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solarbirdI'm told by someone who is ex-military that this first article is a really big deal, and that these young officers are putting their entire careers on the line.
----- 1 -----
Charlotte Clymer
twitter.com/cmclymer
3 July 2020
https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1279066321628659723
[THREAD]
This is pretty remarkable. The highest-ranking West Point cadets for the Classes of 2018 and 2019 have jointly written a 40 pg. policy proposal with recommendations for making the Academy anti-racist. (1/4)
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 2 -----
Daniel Dale
twitter.com/ddale8
3 July 2020
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1279114641692647427
"Maine’s lobster industry hit its peak in 2016...32 million pounds caught at a value of $540 million, according to state data. Maine’s fishermen sold less than $500 million during each of the first three years of the Trump administration." https://nytimes.com/2020/07/03/us/maine-lobster-summer-virus.html
[EMBEDDED IMAGE of Trump saying that lobster and fishing in Maine were destroyed by Obama and that it has recovered under his administration, which is flatly a lie; lobster and fishing in Maine are both down under his administration.]
----- 3 -----
Trump’s Mount Rushmore Fireworks Show: What Could Go Wrong?
By Adam K. Raymond
Dated 4 July 2020; viewed 3 July 2020
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/trumps-mount-rushmore-fireworks-show-what-could-go-wrong.html
President Trump will finally get to give a speech at Mount Rushmore Friday night. It’s something he’s reportedly been wanting to do since at least 2018 and he’s not going to let a resurgent pandemic, or concerns about wildfires stop him.
Unlike his last large gathering of thousands of supporters, which took place inside an Oklahoma arena, this one, at least, is outdoors. That reduces the risk of spreading coronavirus. But there is also little expectation — an no requirement — of social distancing at the gathering, for which 7,500 tickets have been distributed.
Governor Kristi Noem defiantly said earlier this week that visitors to the Monument “won’t be social distancing.” There will however be signs posted at the park reminding people to keep their distance and free masks will be provided for those who want them. In South Dakota, the coronavirus outbreak hasn’t created the kind of problems it has in many larger states. The state has seen 6,826 cases, which is a fraction of the number seen in the countries most worrying hotspots. Still, South Dakota has seen 773 cases per 100,000 residents, more than Florida, and it’s likely that many out-of-state visitors will be drawn to the July 3 event.
Then there are the fireworks. Since 2009, fireworks have been banned at the monument, which is surrounded by more than 1,000 acres of forest. The National Park Service says it had taken some precautions ahead of Friday’s event, conducting a controlled burn around the site to reduce the chances of igniting a wildfire.
Still, former superintendent Cheryl Schreier wrote in the Washington Post this week, the ceremony is bad idea:
----- 4 -----
Trump Believes That He Is Losing Because He Hasn’t Been Racist Enough
By Eric Levitz
2 July 2020
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/trump-is-losing-2020-polls-racism-black-lives-matter.html
Over the past month, Joe Biden has opened up a double-digit lead over Donald Trump in national polls.
That same period witnessed the following milestones in American political life:
• For the first time since the movement’s inception, Black Lives Matter won the support of a large majority of voters — and a slim majority of white ones.
• The percentage of Americans who say that “racial discrimination is a serious problem,” that “police are more likely to use deadly force against Black people,” and that “white people are more likely to get ahead” all hit record highs in various tracking polls.
• For the first time in 55 years of polling the question, Gallup found more support for increasing immigration among the U.S. public than for reducing it.
...
• And Donald Trump concluded that the reason he is losing support to Joe Biden is that he hasn’t been nearly racist enough.
That last bit isn’t mere conjecture. On Wednesday, three Trump confidants told Axios that the president regrets heeding Jared Kushner’s advice to broaden his appeal by embracing milquetoast police and criminal-justice reforms; as one source summarized Trump’s thinking, he wants “no more of Jared’s woke shit.”
This account of Trump’s private reasoning comports with his public actions in recent days. Just this week, the president has:
----- 5 -----
U.S. Is 'Out of Control' Under Trump, 75 Percent of Americans Think: Poll
By James Walker On 7/3/20
https://www.newsweek.com/us-out-control-under-donald-trump-75-percent-americans-1515225
Three quarters of Americans believe the country is "out of control" amid a spike in new coronavirus cases and widespread unemployment, new polling data shows.
