theguardian--2020-08-09--‘This is unstoppable’: America's midwest braces itself for a Covid-19 surge

Three months ago , the Republican governor of Missouri chose not to wear a mask in a shop , because he said he wasn ’ t going to let the government tell him what to do .
Mike Parson visited a hardware store to celebrate its reopening after he lifted Missouri ’ s coronavirus lockdown over the objections of health professionals and mayors of major cities .
Parson said the worst of the pandemic was past and the economic impact of the shutdown was worse than the virus .
As for masks , the governor dismissively claimed “ there was @ @ @ @ @ @ @ ” over whether to wear one so he wasn ’ t going to require people to do so .
Three months later , Covid-19 is surging in Missouri and in many other parts of the midwest that imagined they had escaped the worst of the pandemic .
Health specialists predict a sharp increase in deaths across the region in the coming weeks that will be made significantly worse in some states by the politicians who followed Donald Trump ’ s lead in undermining medical advice and in questioning the value of masks .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ lead coronavirus expert , recently warned the midwest ’ s political leaders to follow the science .
“ Some states are not doing that , ” he said .
“ We would hope that they all now rethink what happens when you don ’ t adhere to that .
We ’ ve seen it in plain sight in the southern states that surged.
” Coronavirus deaths in the midwest remain a fraction of the nearly 160,000 recorded during the pandemic across the US .
But Missouri is second only to Oklahoma in the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ virus over the past two weeks .
The state has recorded more deaths than Japan and several European countries , and more new cases per day than Germany .
Earlier this week , the White House coronavirus task force named Kansas City as a primary area of concern .
Modeling by the PolicyLab at Children ’ s Hospital of Philadelphia shows that coronavirus cases are likely to rise sharply across the midwest through August .
“ It is clear now that from Indiana , through Ohio and into Kentucky and Missouri , as @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , there is substantial increased risk throughout the region , ” it said .
Some in the midwest thought they had escaped the worst of the pandemic as coronavirus leapt across the country from Washington state to New York and the northeast , and then swallowed the south .
That respite may prove deadly as the initial willingness to take the virus seriously by adhering to lockdown orders gave way to frustration after jobs losses surged in the midwest while deaths remained relatively low .
Complacency set in as people grew weary of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ study found an example in Milwaukee county , Wisconsin , where social distancing has fallen from 73 % at its peak to just 30 % .
Almost no delegates wore masks to the state ’ s Republican convention in Green Bay last month even though many were elderly and they sat close together in a hall .
Alarmed by rising infections , Wisconsin ’ s governor last week declared a public health emergency and required masks to be worn indoors .
But that immediately fell victim to the politics of coronavirus as at @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not enforce the order .
The Florence County Sheriff ’ s Office told residents : “ Wear a mask if you want , if you don ’ t want to , that is fine also ” .
In Oneida county , the sheriff said the governor ’ s order “ is in violation of the constitution ” while the sheriff of Racine county called the order “ government overreach ” .
Some praised the sheriffs for standing up for individual freedom while others accused them of politicizing a health emergency , and of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ A doctor at the forefront of combating coronavirus at a major Wisconsin hospital was despairing .
“ This has become so political .
There should have been a straightforward message from the beginning about wearing masks to protect others .
It ’ s too late now .
In the present climate , I think this is unstoppable and a lot more people are going to die than would have if politics didn ’ t get in the way of health , ” said the doctor who did not want to be identified because @ @ @ @ @ @ @ not give him permission to speak .
The University of Washington ’ s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation has warned that the refusal of Iowa ’ s governor , Kim Reynolds , to require masks in public spaces will cost 700 additional lives over the next three months .
It predicted the number of coronavirus deaths at about 13 a day in Iowa by the end of October with the present policy compared to fewer than two if 95 % of people used face coverings .
Iowa has the highest per capita @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
Reynolds has declined to make masks mandatory because she said they are “ not a silver bullet ” and she trusts people to do the right thing .
But research shows that only about one-third of Iowans are using masks in accordance with federal advice .
Doctors say the lack of face coverings combined with Reynolds ’ decision to reopen businesses and lift social distancing requirements contributed to a rise in coronavirus cases in July .
Dr Louis Katz , the medical director of Scott county , which is grappling with one @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , blames the governor .
“ We have no doubt that this is related to reopening more rapidly than many of us would have preferred , ” he told a news conference last week .
Katz said the median age for those testing positive for coronavirus has fallen sharply , from about 50 years old to under 30 , because of “ failures in social distancing by younger adults , who feel invulnerable ” .
Twenty intensive care doctors in Iowa signed an open letting pleading with the public to take the pandemic @ @ @ @ @ @ @ filled to capacity and had to add extra beds .
“ We are troubled by the path that we are on and what will lie ahead for all of us , ” the doctors said .
The letter called on the government to be “ a part of the solution ” .
Even those political leaders prepared to listen to the health experts can find themselves constrained by the politics .
In Kansas , the Republican-controlled legislature tied governor Laura Kelly ’ s hands by preventing her from limiting the numbers of people @ @ @ @ @ @ @ until mid-September even as coronavirus cases increase .
Republicans said there was no need for Kelly to have those powers because there would not be a second wave until after September .
As it is , the numbers are already climbing .

Three months ago, the Republican governor of Missouri chose not to wear a mask in a shop, because he said he wasn’t going to let the government tell him what to do. Mike Parson visited a hardware store to celebrate its reopening after he lifted Missouri’s coronavirus lockdown over the objections of health professionals and mayors of major cities.
Parson said the worst of the pandemic was past and the economic impact of the shutdown was worse than the virus. As for masks, the governor dismissively claimed “there was a lot of information on both sides” over whether to wear one so he wasn’t going to require people to do so.
Three months later, Covid-19 is surging in Missouri and in many other parts of the midwest that imagined they had escaped the worst of the pandemic.
Health specialists predict a sharp increase in deaths across the region in the coming weeks that will be made significantly worse in some states by the politicians who followed Donald Trump’s lead in undermining medical advice and in questioning the value of masks.
Anthony Fauci, the president’s lead coronavirus expert, recently warned the midwest’s political leaders to follow the science.
“Some states are not doing that,” he said. “We would hope that they all now rethink what happens when you don’t adhere to that. We’ve seen it in plain sight in the southern states that surged.”
Coronavirus deaths in the midwest remain a fraction of the nearly 160,000 recorded during the pandemic across the US. But Missouri is second only to Oklahoma in the number of new positive tests for the virus over the past two weeks. The state has recorded more deaths than Japan and several European countries, and more new cases per day than Germany. Earlier this week, the White House coronavirus task force named Kansas City as a primary area of concern.
People sit at a distance in downtown Oklahoma City in late April. Photograph: Nick Oxford/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Modeling by the PolicyLab at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia shows that coronavirus cases are likely to rise sharply across the midwest through August.
“It is clear now that from Indiana, through Ohio and into Kentucky and Missouri, as well as northward into Illinois and Michigan, there is substantial increased risk throughout the region,” it said.
Some in the midwest thought they had escaped the worst of the pandemic as coronavirus leapt across the country from Washington state to New York and the northeast, and then swallowed the south.
That respite may prove deadly as the initial willingness to take the virus seriously by adhering to lockdown orders gave way to frustration after jobs losses surged in the midwest while deaths remained relatively low. Complacency set in as people grew weary of stay at home orders.
The PolicyLab study found an example in Milwaukee county, Wisconsin, where social distancing has fallen from 73% at its peak to just 30%. Almost no delegates wore masks to the state’s Republican convention in Green Bay last month even though many were elderly and they sat close together in a hall.
Alarmed by rising infections, Wisconsin’s governor last week declared a public health emergency and required masks to be worn indoors. But that immediately fell victim to the politics of coronavirus as at least 16 county sheriffs said they would not enforce the order.
The Florence county sheriff’s office told residents: “Wear a mask if you want, if you don’t want to, that is fine also”. In Oneida county, the sheriff said the governor’s order “is in violation of the constitution” while the sheriff of Racine county called the order “government overreach”.
Some praised the sheriffs for standing up for individual freedom while others accused them of politicizing a health emergency, and of picking and choosing laws to enforce.
A doctor at the forefront of combating coronavirus at a major Wisconsin hospital was despairing.
Wisconsin National Guard conduct drive-through testing for Covid-19 in May. Photograph: Mark Hertzberg/ZUMA Wire/REX/Shutterstock
“This has become so political. There should have been a straightforward message from the beginning about wearing masks to protect others. It’s too late now. In the present climate, I think this is unstoppable and a lot more people are going to die than would have if politics didn’t get in the way of health,” said the doctor who did not want to be identified because the corporation that owns the hospital did not give him permission to speak.
The University of Washington’s Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation has warned that the refusal of Iowa’s governor, Kim Reynolds, to require masks in public spaces will cost 700 additional lives over the next three months. It predicted the number of coronavirus deaths at about 13 a day in Iowa by the end of October with the present policy compared to fewer than two if 95% of people used face coverings.
Iowa has the highest per capita number of Covid-19 infections in the region. Reynolds has declined to make masks mandatory because she said they are “not a silver bullet” and she trusts people to do the right thing. But research shows that only about one-third of Iowans are using masks in accordance with federal advice.
Doctors say the lack of face coverings combined with Reynolds’ decision to reopen businesses and lift social distancing requirements contributed to a rise in coronavirus cases in July.
Dr Louis Katz, the medical director of Scott county, which is grappling with one of the biggest surges in the state, blames the governor.
“We have no doubt that this is related to reopening more rapidly than many of us would have preferred,” he told a news conference last week.
Katz said the median age for those testing positive for coronavirus has fallen sharply, from about 50 years old to under 30, because of “failures in social distancing by younger adults, who feel invulnerable”.
Twenty intensive care doctors in Iowa signed an open letting pleading with the public to take the pandemic seriously after ICU units in Des Moines filled to capacity and had to add extra beds.
“We are troubled by the path that we are on and what will lie ahead for all of us,” the doctors said.
The letter called on the government to be “a part of the solution”.
Even those political leaders prepared to listen to the health experts can find themselves constrained by the politics.
In Kansas, the Republican-controlled legislature tied governor Laura Kelly’s hands by preventing her from limiting the numbers of people in bars and restaurants or closing businesses until mid-September even as coronavirus cases increase. Republicans said there was no need for Kelly to have those powers because there would not be a second wave until after September.
As it is, the numbers are already climbing.


theguardian--2020-08-09--Trump and the suburbs: is he out of tune with America's increasingly diverse voters?

