It is What It is

The Zoom Convention:  No wild cheering from the crowd largely because there was no crowd.  That said, the opening night of the Democrat’s virtual convention worked, the technical screw ups that we’ve grown used to during these days of COVID were largely missing and Michele Obama’s keynote speech was riveting.  She oozed genuine sincerity, concern and condemnation as she told us that “we have to vote for Joe Biden because our lives depend on it.”  She also said that she knows what the job of president requires, that Joe’s got what it takes but that Trump has shown us that he’s the “wrong president for our country,” that “he’s sown chaos, division and a total lack of empathy,” adding “it is what it is.”  Her speech ran about 18 minutes, surely Melania’s people are mining it right now trying to find something to crib.  Some Republican commentators pointed to Michele’s failure to say anything about VP candidate Kamala as evidence that she’s not a fan, but that omission, like her mention of “only” 150,000 COVID fatalities was due to the speech being pre-taped before Kamala’s selection was announced.  Among the other speakers, and there were many, Bernie Sanders stood out. As the Democratic runner up he got more speaking time than many others and used it to make it very clear to his base that he fully endorses Biden, that our democracy depends on his victory, and that while the two may differ on some policies, he believes that he’s used his influence to push Biden leftward, amusing because in his speech John Kasich, the Republican former Governor of Ohio said that he knows Joe Biden, believes he’s a moderate and trusts him because no one tells Joe what to do.  In this bizarre and frightening election year, Joe Biden is the man you want him to be, a man for all seasons, who despite his imperfections has been anointed to get us out of the viral hell that we’re living in.  Many of the other speakers, including three other Republicans including former NJ Governor Christine Todd Whitman, former Hewlett Packard CEO Meg Whitman and former Staten Island Congresswoman Susan Molinari as well as the very Democratic current NY Governor Andrew Cuomo also focused on Trump’s abject failures particularly with regard to the coronavirus, with Cuomo saying that COVID was the symptom, while Trumpism was the disease, a point driven home by Arizonan Kristen Urquiza who said that her father who died of COVID had no pre-existing conditions other than his trust in Trump, a trust that cost him his life after Arizona opened up too early largely because its governor was all in on pleasing Trump.

Homeland: The unnamed former or current Congressman who Kasich said would endorse Biden didn’t emerge yesterday but Miles Taylor did.  Taylor, the former Chief of Staff at the Department of Homeland Security, came forward to “attest that the country is less secure as a direct result” of Trump’s actions, that Trump governs by whim, political calculation and self-interest.”  Among other things he said that Trump was all in on dividing families and caging kids and he confirmed that Trump didn’t want to send any aid to California when wildfires were raging because why should he care or do anything for a bunch of Democrats.  Taylor added that things will only get worse if Trump is reelected.  Of course, when asked about that, son in law Jared smirked and dismissed Taylor and his statement saying that he’s a “nice kid” but just “wasn’t up to the task” and anyway he worked at Homeland back before it actually built any of Trump’s wall, that’s the wall that still hasn’t been built unless you think the four miles of new wall counts. Also on the Homeland front, on Friday the Government Accountability Office reported that its two top officials, Acting Secretary Chad Wolf and his Deputy Ken Cuccinelli, the guys who’ve been throwing tear gas pellets at protestors, are illegally serving in their positions since their appointments violate the laws governing who can fill Senate-confirmed posts.  Add that to the list of things that Trump will do his best to finesse.       

Counterprogramming: Trump was busy yesterday, he wasn’t dealing with the virus or mourning his brother whose funeral service he now says will be held at the White House; instead he was traveling around the country to swing states.  During his travels he again attacked the election process saying that “the only way we lose is if the election is rigged.”  That’s the election that he’s trying to steal by diminishing the USPS’s capabilities. He also managed to throw out a comment about recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, pointing out that while the Jews don’t sufficiently appreciate what he’s done, i.e. they mostly don’t vote for him, the evangelicals, who do, love it.  On the post office front, Trump appears to now realize that while toying with the mail might be an effective way to disrupt mail-in voting it’s not all that popular with his base so during the day he actually tweeted out “SAVE THE POST OFFICE” as if he wasn’t he one trying to destroy it.  The next week or so should prove interesting as Postmaster General DeJoy has agreed to show up and testify before Congress where, among other things, he will be asked about his conversations with Trump about cutting service, those are the conversations that likely took place during a meeting that Trump first said didn’t happen but then said was only an opportunity for him to congratulate DeJoy on the position he’d already held for months.  It looks like there is now a bipartisan effort underway to provide some additional USPS funding, whether that amount will be the $25 billion requested in the House virus relief legislation or the $10 billion that Senate Majority Leader McConnell is now proposing is unclear.  It’s also unclear whether it will be done via standalone legislation or as part of that much delayed relief package, the one that’s is likely to include $400 or so of supplemental unemployment insurance, the payment that ran out at the end of July, that Trump said he’d fund but really didn’t.  In any case, it might be too late to do much if anything about those mail sorters that have been destroyed. 

Et Cetera:   Trump plans to give his convention acceptance speech from the White House, his campaign has also applied for a permit to shoot celebratory fireworks off nearby because who doesn’t need more explosives right about now.  In addition, we learned yesterday that the St. Louis couple who waved firearms at some Black Lives Matter protesters will appear to express their undying support to their great leader. Of course they will. For what it’s worth two new polls were released yesterday: a scary one from CNN showing the spread between the candidates tightening with the Biden/Harris ticket leading the Trump/Pence 50% to 46% while another from the  Washington Post and ABC showing Biden/Harris with 53% to Trump/Pence’s 41%.  COVID, flu, hurricanes, school re-openings and election season. The next few months are going to be very, very trying.  Hold on tight.