Home

By Robert A. Vella

Yesterday, the United States recorded the highest number of new COVID-19 cases since the start of the global coronavirus pandemic.  The contagion has triggered a public health crisis of unprecedented proportions since the deadly “Spanish flu” of World War I;  and, it has caused the greatest economic collapse since the 1930s Great Depression.  However, the excruciating severity of this crisis wasn’t unavoidable.  It was a direct result of failed governance and a consequential result of growing sentiment among anti-democracy fascist and anti-government anarchist ideologies.  Now, more than ever, can we see the fatal flaw in such thinking.

Government is absolutely necessary.  Modern civilization cannot exist without it.  And, it is crystal-clear that functional democracy is eminently preferable to any autocratic form despite its inherent imperfections.

Americans are learning this lesson the hard way, and that’s why they are rejecting the narcissistic and divisive president Donald Trump.  But, they must also reject Republicans in this year’s pivotal elections because it was the GOP who empowered the megalomaniacal Trump in 2016 and continue to support him today.  A new book details how and why Republicans sold their souls to the devil in pursuit of power and now represent an existential threat to the nation’s health, well-being, and its constitutional norms based on democracy and the rule of law:

From:  The Impostors – How Republicans Quit Governing and Seized American Politics – by Steve Benen

For decades, American voters innocently assumed the two major political parties were equally mature and responsible governing entities, ideological differences aside. That belief is due for an overhaul: in recent years, the Republican Party has undergone an astonishing metamorphosis, one so baffling and complete that few have fully reckoned with the reality and its consequences.

Republicans, simply put, have quit governing. As MSNBC’s Steve Benen charts in his groundbreaking new book, the contemporary GOP has become a “post-policy party.” Republicans are effectively impostors, presenting themselves as officials who are ready to take seriously the substance of problem solving, but whose sole focus is the pursuit and maintenance of power. Astonishingly, they are winning–at the cost of pushing the political system to the breaking point.

Here’s today’s news.  Please note how a Republican childishly tried to drown-out yesterday’s congressional testimony on Attorney General William Barr by making noise, how Vice President Mike Pence recently urged state governors to paint rosy pictures of the pandemic, and how a Republican governor fired a public health official for telling the truth about coronavirus infections.

From:  5 takeaways from the scathing testimony about William Barr’s Justice Department

Former deputy attorney general Donald Ayer preceded Barr in that role in the George H.W. Bush administration, and he has since been one of Barr’s most high-profile critics. He began his testimony Wednesday with some particularly stinging remarks.

“I am here because I believe that William Barr poses the greatest threat in my lifetime to our rule of law and to public trust in it,” Ayer said. “That is because he does not believe in its core principle that no person is above the law. Instead, since taking office, he has worked to advance his lifelong conviction that the president should hold virtually autocratic powers.”

He added later, “I think we’re on the way to something far worse than Watergate, where you had a problem of public distrust, because it’s becoming very transparent that many things are being done essentially for reasons that are completely unrelated to the merits of the case.”

See also:  Republican congressman Louie Gohmert repeatedly bangs on desk during House hearing on Barr

From:  The Latest: Pence urges US governors to tell of ‘good news’

RICHMOND, Va. — Vice President Mike Pence is encouraging the nation’s governors to tell their citizens “there’s a lot of really, really good news” about current efforts to fight the cornoavirus pandemic.

In a private call with governors Monday, the audio of which was obtained by The Associated Press, Pence said that with the exception of a few localities, the country is seeing strong dropping virus-related hospitalization and mortality rates, as well as low and steady positivist rates in testing.

“I encourage you, as appropriate, with the proper gentleness and respect, to share the progress that we are making,” Pence said.