Speaking on a hot , windy afternoon during a visit to the fracking fields of west Texas last month , Donald Trump conjured an ominous vision of suburban America under siege : terrorized by rising crime and threatened by the development of low-income housing .
“ It ’ s been hell for suburbia , ” Trump declared , touting his decision to rescind an Obama-era fair-housing rule to combat racial segregation in the suburbs , part of his promise to preserve what he called the “ Suburban Lifestyle Dream ” .
To the scattered crowd in attendance , he added @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , ladies and gentlemen .
Enjoy your life.
” Nearly 500 miles east , in the expanse of metropolitan Houston , Democrat Sri Preston Kulkarni is running to represent a suburban congressional district that is worlds apart from the one that exists in Trump ’ s imagination .
Texas ’ 22nd congressional district , which is almost as big as the size of Rhode Island and nearly as populous , is so diverse that his campaign is distributing literature in 21 languages .
Protests against police brutality and racial discrimination spread throughout the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , a black man who died under the knee of a white Minneapolis police .
And Floyd , a native of Houston , was laid to rest in the district .
“ This is new Texas , ” said Kulkarni , a former diplomat who grew up in Houston .
“ It ’ s diverse , it ’ s educated , it ’ s dynamic.
” And it ’ s not only Texas .
From Atlanta to Phoenix , this pattern is part of a longterm political realignment of the suburbs that has @ @ @ @ @ @ @ presidency .
Once a cornerstone of the Republican coalition , these densely populated metropolitan suburbs are turning increasingly Democratic .
At the same time , the more sparsely populated exurban areas have become even more deeply Republican , countering , for now , Democrats ’ gains elsewhere in the suburbs .
The fight then is increasingly for the voters in the middle , the suburbanites lodged between liberal and conservative America .
Until now , Trump has appeared uninterested in persuading these swing voters back , alienating them further with the inflammatory rhetoric @ @ @ @ @ @ @ heritage that excite his base .
But their mounting backlash to Trump ’ s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his attempts to stoke racial grievance have imperiled the president ’ s re-election prospects and put his party at risk of being shut out of power in Congress .
Trump is promoting a vision of America ’ s suburbs that no longer exists In recent weeks , Trump has sought to appeal , with little subtlety , to suburban voters .
In one tweet , he vowed to protect “ the Suburban Housewives @ @ @ @ @ @ @ by his Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden .
In a play to the perceived racist fears of white suburban voters , he wrote : “ I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood.
” Demographers and political strategists say Trump is promoting a vision of America ’ s suburbs with aproned housewives , leafy cul-de-sacs and picket fences that no longer exists .
“ He ’ s talking @ @ @ @ @ @ @ least 40 or 50 years old , ” said William Frey , a demographer at the Brookings Institution .
“ The suburbs of today are really a microcosm of America.
” A decades-long rise in the number of people of color , immigrants and college graduates , have transformed the sleepy bedroom communities of yesteryear into sprawling amalgams of America ’ s diversity .
There are also far fewer housewives and the overall rates of violent crime have declined significantly .
In response to the recent upheaval , Trump adopted a strategy used @ @ @ @ @ @ @ during the turmoil of 1968 , vowing to be a “ president of law-and-order ” and protect suburbanites from outside threats .
But suburban voters say they strongly disapprove of his handling of the protests , according to a New York Times/Siena College survey .
An even larger share say they have a favorable view of the Black Lives Matter movement , which Trump denounced as a “ symbol of hate ” .
A recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey found that just 35 % of suburbanites would vote for Trump , almost the same @ @ @ @ @ @ @ they approved of his job as president .
That contrasts with 60 % of suburban voters who said they would support Biden .
The disaffection is particularly pronounced among suburban women : 66 % said they would support Biden , compared to 48 % of suburban men .
“ The Trump administration has in many ways radicalized women and moms , ” said Shannon Watts , founder of Moms Demand Action , part of Everytown for Gun Safety , which is spending heavily on political races in diversifying Sun Belt states .
Watts @ @ @ @ @ @ @ she started the group in 2012 , after the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting .
She realized then that she had been “ living in a bubble ” as a white suburban woman , and was awakened to the trauma of gun violence that disproportionately impacts communities of color every day .
Watts believes white suburban women across the country , for whom gun reform is increasingly a voting priority , are having a similar realization in response to the Black Lives Matter protests .
In November , she hopes they will join @ @ @ @ @ @ @ from office .
“ Suburban women are diverse and decisive , ” she said , “ and they are not going to be fooled by Donald Trump ’ s antiquated notion of what they should care about.
” Suburban women as a force in American politics is not new .
In the 1990s , campaigns targeted the “ soccer moms.
” After the September 11 terrorist attacks , they became the “ security moms ” .
And in 2008 , Sarah Palin , the Republican vice presidential nominee , rebranded them “ hockey @ @ @ @ @ @ @ women – both as candidates and voters – helped Democrats regain control of the House by flipping long-held Republican districts on the outskirts of Atlanta , Dallas and Houston .
In a rout , Democrats swept all seven districts of Orange county , once a fortress of suburban conservatism known as Reagan country .
Now in 2020 – less than three months before the November election – Democrats are increasingly confident about their strength in the suburbs , as the Biden campaign expands its footprint in states like North Carolina , Arizona and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ four percentage points in 2016 , according to exit polls .
Some strategists believe he has an opportunity to do so again this year , if swing voters perceive Democrats as moving too far left .
“ Suburbanites have not moved wholesale to the Democratic party , ” said Tom Davis , a former Republican congressman from Virginia .
The affluent suburban district he once represented is now solidly Democratic , part of a political metamorphosis that has all but wiped from power the Republicans who once dominated this southern state .
‘ @ @ @ @ @ @ @ up with the new demographic realities ’ Though the suburbs have changed , Davis said they remain an aspirational destination for upwardly-mobile families and young people , a place where residents expect low crime , fewer taxes , better schools and stable property values .
As such , he said they have a distinct political identity as homeowners and parents that still aligns more closely with the Republican agenda .
“ Trump is speaking to suburbians who don ’ t want the city moving out to where they are , ” Davis said @ @ @ @ @ @ @ live there .
It ’ s a statement .
It ’ s not a racial statement – but it is a values statement.
” Republicans continue to thrive in suburban areas surrounding smaller cities like Indianapolis and Jacksonville , Florida , which tend to be less diverse and more conservative .
Voters in these communities overwhelmingly backed Trump in 2016 and provided decisive margins in states such as Wisconsin , Pennsylvania and Michigan , where fewer than 80,000 votes sealed his victory .
Democrats do not need to win these voters , but @ @ @ @ @ @ @ either , said Lanae Erickson , the senior vice-president at the center-left thinktank Third Way .
In a new analysis of suburban counties in six battleground states , shared exclusively with the Guardian , Third Way identified 30 smaller suburban counties where Democrats have an opportunity to breach these Republican firewalls .
Using voter file data , the analysis projects , that for example , that in Pennsylvania Democrats will grow their vote total in the state ’ s most populous suburban county , Montgomery Ccounty , by 28,792 votes .
By contrast @ @ @ @ @ @ @ total of 145,511 votes across the state ’ s nine smaller suburban counties , due in part to an influx of Latinos .
In a razor-thin election like 2016 , when Hillary Clinton lost the state by just 44,000 votes , these counties could be decisive .
Suburbanization will continue to reshape American politics long after 2020 .
“ The politics are only beginning to catch up with the new demographic realities ” , said Stephen Klineberg , a professor of sociology at Rice University and the author of Prophetic City : Houston @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ By 2050 , all of America will look like Houston looks today.
” In that sense , the open race for Texas ’ 22nd congressional district is like peering into the future , Klineberg said .
There in the sprawl of Houston ’ s suburbs , Kulkarni , whose father is from India and whose mother is a descendent of the city ’ s namesake , Sam Houston , is running against Troy Nehls , the Republican sheriff of Fort Bend county , which covers much of the district and is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ African American , Hispanic and white voters .
During the Republican primary , which tested the candidates ’ fealty to Trump , Nehls denounced an early effort by local officials to mandate mask-wearing and mimicked the president ’ s rhetoric on the protests .
But on social media , he has vowed to “ build bridges ” between the minority communities in his district and law enforcement .
As Houston grapples with the devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis , as well as the aftershocks of the racial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ all political stripes are ready to move beyond a “ politics of division ” .
“ They are tired of the attacks on science and healthcare , ” Kulkarni said .
“ They like the fact that we live in a diverse area .
And I think there ’ s actually more of a consensus now than I ’ ve ever seen before that diversity is our strength , not our weakness .
”

