But Her Emails

Stumping and Trumping:  After a weekend spent grievance tweeting against the press, a few former presidents, the Democrats and some governors, while expressing support for Nazi flag carrying, anti-shut down protestors, Trump held a Fox “Townhall” in front of an eerily vacant Lincoln Memorial to tell his base and whoever else listening that all is well because he’s the best at everything.   On the press front, he tweet attacked MSNBC’s Nicole Wallace, the one-time Republican fixture, saying she “was thrown off The View like a dog, Zero T.V. Personas. Now Wallace is a 3rd rate lapdog for Fake News MSDNC (Concast). Doesn’t have what it takes.” Just another example of Trump referring to a prominent woman as a dog.  On his predecessor front, we’re used to him attacking Obama, but this weekend he took on George W Bush, a response to a unifying video that Bush released this weekend.  In that video Bush said "In the final analysis, we are not partisan combatants. We are human beings, equally vulnerable and equally wonderful in the sight of God.  We rise or fall together, and we are determined to rise." Apparently Trump found that message incredibly offensive so he attacked Bush for failing to support him during his impeachment trial the “greatest hoax in American history.”  Trump once again expressed support for the protestors, particularly the ones going after Michigan’s Governor Whitmer, but failed to mention their Nazi propaganda or the use of the tragically iconic Auschwitz “Arbeit Macht Frei” sign at another rally in Chicago because there are good people on both sides?  For her part Dr Debbie Birx, called the protestors and their failure to social distance and/or wear masks “devastatingly worrisome.” As to the state of the union and the fight against COVID 19, keeping with the theme pushed by son in law Kushner, Trump asserted that he was doing a great job, better than anyone else could, and oh by the way, that projection that the mortality rate would be only (!) 60,000, he’s upped it to 100,000 which isn’t surprising since it’s already surpassed 67.000 and anyway, the Washington Post reported over the weekend that the lower number came from a projection model created by Kevin Hassett, who is an economist with no health care training or relevant modeling experience, except of course he values money over life.  It’s not just that he has no epidemiological background, his economic modeling is also almost always way off the mark.  On Sunday, Larry Kudlow, another one of Trump’s economic advisors, denied that Hassett had done any modelling, but since he appeared to have arrived straight from a drinking contest with Judge Jeanine Pirro, his argument was incoherent. By the way, Trump also wants us all to know that no other President has been treated as poorly as him, he said that while sitting in front of the assassinated Lincoln’s memorial of course.  Contradicting the medical experts, he also promised a vaccination by December, dismissing the idea that rushing one out could be dangerous because those human guinea pigs no what they’re signing up for and then he once again pushed hydroxychloroquine as a cure all saying that it works, that his opponents are saying otherwise only to discredit him. You kind of get the feeling that he owns stock in its manufacturer, or more likely owes a favor or ten to a donor who does.

Bashing Biden:  It appears that the press, most notably the New York Times and MSNBC got out over their skis on this whole Tara Reade accusation against Joe Biden thing.  Though you wouldn’t know it from watching Fox, her story keeps changing.  After Biden asked the Senate archivist to search for and release her complaint against him, she “clarified” that if the complaint is there it wouldn’t mention any sexual harassment.  She also cancelled a planned interview with Fox News’ Chris Wallace, the guy at Fox who you wouldn’t want to talk to if your ducks weren’t in order.  Referring to the records at the University of Delaware, the ones that Biden doesn’t plan to release in part because they do not include personnel files, or so he says, and in part because they were never intended to be released until he leaves the public arena,  Lara Trump, the Trump spokesperson who is also Eric’s wife, said that Biden must be hiding something because if he was innocent he’d want all his records released.  To state the obvious her father in law continues to sit on every record he can, including those Apprentice tapes and the DNA sample that rape accuser E Jean Carroll has requested.  Anyway, I am not sure where this is going, though its notable that even Senator Lindsey Graham says that none of the accusation rings true to him given what he knows about Biden and after her husband, Morning Joe, noted the inconsistencies in Reade’s statements in a weekend tweet, this morning Mika Brzezinski walked back her Friday comments while at the same time pointing out Reade’s history of saying wonderful things about Biden as well as those strange Medium posts she wrote expressing love for Putin.  Its hard for Trump to go on the attack on this but he doesn’t need to, he’s got Fox and the NY Times, which appears to be doing more of its deadly “but her email schtick.”  Notably, Michigan’s Governor Whitmer, a sexual assault survivor, who has far more to deal with right now given that her state’s protestors are hanging out with automatic weapons pointed in her direction, lashed back at CNN’s Jake Tapper, telling him that she’s sick and tired of being asked questions about this stuff, it opens old wounds, and that she remains Team Biden.

Et Cetera:  Apparently Kim Jong un is not dead, unless of course the chubby guy appearing at a North Korea event is one of his doppelgangers.  For his part Trump is really happy that his friend is among the living.  Oddly enough, Trump doesn’t seem at all concerned that North Korea and South Korea exchanged shots over the weekend.  Maybe that’s because he’s too busy attacking China.  Right hand man Pompeo claims he’s seen proof that the coronavirus came from a Wuhan lab even though US intelligence agencies haven’t confirmed that.  On the intelligence front Trump asserts he has proof he wasn’t really told much about the virus heading our way in any of those January briefings, which probably means that he was but didn’t get it or didn’t care because the economy comes first when it comes to his reelection.  On the health preparedness front, late Friday Trump announced plans to replace Christi Grimm, the acting Health Department Inspector General who released that report detailing shortages of testing and personal protective equipment in hospitals because that’s what Trump does, especially late on Friday nights.  Anyway, Kushner continues to insist that all of the Governors, including those in those opening mostly red states with climbing virus statistics but inadequate hospital space, have all the test kits they need though they don’t.  Seven states, including New York, are now teaming up to source their own equipment, a recognition that they have to get things done on their own, one made much more challenging given the message coming from economic advisors Hastert and Kudlow, one that is similar to the one from Senate Leader McConnell, that there will no more money forthcoming especially to blue states.  Lastly, both McConnell and Speaker Pelosi have refused an offer from HHS Secretary Azar for those fast testing machines to test senators and representatives saying that any extra machines should go to real essential workers.  That said, McConnell is still bringing the Senate back this week because he really wants to see a few more of his judges get confirmed.  Giving that the virus is still on the upswing in the DC metropolitan area, Nancy’s keeping her crowd away for now.         

Stay safe and wear your mask!