Let Freedom Ring

The Day That Was:  Yesterday was about as Trumpian as it gets. The day began with the  release of awful, horrible economic data which was quickly followed by the distraction of all distraction Trump tweets, the death of a prominent Trump supporter, the celebration of the life of an American hero, another lie filled Trump press conference and ended with the release of some of the much awaited Ghislaine Maxwell deposition.  In between, Senate Majority leader McConnell sent his crowd home for the weekend without reaching agreement on the next coronavirus relief package, the DC Appeals Court agreed to take up the Flynn matter, and the hearing for a Trump Defense nominee who hates Muslims and once called Obama a terrorist was cancelled.  Oh, and that virus, it’s still out of control.  On the economic data front,  The GDP fell 9.5%, the equivalent of a 32.9% annual rate of decline, in the second quarter as people stopped spending, businesses cut back on investments and global trade went kaput.  The drop would have been even worse without the aid provided to individuals and businesses, one of the key reasons that the failure to agree to the next package is such a bigly problem.  So much for that V shaped recovery that Trump and his economic advisors have promised would be upon us before the election.  Trump, who’s been relying on his economic “prowess” to bring back those voters who’ve had it with his virus performance and who aren’t all that impressed by his race baiting or LAW & ORDER theme, reached into his bag of evil tricks and pulled out one of his long term favorites, the election fraud myth, and tweeted  "With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history. It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???"  Even though Trump doesn’t have the authority to postpone the election and elections have been held during wars and other times of national emergency, that tweet sent shivers down everyone spines. Pushback rolled in all day from many Republican legislators not just Mitt Romney, but several governors, Senators, House leaders, Mitch McConnell and even the co-founder of the generally supportive conservative Federalist Society who called the tweet grounds for another impeachment.  Even the Wall Street Journal criticized him, though they couldn’t resist the opportunity to call for Democrats to clean up their act with regard to mail in ballots.  Nevertheless, Trump doubled down again during his afternoon press conference.  By the way a mail-in ballot is a mail-in ballot whether it comes from a state with a universal mail-in policy or from millions of people  voting via absentee ballot but Trump wants everyone to think that there is a distinction.  He also wants enough people to believe that if the election isn’t settled within a day of November 3 that its not fair and that he gets to be president for life which explains why his newly appointed Postal Chief has been slowing mail down and also why he’s doing his best to cut post office funding.

Good Trouble:  Civil Rights icon John Lewis, who fought for voting rights his entire life, must have anticipated Trump’s antics.  Days before he died he gave the NY Times an op ed message to print on the day of his funeral, one where he reminded us that we have to take action to maintain and improve our Democracy. Yesterday during his funeral, three former presidents George W Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama spoke and while all of the speeches showed up Trump’s inadequacies it was Obama’s speech that was hard hitting.  He took Lewis’ message and hammered  Trump and the Republicans with it, calling the filibuster a Jim Crow relic, pushing for election day to be a national holiday, calling for Puerto Rico and DC statehood, and generally dissing all things Trump without ever mentioning his name. Trump of course, who was not there, made no mention of Lewis but during his afternoon press conference, the one that was scheduled as Obama was speaking, did mention the death of his good buddy Herman Cain, the one-time presidential candidate/pizza executive, that’s the death that he attributed to the “China” virus, while failing to mention that the unmasked Cain caught COVID at the now infamous crowded Tulsa Rally.  Trump even expressed just a teeny tiny amount of sadness about the other 150,000 people who’ve died from the virus, but then of course reminded everyone that were it not for him and his superb handling of the “China” virus millions more would be dead by now, he did that while again insisting that despite daily death counts reaching new highs and another increase in the projection of the number of people who will fall to the virus by year end that everything is getting much better.  As to that superb handling, while Trump claimed that kids are going to be fine in school and that cures and vaccines were right around the corner, Vanity Fair published an article about how Jared Kushner’s secret plan for wide spread testing went “poof into the air” in part because he and the people that he surrounded himself  with weren’t capable of rolling out such an ambitious plan and in part because Trump and his advisors decided that since the virus was at that time only killing people in blue states, there was no need for widespread testing.  Yes, you got that right, old people, minorities and blue state residents dying, who really cares about that?

Still More: When we last left the Michael Flynn affair, the one-time national security advisor’s fate was in the hands of Judge Emmet Sullivan who was resisting the AG Barr led Justice Department’s efforts to have the charges that he had already admitted to dropped.  Yesterday, providing an indication that Judge Sullivan’s efforts aren’t for naught, the DC Circuit Court vacated its earlier 2-1 decision that ordered Sullivan to listen to Justice and dismiss the charges against Flynn, sending the case to be reheard by the full court.  The bottom line, Flynn is not off the hook yet, he may still need that Trump pardon.  Vice President Pence was involved in a bus accident that no one noticed because of everything else that was going on and late last night the first tranche of Jeff Epstein co-conspirator Ghislaine Maxwell’s secret depositions were released.  Suffice it to say that Trump lawyer Alan Dershowitz has a lot of explaining to do and it would be fair to ask Trump again why Mar a Lago was hiring underage girls for age inappropriate jobs.  And taking another page from the Putin book, apparently the Department of Homeland Security is going after the press, saying that they’re fair game since so many protestors are claiming to be members of the press or something like that.  In addition it turns out that DHS has been compiling “intelligence reports” about the work of American journalists covering the Portland protests, something that “current and former officials called an alarming use of a government system meant to share information about suspected terrorists and violent actors.”  Another pointer that Trump got from Putin?  And proving that Putin isn’t the only autocrat that Trump takes pointers from, this morning with the “support” of the Chinese government, Hong Kong’s puppet Leader Carrie Lam announced that the government would postpone legislative elections by one year, blaming the postponement on the worsening coronavirus outbreak. 

Take a deep breath, enjoy the weekend and #WearAMask  

The Mask Did It

Viral Musings:  Yesterday US COVID mortality crossed the 150,000 mark and the virus took the lives of 1400 people, more than any other day since May, yet Trump who “reported” to be taking the virus stuff more seriously and who has lately been paying lip service to face masking attended a Texas fund raiser without one.  That’s particularly stupid  given that Representative Louis Gohmert, one of the most awful members of the Tea Party loon squad tested positive moments before he was to join Trump on Air Force One for the flight to Texas.  Gohmert, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, didn’t wear a mask for much of Tuesday’s AG Barr hearing, and though he blames his COVID infection on those few times that he did wear a mask, mostly he doesn’t wear one.  Reports are that the unmasked Barr who was seen entering the hearing alongside the garrulous aerosol spreading Gohmert rushed to get tested with one of those quickie tests yesterday; though his results came back negative, at this point it’s too early for the results to have any meaning, he’ll have to be tested again and probably will be because he has access to all the tests that most others don’t.  A number of other Republicans who came into contact with Gohmert, are now freaking out and at least one of them, 77 year old Congresswoman Kay Granger, who sat next to Gohmert on a recent flight from Texas is now self-quarantining.  Last night, Gohmert told Fox that he’s downing hydroxychloroquine tablets, the drug that Trump touts regularly despite those daily reminders from virus guru Fauci and former FDA head Scott Gottlieb, among other real doctors, that the drug doesn’t cure or prevent COVID.  He’s probably also swilling Lysol because, well you know why.  In a rational world Gohmert would be holed up in his basement but since he’s one of those members of Congress who doesn’t have a Washington DC pad, he’s in his office, which serves as his home when he’s in DC.  That’s the office that he called all of his staff to yesterday to inform them about his infection, of course he only told them after his test results were first leaked by Politico.  Would it surprise anyone to know that Gohmert ridicules staff members when they don masks so none of them had on face coverings as they crowded around him to hear the news?  If Gohmert is a super spreader, there will be a lot more infected people shortly.  Gohmert isn’t the only member of the contingent that was supposed to join Trump in Texas who tested positive; Wesley Hunt, one of the Republicans’ few Black candidates for the House had to cancel after receiving positive test results, he’s now in quarantine. Last night Speaker Pelosi, who previously had only “recommended” face coverings to avoid loud pushback from and juvenile actions by the usual cretins announced that masks are now mandatory in the halls of Congress.  

