Trump (and the pathetic response to Covid-19) has pushed people to realise this in the US: people are struggling to make ends meet with an economy in downturn and under lockdown (by necessity), and affordable access to healthcare has never been more important. The GOP wish to keep the US in what I would characterise as the days of the old Victorian Mills: the wealthy elite running the show, and everyone else working for them, given scraps for their blood and labour, with few ever able to be truly socially mobile. It’s becoming clear to many that the current system isn’t fit for purpose in a nation as big as the United States. Clinton’s failure was to run for President when there was a strong economy in play, one which Obama and Biden had helped to create: and when the economy is functioning well, that’s usually when the Republicans pounce.

As you so often do, you bring up a very good point.

Indeed, the pandemic is effectively giving each country on the planet the same exact challenge... to protect their people and their economies from an outbreak of the exact same virus. And Team America is in LAST place!

Trump being the president at the time has little to do with these results, although his antics do make the whole situation much more embarrassing. The reason why we are in last place is because of our system.

The difference is that in places like France and Germany, the nation comes first which means priority is on the people. In contrast, America never became a nation in this sense. We started out as colonies of exploitation and all the American Revolution did was change the management. So if anything America has always been a system of exploitation where money comes first.

So, in France if you're sick the government will take care of you because your French. In America you can also be taken care of, but only if the system can make a profit from it. In France if the government shuts down your business it will subsidize your income, because your French. In America if the government shuts your business down you have to plunge into endless bureaucracy to find whatever scraps you can qualify for and pray it will be enough. Or... protest the shutdowns because no matter how great the risk, you HAVE to work to survive. You will hear anti-lockdown protesters saying they "want" to work. But the truth is, unlike the French, Americans HAVE to work - we don't have a choice.

Now to be fair, there has been a LOT of effort among Americans to make America Great for once and put some priority on the people, but these Americans are called progressives and they along with all their efforts are constantly obstructed by the benefactors of the system, the Republican Party that caters to them and the useful idiots that call themselves conservatives.

On the upside - COVID-19 maybe the rock-bottom that America had to hit before it's people can realize how much our system really sucks. I see a rise among the younger and more educated Americans in the call for change and a better America. I also see the conservatives shrinking in size and losing relevance to the point of absurdity.

So, in the big picture - I think things are looking up.

As you so often do, you bring up a very good point.

Indeed, the pandemic is effectively giving each country on the planet the same exact challenge... to protect their people and their economies from an outbreak of the exact same virus. And Team America is in LAST place!

Trump being the president at the time has little to do with these results, although his antics do make the whole situation much more embarrassing. The reason why we are in last place is because of our system.

The difference is that in places like France and Germany, the nation comes first which means priority is on the people. In contrast, America never became a nation in this sense. We started out as colonies of exploitation and all the American Revolution did was change the management. So if anything America has always been a system of exploitation where money comes first.

So, in France if you're sick the government will take care of you because your French. In America you can also be taken care of, but only if the system can make a profit from it. In France if the government shuts down your business it will subsidize your income, because your French. In America if the government shuts your business down you have to plunge into endless bureaucracy to find whatever scraps you can qualify for and pray it will be enough. Or... protest the shutdowns because no matter how great the risk, you HAVE to work to survive. You will hear anti-lockdown protesters saying they "want" to work. But the truth is, unlike the French, Americans HAVE to work - we don't have a choice.

Now to be fair, there has been a LOT of effort among Americans to make America Great for once and put some priority on the people, but these Americans are called progressives and they along with all their efforts are constantly obstructed by the benefactors of the system, the Republican Party that caters to them and the useful idiots that call themselves conservatives.

On the upside - COVID-19 maybe the rock-bottom that America had to hit before it's people can realize how much our system really sucks. I see a rise among the younger and more educated Americans in the call for change and a better America. I also see the conservatives shrinking in size and losing relevance to the point of absurdity.

So, in the big picture - I think things are looking up.

Yeah, sure - it's never over until the fat lady sings, right? Who knows, Trump's miracle of 2016 could happen again where the will of the people gets overturned.

But see, this is exactly what I mean... GOP influence has been shrinking for a long time which is why they depend so much on overturning the will of the people to win elections. Out of the last seven elections, the Republicans lost the popular vote six times! Now, you can marginalize the popular vote if you want because we all know the people's vote doesn't count in presidential elections. But the popular vote is in fact the only true measure of the people's will.

So, we don't really have to wait until November to the pattern here.

As you so often do, you bring up a very good point.

Indeed, the pandemic is effectively giving each country on the planet the same exact challenge... to protect their people and their economies from an outbreak of the exact same virus. And Team America is in LAST place!

Trump being the president at the time has little to do with these results, although his antics do make the whole situation much more embarrassing. The reason why we are in last place is because of our system.

The difference is that in places like France and Germany, the nation comes first which means priority is on the people. In contrast, America never became a nation in this sense. We started out as colonies of exploitation and all the American Revolution did was change the management. So if anything America has always been a system of exploitation where money comes first.

So, in France if you're sick the government will take care of you because your French. In America you can also be taken care of, but only if the system can make a profit from it. In France if the government shuts down your business it will subsidize your income, because your French. In America if the government shuts your business down you have to plunge into endless bureaucracy to find whatever scraps you can qualify for and pray it will be enough. Or... protest the shutdowns because no matter how great the risk, you HAVE to work to survive. You will hear anti-lockdown protesters saying they "want" to work. But the truth is, unlike the French, Americans HAVE to work - we don't have a choice.

