Older Americans Month

State of Play:  Yesterday Trump met with another governor, this one Phil Murphy from blue state New Jersey.  I only mention that NJ is blue because it seems to be such a big issue to Trump and Senate Leader McConnell who continue to push the mantra that the reason that states like NY, NJ, and Michigan need federal funding to pay their essential workers and for funding things like education is because they are headed up by big spending Democratic governors who aren’t smart, or something along those lines; that despite the fact that those blue states are typically the funders of red states, most notably McConnell’s Kentucky.  Trump who spent yesterday morning grievance tweeting against the lamestream media once again proclaimed himself the King of Ventilators while applauding himself for doing such a “spectacular job” at solving all the virus problems.  He also said that he doesn’t believe any of the polls that show him shrinking in popularity because no one will really vote for a guy as stupid as Joe Biden over him, the stable genius. Sadly, he may be right about the polls, he was last time out. While he was making nice with Governor Murphy, in Lansing Michigan somewhere around 100 protestors, many without masks but with an assortment of rifles, the kinds of weapons that people are allowed to run around with in open carry Michigan, occupied the state’s capitol building to protest Governor Whitmer’s strict stay at home measures. They were kept at bay by capitol police but a number of state legislators reported that they were so concerned that they donned their bullet proof vests for protection. The state’s Republican led legislature voted to end the stay at home restrictions but the uncowed Governor Whitmer who had loosened some of them earlier reinstated the ones she wants kept in place by executive action  immediately following the vote.  Unlike Trump, her approval numbers remain high in Michigan one of the states most affected by COVID 19. Not surprisingly, Trump hasn’t had much if anything to say about those “good guys” with guns, and how could he, he’s been retweeting liberate Michigan messages for a few weeks now.  By the way Trump wants us to note that nobody feels worse than he does about all of the death and destruction caused by the coronavirus, though it’s not clear if he’s talking about people or “his” economy.  One thing is for certain, he’s very concerned that his poll numbers among the elderly set are going south so he’s declared May “Older American’s Month” because that ought to make the surviving elderly feel better?   

Testing: Though the House won’t be back next week, Mitch McConnell still plans to bring the Senate back, not to work on any stimulus or aid packages but to vote on judges.  He’s doing that even though the Capitol physician says he doesn’t have enough virus tests to test all the Senators before they enter the building, he only has enough to test those with symptoms, and that unlike the White House where Trump and Pence and anyone who gets near them gets tested with those quick result machines, he doesn’t have any of those fifteen minute tests.  In fact, he won’t get the results back from any of the tests he performs for two to seven days. Maybe the Capitol doctor should talk with Maryland’s Governor Hogan, who has his cache of Korean sourced tests squirreled away in a warehouse somewhere, guarded to keep the federal government from stealing them, or with Los Angeles’ Mayor Garcetti who announced yesterday that he’ll be making tests available for free to everyone in his city who wants one.  The average age of the senators is 61 placing them in the vulnerable category but what the heck, risking the loss of one or two to get some right wing ideologues seated on Federal courts for life is worth it, or at least it is to McConnell, odd because he’s hardly the picture of health himself.  That seems to be a theme among many Republicans, a lot of states, mostly led by Republican governors will begin reopening today, though none have passed those opening criteria recommended by the White House’s Coronavirus team.  For the record virus guru Dr Fauci remains very concerned about that, as should we. The modelers are too, they keep raising their mortality projections.  On a more positive note, Fauci seems a bit more optimistic that a vaccination will be available by January, though he cautions that a lot of things have to go right for that to happen and we know how things always go right in this administration.

And More!  The office of the Director of National intelligence released a statement yesterday expressing confidence that the virus was not man made or genetically modified but saying that they don’t yet know if it was the result of an accidental release from a Wuhan China virus lab or a “natural” transfer to humans from a Chinese wet market.  Of course Trump contradicted their statement, asking John Roberts, a reporter from Fox to identify who specifically said that and then implying that he’s knows more. Trump also acknowledged that he might have gotten a briefing or two about the virus in January from the intelligence community, but then said that if he did he doesn’t remember.  And he calls Joe Biden stupid and sleepy?  On the Joe Biden front, the former VP is scheduled to address the sexual allegation against him by Tara Reade this morning on MSNBC’s Morning Joe.  As I am writing, MSNBC is going through all the accuser’s shifting allegations as well as a list of all those accusations against Trump. Tune in, probably at 8 AM, for more but spoiler alert it’s fair to assume that Biden will stick with his denial and interestingly enough Trump, who says that he knows a thing or two about false allegations, says that Biden could be telling the truth though his campaign apparatus seems to be pushing the allegation against Biden as much as they can, saying if was fair to go against Justice Kavanaugh it’s fair to attack Biden. I don't know about you but I can't take any more of this, any of it. #Sigh