Trump Tidings: For his part Trump had a productive day.  Failing at virus suppression and with no new coronavirus stimulus legislation to announce, he went full in on racial dog-whistling, only unlike a dog whistle he’s said the racist stuff out loud for all to hear, particularly those people in the suburbs that he’s trying to lure back into the fold.  He did that by rescinding Obama-era fair housing rules, tweeting “I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood.”  Hardly subtle but totally in character given that he and his father Fred got into trouble for that kind of thing back when Trump was just the lackey son of a Queens New York real estate guy.   Trump also announced that his much promised withdrawal of 12000 US troops from Germany was moving forward, tweeting “Germany pays Russia billions of dollars a year for energy and we are supposed to protect Germany from Russia, What’s that all about. Also Germany is very delinquent in their 2% fee to NATO therefore we are moving some troops out of Germany!”  Clearly, while Trump admitted to never having discussed those bounties that Putin placed on our troops in Afghanistan with Vlad, their calls have  been very productive for Putin.  Getting troops out of German is tops on his wish list.  By the way, there is no 2% NATO fee, that 2% figure is the amount of GDP that NATO members are supposed to try to pay for their own defense by 2024, Trump may actually know that but he figures he gets more bang for his tweets if he sticks with the delinquency assertion.  Anyway a number of members of Congress from both houses and from both sides of the aisle are not happy with the troop withdrawal but how often does that really stop Trump from doing what he wants?  He’s continues to finagle with the census and the Supreme Court’s decision that he’s supposed to leave DACA alone hasn’t influenced his behavior.  Though current DACA beneficiaries are being allowed to update their papers, his immigration guys are refusing to accept new applications. Similarly despite a Judge’s ruling that migrant children being held in coronavirus infected camps must be released, Trump’s immigration guys keep stalling.  And of course, he’s doing his best to screw up postal delivery in order to make absentee ballot voting less viable.

Et Cetera:  No one is happy with Mitch McConnell and the Republican’s version of coronavirus stimulus legislation.  A portion of the Republican Senate contingent doesn’t want to provide any additional relief, another portion, particularly those up for reelection in purple states, wants to provide more relief.  House Democrats, who finished their version of the legislation weeks ago want to stick with the $600 federal unemployment relief payments, Republicans want to chop it down to $200 at best and as a result, absent a continuation of some sort the payment will expire by weekend. If you think the economy is bad now wait until the recipients of those payments don’t have money for food or rent.  In other news, the release of Epstein facilitator Ghislaine Maxwell’s documents are getting closer.  Last night a judge ruled that some of them should be released this morning while also  giving her lawyers time to appeal over the release of some others. Though this morning’s release may now also be on hold, those documents are likely to be released soon.  Some important people are going to be very unhappy. Although Trump asserted yesterday that federal troops would remain in Portland, Oregon forever, yesterday after negotiations with local officials they agreed to leave though more tear gas got lobbed at demonstrators last night so who knows what’s really happening.   The Notorious RBG had a minor surgical procedure to deal with the stent that caused the infection that sent her to the hospital two weeks ago.  She’s now reported to be resting comfortably at a NY Hospital.  Stay strong Ruthie!

Nobody Likes Me

Times of Your Life: The biggest story of the day should have been about Attorney General Barr’s House testimony but then Trump held a news conferences to announce a deal for NYS based photo company Kodak to domestically produce much needed ingredients used in the manufacturing of generic drugs.  Funded by the Defense Production Act, the Kodak investment, worked on with NY’s State Governor Cuomo, is a good thing but Trump couldn’t stop there so he again stuck his foot in his mouth.  Among other things he went off on his ventilator tangent and claimed that things are looking up as lots of parts of the country are already rid of COVID, if only that were true.  He complained that people liked his scientists, Dr Debby but mostly virus guru Fauci, better than him, lamenting that Fauci has a higher approval rating than he does saying that “Nobody likes me. It could only be my personality. I don’t know.”  A rare moment of self-awareness that was quickly undone when in response to a question from CNN report Kaitlin Collins who pointed out that Stella Immanuel the woman he had said was a “great doctor” in that video that he had retweeted Monday night had said that masks don't work and that there's a cure for COVID-19 and that she’s also made videos saying that doctors make medicine using DNA from aliens and that they're trying to make a vaccine to make you immune from becoming religious.”  Trump responded to Collins by defending Immanuel and hydroxychloroquine, saying that “I can tell you this she was on air with many other doctors. They were big fans of hydroxychloroquine. And I thought she was very impressive in the sense that where she came — I don't know what country she comes from — but she's said that she's had tremendous success with hundreds of different patients. And I thought her voice was an important voice, but I know nothing about her." Dr Immanuel is Black and from Cameroon, and we know how Trump loves to point out his few Black friends.  Then when Collins tried to ask him a follow up question perhaps about  Dr Immanuel’s belief that the government is run by lizard people and her weird thoughts on demon sperm, Trump quickly left the room putting an end to his Kodak Moment. So much for turning the corner towards sanity.  By the way, one of Trump’s other Black friends, one time presidential candidate Herman Cain, is still in a hospital ICU where his lungs according to his spokespeople are being “re-strengthened” whatever that means.  Cain is suffering from the coronavirus that he caught in Tulsa during Trump’s last rally, but Trump hasn’t had much to say about him lately.

Barr Time:  The Barr testimony got off to a late and bad start.  First it was delayed because Chairman Nadler was involved in a car accident on his way in from New York, then it went further off the rails when Ranking Member Jim “Gym” Jordan ran a video including reports from various members of the mainstream media, i.e. the liberal press, mashed together with violent scenes from several cities including Portland and Atlanta.  Of course, Jordan’s mash-up cut off relevant parts of each reporter’s comments, the parts where they said that though the demonstrations had been largely peaceful they had in some cases turned violent.  The unjacketed and frequently unmasked Jordan failed to notify the Judiciary Committee in advance of his plans to show the inflammatory video, but shock, of course, was the point.  For his part Barr came off about as expected. He defended Trump, asserted that all of his decisions to fire US Attorneys, undo sentencing recommendations and to discredit the Russia investigation were his own, hinted that he’ll be releasing that promised Obama/Biden damning Durham investigation right before the election because rules against doing that don’t pertain to him and that he never discussed doing any of this stuff with Trump, an assertion that no one really believes.  He tipped his partisan hand by cribbing a few lines from the Trump playbook, when in response to a question about Trump’s handling of the coronavirus pandemic, he said that Trump was doing a great job, blaming Obama and Biden for leaving Trump with inadequate testing capability or supplies of PPE.  For their part the Democratic interrogators got off to a weak start, the more senior members of the committee are just not all that good at asking questions but as the session wore on, and the more junior members, those with more prosecutorial backgrounds took over, the questions were more probing and Barr actually appeared to be ready to jump out of his skin in frustration.  Particular kudos go to Eric Swalwell, Ted Lieu, and Jamie Raskin who all seemed to have a better grasp of constitutional law than Barr, Val Demings who clearly knows more about good policing and Cedric Richmond who pointed out Barr’s obvious failings with regard to understanding racial disparity.  For their part the Republicans all towed their party line, going with the violence comes to America theme, blaming everything on those antifa agitators, agreeing that the Russian investigation was a nasty hoax perpetrated against the heroic Trump and insisting that each and every police action, no matter how inappropriate was totally fine.  Barr ate that up as it was a whole lot easier than fighting with Democrats over what constituted tear gas or why Paul Manafort, who didn’t fit any of the Justice Department’s criteria for release to home confinement was out of jail while countless Black inmates convicted of lesser crimes had been left to rot in coronavirus infested penitentiaries.  Disturbingly Barr had to be pressured before finally agreeing that presidents and presidential candidates shouldn’t accept aid from foreign government and though he said that he would leave his AG office if Trump clearly lost the election, note the clearly part, he stuck with his earlier assertion that foreign governments like China, his and Trump’s enemy du jour could easily tamper with millions of those horrible absentee ballots, an assertion widely disputed by election officials.  Barr, who apparently suffers from memory loss, or at least selective memory loss, appears to have forgotten that he’s voted by absentee ballot several times and somehow or other is also totally unfamiliar with all of Trump’s tweets, particularly the really inconvenient ones.  

