I did wonder why they did the interview outside, in DC in July. I grew up in New Jersey, and summers there are steamy; DC is worse. It turns out it was Trump’s idea.

“Hot enough for you here, Mr President?” asked Chris Wallace.

“It’s hot,” said Trump. “It’s about, well, sort of almost record-breaking stuff.”

“You know, we wanted to do it inside,” replied Wallace. “This is your choice.”

Maybe he thinks outside looks good on him. It doesn’t. (Also, those chairs – he looked ridiculous on his chair, all bunched up.)

He claimed that people flying the confederate flag were “not talking about racism”. But when asked about removing the names of confederate generals from US

Trump says hell yes he’s going to keep sending the feds in to trample on protesters’ rights.

#BREAKING: President Trump says he may send "more federal law enforcement" to New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, Baltimore, Oakland, and other cities to deal with unrest: "In Portland they’ve done a fantastic job." pic.twitter.com/Pe6aDv6AVt

— The Hill (@thehill) July 20, 2020

Speaking in the Oval Office, the president brushed aside claims the officers are depriving people of their constitutional rights, and concerns such deployments could herald an attempt by Trump to rule without Congress.

Because he recognizes no legitimate limit on his power to do what he wants, because that’s who he is. It always has been.

In Portland, local media

That figures.

The Trump administration has been consulting the former government lawyer who wrote the legal justification for waterboarding on how the president might try to rule by decree.

John Yoo told the Guardian he has been talking to White House officials about his view that a recent supreme court ruling on immigration would allow Trump to issue executive orders on whether to apply existing federal laws.

Aka Trump’s view all along: he should be able to do whatever he wants.

Constitutional scholars and human rights activists have also pointed to the deployment of paramilitary federal forces against protesters in Portland as a sign that Trump is ready to use this broad interpretation of presidential powers as a means

Trump’s stormtroopers:

Pompeo the other day saw fit to bash the 1619 Project.

“The New York Times’ ‘1619 Project’—so named for the year that the first slaves were transported to America—wants you to believe that our country was founded for human bondage,” Pompeo said in his speech in Philadelphia on Thursday. “They want you to believe that America’s institutions continue to reflect the country’s acceptance of slavery at our founding.”

And Pompeo wants you to think they don’t.

But they do. Of course they do. Policing, the prison system, the court systems (bail, plea deals, 3 strikes laws, harsh sentencing, capital punishment), schools, medical institutions, and on and on. Of course they do. We never rooted out the reflections of … Read the rest

Really? They can’t say what a woman is?

Not one of them answered the question.

Funny that the question wasn’t “What is a man?” I guess because that one’s easy, it’s just “woman” that can’t be defined?

I’d like to offer them some of my “attitude.”… Read the rest

Portland mayor to feds: gtfo.

The mayor of Portland in Oregon has renewed his call for federal troops to leave the US city, accusing them of abusive tactics against protesters.

“They are sharply escalating the situation,” Mayor Ted Wheeler told CNN on Sunday.

And they’re not invited. They’re imposed from above.

Sometimes that’s justified. Eisenhower sent federal troops to Little Rock when white mobs were attacking the nine students who were integrating the high school…but then the mayor had requested the troops. Kennedy sent troops to Oxford, Mississippi to quell riots meant to keep James Meredith out of the University (“Ole Miss”), over the governor’s objections.

It was a high-stakes showdown between President Kennedy and Mississippi Gov. Ross Barnett.

Via Wil Wheaton:… Read the rest

Sean Ingle in the Guardian:

World Rugby is considering banning trans women from playing women’s rugby because of significant safety concerns that have emerged following recent research, a decision that would make it the first international sports federation to go down that path.

You know, you’d think the significant safety concerns would have been there all along, given the differences between male and female bodies.

The Guardian can reveal that in a 38-page draft document produced by its transgender working group, it is acknowledged that there is likely to be “at least a 20-30% greater risk” of injury when a female player is tackled by someone who has gone through male puberty. The document also says the latest science

On the one hand it’s funny, but on the other more serious hand it’s appalling.

Painful to watch, but good job by Chris Wallace.

Displays the psychological test that President Trump said he “aced” and claimed doctors were “very surprised” by his “unbelievable” results.

Wallace: The test asks you to identify an elephant. pic.twitter.com/IYSoBThrcd

— Ryan Goodman (@rgoodlaw) July 19, 2020

No no no no no, says Trump, the last 5 questions are very hard, I bet you couldn’t answer them, I bet Biden couldn’t answer them.

Well one of them, says Wallace, is count backward from 100 by sevens.

No no no that’s misrepresentation, says Trump.

93… says Wallace.

Trump apparently thinks it was an IQ test as opposed … Read the rest

Trevor Timm on the DHS coup in Portland:

Virtually all of Portland’s local leaders, as well as Oregon’s leading representatives in Congress, have condemned the situation and called for an investigation.

