In the Know: September 10, 2020

Days Until the Election: 54

DFL Action Center
54 Days OUT – Let’s get to work!
If you’d like to help the DFL Party fight for criminal justice reform, better schools, wages, our environment, and health care, click here to get more involved there are events happening in your area!

Biden-Harris Yard Signs and Merchandise 
We’re excited to announce that Biden-Harris yard signs are now available! Click this link to order yours today! As you may have heard, Donald Trump is spending over $14 million on ads right here in Minnesota, and every sign you order helps us fight back by funding the DFL Party’s grassroots organizing program! Or, you can stop by the DFL Headquarters on 255 East Plato Blvd in St Paul, we are now open to the public from 12:00-5:00 PM Monday-Friday. 

Agriculture News
Small farmers challenge conventional agriculture in Pineland Sands, MPR News

Attorney General Keith Ellison
15 State AGs file suit to block Trump from fossil fuel assault on arctic refuge, Alaska Native News

Continue reading “In the Know: September 10, 2020”

Trump detests Christians — and he deceived pastors and mocked them after they left Trump Tower: Michael Cohen’s ‘Disloyal’

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Michael Cohen’s book about his years as Donald Trump’s fixer is a clarion call to Christians to wake up and recognize that the man many of them revere as a heavenly agent is a religious fraud who loathes them and mocks their faith.

In Disloyal, published today, Cohen shows how Trump is a master deceiver. He quotes Trump calling Christianity and its religious practices “bullshit,” soon after he masterfully posed as a fervent believer. In truth, Cohen writes, Trump’s religion is unbridled lust for money and power at any cost to others.

“Can you believe that people believe that bullshit,” Trump said after pastors prayed over him.

Cohen’s insider stories add significant depth to my own documenting of Trump’s repeated and public denouncements of Christians as “fools,” “idiots,” and “schmucks.” Continue reading.

Census Bureau stops layoffs after judge’s restraining order

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The U.S. Census Bureau said Tuesday in court papers that it will refrain from laying off some census takers while also restoring some quality-control functions.

The announcement comes after U.S. District Judge Lucy Koh issued a temporary restraining order Saturday, blocking the administration’s plans that would have curtailed census efforts.

ABC News reported that the statistical agency said it would prevent further layoffs of some census-takers who were in the late phases of making head counts of every U.S. resident, some of whom are still being assigned homes to visit, before a court hearing for a preliminary injunction is held Sept. 17. Continue reading.

What Trump officials really say — and don’t say — in denying that he disparaged fallen troops

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The White House is in full denial mode about the damning report first published last week in the Atlantic that President Trump had repeatedly denigrated members of the military and the nation’s war dead.

But as allies — and one prominent erstwhile ally — stepped forward to offer versions of events similar to the line touted by the White House, it’s worth emphasizing that not all denials are created equal. Some address only specific aspects of the report, while leaving open the possibility that others are true or that such things were said at other points. Others vouch for Trump while very notably declining to address anything specific.

Since Monday, the White House has emphasized comments by two people in particular: Zach Fuentes, a top former White House aide and ally of John Kelly, and John Bolton, the former Trump national security adviser who wrote a scathing tell-all about his time in the White House. Let’s look at what they and others have said. Continue reading.

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.