A Once in 2000 Years Man

Morning Musing: There’s nothing good to say on the virus front.  Guru Dr. Fauci wants us to know that we are well on our way towards an astounding 100,000 per day infection rate, news out of China is that a new swine flu strain could be headed our way and NY Governor Cuomo has added more states, including California and Georgia, to his mandatory quarantine list.   Despite all that Trump, who still won’t endorse mask wearing, continues to be focused on important things like tracking down the two individuals seen on camera defacing one of his precious statues because that’s the real problem keeping us up at night.  As to masks, more and more Republican Senators are wearing them: they’re still supporting Trump on virtually everything else, especially his judges, but they’ve finally conceded that covering mouths and noses, yes you are supposed to cover both, has value. On the Russian front, Trump and his loyal, lying Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany insist that the “fake news” about the Russians paying the Taliban to kill US soldiers is just another hoax propagated by the failing NY Times; that several other respectable news organizations concur with the NYTimes reporting is irrelevant.  The White House’s current explanation for Trump’s “ignorance” about the bounty scheme is that even though information about it was included in the daily security briefings that he doesn’t read as early as February, it wasn’t brought to his attention because the uncertainty concerning its validity made getting him to focus on it unnecessary, either that or they were too afraid to put it front and center because he tends to erupt whenever he hears that his buddy Vlad has done something nefarious. The part about the intelligence being sketchy is what the team of national security advisor O’Brien, Chief of Staff Meadows and the completely unsuited for his job Director of National Intelligence Ratcliffe told both the Republican and Democratic members of Congress who were brought to the White House for separate briefings.  That explanation seemed marginally believable to the delusional and deceptive Republicans but did not impress any of the more skeptical Democrats. The argument that the “bounty” intelligence was too sketchy to put in front of Trump is embarrassingly weak given that Trump has spoken with his good friend Putin at least five times during the last few months.  In no other administration would the president be allowed to have conversations with any other world leader without first being told that there was a even a possibility that he had taken bounties out on our troops, especially if that world leader had previously invaded a neighboring country or poisoned its former agents on foreign soil.  As to the “questionable” validity of the intelligence, yesterday the NY Times provided details of the financial trail that leads from Russian GRU bank accounts into the hands of the Taliban.  Someone (or several someone’s) in the intelligence community has had it with Trump, has figured out that going the whistleblower route is pointless, is obviously quite upset that Trump continues to value his relationship with Putin over the safety of our troops and wants this story out there.  And maybe that’s because it now appears possible that at least three US soldiers were ambushed and killed as a result of those bounties, news that has moved at least one of their parents to publicly demand an explanation from the military and the administration. This story appears to have legs and it’s likely that more details will emerge over the next few days.  While we’re waiting, Kay “lie”  wants us to know that Trump does know how to read and that he is “the most informed person on earth when it comes to the threats that we face.” Imagine that, the Press Secretary thinks that the best way to defend her boss’s indefensible actions is to tell us he knows how to read. By contrast, Democratic candidate Joe Biden who also knows how to read and doesn’t appear to be all that sleepy or suffering from dementia held a press conference yesterday where he addressed the virus, said he would keep Dr Fauci front and center, that’s the Dr Fauci that the ever unpopular Senator Rand Paul dissed yesterday, and spent a lot of time coherently answering questions from the press, including Fox. Notably he didn’t spew any dog whistles but he did throw lots of shade at Trump.

Primary Update:  We still don’t know the results of several of the NY primaries, but we do know that moderate veteran Amy McGrath beat her progressive opponent Charles Booker  to become Kentucky’s Democratic challenger to go up against Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and that John Hickenlooper will be Colorado’s challenger to Senator Cory Gardner.  In addition, it appears that voters in red state Oklahoma have approved expanding Medicaid enrollment for tens of thousands of lower income residents.  That’s the Medicaid expansion that’s part of the Obamacare health insurance program that Trump is trying to kill.  In other Oklahoma news, once again everyone in Tulsa, the locale of Trump’s last rally, who showed up for a COVID test tested positive.

Et Cetera:  The Supreme Court still hasn’t said anything about Trump’s tax returns but a NY Judge did issue an order temporarily blocking the publication of Trump niece Mary’s tell all book. Ted Boutros, Mary Trump’s highly regarded First Amendment lawyers said the ruling flatly violates the First Amendment.  An appeal is in the works.