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?