Pioneer

Vote or Else:  Kamala Harris, or Pioneer as the Secret Service now calls her, accepted her nomination last night, introducing herself by talking about her  background and vision for America.  Her speech which capped a night that also included addresses from Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senator Elizabeth Warren, one time presidential candidate/Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Congresswoman/shooting survivor Gabby Giffords, was impressive but the award for the night goes to Barack Obama, who did the heavy lifting, calling Trump out as a one man reality show who hasn’t grown into his job because he can’t, pointing out the damage he’s done to the country’s reputation, the unnecessarily high coronavirus death rate and the sad state of the economy.  He made it clear that the only way out of this mess is for all of us to vote as if our futures depend upon it because our futures and the future of our Democracy really do depend on it. Of course, he also fully endorsed his “brother” Biden, talking about his empathy, decency, and work ethic, a not so subtle comparison to Trump’s laziness,  and, naturally he fully endorsed Harris.  Obama’s message hit home with at least one watcher, Trump.  The one man reality show spent the night tweet attacking Obama, in all caps of course, going with some of his favorite themes:  “HE SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN AND GOT CAUGHT” and “WHY DID HE REFUSE TO ENDORSE SLOW JOE UNTIL IT WAS ALL OVER, AND EVEN THEN WAS VERY LATE? WHY DID HE TRY TO GET HIM NOT TO RUN?” As to that spying accusation, as one tweeter accurately pointed out, the target of the spying was the Russians, catching all those Trumpsters on those “taped” calls was not expected.  As to those Russians, it appears that Vladimir Putin, Trump’s hero is up to his old tricks again.  His opponent Alexey Navalny, was poisoned again yesterday, and is now on a ventilator in a Siberian hospital, perhaps one of those US made ventilators that Trump sent to the motherland to help with their coronavirus problem? Does anyone doubt that the increasingly desperate Trump would do the same to some of his opponents if he could get away with it. For now he’ll have to settle for reveling in the support of the Q Anon crowd, that’s the group that believes that Trump will save the country, or at least his base, from those radical Democratic pedophiles holed up in pizza parlors everywhere. When asked about them, Trump said that, despite FBI warnings that extreme groups like Q Anon represent terrorism threats, he welcomes their support because he’s heard that they really like him and you know anyone who supports Trump gets “liked” back.  Similarly he’s all in on Laura Loomer, the outspoken self-described “proud” Islamophobe who just won the Republican party primary to run for Congress from his Palm Beach district.  Loomer who is expected to lose against her Democratic rival incumbent Congresswoman Lois Frankel is so racist that she’s banned from virtually every mainstream social media site.  In other words, she’s Trump’s kind of woman.  Trump isn’t just supporting Q Anon and hate filled, fringe candidates, yesterday he “cancelled” the Goodyear Tire Company, tweeting “Don’t buy GOODYEAR TIRES” after he learned that they’d banned employees from wearing MAGA hats at their plants, that the ban wasn’t specific to MAGA stuff was irrelevant, Trump who sees everything through his personal lens assumed that they were specifically targeting him. Goodyear’s stock dropped a few percent yesterday, a short term win for Trump, but in the long term his impetuous tweet attack could cost him the state of Ohio, where those tires, which are on his armor plated cars, are manufactured. Those MAGA caps, the ones that Trump wants worn everywhere, they are manufactured in China. 

Postal Wars:  The war over the USPS is still on.  Postmaster General DeJoy has hired a public relations firm to help him navigate all the bad press associated with the dismantling of sorters, the cutting of overtime hours, and the removal of blue boxes.  Apparently, the reputation gurus are helping him prepare for his testimony to Congress and are also working on some public service announcements intended to reassure voters that their ballots will be reach their destination, well at least someday.  To be clear, it doesn’t appear that he’s restoring any services, he’s just working on optics. As to those hearings, apparently Trump is really angry with Senate Leader Mitch McConnell because the Senate’s USPS hearing will take place in the run up to his RNC convention rather than during the DNC.  As to funding the USPS, Speaker Pelosi plans to introduce legislation shortly but she’ll have to pass it without the support of her Republican colleagues, reports are that they are already whipping their contingent to vote against any funding package. 

Et Cetera: Miles Taylor, the former Homeland Security Chief of Staff who revealed some of the evil shenanigans going on in Trumpland while endorsing Joe Biden this week, reports that the White House is currently trying to dig up dirt on him.  He says that he can handle that and also says that he expects that more of his former colleagues will be speaking out soon.  Time will tell if he’s right about that but at least one former Republican Congressman stepped up yesterday, Pennsylvania’s Charlie Dent, a frequent Trump critic, is now team Biden.