         

One More Thing:  In an interview with Axios’ Jonathan Swan Trump admitted that though he’s spoken with Putin around eight ties since learning of the bounties taken out by the wily Russian against US troops in Afghanistan he hasn’t bought the subject up because he doesn’t believe the reports as “many people say that it’s just fake news” and anyway Vlad would never do anything like that to him, his BFF

Baseball Cards

   Viral Musings:  Yesterday Trump went to North Carolina, a state he won in 2016 but where he and incumbent Republican Senator Thom Tillis are now underwater.  While there he visited a plant involved in manufacturing vaccine components and announced that “multiple treatments and vaccines for COVID-19 are already approaching their final trial phases” more than implying that because of the "tremendous progress” being made on his watch, victory over COVID was imminent.  Don’t count on it. In the same vein, later in the day he retweeted a slew of posts praising the much disputed hydroxychloroquine, including a video from a quack doctor who asserts that the anti-malaria drug is a cure for the virus, in that same video the so-called doctor told people that mask wearing was so unnecessary. And then, further proving that he hasn’t turned any pages despite all those observations from gullible press reporters that he’s now taking the virus more seriously, Trump also retweeted another post that slammed virus guru Fauci for misleading the country by dismissing hydroxychloroquine while supporting Remdesivir. Both Facebook and Twitter took down the quack doctor’s tweets citing them as misinformation, unfortunately by then with Trump’s help they had been seen by millions of people. On the Fauci front, he’s the reason that Trump claimed that he would be throwing out the first ball at an upcoming Yankee home game, apparently temperamental Trump was peeved that Fauci had gotten so much attention for his toss.  Trump’s claim that he would be doing the Yankee throw, surprised both the Yankees and the White House which probably explains why the White House press office then issued a statement saying that Trump has had to change his plans, the ones he never had, because he’s too busy dealing with the virus.  By the way, after Fauci threw his ball, the one that missed its mark, not that anyway cared, Topps issued a special, limited edition baseball card that set an all-time sales record.  We should all savor Fauci’s throw because the way things are going it could turn out to be the highlight of the baseball season, yesterday 12 Marlin players and 2 staff members tested COVID positive, putting the already abbreviated baseball season and possibly even football hopes into jeopardy.  And they’re not the only ones, Trump’s National Security Advisor Robert O’Brien also revealed that he’s tested positive as well.  That came as a surprise to a number of people who work with O’Brien as they had not been told, but Trump who clearly knew said that he wasn’t concerned because he could not remember the last time that he’d met with his national security advisor, yeah right.  By the way, if that many team members and a White House advisor, all of whom are tested every couple of days with rapid results testing equipment, could come up positive, what does that say about fully opening schools?

            

    Lack of Civility:  In other news, Trump who sent out a relatively long tweet eulogizing long time TV host Regis Philbin but barely acknowledged the passing of civil rights icon John Lewis, announced that he would not be going to the Capitol to pay his respects to Lewis, not surprising but still petty and tone deaf.  Joe Biden and his wife did, notable since according to Trump he’s suffering from advanced dementia and bunkered down in his Delaware basement. As expected the Republican version of the next coronavirus stimulus package slashed unemployment payments.  Less expected, at least to Majority Leader McConnell, the package also includes $1.75 billion for a downtown FBI building, that’s the building that  Trump wants built downtown so that a competing hotel, one that would pay taxes into Washington DC’s much needed coffers, doesn’t move into the spot near his hotel.  McConnell wants us all to believe that the FBI item was snuck into the legislation despite his objections. The proposed legislation also boosts deductions for business lunches and the like, because that’s the problem right now?  Anyway, the legislation is just a starting point for negotiations with the Democrats so it’s not worth detailing. 

Barr Speaks:  Attorney General Barr is due to testify today in front of the House Judiciary Committee.  Though his appearance has been long sought and the fact that he actually plans to show up is surprising, don’t expect him to say much as he’s unfortunately all too skilled as saying little while coming as close as possible and even crossing the line into committing perjury, not that he’s yet suffered the consequences for that.  In his already distributed prepared remarks in which he complains that since he announced his investigation into what he calls the “grave abuses involved in the bogus Russiagate scandal, many of the Democrats have attempted to discredit him” by “conjuring up a narrative” that he’s simply Trump’s “factotum who disposes of criminal cases according to his instructions.”  He then goes on to say that all the times that he pushed for Trump’s cronies to be let off the hook for their crimes, its because he really truly feels that they were too harshly treated for crimes they probably really didn’t do.  He also hammers all the protestors saying they’re just overreacting to that racial injustice stuff that really isn’t.   As to those demonstrators, the ones that were gassed in DC’s Lafayette Square to make room for Trump’s photo op,  Adam  DeMarco, an Iraq veteran who now serves as a major in the DC National Guard, is casting doubt on claims that violence by protesters spurred Park Police to clear the area at that time with unusually aggressive tactics. DeMarco says that “demonstrators were behaving peacefully” and that tear gas was deployed in an “excessive use of force.” DeMarco is scheduled to testify to that effect today in front of the House Natural Resources Committee.  Trump tweets incoming shortly?

Pick Two or More

Musings: Another weekend of virus, violence, and memorials, the sad new normal of 2020.  Trump is promoting unrest, something that he is depressingly good at. The situation in Portland continues to deteriorate, spreading to cities across the country, but while stoking hate is his thing, Trump is less good at wall building, a section of his wall, his only infrastructure accomplishment, fell down over the weekend, destroyed by Hurricane Hanna.  Senate Republicans spent the weekend finalizing their version of the next coronavirus stimulus package, one they negotiated with Trump and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin but one that is a non-starter with the Democrats who so far have been kept out of the loop. On the virus front, over the weekend Dr Debby stated the obvious, that there are now three NY like hotspots: Florida, Texas and  California. Virus guru Fauci continues to be slammed for speaking truth about the virus’ trajectory, though right of even Fox TV network Sinclair Broadcasting has postponed for now plans to show an expose’ attributing the creation of the virus to Fauci.  The never right about anything economic advisor Larry Kudlow insists that despite the importance of Florida, Texas and California to the country’s economy things are humming along nicely and are on the upswing. Trump who spent his weekend engaging in his favorite activities, golf, fund raising, and mean tweeting, wants us all to believe that as much as he really wants to, he no longer plans to throw the first pitch at the Yankee’s home opener because he’ll be too busy attending to the virus. And sadly, John Lewis traveled over the Edmond Pettus bridge for the last time, but maybe, just maybe at some point that bridge like the next Voting Rights Bill will be renamed the John Lewis Bridge in his memory.

Politicking: Trump continues to sink in the polls but we all know by now that polls aren’t always accurate and that Trump will do his best to disrupt the electoral process every which way he can, whether that’s by questioning its legitimacy, disparaging mail-in ballots, stripping funds from the US Postal Service or whatever else he can possibly get away with.  That said the November election is about more than the presidency, it’s also about taking back the Senate so with the election now less than 100 days away, even less in early voting states, I thought it would be a good time to focus on some Senate races, so here goes.