Speaking on a hot, windy afternoon during a visit to the fracking fields of west Texas last month, Donald Trump conjured an ominous vision of suburban America under siege: terrorized by rising crime and threatened by the development of low-income housing.
“It’s been hell for suburbia,” Trump declared, touting his decision to rescind an Obama-era fair-housing rule to combat racial segregation in the suburbs, part of his promise to preserve what he called the “Suburban Lifestyle Dream”. To the scattered crowd in attendance, he added: “So, enjoy your life, ladies and gentlemen. Enjoy your life.”
Nearly 500 miles east, in the expanse of metropolitan Houston, Democrat Sri Preston Kulkarni is running to represent a suburban congressional district that is worlds apart from the one that exists in Trump’s imagination.
Texas’ 22nd congressional district, which is almost the size of Rhode Island and nearly as populous, is so diverse that his campaign is distributing literature in 21 languages. Protests against police brutality and racial discrimination spread throughout the region after the death of George Floyd, a black man who died under the knee of a white Minneapolis police. And Floyd, a native of Houston, was laid to rest in the district.
“This is new Texas,” said Kulkarni, a former diplomat who grew up in Houston. “It’s diverse, it’s educated, it’s dynamic.”
And it’s not only Texas. From Atlanta to Phoenix, this pattern is part of a longterm political realignment of the suburbs that has been dramatically accelerated by Trump’s presidency.
Once a cornerstone of the Republican coalition, these densely populated metropolitan suburbs are turning increasingly Democratic. At the same time, the more sparsely populated exurban areas have become even more deeply Republican, countering, for now, Democrats’ gains elsewhere in the suburbs. The fight then is increasingly for the voters in the middle, the suburbanites lodged between liberal and conservative America.
Until now, Trump has appeared uninterested in persuading these swing voters back, alienating them further with the inflammatory rhetoric and hardline views on race and cultural heritage that excite his base.
But their mounting backlash to Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic and his attempts to stoke racial grievance have imperiled the president’s re-election prospects and put his party at risk of being shut out of power in Congress.
Trump is promoting a vision of America’s suburbs that no longer exists
In recent weeks, Trump has sought to appeal, with little subtlety, to suburban voters. In one tweet, he vowed to protect “the Suburban Housewives of America” from the threat posed by his Democratic presidential rival Joe Biden.
In a play to the perceived racist fears of white suburban voters, he wrote: “I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood.”
Demographers and political strategists say Trump is promoting a vision of America’s suburbs with aproned housewives, leafy cul-de-sacs and picket fences that no longer exists.
A new housing development in suburban Houston. Photograph: Brooks Kraft/Corbis/Getty Images
“He’s talking about an America that’s at least 40 or 50 years old,” said William Frey, a demographer at the Brookings Institution. “The suburbs of today are really a microcosm of America.”
A decades-long rise in the number of people of color, immigrants and college graduates, have transformed the sleepy bedroom communities of yesteryear into sprawling amalgams of America’s diversity. There are also far fewer housewives and the overall rates of violent crime have declined significantly.
In response to the recent upheaval, Trump adopted a strategy used by Richard Nixon as a presidential candidate during the turmoil of 1968, vowing to be a “president of law-and-order” and protect suburbanites from outside threats.
But suburban voters say they strongly disapprove of his handling of the protests, according to a New York Times/Siena College survey. An even larger share say they have a favorable view of the Black Lives Matter movement, which Trump denounced as a “symbol of hate”.
Overall, recent polling shows suburban voters backing Biden by historic margins.
Suburban women are not going to be fooled by Donald Trump’s antiquated notion of what they should care about. Shannon Watts
A recent NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey found that just 35% of suburbanites would vote for Trump, almost the same proportion – 33% – who said they approved of his job as president. That contrasts with 60% of suburban voters who said they would support Biden.
The disaffection is particularly pronounced among suburban women: 66% said they would support Biden, compared to 48% of suburban men.
“The Trump administration has in many ways radicalized women and moms,” said Shannon Watts, founder of Moms Demand Action, part of Everytown for Gun Safety, which is spending heavily on political races in diversifying Sun Belt states.
Watts was a stay-at-home mother of five when she started the group in 2012, after the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting. She realized then that she had been “living in a bubble” as a white suburban woman, and was awakened to the trauma of gun violence that disproportionately impacts communities of color every day.
Watts believes white suburban women across the country, for whom gun reform is increasingly a voting priority, are having a similar realization in response to the Black Lives Matter protests. In November, she hopes they will join Black and Hispanic women in removing Trump from office.
“Suburban women are diverse and decisive,” she said, “and they are not going to be fooled by Donald Trump’s antiquated notion of what they should care about.”
Suburban women as a force in American politics is not new. In the 1990s, campaigns targeted the “soccer moms.” After the September 11 terrorist attacks, they became the “security moms”. And in 2008, Sarah Palin, the Republican vice presidential nominee, rebranded them “hockey moms.”.
In 2018, suburban women – both as candidates and voters – helped Democrats regain control of the House by flipping long-held Republican districts on the outskirts of Atlanta, Dallas and Houston. In a rout, Democrats swept all seven districts of Orange county, once a fortress of suburban conservatism known as Reagan country.
Now in 2020 – less than three months before the November election – Democrats are increasingly confident about their strength in the suburbs, as the Biden campaign expands its footprint in states like North Carolina, Arizona and Texas.
Trump won suburban voters by four percentage points in 2016, according to exit polls. Some strategists believe he has an opportunity to do so again this year, if swing voters perceive Democrats as moving too far left.
“Suburbanites have not moved wholesale to the Democratic party,” said Tom Davis, a former Republican congressman from Virginia.
The affluent suburban district he once represented is now solidly Democratic, part of a political metamorphosis that has all but wiped from power the Republicans who once dominated this southern state.
‘The politics are only beginning to catch up with the new demographic realities’
Though the suburbs have changed, Davis said they remain an aspirational destination for upwardly-mobile families and young people, a place where residents expect low crime, fewer taxes, better schools and stable property values. As such, he said they have a distinct political identity as homeowners and parents that still aligns more closely with the Republican agenda.
“Trump is speaking to suburbians who don’t want the city moving out to where they are,” Davis said. “That’s why they live there. It’s a statement. It’s not a racial statement – but it is a values statement.”
Republicans continue to thrive in suburban areas surrounding smaller cities like Indianapolis and Jacksonville, Florida, which tend to be less diverse and more conservative.
Voters in these communities overwhelmingly backed Trump in 2016 and provided decisive margins in states such as Wisconsin, Pennsylvania and Michigan, where fewer than 80,000 votes sealed his victory.
Democrats do not need to win these voters, but they cannot afford to ignore them either, said Lanae Erickson, the senior vice-president at the center-left thinktank Third Way.
In a new analysis of suburban counties in six battleground states, shared exclusively with the Guardian, Third Way identified 30 smaller suburban counties where Democrats have an opportunity to breach these Republican firewalls.
Using voter file data, the analysis projects, that for example, that in Pennsylvania Democrats will grow their vote total in the state’s most populous suburban county, Montgomery Ccounty, by 28,792 votes. By contrast, Democrats are expected to gain a total of 145,511 votes across the state’s nine smaller suburban counties, due in part to an influx of Latinos.
In a razor-thin election like 2016, when Hillary Clinton lost the state by just 44,000 votes, these counties could be decisive.
Suburbanization will continue to reshape American politics long after 2020.
“The politics are only beginning to catch up with the new demographic realities”, said Stephen Klineberg, a professor of sociology at Rice University and the author of Prophetic City: Houston on the Cusp of a Changing America. “By 2050, all of America will look like Houston looks today.”
In that sense, the open race for Texas’ 22nd congressional district is like peering into the future, Klineberg said.
There in the sprawl of Houston’s suburbs, Kulkarni, whose father is from India and whose mother is a descendent of the city’s namesake, Sam Houston, is running against Troy Nehls, the Republican sheriff of Fort Bend county, which covers much of the district and is almost equally split among Asian American, African American, Hispanic and white voters.
During the Republican primary, which tested the candidates’ fealty to Trump, Nehls denounced an early effort by local officials to mandate mask-wearing and mimicked the president’s rhetoric on the protests. But on social media, he has vowed to “build bridges” between the minority communities in his district and law enforcement.
As Houston grapples with the devastation caused by the coronavirus pandemic and the ensuing economic crisis, as well as the aftershocks of the racial justice protests, Kulkarni says voters of all political stripes are ready to move beyond a “politics of division”.
“They are tired of the attacks on science and healthcare,” Kulkarni said. “They like the fact that we live in a diverse area. And I think there’s actually more of a consensus now than I’ve ever seen before that diversity is our strength, not our weakness.”


theguardian--2020-08-09--Yes, some US small business owners actually support the $600 weekly benefit | Gene Marks

