Cover Ups

Thirteen Days and Counting:  Trump continues to peddle lies to a gullible electorate.  There’s that horde of George Soros funded violent immigrants gathering on the Mexican border, made up of vicious gang members and sprinkled with Middle Eastern terrorists.  The migrant caravan is thousands of miles from the border and is made up mostly of families fleeing violence in their home countries, a serious problem but mostly a civilian tragedy for the refugees than one that jeopardizes the American way of life.  As to those Middle Eastern terrorists though VP Pence says that statistically there must be at least one hiding within the crowd, most  government officials, or at least those willing to comment, admit that their presence in the caravan is just another Trump dystopian nightmare.  Despite Trump’s warnings about terrorists, so far the most notable lethal act has been one targeted at George Soros, who though he hasn’t been funding any caravans, did receive a pipe bomb in the mail this week, possibly from one of Trump’s more activist fans.  Then there is the whole socialist thing, according to Trump all Democrats are radical socialists who when given the opportunity will foist socialized medicine on the US population thereby turning the nation into some combination of Venezuela, Cuba and Soviet era Russia, except that they all are not, or at least this Democrat isn’t, a socialist radical.  Trump also asserts that Republicans are all-in on health care for everyone especially those with pre-existing conditions except that they’ve tried to kill Obamacare at least 70 times, they rolled back the individual mandate, the feature which together with the now unfunded Obamacare subsidies, are the keys to making the Obamacare math work, and are currently suing to have some Obamacare coverage requirements declared unconstitutional.  And, of course, there’s that promised middle class tax cut, the one that Trump keeps talking about even though Congress isn’t in session and hasn’t been working on any such legislation.  It’s not just Trump, in many parts of the country Republican officials are doing their best to limit voter turnout, or at least turnout in Democrat heavy districts.  Georgia’s Brian Kemp, the Republican gubernatorial candidate who is also the Georgia Secretary of State responsible for election oversite, was taped telling a group of supporters that his Democratic opponent Stacey Abrams’ voter turnout operation “continues to concern us, especially if everybody uses and exercises their right to vote.”  Kemp has already suspended 50,000 voter registrations by disqualifying applicants for failing a controversial “exact match” test, one that boots out any name with a typo or another similar “mismatch” and has purged more than 100,000 other voters from the rolls for failing to vote in prior elections. As of now, to the extent that the close Georgia election ends up in a recount, Kemp would be the official responsible for overseeing it.  In Kansas, where Trump’s favorite voter suppression expert Secretary of State Kris Kobach is locked in a close battle for Governor against Democratic candidate Laura Kelly, the one polling place for the largely Latino Dodge City community has been moved outside of town beyond the reach of municipal transportation, making it inaccessible to many residents.  All is not lost there as a number of organizations and corporations including Voto Latino, Johnny Walker and Lyft are providing rides to what would otherwise be a disenfranchised population.  In Florida, taking a page from Republican candidate Ron DeSantis’ “monkey” playbook, an extremist right wing group sent out a racist robocall disparaging Democratic candidate Andrew Gillum.  It’s fair to assume that Republicans and their supporters would not be pursuing such strategies if they were confident of maintaining their positions.  In that regard, projected outcomes aren’t all bad or all good for either side.  FiveThirtyEight, the polling website run by statistical whiz Nate Silver projects that there is a 6 in 7 chance that Democrats gain control of the House but a 4 and 5 chance that Republicans maintain control of the Senate.  They also project that  Democratic candidates will gain more Governor and State Attorney General seats, important for the future because Governors exert significant control over census redistricting and Attorney Generals have the ability to pushback against federal policy initiatives.

Khashoggi Fallout:  It looking more and more likely that Trump has actually been shown some fairly damning and gruesome evidence about the Saudi role in the murder and dismemberment of dissident journalist Jamal Khashoggi.  Yesterday he said that those behind the killing should be in “big trouble” before going on to say that the Saudi cover-up was “the worst ever.”  Disturbingly, it appears that he’s more upset about the screwed up cover-up than the actual murder primarily because it is putting his Middle East strategy in jeopardy, so while he continues to say that there is no convincing evidence that Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman (MBS) had anything to do with the rogue slice and dice, he’s canceled the visas of twenty-one other Saudis for their involvement in the Khashoggi killing.  Meantime MBS is doing his best to ride out the controversy.  Yesterday he made an appearance at the Saudi “Davos” investor conference and was greeted with a standing ovation by the attendees, many of whom knew that if they didn’t applaud their days would be numbered.  He also was filmed shaking hands with and expressing condolences to Khashoggi’s son Salah who looked extremely pained by the experience.  Salah Khashoggi has been unable to join the rest of his family in the US because his travel has been restricted by the Saudi government for the past year largely due to their disapproval of his late father’s outspoken criticism of their regime. In another effort to buy himself back into international good graces MBS is spreading money around.  Yesterday Imran Khan, the former cricket player who is now Pakistan’s Prime Minister announced that his country had received a much needed $6 billion infusion from Saudi Arabia, one that will allow the cash strapped country to stay afloat while it negotiates a new IMF agreement. In other international news, its looking more likely that Trump’s announced plan to withdraw from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Enforcement Treaty is not a negotiating tactic but is for real.  The nuclear race is once again on because nukes are good, really.  Just one more thing for Trump to discuss with his on again off again BFF Putin during their upcoming meeting, one that national security advisor John Bolton announced is scheduled to take place during Armistice celebrations in Paris in early November right after the midterm elections, the elections that one of Putin’s oligarch cronies is again trying to influence on his behalf.  Somehow or other, Bolton forgot to slap back at Putin’s continued election “meddling” during his Moscow visit.