Democrats:  Twelve Democratic seats are up in November.  Ten of them are in solidly blue states. One is in a likely blue state and one is in totally red Alabama.  The likely blue state is Michigan where early in the cycle Republicans thought they’d be able to pick off incumbent Senator Gary Peters, however with Trump lagging in Michigan’s polls it looks likely that Peters will hold his seat.  On the Alabama front, Doug Jones, the newbie Senator who beat child molester Judge Roy Moore remains very vulnerable given that Alabama remains a Trump stronghold.  That said, Jones’ Republican opponent, former football coach Tommy Tuberville, has a checkered past that includes part ownership in a fraud ridden hedge fund and possibly some overlooked until now history ignoring sexual harassment during his coaching career so it’s too early to write Jones off.

Republicans: Twenty-three Republican seats are up in November and this is where things get very interesting.  Putting aside the ten shoe-ins, thirteen of these seats are worth focusing on:

Arizona:  Former Astronaut/Gabby Giffords husband John Kelly is expected to demolish Martha McSally, the Senator who was appointed to take over John McCain’s seat.  He’s well-funded, suitably moderate for the state and McSally, by virtue of her loss in 2018, has already proven that she’s not a good candidate.  

Colorado:  Though he faced some criticism during his Democratic primary campaign, former Governor/one time presidential candidate John Hickenlooper is likely to prevail over Senator Cory Gardner. He’s another one who is polling well in the increasingly blue state.

Maine:  Sara Gideon, the Speaker of the Maine House of Representatives is giving Maine’s notorious pearl clutcher Susan Collins her first major challenge.  Gideon is well regarded and, as a result of all the money that started flowing into Maine after Collins voted for “I like beer” Justice Kavanaugh, is well funded but don’t count Collins out, she’s rolling in Republican dough, the reward that was sent her way for supporting Kavanaugh.

North Carolina:  Democrat Cal Cunningham, a former state senator, is challenging incumbent Thom Tillis in another one of those states that is starting to tilt blue. Cunningham is currently leading in the polls, but not by much and this race, which is a key one for Democrats, is still considered a toss-up.

Georgia:  There are two seats up for grabs in Georgia this cycle.   Democrat Jon Ossoff is looking to unseat Senator David Perdue. Georgia is one of those states that everyone thinks might turn blue someday but with the help of voter suppression that someday isn’t necessarily right around the corner.  Ossoff, whose doctor wife, was just diagnosed as COVID positive is temporarily sidelined awaiting his own test result.  He’s still campaigning but doing it from home where he’s self-quarantining. That said, he’s viewed as a viable candidate who could win against Perdue if Biden pulls off a blue wave. Georgia’s other Senate election is a bit unusual, incumbent Senator Kelly Loeffler, the controversial insider trading accused newbie who was appointed to serve out the rest of Republican Senator Johnny Isaakson’s term after he stepped down due to sickness is running in a special election that, though it takes place on November 3, is subject to a different set of rules, the winner needs to gain at least 50% of the vote to go on to the Senate.  Loeffler is up against a few fellow Republicans, including Congressman Doug Collins, as well as a number of Democrats so there is likely to be a run off in January and that runoff could be between two Republicans.  

Iowa:  Democrat Theresa Greenfield is challenging Republican incumbent, one time Republican darling Joni Ernst.  Ernst has remained a loyal Trump supplicant, if he goes down, she is likely to go with him.  Right now this is viewed as a toss-up race.

Montana: Outgoing Democratic Governor/one time presidential candidate Steve Bullock who is very popular in Montana is running against incumbent Republican Senator Steve Daines not because he really wants to be a Senator but because the Democrats begged him to run.  Montana is one of those states that was all in for Trump in 2016 and where he remains popular however, given how well liked Bullock is in the state this is another, albeit, unlikely toss-up election.

South Carolina:  Democratic candidate Jaime Harrison is challenging long term South Carolina Senator/Trump bestie Lindsey Graham.  The charismatic Harrison graduated from Yale and Georgetown Law and worked for South Carolina Congressman/ kingmaker Jim Clyburn.  He’s another one of those candidates who given South Carolina’s tilt towards Trump shouldn’t stand much of a chance but he is outperforming in both fund raising and the polls and is likely to benefit from Black voter activism so he’s giving Graham a well-deserved hard time.

Texas:  Democratic Candidate/Air Force veteran MJ Hegar just won the primary to challenge incumbent Republican John Cornyn in Texas, another one of those states that everyone hopes will turn blue but that so far hasn’t.  She is not as well known as Beto O’Rourke and John Cornyn is not as well hated as Ted Cruz but Biden is polling surprising well in Texas so Republicans are a bit nervous, so much so that Trump has reallocated campaign spending to the state.  So don’t count Hegar out yet.

Kentucky:  Former Marine Pilot Amy McGrath is challenging incumbent Senator Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.  McConnell isn’t much liked in Kentucky or anywhere else for that matter and McGrath has proven herself to be a great fundraiser, though not a great candidate, she almost lost the Democratic primary.  Although McConnell is likely to prevail, McGrath is causing him agita and causing him to have to spend more time and money running than he thought would be necessary especially given that Kentucky is another state that loves Trump.  Given how rich McConnell and his wife Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao are, the money part isn’t a problem for him but boy would it be nice to see him struggle and maybe even lose.   

Alaska:  Dr. Al Gross, an Independent with support from Democrats is challenging Republican incumbent Dan Sullivan.  This is another one of those races that should be firmly in the Republican court but that is now considered a possible, though remote, Democratic pick up.  As Lisa Murkowski proved last time she ran, Alaska has been known to vote for Independents and Dr Gross, who is focusing on health care, an important issue in Alaska, could be a sleeper candidate.     

Kansas:  The Kansas primary takes place in early August.  Republican Senator Pat Roberts is not running for reelection.  If immigration hardliner Kris Kobach wins the Republican nomination than Kansas will be in play, if the Republicans go with a more normal, or at least a more normal for Republicans candidate, Kansas will remain solidly in the red court. More to come on this race in August.      

Hawaii Senator Brian Schatz, one of my favorite twitter masters, recommends that we all pick at least two Democratic Senatorial candidates to support.  He’s right, because winning the Senate is key, especially if you don’t want to see the Supreme Court slip away.  So listen to Schatz, pick two or pick them all.  Small contributions, big ones whatever suits you.  Hit the Actblue.com website.

The Housewives of Suburbia

Viral Musings:  Another day, another virus news conference.  This time the scarf mistress Dr Debby was present but muzzled.  Former Yankee reliever Mariano Rivera was there too, well actually he was hanging at the White House for a Little League event but Trump needed another prop so he had him sit in on the virus presentation.  That’s the virus presentation where Trump said nothing useful but did show a map of the country with all those not so little hotspots in the west and south highlighted, the little hotspots that have propelled the country over the 4 million and counting COVID infection rate.  He launched into another one of his speeches about the importance of getting kids back to school full time and again threatened to redirect funding away from any schools that don’t fully reopen to Betsy DeVos style private, religious academies, though he did appear to understand that school openings in those hotspots, mostly in states that reopened too soon because he urged them to do so, might have to be delayed a bit and by bit think until next year.  Notably Trump failed to mention that his son Barron’s tony private school isn’t planning to fully reopen and is instead deciding between a hybrid part time plan and a fully online program but he did reference the CDC’s new school guidelines, as in the amended watered down pamphlet that now pushes full reopenings at the expense of children’s health because that’s the way he wants it. The amended CDC guidelines conveniently omit any reference to recent studies indicating that children over ten shed virus like adults and also don’t appear to be all that worried about the health of teachers.  That’s the CDC that used to serve as the model of excellence for disease control agencies worldwide, with an emphasis on the used to, pre-Trump.  