About 30 million unemployed Americans are now on tenterhooks waiting to see if the $ 600-a-week federal unemployment benefit created by the Cares Act will be renewed .
As the political row over its efficacy and necessity continues , the House and the Senate remain far apart on a compromise .
What shouldn ’ t be left out of the discussion is an unlikely , yet numerous , group of people who do support the added benefit : small business owners .
Many I know in the business community have taken issue with the additional $ 600 federal payment .
@ @ @ @ @ @ @ their workers – particularly hourly and part-timers – have avoided returning to the workplace because the benefit provides them with more compensation then they were getting at their job and merely incentivizes them to stop working .
But some studies – like this one from a group of Yale University researchers – have found the opposite to be true .
The study found “ no evidence ” that workers receiving the added federal unemployment benefit were disincentivized to work and that “ people with more generously expanded benefits also resumed working at a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ did ” .
However , as the Wall Street Journal points out , the study excluded part-time workers and other “ short-termers ” who make up the vast majority of employees that benefited the most from the federal bump .
“ A worker in Louisiana who made $ 2,400 from part-time jobs all of last year would collect $ 2,516 a month in jobless benefits today – $ 29 a week from the state plus the $ 600 .
An average worker who had made $ 17 per hour ( $ 680 a @ @ @ @ @ @ @ to collect $ 940 each week with the federal boost.
” But many small business owners remain convinced the payments should continue .
Why ?
Because it has provided a safety net for their employees during a time when their companies couldn ’ t pay wages due to the country ’ s self-inflicted economic collapse .
“ We want them to succeed , and we want to help them grow their careers , and we hope to continue to employ them well into the future , ” Mark Frier , a restaurant owner @ @ @ @ @ @ @ .
“ Initially [ the federal benefit ] was a lifesaver.
” Frier is just one of many business owners who have been unable to sustain employee wages – even with help from the paycheck protection program – and who are grateful that there ’ s an added federal benefit available to help them through these times .
Julie Wineinger , the owner of Lulabelle ’ s Sweet Shop in Washington DC , has gone out of her way to assist her employees in applying for unemployment benefits .
She has also run @ @ @ @ @ @ @ products – specifically to raise additional cash in order to help her staff through these difficult times .
“ Some of my employees are very young , some have to support families , ” she told me in a podcast interview .
“ They didn ’ t ask for this and I ’ m going to do my best to do what I can for them.
” One of the many benefits of working for a small business is that employees oftentimes develop close relationships with their employers .
When bad things happen @ @ @ @ @ @ @ problem , a global pandemic that causes an unprecedented economic downturn – many small business owners are as much concerned with their employees ’ welfare as their own families .
Because they are like family .
But these same employees are also assets , which is why many small business owners I know are in favor of the additional federal unemployment benefit .
Knowing that the benefit is there , they could furlough their staff and not terminate them .
Without these checks , those employees who have worked for them for years @ @ @ @ @ @ @ businesses may be forced to move elsewhere or take other jobs in order to make ends meet .
When that happens , small business owners like Wineinger and others lose good people and have to search and train replacements .
That creates disruption and added costs .
Maybe the added federal benefit does discourage some from going back to work , particularly part-timers and hourly workers .
And it is true that many small businesses are finding this situation a frustrating obstacle towards rehiring and getting back to normal .
But for many @ @ @ @ @ @ @ $ 600 check every week has helped them retain and sustain their employees during an unprecedented national emergency until times – hopefully – get back to normal .

About 30 million unemployed Americans are now on tenterhooks waiting to see if the $600-a-week federal unemployment benefit created by the Cares Act will be renewed. As the political row over its efficacy and necessity continues, the House and the Senate remain far apart on a compromise.
What shouldn’t be left out of the discussion is an unlikely, yet numerous, group of people who do support the added benefit: small business owners.
The issue is complicated.
Many I know in the business community have taken issue with the additional $600 federal payment. They complain that a great number of their workers – particularly hourly and part-timers – have avoided returning to the workplace because the benefit provides them with more compensation then they were getting at their job and merely incentivizes them to stop working.
But some studies – like this one from a group of Yale University researchers – have found the opposite to be true. The study found “no evidence” that workers receiving the added federal unemployment benefit were disincentivized to work and that “people with more generously expanded benefits also resumed working at a similar or slightly quicker rate than others did”.
However, as the Wall Street Journal points out, the study excluded part-time workers and other “short-termers” who make up the vast majority of employees that benefited the most from the federal bump. “A worker in Louisiana who made $2,400 from part-time jobs all of last year would collect $2,516 a month in jobless benefits today – $29 a week from the state plus the $600. An average worker who had made $17 per hour ($680 a week) in Ohio has been able to collect $940 each week with the federal boost.”
The debate will continue.
But many small business owners remain convinced the payments should continue. Why? Because it has provided a safety net for their employees during a time when their companies couldn’t pay wages due to the country’s self-inflicted economic collapse.
“We want them to succeed, and we want to help them grow their careers, and we hope to continue to employ them well into the future,” Mark Frier, a restaurant owner in Vermont told NPR’s Marketplace. “Initially [the federal benefit] was a lifesaver.” Frier is just one of many business owners who have been unable to sustain employee wages – even with help from the paycheck protection program – and who are grateful that there’s an added federal benefit available to help them through these times.
Julie Wineinger, the owner of Lulabelle’s Sweet Shop in Washington DC, has gone out of her way to assist her employees in applying for unemployment benefits. She has also run fundraisers – selling ice cream and other products – specifically to raise additional cash in order to help her staff through these difficult times. “Some of my employees are very young, some have to support families,” she told me in a podcast interview. “They didn’t ask for this and I’m going to do my best to do what I can for them.”
One of the many benefits of working for a small business is that employees oftentimes develop close relationships with their employers. When bad things happen – a family illness, a financial problem, a global pandemic that causes an unprecedented economic downturn – many small business owners are as much concerned with their employees’ welfare as their own families. Because they are like family.
But these same employees are also assets, which is why many small business owners I know are in favor of the additional federal unemployment benefit. Knowing that the benefit is there, they could furlough their staff and not terminate them. Without these checks, those employees who have worked for them for years and gained experience and knowledge of their businesses may be forced to move elsewhere or take other jobs in order to make ends meet. When that happens, small business owners like Wineinger and others lose good people and have to search and train replacements. That creates disruption and added costs.
Maybe the added federal benefit does discourage some from going back to work, particularly part-timers and hourly workers. And it is true that many small businesses are finding this situation a frustrating obstacle towards rehiring and getting back to normal. But for many other small business owners, that additional $600 check every week has helped them retain and sustain their employees during an unprecedented national emergency until times – hopefully – get back to normal.


theguardian--2020-08-09--Why Donald Trump failed his TV interviews

What is remarkable about an interview with Donald Trump that went viral last week is how much it has been remarked upon , given that – on the face of it – it is so unremarkable .
Interviewer sits down with politician and asks questions ; politician is evasive and makes baseless assertions , so the reporter , Jonathan Swan from Axios , asks him questions like “ What do you mean ?
” , “ What ’ s your basis for saying that ?
” , “ Why ?
” .
Isn ’ t that what we do in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ that is not how Trump is normally interviewed .
The American president is highly selective about who he allows himself to be interviewed by ( declaration of interest : despite repeated efforts , and coming very close once , he has not done an interview with me – although has answered a lot of my questions at news conferences ) .
I would say that he gives 90 % -95 % of his interviews to the Murdoch-owned Fox News network – and he always knows his interviewer well .
He knows Swan , @ @ @ @ @ @ @ well connected and , though an outsider , has cultivated the White House key players like an insider .
Trump thought he knew what he was getting when the two men sat down together .
Swan will have watched closely the presidential interview a couple of weeks earlier in a sweltering Rose Garden with Chris Wallace from Fox .
Wallace is old-school courteous – but as sharp as a Gurkha ’ s kukri .
In these two interrogations , for the first time that I can recall , Trump was fact-checked in real @ @ @ @ @ @ @ moment .
In the Wallace interview , the president asserted that Joe Biden would cut funding to the police .
Wallace said that wasn ’ t true .
So the president stops the interview to allow White House officials to go off and find the killer quote : but they can ’ t .
A delicious moment for Wallace .
In the Axios interview , Trump produces a sheaf of papers with graphs and tables to prove how well the US ( and he ) was dealing with the coronavirus outbreak .
But @ @ @ @ @ @ @ is “ lower than the world ” , it is clear that he has little idea what the tables show and isn ’ t across the detail .
What these two interviewers had in common is that they were white men .
If you have sat in as many White House briefings as I have , you know the president does not react favourably to being challenged like this by women .
He very quickly gets hot under the collar .
He was so “ triggered ” by a twentysomething female CNN reporter @ @ @ @ @ @ @ one press conference , White House staff tried to move a male reporter into her allocated front-row seat so she would be pushed to the back of the room and not be in Trump ’ s eyeline .
There are endless more examples .
After the Wallace and Swan interviews , I briefly wondered if anyone from the White House had said to Trump : “ That was awful .
You need to prep better for these sorts of encounters.
” I know the answer to that .
I recently had drinks with @ @ @ @ @ @ @ told the president to do fewer interviews and briefings .
Only speak out when you have something specific to say , he had counselled .
For a while , Trump stopped his coronavirus briefings – in late April after musing on injecting disinfectant into the human body to cure Covid-19 .
But the more significant White House faction believes there is no such thing as too much Donald Trump – and that grouping is led by Trump .
After these two difficult interviews it was no surprise to see the president turn up @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the popular and Trump-friendly breakfast show .
There , for the best part of an hour , he sounded off without interruption .
It was a lovely warm bubble bath after the cold , needle-spray shower that he ’ d been given by Wallace and Swan .
During the 2016 campaign , Trump would just ring up programmes and be put directly on air , where he would be given the easiest of free rides , bullying and bulldozing his way through interviews .
But the Swan/Wallace exchanges have shown America ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , obsequious interviewers that there is a more rigorous way of doing things .
But at least he ’ s coming out and continuing to face the questions .
That ’ s more than can be said of Joe Biden , who rarely ventures out of his Wilmington basement cocoon .
This may be the election of one candidate who can ’ t stop talking and another who never wants to start .
Jon Sopel is the BBC ’ s North America editor , and his book A Year at the Circus is @ @ @ @

