Assigning Blame

Bombs Away:  So far there have been ten pipe bombs sent to eight targets, including two sent to former Vice President, potential future presidential candidate and frequent Trump critic Joe Biden and two sent to Maxine Waters, the outspoken African American Congresswoman who Trump frequently targets for some of his worst, race baiting vitriol.  Though the bombs contained explosive material it’s not clear whether the sender or senders intended for them to explode of if their failure to go boom was an accidental construction flaw made by someone who didn’t pay close attention in his, or her, though most likely his, bomb 101 class.  Kaboom or not the act of sending explosive devices to targets through the mail is still a bigly federal crime, one that, despite conspiracy theories being pushed by a the usual crowd of right wingers including Ann Coulter, Rush Limbaugh, Mike Flynn Jr and actor James Wood, even Trump buddy and verbal bomb thrower Newt Gingrich calls an act of terrorism and “clearly an attempt at murder.”  As to the wingnut contingent, they believe that the bombs are just part of a liberal hoax perpetrated by Antifa because Republican terrorists “don’t use bombs,” only machine guns, weaponized cars and Tiki torches.  At this point nobody knows who’s behind the bombs, Democrats, Republicans or just a run of the mill crazy person, but it seems fairly clear that the target list was inspired by Trump’s usual playlist. Anyway, next time you mail a package, make sure to smile for the cameras, it turns out that all post offices have surveillance systems, investigators are searching video logs hoping to pick up a picture or two of the bomber or bombers mailing their packages.  At this point they are focusing on a mail distribution center in Florida as the point of origin for some if not all of the bombs. For his part, Trump has moved off of his let’s bring the country together, unity position, the one he held for the briefest of nanoseconds, now he’s back to blaming his adversaries, chiefly the press.  Yesterday morning he tweeted “A very big part of the Anger we see today in our society is caused by the purposely false and inaccurate reporting of the Mainstream Media that I refer to as Fake News, It has gotten so bad and hateful that it is beyond description. Mainstream Media must clean up its act, FAST!”  Ben Jacobs, the Guardian correspondent who was beaten up by Montana Congressman Greg Gianforte, the guy that Trump called out as a hero during his recent trip to Missoula, is also fed up with lies, he’s threatening to sue Gianforte who has been telling voters that he only beat the crap out of Jacobs after Jacobs started their fight, a blatant lie that conflicts with Gianforte’s guilty plea and violates the terms of the civil agreement that Jacobs had reached with Gianforte after the attack, one in which Jacobs agreed not to sue Gianforte as long as he stuck to the truth and made a contribution to the Committee to Protect Journalists.  The contribution was made but Gianforte continues to misrepresent the specifics of the beat down on his campaign trail.  Then there is Trump Jr, to no one’s surprise he’s fully on board with his father and the conspiracy contingent, from the get go he’s kept busy retweeting all the conspiracy theories that he can find.

Eleven Days and Counting:  The midterm election is less than two weeks away. In an effort to sway the outcome, Trump keeps announcing new “initiatives.”  In addition to his faux middle class tax cut promise, he’s now announced a plan to reduce drug costs in an effort to counter Democrats’ upper hand on issues related to the preservation of Obamacare and the coverage of pre-existing conditions because most voters, particularly those outside of Trump’s base, have figured out that Republicans do plan to kill Obamacare and probably won’t help them out with meaningful coverage of their pre-existing conditions. Unfortunately for Trump, his a little bit too wonky drug plan which was announced around the same time that the bombs started landing in Democratic inboxes hasn’t gained much in the way of traction with voters though it does appear to have infuriated manufacturers. With the drug plan falling flat, late yesterday an assortment of official White House leakers reported that Trump is now considering taking executive action to bar migrants, including asylum seekers, from entering from the Mexican border.  The plan which is meant to target the so-called caravans of “criminal migrant hordes” who are at least a month if not longer away from reaching the border is really intended to magnify the immigration “crisis” in the run up to the election. In all likelihood, any such executive action would immediately end up in the courts, pitting those “open border, anti-INS” Democrats against “country first” Republican “patriots,” Trump’s true intention. As to the election itself, there are far too many reports of election finagling, mostly by Republican officials.  In Arkansas the name of the Democratic candidate for Secretary of State was “accidentally” left off the ballot and voters in Dodge City Kansas were sent official notices that included the wrong address for their new way out of town voting location.  Trump who views Florida as his home away from home is so concerned about the outcome of the state’s Senate and Governor elections that he’s added two campaign visits to the state where in addition to squeezing in some quality time at Mar a Lago and golf he plans to campaign for outgoing Republican Governor, Senatorial candidate Rick Scott who depending on the poll is either running either neck and neck or four points behind current Democratic Senator and former astronaut Bill Nelson and for his mini me former Republican Congressman Ron DeSantis who appears to be running a few points behind the Democratic candidate, Tallahassee Mayor Andrew Gillum.  During their last debate DeSantis harped on allegations that Gillum accepted Hamilton tickets from an FBI agent posing as a contract seeking business man while Gillum who has been targeted by neo-Nazi groups with racially disgusting ads said that though he wouldn’t call DeSantis a racist, his support from White supremacist groups proves that racists believe that he is a racist.

Other News:  Jamal Khashoggi’s son, a dual US and Saudi Arabian citizen, has finally been allowed to leave Saudi Arabia. Together with his family he is now home in the US. He was allowed to leave just as the Saudis admitted that the Khashoggi murder was premeditated.  Though we never really know what’s going on in Mueller land until Rod Rosenstein heads to the podium to announce new indictments, reports are that Mueller is zeroing in on Roger Stone possibly helped by communication possessed by one of Stone’s associates, another right wing conspiracist named Jerome Corsi, that indicates his prior knowledge of WikiLeaks release of the DNC emails. Separately it’s reported the Federal attorneys investigating Michael Cohen have succeeded in blocking release of some search warrants by arguing that they need to keep their details confidential  in order to protect an ongoing investigation, a possible indication that Cohen’s cooperation continues to bear fruit, a problem for the Trump contingent.  As to Trump at a Washington Post sponsored event, the talkative Newt Gingrich said that if Democrats retake control of Congress they would be "trapped into appealing to the Supreme Court" if they attempted to gain access to Trump's tax returns. "And we’ll see whether or not the Kavanaugh fight was worth it."  So there you have it, a confirmation as to why Trump fought so hard to get Justice Kavanaugh on to the Court.