The NYT had a really interesting article yesterday about Trump’s mental state. Spoiler alert: it isn’t great.
Even the title:
Home Alone at the White House: A Sour President, With TV His Constant Companion
yikes.
How is he handling this you ask?
President Trump arrives in the Oval Office these days as late as noon, when he is usually in a sour mood after his morning marathon of television.
He has been up in the White House master bedroom as early as 5 a.m. watching Fox News, then CNN, with a dollop of MSNBC thrown in for rage viewing.
The economy — Mr. Trump’s main case for re-election — has imploded. News coverage of his handling of the coronavirus has been overwhelmingly negative as Democrats have condemned him for a lack of empathy, honesty and competence in the face of a pandemic. Even Republicans have criticized Mr. Trump’s briefings as long-winded and his rough handling of critics as unproductive.
The president sees few allies no matter which channel he clicks. He is angry even with Fox, an old security blanket, for not portraying him as he would like to be seen.
Well that sounds…. not so healthy…
Why is he such a mess? Well he is a mentally limited, sociopathic, narcissist being forced to deal with a situation that requires empathy, isolation, intelligence, and focus so…. he’s not doing too well.
But he is also panicking because he knows he may very well lose all of his power TO US:
His own internal polling shows him sliding in some swing states, a major reason he declared a temporary halt to the issuance of green cards to those outside the United States. The executive order — watered down with loopholes after an uproar from business groups — was aimed at pleasing his political base, people close to him said, and was the kind of move Mr. Trump makes when things feel out of control. Friends who have spoken to him said he seemed unsettled and worried about losing the election.
So not only is he worried (he is) but this worry is leading him to do more batshit crazy stuff.
Heather Cox Richardson agrees:
It is not clear that such an Executive Order would be either legal or possible, but that’s not the point: immigration restriction is the key issue that has always rallied Trump’s base to him. That he has thrown this into the mix late in the night in the midst of a pandemic that is collapsing the economy suggests he is worried that his supporters are sliding away.
It reminds me of before the 2018 election when he was going nuts with the caravans coming to the border. I was horrified, along with all of you, because that kind of fear mongering and racism is never OK and never good.
But a part of me was hopeful. I was hopeful because it smacked of desperation to me. It wasn’t going to win him any more votes in the midterm. All it could do was get the racists who already are going to vote for him to rally around him again. It seemed both inefficient and desperate.
This feels the same way.
So many of the things they are doing seem that way.
Did any of you see the BS they were pushing about Bin Laden wanting to kill Obama because he thought Biden would be a terrible president and hurt America? 😆 😆 😆 😆 It was trending on Twitter first thing in the morning here on the east coast — when all the Russian led BS trends.
It made me laugh and feel super hopeful. THAT is the best they can do? It reeks of desperation. It is pathetic. It shows real fear and impotence.
Because WE’VE GOT THIS. If we work hard and GOTMFV like never before and keep donating and working and focusing, we are going to beat this MFer in November and take McConnell and the senate out with him.
Want to help from the comfort of your quarantine? Of course you do. You don’t want to be the reason we lose, right?! Here are things you can do:
(click on the links):
Get involved with Postcards to voters. Postcards to Voters are friendly, handwritten reminders from volunteers to targeted voters giving Democrats a winning edge in close, key races coast to coast.
Register voters in key battleground states. Vote Forward has active campaigns going in 8 key states to encourage under-represented (potential) voters to register. In 6 of them, the packet you send to each potential voter will include the actual voter registration forms and instructions with pre-paid postage for that state. The folks at Vote Forward have collected data on this technique and determined that it does, indeed, appear to increase voter registration.
Text voters in key Senate races Payback Project has a comprehensive, four-pronged approach to make sure Republicans Senators are held accountable for their actions, their votes, and their enabling of Donald Trump.
Organize your community online The Democratic National Committee’s digital organizing team put together a list of ways you can keep organizing in your community online.
Do whatever we can to promote Biden in tweets and posts and emails and wherever. The same goes for other D candidates. Help them get positive recognition!
