The Bishop and the Butterfly: Murder, Politics, and the End of the Jazz Age

    Trump campaign TV ad with "defund the police" topic

    I've seen this played on commercial breaks on CNN three times now in a couple hours (both Anderson Cooper and Chris Cuomo shows; I'm in NYC  market):

     

    Comments

    Meantime, I think Trump doesn't pay much attention to what his campaign is doing and thinks he should stress. He goes with his gut. Stable genius politically and every other way. Today it was all about water pressure being reduced by water saving devices, that will turn some votes fur sure...doesn't everyone consider that issure when they vote for president?

    Trump: So shower heads, you take a shower, the water doesn’t come out. You wanna wash your hands, the water doesn’t come out... Dishwashers you didn’t have any water... In most places of the country, water is not a problem. They don’t know what do with it. It’s called rain pic.twitter.com/rx96mCFsae

    — Acyn Torabi (@Acyn) July 16, 2020

     


     I was wrong above, he's on campaign message today, as best he can

     

    Trump says Biden wants to defund the police, pointing to his “charter” with Sanders.

    Chris Wallace points out the Sanders-Biden task force doesn’t mention defunding police.

    Trump, lying: “Oh, really? It says abolish, it says...” To aide: “Let’s go. Get me the charter, please.” https://t.co/WFRIDKmQxL

    — Daniel Dale (@ddale8) July 17, 2020

     

    The campaign knows it's a sure thing for Republicans when the crime rate is up. Remember Willie Horton.

    It may not help Trump as he has few answers and handles messaging poorly. But it will hurt downticket if the rising crime rate conflicting with a lot of BLM protesters' opinions continues to be ignored, because everyone knows it as a problem that is mostly being experienced in place where Democrats are in charge.

    DLC candidates in the past won against Reagenites during periods of high crime rate by stressing more cops on the street, not less.

    I'm sorry, but if this crime continues I think Dem candidates in districts that are not lefty cannot be silent about it all like Biden has done so far, they will need to do Sister Souljah moments with some of the more radical BLM movement. And have a plan to deal with the crime that includes murmurs about reforming policing


    Belongs here as well as on the Mayor Lightfoot/Chicago thread, with his excellent follow up tweets added later:


    This kind of thing is childish if not infantile role play "great warriors for justice", very easy to ridicule, so counter-productive to cause, wastes law enforcement's time (no wonder they get pissed, I find myself getting angry at it)

    I don't see why any Dem politician can't make a Sister Souljah moment out of this type of thing along the lines of Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms or our won Flavius: GO HOME! THIS IS NOT HOW YOU PROTEST!

    How would it hurt them? Lose votes? Not! At lot of these people are going to write in Green candidates if they show up to vote at all.


    #TrumpIsALaughingStock

    trending 10K+ tweets

    Heckuva lot more effective than nightly graffiti raids on Federal buildings in Portland. Easier, too, everybody can contribute, not just college kids looking to burn off some testosterone running from goons.



    busily feeding the boss' narcissism:


    But even the 1691 Project recognizes we spend too little time on the giant Heroes of yesteryear - everyone knows these 2 dudes, Mr. Monica and the Iraq Whisperer - isn't it about time D.W. Griffith and Simon Legree decorate the front foyer a while, remind America of the historic qualities our nation was built on? I dont know if this went out with the bailoutz checks, but Simon at his best:

    "Didn't I pay twelve hundred dollars for you - ain't you mine, body and soul?"

    Time our youth remember the value and power of money - they think everything's handed to them, rather than the other way around.


    Yglesias points out that it's ooking like there's a "faster better stronger" GOP meme going on. The above little event was meant to follow along with that:


    He doesn't wanna do coronavirus.


    Krugman a week ago on the same topic, The deadly delusions of mad king Donald--it's his NYTimes column but via the Baltimore Sun.

    He just won't deal with it, doesn't want it to be there, wills it away.

    This was a good point on Krugman's part began his presidency with a lurid, fact-challenged rant about “American carnage,” in that it made me think about how one shouldn't presume his mental illness is simplistic. It's not that he's just plain incapable of getting upset about maiming and death. I think of his fantasies about that bad hombres do. Also how he has so often come out "anti-stupid-war" in his lifetime.  It's the disease and illness thing he doesn't want to deal with. Like: we don't even get visuals of him visiting vets at hospitals?...Is like this magical thinking: if you believe strongly enough that it will go away, it will happen...he's basically said it aloud for public consumption...don't think about it and it will eventually just disappear.


    From: Norman Vincent Peale's 

    The Power of Positive Thinking - Synopsis

    Peale begins by stating ten rules for “overcoming inadequacy attitudes and learning to practice faith”. The rules include the following:

    1. Picture yourself succeeding.
    2. Think a positive thought to drown out a negative thought.
    3. Minimize obstacles.
    4. Do not attempt to copy others.
    5. Repeat “If God be for us, who can be against us?” ten times every day.
    6. Work with a counselor.
    7. Repeat “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” ten times every day.
    8. Develop a strong self-respect.
    9. Affirm that you are in God's hands.
    10. Believe that you receive power from God.

    Also from The Power of Positive Thinking - Wikipedia

    President Donald Trump has called Peale “his pastor” and “one of the greatest speakers” he had ever seen.[16] Fred and Mary Trump, President Trump's parents, traveled to the Marble Collegiate Church in Manhattan with their children to hear Peale's sermons. Trump grew up hearing Peale's teachings from his parents, and Peale officiated his first wedding.[17] Trump credits his survival in 1990 after bankruptcy to Peale's positive thinking teachings.


    laugh Spot on to think of that here. And boy whenever he read it, which I am sure he did, he took #8 to heart and especially excels at it.


    Important-even though he refuses to think about it, and won't let staff emphasize it publicly, nor let the public know things, there are some in the Admin working on things, they are just censored! So the boss and his fans, true believers in the Peale method won't hear it?

    ....The outbreak is so widespread that 18 states have been placed in a so-called red zone because they have more than 100 new cases per 100,000 people per week, according to an unpublished report distributed this week by the White House coronavirus task force, which urged many states to take stricter steps to contain the spread....

    from NYTimes Coronavirus Updates, July 18 

    So there's like a dividing line at the White House--the Coronavirus Task Force lives in a little Zone Reality, and the rest of the White House lives in Campaign Zone of Believe It and It Will Be True?

    This method also conveniently passes the buck to Governors, they get the blame for failures.


