Former Ohio Republican governor to speak at the Democratic convention

Ohio has burrowed itself deep in impeached president Donald Trump, who may or may not be hiding in his bunker at this time. It’s not a state that will decide the presidency. Trump won it by eight points in 2016, and if he loses it this year (and chances are growing by the day), he will already have lost Arizona, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and several other states—giving presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden more than enough electoral votes to end our long national nightmare. Yet his campaign has now made Ohio the second-largest recipient of advertising dollars, behind only Florida. 

So how do you think Trump will react when he finds out that former Ohio two-term Republican governor John Kasich is scheduled to speak at the Democratic National Convention? Hilarious, right? 

The Daily Beast has leaked details on Democratic plans for the mostly online convention, which includes the information on Kasich’s participation. The Associated Press has more information on the Kasich coup, and adds this hint: “Kasich is among a handful of high-profile Republicans likely to become more active in supporting Biden in the fall.” The Biden campaign, feeling secure in its base, is clearly focused on expanding his potential base of support, and the never-Trump crowd, while small, could have a big impact in close races up and down the ballot. 

Ohio is a perfect example, a state in which Trump’s standing has fallen more precipitously during the coronavirus pandemic (and because of it) than most places. 

As noted in a previous analysis, Trump’s general election matchup numbers are closely correlated to his approval numbers. His 47% approvals here means he’s getting between 47-49% in the head-to-head matchups versus Biden. That’s enough for victory, but barely. Trump is hanging on for dear life in a state that he comfortably won in 2016, and which shouldn’t be in play given its demographics—mostly white, mostly non-college.  

Meanwhile, Kasich left office a popular politician, with a 52-36 rating the last time Quinnipiac checked in before he was termed out of office in 2018. But even then, there were storm clouds that hinted at a party split: “Ohio Gov. John Kasich gets a 52-36 percent job approval rating, doing better with Democrats than he does with his fellow Republicans, Democrats approve of Kasich 57-33 percent. Republicans are divided as 46 percent approve and 44 percent disapprove.” You see, he had run against Trump in the 2016 Republican primary, and Trump hit him for, among other things, giving his state’s residents health care via Obamacare Medicaid expansion. 

pic.twitter.com/ZQ0osiFEJQ

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2016

The campaign eventually ended, but the feud never did. For example, here was a typical interaction between the two, in 2018:

pic.twitter.com/wqtmN9SwhT

— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) August 13, 2018

Pretty good, right? Kasich also attacked his party for looking the other way as Trump made a mockery of party orthodoxy, steel and aluminum tariffs, as well as for tolerating Trump’s attacks on national institutions like the FBI and the Justice Department. After the 2019 Dayton mass shooting, Kasich called Trump “sensitive” and “thin-skinned.”  

Kasich spent some seconds this year “running against Trump in the GOP primary,” but no one took that seriously. The Republican Party is the Party of Trump, and vice versa. There’s no longer any room for Kasich-style moderate fiscal conservatives in the GOP. We don’t want them either! But at least this year, those never-Trumpers realize the damage that Trump is doing to the country. As Kasich told the Washington Post, “[The Republican Party] coddled this guy the whole time and now it’s like some rats are jumping off of the sinking ship. It’s just a little late. It’s left this nation with a crescendo of hate not only between politicians but between citizens. ... It started with Charlottesville and people remained silent then, and we find ourselves in this position now.”

Kasich may be the highest-profile Republican to flip to Biden right now, but there is definitely something happening among Republicans. Look at Trump’s approval ratings among Republicans: 

So 87-9 seems ridiculously high, right? Except that during the impeachment hearings, that number was 91-6. That means that in just a few short months, Trump has lost a net-seven points of support among Republicans. 

Don’t scoff. Every Republican that gives up on Trump is one less vote. They may vote for Biden and say the heck with it, they’ll vote for Democrats in critical Senate and House races. Or maybe they stay home in frustration, which is almost as good. 

Every Republican defection makes it harder for Trump to bounce back. How is he going to expand his coalition if he can’t even hold on to his own core base? 

Kasich isn’t a play to win Ohio. We don’t need Ohio. Let Trump piss his money away on a state that is irrelevant to whether he wins or loses. While there are two Republican-held House seats that could be in play, control of the U.S. House isn’t at stake. 

But there are Republicans who aren’t happy being associated with a racist sociopath who is putting our children at risk to boost his reelection chances, and Kasich is a signal to them freeing them from Trumpism. There are alternatives. Because this thing, whatever it is that Republicanism has become? It really hasn’t quite worked out well for the country now, has it.

