July 24, 2020

How to safeguard against the worst possible outcomes in November

What can U.S. citizens do to help protect the integrity of our November presidential election, after President Trump’s refusal last Sunday to pledge he’ll accept the outcome and his unfounded claims that the election could be “rigged”?

Be prepared, is the obvious first requirement. Knowing there’s likely to be a challenge to November’s results, state election officials should work diligently to provide safe and secure ways to count the votes, in-person and absentee. The coronavirus pandemic makes this planning harder — and more essential.

Be patient, is the second obligation. It may take a week after the Nov. 3 vote to confirm a reliable national tally. Partisans on both sides will be tempted to mount raucous demonstrations while the tense vote count continues. But that would play into Trump’s hands. As the country moves toward a possible political transition, law and order — and their essential companion, justice — will be the people’s friend.

The United States isn’t Russia or China, whatever fantasies of lifetime rule Trump may entertain. Our top military leaders — from Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on down — have stated emphatically that their oath is to the Constitution, not to Trump. And the Supreme Court under Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. this year reaffirmed the independence and the integrity of our judicial system.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-to-safeguard-against-the-worst-possible-outcomes-in-november/2020/07/23/4352d422-cd23-11ea-b0e3-d55bda07d66a_story.html

July 24, 2020

Trump's China policy has no strategy -- except to boost his reelection campaign

THE UNITED STATES should be leading democratic nations in resisting China’s tightening totalitarianism and escalating belligerence. Instead, President Trump is pursuing a reckless, incoherent and unilateral offensive against Beijing that appears designed to boost his reelection campaign, not manage the complicated challenge posed by the regime of Xi Jinping.

The State Department’s abrupt order shutting down the Chinese Consulate in Houston this week is a case study in Mr. Trump’s counterproductivity. It will inevitably lead to the permanent closure of a comparable U.S. mission in China — probably in Wuhan, where the covid-19 epidemic originated. That will reduce channels of communication and diminish U.S.?understanding of China’s domestic situation, while doing next to nothing to address the offensive activities of the Xi regime, from its crackdown in Hong Kong to its attempts to spy on Americans and steal U.S. technology.

U.S. officials are describing the Houston consulate as a nest of espionage activities, though they have offered no evidence to back that up. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo portrayed the closure as sending a message: “We are setting out clear expectations for how the Chinese Communist Party is going to behave, and when they don’t, we’re going to take actions that protect the American people, protect our security, our national security, and also protect our economy and jobs.”

That’s good campaign rhetoric — but closing consulates won’t accomplish those aims. Most Chinese hacking and spying is directed from China, not Houston. Many of the other measures Mr. Trump has taken, from imposing tariffs on U.S.-China trade to restricting student visas, have damaged the U.S. economy and cost jobs without changing Chinese behavior.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/global-opinions/trumps-china-policy-has-no-strategy--except-to-boost-his-reelection-campaign/2020/07/23/9a46c32e-ccf1-11ea-b0e3-d55bda07d66a_story.html

July 23, 2020

Republicans squabble over whether to let the economy burn

Back on June 5, President Trump declared, “Today is probably, if you think of it, the greatest comeback in American history.” The occasion was a month of job growth, which he said was so spectacular that George Floyd was beaming about it from heaven. “This is a great day for him," Trump said. "It’s a great day for everybody.”

The “comeback" has not turned out to be quite so glorious. On Thursday, it was reported that 2.3 million Americans filed for unemployment insurance, the 18th straight week in which that number exceeded 1 million. In Congress, this continued economic catastrophe has set Republicans fighting with one another, as their small-government ideology crashes against an economic nightmare that could cost them the White House and the Senate.

To begin, we should note that while most headlines are citing 1.4 million as the number of newly unemployed, that figure covers only those applying for traditional state unemployment insurance. When you add in those who applied to the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program — which was set up for gig workers and others who aren’t eligible for ordinary UI — the total is 2.3 million for this past week. That brings the total number of Americans either on unemployment or waiting to get approved to a stunning 34 million.

So Republicans are grudgingly coming around to providing another round of assistance to the economy.