See also:

US reports record 36,880 new coronavirus cases

US coronavirus: ‘Apocalyptic’ surges feared in some cities

‘Grave concerns’: COVID-19’s surge in Sunbelt states shows the virus, not testing, to blame

Texas pauses reopening as hospitals inundated with ‘explosion’ of COVID-19 cases

Texas again halts elective surgeries as virus cases soar

Dozens of Secret Service officers and agents told to self-quarantine after Trump’s Tulsa rally

West Virginia governor forces out top health official amid outbreaks – [Republican governor Jim Justice forced out the commissioner of his public health bureau on Wednesday hours after he publicly questioned the accuracy of the state’s coronavirus data and detailed growing outbreaks in the state]

1.48 million people filed for first-time unemployment last week, worse than predictions

Dead wrong: Feds sent $1.4B in stimulus checks to over a million deceased

From:  GAO report finds widespread delays in US government response to Coronavirus

A new Government Accountability Office report out Thursday highlights how unprepared the US government was to tackle coronavirus and deal with the corresponding economic crisis that required Congress to get trillions in federal stimulus dollars out the door.

The report — which is just the latest look at the US government’s response to the coronavirus — lays out how the US fell short on everything from testing to ensuring hospitals and states had adequate supplies. It also looks closely at how agencies struggled to ensure billions in stimulus dollars got to American struggling with an economic crisis.

From:  USDA used questionable worker safety data in drafting pork inspection rules, inspector general says

The U.S. Department of Agriculture did not evaluate the accuracy of worker safety data it used to make its case for a new hog inspection system that allows plants to run processing lines at unlimited speeds, the Office of Inspector General has concluded.

The report, which was released Wednesday, also found that USDA was not transparent about the raw data it used in its worker safety analysis, making it impossible for outside experts to evaluate the agency’s conclusions.

The new system, which was finalized in October, shifts many food-safety tasks from federal inspectors to pork industry employees and reduces the number of USDA inspectors on slaughter lines in some plants by 40 percent, records show.

Prompted by the Inspector General report, a nonprofit group opposed to the new system said it will ask a judge to set aside the rule that created it.

From:  State Department: White supremacist terror ‘on the rise and spreading’

Racial and ethnic terrorism, particularly white supremacist threats, are “on the rise and spreading geographically” according to a State Department report released Wednesday.

“The threat posed by racially or ethnically motivated terrorism (REMT), particularly white supremacist terrorism, remained a serious challenge for the global community,” the report reads.

In 2019, the world experienced an uptick in white terrorism, such as the Christchurch, New Zealand, mosque shooting in March and the El Paso, Texas, shooting in August.

White terrorist groups “increasingly target immigrants; Jewish, Muslim, and other religious minorities; lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and/or intersex (LGBTI) individuals; governments; and other perceived enemies,” the report found.

In April, the State Department designated a white supremacist group, the Russian Imperial Movement, as a “foreign terrorist organization” for the first time.

From:  Biden Builds Polling Lead in Battleground States, With Strength Among White Voters

President Trump has lost significant ground in the six battleground states that clinched his Electoral College victory in 2016, according to New York Times/Siena College surveys, with Joseph R. Biden Jr. opening double-digit leads in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

a screenshot of a cell phone © Provided by The New York Times

Mr. Trump’s once-commanding advantage among white voters has nearly vanished, a development that would all but preclude the president’s re-election if it persists. Mr. Biden now has a 21-point lead among white college graduates, and the president is losing among white voters in the three Northern battleground states — not by much, but he won them by nearly 10 points in 2016.

See also:

Donald Trump is facing the prospect of a landslide loss

Former Republican presidential candidate Carly Fiorina says she can’t support Trump, will vote for Biden

From:  GOP: Trump needs a new plan

Republicans say President Trump should make a course correction and shift his strategy after a series of dismal polls showed him badly trailing presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden.

Republican senators thought Trump was cruising to reelection only a few months ago but they now worry his relentless focus on revving up his party’s base is hurting his chances, as well as their own of staying in control of the upper chamber.

“I think right now obviously Trump has a problem with the middle of the electorate, with independents, and they’re the people who are going to decide a national election,” Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said Wednesday.