    WHEREAS JUST THE OPPOSITE IS GOING ON WITH "POLICING" enlightened

    He wants to seen as taking over from governors and mayors, painting their efforts as failed. He wants to be able to brag about sending in the federal goons. The narrative is he/they are rescuing blue localities that have failed to protect their citizens and federal property.  He wants that label. Scream about it all ya want, he no doubt loves every minute of it, will keep his forces wherever as long as he possibly can, then remove them just in time before it causes too much court trouble. Just like he did in D.C. Then he can crow about how he tried to rescue the suffering decent ordinary people from violent criminals in the inner cities and from Antifa radicals tearing things down, but the liberals stopped him.


    horrifingly blatant pandering to mental illness for access to power:


    and here's the snark which drew me to that link:


    Excerpt from 2nd half of article:

    [....] The advisers seized on a July 8 joint policy statement by the Biden campaign and senior advisers to Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to claim that Biden is abandoning his moderate record to become a tool for the left. They have also focused on a July 8 interview by Biden, where he said that surplus military supplies going to local police departments had the ill effect of making them “become the enemy” for communities they protect and said he supported redirecting some police funding.

    Since then, the Trump campaign has earned the ire of fact-checkers by claiming that Biden wants to defund the police or that he considers police “the enemy,” neither of which is true. The Trump campaign has nonetheless spent nearly $14 million since July 2, according to a Democratic ad tracker, to air a television spot that suggests police departments won’t respond to 911 calls if Biden is elected.

    Trump has occasionally struggled to deliver the new message. In an interview set to air on Fox News Sunday, the president claims that the Biden and Sanders statement included plans to “defund the police.” It does not, but Trump nonetheless called for a temporary stop to the interview to check the document.

    “You won’t be safe in Joe Biden’s America. Your family won’t be safe, your job won’t be safe and even your words and ideas won’t be safe,” one recent Jason Miller internal email read.

    The sharpened talking points have given the Trump campaign a more unified argument, after months of struggling with how to respond to the viral pandemic, the economic crisis and the nationwide protests against police brutality.

    For much of June, Trump moved, often confusingly, between praising and condemning protests over racial injustice. His campaign’s television advertising praised his response to the viral pandemic, even as he prevaricated on wearing masks to prevent transmission and urged the country to reopen among rising infection rates in many states.

    The talking points document distributed by Stephen Miller lays out a direct message on the coronavirus: “Our strategy is to shelter the vulnerable while allowing the young and healthy to return to work.”

    and the ending of it

    The Stephen Miller document adds to several platforms that echo the negative case Trump is trying to make against Biden, including defense of police and keeping borders secure.

    Among the Trump visions for the future, the document lists this one: “Defend our noble history and the American way of life.”


    Bush Made Willie Horton an Issue in 1988, and the Racial Scars Are Still Fresh

    By Peter Baker @ NYTimes.com, Dec. 3, 2018 on the occasion of G.H.W. Bush's death

    [...] Mr. Horton was an African-American prisoner in Massachusetts who, while released on a furlough program, raped a white Maryland woman and bound and stabbed her boyfriend. Mr. Bush’s campaign and supporters cited the case as evidence that his Democratic opponent, Gov. Michael S. Dukakis of Massachusetts, was insufficiently tough on crime.

    To many African-American people, the scars from that campaign attack remain fresh. Whatever Mr. Bush’s intentions, they said, the campaign encouraged more race-based politics and put Democrats on the defensive, forcing them to prove themselves on crime at the expense of a generation of African-American men and women who were locked up under tougher sentencing laws championed by President Bill Clinton, among others [....]

     

    So rampant crime in the 80's was no big deal?


    Heavy duty wack fantasizing off-message today Maybe someone made him feel a little guilt about coronavirus?

     


    Here ya go, whether true or not, they're going with it, failed and dying Chicago next:

    U.S. Department of Homeland Security is crafting plans to deploy about 150 federal agents to Chicago this week, the Chicago Tribune has learned, a move that would come amid growing controversy nationally about federal force being used in American cities. https://t.co/PpUgLTtD6E

    — Chicago Tribune (@chicagotribune) July 20, 2020

    They know where the news of a failed state is and it's Chicago, where there's few reporters left and a liberal black female mayor has to have the police encircle her block to protect her from protesters (many of whom are young whites, may I add.) Even if they don't follow through, and it's really an idle threat: MESSAGE SENT, we'll take care of maintaining civilization, they won't.

    See were this furloughed reporter says "Every institution in Chicago is failing right now. Show me one that's not"?

     

    THAT'S WHY SOMEONE LIKE TRUMP CAN TRY THINGS LIKE SENDING IN GOONS AS A CAMPAIGN TACTIC. Whoever can't see that is just plain blind! People have to stop the destructive protesting in an area like this, there's no two ways about it. Or those suburban swings are going to switch back to GOP downticket even if they don't vote for Trump. Anarchist protest is absolutely THE WRONG ANSWER!!! People are going to chose law and order every time if  their other choice is framed as anarchist chaos and year zero. SISTER SOULJAH MOMENTS DESPERATELY NEEDED if you don't want Biden having to work with a GOP majority House and Senate and blue states going GOP in their legislatures and other local government.

    I have every confidence that the courts and players like the ACLU will take care of Trump's goons. They don't worry me that much, not as much as much larger goon forces coming back under a President Biden.

    Those of you not taking the crime rate spiking in a lot of blue cities seriously and not seeing how continued BLM protests that yell "defund the police" in the very same places (during a world pandemic yet! with unemployment checks to end soon yet!) ARE IN DEEP DENIAL ABOUT HOW IMPORTANT IT IS as regards Democratic politicians winning elections!!! Why do you blame the messenger for ruining your BLM Defund the Police Party? It's the criminals doing that, not the messengers!!! There are major major things going on with crime and a depression probably coming.

    Time to lay off the defund police shit for now. Save it for later! Or you may not have a chance later. IIt's simply as irrational as Trump to argue a small number of deaths at the hands of police each year is as important as the much larger growing number dying of civilian gun violence.

    Yeah, a majority felt strongly what happened to George Floyd was wrong. But I doubt they are all for anarchy as a substitute. 

     


    He's selling the meme strong today, all the blue cities with skyrocketing crime rates.

    Doesn't matter if it actually happens He's just done it, offered to rescue the suffering from the Dems. When objected to by local politicians he can say: "I tried to help but the liberals wouldn't let me!" When he's stopped by the courts (and he will be)  he can say "the liberal courts stopped me from helping."



    News on the DOJ's goon planning, which has a name "Operation Legend":

     


    I just now saw the Trump campaign commercial at the top of this thread on CNN TV.

    Where when you call 911, you press 1 for reporting a rape and 2 for reporting a homicide, and anything else wait time is now 5 days for the police to call you back.

    I usually only turn the cable TV news on in prime time. Last few days I've see this commercial nearly every time I do. I am on Cablevision in the north Bronx. They apparently think it will win them some votes here.


    If you don't recognize the name, Hannah-Jones is the writer in charge of the 1619 project.