What is remarkable about an interview with Donald Trump that went viral last week is how much it has been remarked upon, given that – on the face of it – it is so unremarkable. Interviewer sits down with politician and asks questions; politician is evasive and makes baseless assertions, so the reporter, Jonathan Swan from Axios, asks him questions like “What do you mean?”, “What’s your basis for saying that?”, “Why?”.
Isn’t that what we do in interviews?
But it was exceptional because that is not how Trump is normally interviewed.
The American president is highly selective about who he allows himself to be interviewed by (declaration of interest: despite repeated efforts, and coming very close once, he has not done an interview with me – although has answered a lot of my questions at news conferences). I would say that he gives 90%-95% of his interviews to the Murdoch-owned Fox News network – and he always knows his interviewer well.
He knows Swan, too. The charming Australian is fabulously well connected and, though an outsider, has cultivated the White House key players like an insider. Trump thought he knew what he was getting when the two men sat down together.
Jonathan Swan puzzles over papers in his interview with Trump. Photograph: HBO
Swan will have watched closely the presidential interview a couple of weeks earlier in a sweltering Rose Garden with Chris Wallace from Fox. Wallace is old-school courteous – but as sharp as a Gurkha’s kukri. In these two interrogations, for the first time that I can recall, Trump was fact-checked in real time. And each had its jaw-dropping moment.
In the Wallace interview, the president asserted that Joe Biden would cut funding to the police. Wallace said that wasn’t true. So the president stops the interview to allow White House officials to go off and find the killer quote: but they can’t. A delicious moment for Wallace.
In the Axios interview, Trump produces a sheaf of papers with graphs and tables to prove how well the US (and he) was dealing with the coronavirus outbreak. But, as he declares that the US is “lower than the world”, it is clear that he has little idea what the tables show and isn’t across the detail.
What these two interviewers had in common is that they were white men. If you have sat in as many White House briefings as I have, you know the president does not react favourably to being challenged like this by women. He very quickly gets hot under the collar. He was so “triggered” by a twentysomething female CNN reporter, Kaitlan Collins, that just before one press conference, White House staff tried to move a male reporter into her allocated front-row seat so she would be pushed to the back of the room and not be in Trump’s eyeline. There are endless more examples.
I did wonder whether anyone from the White House said: ‘That was awful. You need to prep better for these encounters’
After the Wallace and Swan interviews, I briefly wondered if anyone from the White House had said to Trump: “That was awful. You need to prep better for these sorts of encounters.” I know the answer to that.
I recently had drinks with a senior adviser who said he had told the president to do fewer interviews and briefings. Only speak out when you have something specific to say, he had counselled. For a while, Trump stopped his coronavirus briefings – in late April after musing on injecting disinfectant into the human body to cure Covid-19. But the more significant White House faction believes there is no such thing as too much Donald Trump – and that grouping is led by Trump.
After these two difficult interviews it was no surprise to see the president turn up last week on Fox & Friends, the popular and Trump-friendly breakfast show. There, for the best part of an hour, he sounded off without interruption. It was a lovely warm bubble bath after the cold, needle-spray shower that he’d been given by Wallace and Swan.
During the 2016 campaign, Trump would just ring up programmes and be put directly on air, where he would be given the easiest of free rides, bullying and bulldozing his way through interviews. But the Swan/Wallace exchanges have shown America’s rather deferential and, dare I say, obsequious interviewers that there is a more rigorous way of doing things.
But at least he’s coming out and continuing to face the questions. That’s more than can be said of Joe Biden, who rarely ventures out of his Wilmington basement cocoon.
This may be the election of one candidate who can’t stop talking and another who never wants to start.
Jon Sopel is the BBC’s North America editor, and his book A Year at the Circus is now available in paperback


theguardian--2020-08-09--US passes 5m Covid-19 cases as Joe Biden says pandemic 'breaks heart'

The US on Sunday passed the grim milestone of 5m coronavirus cases , as Donald Trump ’ s executive orders seeking to break a political impasse over further economic relief were denounced by a Republican as “ unconstitutional slop ” and Joe Biden accused the president of issuing little more than “ excuses and lies ” .
Recriminations have been flying in Washington since talks on further aid for the unemployed and for states struggling with a public health crisis collapsed on Friday .
Trump intervened on Friday and Saturday , holding press conferences at his luxury golf club in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ members crowding close together , a jarring setting amid a pandemic and recession .
On Sunday , there was loud criticism of the president ’ s unilateral proposals on reduced federal enhanced unemployment benefits , payroll tax cuts and protection against evictions .
New York ’ s governor , Andrew Cuomo , dismissed Trump ’ s executive orders as “ laughable ” and another chapter in the federal government ’ s botched response to the pandemic .
Cuomo said Trump ’ s plan would likely cost New York state $ 4 billion : @ @ @ @ @ @ @ , you pay 25 % t of the insurance , is just laughable , ” he said .
“ It ’ s just an impossibility .
So none of this is real on the federal side .
This is going to have to be resolved.
” The New York governor said he didn ’ t know if Trump was “ genuine in thinking the executive order is a resolution or if this is just a tactic in the negotiation .
But this is irreconcilable for the state .
And I expect this is @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Washington Covid mismanagement.
” Trump ’ s plan encroaches on Congress ’ s control of federal spending , drawing claims it is illegal , as well as accusations of his proposals being unworkable and failing to address the most pressing financial hardships facing American families .
“ These are illusions , ” Nancy Pelosi , the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives , told Fox News Sunday .
The row intensified as the US continued its unwelcome role as the nation with the highest number of Covid-19 cases , crossing the 5m @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hopkins University data tracker .
The pandemic in the US is far from under control , according to repeated warnings in recent days and weeks by top federal public health experts .
The US also has the highest number of deaths in the world from the virus , at nearly 163,000 , according to Johns Hopkins..
The Democrats have proposed a $ 3tn package of new economic measures to address the crisis .
The Republicans so far have offered $ 1tn-worth of short-term measures .
Talks in which Pelosi proposed they meet in @ @ @ @ @ @ @ on Capitol Hill on Friday .
Trump then put forward measures including resuming the federal unemployment benefit enhancement that ran out last month , but cutting it from $ 600 a week to $ 400 – $ 100 of which would have to be supplied by the states themselves , via a new system .
He also talked about extending protections against eviction for renters , but it turned out to be a proposal to examine such a move.And a proposal for a tax cut would need the cooperation of America ’ s @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the assessment of Republican senator from Nebraska Ben Sasse , who tweeted that Trump ’ s unilateral economic relief measures amounted to “ unconstitutional slop ” .
The White House chief economics adviser , Larry Kudlow , said on CNN on Sunday that money had been allocated by the federal government already that would allow states to contribute $ 100 per person of the new $ 400 a week benefit on offer from the White House , with some 30 million Americans newly out of a job since the coronavirus pandemic cratered the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ There is still a lot of hardship out there .
There is a lot of heartbreak.
” He also demurred on questions of whether the president ’ s proposals as presented were legal .
Pelosi said that what the president is putting forth “ is not workable ” .
Pelosi said : “ What [ Kudlow ] said really shows the weakness and the meagerness of what the president proposed .
First of all he ’ s saying the states have the money .
No they don ’ t , they have expenses @ @ @ @ @ @ @ revenue , because of that they are firing health care workers , first responders , teachers , sanitation , transportation workers because they don ’ t have the money.
” She added : “ Something ’ s wrong .
Either the president doesn ’ t know what he ’ s talking about – clearly his aides don ’ t know what he is talking about – or something ’ s very wrong here about meeting the needs of the American people at this time.
” Peter Navarro , the trade adviser to the @ @ @ @ @ @ @ s Meet the Press , while taking a personal slant on Pelosi .
“ It doesn ’ t help when Speaker Pelosi goes out … with her scarves flying and beats the heck out of us , ” he said .
Host Chuck Todd asked why Trump spent the weekend at his golf club with the coronavirus pandemic raging alongside the economic crisis .
Navarro simply said Trump is “ the hardest working president in history ” .
Trump has been to golf clubs he owns in Virginia , New Jersey and Florida @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Democratic Senate minority leader , Chuck Schumer , told ABC on Sunday : “ The event at the country club is just what Trump does : a big show , but it doesn ’ t do anything.
” The Democrats ’ presumptive presidential candidate , Joe Biden , published a statement on Medium late on Saturday night about the forthcoming milestone of cases .
“ It ’ s a number that boggles the mind and breaks the heart , ” he wrote .
“ Five million is more than the entire population of @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the states in our union , for that matter .
Each time the number clicks up , it represents a life altered , a family stricken with anxiety , a community on edge .
And for the families of the more than 160,000 souls who have died because of this virus , it is a pain that can never be undone.
” He added : “ And yet , we continue to hear little more from President Trump than excuses and lies in an effort to cover for his repeated failures of leadership @ @ @ @ @ @ @ at home , and in turn deepened our economic crisis .
”