Also, contact your reps and senators on important issues like funding for the states and cities and for increased testing.
Now on to the good news!
Trump is not Popular
Trump's approval rally has disappeared
Trump's approval rating is down significantly from 49% in March, while his disapproval rating is up 9 points from 45%.
What's the point: Trump received a
clear boost in his approval rating as the coronavirus pandemic began to grip the country. His net approval rating (approval - disapproval) among voters shot up to its highest point since the first month of his presidency. But now, just weeks later, Trump's popularity has been dropping.
Looking at the data, Trump seems to have had one of the fastest retreats of a rally around the flag effect in modern polling history.
How about those swing states?
How Trump lost the public on coronavirus
In the early days of social distancing and stay-at-home orders, Trump experienced a polling surge the likes of which he has never seen before in his presidency.
People gave him high marks -- or at least a majority approved -- of his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, and that translated in overall job approval numbers that neared 50%.
Those days are now long gone. Trump's job approval numbers are back in the low- to mid-40s as a majority of the public now disapproves of how he has handled the coronavirus crisis.
The turn in Trump's standing appears to be the growing view that he moved too slow to address the virus -- and its impact on the American public.
Two thirds of people in the
new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll -- released Sunday -- said that Trump did not take "the threat seriously at the beginning." That finding mirrors what a
Pew poll found; 65% of respondents said that Trump was "too slow" to recognize the threat posed by coronavirus while 34% said he was "quick" to do so.
more on the swing states:
Trump’s strategies are not working
Immigrant-bashing has failed the GOP for three years
A new report from pro-immigrant America’s Voice provides an accounting of how often this tactic has failed Republicans during the Trump era. Because Trump won in 2016, pundits remain reluctant to acknowledge that this anti-immigrant demagoguery has been unsuccessfully wielded by an extraordinarily long series of failed GOP campaigns in the three years since.
Trump surely thinks coronavirus has people so terrified that this demagoguery will be a winner this time. But coronavirus had already spread widely here in part due to his own failures, and this move won’t do anything to address the coming economic carnage, either.
Welcome to Donald Trump’s reelection strategy
Populism has always fundamentally been a protest movement of outsiders railing against a corrupt elite that runs the country. Right-wing populism, additionally, makes a distinction between the “real people” and “others” — who tend to be foreigners, immigrants, blacks, Jews and other minorities
This strategy works well when you are outside government. Once you’re inside, though, you face a challenge. Politicians who win elections usually try to broaden their base and unify the nation. But populism depends on division and dissatisfaction.
Additionally, in times of genuine emergency, people sober up. Across the world, many populist parties that frivolously attack the establishment have struggled to make their voices heard. In a pandemic, it turns out people want their governments to take an active stance — preferably based on advice from experts.
Trump’s solution is to play insider and outsider simultaneously. One day he announces a careful plan, devised by public health officials, that outlines a step-by-step process for opening up. The next day, he sides with street protesters against governors who are following those very guidelines. It’s a complicated dance.
Trump could have used the crisis to rally the nation around a common foe. He could have provided calm, sensible leadership, stayed on message with his own health officials and fostered unity rather than division. That is the approach of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who has a 79 percent approval rating. It is the strategy of Emmanuel Macron, who has moved up 10 points in his polarized France.
But it turns out that Donald Trump knows only one dance — the populism hustle — and seems uninterested in learning any other.
A new generation of White House reporters hold Trump accountable
Many of the most revealing exchanges at recent W.H. briefings have been prompted by a new generation of correspondents. They're not taking President Trump's not-my-fault routine for an answer. They're pressing, following up and fact-checking in real time.
By now you probably recognize their names: Weijia Jiang and Paula Reid of CBS. Kaitlan Collins and Jeremy Diamond of CNN. Yamiche Alcindor of PBS. Kristin Fisher of Fox News. Francesca Chambers of McClatchy. They're showing that youth can be an asset -- along with persistence. Plus: With social distancing guidelines in effect, a pared-down seating chart means that fewer reporters are physically in the briefing room each day -- which raises the stakes for the reporters who are present.
