DL Open Thread: Weds., June 3, 2020
Everything Falls Apart, Police Brutality Edition, Ctd. A largely-peaceful and effective day of protests. Dubya supports protesters. An amazingly empathetic statement. So far, public hates Trump’s response. I am encouraged. Public supports Black Lives Matter. I am encouraged. NYPD Continues Lawless Attacks Against Protesters. Hey, they don’t live there and they enjoy inflicting pain. Confirmed in their own words.
Pentagon Wants No Part Of Trump’s Militarization Of Protest Response. Defense Sec. Esper claims cluelessness as a defense. There’s something happening here…BTW, Gov. Carney declines to send Delaware National Guard troops to ‘police’ Washington. Good for him.
Racist Rep. Steve King Goes Down. Black Woman Elected Mayor Of Ferguson, MO. I am encouraged.
Trump To Pull RNC Convention From North Carolina. RNC wouldn’t provide safety guarantees. He has his choice of anti-science governors and locations from which to choose.
How Texas Democrats Will Work Around Rethug Voter Suppression. Zoom! I am encouraged.
Everything Falls Apart, Pandemic Edition. The latest carnage: 1,831,821 confirmed cases and 106,181 deaths in the United States.
Rep. Eliot Engel Done Stepped In It. Caught on tape saying he was only using a photo op b/c he has a primary. Time for him to be replaced by his progressive challenger. One more reason for him to go?:
The senior Democrat had already come under fire in recent weeks after a report revealed that Engel had not spent any time in his New York district — which has been ravaged by the coronavirus outbreak — since late March.
Carney’s First Proposed Budget Reductions. Anyone shocked that employee pay raises tops the list? Anyone shocked that raising additional revenue from the 1% who have made money during the pandemic won’t be sought?
What do you want to talk about?
Breaking: Defense chief says he opposes invoking the Insurrection Act and using military to patrol communities:
https://apnews.com/41d80cc063a7199f75fb28cc34713f0c?utm_campaign=SocialFlow&utm_medium=AP&utm_source=Twitter
I was hoping for a follow-up question on this. My suggestion: Would you consider the invocation of the Insurrection Act a lawful order?
True. There’s an awful lot of ‘it wasn’t me’ going around after the DC protesters got gassed. Only Trump and Barr are proudly taking responsibility. Not sure how long that will last after that poll shows that only 33% of all Americans support Trump’s response to the killing of George Floyd.
And the response would be useful at the eventual war crimes tribunal.
A headline from Daily Kos that no Delawarean could write: One of my senators just called Trump’s speech fascist
Amy Klobuchar jumps in front of Keith Ellison to announce that upgraded charges will be filed against cops. Eddie Glaud asks why Klobs broke the news ahead of the AG’s news conference:
https://www.fox21online.com/2020/06/03/sen-amy-klobuchar-announces-additional-charges-coming-in-george-floyd-case/
Not a good look. Guess that she was looking to revive her Veep chances. Don’t think it worked.
Pitiful.
Trump & Esper not feeling the mutual love. Esper had announced that troops that had been temporarily dispatched to DC would head home. Two hours later, after meeting at the White House, he reverses the order. Trump has been said to be ‘privately fuming’ about Esper’s comments. Can ‘public fuming’ be far off?:
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/esper-abruptly-reverses-decision-to-send-home-active-duty-troops-deployed-around-dc
Mattis has had it with Trump:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2020/06/03/jim-mattis-blasts-trump-message-that-defends-protesters-says-president-tries-divide-us/
Yes, it took him long enough. But he did it, and didn’t mince words.
Little bit of water over the dam. But his enablers in the media and Senate are solid.