As violence surges, virtual convention serves Dems well

BY JACK CROWE

August 17, 2020

BY ANY CONVENTIONAL POLITICAL STANDARD, the Democrats are sacrificing something by holding their convention virtually. There won't be television shots of energetic crowds chanting the candidates' names, there won't be an opportunity for Biden and his running mate to test which issues and applause lines get the people out of their seats — but there also won't be an opportunity for the voters to take a good, hard look at the violence and unrest gripping many American cities.

In any other year, Democrats could be rightly upset at the loss of their in-person convention, but in August 2020, they should count themselves lucky to be sitting behind screens.

As Biden, Kamala Harris, and other prominent members of the party address voters from their houses this week, they won't be accosted by black-bloc radicals convinced that the nomination was once again stolen from Senator Bernie Sanders. They won't have to confront the increasingly-violent minority who believe the entire party should be burned down along with the rest of America's institutions. There will be no opportunity for the rioting that shook Chicago during the 1968 convention and may have led, at least in part, to Nixon's election.

And the office seekers are not just avoiding the kind of nominally-political rioting that has wrecked downtown Portland and Chicago in recent weeks, they're also avoiding the surge in indiscriminate violent crime that has swept through the nation's great cities.

In Milwaukee, the ostensible "site" of this week's convention, homicides were up 85 percent over last year and non-fatal shootings were up 64 percent as of last month. Now, Biden and Harris don't have to step foot in the city and neither do elite D.C. and New York-based reporters and pundits, some of whom may have become curious about the goings on just a few blocks away from the Miller High-Life theater in downtown Milwaukee.

The surge in violence continued apace in across America's major cities over the weekend. In New York City, 49 people were shot over 72 hours beginning Thursday, more than eight times as many as were shot over the same period last year. An off-duty corrections officer, who was shot with his own service weapon after leaving a party in Queens, was among the seven people killed.

There have been 1,087 shooting victims across 888 different incidents in New York so far this year compared to 577 victims across 457 shootings at this point last year, according to the Gothamist. Eighteen people were shot in four separate incidents in Cincinnati, Ohio over the weekend and in Chicago, where shootings are up 54 percent this year, sixty-four people were shot, five fatally.

Unless some concerned citizens are hiding in their closets, Democrats won't be asked to discuss those numbers as they address the American people this week from the comfort and safety of their homes.

Rise in Shootings Continues in Chicago, NYC, Other Cities

The surge in violence that has emerged this summer in major American cities continued over the weekend, with at least 64 shooting victims in Chicago and 52 in New York City since Thursday.

Five men were killed in the violence in Chicago, while injured victims included teenagers and one 12-year-old boy. In New York, seven of the weekend's 52 victims died, including an off-duty corrections officer who was shot with his own department-issued weapon. Witnesses told a local ABC affiliate that that shooting was likely planned, with three cars pulling up to encircle the victim.

President Trump on Sunday threatened to lead a federal response to violence in New York.

"Law and Order," Trump wrote on Twitter. "If NYC Mayor [Bill de Blasio] can't do it, we will!" (ABC)

Pelosi Calls House Lawmakers Back from Recess for Postal Service Vote

House speaker Nancy Pelosi says she is calling the House back to Washington from August recess to vote on legislation that would prevent the Postal Service from implementing any changes to its operations or level of service ahead of the November election.

Pelosi's call to action comes amid accusations that President Trump and his newly appointed postmaster general are slowing down the mail to impact mail-in voting in November's election as the president and many Republicans have repeatedly criticized voting by mail as leaving the election open to widespread voter fraud.

"Alarmingly, across the nation, we see the devastating effects of the President's campaign to sabotage the election by manipulating the Postal Service to disenfranchise voters," Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues Sunday.

New Zealand Delays Election by a Month Following New Coronavirus Outbreak

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced on Monday that the country's election would be delayed by one month following the appearance of a new cluster of coronavirus cases.

The island nation recorded 102 days without a single instance of community transmission of coronavirus, until the discovery of a cluster of 78 cases in the city of Auckland. Auckland has been placed in a lockdown with less-severe restrictions than at the outbreak of the pandemic.

The city contains almost one third of New Zealand's voters, and a party in Ardern's coalition pressured to delay the national elections because of restrictions on the ability to campaign to Auckland residents. (WSJ)

Japan's Economy Shrinks at a Record 7.8 Percent

Japan on Monday reported its worst drop in GDP on record, with its economy shrinking a record 7.8% from April to June as the coronavirus pandemic severely slowed economic activity in the country.

The decrease translates to an annual rate of decline of 27.8%, the worst quarter the world's third largest economy has recorded since they began keeping track in 1980, and the third consecutive quarter of contraction.

"In April, May, a state of emergency was issued, it was a situation where the economy was artificially stopped so to speak, and the impact was severe," said Yasutoshi Nishimura, minister Economic and Fiscal Policy.

"These are tough numbers but they bottomed out in April and May, we would like to put all our efforts into returning to a growth trajectory," Nishimura said. (AP)

Iran Paid Bounties to Taliban-Linked Terrorist Group after Attack on U.S. Base in Afghanistan: Report

Iran paid Taliban fighters to attack American soldiers and other coalition forces in Afghanistan, CNN reported on Monday.

U.S. intelligence has assessed that a foreign government paid fighters who took part in at least six attacks over the past year, including a December 2019 suicide bombing at the U.S. Air Base in Bagram, Afghanistan, that left two dead and over 70 injured. Four American servicemen were among the injured, while the remainder were Afghan civilians.

While the name of the foreign government remains classified, two intelligence officials told CNN that the nation behind the payments is Iran. The Bagram attack was carried out by fighters from the Haqqani network, led by the Taliban second-in-command Sirajuddin Haqqani. (CNN)