Mainstream US media outlets have given favorable interviews to former Israeli Prime Minister and candidate at the new Israeli elections next month, Benjamin Netanyahu, refusing to do their jobs and ask the Israeli far-Right politician any meaningful followup questions. What does this say about the state of US media? As the Israeli Likud Party leader, Read More...
RealClearPolitics' current Michigan polling average shows Trump down by 4.2%-- but the poll includes a made up poll by Republican Party disinformation group, Trafalgar (that has Trump up by 2 points, the only poll out of dozens this year showing Trump winning in Michigan. Even Rasmussen, also a Republican polling firm, showed Trump down by 8 points-- 51% to 43% on Thursday.
You probably heard about the assertion MSNBC founder Tom Rogers and former Colorado Senator Timothy Wirth have been putting out there about how Trump and Barr are planning to steal the election after Trump loses so that they can retain power.
David Frum's new book, Trumpocalypse-- Restoring American Democracy, came out a few weeks ago. Who knew? I guess people who watch Morning Joe... plus #NeverTrump Republicans. Speaking of whom... The Bulwark's Brian Stewart reviewed it yesterday. Frum, of course, is eager to go back to the pre-Trump political normal, of two sick corporate parties-- which is how we wound up with Trump. Yes, getting rid of "the impostor president" is just the beginning... of not very much.
An old friend of mine is a top academic at "the Harvard" of another western country. One of his colleagues is in charge of the pandemic medical response for the country. He told my friend that they really don't know as much about COVID as they need to know to combat it effectively. Nearly half a year in and they're still shooting in the dark! On top of that, even statistics are untrustworthy. China has probably been sharing fake stats for most of the time. Florida is worse and Texas may be as well.
Wave II of this pandemic is probably going to be centered more in rural areas than Wave I was. And it's started already. Friday morning, Axios ran a series of graphs showing how the Wave I states are showing significant decreases in serious cases in the last 2 weeks. Massachusetts is down 22.5%. New Jersey is down 19.4%. Connecticut is down 16.0%. New York is down 13.0%. Those were the hardest hit states.
On Wednesday, Wisconsin reported 291 newly confirmed cases of COVID-19, bringing state state's total to 10,902-- and 3 new deaths, boringly that total to 421. Is that a lot, a little? Well, there are 1,872 cases per million, which isn't good-- and that's been increasing.
The poem about recklessness by Kaj Munk above ran late last night. Maybe you missed it... so I decided to try again this morning... since I think it's important. The author, Kaj Munk, was a Danish pastor and playwright who was murdered in 1944 for resisting the Nazis when they were occupying his country.I don't know anyone who's happy about the societal lockdown and the attendant social distancing rules.
On Monday, John Heilemann told the Morning Joe crew "When you have a moment that becomes the fodder for universal late night comedy-- the kind of thing that everybody, even the most apolitical Americans understand-- that's a devastating moment... Even Trump, I think, has finally started to hear from enough Republicans-- 'Dude, you are killin' us. You are killing yourself politically and not only are you killing yourself but you are killing us. We could lose the Senate; we could lose the White House; we could lose it all'...