A survey published by Yahoo! News and YouGov on Thursday found that 75 percent of Americans believed their country was out of control, compared to just 14 percent who felt it was under control.
A further 11 percent of all polled U.S. adults said they were "not sure" whether the country was "out of" or under control.
Older voters were more likely to say the U.S. was "out of control" amid the ongoing pandemic. Eighty-one percent of those aged 65 and older told pollsters the country was in a fiasco, while 68 percent of those aged 30 to 44 felt the same way.
YouGov pollsters also found that opinion was slightly divided along partisan lines, with 82 percent of Democrats saying the country was out of control, compared to a little under two thirds of Republicans.
Eighty-one percent of independents further said America was out of control, while just 12 percent of the polled swing voters felt the U.S. was under control.
----- 6 -----
The Unraveling of the U.S.-South Korean Alliance
Trump Allows a Cornerstone of U.S. Defense Strategy in Asia to Wither
By Sue Mi Terry
July 3, 2020
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/north-korea/2020-07-03/unraveling-us-south-korean-alliance
U.S. President Donald Trump has held three summits with Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, in the last three years and still failed to secure a denuclearization agreement. John Bolton, the former U.S. national security adviser, offers a high-level window onto these dealings in his new memoir, The Room Where It Happened. In Bolton’s telling, the U.S. president was more interested in how his peacemaking efforts would play in the media—and whether he could claim they were a “huge success”—than in actually trying to eliminate North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction. He made no effort to understand the issues or to study why U.S. approaches to North Korea had failed over three previous presidencies. Instead, he relied on his own instincts as he sought to charm Kim into a deal that was never remotely realistic.
The revelations about Trump’s failed diplomacy with Kim have attracted particular attention, but the more disturbing story Bolton tells is that of the withering of the U.S.–South Korean alliance on Trump’s watch. While in reckless pursuit of an attention-grabbing deal with the North, Trump did considerable damage to U.S. relations with Seoul. North Korea’s nuclear arsenal isn’t going anywhere—but Bolton’s book makes clear that the U.S.–South Korean alliance, long a cornerstone of U.S. defense strategy in Asia, may not survive a second Trump term.
----- 7 -----
Perkins: LGBTQ Rights Have Ruined The Fourth Of July
July 3, 2020 Christianists, Hate Groups
https://www.joemygod.com/2020/07/perkins-lgbtq-rights-have-ruined-the-fourth-of-july/
Via email from hate group leader Tony Perkins:
The Fourth of July is a time of national celebration and commemoration. We rejoice in our liberty and remember those who won our freedoms and have preserved them at great cost. Yet underlying these things is a foundation that must remain strong for “liberty and justice for all” to mean anything.
It’s the rule of law. Law that is fair and impartial, consistent and understandable. Without allegiance to the rule of law, we become a nation where those in power can do what they want without accountability. And in this 244th year of our independence, I fear we are on the brink of that happening.
Last month, the court ruled in the case of Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia that the 1964 Civil Rights Act opposing discrimination based on the biological sex of an individual now must mean that “discrimination based on homosexuality or transgender status necessarily entails discrimination based on sex.”
----- 8 -----
J.K. Rowling likes tweet that supports conversion therapy
J.K. Rowling liked a tweet that said an LGBTQ conversion therapy ban would hurt children. The practice has been linked to suicide.
By Alex Bollinger Thursday, July 2, 2020
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/07/j-k-rowling-likes-tweet-supported-conversion-therapy/
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling got caught liking a tweet that opposes Canada’s bill to ban conversion therapy.
If passed, Bill C-8 in Canada would create the world’s “most progressive and comprehensive” LGBTQ conversion therapy ban. The law would ban profiting from conversion therapy, ban family members from forcing children and adults into conversion therapy, and ban sending people out of the country for conversion therapy.
Earlier this week, a Canadian anti-transgender Twitter account called We The Females (WTF) tweeted its opposition to Bill C-8.
Tagging Rowling, the tweet said: “A big thank you from Canada where women’s rights to privacy were flushed down the toilet with Bill C16, & now Bill C8 will criminalize a therapist who counsels a child to accept the body they were born in. You have given us hope.”
Bill C-16 would ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression by adding those categories to the Canadian Human Rights Act.