Piers Morgan says his friend President Trump is 'failing the American people'
He returned to CNN for an interview on "Reliable Sources" and said that Trump "is failing the American people" on almost every level.
"He's turning these briefings into a self-aggrandizing, self-justifying, overly defensive, politically partisan, almost like a rally to him -- almost like what's more important is winning the election in November," Morgan said.
Matt Drudge draws Trump’s ire, setting off a potentially substantial split between the conservative media power player and the president
President Trump’s on-again, off-again relationship with one of the most powerful figures in conservative media appears to be off again.
For reasons not entirely clear, Trump washed his hands of Matt Drudge, the digital news kingmaker, in a weekend tweet, saying he “gave up” on Drudge “long ago.”
The proximate cause of Trump’s disappointment with Drudge — or more directly, his influential Drudge Report news site — was his promotion of a report stating that the number of deaths in the U.S. had set a single day record. It carried an all-caps headline: “NO PEAK YET.”
If Trump’s ardor for Drudge has truly waned, and the feeling is mutual, it would suggest a potentially consequential split. Without Drudge’s support, Trump would lose a powerful potential ally when he most needs him — during his campaign for reelection this year.
Michael Cohen Is Writing a Secret Tell-All to ‘Spill the Beans’ on Trump
The former Trump fixer is being released early from prison and is pissed and willing to dish on the president.
Michael Cohen has been spending his time behind bars writing an explosive tell-all book about his stint as President Trump’s personal lawyer and plans on releasing it before the election, according to three people familiar with the project.
We are the Majority
There is no anti-lockdown protest movement
There are protests, but this isn’t a movement, and it’s not the Tea Party 2.0.
The Tea Party was never representative of the country, but it was at least fairly representative of the Republican Party. That’s just not true of these anti-lockdown protests. Astonishingly, as Vox’s Laura McGann argued, Americans are mostly united in their willingness to social distance — Republicans included. The impression you get watching some of the coverage on Fox News, however, suggests that we’re witnessing a popular revolt against draconian public health measures.
Secret Recording Reveals NRA's Legal Troubles Have Cost The Organization $100 Million
The National Rifle Association's legal troubles have cost the powerful gun rights group $100 million, according to a recording of the group's board meeting obtained by NPR.
In the January 2020 recording, NRA CEO Wayne LaPierre criticizes ongoing investigations by the New York and Washington, D.C., attorneys general, bemoaning "the power of weaponized government." And he told the NRA's board of directors, assembled for the group's winter meeting in January, that the organization has had to make $80 million in cuts to stay afloat.
Two-thirds of voters back vote-by-mail in November 2020
A majority of voters — 58 percent — favor nationwide reform of election rules that would allow all eligible voters to cast their ballots by mail, a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll finds. And nearly 10 percent more say that, while the rules should not be permanently changed, all voters should be able to mail in their ballots this November because of concerns that the coronavirus may still be a major public health threat this fall.
Vote by Mail in Wisconsin Helped a Liberal Candidate, Upending Old Theories
The liberal candidate in Wisconsin’s hard-fought State Supreme Court race this month prevailed in voting by mail by a significant margin, upending years of study showing little advantage to either party when a state transitions from in-person to mail voting.
The gap suggests that Democrats were more organized and proactive in their vote-by-mail efforts in an election conducted under extraordinary circumstances, with voters forced to weigh the health risks of voting in person against the sometimes unreliable option of requesting and mailing in their ballots.
Biden Can Win
Jay Inslee Endorses Biden, Citing Private Conversations on Climate Policy
The governor of Washington State, one of the Democratic Party’s most prominent environmentalists, urged progressives to get on board with the presumptive presidential nominee’s campaign.
Joe Biden scores endorsement from big-spending green group
Former vice president Joe Biden notched an endorsement from a major environmental group — and is signaling he will expand his climate plan in an effort to win over young voters who see rising global temperatures as a generational crisis.