But even if Kasich doesn’t swing a single vote—which is quite possible—the inevitable Trump tantrum will be reason enough to stand up and clap. You know it’ll be glorious. 

House Dems urge Pentagon IG to investigate ‘retaliation’ against Trump impeachment witness

Democrats on the House committees on Intelligence and Oversight on Tuesday urged the Defense Department inspector general to open an investigation into whether the Trump administration retaliated against the now-retired Army lieutenant colonel who testified against President Trump during his impeachment proceedings. 

Cheers and Jeers: Tuesday

Energize An Ally Tuesday

Just a quick above-the-fold reminder that, as the pandemic and the racial justice movement continue dominating our thoughts, actions, and headlines—especially with President “Look! I’m So Smart I Pointed To A Picture Of An Elephant!” still in charge—Daily Kos is supporting several organizations that are doing critical frontline work on both issues. I've made a point of donating a little bit every week, because these are long-term efforts, and consistent financial support is key to maintaining momentum that results in real progress.

So, if you're able and willing, you can donate to DK's pandemic relief fund here and to DK's racial justice fund here. Every little bit helps. Many thanks.

Cheers and Jeers for Tuesday, July 21, 2020

Note: From the Eyewitness News Desk—Every surgeon in the world now admits mask-wearing was all just a big prank perpetrated since the 19th century to break the Guinness world record for longest practical joke. Film and gales of laughter at 11.

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By the Numbers:

15 weeks!

Weeks 'til the general election: 15

Biden-Trump matchup among likely voters in the latest ABC News/Washington Post poll released Sunday: 54%-44%

Average Biden lead among suburban voters across all ABC/WaPost polls: 15 points

Percent of Democrats and Independents polled by Quinnipiac who, combined, feel Trump is making the pandemic situation worse: 79%

Percent chance that "Joe Biden would destroy our fossil fuel industry," according to Vice President Mike Pence over the weekend, apparently campaigning for the election of Joe Biden: 100%

Per-glass price at my front-yard lemonade stand: $199.95

Number of glasses sold in 21 years: 0

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Puppy Pic of the Day: Why you should always thump melons before you buy them…

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CHEERS to parental guidance. There's a reason the moms and dads of PFLAG get the loudest applause at LGBTQ parades every year: nobody messes with their kids and gets away with it. That's also true of the Black Lives Matter movement, most recently exemplified in Portland, Oregon over the weekend when a new group marched to the front lines to confront Trump's unidentified jackbooted thugs who'd been kidnapping their kids in unmarked vehicles and terrorizing them:

Dozens of women wearing yellow linked arms to form a protective "wall of moms" around Black Lives Matter protesters in Portland, Oregon, on Sunday as the protesters clashed with federal law enforcement.

Wall of Moms in action. A movement within the movement is born. 

Video from the scene showed crowds chanting “Feds stay clear, moms are here!" and "Feds go home!" before protesters toppled a fence erected around the federal courthouse. Federal agents fired back with what appeared to be tear gas and flash bangs, the video showed. […]

Some of the women were there because their children had been tear-gassed in earlier protests over recent weeks, Davis said. “There’s definitely some parents and teens out there together,” he said.

I don’t want to say they've turned the tide yet, but at last count they'd successfully sent over a dozen of Trump’s American Gestapo to their rooms without supper.

CHEERS to Christmas in July…and August…and even September! I don’t know if you heard, but the president promised last Thursday that he was going to ride through all the towns in his Air Force One Horse Open Perv Sleigh and give presents to all the peasants, says AP writer Jill Colvin:

Trump says he'll be announcing "many exciting things" over the next 8 weeks, "things that nobody has even contemplated, thought about, thought possible," with "levels of detail and levels of thought that a lot of people believed very strongly we didn't have in this country."

C&J promises to keep you apprised over the next eight weeks as we open each morning's little door on our Many Exciting Things Advent Calendar to see what un-contemplatable goodie he's left inside for us. I plucked out the morsel for Day 5, and all I can say is, don’t eat it. It's not chocolate.

CHEERS to comeuppance.  46 years ago today, on July 21, 1974, the House Judiciary Committee approved two articles of impeachment against Richard "Okay, I Guess I Am A Crook After All" Nixon. That same day, he was giving a speech at a private home in Bel Air, California.  Let's see... He talked about the host's fine tent. He talked about the struggle between Greece and Turkey.  He talked about his trip to Egypt.  He talked about some former administration officials.  And then he toasted his audience with a fine whine:

"You wonder sometimes, and I am often asked, you know, how do you really take the burden of the Presidency, particularly when at times it seems to be under very, very grievous assault.

