This week the US witnessed its first Fascist Party convention. Laws didn’t matter. Norms didn’t matter. Truth didn’t matter. Public health didn’t even matter. Just a lot of flags and pageantry and praise for our Great Leader. They didn’t even have a party platform — just whatever the Leader wants.
Going into the convention, I warned you not to get caught up in the small lies — the single false statements that fact-checkers love to focus on. Instead, I encouraged you to look for the big lies in the background. They are a forest that can easily get lost behind the trees.
So of course I have to take my own advice. The first featured post is “The Four Big Lies of the Republican Convention”. It should be out before 11 EDT, though it’s hard to say how much before. I’d also like to write something about the unexpected general strike we saw in the sports world this week, and what it says about the general strike as a tool if Trump manages to steal the election. But time and effort are in short supply today — I’m in the middle of moving — so I may not get to it.
The weekly summary has a lot to cover: the Kenosha shootings, both by police and by a Trump-inspired vigilante; the Portland shooting of a right-wing protester; the hurricane and wildfires; the US has its 6 millionth virus case, as the administration corrupts the CDC and FDA; and Jerry Falwell Jr. is in the middle of a sex scandal that would dominate the news if this weren’t 2020. Maybe I’ll look for a cute animal video to close on, just for the sake of sanity. I’ll predict the summary to be out by around 1.
The Weekly Sift 
Comments
Regarding the sports situation… I see much more to come in that front so you may have time. Did you happen to catch Pete Carroll’s video address?
Re: the shooting in Kenosha — did you see the video from a BLM volunteer medic who claims that the police forced her away from attending to the victim, and then encircled him and watched him bleed out?
Thank you for correctly calling out the RNC convention for what it actually was.
I busted a gut when this asked up in my feed…
So what are you all doing tonight instead of watching that Nazi Convention?
Hysterical because it was painfully true.
I busted a gut when this showed up in my feed…
So what are you all doing tonight instead of watching that Nazi Convention?
Hysterical because it was painfully true.
Doug, it seems to me that you keep drifting off the really critical fact that roughly 40% of US voters still AVIDLY support Trump, and even if Trump is ousted, our democracy will be in intensive care. The fundamental stories that we need to focus on are 1) the social, political, and economic causes of our critically serious illness, and 2) what we might do to get back on the road to recovery. Biden as president gives us a chance to recover, but it certainly isn’t all that we must do to get well.