Namaste?

Modi Meeting: Trump is in India where he was greeted by a huge crowd, not the millions he predicted but probably enough to feed his ego.  Upon arrival he lavished praise on India’s Prime Minister Modi who has faced international criticism for his crackdown in Kashmir, India’s Muslim-majority state, and for the passage of a religion based citizenship bill.  It’s also reported that Modi had a wall built around a slum on Trump’s route from the airport to spare Trump’s delicate sensibilities.  The two leaders must have so much to talk about given their joint affinity for walls and discrimination.  Before leaving Washington Trump celebrated the results of the Nevada caucuses, another one of those states where he managed to get the Republican one cancelled. Trump also attacked and threatened Democratic Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, asserting that he had fabricated and/or leaked, he can’t keep his story straight, that the Russians are once again interfering in the elections on his behalf by tweeting “Somebody please tell incompetent (thanks for my high poll numbers) & corrupt politician Adam ‘Shifty’ Schiff to stop leaking Classified information or, even worse, made up information, to the Fake News Media. Someday he will be caught, & that will be a very unpleasant experience!”  Although Trump hasn’t started rounding up Democratic politicians yet, Axios reports that with the help of a Conservative group led by Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, he’s been identifying and ridding his administration of never-Trumpers for some time, a process that is now being expedited by his former body man, new personnel chief/sometime gambling addict Johnny McEntee. That hunt for never Trumpers might explain VP Pence’s Chief of Staff/spokesman Marc Short’s willingness to disingenuously assert on Meet the Press that the Russians are only helping Bernie, not Trump.  And it wasn’t just Short, current national security advisor Robert O'Brien his ABC to deny those intelligence reports that Russian actors are interfering on Trump’s behalf while admitting that he has not looked at or sought out materials surrounding those reports because apparently ignorance is bliss and aren’t national security advisors supposed to enjoy bliss.  One thing that isn’t all that explainable either is that Trump’s new acting Director of National Intelligence/current Germany Ambassador Richard Grenell previously lobbied for and was paid by a questionable Moldovan oligarch and ala Manafort and Flynn failed to disclose all that. Namaste?   

Panic on Dem Street: We learned on Friday, that the Russians are also fans of Bernie Sanders. It’s possible that old Vlad thinks that Bernie’s affinity to Marxism, or at least his past affection for Marx,  would make him more fun to work with than any of the other Democrats or, more likely, that he just believes that Bernie’s nomination would lead to four more years of Trump, a view shared by many moderate voters and, judging by his glee at Bernie’s rise, by Trump, who congratulated Sanders on his Nevada caucus victory.  And Sanders actually earned that congratulations.  Although all the results aren’t yet in Sanders appears to have exceeded expectations, garnering 47.1% of the vote and 13 delegates.  Former VP Biden came in second with 21% of the vote and 2 delegates, followed by Pete Buttigieg, who’s disputing the results, with 13.7% of the vote and 1 delegate.  They were followed by Elizabeth Warren with 9.5%, Tom Steyer who will be back on the stage for this Tuesday’s South Carolina debate with 4.7%, and Amy Klobuchar with 3.9%.  No one other than Bernie, Joe or Pete earned any delegates.  Mike Bloomberg was not on the ballot, and, yes you read me right, there is another debate this Tuesday. Bloomberg, who announced in response to Elizabeth Warren’s withering attacks that he is freeing three of his former female employees from their non-disclosure agreements, will be on the stage on Tuesday where he both hopes and dearly needs to improve his last performance.  By choice he will not be on the South Carolina ballot but Joe Biden who is and who desperately needs to win the state is expected to receive an endorsement from influential party leader South Carolina Congressman Jim Clyburn momentarily. Odds are that Clyburn’s endorsement is worth a bit more than Marianne Williamson, hers went to Bernie over the weekend, or Clint Eastwood’s, who appears to have endorsed Bloomberg.   As to the rest of the Democrats, Andrew Yang wisely said that it’s time for some more of them to pull an “Andrew Yang,” and by that he means its time for some of the moderates to pull out so that the remaining ones can consolidate, his way of warning that if they don’t do so soon, the Democrats will end up with Bernie as a candidate.  

Feeling the Bern: Getting back to Bernie, late Friday he confirmed that he had been told by intelligence officials that the Russians appear to be weighing in on his behalf.  Careful listeners at the last debate may have noticed that he more or less implied that when he said that some of those nasty tweets attributed to Bernie Bros might be coming from, or at the very least be being amplified by others.  When asked about the Russian interference he wisely responded by denouncing them and saying that a Bernie Sanders administration would not be Russia friendly but then instead of leaving his remark as is he turned around and blamed the Washington Post for “leaking” the story to hurt his chances in Nevada.  I have no idea if the widely expressed fears of pundits that Bernie would be the worst possible Democratic presidential candidate are true or not because politics is topsy turvy these days but it’s hard not to notice that Democrats in red and purple districts and states are positively panicked about Bernie’s ascension and Bernie’s interview on 60 Minutes with Anderson Cooper probably did little to dispel their concerns. It doesn’t help that Bernie keeps dismissing the more center leaning Democrats as out of step “mainstreamers,” I guess Trump really has succeeded in making “mainstream”  an insult?  It also doesn’t help that Bernie attacked AIPAC, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee,  this weekend, refusing an invitation to speak at their upcoming convention.  Although AIPAC conventions are typically attended by leaders from both sides of the aisle, Bernie never attends anyway but his turn down was particularly harsh as he said he would not attend due to AIPAC's connection to "leaders who express bigotry and oppose basic Palestinian rights,"   He also said that “the Israeli people have the right to live in peace and security. So do the Palestinian people” but the first part of his statement is likely to cost him votes on the margin, in key places like Florida and perhaps even Ohio and Pennsylvania. Note to Bernie – you could have delivered your message, support for a two state solution and unhappiness with Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu far more effectively and less divisively by showing up and doing so in person.  Tweeting is so, so Trumplike. #Sigh

COVID-19:  That’s the new name of the spreading coronavirus which has apparently reared its ugly head in Europe, most notably in the Lombardy region of Italy where Milan is located. Quarantines are being imposed, fashion shows have been sparsely attended, Venice Carnival  festivities have been cut short and sports events have been cancelled. That said, don’t panic, we don’t know how many people have actually had COVID 19, most who have had it probably didn’t even know that they had anything more than a cold, assuming they even sneezed.  So far it’s fair to say that the garden variety flu remains a bigger threat to your health.  What we do know is that markets are jittery over concerns on COVID-19’s impact on economic growth.  Rocky roads ahead and I am not just talking about the virus.