    Trump is hoping some of his Einsatzgruppen get shot,  then they can shoot back and blood will flow, TV cameras roll,  in the streets. Then he can order the suspension of civil rights and create even more hate, fear and chaos. He's a coward and a psychopath.

     If need be he'll suit up McConnell and Pence in riot gear to patrol on the streets, intimidating voters on election day. 


    Complete statement 

    "We need to be really careful with our language," Hannah-Jones said. "Violence is when an agent of the state kneels on a man’s neck until all of the life is leached out of his body. Destroying property, which can be replaced, is not violence. And to use the exact same language to describe those two things I think really is not moral."

    https://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2020/06/02/nyts_nikole_hannah-jones_destroying_property_which_can_be_replaced_is_not_violence.html


    This suggests to me a thought I have had since shortly after the looting began and that sort of statement became common. A significant percentage of the demonstrating crowd, no doubt more so in the white part of it, have lived their entire life with the security of their material possessions covered by insurance.  Everything lost, wrecked, burned down, or stolen would be replaced with a check. Why would they worry about replaceable property when protecting it might get someone killed. 

    Edited typo


    Here is Roxane Gay on the same topic as Nikole Hannah-Jones

    Some white people act as if there are two sides to racism, as if racists are people we need to reason with. They fret over the destruction of property and want everyone to just get along. They struggle to understand why black people are rioting but offer no alternatives about what a people should do about a lifetime of rage, disempowerment and injustice.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/opinion/sunday/trump-george-floyd-coronavirus.html

    changed Roxanne to Roxane


    But there are alternatives. Recent history offers us clear alternatives that were extremely successful. Act up and MLK offer us alternatives. If there's enough energy to take over the streets, burn down buildings, and loot stores there's enough energy to peacefully protest for change. Hell man, if more of those people rioting had voted in every election every TWO years, instead of just when they were inspired by a black man running for president, there would have been more change.

    What ever. I've checked out. Loot and burn down buildings. I don't care. Nothing is gonna get burned down where I live. See what you get. In the end it won't just get you Trump's secret police. That's small potatoes. It will get you the National Guard.


    The initial response seems to be that Trumps is abusing his powers. That is why there are lawsuits.


    This is a non response. It doesn't just fail to address my post it fails to address the subject that you brought up.

    They struggle to understand why black people are rioting but offer no alternatives about what a people should do about a lifetime of rage, disempowerment and injustice.

     


    It is a direct response. You implied the National Guard was coming. I suggested that the public was not on the side of bringing in secret police.

    As long as Trump acts as divider-in-chief, people will be out protesting. In many cities, trust is lost between citizens and police.This is why dismantling police departments is one consideration. This would end the weight some police unions have in crafting department policy.


    You claimed there were not alternatives offered instead of riots. I pointed out that there are alternatives offered by a predominately black protest movement, MLK, and a predominately white protest movement, Act Up." You decided you no longer wanted to discuss whether there are alternatives to riots. Not a subject you think you can "win?" Since "winning" at any cost is your primary goal you ought to think about your posts before you hit send. I guess you think diversion tactics is a "winning" strategy when you post nonsense. I'm confident most people see you using nonsense to avoid defending the nonsense you posted


    I posted comments from Hannah-Jones and Gay. 

    Roxane Gay said that white people were not offering alternatives, I am sure you can communicate with her.

    You talked alternatives and you talked National Guard.

    I responded to the National Guard portion of your post.

     


    When I  post a link I either explain why I agree with it or why I don't. You post a link without expressing your opinion, though it's become clear over time you only post links that you believe support your views. When your link is challenged you decide to no longer discuss it, or avoid responsibility by claiming you just posted a link and I should discuss it with the author. Still not expressing either agreement or disagreement. Still avoiding the discussion you started.

    They struggle to understand why black people are rioting but offer no alternatives about what a people should do about a lifetime of rage, disempowerment and injustice.

    I think that link is nonsense. I claim there are alternatives offered both by people today and the evidence of history. Do you agree or disagree?  What point were you trying to make by posting that link? Gay posted to defend the riots. Was that the reason you posted it here?

    This is one of the reasons I hate wasting my time trying to talk with you. It's all avoidance and diversion every time anything you post is challenged.


    There was a link mentioning Nikole Hannah-Jones. I remembered a similar view taken by Roxane Gay, so I posted it

    Posted because I understand the frustration 

    The link is not nonsense

    It took months for arrest the murderers of Ahmaud Arbery

    Similar big delay in Botham Jean

    The officer who killed George Floyd had multiple citations

    The Minneapolis and Chicago police are not trusted

    There are still no charges in the murder of Breonna Taylor.

    Edit to add:

    In the short term, there is no alternatives to the protests until things calm down. Meaning the frustration over police abuse, COVID, etc burns itself out.

    2nd Edit to add:

    John Lewis was passing the torch to Black Lives Matter


    What exactly has changed since MLK began his protests in the 60's when he chose an alternative to riots, burning down buildings and looting? Were there numerous citations of police that were routinely ignored? Were the police in major cities like Minneapolis and Chicago trusted back then? Are any of the "accomplishments" achieved by the riots equal to what MLK achieve with alternative means?

    John Lewis was passing the torch to Black Lives Matter

    I'm not sure what your point is. Are you suggesting that John Lewis would also claim that the alternative to riots, burning buildings, and looting that he used in the 60's is no longer an effective alternative today? What leads you to that conclusion?


    You are amusing

    Your candidate loses and you aren't voting

    Where you live is not effected, so you don't care

    But you are oh so willing to give your opinion.

    If you haven't noticed the Voting Rights Act was gutted

    Where did I say that I supported property destruction?
     

     


    You are amusing

    I don't care what you're feeling when you read my posts. I don't care if you're amused, angry, upset, interested, annoyed. What does anything you feel when reading my posts have to do with what I posted about whether alternatives exist to confront problems with the police besides riots, burning buildings, and looting?

    Your candidate loses and you aren't voting

    The question is whether there are alternatives to riots, burning buildings, and looting to confront the problems we face today. Why are the alternatives MLK and Act Up chose to deal with the problems they faced no longer a useful alternative? How does the question of whether I am or am not voting an answer to those questions?

    Is your claim that because I posted that I'm not voting I should have nothing to say on any political question? Kapernick also claims to not voting. Should we also ignore anything he says?


    Where did I say that I supported property destruction?

    Edit to add:

    Kaepernick might have something interesting to say.

    I understand the frustration that leads people to violence.


    Where did I say that I supported property destruction?

    Another diversion tactic. This time with the creation of a strawman. I never said you supported property destruction.

    You posted a link that claimed, "They struggle to understand why black people are rioting but offer no alternatives." I challenged that claim and pointed out some groups that chose an alternative to rioting. Rather than deal with my reasons to challenge that claim you've avoided the discussion and now by ask a completely bullshit question.

