Trump's "Deep State" Myth

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View this email in your browser Trump's "Deep State" Myth Left US Unprepared for a Pandemic   Clodagh Harrington (De Montfort University), Alex Waddan (University of Leicester) kick off our newsletter this week with a strong piece focusing on Donald Trump's obsession with the "deep state" and its impact on US preparedness for the COVID-19 pandemic:  "That neglect of apparently distant risk, however, proved calamitous when Covid-19 appeared. Unsurprisingly President Trump claims to have acted perfectly and has blamed the lack of preparedness to deal with the virus on previous administrations. The evidence, however, does not support this interpretation of events. It would be silly to expect any government to have an extensive off the shelf tool kit to deal with the particularities of Covid-19, but it is important to recognize that both the Bush and Obama administrations had taken the threat of pandemic seriously and had made some planning for such a catastrophe. Perhaps inevitably, both administrations faced criticism for being underprepared and ridicule for catastrophizing. However imperfect these plans were, they existed but the Trump administration downsized these efforts rather than built on them." Read More >> The Inside Line from Scott Lucas  What You Need to Know Now  "Disinfectant" Trump's Briefing Trouble: Unsettled by criticism of his remarks about ingesting disinfectant as a Coronavirus cure, Donald Trump says "goodbye" to "hostile questions" from reporters and "hello" to tweetstreams --- but then lifts his boycott of White House briefings after 48 hours. While avoiding any mention of bleach, Trump has already returned to misinformation  about testing, the lifting of stay-at-home orders, and the Federal Government's management. Meanwhile, his Twitter blasts of the "Lamestream Media" continue, and his son-in-law Jared Kushner proclaims a "great success story". Watch More >> Governors in Charge: With the Administration failing to lead, State governors continue to assume the burden and, in some cases, the political benefit of taking the necessary measures deal with Covid-19. The headlines are on a few State leaders taking peremptory steps to lift stay-at-home measures, but the main story remains with those --- think New York's Andrew Cuomo, Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer, and California's Gavin Newsom --- who have been most active in dealing with crisis situations. Democrat Focus on States: Democrats in Congress will try to keep attention on the plight of states and communities dealing with the medical crisis and economic damage. Look for a renewed effort, led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi, for a bill to include emergency funding for states and cities, after Republicans blocked any assistance in the $464 supplemental funding passed last week. Miller's Anti-Immigrant Steps: Under cover of Coronavirus, the White House's anti-immigrant advisor Stephen Miller is trying to entrench the latest measures to restrict legal immigration.  Look for Miller to convert the recent 60-day ban on US entry for most immigrants into a permanent measure. Meanwhile, Donald Trump is both punishing States and laying the political foundation for Miller's campaign by threatening no Coronavirus aid for any State with "sanctuary cities". Delaying the November Elections? No one is yet speaking of measures for November's Presidential and Congressional elections if the pandemic continues. But there are signs of a Trump campaign to block any attempt at national postal voting. He and his advisors are spreading the line of mail-in ballot = fraud --- and Trump is stepping up his attacks on the US Postal Service. Privacy & COVID-19 Australia has just launched an app that traces every person running the app who has been in contact with someone else using the app who has tested positive for coronavirus. Confused much? It's all about automating contract tracing. But are we panic running into a tech-powered surveillance state? UCD Clinton Institute graduate student Alessia Mennitto breaks it down.  Read More >> Joe Biden and No Deal Brexit   In a new piece, Professor John Ryan from LSE Ideas argues A No Deal Brexit scenario would "complicate the economic and political consequences for Ireland and would have associated repercussions for trade negotiations between the UK and the United States."   Read More >>   Klass: No Fox, No Problem In his latest column for The Washington Post, Brian Klaas doesn't mince his words when it comes to a certain TV channel:  "There’s something very different about life in Britain in the time of the novel coronavirus: There’s no Fox News here. Thank goodness for that...In Britain, there is still vigorous (and deserved) criticism of the government’s response. But divisive disinformation that uses extremist rhetoric isn’t being beamed into millions of households every night." Read More >> The Weekend Long Read Great Power Competition 2.0: Sino-Russian Challenges to US Cyber Primacy Eugenio Lilli has your weekend long-read with a new piece breaking down the race for cyber dominance:    "With respect to the cyber environment, the strategic competition between the United States, and China and Russia has taken different forms. This includes: US-Sino competition with regard to intellectual property theft and 5G wireless technology; US-Russian competition regarding influence operations and election interference; and US-Sino-Russian competition concerning the development of global norms of internet governance and acceptable behavior in cyber space. I will suggest that the United States could leverage the capabilities of its domestic private sector to mitigate the challenges coming from China and Russia in and through cyber space." Read More >> Check out UCD Clinton Institute's most recent promotional video.  Thank you for reading and please send us your comments and feedback. Until Next Time. America Unfiltered Team.  Copyright © 2020 UCD Clinton Institute. All rights reserved. Our mailing address is: americaunfiltered@ucd.ie  Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.

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