But so far, DHS and the Trump administration do not seem deterred. The acting secretary of DHS, Chad Wolf, released a video statement Friday lamenting that Portland had declined the department’s “offer” of “support”. So DHS went ahead and sent in its thugs anyway. DHS’s list of reasons for invading Portland and implementing its terror operation, amid what it calls “rampant long-lasting violence”, consists mostly of graffiti incidents and minor property damage.

Watch the clip. It’s extraordinary.

“I offered @DHSgov support to help locally address the situation

The Guardian followed Trump’s Fox News interview with Chris Wallace.

The interview was recorded on Friday, however. Wallace said he did ask the president about the pandemic and efforts to tackle it. But they were speaking a day before the Washington Post and then the New York Times reported that as Congress and the Trump White House negotiate the next stimulus and relief package for an economy and a nation hammered by Covid-19, the White House is seeking to block funding for testing and tracing efforts, and other key areas of the pandemic response.

Meanwhile Trump is out playing golf again.

Trump is asked about his top infectious diseases expert, Dr Anthony Fauci. Reports indicate the White House is

Trump couldn’t manage a more polite or serious tribute than “saddened to hear,” and Republican senators don’t even know who Lewis was…beyond “he was one of the black ones.”

Like many of their colleagues, GOP Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Dan Sullivan (Alaska) posted tributes to Rep. John Lewis on Saturday and aimed to include photos of themselves with the civil rights icon who died Friday. Rubio even made the image his Twitter profile picture.

There was just one problem. The photos they each posted were of Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, who died in October.

Well it’s not as if they’re colleagues or anything, not as if they ever had an opportunity to see them in person.

“It was

Oh, that’s interesting – Trump isn’t just looking the other way and trying to bully everyone else into looking the other way, he’s actively trying to help the virus kill us all.

The Trump administration is trying to block billions of dollars for states to conduct testing and contact tracing in the upcoming coronavirus relief bill, people involved in the talks said Saturday.

I suppose this is tied to his firm belief that if you don’t test you don’t have as many cases.

The administration is also trying to block billions of dollars that GOP senators want to allocate for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and billions more for the Pentagon and State Department to address the

Trump finally got around to mentioning John Lewis.

That’s pretty much it – he mentioned him.

Saddened to hear the news of civil rights hero John Lewis passing. Melania and I send our prayers to he and his family.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 18, 2020

It could hardly be more insultingly perfunctory. I guess he could have said “Sorry to hear about John Lewis. MAGA!” But short of that…… Read the rest

The ACLU explains how Trump and Customs and Border Patrol can get away with this grabbing people off the street thing – how it is actually legal. It’s an eye-opener.

The Fourth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects Americans from random and arbitrary stops and searches.

According to the government, however, these basic constitutional principles do not apply fully at our borders. For example, at border crossings (also called “ports of entry”), federal authorities do not need a warrant or even suspicion of wrongdoing to justify conducting what courts have called a “routine search,” such as searching luggage or a vehicle.

But here’s the kicker – the “border” is not just the border.

Even in places far removed from the

The Post reports the unsurprising news that Trump’s verbal attacks on scientists are not helping the response to COVID.

This week’s remarkable character assault by some top White House advisers on Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s leading infectious-disease expert, signified President Trump’s hostility toward medical expertise and has produced a chilling effect among the government scientists and public health professionals laboring to end the pandemic, according to administration officials and health experts.

From Trump’s point of view that means it’s working. He wants them chilled.

Though Trump does not automatically distrust the expertise of public health officials, he is averse to any information or assessment that he considers “bad news,” that compromises his economic cheerleading message or that jeopardizes

Congressman John Lewis spent his life fighting racism and injustice wherever he confronted it, from boycotts, sit-ins, and other protests in the streets, to championing bold, progressive policies in Congress. #ripjohnlewis pic.twitter.com/Sj3joYHWni

— The Black Caucus (@TheBlackCaucus) July 18, 2020

.@RepJohnLewis was a titan of the civil rights movement whose goodness, faith and bravery transformed our nation. Every day of his life was dedicated to bringing freedom and justice to all. pic.twitter.com/xMbfAUhLUv

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 18, 2020

Not many of us get to live to see our own legacy play out in such a meaningful, remarkable way. John Lewis did:https://t.co/KbVfYt5CeQ

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) July 18, 2020

I think that photo is from the inauguration. I … Read the rest

Originally a comment by Papito on The beautiful suburbs.

What makes a suburb “successful” is a good ratio of property value to number of children. Property value is maintained by zoning. With high property value, you get rich people living there, and public schools funded by rich people’s property taxes, and a lower rate of public school attendance because rich people don’t have as many kids as poor people and so many rich people send their kids to private schools anyway.

What “abolishes” a suburb is revising the zoning to allow smaller lots, or (god forbid!) apartment buildings, increasing population density and reducing per-unit prices. Cheaper, smaller housing brings a lower ratio of property tax to children. People who … Read the rest