The first thing they’ve done is drop Trump’s demand for a payroll tax cut, because it was a dumb idea that no one except Trump liked. But Republicans are still squabbling among themselves, particularly over how much help to give those tens of millions of unemployed Americans.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/07/23/republicans-squabble-over-whether-let-economy-burn/

July 23, 2020

Trump knows he's going to lose. He's already salting the earth behind him.

How can you tell President Trump thinks he’s going to lose in November? Because he has already begun salting the earth behind him.

And his fellow Republicans are helping by sabotaging key institutions that the next (presumably Democratic) president will inherit.

On Tuesday, the Republican-controlled Senate Banking Committee approved Trump’s latest two picks for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. One of these nominees, Christopher Waller, would be a competent, reasonable, totally qualified addition to the most powerful economic body in the world.

The other is Judy Shelton.

Shelton, a professional crank, has previously suggested that the Fed shouldn’t exist. She has repeatedly likened the Fed to a “Soviet State Planning Committee” because the central bank, rather than the quantity of gold, controls the money supply. Shelton has spent her career trying to bring back the gold standard, a monetary system abandoned worldwide and roundly rejected by economists.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/trump-knows-hes-going-to-lose-hes-already-salting-the-earth-behind-him/2020/07/23/9a506016-cce5-11ea-91f1-28aca4d833a0_story.html

July 23, 2020

Tropical Storm Gonzalo expected to become first hurricane of 2020; tropical depression 8 forms

Source: Tampa Bay Times



Tropical Storm Gonzalo is expected to develop into the first hurricane of the 2020 season Thursday morning as it continues its westbound journey.

Gonzalo, moving at 12 mph, is about 970 miles east of the southern Windward Islands with maximum sustained winds of 65 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The NHC issued a Hurricane Watch for Babados, meaning hurricane conditions are possible for the area over the next 48 hours before tropical-storm-force winds are felt.

While Gonzalo is developing quickly and is expected to gain strength over the next two days, meteorologists aren't expecting it to remain in the Atlantic for very long as it trudges through areas of dry air and high wind shear on Saturday, said FOX 35 meteorologist Jayme King.

Read more: https://www.tampabay.com/hurricane/2020/07/23/tropical-storm-gonzalo-expected-to-become-first-hurricane-of-2020-tropical-depression-8-forms-in-gulf/

July 23, 2020

Trump's malicious, lawless census change may be just the beginning of new outrages

President Trump believes he’s found a clever way to circumvent Congress and the Constitution while, for good measure, imposing his lawlessness on a subsequent administration.

Trump unveiled his fresh idea on Tuesday with a memorandum purporting to define a new federal “policy”: Unlawful immigrants must not be counted in the census.

There’s an obvious problem here. The 14th Amendment specifies that congressional representatives be apportioned according to “the whole number of persons in each state.” As the Supreme Court has held unanimously, that provision requires the census to take account of each state’s “total population” and include “all inhabitants.”

Trump’s declaration specifically excludes some inhabitants, and the courts can be expected to strike it down without breaking a sweat. Still, it’s worth unpacking Trump’s twisted logic, both to understand a power play the president will probably try again and to appreciate his boundless malice.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-07-23/donald-trump-john-yoo-immigrant-census

July 23, 2020

Mitch McConnell is twiddling his thumbs as American workers head toward a financial cliff

Congress responded to the spreading COVID-19 pandemic in March with astonishing speed (by congressional standards), enacting three bipartisan-backed measures in quick succession to increase coronavirus testing, extend sick leave to more workers and, most dramatically, inject more than $2 trillion into the collapsing U.S. economy.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has shown no such urgency since then. And now, one of the most important elements of the third measure, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, is about to expire, slashing benefits to millions of laid-off Americans even though unemployment is worse now than in the depths of the Great Recession. The CARES Act increased unemployment benefits by $600 a week, but that support is set to end this week.

Lawmakers are reportedly considering a temporary extension of the benefits to give them more time to work out a deal on a new relief package, something they should already have negotiated. They are so far apart that McConnell laughed Tuesday when asked whether Congress could pass a bill by the end of the month.