Let me say, it isn't new for it to be under assault, because since the time we came into office for 5 years, we have had problems.

Buh bye.

There have been people marching around the White House when we were trying to bring the war to an end, and we have withstood that, and we will withstand the problems of the future."

He forgot to add four crucial words: "...for 19 more days."  Silly goose.

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BRIEF SANITY BREAK

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�Hey Sweetie...� pic.twitter.com/l93O9hTzme

� Rex Chapman�� (@RexChapman) July 18, 2020

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END BRIEF SANITY BREAK

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CHEERS to an end to all this nonsense, maybe? Take that you dastardly coronavirus! Your days might be numbered, now that the sleep-deprived researchers at Oxford University and drug maker AstraZeneca have hit on a possible vaccine under the brand name Possiblevaccineitol:

The trial results found that it generated two "strong" immune responses: the production of both antibodies and T cells, which find and attack virus cells.

One small problem: God’s not returning our calls.

"We’re getting both sides of the immune system stimulated and that is fairly unusual for vaccines," Adrian Hill, director of the Jenner Institute at Oxford University, told NBC News.

Even better, they say the stimulative effect increased significantly when patients were given the vaccine plus a subscription to Pornhub.

CHEERS to purty rhymin' wurds.  On this date in 1893, Katherine Lee Bates—a college-educated, latte-slurping Cape Cod liberal elitist—wrote the poem America the Beautiful after visiting an inspiring spot:

One day some of the other teachers and I decided to go on a trip to 14,000-foot Pikes Peak. We hired a prairie wagon. Near the top we had to leave the wagon and go the rest of the way on mules. I was very tired. But when I saw the view, I felt great joy. All the wonder of America seemed displayed there, with the sea-like expanse.

It was later set to the hymn "Materna" by Samuel Ward.  But only because Snoop Dogg wanted ten million bucks for the rights to "We Just Wanna Party with You."

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Ten years ago in C&J: July 21, 2010

JEERS to the Big Snooker.  I don't know which is worse—that Andrew Breitbart and Fox News are as dishonest and disgustingly amateurish as they are, or that Ag Secretary Tom Vilsack and the White House are so hardheaded that they can't walk back an injustice even after they find out they've been totally punk'd. At least the NAACP can see the forest for the sleaze:

The fact is Ms. Sherrod did help the white farmers [the Spooners] mentioned in her speech.  They personally credit her with helping to save their family farm.  Moreover, this incident and the lesson it prompted occurred more that 20 years before she went to work for USDA.

The Shirley Sherrod firing demonstrated with eye-rolling frustration just how quickly the Obama administration could cave to right-wing smears. They eventually wised up.

Finally, she was sharing this account as part of a story of transformation and redemption. In the full video, Ms.Sherrod says she realized that the dislocation of farmers is about "haves and have nots."  "It’s not just about black people, it’s about poor people," says Sherrod in the speech. "We have to get to the point where race exists but it doesn’t matter."  This is a teachable moment, for activists and for journalists.

Shirley Sherrod doesn’t deserve to be rehired. She deserves to be rehired, promoted, given a raise and her own corner office, taken out to lunch, and given one helluvan apology.  And then President Obama needs to reunite the Spooners with Sherrod at the White House to drive home the point she made in her speech last March.  And since we're making lists this morning, I'd like a triple cheeseburger and a biggie fry. No pickle.

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And just one more…

CHEERS to Pluto: up close and personal..again. I have to keep reminding myself that back in grade school our favorite dwarf planet was always described as our most distant, but beyond that no one really knew much about it or what it looked like. Well, it's been five years since the New Horizons probe flew by and snapped some cool Polaroids, and now NASA has an update with some of their new discoveries:

»  Pluto’s heart—one of the signature features New Horizons observed on approach and imaged in high resolution during the flyby—is a vast, million-square-mile nitrogen glacier. … Cold and far-flung as Pluto may be, its icy “heart” still beats to a daily, rhythmic drum that drives Pluto’s atmosphere and climate much in the way Greenland and Antarctica help control Earth’s climate.

»  New Horizons data from the basin indicated there may be a heavier mass beneath it that played a part, and scientists suspect that the heavier mass is a water ocean. “That was an astonishing discovery,” Tuttle said. “It would make Pluto an elusive ‘ocean world,’ in the same vein as Europa, Enceladus and Titan.