Getting back to those southern hotspots, Trump finally admitted that holding the Republican convention in Jacksonville, Florida would be a bigly problem, because of the virus but mostly because no one wanted to attend, and announced the cancellation of all his Jacksonville events.  Remember when he made fun of the Democrats for deciding to hold a virtual convention and when he subjected North Carolina’s Democratic Governor Roy Cooper to unending criticism for his refusal to agree to lift virus protocols to facilitate a huge Republican affair, now the only parts of the Republican convention that will go forward in person will take place in Charlotte subject to local virus rules, the rest of it, including all those lock him/her up speeches will be virtual.  Trump also mentioned that he’d spent some time phone kibitzing and commiserating about the virus with his besties Vladimir and MBS, which probably means he was getting tips on protestor suppression techniques. During the limited Q & A that followed his remarks, he made sure to stay away from any reporters who might ask about that and about whether he discussed Russian bounties.  Spoiler alert, according to the read out provided by the Russians, he did not ask about or push back against those bounties. Getting back to baseball, perhaps because Virus Guru Fauci who was not at the news conference had been tapped to throw the ball out at yesterday’s opening day game between the Washington Nationals and the NY Yankees, Trump mentioned that he’d be throwing out the ball at the Yankees first home game.  Two things on that, first he would never do that in front of a live NY crowd because he knows he’d be mercilessly booed and second, he probably won’t do it anyway because all the players at yesterday’s game took a knee at the start, a gesture that Trump once again said he wouldn’t tolerate. 

Justice:  Michael Cohen is due to be released from prison again later today following a ruling by a New York Federal Judge that his reincarceration had amounted to retaliation by the government intended to prevent him from engaging with the media and writing a tell all book about Trump. Think about that, Trump who got his convicted campaign manager Paul Manafort an early release, commuted his friend Roger Stone’s sentence so that he never even went to prison and had his Justice Department drop, or at least try to drop, the charges against admitted liar Michael Flynn was just accused by a Federal judge of retaliating against the one former crony who turned on him.  In a separate case, after admitting to the court that they had made misstatements about New York State’s policies to justify excluding New York residents from the Global Entry trusted traveler program, the Department of Homeland Security agreed to reinstate NYS residents back into the program, not that any countries will let any of us visit right now. In other DHS news, a judge in Oregon barred their so called federal law enforcement officers from arresting or using physical force against journalists and legal observers covering the crowds of nightly protesters in Portland as long as they’re not suspected of committing crimes. No ruling yet from another judge who yesterday heard complaints from the state’s Attorney General about DHS using camouflage-clad, unidentified agents to round up protestors.  Today is Friday, that’s significant because Trump tends to disappear people on Friday nights, particularly US Attorneys and Inspectors General so keep an eye on Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s Inspector General.  Yesterday Horowitz opened an investigation into allegations that DOJ personnel, as in those DHS camouflaged guys, improperly used force in Portland as well as an inquiry into their role in responding to the protests in Washington DC, including the one where tear gas was used to clear the area for Trump’s photo op. And one more thing on the legal front, yesterday the judge overseeing Ghislaine Maxwell’s case ruled in favor of releasing a trove of documents that have been kept under seal.  Though the judge has given Maxwell’s lawyers one week to appeal, she wants the documents ready to go.  A lot of prominent people, including possibly even Trump who earlier this week wished Maxwell well, may be very distressed about that.      

Et Cetera:  Earlier in the week, Republican Congressman Ted Yoho called New York Congresswoman a f-cking bitch for no apparent reason other than the fact that he doesn’t like her “radical” politics and also because she’s AOC and he’s not.  Then he kinda, sorta apologized while denying he’d used inappropriate language.  In response she took to the floor yesterday with a ten minute long speech that really made him look very, very small and very, very bad.  Bottom line, don’t mess with AOC and don’t call women you don’t like f-cking bitches or at least don’t do so in front of the press.  You probably shouldn’t refer to suburban women as housewives either; that’s what Trump did in a tweet he sent out warning “the Suburban Housewives of America” that “Biden will destroy your neighborhood and your American Dream,” part of his effort to spur racial division and fear.  The pushback was fast and furious and also a bit funny with many pointing out that that in addition to being a racist Trump is tone deaf and frozen in an earlier era. Speaking about frozen, the next round of virus relief legislation is stuck, Republican Senators are fighting with each other and with Trump.  Though they’ve agreed not to include a payroll tax cut in the package, the Senators have not yet agreed to the amount of or even the continuation of unemployment payments, a problem because those payments are about to expire.  They’re fighting with Trump about including money for a new downtown FBI building in the relief legislation largely because funding the FBI building has nothing to do with coronavirus relief, it’s all about keeping the FBI in DC because Trump doesn’t want their current site sold to a competing hotel developer as the presence of a new, shinier hotel would negatively impact the value of his DC Trump International Hotel and protecting the value of his assets is his top priority. And the Republicanas still haven’t spoken with Democratic Leader Schumer or Speaker Pelosi. Lastly, the Chinese retaliated against our closing of their Houston consulate by closing ours in Chengdu this morning.. Forget about a trade deal, we’re now in the middle of a cold war with China, one that Trump, who continues to sink in the polls in all the swing states, thinks will improve his reelection prospects.   

Stay safe.  #WearAMask

Person. Woman. Man. Camera. TV.

Mental Acuity: Last night during a Fox TV interview, parts of which were shown on Tucker Carlson’s night time show, Trump repeatedly bragged about his ability to remember and repeat a chain of five words as if that accomplishment was indicative of his superior intellectual capability. So with the virus raging and people dying at the rate of 1000 per day, we are at the point in the coronavirus crisis  where the person leading the country thinks that his most notable achievement is his ability to repeat the words “Person, Woman, Man, Camera, TV” during a dementia test.  He is so confident that his achievement, which was neither  remarkable nor worthy of the “extra credit” that he insists he got for it, is so amazing that he wants Joe Biden to be subjected to the same test as he’s so sure that Biden wouldn’t get any of that extra credit and to be fair Biden wouldn’t because the Montreal Cognitive Assessment test that Trump took doesn’t have a provision for extra credit for anyone.  During that same interview Trump once again blamed increased COVID testing for spiking virus levels while also saying, sure wear a mask, it might help. By the way, last week Tucker Carlson was off the air for a few days after his head writer was forced out over racist social media postings that were so over the top that even Fox management couldn’t ignore them and though Tucker is back on the air, he is now named in a really disturbing sexual harassment lawsuit. 

Viral Musings: But I digress, back to Trump, the leader who remains fixated on the results of his dementia test or tests, we really don’t know how many times his doctors have felt compelled to examine him.  Yesterday, Trump held another one of what now may be daily Coronavirus Update press conferences.  The good news for him is that this time around he didn’t wish an accused sex trafficker well.  Instead he talked about how parts of the country, mostly in the south, west and southwest which sounds like most of the country, is experiencing waves of virus that “no one could have anticipated” that is no one, except everyone who’s been calling him out for a lack of a nationwide virus strategy and criticizing him for pushing governors to reopen places like bars, restaurants and schools before achieving his own task force’s staged opening criteria.  As to a strategy, on Tuesday he said that the task force is working on one, five months in and they’re still working on a strategy? How reassuring. Trump defended the absence of either Dr Debby or Virus Guru Fauci by saying that their presence wasn’t necessary because he can deliver their message more concisely.  By concisely he must have meant less accurately, because he then went on to make several claims that were wrong.  For example he insisted that it’s safe to fully open schools because school aged children don’t shed the virus.  That claim flies in the face of recent studies that indicate that middle school and older students shed and transmit the virus at the same rate as adults.  He also spouted something about how we either have or are close to having a cure for COVID, that would be stunning news if true, but sadly it’s not true.  Of course, whenever possible he pivoted back to the economy, the only thing he really cares about, going so far as to assert that there would be new statistics released the week of the November election that would prove that the country is in a full rebound.  Note to all, though a virus cure may not be on the immediate horizon, someone in Trump land may have figured out how to doctor economic indicators.  As to Dr Debbie, perhaps because she was the subject of criticism in a recent NY Times articles, Trump  wants us to know that she’s terrifically stylish because of her superb scarf tying skills. Doesn’t that make you feel better?

