My plan for the week is one blog post on the weekend to give details about Dictator Donald Trump (DDT). This morning, however, my Inbox was so full I decided to start early to report on DDT’s disastrous and failing distractions.
DDT’s MO, when attempting the outrageous, is to tweet a trial balloon to see how much people object. Today’s completely outrageous tweet:
“With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???”
For 24 years, Oregon has peacefully conducted mail-in elections with almost zero “fraud”—one example being a county clerk completing partially filled-out ballots to favor GOP candidates, something that can happen with any paper ballot system. Four other states will follow Oregon’s vote-by-mail in the 2020 election, and people in all other states are begging for permission to mail in their ballots. DDT, however, watched his plummeting poll ratings and hopes he found a solution by putting off the election. He’s been working up to presenting the idea with his and AG Bill Barr’s lies about fraudulent mail-in voting and their legal machinations to stop it.
DDT tweeted his unconstitutional idea on the same day as the funeral of former Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) and the publication of Lewis’ posthumous op-ed, “Together, You Can Redeem the Soul of Our Nation” about the importance of voting.
Law experts claim DDT cannot change the date for the election because the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power to determine the “time, place and manner” of general elections. The 20th Amendment also specifics term endings for the president on March and for members of Congress on January 3. DDT, however, is not a strong believer in the constitution, and Republicans have followed his lead in the past. GOP leaders, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) have vigorously disagreed with DDT’s idea, but they are also not known for having a spine. His balloon burst, DDT sent a later DDT tweet about how he managed “to get the very dishonest LameStream Media to finally start talking about the RISKS to our Democracy from dangerous Universal Mail-In-Voting (not Absentee Voting, which I totally support!).” AG Bill Barr, however, said he hadn’t studied whether the president could move the election date. DDT also demanded, “Must know Election results on the night of the Election.”
In April, DDT’s campaign spokesman Tim Murtaugh ridiculed Joe Biden for suggesting that DDT might attempt a change in the election date. At that time, DDT said:
“I never even thought of changing the date of the election. Why would I do that? November 3rd. It’s a good number. No, I look forward to that election.”
To please Vladimir Putin, DDT is moving 12,000 military members out of Germany at a cost of billions of dollars. Even Republicans see DDT’s action as a threat to U.S. security: 22 GOP members of the House Armed Services Committee wrote DDT to warn him about encouraging Russian aggression and opportunism. Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) called the plan “a gift to Russia coming at a time when we just have learned of its support for the Taliban and reports of bounties on killing American troops.” DDT said the reason for withdrawing troops was that Germany doesn’t pay its NATO fees; Defense Department Secretary Mark Esper said the reason had nothing to do with NATO payments. There are no fees, but DDT’s feelings may have been hurt when Chancellor Angela Merkel wouldn’t come to the G7 summit in the U.S. as COVID-19 surged.
In an interview with Axios’ Jonathan Swan, DDT admitted he had not asked Vladimir Putin about paying the Taliban to kill U.S. troops in their eight or more calls since DDT was told in late winter about Russia’s plans to murder U.S. soldiers. DDT lied that the intelligence “never reached my desk” although he received a written briefing about it in February and excused Russia for giving military support to the Taliban. With Russia’s continued interference on the part of DDT in the upcoming election, he will benefit by ignoring negative information about the Kremlin’s activities.
On the home front, DDT is sending his personal militia to Cleveland, Milwaukee, and Detroit after having deployed them to Kansas City (MO), Albuquerque, and Chicago. AG Bill Barr stated, “We work together,” but that wasn’t the case in Portland (OR) where violent agents vastly increased the downtown protests where they operated as secret police. Oregon officials announced the feds were withdrawing their troops after they created almost four weeks of havoc in Portland; DDT and acting DHS Secretary Chad Wolf disagreed with the deal to replace federal agents with state police officers. Last night after Oregon Gov. Kate Brown announced the departure of federal agents on Thursday, their violence because worse than earlier nights.
During his campaign, DDT claimed all crime in the United States would stop on the day he was inaugurated. His term has seen a slight uptick in crime, which he now blames on opponent Joe Biden and Democratic leaders in the cities he targeted.
After DDT overturned the Affirmative Furthering Fair Housing provision of the 1968 Fair Housing Act to eliminate housing discrimination, he tweeted:
“I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood…”
In “Trump Is Dog-Whistling. Are ‘Suburban Housewives’ Listening? Jennifer Weiner points out suburban moms (who DDT calls “housewives”) “are organizing protests and reading groups, posting links to bail funds, discussing antidotes for tear gas. They’re starting groups in their kids’ schools to talk about white privilege and how to continue the fight once the current wave of protests is done. Many feature some version of the sign ‘When George Floyd Called for His Mama, He Summoned All the Mamas.’” [Right: Suburban moms from Aurora, Colorado.]
In a classic piece of disinformation (aka lying), Rush Limbaugh said:
“There aren’t any mothers. There aren’t any veterans. These are people that are actors — they are paid. They’re antifa. They are Black Lives Matter. And they are all being paid, and they’re putting on different uniforms — different T-shirts and so forth — to look like veterans, to look like mothers. But they are all violent, leftist, anti-American protesters, in association with the Democrat Party.”
DDT will desperately try to hide the bad news about his economy. Instead of running on his earlier projected GDP increase of 4 percent, he faces the 9.5 percent decline during 2020’s second quarter, leading to a 32.9 percent GDP reduction for the year. Since 1937, no other quarter has seen a decline of even three percent; this one was the worst since at least 1875. Runners up are the third quarter of 1893, after a panic and run on the banks, and the fourth quarter of 1937, when Roosevelt tried to please conservatives with spending cuts. Respective declines were 8.4 percent and 7.2 percent. The one-quarter decline of 2.6 percent in 1958 came during a depression coinciding with a pandemic called the “Asian flu” which has parallels to COVID-19. Republicans who want a smaller stimulus bill this time around should take notice. They want to skip people states and individuals in the current bill while allocating funds to the Pentagon and other non-virus purposes.
For the 19th consecutive week, over one million new unemployment claims were filed, much higher than the worst time of George W. Bush’s recession. The 1.43 million filings last week were the second consecutive weekly increase, partly because the virus surge is causing business closings. Consumer spending dropped 10.1 percent in the second quarter with a fall of 13.3 percent spending on services after a near-total collapse in restaurants and recreation. Patients’ canceling elective procedures and delayed routine care resulted in plunging spending on health care. Goods expenditures rose, however, especially with a nine-percent increase in recreational vehicles and related goods. Other parts of the economy dropping by double digits included business investment, residential construction, and trade—both imports and exports. Federal government did rise by 4.1 percent.
These serious problems come from COVID-19, which DDT does nothing to alleviate, meaning recovery is not imminent. DDT could brag about an increase in personal income of 7.3 percent between the first two quarters, but the money comes from stimulus funds disappearing this month without more infusion. If Congress does nothing to help unemployment payments, something Republicans oppose, tens of millions of people will no longer have places to live except the streets.
DDT’s pettiness shone again this morning when he called reporters to the White House for an unscheduled press briefing at exactly the time President Obama began the eulogy for Rep. John Lewis (R-GA). The ostensible subject was an event with the family of slain Fort Hood soldier Vanessa Guillen. And DDT doesn’t understand why “nobody likes me.”
The U.S. “Trump Virus” (House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s term) has sickened at least 4,634,985 and killed 155,285 people.