False Claim Alert

Viral Musings:  If you need any more proof that Trump lies as he breathes, focus on his statements about the Beirut explosion.  On Tuesday Trump said his generals had told him that the deadly blast was likely the result of an attack.  Shortly after that the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Esper and Lebanese officials made it clear that they had no idea what he was talking about.  Even though evidence indicates that the attack was likely due to gross negligence in the storage of tons of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive fertilizer, yesterday during his evening virus news conference Trump continued to insist that his attack assertion was valid.  To be clear, Trump made up his answer about the deadly event for no apparent reason and is sticking with it because that’s how he rolls. Much of the rest of what he said at his daily virus presser where he focused on the “wonderful” job that Arizona’s Republican Governor Ducey has been doing handling the waves of  coronavirus in his state was also false but this time the reason for his deception was patently obvious, he’s trying to convince gullible voters in a key swing state where he’s polling poorly that everything will turn out fine if only they stick with him and his party.  As to Ducey and his so-called wonderful job, he ignored the virulence of the virus, opened the state up way too soon and facilitated the virus’ too rampant run among his state’s most vulnerable populations.  His negligence rivals those other “star” Republican Governors that Trump likes to applaud including Texas’ Abbot and Florida’s DeSantis.  Arizona’s curve has finally begun to flatten but at a very high level and Dr Debby remains concerned that the state remains on very shaky ground nevertheless Ducey is still pushing to open up schools, though he’s finally agreed to delay their opening by a two weeks. As to Trump despite all those reports that he has changed his tone and is finally taking the virus seriously, he isn’t.  Reports out of the most recent White House coronavirus task force meeting, a meeting that Trump attended for the first time in months, are that he still doesn’t grasp the magnitude of the problem and that instead of listening to his experts’ concerns he kept trying to change the topic to things more palatable, like Melania’s ill timed Rose Garden renovation perhaps?  To that end yesterday morning he told his favorite morning echo chamber, Fox and Friends, that schools should open, the virus is going away, and that “children are almost immune from COVID 19,”  a lie that he repeated during his evening news conference.  That lie got him and his campaign penalized by both Twitter and Facebook yesterday.  Facebook, which to date has been a Trump enabler, actually took down the video of that Fox and Friends interview that Trump’s peons had posted on his Facebook page saying that the “video includes false claims that a group of people is immune from Covid-19 which is a violation of our policies around harmful COVID misinformation.”  Similarly, Twitter blocked Trump’s campaign email account and removed the offensive video. Of course, Florida Congressman Matt Gaetz, one of Trump’s most keen fanboys responded by calling for the Justice Department to take action against Facebook and Twitter.  And Trump’s reaction to criticism of his push to reopen the schools continues to be that the opposition against premature openings is a Democratic plot against him, and that “everyone” knows that as soon as the election is over those nasty Democrats will push for schools to reopen everywhere.  Another one of those arguments that’s probably doing little to improve his standing with those much referenced key suburban mothers.  

 

Politics Unusual:  In other news, negotiations on the next round of virus relief continue at a painfully frustrating pace with Trump threatening unilateral action if those Pelosi and Schumer led Democrats don’t do something soon and by something, he means cave.  Those are the Democrats who passed their version of a relief bill through the House more than a month ago while Mitch McConnell’s crowd dithered and took time off.  In addition to addressing the weekly $600 unemployment payments and eviction relief, Democrats are also focused on state and local funding and on rolling back those Post Office service cutbacks implemented by Trump’s Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, part of Trump’s plan to sabotage vote by mail.  Those cutbacks are disrupting pharmaceutical deliveries to veterans, Trump’s base and everyone else who relies on the mail for life sustaining drugs but that’s an unintended consequence that Trump appears to be able to live with if it allows him to upend the election.  He’s already killed 159,000 of us, so what if a few more fall by the wayside.   On the election front, Trump is seriously considering giving his Republican nomination acceptance speech from the White House, another disturbing norm violation. Yesterday, the Biden campaign announced that the former VP will be giving his speech from somewhere in Delaware, instead of Milwaukee, a concession to the virus.  

 

Et Cetera:  South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham remains focused on that really important subject, the investigation into Russia’s 2016 election interference, or as Trump calls it the Russia Hoax.  Not any recent interference just the old stuff.  To that end yesterday the Senate Judiciary Committee questioned former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates about the things that took place on her watch.  The straight shooting Yates more than held her own, saying that though she’s wasn’t pleased that former FBI Director Comey’s sent his team into interview former national security advisor Michael Flynn without notifying her first, that the opening of an investigation into Flynn’s calls with Russian Ambassador Kislyak was more than warranted given that he was engaging in conversations that were “neutralizing” sanctions and knew it, the reason that he lied.  She also confirmed that Flynn wasn’t a surveillance target, that he got caught on tape because of his calls with Kislyak who was being listened to and that neither Obama nor Biden interfered in the investigation at all. Yates is one impressive and smart woman which likely explains why Louisiana Republican John Kennedy called her dumb as a rock, a term he frequently applies to Speaker Pelosi, following the hearing. Just another reason why the Republican party is having a hard time attracting quality women candidates and is bleeding women voters.  Separately reports are that the CIA has refused to even speak with Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson about his Homeland Security Committee’s investigation into all things Biden and Ukraine, because they think his sources are illegitimate and don’t want to have anything to do with him or his shenanigans.  Sadly, the same can’t be said of AG Barr, who appears determined to dump the results of the US Attorney Durham investigation to the extent that it’s uncovered anything spinnable before November; that’s the investigation that Barr commissioned on the origins of the Russian investigation. Reports are that Durham is finishing up and is in the process of scheduling his last interview, with Obama era CIA Director John Brennan, the frequent Trump critic.  On the legal front, yesterday the NY Times reported that the NY Attorney’s office subpoenaed Deutsche Bank for Trump’s financial records last year and that the bank has already provided them with the financial and tax records that they requested.  And something’s happening this morning at 1130, late yesterday NYS Attorney General Letitia James tweeted that she will be making a “Major National Announcement.”  No one seems to know what she’ll be announcing but  Twitter speculation runs the gamut from something related to the NRA to another lawsuit against a heinous Trump policy, to Trump family crimes.