    I realize that you will never discuss the quote you linked to this site. You will never discuss why you posted the link. You will never discuss whether it is a valid claim. You will never discuss whether there are other groups that rejected riots and chose an alternative. You will never discuss whether that alternative still exists today, whether it might still be effective or why it might no longer be effective.

    But occasionally I think it's worthwhile to point out the ways you avoid discussing the links you post on this site


    I said that I understood the frustration, I thought that addressed your silly question 

    We are 55 years past Edmund Pettus. The Voting Rights Act was gutted. Donald Trump is President. Moderation. Frustration.


    There is no "Murder" of Breonna Taylor because the cops had a no-knock warrant issued by a judge, and her boyfriend fired first. Repeating this stuff over and over Is painful. The only justice she will get Is changing the rules of engagement, And even prosecuting a cop if possible would miss the bigger point - the rules in the War on Drugs are largely the same as the unmarked police thugs the DHS Is sending into Portland et al - little accountability, every excess legally justified and dismissed, defying reality.


    The police’s incident report contained multiple errors. It listed Ms. Taylor’s injuries as “none,” even though she had been shot at least eight times, and indicated that police had not forced their way into the apartment — though they used a battering ram to break the door open.

    Ms. Taylor’s family also said it was outrageous that the police felt it necessary to conduct the raid in the middle of the night. Their lawyers say the police had already located the main suspect in the investigation by the time they burst into the apartment. But they “then proceeded to spray gunfire into the residence with a total disregard for the value of human life,” according to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by Ms. Taylor’s mother.

    There was no body camera footage from the raid. And, for now, prosecutors have said they had dismissed the charges against Mr. Walker, adding that they would let investigations into the killing run their course before making any final decisions. Some legal experts said the fact that prosecutors dropped charges after a grand jury indictment suggested that they may have doubts aboutthe version of events told by the police.


    Congrats, you just realized there wont be murder charges, didnt you.


    I would be remiss if I failed to say that I don't care. I post my response take it or leave it.


    Ah. I'm not sure why you think this is an important point. Please explain why you not caring adds something to the discussion?

    Since you think this something that needs to be expressed I also don't care. You as a person are absolutely nothing to me. I don't care whether you live or die. You're existence means nothing to me. You're a non entity that happens to post on a site that I also happen to post on. I'll occasionally challenge your posts when I think they are ignorant nonsense. Other than those brief moments I never think about you at all.

    I don't think that adds anything to any discussion we might have here. But I guess you'd think it remiss of me if I didn't make that clear.


    You want a full throated support for the state that things can be done just like they were done 60 years ago by MLK.

    I do not fully believe that is true.  

    It is not clear that Trump will leave if he is defeated

    He stacked the courts with true believers 

    I would bet that gun sales are high

    I am not sure that there will not be bloodshed.


    You want a full throated support for the state that things can be done just like they were done 60 years ago by MLK.

    How does that address your claim that it would be remiss not to tell people you don't care?

    At any rate that's another lie. First I referenced TWO groups that used means other than riots to achieve their goals. One that was founded 25 years after the Civil Rights movement of MLK. Second I simply want to discuss YOUR link that claimed:

    They struggle to understand why black people are rioting but offer no alternatives about what a people should do about a lifetime of rage, disempowerment and injustice.

    This statement is quite obviously nonsense. Not only are there alternatives to riots but many people are discussing them. Not just white people but black leaders in many of the cities experiencing these riots are not just offering them but begging those rioting to stop rioting and use one of the alternatives. You're just unwilling to discuss your link because it's so obviously ridiculous you can't defend it. 


    Last comment 

    Your can continue with your nonsense

    There not be room for moderation 

    Trump sent a private force to Portland

    He may send troops to other cities

    Trump may not accept the results of the election 

    What will the role of the private army be in that case?
     

    Rocane Gay's sentence makes complete sense.


    Your can continue with your nonsense

    Exactly how is it nonsense to post that the statement by Gay, "They struggle to understand why black people are rioting but offer no alternatives about what a people should do" is false because history offers many alternatives and many including black leaders are offering/begging the rioters use those alternatives?

    Trump sent a private force to Portland

    So there should be looting and burning buildings in Minneapolis and Tampa and Philly etc?

    He may send troops to other cities

    Would peaceful protest or looting and burning buildings make that more or less likely?


    "Hi, i'm a dumbass demagogue posting repetitive slogan-like stuff on the internet and dont really care if anyone can make sense of what i write" - Black Lines Dont Matter, amirite?


    I agree that you are a dumbass demagogue 


    I thought that the passing of the torch to BLM was clear

    Toward the end of his life, Lewis expressed support for the contemporary Black Lives Matter movement. Obama said in a statement on Saturday that the last time he saw Lewis was during a virtual town hall with “young activists” who protested over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May.

    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-19/john-lewis-s-example-spurred-black-activists-to-seek-office

    In one of his last public appearances, he posed for a picture in June, standing on the Black Lives Matter Plaza mural painted just outside of the White House amid nationwide protests over the death of George Floyd.

    For the Black Lives Matter generation, the connection to Lewis is deeper than many may realize. As a young man, through clouds of teargas and a hail of billy clubs, Lewis nearly lost his life marching against segregation and for voting rights. As a Georgia congressman, Lewis was generous with his time, taking meetings and sharing stages with activists who, from Sanford, Florida, to Ferguson, Missouri, Baltimore to Minneapolis, also withstood teargas — as well as rubber bullets, pepper spray and arrests — in their own protests against racism.

    “He didn’t have to stand with us, he chose to,” Malkia Devich Cyril, the founder and senior fellow of MediaJustice, which advocates for open and democratic media and technology platforms, told The Associated Press. “That’s real leadership.”

    https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/how-the-black-lives-matter-generation-remembers-john-lewis


    I said "Black Lines" - it was a pun, based on your "i dont really care, do you?" pose


    It got lost after dumbass demagogue 


    Sticks & stones, remember?


    I've posted thoughts from Malcolm Gladwell several times - not exactly white, but very much germane and thinking outside the typical box in what i think addresses a key part if the problem - tactics fit for a heavily crime-ridden block/gang area instead applied to policing at large, which has few of the needed positive results of the former, but overwhelmingly alienates the mostly law-abiding public-at-large.


    Among Gandhi's fasts were those to protest his own side's use of violence, as well as non-acceptance of the Untouchables caste.

    https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fasts_undertaken_by_Mahatma_Gandhi




    And the Democratic governments of these cities have not delivered on that because?

    Why does blue city = lots of gun violence? That is the question that often occurs to swing voters. For decades.

    (And New York City reducing crime to unbelievably low levels under several terms of non-Democratic mayors just confirmed that  prejudice for many. Now there is a Democratic administration again and VOILA, like magic, gun violence starts to wildly spike.)


    Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani misleadingly contrasted his mayoral record on crime with a recent spike in murders under Democratic Mayor Bill de Blasio, citing the uptick as evidence that Democratic mayors are “a danger to their people.”

    Major crimes are down under de Blasio, and while there has been a surge in murders so far this year, the annual number of murders under de Blasio has been about half as high as it was in Giuliani’s best year.

    https://www.factcheck.org/2020/07/giulianis-misleading-attack-on-de-blasio-and-crime/


    from your link. THIS IS ALL WE ARE TALKING ABOUT HERE,THE HERE AND NOW THAT THE TRUMP CAMPAIGN IS TAKING ADVANTAGE OF:

    A Change in 2020

    There has been, however, an upswing in gun violence and murder in 2020.

    According to police department data, there have been 166 murders in New York City in 2020 through June 21. That’s nearly 24% higher than the 134 murders over the same period last year. Over a 28-day period ending June 21, there were 34 murders, roughly 48% higher than the 23 over the same 28-day period last year.

    According to the New York Times, the number of shootings in the first three weeks of June surged to 125, more than double the number over the same three-week period last year. The spike comes amid rising tensions from protests and riots after George Floyd’s death while in police custody in Minneapolis on May 25. It is a trend the Times said has been happening in other large cities around the country.

    “I have been studying this for a long time. I have never seen that much of an increase ever,” Christopher Herrmann, a professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice who once analyzed crime statistics for the New York City Police Department, told the New York Times.

    But it is still a small sample size.

    “So far this year, murders and shootings are up,” Sharkey told us. “It’s usually not wise to extrapolate based on short periods of time, because it often fluctuates. That said, the trends so far this year suggest that the level of violence will be higher this year than last year.”

    Andrew Karmen, a professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City, cautioned us via email that the spike may only be temporary.

    And, he said, it is going up this year during a pandemic, high unemployment “and a new wave of political activism.”

    as always, you are changing the subject to the past and/or expanding it, because you want to deflect from what's going on because you don't have an answer.

    I am not interested in being dragged into your choice of topic.

    Go to the top of the page, watch the ad, see what Trump is saying on topic today and yesterday.

    Whether the skyrocketing crime rate is temporary or permanent, it is being used now and through the November election.

    I am interested in talking about the Trump campaign using the skyrocketing crime rate in blue cities RIGHT NOW BEGINNING SOON AFTER GEO. FLOYD PROTESTS to try to win the election.

    And I was asking you what blue city governments should respond to the CURRENT accusation they are failing their citizens. And that Biden would make it worse (as per the advertising.)

    But please, don't answer anymore, I see you are not interested in being focused on the topic.


    Furthermore, you just look ridiculously in denial of the skyrocketing numbers of gun violence in big U.S. cities! The mayors themselves are complaining about it. Even DeBlasio. You're acting just like Trump: believe hard enough that something really happening is not real, cherry pick stories to back your delusion up. It's there, just like coronavirus, deal with it somehow other than denial.


    There is no magic solution to the gun problem, especially with a Trump administration 

    Democrats have talked about gun violence as a public health problem and have gun control proposals.

    The guns are not going to magically disappear.

    The question for the voting public is if they think that he will solve the problem or aggravate the problem 

    We have seen suburban moms gassed in Portland

    Last night, federal officers gassed the Mayor of Portland as he was having a peaceful conversation with protestors.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/portland-protest-tear-gas-mayor.html

    The question before the country will be if the secret police approach is the one they desire


    There is no magic solution to the racism problem, especially with a Trump administration 

    Democrats have talked about racial violence as a public health problem and have anti-racism proposals.

    Racism is not going to magically disappear.

    The question for the voting public is if they think that he will solve the problem or aggravate the problem 

    We have seen suburban moms gassed in Portland

    Last night, federal officers gassed the Mayor of Portland as he was having a peaceful conversation with protestors.

    https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/23/us/portland-protest-tear-gas-mayor.html

    The question before the country will be if the secret police approach is the one they desire


    Lori Lightfoot, Mayor of Chicago

    This was a notable omission given that guns were the No. 1 priority in a letter that Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot sent to Trump on Monday outlining what he could do if he really wanted to help reduce violence in her city.

    “Starting with passing common sense gun legislation,” Lightfoot said again at a press conference on Tuesday afternoon. “One of the major drivers of the violence in Chicago is we have way too many illegal crime guns on our streets every day.”

    She noted that police in Chicago seize more illegal guns each year than in New York and Los Angeles combined. 

    “The reason is we’re surrounded by streets that have much more lax gun regulations,” she said. “We need the federal government to help crack down on the gun trafficking that is routine unfortunately in our city and ends up in the death of our children.”

    She noted, “If the president wants to do something right now, he could do that.”

    https://www.thedailybeast.com/what-trump-is-leaving-out-of-his-anti-crime-blitz-operation-legend?source=articles&via=rss

     

    Democratic Presidential candidates

    A significant policy shift on gun violence is taking place among contenders for the Democratic presidential nomination, with some now calling gun violence a "public-health crisis" that requires a public-health approach to tackle the issue.

    https://www.businessinsider.com/presidential-candidates-calling-gun-violence-public-health-crisis-2019-8

     

     


    now that story is reporting some interesting stuff going on. Especially this. This is how democracy works:

    “A lot of these people hate my guts,” Mr. Wheeler said in an interview, looking around at the crowd. But he said they were unified in wanting federal officers gone.

    So the question is: how are the people who hate his guts gonna vote for mayor next time.

    Let me be clear here: the mayor is a member of the Democratic party. And he says a lot of the protesters hate his guts. So in this case of Barr's federal goons, the enemy of my enemy is my friend.

    Or maybe, just maybe some of the protesters LIKE having fascist behavior to fight against., maybe they are thrilled to have Barr's Federal goons show up because things were getting boring, dying down.

     Then go back to: how does the "silent majority", who prefer to actually vote, rather than getting into fighting on the streets as a career, feel about that?

    Edit to add: things were dying down until the Federal goons showed up. But initially,  what they were protesting was the mayor's world, how the mayor and his party were handling things. Apparently, turned out he wasn't quite fascist enough to keep the masses angry and energized?


    EXCELLENT argument (at the site many lefties love to hate):


    heh, and this would be an excellent addition:

    why not be proud of your new force, show it off at the convention! heck you could also send them to surround residences of any Never Trumpers to keep them away...


    From the Reason article

    "We cannot give up liberty for security," Sen. Rand Paul (R–Ky.) warnedon Monday. "Local law enforcement can and should be handling these situations in our cities, but there is no place for federal troops or unidentified federal agents rounding people up at will."

