FairAndUNbalanced.com

 

From Jonathan Bernstein:

The real answer here is that it almost certainly doesn’t matter whether the president actually gave a formal order to slow down testing. That’s because we know that Trump just doesn’t have very much clout in the Trump administration. His orders are often ignored. To be fair: Many presidents have great difficult controlling executive-branch departments and agencies. But Trump seems to have an unusual amount of trouble within his own White House. That’s clear in the Washington Post’s recent reporting about the administration’s infighting over the next round of economic relief, in which Trump is presented as at best one minor voice among many in the discussion. Trump, we’re told, has decided to support another round of direct payments, but no one in the White House seems to care — not even enough to keep their lack of respect for his decision quiet. So my best guess is that if Trump ordered people to slow down testing they would’ve ignored him.

That said, Trump’s overall coolness on the subject probably did have some effect. Bureaucracies tend toward the status quo. Presidential leadership matters in encouraging action, especially quick action. That kind of leadership certainly hasn’t been apparent during the pandemic. Trump’s public statements have waffled between outright hostility to testing and a kind of “Mission Accomplished” swagger about having ramped it up.

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From libertarian Michael A. LaFerrara:

Former Senator Barney Frank, who is gay, defended the U.S. Supreme Court’s narrow procedural ruling in favor of a Christian baker who refused to serve a gay wedding cake. From Barney Frank to LGBT Voters: ‘People Have a Right to be Bigots,’ Don’t ‘Trash Them in Return’:

Reacting to the Supreme Court ruling in favor of a baker who refused to make a cake for a same-sex couple, former Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.) said that people “have a right to be bigots,” which is not “a license to trash them in return.”

“He was moved to decide this in part because people on the Colorado Human Rights Commission may have been well-intentioned, but they were mean-spirited when they made nasty comments about religion. And so there’s a very important point for people on our side to understand: You can’t have a one-way standard,”

My emphasis.

Strictly speaking, the Colorado Masterpiece Bakeshop case is not fundamentally about bigotry. Bigotry is certainly part of it. Fundamentally, it’s really about faith—which is actually worse.

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From JoAnn Williams:

As a teenager, when someone made nasty comments about my hair/clothes/ general appearance, mother used to say, “You look as good as she does.” That was a loaded response depending on who my aggressor was. If they were attractive, I felt better. If they were a bit lacking in physical attributes, not so much.

Now many dog years past teenage angst, I don’t care what other people think about my appearance. However, being quarantined presented an opportunity for a bit of self-awareness; I would even go as far to say overdue inventory.

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From Robert A. Levine at The Moderate Voice:

Since Reconstruction ended a century and a half ago, the white power structure, particularly in the South but in other states as well, have used various mechanisms to try and suppress black and minority voting. Initially, those in power were conservative white Democrats, but over the last half century they have been supplanted by conservative white Republicans. Starting with poll taxes and threats to black voters by the KKK, it has morphed into gerrymandering, voter ID laws, purging of voter rolls of minority citizens and making voting more difficult for blacks. This was achieved by decreasing the number of polling places in black neighborhoods and cutting the number of hours polling places were open. And any slight deviation from the registration forms and the voter’s ID would immediately disqualify that voter.

In this era of the Corona virus, where people are afraid of contact with strangers, one would have thought that attempts to make the voting process easier and faster, and remotely when possible, would have been pushed by politicians. Instead, President Trump and the Republicans have been trying to make voting as difficult as they can.

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From the Cato Institute: Julian Sanchez:

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From Hackwhackers:

From slurring words to appearing confused about where to walk to his challenge in lifting glasses and bottles of water, his health is once again an issue (leaving aside his obesity and heart disease).

Now, according to reports in the Washington Post, Trump is increasingly preoccupied with demonstrating his mental and physical well-being, especially after the West Point graduation ceremony earlier this month. It’s important to him to be able to establish a false contrast with former VP Joe Biden, whom his campaign intended to paint as feeble:

“In recent weeks, Trump has fixated on Biden’s physical and mental acuity, aides said, casting about for ways to attack his Democratic rival and stewing over media coverage that he believes makes him look weak or feeble.

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From Andy Borowitz:

“The bunker holds forty people,” Parscale said. “That is a much larger seating capacity than Joe Biden’s basement.”

Despite the choice of such an intimate venue, however, Trump campaign sources are privately worried that they may have difficulty filling the bunker.

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From Sarah Cooper:

Did Trump really say this?

How to empty seat pic.twitter.com/SxDJ5M1sdN

— Sarah Cooper (@sarahcpr) June 22, 2020

Well … yeah.

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Remember that Trump ad showing my President marching to his Church’n’Bible photo op?
The one complete with dramatic, triumphant music?
The one they took down when they discovered voters didn’t like it?

Try this, after Saturday’s tepid Tulsa rally.

From The Lincoln Project:

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From Green Eagle:

And here is something that I have not seen anybody commenting on, which was noticed first by my son: The audience, predicted to be a cheering, wild mob, looked grim faced in practically every crowd cutaway. These people, the most fanatic Trump supporters, who risked their lives to be there, were utterly disengaged from Trump’s stale, two hour rant. There was hardly a smile in the place, and even Trump’s best lines got hardly more than a couple of polite claps.

What is the takeaway from this?

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