Richard Luscombe, Tom Lutz and Joanna Walters

The US on Sunday passed 5m coronavirus cases, as Donald Trump’s executive orders seeking to break a political impasse over further economic relief were denounced by a Republican as “unconstitutional slop” and Joe Biden accused the president of issuing little more than “excuses and lies”.
Recriminations have been flying in Washington since talks on further aid for the unemployed and for states struggling with a public health crisis collapsed on Friday.
Trump intervened on Friday and Saturday, holding press conferences at his luxury golf club in New Jersey, cheered on by well-heeled members crowding close together – a jarring setting amid a pandemic and recession.
On Sunday, there was loud criticism of the president’s unilateral proposals on reduced federal enhanced unemployment benefits, payroll tax cuts and protection against evictions.
New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, dismissed Trump’s executive orders as “laughable” and another chapter in the federal government’s botched response to the pandemic.
Cuomo said Trump’s plan would likely cost New York state $4bn: “The concept of saying to states, you pay 25% of the insurance, is just laughable. It’s just an impossibility. So none of this is real on the federal side. This is going to have to be resolved.”
Cuomo said he did not know if Trump was “genuine in thinking the executive order is a resolution or if this is just a tactic in the negotiation. But this is irreconcilable for the state. And I expect this is just a chapter in the book of Washington Covid mismanagement.”
Trump’s plan encroaches on Congress’s control of federal spending, drawing claims it is illegal, as well as accusations of his proposals being unworkable and failing to address the most pressing financial hardships facing American families.
“These are illusions,” Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic speaker of the House of Representatives, told Fox News Sunday.
The row intensified as the US continued its unwelcome role as the nation with the highest number of Covid-19 cases, crossing the 5m threshold according to figures from the Johns Hopkins University data tracker.
The pandemic in the US is far from under control, according to repeated warnings in recent days and weeks by top federal public health experts.
The US also has the highest number of deaths in the world from the virus, at nearly 163,000, according to Johns Hopkins..
The Democrats have proposed a $3tn package of new economic measures to address the crisis. The Republicans so far have offered $1tn worth of short-term measures. Talks in which Pelosi proposed they meet in the middle at $2tn broke down on Capitol Hill on Friday.
Trump then put forward measures including resuming the federal unemployment benefit enhancement that ran out last month, but cutting it from $600 a week to about $400 – $100 of which would have to be supplied by the states themselves via a new system.
He also talked about extending protections against eviction for renters, but it turned out to be a proposal to examine such a move.And a proposal for a tax cut would need the cooperation of America’s employers.
Pelosi on Sunday concurred with the assessment of Republican senator from Nebraska Ben Sasse, who tweeted that Trump’s unilateral economic relief measures amounted to “unconstitutional slop”.
#BREAKING: Senator Ben Sasse becomes the first Republican to criticize Trump’s illegal executive order, saying: “The pen-and-phone theory of executive lawmaking is unconstitutional slop.” #NotAKing pic.twitter.com/QlbcinINMT — Republicans for Joe Biden (@RepsForBiden) August 9, 2020
The White House chief economics adviser, Larry Kudlow, said on CNN on Sunday that money had been allocated by the federal government already that would allow states to contribute $100 per person of the new $400 a week benefit on offer from the White House, with some 30 million Americans newly out of a job since the coronavirus pandemic cratered the US economy.
He acknowledged: “There is still a lot of hardship out there. There is a lot of heartbreak.” He also demurred on questions of whether the president’s proposals as presented were legal.
Pelosi said that what the president is putting forth “is not workable”.
Pelosi said: “What [Kudlow] said really shows the weakness and the meagerness of what the president proposed. First of all he’s saying the states have the money. No they don’t, they have expenses from the coronavirus. They have lost revenue, because of that they are firing health care workers, first responders, teachers, sanitation, transportation workers because they don’t have the money.”
She added: “Something’s wrong. Either the president doesn’t know what he’s talking about – clearly his aides don’t know what he is talking about – or something’s very wrong here about meeting the needs of the American people at this time.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Trump's executive actions: "Something's wrong. Either the President doesn't know what he's talking about. ... Or something's very wrong here about meeting the needs of the American people at this time" #CNNSOTU pic.twitter.com/Id401eeMdc — CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) August 9, 2020
The Democrats’ presumptive presidential candidate, Joe Biden, published a statement on Medium late on Saturday night about the forthcoming milestone of cases.
“It’s a number that boggles the mind and breaks the heart,” he wrote. “Five million is more than the entire population of Alabama – or of more than half the states in our union, for that matter. Each time the number clicks up, it represents a life altered, a family stricken with anxiety, a community on edge. And for the families of the more than 160,000 souls who have died because of this virus, it is a pain that can never be undone.”
He added: “And yet, we continue to hear little more from President Trump than excuses and lies in an effort to cover for his repeated failures of leadership – failures that worsened the pandemic here at home, and in turn deepened our economic crisis.”
Late on Sunday more details of a study by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Children’s Hospital Association was published by the Washington Post, which claims that 97,000 US children tested positive for the coronavirus in the last two weeks of July.
The data is from 49 states, many of whom defined children as younger than 19 years old.
It was Donald Trump’s false claim that kids were “almost immune” from the illness that prompted Twitter to temporarily ban the president’s re-election campaign account and Facebook to take down one of his posts.
Martin Belam contributed reporting.


theguardian--2020-08-09--Biden says US's 5m Covid cases 'breaks the heart' and hits out at Trump's 'lies and excuses' – as it

Biden says US's 5m Covid cases 'breaks the heart' and hits out at Trump's 'lies and excuses' – as it happened

While many Republicans have said the weekly unemployment benefits during Covid-19 encourage people not to work , Gene Marks says some small business owners support such efforts : About 30 million unemployed Americans are now on tenterhooks waiting to see if the $ 600-a-week federal unemployment benefit created by the Cares Act will be renewed .
As the political row over its efficacy and necessity continues , the House and the Senate remain far apart on a compromise .
What shouldn ’ t be left out of the discussion is an unlikely , yet numerous , group of people who @ @ @ @ @ @ @ business owners .
Many I know in the business community have taken issue with the additional $ 600 federal payment .
They complain that a great number of their workers – particularly hourly and part-timers – have avoided returning to the workplace because the benefit provides them with more compensation then they were getting at their job and merely incentivizes them to stop working .
But some studies – like this one from a group of Yale University researchers – have found the opposite to be true .
The study found “ no @ @ @ @ @ @ @ federal unemployment benefit were disincentivized to work and that “ people with more generously expanded benefits also resumed working at a similar or slightly quicker rate than others did ” .
However , as the Wall Street Journal points out , the study excluded part-time workers and other “ short-termers ” who make up the vast majority of employees that benefited the most from the federal bump .
“ A worker in Louisiana who made $ 2,400 from part-time jobs all of last year would collect $ 2,516 a month in jobless benefits @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the state plus the $ 600 .
An average worker who had made $ 17 per hour ( $ 680 a week ) in Ohio has been able to collect $ 940 each week with the federal boost.
” But many small business owners remain convinced the payments should continue .
Why ?
Because it has provided a safety net for their employees during a time when their companies couldn ’ t pay wages due to the country ’ s self-inflicted economic collapse .
You can read the full article below :