Of course, the situation is the furthest thing from funny. The list of needs that Congress has to address is long, starting with a persistent shortage of COVID-19 tests. The most immediate concern, though, is the looming drop in unemployment benefits. It arguably made sense in March to limit the duration of the $600 add-on; what we’ve seen, however, is a stubbornly resilient pandemic that surged after the stay-home orders were lifted. In mid-July, more than a million people were still filing new unemployment claims weekly and more than 17 million Americans were still without jobs.

https://www.latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-07-23/mcconnell-600-unemployment-benefit-pandemic

I believe we are heading for economic disaster in the fall.

July 23, 2020

God Help Us if Judy Shelton Joins the Fed

Trump’s latest unqualified nominee to the Federal Reserve Board must be rejected.

Having failed in past attempts to put unqualified ideologues on the Federal Reserve Board, President Trump is giving it another try — and is closer to victory than previously.

The nominee in question — Judy Shelton, known for taking long-discredited positions on the monetary system — makes Mr. Trump’s earlier rejected choices seem almost conventional. Among other heretical stances, she has supported the abolition of the Federal Reserve itself, putting her in a position to undermine the very institution she is being nominated to serve.

“Why do we need a central bank?” Ms. Shelton asked in a Wall Street Journal essay in 2009. She wants monetary policy set by the price of gold, a long-abandoned approach that would be akin to a Supreme Court justice embracing the Code of Hammurabi.

Regrettably, after much hesitation and with evident reluctance even from Republicans, the Senate Banking Committee voted Tuesday to advance Ms. Shelton’s nomination to the full Senate. We mustn’t let her nomination become overshadowed by the many other daunting challenges we face at the moment. When her name reaches the full Senate floor, four Republicans must find the courage to join the Democrats in voting no and rebuffing her appointment.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/opinion/federal-reserve-judy-shelton.html

July 23, 2020

Florida adds 173 coronavirus deaths Thursday, a new daily record

Source: Tampa Bay Times

The state recorded more than 10,000 coronavirus infections.

Florida added a record-high number of coronavirus deaths Thursday, announcing 173 more fatalities and bringing the overall death toll from the virus up to 5,632.

The weekly death average also continued to rise, reaching 121 people per day.

The Tampa Bay area added 1,300 infections and 55 deaths on Thursday. Most of those cases came out of Hillsborough County.

Florida logged 10,249 coronavirus infections on Thursday, bringing the total recorded since March to 389,868 cases. The percentage of positive tests added Thursday was 12 percent. Hospitalizations rose by 403 admissions. About six percent of all coronavirus cases in Florida have resulted in hospitalization.

Read more: https://www.tampabay.com/news/health/2020/07/23/florida-adds-173-coronavirus-deaths-thursday-a-new-daily-record/

July 23, 2020

In North Carolina, unpaid utility bills are driving families and cities to the financial brink

As many as 1 million families in North Carolina have fallen behind on their electric, water and sewage bills, threatening residents and their cities with severe financial hardship unless federal lawmakers act to approve more emergency aid.

The trouble stems from the widespread economic havoc wrought by the coronavirus, which has left millions of workers out of a job and struggling to cover their monthly costs. Together, they’ve been late or missed a total of $218 million in utility payments between April 1 and the end of June, according to data released recently by the state, nearly double the amount in arrears at this time last year.

In some cases, cities that own or operate their own utilities have been forced to absorb these losses, creating a dire situation in which the government’s attempt to save people from the financial brink instead has pushed municipal coffers to their own breaking point.

In Elizabeth City, N.C., for example, about 2,500 residents haven’t paid their electric bills on time, according to Richard Olson, the city manager. The late payments at one point proved so problematic that Olson said he calculated Elizabeth City wouldn’t have enough money to pay for its expenses in July. In response, city leaders requested and obtained a waiver from a statewide order, issued in March, that protects people from being penalized for their past-due utility bills.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/23/north-carolina-utility-bills-coronavirus/

We ain't seen nothin' yet...