The Strongman Con: How to stop worrying about Trump stealing the election

"People totally forget that the GOP lost the midterms by 8 percent," Kanefield notes — roughly the same as Biden's nationwide lead over Trump, the most stable lead in presidential polling history. "Losing the midterms was not good for the GOP. If they could have avoided that, they would have. They couldn’t avoid it. They lost."

The con is so powerful that every Facebook feed appears filled with at least one variation of "oh, Trump will just cancel the elections" or "you know, even if he loses, he won't leave." Thankfully, the first specious prediction is heard less the closer to November we get. U.S. elections are, for better or worse, fundamentally local affairs. Trump cannot suddenly decide to shut a nationwide election down without the military. And the military, a majority of whose members dislike Trump, has explicitly said it won't get involved in the 2020 election. Its leaders are still smarting from Trump using them as props in Lafayette Square.

Trump doesn't want you focusing on that, because it makes him look weak, and weakness is his kryptonite. He is very keen for you to fill your nightmares with overblown estimates of his support. "Being overestimated is how wannabe Strongmen appear powerful," says Kanefield. "It makes them feared and respected. Trump is first and foremost a conman. He wants his supporters to think he is invincible. He wants you to think that he can’t be stopped."

As for the second argument, that Trump would simply refuse to make way for an incoming president-elect — well, he can try all he likes, but his options would be very limited. Administration officials are already quietly preparing the ground for a transition. The Supreme Court, even with an extra conservative justice, would be hard pressed to simply stop a transition because Trump insisted. Remember, this is the highly-divided Supreme Court that just voted unanimously in favor of presidential electors voting the way their states tell them. Chief Justice John Roberts may be more right-wing than we remember, but he also cares about the court's legitimacy.

https://mashable.com/article/trump-election-democracy/

Moody's: Biden would add 7.4 Million more jobs than Trump

A victory for Joe Biden over Donald Trump and a Democratic sweep—where Republicans lose the Senate—would result in the biggest rebound in economic growth and employment, according to a recent analysis of both candidates’ economic proposals by Moody’s Analytics.

Moody’s analyzed four potential outcomes for the November presidential election: A total Democratic sweep; a total Republican sweep; Democrats winning the presidency and the House but not the Senate; and status quo with Trump in the White House, Democrats controlling the House and Republicans holding the Senate. Based on the economic proposals of both President Trump and Biden, “the economic outlook is strongest under the scenario in which Biden and the Democrats sweep Congress and fully adopt their economic agenda,” said Moody’s Analytics chief economist Mark Zandi. A Blue Wave—in which Democrats control both chambers of Congress and the White House—would result in the highest number of jobs added and the best rebound in economic growth, Moody’s found.

“Even allowing for some variability in the accuracy of the economic modeling and underlying assumptions that drive our analysis, we conclude that Biden’s economic proposals would result in a stronger U.S. economy than Trump’s,” Moody’s concluded.

Big Number: 7.4 Million. That’s how many more jobs would be added to the economy under Biden than Trump, Moody’s report found. “Largely because of Biden’s substantially more expansive fiscal policies, the economy would return to full employment more quickly coming out of the pandemic than under Trump—in the second half of 2022 under Biden, compared with the first half of 2024 under Trump.”

http://on.forbes.com/6185Gxo35

Truck plows through Hollywood crowd protesting Breonna Taylor's killing; at least 1 injured

Source: KTLA News

At least one person was injured after a truck plowed through a crowd of demonstrators in Hollywood, where protesters were demanding justice for Breonna Taylor.

Sky5 was overhead as the Ford pickup truck struck a large group of people walking down the 6500 block of Sunset Boulevard between Seward Street and Schrader Boulevard at 8:54 p.m.

The vehicle continued driving, and a green convertible car followed for some time until police caught up.

The driver eventually pulled over about three minutes later, exiting the vehicle and surrendering to police. The man was taken into custody moments later.