Civil War: Trump and his trusty AG Bill Barr are all in on the war against the cities, or at least against Democratic led cities so they’re expanding beyond Portland, planning assaults throughout the country.  And why not, things are going so well in Portland, that last night Department of Homeland Security troops tear gassed the city’s Mayor, Ted Wheeler, who was out talking with and marching with demonstrators.  The Mayor got some pushback from those demonstrators some of whom were calling for him to resign largely because that’s what demonstrators do, but to be clear, he wasn’t in danger until the Federal forces gassed him.  Some of those forces are on their way to Chicago, where Mayor Lori Lightfoot, another one of those Black women that Trump likes to verbally attack whenever possible, said they can help with gun violence but no way will she let them do anything else.  As to that gun violence, which is and has been a big problem in Chicago for some time, Trump and his Federal forces could help by shutting down the supply of illegal guns flowing in from nearby states with loose gun laws, states like Mike Pence’s Indiana, but that’s not going to happen because, let’s face it, the NRA endorsed Trump likes loose gun laws. Though Trump has also cited NYC as another planned destination for Barr’s stormtroopers, Governor Cuomo has apparently gotten a promise that their “visit” isn’t imminent.  Yesterday, attorneys for Oregon were in a federal court asking for a restraining order against the stormtroopers, one that would restrict them from whisking people off the streets without probable cause and would limit them to protecting only federal facilities. It’s not clear how that will turn out but it is clear that Trump with the help of Barr and all those acting heads at Homeland Security really wants to scare the you know what out of all those turning blue suburbanites, pulling them back into the “red’ fold by inspiring fear of marauding left wing Democrats, socialist, and antifa violence doers.  To that end, yesterday Barr bragged that his forces had successfully suppressed violence saying that they had arrested 200 evil doers in Kansas City as part of what is now being called Operation Legend, only to have to walk that back when the press asked for details because only two perps had been arrested, largely because there were only two to arrest.   

Et Cetera:  Ohio’s Former Governor John Kasich, a Republican,  is expected to speak at the Democrat’s “virtual” convention where he will endorse Joe Biden.  Those other Republicans, the ones in the Senate, are closing in on their version of a new coronavirus relief package, one that, despite Trump pushback, will fund some more virus testing and tracking and will provide some funding for education.  It’s still not clear if the plan includes Trump’s payroll tax cut, something that few want.  It’s also not clear if the package includes an extension of all or some of the $600 weekly unemployment supplement which is due to expire at the end of the month or whether that extension will be included in a separate emergency package.  In any case, the Senate plan which isn’t even supported by all of the increasingly fractious Republican contingent will still need to be negotiated with the House, meaning Speaker Pelosi so it’s not done yet.         

Have a good day!   

Getting Worse

Viral Musings:  Trump went for another one of his tone resets yesterday.  He was somber and looked worn out as he provided a virus update. He appeared without any of his experts, virus guru Fauci who during an earlier CNN interview insisted that he wasn’t an alarmist just a realist, wasn’t in the building and Dr Debbie who was at the WH was kept off stage where she was probably twirling another one of her designer scarves.  Trump didn’t say anything we didn’t already know but finally admitted that things on the virus front are going to get worse before they get better and that wearing a mask, though not a mandate, is a good idea.  Of course he again bragged about ventilators, his administration’s one supply accomplishment, but then claimed that everything else needed to fight the virus was in abundant supply despite concerns over dwindling PPE reserves and the lack of adequate testing resources as well as the ever increasing amount of time it takes to get test results, problems that Quest Diagnostics, one of the largest testers warns will get worse as we approach flu season. Though 1000 Americans died yesterday, a number not seen since the NY peak, he also mumbled something about death rates going down due to the younger mix of infected individuals, a variation on his argument that a lot of newly infected people only know they’re infected because of all that unnecessary testing.  By the way, though he bragged about surging testing he is still trying to eliminate testing funds from the next round of emergency aid legislation.  He continued to assert that the US mortality rate is the lowest even though it’s not, while saying that anti-viral Remdesivir and dexamethasone were making everyone way better, they’re both helping but are far from miracle cures.  And of course he complained, about the “empty cupboards” that Obama and Biden left him, the media’s excessive coverage of the virus and how much they ignore that other countries are suffering, again not true.

Well Wishing:  All the virus talk aside, the most notable part of his presentation occurred during the very brief question and answer period when a reporter asked him whether he expected Ghislaine Maxwell, Jeffrey Epstein’s partner in pedophilia, to go public with the names of the powerful men involved in their  sex-trafficking ring.  Trump responded first by saying that he didn’t know, that he hadn’t been following the case too much.  Not all that believable but all things considered a good response but then he went on adding “I just wish her well, frankly. I’ve met her numerous times over the years, especially since I lived in Palm Beach, and I guess they lived in Palm Beach…. But I wish her well, whatever it is.” Who doesn’t wish someone accused of pedophilia well?!  Anyway, that response sounded a lot like both an admission of guilt and a not so subtle message to Maxwell that good things come to those who refrain from implicating him in their crimes.  Don’t be surprised if Roger Stone turns up on her visitation list, who better to reinforce that message than the last person Trump gifted with a get out of jail free card.  By the way, Michael Cohen, who cooperated with prosecutors, is still cooling his heels in solitary confinement, well given the heat wave, he’s probably sweating, a lot.

Civil Wars:  Trump’s alarming war on Democratic cities continues and probably will rage on unless and maybe even after he gets slapped down by a court or two as he appears to be convinced that rounding up graffiti artists and the occasional monument defacer helps his election prospects even in the face of pushback from his own Secretary of Defense, the increasingly outspoken Esper, and ex Pennsylvania Governor/Homeland Security Head Tom Ridge who said it’s not Homeland’s role to act as domestic law enforcement and that it would be a cold day in hell before a personal militia would be allowed in his state. Though Trump’s efforts to have undocumented immigrants excluded from the census were rebuffed by the Supreme Court earlier this year, he’s moved on to plan B.  Yesterday he directed the federal government not to count undocumented immigrants when allocating House districts, a move that goes against precedent, would help Republicans and probably violates the Constitution but that does please his anti-immigrant base.  Court challenges are expected. Though another virus relief package is in the works, the details remain up in the air with Republicans fighting over what should be included, and that’s before they even sit down with Democrats.  Republican Senators, especially those up for reelection are pushing for testing and tracing money,  CDC funding and mostly oppose Trump’s push to cut payroll taxes, a nonstarter for Democrats who want to provide money to the unemployed rather than to those who have jobs.   House Republicans are also engaging in some internal battles, where characters such as the Freedom Caucus’ “Gym” Jordan and Florida’s DUI king Matt Gaetz have been attacking Wyoming’s Liz Cheney, the GOP Conference chair, for having the nerve to support Dr Fauci and for breaking with Trump on a few defense issues.  Apparently her failure to show total fealty to the orange king is a bigly problem for them.  There’s nothing like watching nervous Republicans feed on each other.  And of course because Trump is Trump and at the end of the day everything is about advancing his own business interests, last night the NY Times reported that he “urged” US Ambassador to the UK/Jet’s owner Woody Johnson to get the British government to “steer” the British Golf Open to Trump Turnberry, his financially suffering Scottish golf property.  Lewis Lukens, Johnson’s deputy, a  long term diplomat, who advised Johnson that pursuing Trump’s request would be a bigly ethical lapse was subsequently fired for doing so.  By the way the NY Times reports that despite Lukens’ advice, good old Woody asked the Brits to award the Open to Trump’s resort but that his request was ignored.

