October 18, 2020

Presidential polls: The numbers that prove Biden is stronger than Obama and Clinton

(Independent UK) Joe Biden is polling at this stage of the race not only far better than Hillary Clinton did in the entire 2016 cycle but also even better than the man for whom he served as vice president, Barack Obama.

Nationally, Biden is at 51.5 per cent, according to RCP averages of all the polls. President Obama never hit 50 per cent in his aggregate polling leading into his re-election in 2008. And 19 days before the election the past three cycles, no candidate, not even 2008 Obama, topped 50 per cent as Biden currently does.

According to FiveThirtyEight, Biden’s national polling advantage now is so large that the electoral college is not expected to come into play. While win probability isn’t about the election as much as it is about the accuracy of the polling, the site’s 40,000 simulations have Biden winning in 87 per cent of the time, most commonly by over 400 electoral votes.

Pulling an electoral vote rabbit out of the hat like in 2016, when he lost the popular vote to Hillary Clinton by about three million, is Trump’s only plausible path to victory. And as of October 14, the map at RealClearPolitics assigns 197 electoral votes of the 270 needed to no candidate, due to the polling advantage not being decisive enough to take it out of this “toss-up” category. Biden has 216 votes clearly in his column compared with just 125 for Trump. ..............(more)

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-election-2020/biden-obama-popular-national-poll-us-election-2020-b1052335.html

October 18, 2020

John Kelly reportedly called Trump's dishonesty 'astounding'

(Independent UK) A former White House chief of staff, retired Marine general John Kelly, told friends that Donald Trump’s “dishonesty” is “astounding” and “pathetic”, a report has said.

"The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me,” the retired Marine general told friends, according to a report by CNN.

“The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it's more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life," he allegedly said.

Speculation long surrounded the president’s strained relationship with Mr Kelly while he was in office. The chief of staff left the White House at the beginning of 2019. ...........(more)

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-politics/trump-john-kelly-chief-of-staff-white-house-dishonesty-b1084832.html

October 18, 2020

Trump's hopes fade in Wisconsin as 'greatest economy' boast unravels

(Guardian UK) Coarse, cruel, chaotic. Donald Trump has been called a lot of things. Even some of his supporters have had a hard time embracing the darker aspects of his personality. Until recently they have, however, trusted the president on one one vital issue: the economy.

But with just 16 days to go until the election, there are clear signs that Trump’s claims to have created the “greatest economy we’ve ever had in the history of our country” are unravelling.

Perhaps nowhere is that more worrying for Trump than in Wisconsin.

Losing Wisconsin ended Hillary Clinton’s presidential chances in 2016. Famously she didn’t campaign there, presuming a win that was snatched from her by Trump’s promises to end unfair trade practices that had hurt the state’s dairy industry and to bring back manufacturing jobs.

Until February, Trump could have confidently boasted that he had made good on his promises. Unemployment had fallen to record lows in the state, manufacturing was coming back – albeit at the same, snail-paced crawl that it had under Obama. The headline figures looked good. Then came the coronavirus – a disease that is now ravaging the state and has, in its wake, exposed the fault lines beneath those headline figures. ............(more)

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/18/trump-wisconsin-economy-election

October 18, 2020

Toxic masculinity has become a threat to public health

Toxic masculinity has become a threat to public health
A bootstraps, hyper-macho mentality is making many Americans eschew masks and push their feelings down deeper

NICOLE KARLIS
OCTOBER 18, 2020 2:00PM


(Salon) As if the first two waves of COVID-19 hospitalizations in the United States weren't enough to inspire serious political changes to stop the coronavirus, health experts have sounded the alarm that a third wave is underway. Coronavirus cases and hospitalizations are rising across the nation, specifically in the Dakotas, Nebraska, and Montana, as the seasons change and the election nears.

It's certainly taken a lot of resilience and strength to persevere through this pandemic — particularly given the backdrop of political chaos, uncertainty and immense change in our daily lives. Yet perhaps it is this attitude of "staying strong," and acting stoically — which is rooted in a culture that favors and thrives off toxic masculinity — that has hurt and continues to hurt us the most.

Toxic masculinity, which has become a household phrase over the last few years, is when the archetypal image of masculinity, like displaying strength, becomes harmful to oneself. In 2005, in a study of men in prison, psychiatrist Terry Kupers defined toxic masculinity as "the constellation of socially regressive male traits that serve to foster domination, the devaluation of women, homophobia, and wanton violence." The phrase is used to describe the issues men face or sometimes, wrongfully, justify them. Certainly, in a patriarchal society, toxic masculinity not only defines people but politics — as its mores trickle into our entertainment, discourse and politics.