Now to be fair, there has been a LOT of effort among Americans to make America Great for once and put some priority on the people, but these Americans are called progressives and they along with all their efforts are constantly obstructed by the benefactors of the system, the Republican Party that caters to them and the useful idiots that call themselves conservatives.

On the upside - COVID-19 maybe the rock-bottom that America had to hit before it's people can realize how much our system really sucks. I see a rise among the younger and more educated Americans in the call for change and a better America. I also see the conservatives shrinking in size and losing relevance to the point of absurdity.

So, in the big picture - I think things are looking up.

Portland mayor demands Trump remove federal agents from city
People detained far from property agents were sent to protect
Trump looking for a confrontation, says governor
Associated Press in Portland, Oregon

Sat 18 Jul 2020 09.37 EDT Last modified on Sat 18 Jul 2020 11.47 EDT
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Portland mayor demands removal of camouflage-clad agents detaining protesters – video
The mayor of Portland has demanded that Donald Trump remove militarized federal agents deployed to the city after some detained people far from the federal property they were sent to protect.

“Keep your troops in your own buildings, or have them leave our city,” Ted Wheeler, the mayor, told the president, at a news conference on Friday.

Camouflaged federal agents have descended on Portland. Trump's DHS is out of control
Trevor Timm

The Democratic governor, Kate Brown, said Trump was looking for a confrontation in the hopes of winning political points elsewhere, and for a distraction from the coronavirus pandemic, which is causing rising numbers of infections in Oregon and across the nation.

Brown’s spokesman, Charles Boyle, said arresting people without probable cause was “extraordinarily concerning and a violation of their civil liberties and constitutional rights”.

The Oregon attorney general, Ellen Rosenblum, said she would file a lawsuit in federal court against the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Marshals Service, Customs and Border Protection, and Federal Protection Service, alleging they have violated the civil rights of Oregonians by detaining them without probable cause. She will also seek a temporary restraining order against them.

The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Oregon said the federal agents appear to be violating people’s rights, which “should concern everyone in the United States”.

“Usually when we see people in unmarked cars forcibly grab someone off the street we call it kidnapping,“ said Jann Carson, ACLU interim executive director. “The actions of the militarized federal officers are flat-out unconstitutional and will not go unanswered.”

Federal officers have charged at least 13 people with crimes related to the protests, Oregon Public Broadcasting reported on Thursday. Some have been detained by the federal courthouse, the scene of protests. Others were grabbed blocks away.

Federal officers use teargas and other crowd dispersal munitions on protesters in Portland, Oregon, on 17 July.

Federal officers use teargas and other crowd dispersal munitions on protesters in Portland, Oregon, on 17 July. Photograph: Mason Trinca/Getty Images
The protests following the police killing of Floyd in Minneapolis have often devolved into violent clashes between smaller groups and the police. Tensions have escalated since an officer with the US Marshals Service fired a less-lethal round at a protester’s head, critically injuring him.


“This is part of the core media strategy out of Trump’s White House: to use federal troops to bolster his sagging polling data,” Wheeler said. “And it is an absolute abuse of federal law enforcement officials.”

One video showed two people in helmets and green camouflage with “police” patches grabbing a person on the sidewalk, handcuffing them and taking them into an unmarked vehicle.

“Who are you?” someone asks the pair, who do not respond. At least some of the federal officers belong to the DHS.

Customs and Border Protection said in a statement its agents had information indicating the person in the video was suspected of assaulting federal agents or destroying federal property.

“Once CBP agents approached the suspect, a large and violent mob moved towards their location. For everyone’s safety, CBP agents quickly moved the suspect to a safer location,” the agency said.

However, the video shows no mob.

In another case, Mark Pettibone, 29, said a minivan rolled up to him around 2am on Wednesday and four or five people got out “looking like they were deployed to a Middle Eastern war”.

Pettibone told the Associated Press he got to his knees as the group approached. They dragged him into the van without identifying themselves or responding to his questions and pulled his beanie over his eyes so he couldn’t see, he said.

“I figured I was just going to disappear for an indefinite amount of time,” Pettibone said, adding that he was put into a cell and officers dumped the contents of his backpack, with one remarking: “Oh, this is a bunch of nothing.”

After he asked for a lawyer, Pettibone was allowed to leave.

“Authoritarian governments, not democratic republics, send unmarked authorities after protesters,” the Democratic US senator Jeff Merkley said in a tweet.

US attorney Billy Williams in Portland said on Friday he has requested the Department of Homeland Security’s office of the inspector general to investigate the actions of DHS personnel.

In a letter, Oregon’s two senators and two of its House members demanded that the US attorney general, William Barr, and the acting homeland security secretary, Chad Wolf, immediately withdraw “these federal paramilitary forces from our state”.

The members of Congress said they would be asking the DHS inspector general and the US Department of Justice to investigate.

“It’s painfully clear this administration is focused purely on escalating violence without answering my repeated requests for why this expeditionary force is in Portland and under what constitutional authority,” Senator Ron Wyden said.

On Thursday night, federal officers deployed tear gas and fired non-lethal rounds into a crowd of protesters. Wolf visited Portland on Thursday and called the demonstrators, who are protesting racism and police brutality, “violent anarchists”.

He blamed state and city authorities for not putting an end to the protests. But Portland police said on Friday they wound up arresting 20 people overnight.

At least two protests occurred Thursday night, one near the federal courthouse and the other by a police station in another part of the city. Police told protesters to leave that site after announcing they heard chanting about burning down the building. Protester Paul Frazier said the chant was “much more rhetorical than an actual statement”.