    In a federal lawsuit filed on Friday, Oregon Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, citing the accounts of protesters who said they had been subjected to such treatment, argues that the Marshals Service and several Homeland Security agencies thereby violated their First, Fourth, and Fifth Amendment rights. "Every American should be repulsed when they see this happening," she said. "If this can happen here in Portland, it can happen anywhere."

    This is a Constitutional issue


     



    “I worked hard to put more than 100,000 police on the street and the crime rate went way down.”

    –Former President Bill Clinton, in an interview on CNN, Sept. 24, 2014

    During Clinton’s presidency, his 1994 proposal to have the federal government pay for 100,000 additional police officers was one of his signature talking points—and certainly helped neutralize GOP attacks about Democrats being weak on crime. Meanwhile, there’s no doubt that the crime rate went down dramatically during his presidency.

    But does one thing have much to do with the other? [....}

    Just a reminder of a major 1994 campaign talking point. from Bill Clinton’s claim that 100,000 cops sent the crime rate ‘way down’ by Glenn Kessler @ WashingtonPost.com/ Factchecker,  September 26, 2014


    I saw the Trump campaign ad run several more times last night on CNN and I just saw it once again tonight. So they must be getting something out of it.

    I am starting to look for what the Biden campaign is saying in response and especially what Never Trumper types think is wise as in how to react.  Not necessarily because I think this will help Trump himself win, but I do think it may hurt other Dem candidates from national races, state races and across the board to a very local level. And Biden will not be very effective if he has to deal with lots of Republican wins.

    Here's one I just ran across:

     

    What we are seeing in Portland is un-American, illegal and unconstitutional. #EndTheNightmare pic.twitter.com/MpRbZSs6IX

    — Republicans for Joe Biden (@RepsForBiden) July 22, 2020

     

    That would appeal to libertarian type swing voters who are appalled at Barr's army, that's who that's targeting. It doesn't address the skyrocketing gun crime rate in cities.

    Others pointing stuff out would be very welcome.

    I am interested in learning whether this has changed or can be changed in our current national predicament: that Republicans win when the issue is "law and order".

    One thing is clear so far to me: Trump's campaign was on this, and Barr was probably on it, too, way before Trump himself was on it. He had to have it pointed out to him! A couple days ago he was still talking about how the Dems were trying to reduce water flow in your shower...Truth be told, what I have seen him do so far by himself, tweets and statements, they are not that impressive. He just says he's the law and order guy and the blue cities need to be controlled. He doesn't try to strike passion and fear about skyrocketing crime in a pandemic like a really good political demagogue could. 

    Further, this important reminder: when first asked about the George Floyd video, Trump was sympathetic! His own immediate impulse was not to stoke the need for more police but sort of pro-BLM!

     


    My guess Is Hlhe gave ambivalent answers so could decide ontl which side of the story looks its best.


    Very good guess, because it reminds me of how often he does that! The demagogue stuff is almost all repetition of old memes which proved successful in his campaign?  And when he could have rallies, he'd repeat those mostly, "variations on a meme." When he's first confronted with something truly new to him, that he can't fit into the Trump memebook, he's often kind of meek at first? Or babbles nonsense. That said, "law and order" is a very old meme with him, going back to at least Central Park Jogger case, he actually spent a lot on helping frame those kids. He was outraged what the wilding thing was doing to "his" city.



    very good point I did not think of--doh--BATTLEGROUND STATES included in Barr's plan:

    BARR'S PLAN (PART 2)

    6⃣ Under cover of addressing "mob violence," pivot to "violence" generally, announcing that federal forces will enter battleground states—Florida, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Missouri, New Mexico—to conduct "classic crime-fighting" tasks local police can handle. pic.twitter.com/Wd8aEiUGgR

    — Seth Abramson (@SethAbramson) July 22, 2020

    a point to ponder already made on this thread but made far more succinctly here. (By a best-selling author and a Pulitzer winner, natch)

    We waste a lotta woids?


    As rmrd has pointed out, there's no alternative to riots. It's have a riot and do nothing.


    Yeah, it's like he didn't read the news that unfortunately the people of Chicago elected a mayor who is not always fully supportive of riots.


    I'm sure she's an anomaly. Atlanta mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms is all in for a good riot.

     


    Glad you brought her up. A reminder that she was in quarantine, positive coronavirus and has to deal with a lawsuit from the Gov. about face masks. So went to check her Twitter feed to see if she was really sick or something like that. And I found these tweets that really touched me. She wasn't kidding lecturing about  knowing the correct way to protest, about being up close and personal with the civil rights movement:

    check her feed, you'll see she also made time to be on Joy Reid's first show and was on Jimmy Fallon this evening.

     


    Actually you brought her up. I don't watch many videos and wouldn't have seen it if you hadn't linked it here. It was a strong speech so I'm likely to pay some attention to her going forward to see what else she has to say. So thanks for that, and this.


    If they don't "take Trump's bait" he will declare a win. "Only I could save that city!"

    If they keep protesting, could be a win for Trump with much higher violence.  Unless .... there is just a never ending continuation of what we've seen in Portland, his officers beating up peaceful veterans, women,  people .. and doing blatantly illegal kidnapping, etc. 

    Trump would hope that blood filled the streets - if protests continue - doesn't matter whose blood, although he'd prefer officers.  He would proclaim - this is your city, town, street !!!! .... if defund the police, disconnect 911 radical liberal dangerous Joe Biden is elected...!!!!!


    Geez looks like so far Barr's army is not having much luck finding miscreants that the locals don't want to handle

    Maybe they're keeping them all in a dungeon somewhere?Or perhaps a Trump property with empty rooms?

     


    As far as Chicago goes, though, I would be remiss if I didn't mention that I thought it somewhat surprising that an ATF agent appeared in a photo of the scene of the funeral shooting soon after the shooting:

    All it signaled to me at the time is that Fed ATF agents may have been working closely with Chicago PD for quite some time, given they have such a long-term problem with illegal firearms brought in from surrounding states.

    Although now going over that whole thread, I am reminded that Mayor Lightfoot seemed plenty upset at the Grant Park protesters attacking the police, and those protesters threatened her personal home the very next night. And then there's that that police union guy signaled to Trump that he wanted help.

    I suspect we don't know the full story of what's going on in Chicago yet between Mayor, PD and Feds.


    FWIW, this morning the NYPD evicted a long-term protest encampment at City Hall Park which was known as "Occupy City Hall". They gave 10 minutes warning. Had to arrest 7 but that happened without much incident. Here's a video report NYPD remove protesters, homeless people from City Hall Park encampment, 7 arrested I just saw another anchor person give a report, she said that it would still be closed for workers to clean up all the graffitti and mess.

    No big news about that, no outrage that I know of about that.

