Night Owls, a themed open thread, appears at Daily Kos seven days a week
Heather Digby Parton at Salon writes—Team Trump won't let a little pandemic get in the way of its far-right agenda. Yes, thousands are dying and the Trump administration has massively bungled it. They've got other priorities:
There are many other reports that outline the administration's monumental response fiasco. It may seem as though all this White House does all day is create chaos and confusion. But in fact the Trump's administration is still busily "deconstructing the administrative state" one department at a time, even in the midst of an unprecedented public health crisis.
For instance, even as people are dying in vast numbers, gasping for breath, Trump's EPA decided it was a good time to create more air pollution and roll back America's best attempt to combat climate change by weakening fuel efficiency rules for automobiles. As Carl Pope observes in a Salon commentary published on Monday, even the auto industry doesn't want this regulatory rollback, which seems to be an attempt to rewrite federal law. According to the Guardian, "the changes will allow vehicles to emit about a billion more tons of heat-trapping carbon dioxide — equivalent to roughly a fifth of annual U.S. emissions." […]
In yet another sign that the military has become as corrupt as every other agency of Trump's regime, acting Navy Secretary Thomas Modly fired the commanding officer of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, Capt. Brett Crozier, because Modly feared that Trump would personally interfere if he didn't, based on his recent record of military meddling. In this case, the president was unhappy that Crozier had complained his crew was in danger from the pandemic, something Trump still doesn't want to hear.
Meanwhile, over at the Department of Justice, Attorney General Bill Barr has been busy writing up proposals for new "emergency powers." Politico reports that documents "detail the department's requests to lawmakers on a host of topics, including the statute of limitations, asylum and the way court hearings are conducted." Congress is not expected to approve these new powers but even stating these intention is a good indicator of where the administration would like to go if Trump wins another term. [...]
And no matter how grave the crisis or how badly he's handled it, nothing will stop the president himself from carrying out his purge of people he considers to be disloyal.
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QUOTATION
“Minnie Spotted Wolf from Butte, Montana, was the first Native American to enlist in the Marine Corps Women’s Reserve. Spotted Wolf joined in 1943. She commented that Marine Corps boot camp was ‘hard, but not that hard’.” ~~Tom Holm (Cherokee/Muscogee) Strong Hearts, Wounded Souls: The Native American Veterans of the Vietnam War (1996)
TWEET OF THE DAY
BLAST FROM THE PAST
At Daily Kos on this date in 2006—Shameless:
Just a day after Tom DeLay has the chutzpah to threaten filing an ethics complaint against against Cynthia McKinney (yes, right on the heels of his resignation announcement) he sends out his attack dogs to disrupt a Nick Lampson press conference and assault little old ladies. Marsha Rovai, the 70-year-old victim, a retired CPS caseworker, describes the attack.
"I can't believe my Congressman, Tom DeLay, would organize this type of assault," Rovai said. "I was assaulted by two different people. One of the men hit me and another shoved his sign into my face, and then when I pushed his sign away he violently pulled my hat down over my eyes and pushed me. I'm considering filing an assault charge. This is just very upsetting and I'm so disappointed in Tom Delay for organizing this attack."
And organize this attack he did. Here's the e-mail attributed to Chris Homan, DeLay's campaign manager:
We would meet tomorrow morning at 9:45 am on the first floor of the parking garage attached to the Marriott. Please get folks to call our campaign office 281.343.1333 and let us know they can do it - or e-mail Leonard Cash (in the cc field above) so that we can get some head count. Let's give Lampson a parting shot that wrecks his press conference.
Yes, this is the same Tom DeLay who starred at the War on Christians conference, that poor persecuted soul who has been drummed out of Congress solely as a result of his taking "his faith seriously into public office, which made him a target for all those who despise the cause of Christ."
On
today’s Kagro in the Morning show:
Another wild weekend for Greg Dworkin to round up. Trump continues throwing everything he's got at undoing the "Unprepared Moron" narrative, but it's not working. "Wild West" PPE market—both domestic and international—descends into piracy.
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