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/truck-plows-through-hollywood-crowd-protesting-breonna-taylors-killing-at-least-1-injured/

Read more: https://ktla.com/news/local-news/truck-plows-through-hollywood-crowd-protesting-breonna-taylors-killing-at-least-1-injured/

The N95 shortage America can't seem to fix

Six months later, that shortage persists, leaving health-care workers exposed, patients at risk and public health experts flummoxed over a seemingly simple question: Why is the world’s richest country still struggling to meet the demand for an item that once cost around $1 a piece?When the country was short of ventilators, the companies that made them shared their trade secrets with other manufacturers. Through the powers of the Defense Production Act, President Trump ordered General Motors to make ventilators. Other companies followed, many supported by the government, until the terrifying problem of not enough ventilators wasn’t a problem at all.
...
But for N95s and other respirators, Trump has used this authority far less, allowing major manufacturers to scale up as they see fit and potential new manufacturers to go untapped and underfunded. The organizations that represent millions of nurses, doctors, hospitals and clinics are pleading for more federal intervention, while the administration maintains that the government has already done enough and that the PPE industry has stepped up on its own.
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The Department of Health and Human Services did fund the invention of a “one-of-a-kind, high-speed machine” that could make 1.5 million N95s per day. But when the design was completed in 2018, the Trump administration did not purchase it.But ask the people inside hospitals, and the shortage is far from over. An August survey of 21,500 nurses showed 68 percent of them are required to reuse respirators, many for more than the five times recommended by the CDC, and some even more than Kelly Williams. One Texas nurse reported she’s still wearing the same five N95s she was given in March.Along with ordering 3M to import 166.5 million masks from China, the administration has used the DPA to invest $296.9 million in bolstering the N95 and filter-making supply chains. The Department of Defense, which oversees that funding, spends more per year on instruments, uniforms and travel for military bands.
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“By not having a national strategy,” Hall said, “we have fewer masks.” Ask the PPE industry and the refrain is that without long-term guarantees that the government will keep buying respirators, N95 manufacturers are wary of investing too much, and other companies that could start making respirators or the filters for them are hesitant to do so.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/local/news/n-95-shortage-covid/?itid=hp-top-table-main

Here's a nice palate cleanser after watching Trump: Kamala de-planing :)

Maine wedding 'superspreader' event is now linked to seven deaths. None of those people attended.

Only about 65 close family members and friends were on the guest list for a bride and groom’s rustic wedding celebration in a small Maine town in early August.

But the nuptials began an outbreak now traced to more than 175 reported novel coronavirus infections and also to the deaths of seven people, the Maine Center for Disease Control and Prevention said Tuesday.

The cluster of coronavirus infections that originated from the Big Moose Inn outside Millinocket on Aug. 7 continues to grow in Maine, state health officials said, after guests flouted social distancing and mask guidelines. Now people who have no association with the party have died, including six residents of the Maplecrest Rehabilitation and Living Center in Madison, Maine CDC Director Nirav Shah said in a news briefing Tuesday.

The Millinocket wedding is not the only rule-defying celebration linked to a growing number of cases, as contact tracers and public health officials across the country continue to track down infections that stem from summer “superspreader” gatherings, including a motorcycle rally in South Dakota and a choir practice in Washington.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2020/09/15/maine-wedding-covid/

Who needs another Zoom call? Why sending letters might help your loved ones.

Supporting friends and family who are going through a hard time used to involve meaningful chats at the local coffee shop, venting over a glass of wine on the couch or warm embraces followed by words of encouragement. Now, because of the coronavirus pandemic, those traditions are on hold.

But we can take another approach: sending handwritten letters. The old-fashioned gesture could be particularly beneficial now: The pandemic is adversely affecting Americans’ mental health, and research suggests that being contacted by letter can lower the risk of suicide. Besides, after months of remote work and virtual communication, many people might welcome a tangible alternative to yet another Zoom call. Feel awkward writing a nondigital missive? No worries, we have you covered.“[

Letters] help provide social support, even if you can’t be there with your friend or family member, holding their hand and being by their side,” says Spray, who is also the director of the Steven A. Cohen Military Family Center at NYU Langone Health.