The political arm of the League of Conservation Voters, a Washington-based green group that has spent tens of millions of dollars in recent election cycles to help elect Democrats to office, announced Monday that it is backing the presumptive Democratic nominee in what looks to be a tough fight against President Trump.
Drastically reducing greenhouse gas emissions “is going to take leadership,” said Carol Browner, the chair of LCV’s board of directors. “And I have every confidence that the vice president will provide that.”
Young people really don’t like Trump. And more of them plan to vote.
There has been an assumption that former vice president Joe Biden could have a problem inspiring young people to vote this year
But a survey released Thursday by Harvard University’s Institute of Politics suggests that Biden has something going for him that could matter more than anything else to young adults: He’s not Donald Trump.
The latest installment of the Harvard Youth Poll, a survey that the Harvard institute has been doing biannually for two decades, shows that 18-to-29-year-olds favor Biden over the president by 23 percentage points. Among those who are most likely to vote, Biden has a 30-point edge. More surprising: That is almost identical to the margin that Sanders would be enjoying if he were at the top of the Democratic ticket, the survey says.
Not just young people, but also older people → Biden’s strength with older voters could threaten Trump’s electoral path
A string of recent polls shows troubling signs for President Trump with older voters, a group central to his reelection effort that appears to be drifting away from him amid a pandemic that has been especially deadly for senior citizens.
Former vice president Joe Biden, whose support from older voters helped him lead the primaries, appears to be carrying over some of that appeal into the general election. With Trump’s approval ratings sagging over his handling of the coronavirus crisis, Biden’s campaign is attempting to capitalize with a group that has traditionally leaned Republican.
In Florida, a Quinnipiac University poll released Wednesday showed Biden leading Trump by a 10-point margin, 52 to 42, among voters 65 and older — the latest poll showing Trump losing ground with seniors in key battlegrounds. In 2016, exit polls showed Trump winning seniors in Florida by 17 points over Hillary Clinton, a crucial margin in a state where older voters make up a large percentage of the voting population.
and always remember:
Democrats are Amazing
It is great to be running AGAINST someone who rallies us but don’t forget that we are also running with a party that works hard for America.
In the relief bill trump signed yesterday, Democrats successfully pushed for more funding for hospitals and testing. Not only is it great that they got what they fought for (thanks Nancy) but it is great that our party is fighting for funding for Hospitals. And for testing. And for money for people and NOT giant companies. In an ideal situation, both parties would actually care about people. They don’t. But don’t ever forget that, flaws and all, our party does care. And it fights for us.
Pelosi is playing hardball
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi made clear in an interview on Wednesday that she doesn’t intend to let Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell play a hypocritical, shift-the-goal-posts game on the next rescue-and-recovery bill.
And despite McConnell’s backsliding, she insisted that such a bill will become law, partly because it will be in President Trump’s interest to get it done.
Making a commitment many progressives have been seeking, Pelosi (D-Calif.) pledged to set the terms in the next round of negotiations by having the next bill originate with her House Democratic majority. Her members would thus not be left in a take-it-or-leave-it position on a product largely worked out in the Senate.
The components of the next rescue bill, she said, would include federal assistance to state and local governments and an increase in food stamp payments. The House will also push for rental and mortgage assistance, help for the unemployed who have lost job-based health insurance to stay on their employer plans and funds to rescue the postal system.
Make no mistake: the Democrats knew what they were doing when they set this up —> A watchdog out of Trump's grasp unleashes wave of coronavirus audits
With little fanfare, Congress’ independent, in-house watchdog is preparing a blizzard of audits that will become the first wide-ranging check on Trump’s handling of the sprawling national rescue effort.
And even as Trump has gone to war against internal watchdogs in his administration, the Government Accountability Office remains largely out of the president’s grasp because of its home in the legislative branch.