----- 9 -----
South Dakota governor calls removal of Confederate statues effort to 'discredit' Founding Fathers
By Tal Axelrod - 07/03/20
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/505839-south-dakota-governor-calls-removal-of-confederate-statues-effort-to
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) hammered activists calling for the removal of Confederate statues, saying they are trying to “discredit” America’s Founding Fathers.
“Across America these last several weeks, we have been witnessing a very troubling situation unfold. In real time, we are watching an organized, coordinated campaign to remove and eliminate all references to our nation’s founding and many other points in our history,” Noem said at a Fourth of July celebration at Mount Rushmore with President Trump.
“The approach focuses exclusively on our forefathers’ flaws, but it fails to capitalize on the opportunity to learn from their virtues,” she added. “Make no mistake, this is being done deliberately to discredit America’s founding principles by discrediting the individuals who formed them so that America can be remade into a different political image.”
Lawmakers across the country are grappling with calls to take down Confederate iconography amid widespread protests over systemic racism and police brutality.
- The highest-ranking West Point cadets for the Classes of 2018 and 2019 have jointly written a 40 pg. policy proposal with recommendations for making the Academy anti-racist.
- Trump lies that Obama administration "destroyed" fishing and lobster catching in Maine; reality is that the peak for both were under Obama, and both are down under Trump.
- Trump’s Mount Rushmore Fireworks Show: What Could Go Wrong?
- Trump Believes That He Is Losing Because He Hasn’t Been Racist Enough
- U.S. Is 'Out of Control' Under Trump, 75 Percent of Americans Think: Poll
- The Unraveling of the U.S.-South Korean Alliance
- Perkins: LGBTQ Rights Have Ruined The Fourth Of July
- J.K. Rowling likes tweet that supports conversion therapy
- South Dakota governor calls removal of Confederate statues effort to 'discredit' Founding Fathers
----- 1 -----
Charlotte Clymer
twitter.com/cmclymer
3 July 2020
https://twitter.com/cmclymer/status/1279066321628659723
[THREAD]
This is pretty remarkable. The highest-ranking West Point cadets for the Classes of 2018 and 2019 have jointly written a 40 pg. policy proposal with recommendations for making the Academy anti-racist. (1/4)
[THREAD CONTINUES AT LINK]
----- 2 -----
Daniel Dale
twitter.com/ddale8
3 July 2020
https://twitter.com/ddale8/status/1279114641692647427
"Maine’s lobster industry hit its peak in 2016...32 million pounds caught at a value of $540 million, according to state data. Maine’s fishermen sold less than $500 million during each of the first three years of the Trump administration." https://nytimes.com/2020/07/03/us/maine-lobster-summer-virus.html
[EMBEDDED IMAGE of Trump saying that lobster and fishing in Maine were destroyed by Obama and that it has recovered under his administration, which is flatly a lie; lobster and fishing in Maine are both down under his administration.]
----- 3 -----
Trump’s Mount Rushmore Fireworks Show: What Could Go Wrong?
By Adam K. Raymond
Dated 4 July 2020; viewed 3 July 2020
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/trumps-mount-rushmore-fireworks-show-what-could-go-wrong.html
President Trump will finally get to give a speech at Mount Rushmore Friday night. It’s something he’s reportedly been wanting to do since at least 2018 and he’s not going to let a resurgent pandemic, or concerns about wildfires stop him.
Unlike his last large gathering of thousands of supporters, which took place inside an Oklahoma arena, this one, at least, is outdoors. That reduces the risk of spreading coronavirus. But there is also little expectation — an no requirement — of social distancing at the gathering, for which 7,500 tickets have been distributed.
Governor Kristi Noem defiantly said earlier this week that visitors to the Monument “won’t be social distancing.” There will however be signs posted at the park reminding people to keep their distance and free masks will be provided for those who want them. In South Dakota, the coronavirus outbreak hasn’t created the kind of problems it has in many larger states. The state has seen 6,826 cases, which is a fraction of the number seen in the countries most worrying hotspots. Still, South Dakota has seen 773 cases per 100,000 residents, more than Florida, and it’s likely that many out-of-state visitors will be drawn to the July 3 event.
Then there are the fireworks. Since 2009, fireworks have been banned at the monument, which is surrounded by more than 1,000 acres of forest. The National Park Service says it had taken some precautions ahead of Friday’s event, conducting a controlled burn around the site to reduce the chances of igniting a wildfire.