Research indicates that such support can have a significant impact on recipients’ mental health. One study, conducted at Stanford University in the early 1970s, followed more than 800 people after they had been discharged from the hospital for depression or suicidal tendencies. One group of patients received handwritten letters from a health-care provider they knew in the five years following discharge, while the other group received no letters. Patients in the letter-receiving group had lower rates of suicide over the five-year period.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/wellness/letters-pandemic-depression-anxiety-help/2020/09/14/47b3bb3a-f3b1-11ea-b796-2dd09962649c_story.html

Russian Opposition Leader Alexei Navalny Speaks for the First Time Since Nerve Agent Attack

Vladimir Putin’s nemesis Alexei Navalny has posted on social media for the first time since a nerve agent attack left him critically ill last month. On Instagram, the Russian opposition leader posted a photo from his hospital bed Tuesday morning and addressed his supporters four weeks after he was poisoned after drinking a cup of tea at a Russian airport. “Hi, this is Navalny,” he wrote. “I miss you. I still can hardly do anything, but yesterday I was able to breathe on my own all day... I did not use any outside help, not even the simplest valve in my throat. I liked it very much.” The poison that struck down Navalny has been identified as Novichok—a nerve agent concocted by Soviet scientists during the Cold War. Navalny’s second-in-command told The Daily Beast last week that she suspects her boss was attacked by men sent by close Putin ally Yevgeny Prigozhin. https://www.thedailybeast.com/alexei-navalny-speaks-for-the-first-time-since-nerve-agent-novichok-attack?ref=home

L.A. deputies tackled and arrested a reporter. Her videos contradict their claims about the incident

Source: Washington Post

NPR executives and reporters groups condemned Huang’s arrest, demanding her charges be dropped and the sheriff’s department explain why officers forcefully tackled her.As Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies tackled Josie Huang to the street on Saturday night, the reporter for NPR affiliate KPCC screamed repeatedly she was a journalist. Deputies arrested her anyway, leaving her with scrapes, bruises, a five-hour stay in custody — and an obstruction charge that carries up to a year in jail.

Police claimed Huang, who also reports for LAist, didn’t have credentials and ignored demands to leave the area. But those claims are contradicted by video Huang shared on Sunday showing her quickly backing away from police when ordered to do so and repeatedly identifying herself as a journalist. Huang said she also had a press badge around her neck.

Early on Sunday morning, the sheriff’s office told a different story in recounting her arrest. The department said that as officers were struggling to arrest a protester, “a female adult ran towards the deputies, ignored repeated commands to stay back as they struggled with the male and interfered with the arrest.”

Huang “did not identify herself as press,” the department claimed, “and later admitted she did not have proper press credentials on her person.” Asked by The Post to clarify those claims in light of Huang’s videos showing her clearly identifying herself as a reporter, a department spokesperson declined to comment citing an ongoing investigation.



Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/14/la-sheriffs-josie-huang-npr/?utm_campaign=wp_post_most&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&wpisrc=nl_most

California Is the Most Diverse State, Report Says

Racial diversity is a major theme of 2020, with the death of George Floyd, other killings and subsequent protests sparking broader discussions on racism and racial inequality. Diversity is reflected in the U.S. population, which is composed of myriad cultures, economic statuses, educational levels, religions and other demographics.But just as some aspects of society aren't as diverse as others – just 29% of state legislators nationwide are women, for example – some areas are more diverse and promote diversity more than others. California, Texas and Hawaii are the most diverse U.S. states, according to personal finance site WalletHub.

The states were ranked according to their scores on 14 metrics in six categories: socioeconomic diversity, political diversity, religious diversity, cultural diversity, household diversity and economic diversity. Each metric was graded on a 100-point scale, and states were ranked based on their overall scores, determined by their weighted average across the metrics. The data sources include the U.S. Census Bureau, the Association of Religion Data Archives and the American Values Atlas.

Top-ranked California scored in the top five in three categories: socioeconomic diversity, household diversity and cultural diversity. The state scored highest of any state for linguistic diversity, part of the cultural category. Hawaii ranked third overall, in part from its top score in racial and ethnic diversity.

Most Diverse States

1. California
2. Texas
3. Hawaii
4. New Jersey
5. New York
6. New Mexico
7. Maryland
8. Florida
9. Nevada
10. Arizona

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/articles/2020-09-10/california-is-the-most-diverse-state-in-the-us