The GAO has quickly taken advantage of its perch, exploring the early missteps inherent in launching a multitrillion-dollar law that touches every facet of American life. By the end of April, at least 30 CARES Act reviews and audits — "engagements," per GAO lingo — are expected to be underway, according to interviews with senior investigators.
Topics will range from the government’s handling of coronavirus testing to its distribution of medical equipment, and from the nation’s food supply to nursing home infections and any missteps in distributing the emergency cash payments that began landing in millions of Americans’ bank accounts this week. The office’s top fraud investigator said it’s already received a complaint about a check landing in the account of a deceased person.
Democrats press General Services Administration over Trump hotel payments
Congressional Democrats are pressing the General Services Administration for information about President Trump’s D.C. hotel lease, after Trump’s company said it asked the federal government to include it in any accommodations it may make for private tenants during the coronavirus shutdown.
In a letter Thursday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) asked GSA Administrator Emily Murphy to produce the agency’s policies governing possible changes to its lease agreement with the Trump Organization, which rents the D.C. hotel building from the federal agency.
The letter also requested the status of any discussions with the Trump Organization. Democratic leaders on the House Oversight Committee, Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney (N.Y.) and Gerald E. Connolly (Va.), previously called on the GSA not to modify the lease.
Elizabeth Warren Calls for Inquiry Into Pentagon Wall Contract
Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-MS) are calling for an investigation into a $569 million border-wall contract first reported by The Daily Beast. The Army contract, awarded to GOP donors BFBC of Montana, “calls into question the administration’s compliance with federal procurement laws and demands a thorough investigation,” the two lawmakers wrote to the Pentagon inspector general in a new letter shared with The Daily Beast. “Particularly now, as we must prioritize funding to save lives and to help the millions of Americans who have suffered severe economic harms as a result of the coronavirus pandemic, taxpayer funds must not be wasted, and federal procurement processes must not favor campaign donors or personal favorites of the president,” write Warren and Thompson.
DeLauro, Cohen Lead Colleagues in Call to Repeal $170 Billion Tax Break for Real Estate Developers, Hedge Fund Owners in CARES Act
Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (CT-03) and Congressman Steve Cohen (TN-09) announced they would send a letter to House and Senate leaders next week calling for the repeal of a $170 billion tax break in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) for hedge fund owners and real estate developers.
We Can Win Beyond the WH:
Cash-rich Democrats tighten grip on House majority
Recruitment flops and lackluster fundraising have weakened Republicans’ chances in over a dozen competitive House districts, leaving them with an increasingly narrow path back to power.
Though GOP strategists feel confident they will see some gains this cycle, the latest fundraising reports out last week painted a bleak picture of their odds of netting the 18 seats needed to recapture the House, particularly with campaigning frozen by a global pandemic.
Democrats continue to ride the "green wave" of campaign contributions that propelled them to the majority in the 2018 midterms. Nearly 30 of the most endangered House Democrats have banked $2 million or more in their reelection war chests, offering a layer of protection in otherwise challenging districts.
The GOP has reached its sad, inevitable destination
The Trump captivity of the GOP has reached its sad, inevitable destination: a failed presidency defended by a cowed party.
Trump is, no doubt, in a perilous political situation.
The president seldom defies the right-wing populists, and his immediate response was to identify with their anger. But this is a different political circumstance from any Trump has faced. In this case, pleasing the most vocal portion of his base puts another important constituency — older voters — at additional risk of painful, suffocating death. It is difficult to play both sides of this issue. And there are indications in recent polling that seniors have grown increasingly critical of Trump’s pandemic response.
For some of us, the ideal is more on the model of Christian social teaching — solidarity with the vulnerable, respect for value-shaping institutions, care for creation, the embrace of refugees and immigrants, and support for government that seeks the common good.
Neither political party currently measures up to this ideal, nor cares to. But Joe Biden was shaped by it. While his policy views can be quite liberal, his political muscle memory comes from the Catholic social-justice tradition. He is, as his critics charge, a throwback. But to a saner time, with superior options. The beginning of reform for Republicans might be a vote for the Democratic candidate.