Also: we now know that every 236 days it goes "Arf.”

»  Zoom in close to the surface of Sputnik Planitia and you’ll see something unlike anywhere else in the solar system: a network of strange polygonal shapes in the ice, each at least 6 miles (10 kilometers) across, churning on the surface of the glacier.  Although they resemble cells under a microscope, these aren’t; they’re evidence of Pluto’s internal heat trying to escape from underneath the glacier, and forming bubbles of upwelling and downwelling nitrogen ice, something like a hot lava lamp.

»  [I]f there’s one abnormal thing about the Pluto system, it’s that neither Pluto nor Charon have many small craters—they’re almost all big.

After scrutinizing the surface of Pluto from every angle for five years, NASA now says it knows what it's going to send there next: a dermatologist.

Have a tolerable Tuesday. Floor's open...What are you cheering and jeering about today?

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Today's Shameless C&J Testimonial

Police used drones to monitor nudity in the Cheers and Jeers kiddie pool

CNN

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U.S. Senate confirms Trump nominee who defied subpoena to lead budget office

U.S. Senate confirms Trump nominee who defied subpoena to lead budget officeThe U.S. Senate voted along party lines on Monday to confirm Russell Vought as director of the Office of Management and Budget, eight months after Vought defied a congressional subpoena and refused to testify in President Donald Trump's impeachment. The vote was 51-45 to confirm Vought, as all of Trump's fellow Republicans backed the nomination and every Democrat voted no. Vought, 44, has held the post of OMB director on an acting basis since January 2019, when his predecessor, Mick Mulvaney, became acting White House chief of staff.


Posted in Uncategorized

Puerto Rico governor, others face formal corruption probe

Puerto Rico governor, others face formal corruption probePuerto Rico’s governor and other top officials on Monday became the formal targets of an in-depth government investigation into recent corruption allegations. The U.S. territory’s Special Independent Prosecutor’s Panel agreed to probe the allegations against Gov. Wanda Vázquez and others following a referral from the island’s Department of Justice that ended with two justice secretaries stepping down earlier this month and led to calls for impeachment against the governor. “This is very serious,” Edgardo Román, president of the Bar Association of Puerto Rico, told The Associated Press.


Posted in Uncategorized

Senate confirms Russ Vought to be White House budget chief

The Senate confirmed Russ Vought to lead the Office of Management and Budget on Monday, more than a year after he was tapped as interim director of the agency.

Vought's tenure as acting OMB director has drawn bipartisan scrutiny, including from Republicans who have opposed two failed attempts by the administration to yank back billions in foreign aid.

Democrats have criticized Vought for stonewalling congressional oversight demands, and last year he defied a subpoena after refusing to answer questions about the administration's decision to freeze hundreds of millions of dollars in military aid to Ukraine last summer.

That decision prompted House Democrats to launch an impeachment inquiry into whether President Donald Trump leveraged the aid for political favors. But Vought has maintained that the Ukraine aid freeze was part of a broader foreign aid review, not a quid pro quo.

Vought first took the helm of the White House budget office during the 35-day government shutdown in January 2019, after Trump tapped former OMB Director Mick Mulvaney as his acting chief of staff.

Senate Budget Chairman Mike Enzi (R-Wyo.) lauded Vought’s confirmation in a statement, adding that his “role will be crucial to help the federal government function in what is shaping up to be a very challenging budget environment that requires the attention of every one of us.“

“I look forward to working with him to help put our nation on a better fiscal path,” said Enzi, who’s retiring after this year.

But Vought has so far unsuccessfully pushed unpopular cuts to rein in federal spending, despite the president’s 2016 campaign pledge to balance the federal budget.

Even before the pandemic, the nation’s budget gap expanded after the administration and Congress embraced the Republican tax revamp in 2017 and a two-year budget deal last summer. The federal deficit is now on track to balloon to nearly $4 trillion this year after Congress mounted a colossal response to the coronavirus outbreak earlier this year.

Vought has also repeatedly drawn the ire of Democrats for stonewalling congressional oversight demands and subpoenas for testimony and information.

During a House Budget Committee hearing in February, Chairman John Yarmuth (D-Ky.) asked Vought to pledge transparency in how OMB manipulates federal dollars, in addition to a promise that OMB will adhere to federal budget laws.