Notably, the pandemic response is being led by the most psychologically compromised, toxic men in America. As I wrote last weekend, President Donald Trump's insistence on depicting himself as so strong as to be able to "work through" his COVID-19 illness is deeply harmful, and apt to put Americans' lives at risk who mimic his behavior — either by working while sick or hiding symptoms. ..............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/10/18/toxic-masculinity-has-become-a-threat-to-public-health/

October 17, 2020

Dan Rather Explains How Actual Rats Are Better Than Trump-Supporting Republicans

https://twitter.com/DanRather/status/1317537266009481216?s=19


Dropping the last shred of any political waffling on the matter, former CBS News anchor Dan Rather came right out and declared that real rats are better than the Republican elected officials who stood by President Donald Trump until now.

He first compared nervous Trump supporters finally tip-toeing away as his future dims to rats fleeing a sinking ship. .....................(more)

http://huffp.st/7lNvaym

October 17, 2020

Whitmer kidnap evidence shows accused plotters shooting, threatening, Tasing

(Detroit News) Photos and videos released by federal prosecutors Friday showed members of an alleged plot to kidnap Gov. Gretchen Whitmer firing weapons, threatening to kill law-enforcement officers and testing an 800,000-volt Taser that was supposed to be used to subdue Michigan's highest-ranking politician.

The videos and photos are evidence that helped convince a federal magistrate judge to order five of the accused plotters to stand trial following an FBI investigation that revealed a broader plot to kidnap the governor and spark a civil war. In all, 14 people have been charged with crimes in state and federal court, including members and associates of an obscure militia, the Wolverine Watchmen.

The evidence released Friday shows accused plotters training at remote camps and surveilling Whitmer's vacation home in northern Michigan. .......(more)

https://www.detroitnews.com/story/news/local/michigan/2020/10/17/evidence-shows-accused-whitmer-plotters-shooting-threatening-tasing/3693059001/

October 17, 2020

Undoing the damage done: What will it take to rebuild what's left of our government?

Undoing the damage done: What will it take to rebuild what's left of our government?
Trump's reign of corruption has left the federal government in ruins. Necessary repair work may take many years

LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV
OCTOBER 17, 2020 12:01PM


(Salon) Who remembers Tom Price? Gee, you might say, that name sounds familiar … he had something to do with the Trump administration, didn't he?

You're right! He was one of those guys who resigned from a cabinet position because he was abusing something … let me see … think I've got it … he was the one who took all those flights on private jets, something like a million dollars worth of flights, including on military aircraft during trips to Europe and Africa with his wife. He refunded $51,887 to the federal government, which he said accounted for the cost of his seat on private charter flights he took before he resigned from Trump's cabinet. But that was just the cost of his seat. The total amount spent to fly old Tom Price around the world on private jets was more than $400,000 in taxpayer dollars.

What cabinet position did he hold that made it necessary for so many trips on chartered private jets and other business aircraft? What was he doing that was so important that he was flying back and forth to Europe and Africa and making trips to Aspen and Salt Lake City and Nashville, and basically jetting all over the place on the taxpayers' dime and staying in first-class hotels and eating out at expensive restaurants and taking his wife along with him a lot of the time? Oh, I remember! He was the secretary of Health and Human Services. He was the dude who resigned after only 231 days in office, the shortest term ever served by an HHS secretary. Price had been a right-wing congressman from Georgia who during his term in the House voted multiple times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, supported a Republican plan to privatize Medicare, voted to defund Planned Parenthood and sponsored the "Right to Life Act," which would have defined life as beginning at conception and banned all abortions and many forms of contraception.

....(snip)....

Are you beginning to get the picture here? Health and Human Services is just one Trump cabinet department that has been led by not one, but two half-wit hacks and undercut by the White House from Day One. Both HHS and CDC have been hollowed out and weakened under the control of the Trump White House while some 220,000 Americans have lost their lives and 8 million more have been infected by the COVID virus.

....(snip)....

There is more, much, much more, but you get the picture. The damage Trump will be leaving to Joe Biden is incalculable. The death toll caused by his mismanagement of the COVID crisis and the numbers of infections increase by the thousands seemingly every day. The only good thing about a hollowed-out federal government will be the thousands of appointments Biden will be able to make upon taking office, and the dozens of executive orders he'll be able to sign reversing Trump's giveaways to polluters, drug companies and corrupt corporations. ..................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/10/17/undoing-the-damage-done-what-will-it-take-to-rebuild-whats-left-of-our-government/

October 17, 2020

"David Byrne's American Utopia" is a rousing, vibrant spectacular that rivals "Stop Making Sense"

"David Byrne's American Utopia" is a rousing, vibrant spectacular that rivals "Stop Making Sense"
Spike Lee directs HBO's visually stimulating and politically engaged concert that will have viewers dancing at home

GARY M. KRAMER
OCTOBER 17, 2020 3:00PM


(Salon) David Byrne is perspicacious — a canny mix of smarts and wonder. His body moves gracefully too, especially when he is gyrating to a relentlessly percussive beat. Spike Lee nicely captures Byrne's mind and body as well as his musical talents in "American Utopia," the lively documentary version of the hit Broadway show that makes its way to HBO for safe viewing, after it was selected as the Opening Night feature at this year's Toronto Film Festival and had a Spotlight presentation at the recent New York Film Festival.

