From the Heated newsletter comes this relevant bit of research: our "liberal" media tend to accept, without question, our President's framing of climate change stories as how much doing something about it will "hurt industry." And the good news? You don't even have to retort about how much it'll hurt the planet, because it turns out climate change will also be a drag on our economy, to the tune of (per a Brookings Institution study) between 6.7% and 14.3% of GDP annually once it starts running away with our world. Once again, we find a Mack truck-sized opening for the "sensible," "moderate," "fiscally-responsible" Democrat to say that doing nothing about climate change will hurt our economy. Of course, as long as centrist Democrats act like only government spending is "fiscally-irresponsible," they'll pass up all those good opportunities, and eventually get voted out of office.
The latest from Akela Lacy and Ryan Grim at The Intercept describes the many factors that could still deliver Pennsylvania to our President on Election Day despite what polls say -- and also describes the community organizers who plan to fight those factors when establishment Democrats won't. And this is how it should be -- people fighting on their own, without waiting for Democrats to step up! But I'd like to see their good works continue after the election, regardless of the outcome -- too many good Americans declared victory after Barack Obama's election, as if voting were the end of their duty, not the beginning. (Do attend the emphatically bipartisan corruption inherent in the NIZ plan for Allentown, which helps explain why the Democratic party isn't ready to fight for voters in the first place.)
Ho hum, our President insists, incorrectly of course, that the spike in COVID cases is all about how much testing we're doing. Naturally infection rates (up 51% since October 1) are going up much faster than testing rates (up 13% since October 1), but, as a famous philosopher once said, facts are stupid things. Incompetence not actually being difficult, I would ask whether the infection spikes we're seeing might actually be part of some Administration plan to suppress the vote on Election Day -- except that such a plan would backfire if (as we suspect) Democratic voters are outstripping Republican ones in early voting.
Where does one begin with our President's suggestion that media coverage of the COVID-19 pandemic "(s)hould be an election law violation"? With the note that he's whining, once again, about things he doesn't (and shouldn't) have control over? Or with the realization that the folks who would enforce these election laws are the same ones he's driving out of our government? Either way, it's Chapter 183 of This Guy's Completely Unfit for Any Kind of Office. (And "COVID COVID COVID" could easily be this famous plaint from classic TV. And he may even intend that!)
Folks who cover politics for a living might want to consider that if Joe Biden confuses our President with George W. Bush, as he seems to do in this clip, maybe he's doing it on purpose! Seriously, if we imagine our President letting Democrats impeach him so he could keep the Ukraine (and therefore Hunter Biden) in the news, why couldn't we imagine Joe Biden "accidentally" invoking George W. Bush so that you'll be reminded that the last Republican President was also a complete failure? Of course, many folks who used to support Mr. Bush now tell themselves they never really liked him that much, so I can't say how effective that stratagem would be.
Finally, when we hear that our President plans to fire our FBI Director, CIA Director, and Secretary of Defense if he wins re-election, we must wonder what Tea Party/QAnon retreads or right-wing media "personalities" remain out there to replace them. We always feel like Republicans can't get any worse than this, and then they always do, even when our President isn't the kind of person who "likes someone on TV" and automatically calls that a job qualification. Maybe Lou Dobbs -- lately calling for Lindsey Graham's defeat at the polls because he's not loyal enough! -- can fill a few of these roles. Like the President he adores, he probably thinks it'd be easy.
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