“Now, when American lives and livelihoods depend on the effectiveness of the federal government and the proper implementation of fiscal policy, it is critical that Director Vought honor his commitments,” Yarmuth said in a statement on Monday. “I will honor my promise to hold him to his word.”

Posted in Uncategorized

Former Florida Rep. Allen West named Texas Republican chair

Former Florida Rep. Allen West named Texas Republican chairFormer U.S. Rep. Allen West of Florida, a firebrand conservative who once called for President Barack Obama's impeachment following a short stint in Congress, was elected chair of the Republican Party of Texas during a turbulent virtual convention early Monday. West's ascension comes four months before what could be an unusually competitive Election Day in America's biggest red state. Democrats need just nine seats to flip the Texas House for the first time in 20 years, and Joe Biden this month put up a modest ad buy in Texas, raising questions about President Donald Trump’s vulnerability in the longtime Republican stronghold.


Posted in Uncategorized

Things in Portland were getting better, until Trump made them worse … deliberately

In the last two weeks, Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that there are “many, many people in jail right now—many, many people in jail, all over the country” for attempting to topple Confederate statues. And then there was the sequence from Trump’s appearance on Thursday, in which he promised, “many exciting things … Things that nobody has even contemplated, thought about, thought possible, and things that we’re going to get done … we can honestly say nobody has ever going to see eight weeks like we’re going to have.” He continued, “We’re going to get things done that they’ve wanted to see done for a long, long time.”

Trump did not say who “they” were, but it’s not hard to guess what the things are. Because a day earlier, Trump made it clear that one of the “detailed” and “thoughtful” things he has planned for next week is a federal takeover of multiple cities from “the left-wing group of people” that voters have elected as governors, mayors, and other local leaders. “Next week, we’re going to have, I think, a very exciting news conference because we’re going to be talking about some of these cities that — where the Democrats running them have just lost control of the cities. So that’ll be very interesting.”

Interesting … may not be the right word.

On Saturday morning, it did seem as if the national media had finally noticed that Portland, Oregon exists. Video of Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler demanding the removal of uninvited federal troops from his city’s streets appeared on multiple broadcasts, as did video of those unidentified federal forces kidnapping people off the street and forcing them into unmarked vans

The New York Times has detailed the last fifty days of protests and unrest in Portland. The article does a good job explaining the many steps between the protests against police violence and systemic racism that grew in the wake of the police murder of George Floyd, and how those protests eventually led to unarmed protesters being shot in the face by federal officers. That story includes a spiral of protest actions, over-response from police, escalation of tensions, and events such as a July 4th exchange with protesters directing fireworks toward the federal courthouse while police returned a hail of rubber-coated bullets, pepper balls and tear gas … for three hours.

But the biggest takeaway of “how did we get here” when it comes to unidentified men in camo dragging people into vans, or blasting them in the face, is simple: Donald Trump wants it that way.

A year ago, it might have seemed possible that Donald Trump could be reelected, based on the complacency of a white America willing to overlook—or reward—three years of racism and corruption in exchange for an extra nickle on their paychecks and the satisfaction of knowing they had a leader who was making white supremacy fashionable again. But with COVID-19 revealing just how impossibly weak Donald Trump’s leadership really is, and coming off a year in which Trump’s impeachment brought a cascade of testimony to his pettiness and insecurity, any concept that Trump might hold onto power in anything resembling a normal election is out the window.

If the American people can go to the polls, or even better, mail in a ballot, to select their choice in November, Trump will lose in all but a handful of the most blood red states. In fact, his slide over the last month has been so precipitous, it’s hard to predict that any state is unthinkable in the fall.

Trump knows this. In response, he’s going with what has always worked for him in the past—racism, the shock doctrine, and fear. Trump intends to sell his followers on a vision of America where Democratic states and cities are not just less important than red states, but a threat to real Americans. A threat that must be dealt with. What’s going on in Portland right now is the prototype for Trump’s America

As the Times article—and the mayor, and the governor, and everyone on the scene—makes clear, the presence of federal forces in Portland has greatly escalated the violence and tension in the city. It’s only since these forces appeared on the scene that “it’s gotten really brutal.” That’s because the federal forces have no respect for the usual tension and back-and-forth that exists between protesters, even the most peaceful protesters, and police. Here’s a scene in downtown Portland from a week ago.

Last Saturday, the crowd was 100 or so. It was very chill—nothing going on beyond the now-normal occupation of the Justice Center. And feds came out grabbing people seemingly at random and beating people with sticks. There was the kid who got shot in the head and his skull was fractured. 