Wall of Moms

Tune in at 5: There were around 65,000 new Covid cases yesterday and 500 new deaths but that’s not why Trump has decided to start modeling face masking; he’s decided to do so because of White House polling showing mass disapproval for his handling of the virus.  Similarly, in order to convince us that he really is micromanaging the virus fight even though we all know he’s moved on to attacking Democratic cities and forcing kids back into schools, he’ll be bringing back his daily coronavirus press conference series starting this evening. That’s the daily programming he stopped earlier this year after his advisors and polling experts told him it was turning those key suburban moms against him, the ones who spend much of their day keeping their kids from eating Tide pods and the like.  It’s fair to assume that the folks at Lysol and poison control have gone back on alert.  As to that masking modeling Trump tweeted out a picture of himself wearing one yesterday along with the message “We are United in our effort to defeat the Invisible China Virus, and many people say that it is Patriotic to wear a face mask when you can't socially distance, There is nobody more Patriotic than me, your favorite President!" Four months and 143,000 deaths too late but whatever.  Anyway that act of “patriotism” didn’t even last one Scaramucci, last night Trump was photographed at an event in his Washington DC hotel maskless and failing to maintain social distancing accompanied by his also maskless Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and a number of other similarly unprotected individuals including everyone’s fave Rudy Giuliani, his bestie Lindsey Graham, and Madison Cawthorn, the Republican candidate who’s running for the Congressional seat previously held by Meadows.  Cawthorn is the 24 year old upstart who beat the Trump and Meadows endorsed choice in the primary but having won the primary, he’s now their man.  The ever patriotic Trump is also all in on showing the cities, well at least the Democratic run cities, who’s boss.  Together with the acting heads of his personal army, those unidentified forces sourced from Customs and Border patrol and possibly also from the Bureau of Prisons, Trump continues to defend his efforts to squash those Portland Oregon radicals including the appropriately named Wall of Moms, really a group of local mothers, who’ve started showing up at the demonstrations, linking arms to protect the local protesters from Trump’s thugs, another image that probably won’t build support in the suburbs. Reports are that the Border Patrol thuggery crew is on its way to Chicago with New York City next on their dance card.  Apparently  Law & Order Trump really thinks that this is the way to insure his reelection victory, or at least the way to get close enough that he can declare the election a fraud.  By the way he now has some of his minions out pushing the fraud hypothesis; yesterday RNC Chair Ronna Romney McDaniel and Campaign Communications guy Hogan Gidley both defended Trump’s assertion that the Democrats plan to steal the election with all those “phony absentee ballots,” the ones that virtually every member of the Trump team uses.  Given that the Jacksonville, Florida Sheriff is now on the record expressing concerns about his force’s ability to keep Jacksonville safe during the upcoming Republican convention, in part because convention plans have not been nailed down yet and rally sites are still up in the air, perhaps Romney-McDaniel should be focusing her attention elsewhere.  It turns out that moving most convention events to a virus hotspot wasn’t the smartest thing to do.  Who knew? Anyway, Speaker Pelosi wants us all to know that come January, she’ll make sure that the White House is available for its next occupant, she’ll even supervise it’s fumigation.  And you know she will.

Deja Vu:  Joe Biden reports that as the presumptive Democratic candidate he’s begun receiving intelligence briefings and that he’s been told that once again the Russians as well as the Chinese and other adversaries are trying to undermine the US elections.  The Russians appear to be getting some help from Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson, the Chair of the Senate’s Homeland Security Committee.  Johnson, who seems to be taking his cues from the White House, continues to insist that he’s going to subpoena a whole crowd of former officials as well as Hunter Biden, his contribution to the Trump reelection campaign.  To that end Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Senate Ranking Intelligence Member Warner and House Intel Chair Schiff, the Democratic members of the Gang of Eight, are so convinced that unfounded Russian-linked information is being funneled to Johnson to further Russia’s efforts to interfere again in the presidential election that they’ve gone public with the letter that they sent to FBI Director Chris Wray on Friday requesting an all hands briefing on the subject. Additionally, yesterday Biden issued a statement announcing that he is “putting the Kremlin and other foreign governments on notice.” If elected president he will “treat foreign interference in our election as an adversarial act that significantly affects the relationship between the United States and the interfering nation’s government.”  Biden added that he would “direct the U.S. intelligence community to report publicly and in a timely manner on any efforts by foreign governments that have interfered, or attempted to interfere, with U.S. elections” while accusing Trump of ignoring such evidence. To be fair, Trump probably doesn’t ignore any of that evidence, he just supports the interference.

Et Cetera:  On his behalf, both the ACLU and Michael Cohen’s new lawyer are suing Attorney General Barr, the director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the warden of the Federal Correctional Institution Otisville where Cohen is now being held in solitary confinement.  They argue that Cohen was returned to prison because he refused to sign a “specially” tailored agreement that would prohibit him from writing his planned tell all book about Trump and that also banned him from engaging with the media.  The suit points out that “Cohen began working on the book soon after arriving at the federal prison in Otisville, and he did so fully in compliance with Bureau of Prisons regulations.”  Whether you’re a Cohen fan or not, his “special” treatment reeks of Trump/Barr interference. On the election front, it remains unclear what’s going on with self-described presidential candidate Kanye West, after his really strange performance in South Carolina he failed to file any of the required  papers to appear on the state’s ballot.    

Not so Good Trouble

Elephant Spotting:  It’s hard to imagine why anyone in the White House thought that having Trump participate in an interview with Chris Wallace was a good idea. Sure Wallace is a Fox guy, but he’s also a skilled and professional interviewer so while Trump’s dedicated base probably thought that his bizarre performance was spot on just about everyone else, including Joe Biden’s campaign and those renegade Republicans who’ve been producing those killer anti-Trump ads were grateful for the Trump mocking fodder the interview produced.  If you missed it or any of the selected promotional clips, then you also missed Trump bragging about his great score on the mental acuity exam that tested his recognition of elephants and his ability to subtract 7 from 100 as well as Wallace’s sly comment that he too could ID large mammals and perform elementary school math. Trump also spouted some false statistics about the coronavirus, claiming that mortality rates in the US are lower than anywhere else, they’re not and Wallace had the charts to prove it and also pointed out that 1000 Americans are dying from it daily. Also on the virus front, Trump asserted that we’ve turned a corner and that the virus was on its way to extinction.  When challenged on that he smiled and said that it will be gone someday.  Trump claimed that a Biden/Bernie Sanders policy statement called for the defunding of the police only to be once again challenged by the very prepared Wallace who noted that the plan called for more funding in the form of rewards for improved policing. Unwilling to accept that, Trump called for help from nearby Kayleigh McEnany in finding proof that Biden had promised to do otherwise, but couldn’t find any because there was none to find.  Of more concern, Trump refused to say that he would accept the results of the election if he loses while once again attacking the legitimacy of absentee ballots.

 DACA and ACA:  Trump made another statement that seemed odd on its face by asserting that he would be replacing Obamacare with his own health care plan in two weeks because the Supreme Court’s decision on DACA, another thing he said he would be replacing in two weeks, allows him to.  At first that sounded like a bizarre conflation of the two subjects, but it’s actually more concerning than that.  Axios reports that Trump has been advised by John Yoo, the former Bush administration Justice Department lawyer who justified waterboarding, that the Chief Justice Roberts authored opinion in the DACA case provides a roadmap as to how he can act without legal authority to enact new federal policies on things like immigration and health care and since we know that acting without legal authority is right up Trump’s alley, its not a reach to assume that Trump is about to do something on both fronts, starting with immigration where he might grant some privileges to DACA recipients to boost his polls with the Latino community while further clamping down on immigration. Lastly, Trump once again defended the Confederate flag and threatened to veto any military funding bill that called for the renaming of bases.  