Still, former superintendent Cheryl Schreier wrote in the Washington Post this week, the ceremony is bad idea:
----- 4 -----
Trump Believes That He Is Losing Because He Hasn’t Been Racist Enough
By Eric Levitz
2 July 2020
https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/07/trump-is-losing-2020-polls-racism-black-lives-matter.html
Over the past month, Joe Biden has opened up a double-digit lead over Donald Trump in national polls.
That same period witnessed the following milestones in American political life:
• For the first time since the movement’s inception, Black Lives Matter won the support of a large majority of voters — and a slim majority of white ones.
• The percentage of Americans who say that “racial discrimination is a serious problem,” that “police are more likely to use deadly force against Black people,” and that “white people are more likely to get ahead” all hit record highs in various tracking polls.
• For the first time in 55 years of polling the question, Gallup found more support for increasing immigration among the U.S. public than for reducing it.
...
• And Donald Trump concluded that the reason he is losing support to Joe Biden is that he hasn’t been nearly racist enough.
That last bit isn’t mere conjecture. On Wednesday, three Trump confidants told Axios that the president regrets heeding Jared Kushner’s advice to broaden his appeal by embracing milquetoast police and criminal-justice reforms; as one source summarized Trump’s thinking, he wants “no more of Jared’s woke shit.”
This account of Trump’s private reasoning comports with his public actions in recent days. Just this week, the president has:
----- 5 -----
U.S. Is 'Out of Control' Under Trump, 75 Percent of Americans Think: Poll
By James Walker On 7/3/20
https://www.newsweek.com/us-out-control-under-donald-trump-75-percent-americans-1515225
Three quarters of Americans believe the country is "out of control" amid a spike in new coronavirus cases and widespread unemployment, new polling data shows.
A survey published by Yahoo! News and YouGov on Thursday found that 75 percent of Americans believed their country was out of control, compared to just 14 percent who felt it was under control.
A further 11 percent of all polled U.S. adults said they were "not sure" whether the country was "out of" or under control.
Older voters were more likely to say the U.S. was "out of control" amid the ongoing pandemic. Eighty-one percent of those aged 65 and older told pollsters the country was in a fiasco, while 68 percent of those aged 30 to 44 felt the same way.
YouGov pollsters also found that opinion was slightly divided along partisan lines, with 82 percent of Democrats saying the country was out of control, compared to a little under two thirds of Republicans.
Eighty-one percent of independents further said America was out of control, while just 12 percent of the polled swing voters felt the U.S. was under control.
----- 6 -----
The Unraveling of the U.S.-South Korean Alliance
Trump Allows a Cornerstone of U.S. Defense Strategy in Asia to Wither
By Sue Mi Terry
July 3, 2020
https://www.foreignaffairs.com/articles/north-korea/2020-07-03/unraveling-us-south-korean-alliance
U.S. President Donald Trump has held three summits with Kim Jong Un, the North Korean leader, in the last three years and still failed to secure a denuclearization agreement. John Bolton, the former U.S. national security adviser, offers a high-level window onto these dealings in his new memoir, The Room Where It Happened. In Bolton’s telling, the U.S. president was more interested in how his peacemaking efforts would play in the media—and whether he could claim they were a “huge success”—than in actually trying to eliminate North Korea’s weapons of mass destruction. He made no effort to understand the issues or to study why U.S. approaches to North Korea had failed over three previous presidencies. Instead, he relied on his own instincts as he sought to charm Kim into a deal that was never remotely realistic.
The revelations about Trump’s failed diplomacy with Kim have attracted particular attention, but the more disturbing story Bolton tells is that of the withering of the U.S.–South Korean alliance on Trump’s watch. While in reckless pursuit of an attention-grabbing deal with the North, Trump did considerable damage to U.S. relations with Seoul. North Korea’s nuclear arsenal isn’t going anywhere—but Bolton’s book makes clear that the U.S.–South Korean alliance, long a cornerstone of U.S. defense strategy in Asia, may not survive a second Trump term.
----- 7 -----
Perkins: LGBTQ Rights Have Ruined The Fourth Of July
July 3, 2020 Christianists, Hate Groups
https://www.joemygod.com/2020/07/perkins-lgbtq-rights-have-ruined-the-fourth-of-july/
Via email from hate group leader Tony Perkins:
The Fourth of July is a time of national celebration and commemoration. We rejoice in our liberty and remember those who won our freedoms and have preserved them at great cost. Yet underlying these things is a foundation that must remain strong for “liberty and justice for all” to mean anything.