    Most mayors are asking people to quit and go home now. I.E., message heard, time to go home now. I heard the mayor of Portland say exactly that last night on CNN (very politely) after explaining his objection to the goons.

    Cuomo said the same thing weeks ago, pointing out the reforms passed in the state legislature.

    Minnesota just passed reforms.

    SERIOUSLY, now: I've watched lots of videos of the Portland protests now. They've been going on for over 50 days. I haven't seen anything much about BLM. What are they protesting, exactly? They are attacking Federal buildings. Many of the regulars are diehard anarchists.  It seems the renewed growth in the last couple days with groups like the Moms are more of a protest against Trump goons. Which is exactly what Barr wants. 

    And Saltz points out in his tweet, they're probably looking for good footage that they can edit down to some anarchist protesters attacking and the goons protecting the government property.


    Many of the regulars are diehard anarchists.

    I doubt that is true for but a very few of them. I think that most are not die-hard anarchists but are instead anarchists  of the moment. They do not have a developed attachment to any ideology. But there is a lot of energy there. Right now, for quite a few legitimate and a few bullshit reasons, they think they have nothing to lose. That is fertile ground for anarchy. The expected response can create an ugly feedback loop. 


    good correction, Lulu, I was placing fast and loose with my adjectives without too much thought. I agree with you from what I looked at. 


    Regarding the goons, Barr thinks that a good way to attract the votes of white suburban women is to gas white suburban women?


    Apparently the goon squad in Portland complicated by the fact that it's been issued as part of something that's been going on for some time:

    CBP has deployed 2,174 personnel, 46 aircraft and 2 drones to assist dozens of police departments across the country since June, per CBP document leaked to me.

    This operation is much, much bigger than just Portland:https://t.co/2MYNaX42Xu pic.twitter.com/3X91mLjzqd

    — Ken Klippenstein (@kenklippenstein) July 23, 2020


    ACLU on same:


    Democratic Mayor Lightfoot not very popular with Chicago protesters tonight, here they are chanting outside outside the block her house is on

    Folks are chanting, “Where’s @LoriLightfoot? Getcho ass up out the house” as more officers pull up. pic.twitter.com/RkmJOPMDzk

    — Diego Garcia (@Diego4Change) July 24, 2020

    Even though she has had the Columbus statue in Grant Park removed this very night:

    The Columbus statue in Grant Park is being removed. #chicago https://t.co/x7soBYWiOq

    — Peter Nickeas (@PeterNickeas) July 24, 2020

    I've seen some conservatives suggest (like in National Review op-ed) that she asked Trump for federal help policing, and have seen right wingers retweet that, but I haven't found any other confirmation of that and I don't know if that's true or if they know about it. I don't know why they are focusing protest on her


    It's probably the same reason as here with Mayor Frei of Minneapolis, certainly the protest technique is remarkably similar:

    #StruggleSession https://t.co/dieMuzXn82

    — James Lindsay, toxic scholar (@ConceptualJames) June 7, 2020

    He is also a liberal Democrat. He fired the officers involved and could not interfere with the prosecutor's decisions.

    I wonder who is going to run for these offices in the future. Why bother, the kids want their anarchy and all you'll get is grief.

    Can't wait for the inevitable protests against the fascist Biden, oh boy.


    You always see doom and gloom for Democrats 

    There is a right to protest

    Trump secret police

    From Home Security directors Tom Ridge and Jeh Johnson disagree with the action

    Eric Holder disagrees with the action

    The secret police gassed a group of moms

    The secret police broke the hand of a Navy vet

    Tge secret police gassed the Mayor

    I don't see the secret police, Barr, or Trump benefiting 

    Trump screwed up the COVID response

    Trump says he got double points on a senility test

    Point Biden


    You dong see rightwing benefitting because you're not in QAnon or DailyCaller or RedState or other right wing Facebook Channel, and you dont understand what chaos buys them in the heartland and in the cities, especially going into elections with potential "state of emergency" measures. And Trump's approval rating is still over 40% - close to the 42% he's maintained for *years* now.

    A list of ex-officeholders and Democrats and victims does not an argument make. Hillary got 65 million votes - obviously you can find some names.


    I dong see the current polls reflecting damage to Biden. I see a Navy vet pissed off enough to show up and I see suburban moms concerned enough to show up to protest.


    Polls dong vote; polls dong call out secret police to take over polling stations. The Republicans have had a lock on dodgy voting machines for 2 decades as well - Roger Stone helped steal 2 elections. Biden can join Gore, Kerry and Hillary in the "nice Dems who graciously conceded in the face of horrific vote "irregularities"

    http://dagblog.com/reader-blogs/wakeup-trump-doesnt-need-majority-30165


    What you say is true. Republicans can and will cheat. 

    The image of the secret police is not a winning image for Trump, it actually makes the protestors sympathetic.

    Edit to add:

    Republicans are scumbags

    Yoho called AOC a female dog in front of witnesses then lied about what he said

    He is a religious zealot who thinks that he is doing God's will.

    Republicans will cheat

    They will cheat if there are protesters 

    They will cheat if there are no protesters 
     


    Republicans are scumbags

    Trump-style stereotyping and cancel culture right there. You do it all the time.

    Mitt Romney is a 100% scumbag?

    To be this partisan, it's not just childish and erases reality, and shades of gray.

    Biden does not agree with you on this, by the way, you're going to be disappointed when he doesn't treat them all like scumbags.

    And guess what, maybe you haven't learned it yet but Trump is not a loyal Republican. Many of the people who have been fired from Trump's administration by Trump, those are loyal Republicans.


    Romney is not a100% scumbag.

    Edit to add:

    Name the Republicans you would trust to rebuild tha Affordable Care Act?


    Here's my answer to you trying to change the subject. that partisan name calling is not  a liberal thing to do.

    That said, since you bring it up, I am not a big fan  of the Affordable Care Act, which is actually not "Obamacare", it was adjusted to be much more like  Romneycare, the health insurance installed in Massachusetts by Republican Governor Romney in order that more Republicans would vote for it. No surprise that Vice President Joe Biden is partly responsible for that, he has decades of experience making sausage with Republicans.

    Again, you confuse Trump and his effects with Republicans at large. State and local Republicans still maintain a lot of independence from him.

    And I'd like to add that Governors in general, of both parties, have more to do with what happens to the daily lives of citizens than the President or Senators.


    I'd also like to respond to the meme out there, that the 1st Amendment Is bonding to the government, not between people, So if we dont like your view we just show you the door. Except we have kind of a tradition and expectation of messy free speech on the person-to-person level that presumes some listening, some respect. And if we give that up to shaming and cancelling, we lose the power that many credit for our Triumph over the Soviet Union - our ability to absorb and transmit And adapt to News & real information rather than propaganda and yes-men answers, more than any spying our weapons systems.