Having seen the 2018 concert version of the show, Lee's documentary does the music and energy of the stage performance justice. The powerhouse sound of the drumming and joyful force of the songs — as well as the few political messages — come through loud and clear. Despite being a film that will mostly be viewed in one's living room, it is impossible to just sit and watch. Lee and Byrne practically encourage folks to dance and sing along. (The audience at the performance recorded for the film is periodically shown to be on their feet, singing and dancing.)

"American Utopia" opens with an overhead shot of Byrne sitting at a table with a model of a brain between his hands. He gets up and holds the brain up and looks quizzically at it, singing "Here," about the sections of the brain, and about confusion and precision. He is, surely, suggesting that folks think critically. After the song, he addresses the audience, talking about baby's brains, and how they potentially have more knowledge than adults who lose connections and reach "a plateau of stupidity." These comments form the show's thread, about developing and defining who we are as people, our connections with others, and even discussions about democracy, immigration, and Black Lives Matter, among other topics.

Byrne's thesis provides the framework for the nearly two dozen songs — several from the Talking Heads' catalog — that make the show as vibrant and stimulating as "Stop Making Sense." When Byrne talks about nonsense poetry, he explains how Dadaists in the 1930s used nonsense to make sense of a world — there was an economic crash, Nazis, and fascism on the rise — that didn't make sense. He performs snippets from Kurt Schwitters' "Sonate in Urlauten" to illustrate how these nonsense poets reminded the world of different, independent minds with ideals that were beyond war and nationality, before launching into a rousing rendition of "I Zimbra," which features lyrics from Hugo Ball's Dadaist poetry and African beats. ............(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/10/17/david-byrnes-american-utopia-review-hbo/

October 17, 2020

Undoing the damage done: What will it take to rebuild what's left of our government?

Undoing the damage done: What will it take to rebuild what's left of our government?
Trump's reign of corruption has left the federal government in ruins. Necessary repair work may take many years

LUCIAN K. TRUSCOTT IV
OCTOBER 17, 2020 12:01PM


(Salon) Who remembers Tom Price? Gee, you might say, that name sounds familiar … he had something to do with the Trump administration, didn't he?

You're right! He was one of those guys who resigned from a cabinet position because he was abusing something … let me see … think I've got it … he was the one who took all those flights on private jets, something like a million dollars worth of flights, including on military aircraft during trips to Europe and Africa with his wife. He refunded $51,887 to the federal government, which he said accounted for the cost of his seat on private charter flights he took before he resigned from Trump's cabinet. But that was just the cost of his seat. The total amount spent to fly old Tom Price around the world on private jets was more than $400,000 in taxpayer dollars.

What cabinet position did he hold that made it necessary for so many trips on chartered private jets and other business aircraft? What was he doing that was so important that he was flying back and forth to Europe and Africa and making trips to Aspen and Salt Lake City and Nashville, and basically jetting all over the place on the taxpayers' dime and staying in first-class hotels and eating out at expensive restaurants and taking his wife along with him a lot of the time? Oh, I remember! He was the secretary of Health and Human Services. He was the dude who resigned after only 231 days in office, the shortest term ever served by an HHS secretary. Price had been a right-wing congressman from Georgia who during his term in the House voted multiple times to repeal the Affordable Care Act, supported a Republican plan to privatize Medicare, voted to defund Planned Parenthood and sponsored the "Right to Life Act," which would have defined life as beginning at conception and banned all abortions and many forms of contraception.

....(snip)....

Are you beginning to get the picture here? Health and Human Services is just one Trump cabinet department that has been led by not one, but two half-wit hacks and undercut by the White House from Day One. Both HHS and CDC have been hollowed out and weakened under the control of the Trump White House while some 220,000 Americans have lost their lives and 8 million more have been infected by the COVID virus.

....(snip)....

There is more, much, much more, but you get the picture. The damage Trump will be leaving to Joe Biden is incalculable. The death toll caused by his mismanagement of the COVID crisis and the numbers of infections increase by the thousands seemingly every day. The only good thing about a hollowed-out federal government will be the thousands of appointments Biden will be able to make upon taking office, and the dozens of executive orders he'll be able to sign reversing Trump's giveaways to polluters, drug companies and corrupt corporations. ..................(more)

https://www.salon.com/2020/10/17/undoing-the-damage-done-what-will-it-take-to-rebuild-whats-left-of-our-government/

October 16, 2020

DU Votes! How have you or are you planning to vote?