Bryan Armen Graham (now) and Tom Lutz (earlier) in New York

9 Aug 2020 22.45 BST Donald Trump has arrived in the New Jersey beachside community of Long Branch after making the short journey on Marine One from Bedminster for tonight’s meeting with campaign donors. Opponents and supporters of Trump gathered on either side of Ocean Avenue for hours ahead of the president’s anticipated arrival on Sunday afternoon, trading chants of “Dump Trump!” and “Four more years!” while holding signs that said “Thank you Trump”, “Trump 2020” and “Thank Q”. Probably the most heated moment as yet another driver in NY plates exchanged some words while prowling past the protesters pic.twitter.com/bg0ulKV3La — Mike Davis (@byMikeDavis) August 9, 2020 Tonight’s private event marks Trump’s third fundraiser in two nights after a Hamptons two-step on Saturday that was expected to raise $15m for his campaign and the Republican National Committee: the first at the Southampton residence of billionaire former hedge fund manager John Paulson, the second at Bridgehampton home of his son, Donald Trump Jr, and his girlfriend, Kimberly Guilfoyle, who also is a top fundraiser for Trump Victory, a joint fundraising operation between Trump’s campaign, the RNC and a variety of state parties. Donald Trump waves after walking off of Marine One on Sunday in Long Branch, New Jersey. Photograph: Susan Walsh/AP
9 Aug 2020 22.26 BST New York governor Andrew Cuomo called Donald Trump’s executive order extending federal unemployment insurance “laughable” and another chapter in the federal government’s botched response to the coronavirus in a conference call with reporters on Sunday. Trump said on Saturday he would use unspent funds from the Cares act to continue unemployment payments to millions of newly unemployed Americans at a rate of $400 per week – a $200 drop from the earlier $600 payment – but mandated individual states cover 25% of the payment. “The concept of saying to states, you pay 25% of the insurance, is just laughable,” Cuomo said. “It’s just an impossibility. So none of this is real on the federal side. This is going to have to be resolved.” The Democratic governor said he didn’t know if Trump was “genuine in thinking the executive order is a resolution or if this is just a tactic in the negotiation. But this is irreconcilable for the state. And I expect this is just a chapter in the book of Washington Covid mismanagement.” Cuomo praised New Yorkers for driving down the rate of infections in the state so low that only 0.78% of 65,812 tests performed Saturday came back positive. He said the 131 individuals in intensive care units also represented the lowest number since the early days of the health crisis.
New York governor Andrew Cuomo has dismissed as ‘laughable’ the executive order signed by Donald Trump forcing states to pay part of the $400 weekly unemployment insurance benefits. Photograph: Mark Lennihan/AP
Updated at 22.28 BST
9 Aug 2020 21.33 BST Three Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) employees have been killed in a helicopter crash while conducting aerial surveys for desert bighorn sheep in the south-western part of the state, according to officials. The crash happened on Saturday in the remote wilderness of Black Gap Wildlife Management Area, which is adjacent to Big Bend National Park, on the Rio Grande that marks the border with Mexico. The victims of the crash were identified as wildlife biologist Dewey Stockbridge, fish and wildlife technician Brandon White, and state wildlife veterinarian Bob Dittmar, according to the TPWD. “No words can begin to express the depth of sadness we feel for the loss of our colleagues in this tragic accident,” Carter Smith, executive director of TPWD, said in the statement.” “These men were consummate professionals, deeply liked and highly regarded by their peers and partners alike for the immense passion, dedication, and expertise they brought to their important work in wildlife management and veterinary medicine,” he said. Details of the crash are so far limited and an official investigation by the authorities is underway, according to local media reports. Three parks and wildlife employees die in helicopter crash during bighorn sheep survey Read more
9 Aug 2020 21.00 BST Biden pledges to block Pebble Mine in Alaska if he wins White House Presumptive Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said on Sunday that if he’s elected, his administration would stop a proposed copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. “It is no place for a mine,” Biden said in a statement on Sunday afternoon. “The Obama-Biden Administration reached that conclusion when we ran a rigorous, science-based process in 2014, and it is still true today.” The Environmental Protection Agency under the Obama administration proposed restricting development in the area but never finalized the restrictions. The agency retains the option to invoke that so-called veto process again if it decides to do so. Biden’s remarks came five days after a surprise intervention from Donald Trump Jr breathed life into efforts to protect the biggest remaining wild salmon run on the planet. Trump Jr expressed his opposition to the controversial project, breaking with his father’s administration’s efforts to advance the development of the Pebble mine, which would be built near headwaters of the Bristol Bay salmon fishery about 200 miles southwest of Anchorage. On July 24, the Army Corps of Engineers issued its final environmental analysis for the mine, which essentially green-lights development of what would be the largest mine in North America. Many experts have criticized the environmental review process as hurried and containing crucial gaps in the science. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said on Sunday that if he’s elected, his administration would stop a proposed copper and gold mine in Alaska’s Bristol Bay region. Photograph: Marc Lester/AP
Updated at 22.23 BST
9 Aug 2020 20.40 BST Donald Trump, who spent the night at his private golf club in New Jersey, took part in a virtual conference call today with international leaders on Lebanon in the wake of Tuesday’s massive chemical explosion that devastated the capital. White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere shared the following readout of the call: The President expressed his deepest condolences for those killed and injured in the Beirut explosion. President Trump reaffirmed that the United States stands ready and willing to continue providing aid to help the people of Lebanon in their recovery. The President agreed with the other leaders to work closely together in international response efforts. President Trump also urged the Government of Lebanon to conduct a full and transparent investigation, in which the United States stands ready to assist. The President called for calm in Lebanon and acknowledged the legitimate calls of peaceful protestors for transparency, reform, and accountability. French president Emmanuel Macron, who organized the donor conference in collaboration with the United Nations, warned “it is certainly the future of Lebanon and its people that’s at stake, but also the future of an entire region”. Trump’s unsubstantiated claim that the explosion in Beirut was a bomb attack in off-the-cuff remarks at the White House on Tuesday were quickly walked back by Pentagon officials, raising the question of where the president got his information. Lebanese officials were reported to have sought urgent clarification from US diplomats. Sunday’s teleconference raised a total of $298m in emergency aid, organizers said. US president Donald Trump speaks as Dutch minister for development cooperation Sigrid Kaag participates via a video connection with world leaders about aid to Lebanon in the Hague, the Netherlands on Sunday. Photograph: Phil Nijhuis/EPA
9 Aug 2020 20.10 BST North Carolina’s department of health and human services reported 1,452 new confirmed cases of Covid-19 on Sunday, increasing the overall total to 136,218.
Officials said 1,109 people were hospitalized with the virus on Sunday, 20 fewer than Saturday. Eight additional coronavirus-related deaths in the past 24-hour period have lifted the statewide death toll to 1,109 since the start of the pandemic. The Republican national convention was initially set for Charlotte, North Carolina’s most populous city, but party leaders downscaled the event because of concerns about coronavirus. The city will still play host to a smaller gathering of Republican delegates to hold the meetings necessary to officially nominate Trump as the party’s candidate in the November presidential election. Three more days of speeches and other events are set to take place, though Republicans have not announced where those will take place.
9 Aug 2020 19.40 BST A total of nine students and staff members at a Georgia high school that made national headlines after a photo shared on social media showed its hallways packed with teenagers, many of them not wearing masks, have tested positive for the coronavirus. North Paudling High School principal Gabe Carmona wrote Saturday that six students and three staff members returned positive tests in a letter obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. This is the first day of school in Paulding County, Georgia. pic.twitter.com/fzdidaAABM — 🇯🇲Black🇭🇹Aziz🇳🇬aNANsi🇹🇹 (@Freeyourmindkid) August 4, 2020 Hannah Watters, a sophomore at the school who was initially suspended for posting the photo to Twitter, has since had her punishment revoked, CNN reported. Elsewhere in Georgia, the AP reports that school officials in a nearby metro Atlanta county said 12 students and two staff members across a dozen schools tested positive for the virus during their first week back at school. The Cherokee County school system reported that more than 250 students with potential exposure had been sent home to quarantine for two weeks. As our Ed Pilkington wrote today, Georgia is one of 21 states across the US that have been placed by the White House coronavirus taskforce in the “red zone”, indicating the disease is now so prevalent that immediate restrictions must be imposed to avoid dire consequences. “Our situation is rapidly getting out of control,” Melanie Thompson, an Atlanta physician and co-organizer of the letter, told the Guardian. “Frontline health workers are at the end of their ropes – we have been left on our own to make it up as we go along, while the governor fails to do what’s needed to control this epidemic.”
9 Aug 2020 19.22 BST The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday reported 4,974,959 cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 54,590 cases from its previous count a day prior, and said that the number of deaths had risen by 1,064 to 161,284.
The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as Covid-19, caused by a new coronavirus, as of 4pm ET on 8 August. The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states.
Updated at 19.27 BST
9 Aug 2020 19.06 BST Richard Luscombe has the latest on the pandemic’s spread in Florida: Florida has set a grim new coronavirus milestone: 3,355 hospitalizations in a week, the highest since the pandemic began. The Sunday-to-Sunday statistic comes at the end of an already bleak week in which the state passed both half a million confirmed cases and 8,000 deaths, according to figures from the Florida department of health. If there is a silver lining, it’s that the numbers of new cases appears to be trending lower (6,229 news cases reported Sunday after three consecutive days above 7,000) and that the state’s positivity rate has fallen below 9% for only the second time this month. The statewide average of positive tests was above 12% on several occasions through July. Still, the figures show that Florida remains a hotspot for Covid-19, and stands second to only California (554,160) in the number of cases nationwide. Meanwhile, there is a growing backlash to efforts by Florida’s political leaders to order schools to reopen with on-campus tuition for students this month. Last month Republican governor Ron DeSantis’s department of education issued an executive order mandating the reopening of bricks-and-mortar schools five days a week. School districts in most of the state’s 67 counties are ignoring the order on safety grounds, and will start the school year with online learning, while this week the Florida chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics put out its own guidance, essentially opposing the reopening of schools until cases and rates of positivity are significantly lower. If schools reopen too soon, “you’ll be chasing [coronavirus] all over the place, and I don’t know if the health department has the personnel to really handle how much that might be,” Dr Michael Muszynski, a FCAAP expert in pediatric infectious diseases, wrote to DeSantis.
9 Aug 2020 18.26 BST Joe Biden says US's 5m Covid-19 cases 'breaks the heart' The Democrats’ presumptive presidential candidate, Joe Biden, published a statement on Medium late on Saturday night in anticipation of the US reaching 5m Covid-19 cases, a landmark that was reached earlier today by Johns Hopkins’ reckoning but was passed yesterday by other counts. “It’s a number that boggles the mind and breaks the heart,” he wrote. “Five million is more than the entire population of Alabama – or of more than half the states in our union, for that matter. Each time the number clicks up, it represents a life altered, a family stricken with anxiety, a community on edge. And for the families of the more than 160,000 souls who have died because of this virus, it is a pain that can never be undone.” Biden also hit out at Donald Trump’s handling of the pandemic as the two men prepare to compete for the presidency in November’s elections. “And yet, we continue to hear little more from President Trump than excuses and lies in an effort to cover for his repeated failures of leadership – failures that worsened the pandemic here at home, and in turn deepened our economic crisis,” he wrote.
9 Aug 2020 18.10 BST While many Republicans have said the weekly unemployment benefits during Covid-19 encourage people not to work, Gene Marks says some small business owners support such efforts: About 30 million unemployed Americans are now on tenterhooks waiting to see if the $600-a-week federal unemployment benefit created by the Cares Act will be renewed. As the political row over its efficacy and necessity continues, the House and the Senate remain far apart on a compromise. What shouldn’t be left out of the discussion is an unlikely, yet numerous, group of people who do support the added benefit: small business owners. The issue is complicated. Many I know in the business community have taken issue with the additional $600 federal payment. They complain that a great number of their workers – particularly hourly and part-timers – have avoided returning to the workplace because the benefit provides them with more compensation then they were getting at their job and merely incentivizes them to stop working. But some studies – like this one from a group of Yale University researchers – have found the opposite to be true. The study found “no evidence” that workers receiving the added federal unemployment benefit were disincentivized to work and that “people with more generously expanded benefits also resumed working at a similar or slightly quicker rate than others did”. However, as the Wall Street Journal points out, the study excluded part-time workers and other “short-termers” who make up the vast majority of employees that benefited the most from the federal bump. “A worker in Louisiana who made $2,400 from part-time jobs all of last year would collect $2,516 a month in jobless benefits today – $29 a week from the state plus the $600. An average worker who had made $17 per hour ($680 a week) in Ohio has been able to collect $940 each week with the federal boost.” The debate will continue. But many small business owners remain convinced the payments should continue. Why? Because it has provided a safety net for their employees during a time when their companies couldn’t pay wages due to the country’s self-inflicted economic collapse. You can read the full article below: Yes, some US small business owners actually support the $600 weekly benefit | Gene Marks Read more
9 Aug 2020 17.55 BST Tom Inglesby, the director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, has appeared on NBC’s Meet The Press to discuss hopes for a Covid-19 vaccine. Infectious diseases expert Dr Anthony Fauci has said early vaccines may only be effective for half the population. Inglesby said such a vaccine would be better than nothing. “I think we would take 50% because 50% would be a lot better than what we have now,” he said. Inglesby added: “We’ll have to see what we get, for the amount of time that has passed … to have a vaccine that’s 50% effective in the coming months or the beginning of 2021 would be phenomenal.” He also said that fresh lockdowns should be considered in areas where the virus surges. “I don’t think we’re doomed, I think we know what to do, other countries have done it,” he said. “We know that in other countries, universal masking, physical distancing, avoiding larger gatherings, those kinds of things have worked. If we act together in national unison we can get there.”
9 Aug 2020 17.39 BST While the US passed the grim milestone of 5m Covid-19 cases earlier today, there are areas in America where the virus appears, at least for now, to be under control. New York, which recorded horrific daily death tolls in the early stages of the pandemic, now has the “lowest number of people we had in ICU units since the start,” according to the state’s governor Andrew Cuomo. We need to protect the extraordinary progress New Yorkers have made.
Today’s infection rate of 0.78% is the lowest we have seen since the pandemic began.
What we are doing is working. We need to stay smart and stay cautious. — Andrew Cuomo (@NYGovCuomo) August 9, 2020 Of the 65,812 tests reported on Saturday, 515 were positive. That rate, 0.78%, is also the lowest since the start of the pandemic said Cuomo. However, there were still seven deaths from the virus recorded on Saturday and Cuomo urged New Yorkers to be “smart and stay cautious”. Cuomo also dismissed Donald Trump’s executive action that says states will pay 25% of the weekly benefits going to the unemployed during the pandemic. “Executive orders will not be a substitute for legislation,” Cuomo said. “You can’t now say to states who have no funding you have to pay 25% of the unemployment insurance cause.”
9 Aug 2020 17.22 BST Chris McGreal Three months ago, the Republican governor of Missouri chose not to wear a mask in a shop, because he said he wasn’t going to let the government tell him what to do. Mike Parson visited a hardware store to celebrate its reopening after he lifted Missouri’s coronavirus lockdown over the objections of health professionals and mayors of major cities. Parson said the worst of the pandemic was past and the economic impact of the shutdown was worse than the virus. As for masks, the governor dismissively claimed “there was a lot of information on both sides” over whether to wear one so he wasn’t going to require people to do so. Three months later, Covid-19 is surging in Missouri and in many other parts of the midwest that imagined they had escaped the worst of the pandemic. Health specialists predict a sharp increase in deaths across the region in the coming weeks that will be made significantly worse in some states by the politicians who followed Donald Trump’s lead in undermining medical advice and in questioning the value of masks. You can read the full article below: ‘This is unstoppable’: America's midwest braces itself for a Covid-19 surge Read more
9 Aug 2020 17.03 BST Florida’s department of health reported 77 deaths from Covid-19 and 6,190 new cases of the virus on Sunday. Although the number of new cases has fallen since a few weeks ago when the state regularly had more than 9,000 new cases a day, it is still the 13th consecutive day with more than 6,000 new cases of the virus, according to CNN. The state’s department of health says Florida has now recorded a total of 532,806 Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic. Only five countries have recorded more cases than Florida, while the US total passed 5m earlier today.