 Viral musings:  Before the Wallace interview hit the news cycle the focus was rightfully on Trump’s total abandonment of all things related to the virus.  To that end the NY Times published another one of its multi sourced articles detailing how Trump has moved on to focusing on the economy, leaving solving the virus crisis behind to his underlings and how one of those underlings Dr Debbie Birx, as opposed to that Debbie Downer/alarmist Virus Guru Fauci, has turned out to be more of a Trump pleaser than a truth teller.  It turns out that all of those fancy charts and graphs that she used to pull out at those daily press conferences on the virus back when the White House and Coronavirus Task Force actually held daily conferences on the virus assumed behavior adaptations that the public never adhered to.  So who would have guessed that when people don’t social distance, don’t wear masks, and go out to bars and parties instead of restricting their activities that the virus would be hard to suppress.  Who but almost everyone in Europe and Asia and much of New York and New Jersey and the other parts of the country where at least for now people have gotten the message.  On the mask front, while more retailers are requiring masks, during his interview with Chris Wallace Trump once again refused to insist that everyone wear one.  The administration isn’t all that into testing and tracing either.  The Washington Post reports that Trump plans to block additional funds going towards testing, tracing and the CDC because, you know, testing causes virus outbreaks and the CDC recommendations on school reopenings are tougher than Trump wants.  Apparently Trump is also sitting on another report, from his own Coronavirus Task force, that calls for the shutting down of 18 of the hardest hit states, the ones that Trump says are only suffering from a few embers and maybe, just maybe a small spike or two, but are really in dire straits but only if you consider running out of ICU beds a problem.  We only know about that report because the Center for Public Integrity got a copy and published it, not because of any official notice from the VP led task force.   
           

People:  Rough weekend on the hero front.  First we learned that Ruth Bader Ginsburg is being treated for still another reoccurrence of cancer.  While she insists that she is fully capable of doing her job, and in fact was responsible for more than her share of decisions during the Court’s last term, it’s growing increasingly clear that she’s holding on, hoping to make it through January.  Then John Lewis, the Civil Rights icon, one of the original Freedom Riders who was known as the conscience of Congress, died of cancer on the same day that Revered CT Vivian another Civil Rights activist died of natural causes.  Of course while testimonial tweets celebrating Lewis’ life rolled in from all the ex-presidents and many members of Congress, Trump went golfing with one of his Senate facilitators Lindsey Graham, finally tweeting out a brief poorly written message later in the day.  It looks like reports of the death of Kanye West’s odd presidential run were “greatly exaggerated.”  He’s still on the campaign trail or having a psychotic episode or both.  Yesterday during a campaign rally in South Carolina he attacked both abolitionist Harriet Tubman and abortion.   Lastly, late yesterday a shooter masquerading as a Federal Express driver murdered the son and critically injured the husband of a NJ Federal Judge who was, get this, recently assigned the Deutsche Bank/Jeffrey Epstein case.
  

Bad Trouble:  The paramilitary forces that Trump has unleashed on Portland Oregon, sourced from the Department of Homeland Security, are sweeping people off the streets, running around without appropriate IDs and acting like thugs. Not surprisingly, instead of squelching the protests that had been on their way to dying out, these heavy handed tactics have had the reverse effect and now everyone, including the city, state and ACLU are suing and, at least until AG Barr removes him, the local US Attorney Billy Williams is investigating. DHS Acting head Chad Wolf and Acting Deputy DHS head Ken Cuccinelli, the hate all immigrants guy, neither of whom is Senate confirmed, insist that they have the right to act like thugs and plan to continue to do so in other Democratic run cities.  So the virus is only one of the existential problems facing the country right now.      

The End of Science?

Viral Musings:  The US is now regularly reporting more than 60,000 new COVID cases a day, the coronavirus death count is climbing, US hospitalizations are at their highest numbers since April, particularly notable because at that time both hospitalizations and death statistics were dominated by New York where both numbers are way down, at least for now. Several media outlets report that the Federal supply of PPE is dwindling, likely to be inadequate as we move into the feared second COVID wave and fall flu season. As predicted, the new instructions for hospitals to redirect their daily usage statistics to the Department of Health and Human Services rather than the CDC appear to be resulting in a loss of relevant tracking data because having failed to control the virus, hiding evidence of its impact is the next best thing?  Almost everyone other than Trump, his administration puppets and his communications apparatus acknowledges that the country’s fight against the virus has been hindered by a lack of coordination from Washington. Even Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg, generally one of Trump’s facilitators  has gone on record criticizing the administration’s handling of the crisis.  In an op-ed published in the Washington Post Larry Hogan, Maryland’s Republican Governor and likely a 2024 Republican presidential aspirant, described Trump’s failure to deal with the crisis and his failure to adequately provides states, even Republican run states like his, with an adequate supply of PPE. Asa Hutchinson, the Governor of ruby red Arkansas, has issued a face covering mandate, a belated admission that his state’s infection rates are rapidly climbing.  Similarly, Target and CVS have joined the #WearAMask team.  And then there’s Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, the Trump mini-me who won his election over Stacey Abrams by suppressing minority voting; in the face of a dire spike in his state he’s decided the thing to do is to sue the city of Atlanta to overturn Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms’ face mask mandate because that’s what Trump’s fanboys do.  Given her propensity for lying, it was not surprising that when asked about recent polls indicating country wide dissatisfaction with Trump’s handling of the pandemic,  Press Secretary McEnany responded that Trump’s historic response to the virus speaks for itself.  It certainly does, just not in the way that she means.  McEnany also repeated Trump’s insistence that schools be fully reopened in the Fall saying when Trump says open “he means open and full, kids being able to attend each and every day, at their school.  The science should not stand in the way of this.” Later, she  walked that one back saying that she was misunderstood.    

Deregulatory Rant: With the virus still raging Trump has turned his attention elsewhere, he’s now all in on cutting regulatory red tape again and rolling back more environmental protections.  So yesterday during a presentation on the White House lawn, he launched into another one of his incoherent speeches, saying things like “Shower Heads, You Take a Shower, the Water Doesn’t Come Out. You Wanna Wash Your Hands, the Water Doesn’t Come Out…Dishwashers, You Didn’t Have Any Water…In Most Places of the Country, Water Is Not a Problem. They Don’t Know What Do With It. It’s Called Rain,” adding something about how he needed a good quality shower to get his trademark coif under control.  He touted his push to compel companies to bring back incandescent light bulbs, saying they are better than their energy-saving replacements because "we all look so much better."  He then shifted away from his deregulation rant to go after Joe Biden saying that electing Biden would result in the American dream being “quickly snuffed out and replaced by a socialist nightmare…the end result will be to totally destroy the beautiful suburbs, a variation on his frequent racial dog whistling.  Apparently Trump has concluded that sparking fears about the end of suburbia as we know it will rally all those white housewives back into his fold. Last night niece Mary Trump, whose book is both a sad story about growing up in the dysfunctional Trump family and a condemnation of all things Donald, told Rachel Maddow that her uncle frequently utters the “N” word as well as anti-Semitic slurs. Sadly, that is totally believable.

Et Cetera:  The US, UK and Canada have accused the Russians of trying to steal COVID vaccine data, using the same team of hackers that interfered in the 2016 election.  With the help of the FBI, Twitter management is still trying to get to the bottom of who hacked into their system, with many intelligence professionals rightfully concerned that the hack portends trouble for the upcoming election. And of most concern, late last night while most of us were sleeping, without the permission of Oregon Governor Kate Brown or Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler, a group of unidentified Federal law enforcement officials in unmarked minivans, the same motley, scary types who appeared on the Washington DC streets last month, swept some largely peaceful demonstrators off of the streets of Portland.  Governor Brown called the actions a political stunt by Trump intended to bolster the electability of the self-described “law and order” president.  That’s an understatement.