There was no democracy

Hillary Clinton had a big media problem in 2016. The media discussed whether she was likable or too ambitious or not up to the rigors of being president or her fashion was appropriate. They didn’t discuss her qualifications or her policy positions.

It isn’t surprising – disappointing, but not surprising – that the media has already started doing the same thing to Joe Biden’s pick for vice president, even before the choice is announced. I guess more accurately, they’re doing the same to the women perceived to be on his short list. There have already been articles “asking” “Is Kamala Harris too ambitious?”

Laura Clawson of Daily Kos reported that a group of women are putting media on notice. The women represent such groups as National Women’s Law Center, NARAL, Planned Parenthood, and a few others. They released a letter to media, demanding they do better.

The letter says that the recent Black Lives Matter protests has made many a newsroom rethink how they cover race. It is time to do the same thing for how they cover women. The letter lists specific kinds of reporting that are problematic. Here are a few, quoting from Clawson quoting the letter.

Reporting on a woman’s ambition as though the very nature of seeking political office, or any higher job for that matter is not a mission of ambition

Reporting on whether a woman is liked (a subjective metric at best) as though it is news when the “likeability” of men is never considered a legitimate news story

Reporting, even as asides in a story, on a woman’s looks, weight, tone of voice, attractiveness and hair is sexist news coverage unless the same analysis is applied to every candidate

Reporting on and using pictures of a woman’s, particularly black women, show of anger at injustice or any other kind of passion in communication perpetuates racist tropes that suggest unfairly that women are too emotional or irrational in their leadership or worse “hate America”

The letter says the women are willing to help media get the story. It also says, “we will be watching you.”



Mark Sumner of Kos reviewed the latest virus relief bill. Democrats in the House seriously want to help America and Americans and created a $3 trillion package back in May to do just that. Sumner lists all the necessary things in the bill.

The GOP in the Senate did nothing until late July and their one attempt at a bill was shot down by their own side. The GOP in the Senate has two goals. 1) force people back to work and 2) make sure corporations can’t be sued for being shoddy in protecting their workers from the virus.

No surprise the two sides haven’t agreed to a deal.

So the nasty guy acted. He told a bunch of rich pals, who were at a golf club he owns, that he never intended to seriously negotiate with Democrats. He issued an executive order and three memoranda doing a couple things the Democrats want, but on his terms. And he did one thing he wanted, cut the payroll tax, which hurts Social Security (which the GOP has long wanted to do).

Meaning for people and states to get what they need they will have to grovel. And the amount he is dangling is no where near what would cover the magnitude of the need.

Also meaning there was no compromise, there was no legislating. There was no art of the deal. There was no democracy.

It also means the GOP in the Senate have an excuse to do nothing.

CNN reported some of the details of the executive order and memoranda:

* Enhanced unemployment benefits of $400 a week – down from $600 a week and with the requirement that states, quickly running out of money, have to pay $100 of that. Relief for ravaged state budgets was not included.

* Deferring the payroll tax for those earning less than $100K a year. This money goes to Social Security and Medicare. Both were already getting less money because people laid off from a payroll don’t pay a payroll tax. This damages them further. And it does nothing to help the unemployed.

* Provide assistance to renters and homeowners (I don’t have a description of this one).

* Defer student loan payments.

Leila Fadel on NPR talked to Andrew Rudalevige about what the nasty guy did and whether it was legal. General answer: probably not, though the students won’t complain. Expect lawsuits for the rest (requiring time to get through the courts). I don’t remember details and the transcript isn’t posted yet.



In another post Sumner reports that the nasty guy says he is going to protect coverage of preexisting conditions in health insurance. But why say that when that’s already in the law? Because 1) he’s working to gut the law and 2) he’s very good and consistent at lying. Sumner says watch what he does – and it looks like healthcare is another one of those things he wants to decide who gets it and who doesn’t.



SemDem of the Kos community reports on the Friday night massacre at the US Postal Service. Louis Dejoy, the toady and rich donor with conflicts of interest the nasty guy put in charge of the USPS, has reassigned or displaced 23 top executives, including the two who oversee day-to-day operations. Power is now consolidated around Dejoy.

Mail is piling up at distribution centers and this will make it worse. Postal leaders are complaining about sabotage and have been sounding the alarm.

Yup, in a year when vote by mail is becoming more critical the nasty guy is working to make the USPS unreliable. That could mean thousands of ballots thrown out in November because of they don’t arrive in time – 34 states require ballots arrive by election day, not just be postmarked by then.

There’s also the little detail that the postage on ballots has gone up from the bulk 20 cents to the standard first rate of 55 cents – nearly tripling the cost of mailing ballots.

We’re already watching the process of stealing the election.



I checked Michigan’s coronavirus stats today. The number of new cases per day is trending down. The number of deaths per day remains low and flat.

I noticed when looking at my graph today that the peak cases per day in mid July was about half of the peak at the start of April. On April 1 there were almost 1600 new cases that day. In mid July the there were almost 800 new cases on one day.

The good news: The number of deaths per day followed the rise in cases and hit a high of almost 170 a day in mid April. In contrast, during the June-July surge the number of deaths has remained low and flat, rising no higher than 13 deaths a day.