theguardian--2020-08-09--Portland protesters set police building on fire and clash with authorities

A fire lit inside a police union building by a small fraction of protesters in Portland overnight led the authorities to declare the situation a riot and then use flashbang munitions and smoke canisters to force hundreds away from the area .
The flare-up in the Oregon city marred demonstrations that took place across Portland this weekend as part of protests that have continued daily , calling for police restructuring and systemic anti-racism reforms , since George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis in May .
Portland protests had been in a calmer vein since federal law enforcement agents @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Sunday saw a clash at the scene of the arson attack .
It was the second time such a fire has been set in recent days .
Though both fires were quickly put out , the incidents brought criticism of individuals who have been provoking police by damaging property and other belligerent tactics , in contrast to much wider , calmer protests , according to a report by the Oregonian .
Three officers were hurt during efforts to clear a crowd of several hundred people outside the Portland Police Association building , police @ @ @ @ @ @ @ been held earlier in the afternoon and evening throughout the city .
Seneca Cayson , a black business owner who helped lead peaceful gatherings in downtown Portland , worries that incidents of vandalism and taunting of law enforcement by a tiny minority of the many thousands of white protesters turning out distracts from the main aims of the Black Lives Matter movement .
But he speculated that such clashes also draw more attention to racial injustice and said of white rebels : “ We are fighting alongside them to … be equal.
” @ @ @ @ @ @ @ glare of a national spotlight , which has reduced the situation to a culture war when the reality is much more complex .
“ It happens so much that the things that we care about get hijacked and get put on the back burner .
And that just gets put into a big barrel with everything else , ” said Neil Anderson , another local Black business owner .
“ We all want the same thing .
But so often we get drowned out.
” For many , part of breaking down racial @ @ @ @ @ @ @ the police entirely .
Portland ’ s population is less than 6 % black but people of color have been disproportionately stopped by a city program that created a gun violence reduction team .
An analysis of police use of force published last month found that in 2019 officers were much more likely to use force against black people and particularly young black men than other groups , despite overall trends towards less use of force .
“ It is the entire culture of the Portland police bureau that is fundamentally unmanageable and @ @ @ @ @ @ @ Hardesty , the city ’ s first black councilwoman and an activist who has pressed for police reform for three decades .
“ Thirty years is a long time to be asking for the exact same reforms .
The difference now is there are tens of thousands of Portlanders who want the exact same thing , ” Hardesty said .
Police said demonstrators broke into the union building late Saturday , set the fire and were adding to it when officers made the riot declaration .
Democratic mayor Ted Wheeler said violent protesters @ @ @ @ @ @ @ for Donald Trump in a divisive election season where the president is hammering on a law-and-order message .
Meanwhile , Oregon state politicians will discuss on Monday in a special session passing a broader ban on police use of chokeholds and further restricting other use of force , the Oregonian reported on Sunday .

A fire lit inside a police union building by a small fraction of protesters in Portland overnight led the authorities to declare the situation a riot and then use flashbang munitions and smoke canisters to force hundreds away from the area.
The flare-up in the Oregon city marred demonstrations that took place across Portland this weekend as part of protests that have continued daily, calling for police restructuring and systemic anti-racism reforms, since George Floyd was killed by police in Minneapolis in May.
Portland protests had been in a calmer vein since federal law enforcement agents withdrew in late July, but early Sunday saw a clash at the scene of the arson attack.
It was the second time such a fire has been set in recent days. Though both fires were quickly put out, the incidents brought criticism of individuals who have been provoking police by damaging property and other belligerent tactics, in contrast to much wider, calmer protests, according to a report by the Oregonian.
Three officers were hurt during efforts to clear a crowd of several hundred people outside the Portland Police Association building, police said in a statement.
Rallies had been held earlier in the afternoon and evening throughout the city.
Seneca Cayson, a black business owner who helped lead peaceful gatherings in downtown Portland, worries that incidents of vandalism and taunting of law enforcement by a tiny minority of the many thousands of white protesters turning out distracts from the main aims of the Black Lives Matter movement.
But he speculated that such clashes also draw more attention to racial injustice and said of white rebels: “We are fighting alongside them to … be equal.”
Many cite competing voices and the harsh glare of a national spotlight, which has reduced the situation to a culture war when the reality is much more complex.
“It happens so much that the things that we care about get hijacked and get put on the back burner. And that just gets put into a big barrel with everything else,” said Neil Anderson, another local Black business owner. “We all want the same thing. But so often we get drowned out.”
For many, part of breaking down racial barriers means taking funds from and restructuring the police entirely.
Portland’s population is less than 6% black but people of color have been disproportionately stopped by a city program that created a gun violence reduction team.
An analysis of police use of force published last month found that in 2019 officers were much more likely to use force against black people and particularly young black men than other groups, despite overall trends towards less use of force.
“It is the entire culture of the Portland police bureau that is fundamentally unmanageable and must change,” said Jo Ann Hardesty, the city’s first black councilwoman and an activist who has pressed for police reform for three decades.
“Thirty years is a long time to be asking for the exact same reforms. The difference now is there are tens of thousands of Portlanders who want the exact same thing,” Hardesty said.
Police said demonstrators broke into the union building late Saturday, set the fire and were adding to it when officers made the riot declaration.
Democratic mayor Ted Wheeler said violent protesters are serving as political “props” for Donald Trump in a divisive election season where the president is hammering on a law-and-order message.
Meanwhile, Oregon state politicians will discuss on Monday in a special session passing a broader ban on police use of chokeholds and further restricting other use of force, the Oregonian reported on Sunday.