Between reports of COVID-19 spikes and Trump being … well, Trump, it’s been a particularly weird news week. Here’s what you might have missed.
Trump's white backlash is still not here, but even if it arrived, it wouldn't save him
By Kos
Donald Trump is a president trapped by his idiocy and incompetence. His entire plan was to coast to reelection on the same kind of blind luck that got him the job in the first place—mainly, this time, an economy doing its own thing. But then a crisis happened, and a second one, and we’re at 120,000 deaths (and counting), and racial tensions are sweeping the country, and the best the idiot can do is rant in a half-empty stadium in deep-red country about how slippery a 3% ramp was and how great it is that he can drink water with one hand. That’s his message. He can too walk down a ramp—if only it had a hand railing—and he’s masterful at drinking water.
Well, that’s not 100% true. He’ll interrupt his regularly scheduled whines and airing of grievances for one other topic, an attempt at something of a message; something about “LAW AND ORDER!” in an attempt to capitulate to the backlash to the Black Lives Matter protests sweeping the nation. Unfortunately for him, we’re still not seeing any evidence of a white backlash. And given his deep polling deficit, there’s no chance of a Trump comeback without one.
Things aren’t looking good for President Trump. Somehow being a corrupt, uninspiring, pathetic old racist doesn’t poll well with...well, anyone.
Trump knows he is losing, and he's prepared to tear the nation apart when it happens
By Christopher Reeves
Between now and election day, the Democratic faithful have several jobs in getting rid of the disaster in the West Wing. We need to make sure we turn out every Democratic voter possible. We have to work on behalf of the means by which to put sanity back in charge.
It also puts a challenge to us: that we have to make sure that voters understand that vote by mail may not be entirely calculated on election night. That counting all the votes is what we as a party stand for in an election. We don’t need early, fast calls. We need the right results. This is what Trump doesn’t want.
Trump wants a different kind of riot — a Brooks Brothers 2.0 Riot. He’s already planning and thinking about it. Talking about the idea of his defeat is unthinkable, and could only happen by fraud. This isn’t about a conspiracy or a plot. Itis about the deranged thoughts of one man, who, unfortunately, is US President. It is about what those deranged thoughts and conservative media willing to run with them can do to our nation.
He is fanning the flames of violence and division in our country. We mustn’t fall for it.
‘I find your conduct a shock to the conscience,' chief says of cop fired in Breonna Taylor's death
By Lauren Floyd
A Kentucky police chief has determined that a former police officer who fired 10 shots into the home of emergency room technician Breonna Taylor, ultimately killing her, "displayed an extreme indifference to the value of human life." Brett Hankison was officially fired Tuesday after Louisville Police Chief Robert Schroeder made public his intent to fire the officer Friday, according to a termination letter from the Louisville Metro Police Department. Hankison was serving a no-knock warrant when he “blindly” fired into Taylor’s apartment with such disregard that some of the rounds went into a neighboring apartment unit, “endangering” three people, Schroeder said in the letter.
"I find your conduct a shock to the conscience,” he added. “I am alarmed and stunned you used deadly force in this fashion. You have never been trained by the Louisville Metro Police Department to use deadly force in this fashion. Your actions have brought discredit upon yourself and the Department."
Arrest Breonna Taylor’s murderers. Arrest Breonna Taylor’s murderers. Arrest Breonna Taylor’s murderers.
New survey finds universal support for criminal justice reform, majority support for major changes
By Joan McCarter
The dramatic increase in support for Black Lives Matter across the nation is accompanied by nearly universal support for serious criminal justice reform. That includes overwhelming support for "clear standards on when police officers may use force and consequences for officers who do so excessively."
A new Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research also finds strong support for penalizing race-biased policing, that Americans are more likely now than they were five years ago to say police violence is a very serious problem and to say that police who commit violence or murder are treated too leniently. It finds massive support for policing reform: 94% of respondent say the criminal justice system needs to be changed, with 40% supporting "major changes" and 29% saying it needs to be completely overhauled. "For me, as a Black person, I'm like, this has been happening," Kevin Richardson, 38, of Charlotte, North Carolina told AP in the survey. "We should've been knowing it, we should've been seeing this and so now what's happened is, I'll be honest, white people are seeing it and saying, 'This is wrong.'"
That's absolutely what has happened. Civiqs tracking of Black Lives Matter support since 2017 showed support among whites at 34% when Breonna Taylor was shot in her own bed by police serving a no-knock warrant for a suspect that wasn't even in her home. It started rising with the release of COVID-19 data by race to a high of 44%—among white people—immediately following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. It's now at 43%, and support overall for BLM is 52%.
In that AP survey, a white woman explained it. Megan Pecknold is 33 and lives in Spokane, Washington. "I had never really given much thought to police use of force. I'm white. I've never had a bad encounter with a police officer," she said. "The last few months have brought to light more of this for me, and now I am educating myself." About one quarter of whites say that the policing system needs a complete overhaul, and another 40% say major changes must be made. Even 30% of whites think that at least minor changes should happen.
Change is happening. Don’t listen to the naysayers, they are wrong. We will win this fight.
Defunding the police: What does it mean in 2020?
By Cara Zelaya
Have you heard the phrase "defund the police" a lot recently? Do you support reallocating budgets from the police to community strategies?
In this new episode of “How Did We Get Here?” (my weekly show on our Daily Kos YouTube channel) I break down what it actually means to defund the police.
If you haven’t checked out my new video series above, please do so! We want to find new ways of reaching out to our Daily Kos community across many different platforms.
What do you think about Trump’s chances for reelection, especially given how poorly he’s polling even among whites?
I am always of the mentality that we must stay ever vigilant against the Republican machine. But maybe, just maybe, there’s room to hope? Let me know below! I am always interested in keeping this conversation going with you all in the comments.