It’s the rule of law. Law that is fair and impartial, consistent and understandable. Without allegiance to the rule of law, we become a nation where those in power can do what they want without accountability. And in this 244th year of our independence, I fear we are on the brink of that happening.
Last month, the court ruled in the case of Bostock v. Clayton County, Georgia that the 1964 Civil Rights Act opposing discrimination based on the biological sex of an individual now must mean that “discrimination based on homosexuality or transgender status necessarily entails discrimination based on sex.”
----- 8 -----
J.K. Rowling likes tweet that supports conversion therapy
J.K. Rowling liked a tweet that said an LGBTQ conversion therapy ban would hurt children. The practice has been linked to suicide.
By Alex Bollinger Thursday, July 2, 2020
https://www.lgbtqnation.com/2020/07/j-k-rowling-likes-tweet-supported-conversion-therapy/
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling got caught liking a tweet that opposes Canada’s bill to ban conversion therapy.
If passed, Bill C-8 in Canada would create the world’s “most progressive and comprehensive” LGBTQ conversion therapy ban. The law would ban profiting from conversion therapy, ban family members from forcing children and adults into conversion therapy, and ban sending people out of the country for conversion therapy.
Earlier this week, a Canadian anti-transgender Twitter account called We The Females (WTF) tweeted its opposition to Bill C-8.
Tagging Rowling, the tweet said: “A big thank you from Canada where women’s rights to privacy were flushed down the toilet with Bill C16, & now Bill C8 will criminalize a therapist who counsels a child to accept the body they were born in. You have given us hope.”
Bill C-16 would ban discrimination on the basis of gender identity and gender expression by adding those categories to the Canadian Human Rights Act.
----- 9 -----
South Dakota governor calls removal of Confederate statues effort to 'discredit' Founding Fathers
By Tal Axelrod - 07/03/20
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/505839-south-dakota-governor-calls-removal-of-confederate-statues-effort-to
South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem (R) hammered activists calling for the removal of Confederate statues, saying they are trying to “discredit” America’s Founding Fathers.
“Across America these last several weeks, we have been witnessing a very troubling situation unfold. In real time, we are watching an organized, coordinated campaign to remove and eliminate all references to our nation’s founding and many other points in our history,” Noem said at a Fourth of July celebration at Mount Rushmore with President Trump.
“The approach focuses exclusively on our forefathers’ flaws, but it fails to capitalize on the opportunity to learn from their virtues,” she added. “Make no mistake, this is being done deliberately to discredit America’s founding principles by discrediting the individuals who formed them so that America can be remade into a different political image.”
Lawmakers across the country are grappling with calls to take down Confederate iconography amid widespread protests over systemic racism and police brutality.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-04 11:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-07-04 11:44 pm (UTC)And whether it'll work. I don't think it will. I really hope I'm not wrong.
But in this country, I would seriously not rule it out.
no subject
Date: 2020-07-05 04:31 am (UTC)Granted, last time around nobody really knew how he was going to govern, so there was latitude for people with zero actual experience with him (i.e., anyone outside of NYC or NJ/Atlantic City) projecting onto him what they wanted to see, which gave him the edge he needed in the places that turned out to matter (MI, PA,...), and I like to think he doesn't even remotely have that anymore.
But we'll see...
no subject
Date: 2020-07-05 04:37 am (UTC)Except they didn't - sure, it was clear that Clinton would win the popular vote, but she was within the margin or error for most swing states - Biden isn't - instead, he's in the margin of error for TX and GA, which Clinton wasn't.
A few notes:
Date: 2020-07-04 11:45 pm (UTC)Trump and Rowling are doubling down. Again. Anger-inducing and unsurprising. Worse, where Rowling's concerned, is that what she's doing affects my country specifically.
Tony Perkins can go rot in helpless obscurity.
Re: A few notes:
Date: 2020-07-04 11:48 pm (UTC)anent Item 1
Date: 2020-07-05 01:53 am (UTC)Been there, done that, survived the experience with a commendation followed by a pips-off chewing-out of epic intensity.
I was much younger, then, and maybe seen as being still pliable into what the competent authorities wanted of me.