Trump's briefings were lie filled ramblings. They made everything worse. Bringing them back will not change the problem, which is that he and his administration are not doing a damn thing to help the country to end the spread of this pandemic. Demanding a payroll tax cut (when 50+million are unemployed?), refusing to fund testing, forcing schools to open, insisting businesses and schools and municipalities cannot be sued when people die because of their refusal to even do the most basic of things (like asking people to wear masks), and all of Trump's and the GOP's other insane tactics are things that are not going to change, whether he is holding his daily clan rants or not. And NOW he's wearing a mask? Please.

No performance of any kind will be able to cover up the hundreds of thousands dead and the tens of millions sick. No performance of any kind will be able to cover up the economic and social devastation wrought by his refusal to do one goddamn thing starting back in September 2019 when he was first informed of COVID-19.

I bet the plan is to pressure Whole Foods to allow BLM masks and make some sort of statement while settling with the plaintiffs and the attorney. That how Shannon Liss Riordan rolls, pressure them and drive a settlement. Perhaps under the old owners but Bezos is a lot like Trump in that way. I see them digging in for better or worse.

The pleading is on Pacer just yet but based on the press comments from Liss-Riordan there isn’t any substantive legal case. You can’t discriminate against a mask. It’s not a protected class. The employer has every right to control what an employee wears. When the law is on your side hammer the law. When the facts are on your side hammer the facts. If neither are on your side hammer on the table and make noise. The court has no authority to require Whole Foods to allow the mask nor to disallow punishing those employees that refuse to remove them.

A better goal would be to use this energy to get the police to quit unjustifiably killing persons of color. This is more like some self centered young white kids missing the point completely. The mask isn’t the point. The deaths are.

“It’s like stop and frisk meets Guantanamo Bay,” said attorney Juan Chavez, director of the civil rights project at the Oregon Justice Resource Center.

Chavez has worked on litigation surrounding the weeks of protests and helped lead efforts to curb local police from using tear gas and munitions on protesters. He called the arrest by federal officers “terrifying.”

“You have laws regarding probable cause that can lead to arrests,” he said. “It sounds more like abduction. It sounds like they’re kidnapping people off the streets.”

Oregon Democratic Sen. Jeff Merkely said if Wolf is coming to inflame the situation in Portland so the President can “look tough,” the acting DHS leader should leave.

“Federal forces shot an unarmed protester in the face,” Merkely said in a tweet. “These shadowy forces have been escalating, not preventing, violence.”

Oregon Gov. Kate Brown similarly called for federal law enforcement officers to leave Portland. She added, Wolf is on a “mission to provoke confrontation for political purposes.”

“This political theater from President Trump has nothing to do with public safety,” Brown said in a statement. “The President is failing to lead this nation. Now he is deploying federal officers to patrol the streets of Portland in a blatant abuse of power by the federal government.”

https://www.opb.org/news/article/federal-law-enforcement-unmarked-vehicles-portland-protesters/

Alrighty, then:
Peaceful fucking Protesters
getting Gitmo'd in Oregone.

Brought to YOU by the most self-professing Patriot the Planet has ever ever known -- Fake "prez" hisself.

How many tightie righties On Board with disappearing the Citizenry? Step right up to the mic. Let us see the mental gymnastics required to support this Fascist.

(Remember -- if you're
not Pro-fascist you're
probably anti-fascist).

The Hitchcockian photo of Prezinazi AntiChrist in a mask is a profound statement of Plantation America’s rulers, who’ve looted our entire nation’s future.

Sigh, I wish animals weren't still used in testing vaccines. There's not much carryover to humans, anyway.

Speaking of trumpf and Fascism
this, from the nyt::
One comment on the article:

"Trump’s Occupation of American Cities Has Begun

Protesters are being snatched from the streets without warrants. Can we call it fascism yet?" By Michelle Goldberg.

I live in downtown Portland, not far from the federal building where the protesters congregate. Our city is not "under siege" by radicals by any stretch of the imagination, as Trump and Fox News want people to believe.

You can walk anywhere today in downtown Portland and barely realize that protests are happening here.

The majority of protesters are peaceful advocates for the Black Lives Matter movement.

A handful of more radical activists (mostly white youngsters) stay near the federal building late at night, spraying graffiti and lobbing items such as water bottles at the police.

This is limited to fewer than 100 activists in a one square block radius and only after midnight. The protests were in fact winding down, until Trump decided to send in his federal thugs to commit violence and whip up hysteria for his base.

Like all authoritarians, Trump is the one trying to create an enemy for people to fear.
--Michael; Portland, OR 7/20/2020

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/opinion/portland-protests-trump.html?login=smartlock&auth=login-smartlock

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/20/opinion/portland-protests-trump.html?login=smartlock&auth=login-smartlock#commentsContainer

And yep we can call it what it IS:
FASCISM.

Not nearly as Horrible as getting
Healthcare
(WITH Eyecare AND Dental!)
Higher Education
Daycare
PAID Family Time Off
etc.

Terrifying, eh?

@10: When paired with a smashed up stores including a Walgreens vital to the Rx of the community, fireworks thrown at cops with 12 injured, the cry of "fascism" loses its punch.

Almost every time I see a politician in a mask, I'm depressed by the shit quality of the mask. Take that one of Trump. It's falling off his nose, so it's a bad fit. There's no nose wire, so all of his poisonous breath goes straight into his eyes. He doesn't wear glasses, so at least he's not fogging those up. It can't be that hard to find something that's actually useful.

@12:

To my knowledge not a single person illegally abducted by the Cheeto-skinned shit-gibbon's Gestapo-po in the past several days has been formally charged with a crime, but, we HAVE seen evidence of them pulling innocent bystanders off the streets, knocking cellphones out of the hands of nonviolent protesters then arresting them for "property damage", shooting unarmed, nonviolent protesters in the face with "crowd control weapons", and brutally beating a U.S. Navy veteran for the "crime" of asking a question. So no, the cry of "fascism" isn't lacking any punch, you insufferable boot-licking Quisling.

@15 - Your argument fails when you put property damage in scare quotes.

USA Fails when the raindrops all favor Fascism Lite.
For now.

Interesting read:
The Left is Now the Right

https://taibbi.substack.com/p/the-left-is-now-the-right

@Garbby -- tough question.
Prepare for fine gymnastics.

18

Taibbi fails to understand a lot of the things he's complaining about here (for example, the practice of racial caucasing and affinity groups). Also, antiracism is a pretty clear concept with a ton of literature out there to demystify it for him, should he choose to do some research. It doesn't help that he puts everything in scare quotes.

The long and short is that most people are sick of racist bullshit and refuse to tolerate it any longer in everyday discourses and institutions. Sorry, not sorry. Work on yourself and do better. (I don't mean only you, RD. Everybody. )

Now she wants to be a parent? Lol she just wants her check.