Other Good News
Supreme Court rejects Trump administration’s view on key aspect of Clean Water Act
The Supreme Court on Thursday rejected the Trump administration’s reading of a key part of the Clean Water Act as creating an “obvious loophole” in its enforcement, and gave a partial win to environmentalists in a case from Hawaii.
While environmentalists had won a broader victory in the lower court, they were happy to accept the Supreme Court’s ruling.
“This decision is a huge victory for clean water,” said David Henkin, an attorney for Earthjustice who argued the case. “The Supreme Court has rejected the Trump administration’s effort to blow a big hole in the Clean Water Act’s protections for rivers, lakes and oceans.
The chief justice and Rapey McBeerlover voted with the liberals.
Ballots to be Mailed to All New York Voters for June Elections
Gov. Andrew Cuomo plans to issue an executive order sending ballots to all registered voters in New York state so they can vote by mail in the upcoming election on June 23 amid the coronavirus pandemic, sources told NY1 on Monday afternoon.
sdosch points out: Cuomo’s executive order will send a postage paid *application for an absentee ballot*, not the actual voting ballot. So you still have to apply in order to have the ballot sent to you. So please don’t ignore the APPLICATION for absentee ballot, fill it out and send it in. Then you will receive the absentee ballot so you can vote by mail. (The Spectrum News article has it wrong)
Things not to worry about
The US won’t run out of food during the coronavirus pandemic
As the pandemic began, Americans lined up by the hundreds to panic buy staples like 20-pound bags of rice and peanut butter at Costco. Shelf-stable, freeze-dried provisions normally marketed to campers and doomsday survivalists flew off the shelves at outdoor companies. People continue to purchase and hoard so much food that even local food banks are having trouble sourcing items from grocery stores.
One of the biggest disruptions to the food supply chain stemming from coronavirus is the rapid shift from consumers eating outside their homes — in restaurants or school cafeterias — to almost entirely at home. The food they eat, no matter where they consume it, may have the same origins in terms of where it was processed or farmed, but the supply chains are totally different
“It’s not a shortage of food, but it’s about addressing getting the food to the right parts of the chain that need it,” Martens said. “It’s not an easy switch when it happens this rapidly.”
To avoid this massive food waste and keep grocery store shelves stocked, the supply chain has had to adjust
In the meantime, consumers will also have to adjust. Their preferred food items, package sizes, and brand names might not be available temporarily. The developed world has gotten used to the idea of being able to walk into the grocery store and pick up anything — but that’s a luxury, Sheffi said.
“It’s less convenient, but let’s also remember that most of humanity has never had this, even today,” he said. “In the US, everything is available, whatever you want. Let’s get a grip — food will continue flowing.”
A little time to laugh:
Only funny if you wanted The Good Place (If you didn’t, get to it!!):
Hope
This study on “accidents involving flowers” is the most beautiful thing I’ve read during the pandemic
new study, published in the journal New Phytologist, about the beautiful, ordinary, and profound things flowers do after suffering an injury. That is: When many flower species get knocked down, they right themselves. The individual flowers on the stalk will rotate back, as best they can, into a position ideal for pollination.
“PLANTS JUST STAY THEIR ENTIRE LIFE IN ONE SPACE AND HAVE TO SURVIVE FROM THERE,” LOPRESTI SAYS. THAT’S NOT SO DIFFERENT FROM MANY OF US RIGHT NOW.
Finally, some more great news — for the past weeks we have been fundraising as a group for Democrats to retake the Senate. I set our goal at $10,000 AND WE PASSED IT! We have raised over $12,000! Wow!
So, here is a question: should we keep donating to take the Senate or should we switch and try to raise money for another cause? I added a poll so we can decide as a group.
Before you go, this MAY be your last chance to donate to our Senate campaign. So no more waiting!
Click Here to Donate to Flipping the Senate.
Let’s do it!
I am so proud and so lucky to be in this with all of you ❤️ ✊ ❤️