Headlines:

[U.S. Supreme Court] Justices rule for Trump administration in deportation case – [initial asylum seekers can be deported without allowing them to make their case to a federal judge]

‘We are just gonna go out and start slaughtering them’: Three [North Carolina] cops fired after racist talk of killing black residents

NYPD cop charged after using apparent chokehold on black man

Grand jury indicts 3 men arrested for murder of Ahmaud Arbery

Wisconsin activates National Guard after police clash with protesters

13 thoughts on “Why Republicans, not just Trump, must be defeated in November”

  1. es, yes, the Republicans must be ousted! Saw a clever posting sent from a friend in Denmark recently in which Queen Eliz II announces that she is cancelling our independence since we do not seem to know how to govern and because we have very unorthodox spellings of ‘honor,’ ‘humor,’ and ‘aluminum,’ for a start. The Queens announcement indicates that we will be sent a survey in a month so see if we have able to tell the Congress/Senate has been dismissed. An attempt to be humourous, obviously, but profoundly appropriate! We are a nearly ‘failed State.’

    Liked by 3 people

  2. The German SPIEGEL comments today that Donald Trump will be chased out the White House on 3 November due to the catastrophic situation in the country. I hope that this really becomes true.

    Liked by 4 people

  4. My twenty-seven-year-old son told me today that after his stint in the Army, he is going to register as a Republican (he is an Independent) because he says the Republican party is a Zombie party & after Trump is gone, it’s going to be in ashes & will have to be rebuilt. Also the Dems are beholden to the corporate class & are no longer the party of the people. The GOP could definitely be the party of the people in the later 21st century. He may have a point. We shall see.

    Liked by 1 person

    • The electoral problem facing the Republican Party is daunting and perhaps even unsolvable. When they sold their souls to Trump in 2016, they created an acute dilemma for the party. The move alienated independents and moderates by embracing extremist right-wing factions especially those which espouse fascist and white supremacist ideologies. If the GOP rejects that radical Trump base, it loses the bulk of its voters. If the GOP stays aligned with them, it is assured of never again being able to build a winning majority. If Trump and Republicans suffer a resounding defeat in November, which seems likely right now, the party will undergo a “day of reckoning” similar to what befell the Whigs just before the Civil War.

      Like

    • From: Why Statistics Don’t Capture The Full Extent Of The Systemic Bias In Policing

      Across the U.S., demonstrators have spent the past few weeks protesting against racial disparities in the country’s criminal justice system. There’s plenty of data to back them up: Black and Hispanic people are stopped more frequently, including traffic stops, and are more likely to be arrested. Once stopped, police are more likely to use force against, shoot and kill Black citizens. And then once in jail, Black defendants are more likely to be denied bail, which in turn makes conviction more likely. And when convicted, sentencing is also biased against Black defendants, with Black defendants more likely to be incarcerated.

      The data seems to overwhelmingly point to a criminal justice system riven by racial bias. But, remarkably, it could be even more overwhelming than some studies make it seem. That’s because of a statistical quirk called “collider bias,” a kind of selection bias that means that the crime data that shows racial bias is, itself, biased by racist practices. If you thought crime data showed clear evidence of racism before, understanding how collider bias affects these analyses might make it even clearer.

      […]

      There are two main ways that researchers approach this problem — by using a “population denominator” and an “encounter denominator.”

      The former, for example, compares the fraction of Black people in the general population who are arrested or harmed to that same statistic for white people. That’s how you get studies that show 96 out of 100,000 Black men and boys will be killed by police over the course of their lifetimes, compared to 39 out of 100,000 white men and boys — a risk that is 2.5 times higher. Seems straightforward enough. But because Black and white people encounter the police at different rates to begin with, using population denominators might not lend itself to an apples-to-apples comparison; being more likely to encounter police means that you’re more likely to encounter police force, too.1

      For this reason, many researchers choose to look at the set of people who have encountered the police. This is the “encounter denominator.” The setup is simple: You look at all the people who had recorded encounters with police — data which is not always easy to obtain — and calculate the proportion that involved the use of force. But this approach has a different issue, as a recent paper pointed out — if there’s bias in who gets stopped in the first place, then looking at discrepancies in the resulting interactions won’t give you the full picture. This is because of something called “collider bias.”2

      “The vast majority — 99.9 percent of the data — we never get to see,” said Dean Knox, a professor of politics at Princeton and one of the authors of the study.

      Liked by 2 people

      • Very interesting! I found the way he formatted the article fascinating precisely because the data he provided didn’t prove his point. It’s a deceptive tactic which I imagine is incredibly effective.

        Liked by 2 people

Comments are closed.