag, and they’re not thinking about slavery. I just think it’s freedom of speech.”

It was the latest example of Mr. Trump promoting a caricatured view of what he believes his base wants — in this case defending a symbol of oppression that even the state of Mississippi has decided to retire, as well as the U.S. military, which issued new guidance on flags on Friday. Continue reading.

The Trump campaign is the grift that keeps on grifting

Washington Post logoThere has long been an element of grift to political campaigns.

The guys who make the ads and the media buyers get rich by paying themselves a percentage of the amount that is spent on advertising. The same is true for those who put together the direct-mail operation. As one political consultant explained it to me: “It’s sort of like getting to grade your own homework.”

Hired fundraisers can make six-figure commissions by exaggerating their worth. Others get paid similar amounts for providing “strategic advice.” Continue reading.

Trump lets loose a fiery outburst at his niece Mary Trump in a Twitter tirade

AlterNet logoPresident Donald Trump lashed out Friday at his niece Mary Trump for the first time on Twitter, clearly riled up by the fact that she has released a tell-all book about their family.

He included the attack in a three-part thread focused on books that have been written about him:

It’s not clear at how or why Mary Trump could have broken the law, as the president claimed, when she turned over records of her family’s taxes in her possession to the New York Times. However, the investigation based on the documents she turned over found that the president himself engaged in “dubious tax schemes during the 1990s, including instances of outright fraud.” Continue reading.