Out d’Coup | Democratic Party Convention; QAnon Candidates; Jim Cox Sucks; University Reopening Disasters; Licking Boots of Management Won’t Get the Goods; KU Plague Doc Protest; Free Will Recs

It’s official. The ticket is Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. The task now is to get rid of the acute condition of Trump, so we get rid of the chronic conditions of market fundamentalism, white supremacy, and sexism. 

The Democratic Party Convention has come and gone. Looks like the Lincoln Project’s efforts to convince establishment Democrats to lean to the right have had an impact. I’m not sure the Republican Convention will have as many Republicans as the Democrats did. 

The DNC quietly dropped the demand to end fossil fuel subsidies from its platform. And they did that as California is being overrun by climate change-induced wildfires for the second year in a row, as a new report shows record glacial melting in Greenland, and as Iowa farmers are just digging out after being ravaged by a devastating Derecho storm. 

QAnon candidates like Marjorie Taylor Green in Georgia are winning. Let the insanity begin. 

Steve Bannon is arrested for allegedly defrauding hundreds of thousands of donors through his “We Build the Wall” fundraising campaign. Bannon, along with three others raised more than $25 million, about a million dollars went right into Bannon’s pockets. Perhaps the best part of this story is that he was arrested with the help of the US Postal Service Inspection Service. Stamp that shit. 

Not only is Trump trying to throw a wrench in the work of the US Postal Service, but a review by David Sirota’s newsletter, TMI, shows that Trump’s political appointments to the USPS have been steering contracts to big dollar Trump donors, like Wayne Hoovestol who owns the anti-union Eagle Express Lines.

That was Jim Cox, head of the House Labor and Industry Committee, that you heard at the top of the podcast.  He, like the House Republicans, don’t think it’s government’s responsibility to take care of their citizens during a pandemic

As some public schools, colleges, and universities spit in the face of science and open up for face-to-face classes, we are already seeing spikes in coronavirus cases. 

• North Carolina State does an about-face and sends students back home after a cluster of cases. 
• That follows UNC-Chapel Hill’s abrupt shift to all online classes after an almost immediate outbreak as students arrived on campus. Over 130 students tested positive during the first week on campus and students are still struggling to leave. 
• Notre Dame has more than 300 cases with several members of the football team testing positive. Now the university shifted to all online classes until at least September 2. 
• Michigan State put the kibosh on its hybrid learning plans after seeing the outbreaks at universities across the country. 
• The University of Connecticut evicted multiple students from dorms after they held a large dorm party with no masks or social distancing. So far, UConn has placed 25 students in quarantine after they came in contact with several students who tested positive for COVID-19. 

We could go on and on. The New York Times is trying to keep track of the total number of cases at higher ed institutions as it looks like they are becoming COVID-19 hotspots. 

Kutztown University faculty members and students don plague doctor masks to protest the administration’s reopening plans. The silent protest took place in front of KU President Kenneth Hawkinson’s taxpayer-funded house as students began to move into their dorms. As next week’s start of classes draws near, the university administration has to dramatically rework its “plan” as reality has shown their original plans as a bunch of happy talk and smoke and mirrors. But no worries. KU’s Provost sent out a one-sentence update yesterday saying simply, “Kindness can change someone’s day.” See, everything is fine.

Syracuse and UConn blame students. KU’s University Senate President plays class politics and gives the administration a pass.

What’s happening at Free Will Brewing.

Raging Chicken studio gets an upgrade.