John Feffer, Director of Foreign Policy In Focus at the Institute for Policy Studies - Raw Story/Tom Dispatch
Stephan: This essay raises what I think are very important questions that I think should be the focus of discussions now. Even with Trump gone we will still be left with a third of Americans who are so ignorant, or racist, male dominant, or gun-obsessed that they believe in Trumpism as a kind of religious faith. What do we as a country do about that?
Donald Trump
Let’s assume that Donald Trump loses the election in November.
Yes, that’s a mighty big assumption, despite all the polls currently favoring the Democrats. If the economy begins to recover and the first wave of Covid-19 subsides (without a second wave striking), Donald Trump’s reelection prospects could improve greatly. The Republican Party has a huge war chest ready to fund ads galore, massive targeted outreach, and widespread voter suppression. And if all that isn’t enough, the president could borrow a tactic from the dictators he so admires and cancel the election outright out of concern over the coronavirus or some fabricated emergency.
Playing up fears of Trump’s reelection is a useful get-out-the-vote strategy, but for the sake of argument, let’s imagine that the election happens and the president loses unambiguously. A majority of Americans will sigh with relief. Still, don’t count on Trump — and more important, Trumpism — evaporating like a nightmare at daybreak.
To begin with, there’s the president’s legendary base of support, the one-third of Americans who’d continue to back him even if he were to
Stephan: It is amazing to me that the Trumpers do not seem to be capable of realizing the contempt in which Trump holds them. How little he is interested in their wellbeing. Consider this the most recent example proving my point.
Vice President Mike Pence speaks during a briefing on the administration’s coronavirus response in the press briefing room of the White House on March 2, 2020 in Washington, D.C. (Photo: Drew Angerer/Getty
The Trump administration issued policy guidance this week telling health insurance companies that they are not required by law to cover the Covid-19 tests employers may compel workers to undergo as a condition for returning to their jobs.
The announcement (pdf) Tuesday by the Departments of Treasury, Labor, and Health and Human Services alarmed healthcare advocates and lawmakers who warned the move gives profitable insurers a green light to push the costs of potentially expensive coronavirus screenings onto workers.
“Once again, the Trump administration is prioritizing corporate profits over people. I’m deeply concerned that this will disproportionately impact frontline workers.” —Rep. Frank Pallone Jr.
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act, a relief bill President Donald Trump signed into law in March, includes a provision (pdf) mandating that insurers and employer-provided plans cover “Covid-19 testing and related services without cost-sharing.”
But the Trump administration says in its guidance that the law only requires insurers to cover “medically […]
Stephan: Covid-19 cases are soaring across the country and Trump's response? Stop testing because if you don't test you won't have any cases. Any person that would say that is mentally ill. Donald Trump through his incompetence and mental illness is killing scores of Americans but no one in government seems able to speak that truth.
Testing Credit: NBC News
COVID-19 testing centers across five states are set to lose federal funding next week after the Trump administration decided not to extend the program that established them.
As a result, 13 testing sites across Colorado (1), Illinois (2), New Jersey (2), Pennsylvania (1) and Texas (7) will likely close if those states are unable to replace the necessary funding.
In a statement to HuffPost, Assistant Secretary for Health Brett Giroir confirmed that the program that originally funded 41 such sites across 48 states would end next week.
Giroir said it’s part of a planned transition to “more efficient and effective testing sites,” noting that the original end date had already been postponed once.
“All 13 sites were provided an extra 30 days from the original transition date in May,” Giroir said, “and I personally spoke with Governors from all 5 states involved, and/or their leadership designees, who agreed that it was the appropriate time to transition out of the original 13 sites and into the thousands of new testing options.”
In a follow-up call with the media Wednesday afternoon, Giroir emphasized that […]
Stephan: I am increasingly concerned that 75 years of geopolitical stability in the West is being destroyed by Trump and the incompetents around him, and I do not think it can be overemphasized how very serious this trend is. It has the potential to affect all of our lives. America is coming apart, and just because few in the media are talking about it, does not mean it isn't happening.
“He hated America very deeply,” John le Carré wrote of his fictional Soviet mole, Bill Haydon, in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy. Haydon had just been unmasked as a double agent at the heart of Britain’s secret service, one whose treachery was motivated by animus, not so much to England but to America. “It’s an aesthetic judgment as much as anything,” Haydon explained, before hastily adding: “Partly a moral one, of course.”
I thought of this as I watched the scenes of protest and violence over the killing of George Floyd spread across the United States and then here in Europe and beyond. The whole thing looked so ugly at first—so full of hate, and violence, and raw, undiluted prejudice against the protesters. The beauty of America seemed to have gone, the optimism and charm and easy informality that entrances so many of us from abroad.
At one level, the ugliness of the moment seems a trite observation to make. And yet it gets to the core of the complicated relationship the rest of the world has with America. […]
Stephan: Trump and the Republicans go on and on about Leftists and Antifa demonstrators, and it is all utterly bogus. What is real is that we have a developing fifth column of White supremacists infiltrating the police and the military who are actively trying to provoke a second civil war.
The Boogaloo movement, the civilian-run militia, has now infiltrated the U.S. military, VICE News reported Wednesday. Members of the military take an oath to “support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic,” but the Boogaloo movement wants to overthrow the American government and start a second “Civil War.”
The word “Boogaloo” is used as a code for “civil war,” which is gaining steam at anti-mask and anti-lockdown protests.
The discovery was made when Facebook groups and online networks used by anti-government militia members started to grow with active-duty military members of all branches and a variety of positions.
“Some of the most active online boogaloo communities are on Discord, a platform popular among gamers,” wrote Vice. “There, members have been discussing ways to co-opt protests against racism and police brutality to advance their own agenda. And current or former military have chimed in with their expertise, from the best gas masks to military-grade firearms,” screen captures show.
“I was not particularly surprised to see current and former military members […]