    No I see that all these protesters are protesting against Democrats, that's what I see.

    You mainly only seem to care about national races, the presidential race and U.S. Congress. As if that is going to solve everything, Iike a child would think.

    You don't ever seem to acknowledge how unhappy people are with the Democratic party elsewhere, the people who actually have something to do with things that affect their daily lives. It's right in front of you're eyes and your lauding it as if they were protesting Trump when the are protesting against Democratic mayors.

    The young out protesting don't seem to give a shit about Trump, they are not bothering to protest against him until he started sending goons to "help" Democratic locals who are being protested against! 

    Show me one protest where they are protesting against local Republican government.

    I dare say many of their generation also like them some Gov. De Santis types who are encouraging them to party.

    It scares me for my own future as I think they are all going to give President Biden a ton of trouble no matter what he tries to do.

    (And make no mistake yourself, one of the things he is going to do is try to work across the aisle with Republicans, he's done it all his life is proud of it and isn't going to stop now. If you think he's with the AOC section of the Democratic party, you got a big surprise coming. And you are in total partisan denial that the bad policing and the high crime rates in cities are happening under Democratic control.)

    Your extreme partisanship is blinding you to reality.




    countering some lecturers at Dagblog that all Trump voters are racists, Vanity Fair has access to an important Dem poll that purportedly showed that not only swings but many "soft" Trump supporters have switched their allegiance due to Trump's reaction to Black Lives Matter protests:

    “TRUMP COULD NOT BE MORE ON THE WRONG SIDE”: NEW POLL SHOWS TRUMP’S BLACK LIVES MATTER PROTEST RESPONSE COULD COST HIM 2020

    Exclusive polling suggests the protests changed Americans’ minds so quickly, and so profoundly, that Trump planted himself even further on the wrong side of public opinion than previously understood.

    By Peter Hamby @ VanityFair.com, July 24

    [....] Shortly after the killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on May 25, the Democratic research firm Avalanche went into nine battleground states—Arizona, Colorado, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Georgia, North Carolina, Iowa, and Pennsylvania—to measure how segments of Americans were reacting to the protests. Unlike most pollsters at the time, Avalanche surveyed two large back-to-back samples of 6,986 registered and unregistered total voters—one on June 1 and a second on June 10 and 11—allowing it to track how sentiments changed during what might have been the most consequential chapter of the protests. Like most polls, Avalanche found widespread support for the protests by June 11, with 68% of respondents saying the protesters were “completely right” or “somewhat right.” But rather than measuring responses by self-identified partisanship—Democrat, Republican, independent—Avalanche measured by vote choice. It organized respondents into five segments: Vote Trump, Lean Trump, Mixed Feelings, Lean Biden, and Vote Biden.

    Avalanche found resounding support for the protests not just among Biden supporters, but among persuadable voters and even soft Trump supporters. The hardcore Vote Trump respondents were against the protests, with 56% opposing them. But among the softer Lean Trump set, an eye-opening 59% said the protesters were “completely right” or “somewhat right”—probably not what the president had in mind when he commandeered Lafayette Square. And 72% of Americans with Mixed Feelings about the presidential race—precious undecided voters—said the protesters were right too. “There’s not a lot of issues where you get even a strong majority of Americans on the same page,” said Michiah Prull, the CEO of Avalanche. “It speaks to that historic moment, and it speaks to a degree of national alignment on something that's honestly pretty rare these days.”

    But just as remarkable were the shifts among those persuadables in the 10 days between June 1 and June 11, a window that opened with burning cities and Trump’s march to St. John’s Church, but concluded with mostly peaceful demonstrations nationwide. During that period Avalanche found that support for the protests grew 10 points among Mixed Feelings voters, 14 points among Lean Biden voters, and a head-spinning 25 points among Lean Trump voters. “I had never in my research career seen public opinion shift on the scale in this time frame,” Prull said. “When we look at this from electoral context, when you see a 25-point swing in Lean Trump supporters from disapproving of the protests to at least somewhat agreeing with them, that’s just a scale of public opinion shift you don’t see in this line of work very often.”

    The reasons persuadables moved from opposing to supporting the protests, Prull said, can mostly be attributed to the demonstrations growing and becoming largely peaceful by their second week, with human stories of everyday police brutality saturating the media environment. Trump’s strongman performance on June 1 did almost nothing to turn public opinion against the demonstrations. Instead it likely backfired. “Between those two dates, the big driver that I see is the protests becoming larger and even more peaceful each day,” Prull told me. “The story was being told by people who are being hurt by police every day, and the empathy with that, and frankly the reasonableness of that, was breaking through. And then the president tear-gassing protestors outside the White House lawn, I think, was a nontrivial part of this. You had the draconian response of the government, and then the protests just seemed even more reasonable when it was a bunch of regular people being tear-gassed in the middle of Washington D.C. for the sake of a photo op.” [....]

    This would certainly explain some of Biden's recent public behavior and talking points for me. Remains to be seen whether things change again if violence at protests ramps up.


    For the record, Trump's own argument today as of 4 hrs. ago--I guess after golf and dinner, so relaxed:


    But it also should be noted that 9 hrs. ago, there were enemies everywhere:


    He's trying this related meme:



    Whatever it turns out to be, no doubt he's not going to follow it, but that's another thing:


    Arta's suspicions on this were correct. The House Republicans have been instructed by leader Kevin McCarthy (informed by the best political advisers money can buy) that these are the top three attacks they should use on Democrats:

    The messaging also ascribes "three Ds" to Democrats:

    1. "Defund our police, border patrol, and military."
    2. "Dismantle our social, economic, and political institutions."
    3. "Destroy our small businesses and entrepreneurs with crushing taxes and regulation" — the GOP leader pointed to the destruction of monuments during recent protests.

    Those are the negative campaigning recommends, here's the positive:

    The plan highlights "three R's" that Republicans should exhaust on the campaign trail this fall.

    1. "Renew the American Dream" (focused on individuals): School choice, workforce training, expanding broadband in rural communities & 5G, protecting individual freedoms.
    2. "Restore our Way of Life" (focused on communities): Defeating the coronavirus, protecting Americans' health, reopening safely and responsibly, ensuring safe neighborhoods.
    3. "Rebuild the Greatest Economy Ever" (a nationwide goal): Tax deregulation, fixing roads & bridges, "America First" and China-critical messaging around trade and supply chains.

    from Exclusive: Inside McCarthy's new GOP messaging platform by Alayna Treene @ Axios.com, Aug. 4

     


    Yup, Barr for sure is sticking with this meme:


    He likes the talking points he heard on Fox this morning (better than what his own campaign is saying he should say, no doubt):

    The tell: he doesn't know anything about what Corey Booker did until he heard Fox's spin on it this morning.