The federal forces didn’t just shoot an unarmed student in the head. They shot the relationship between the police and the protesters. They blew away an already tentative sense of cause and effect. They made it clear that there are no rules. Anyone could be hurt at any time for any thing. Or nothing.

This is not accidental. In both the protests in Washington D. C. and what’s going on in Portland, the forces sent in by Trump, Attorney General William Barr, and acting Director of Homeland Security Chad Wolf are people completely untrained in dealing with either public demonstrations or even normal law enforcement. These are ass-kickers, and they’ve been sent in to kick ass. 

They are not there to make things better. They are very, very much there to make things worse.

And they’re being successful. Early on in the sequence of protests in Portland, a man called “Legend” started providing free food to protesters. His efforts got him tear gassed, but the community response ended up allowing him to create an always-open spot where anyone—protester, homeless, or just hungry—could come in for a free plate of food. The community rallied around him, local merchants provided supplies, voluntary contributions covered all the costs. Other services grew up around “Riot Ribs,” including free medical care, and even help in finding jobs and homes for those on the streets. But after the federal forces smashed the unspoken agreement between the police and protesters, the location was stormed, Legend and everyone else involved was driven away or arrested, and all the donated food was confiscated. A fence was put up to make sure no one could come back. The relationship between the police and protesters went way down. The chance of violence … through the roof.

This is exactly the kind of outcome Trump is going for. It does Trump no good to have people sitting around sharing food, helping their community, and  planning for the future. He needs there to be violence. So he, and Barr, and Wolf, are creating it. They have no intention on stopping with Portland. The United States is currently undergoing the greatest crisis it has faced in a century. At the same time, it is wrestling with the greatest reconsideration of Civil Rights in half a century. Trump has no interest in dealing with the former, and nothing but distaste for the later. He’s creating a crisis on top of crisis on top of a crisis because … racism and fear. In the end, it’s all he ever brought to the game.

Fox News and right wing sources are already selling their audience on a vision of America in which blue states and cities are in “anarchy” and where violence “demands” a federal presence. It fits exactly with their claims that had the gun-waving couple in St. Louis not directed a military weapon at passing protesters, they would have been “murdered” and their house “would be ashes.” They mean to make violence not just understandable, but inevitable.

Trump means to send federal forces to Chicago, and Seattle, and anywhere else he can think of, explicitly to insert the chaos and violence that justifies taking even more federal control. And it would not be too much to believe that action is headed toward something very like a declaration of martial law, or a federalization of police forces.

However, there is one thing that can slow Trump’s action: Visibility. The right wing has been getting a stream of “antifa violence” fed to them 24/7 since the George Floyd protests began. They’re plenty ready for Trump to crack some skulls and shoot some protesters. What happened to John Lewis on that bridge in Selma may have shocked the nation, but Trump supporters are eagerly waiting to see that kind of bloodshed on their screens. Every note of racism and fear has been played to not just make them want it, but feel like they need it.

There has to be more visibility for everyone else. A momentary blip on the news 50 days into protests and over a week after federal forces blew apart the situation, is far from enough. What’s happening in Portland needs to be elevated not just because it’s frightening, and a huge threat to America, but because when it’s seen up close, the intention is also obvious, crude, and even more than a little ludicrous

Mayor Wheeler has forcefully renewed his call for the withdrawal of federal forces. Oregon Governor Kate Brown has made it clear that Trump is “looking for a confrontation” in hopes of turning violence in Portland into votes in Ohio or Michigan. Even the U. S. Attorney for the District of Oregon has called for an investigation into an action that his boss has played a major role in organizing (So don’t be surprised to hear about another U. S. attorney “resigning”). 

But the most important thing at the moment may be to elevate the videos and reports from those on the ground. To join in saying that this is unacceptable. And to make it clear to Donald Trump that you see what he is doing.

We�re fighting to save our democracy � in Portland and nationwide. And we�re just getting started.https://t.co/LdhRXKw5IY

— ACLU (@ACLU) July 18, 2020

�Usually when we see people in unmarked cars forcibly grab someone off the street we call it kidnapping� https://t.co/6GvqjkOANC

— Jonathan Lemire (@JonLemire) July 18, 2020

Unidentified stormtroopers. Unmarked cars. Kidnapping protesters and causing severe injuries in response to graffiti. These are not the actions of a democratic republic.@DHSgov�s actions in Portland undermine its mission. Trump & his stormtroopers must be stopped.

— Nancy Pelosi (@SpeakerPelosi) July 18, 2020