The Birther is Back

The Quiet Parts:  We’ve gotten to the point in the 2020 election cycle where people are saying a lot of the quiet parts out loud.  Yesterday Trump admitted to Fox Business News that the reason he is blocking additional funding and election assistance for the Postal Service is to sabotage mail-in voting.  Referencing the Democrat’s version of the still unresolved next coronavirus relief bill, he said “they want $25 billion — billion — for the post office. Now they need that money in order to have the post office work so it can take all of these millions and millions of ballots, but if they don't get those two items, that means you can't have universal mail-in voting." Even Larry Kudlow, Trump’s frequently inarticulate and economy ignorant economic advisor is in on the Post Office/voter suppression connection, yesterday during an appearance on CNBC when discussing the status of the negotiations over the aid legislation he said “So much of the Democratic asks are really liberal left wish lists — voting rights and aid to aliens and so forth.” It’s not just voting rights, in reference to the much awaited, or at least awaited by Trump’s fanbase, US Attorney John Durham report on the origins of the Russia investigation, Trump said that FBI Director Wray, who he and his Senate cronies most notably Wisconsin’s Ron Johnson have been pressuring to release Russia related documents that Wray wants kept secret to protect sources and methods, “was put in his job for a good reason” and that he’s either going to turn out one way or another” then  adding that Attorney General Barr “has a chance to be the greatest of all time. But if he wants to be politically correct, he’ll be just another guy.”  Barr clearly got that message, last night he told Fox’s Sean Hannity that there will be “developments” on the Durham Report today, nothing “earth shattering” but the “story of what happened in 2016 and 2017 will be out before the election.”  That’s the story that was already covered thoroughly in the Mueller Report that Barr sat on and then obfuscated with his inaccurate summary.  Keeping with the say what you’re thinking theme of the day, yesterday at Trump’s daily press conference/political rally HuffPost’s Washington correspondent, SV Date’, posed a question that should have been asked months, if not years ago, asking Trump “After three and one half years do you regret all the lying you’ve done to the American people.”  A stunned Trump responded “What?” to which Date’ went back with “All the lying, all the dishonesties.” Trump then asked “That who has done” and Date’ responded “You have done.” Trump then quickly called on another reporter.  Unfortunately that reporter did not stick with the same line of questioning.  As to SV Date’, it’s fair to assume that he won’t be picked on ever again, he’ll be lucky to keep his White House press credentials.

Suppressing Blue Votes: Getting back to voter suppression and the post office, yesterday Vice reported that Postmaster General/Trump donor Louis DeJoy has been removing mail sorting machines from facilities around the country without any official explanation or reason given and that “in many cases, these are the same machines that would be tasked with sorting ballots.”  Similarly, the Postal Service is also removing mail boxes something that will conveniently make it more difficult to actually mail those mail in ballots that Trump who will be voting by absentee ballot in the upcoming Florida primary hates so much. By the way Trump votes as a Floridian, listing Mar a Lago as his primary residence even though Mar a Lago is not a residence, it’s a Country Club and that in order to win certain concessions from local authorities, years ago Trump promised that no one would use Mar a Lago as a permanent residence. Though historically Republican voters have been bigger users of mail in ballots than Democratic voters, the party and Trump are so fearful that easing mail in voter procedures will so benefit the Democratic party they they’ve been running around the country suing individual states to limit the liberalization of mail in procedures.  Though they’ve frequently been successful, yesterday the Republican machine was handed two defeats: the Supreme Court rejected GOP efforts to tighten Rhode Island mail in voter rules, allowing the state to eliminate requirements that voters have their ballot signatures witnessed by two people or a notary public.  In Pennsylvania, a key battleground state that Trump won in 2016 but where he’s lagging right now, a federal judge told the Trump campaign and the Republican Party that they must produce evidence they have of that vote-by-mail fraud they claim is prevalent in the state by Friday.  That might prove a bit challenging as those claims of massive voter fraud in postal voting are false.  The good news is that the Democratic voting rights effort is making some progress, the bad news is that the battle over mail in vote rights is playing out across the country on a state by state basis and the Republicans are very good at this kind of suppressive stuff.  And in case anyone cares, Maine’s Senator Susan Collins, that great defender of liberal Democracy, is on the case, yesterday she “wrote” one of her letters asking Postmaster General DeJoy to better explain his actions.  

The Race and Race Baiting:  Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his VP partner Kamala Harris called for state governors around the country to mandate the wearing of face masks for three months, something that they and most of the scientific community believe would save 40,000 lives.  Trump, of course, responded by incorrectly saying that Biden’s and Harris’ plan included a presidential mandate to wear masks, something he doesn’t believe a president could do, funny given how he’s comfortable doing almost everything else by executive edict.  To no one’s surprise Trump has latched on to the birther argument against Kamala, claiming that since her parents were immigrants, she isn’t legally qualified to run for VP, saying “I heard it today that she doesn’t meet the requirements, I have no idea if that’s right, I would have thought, I would have assumed, that the Democrats would have checked that out before she gets chosen to run for vice president.” Trump at his slimy and racist worse. Let’s put it to bed right now,  Kamala Harris is a US born citizen and qualified to run.  Period, end of story.

Et Cetera:  Yesterday, when asked about Kanye West’s statement that he talks with him almost daily and that the two of them met last week in Colorado to discuss Kanye’s spoiler run for the presidency, Jared Kushner said, oh no, they only met for a "friendly discussion" about policy, one that “wasn't necessarily focused on Kanye’s presidential campaign.”  Jared probably would have preferred to only discuss yesterday’s Trump announcement that the UAE and Israel plans to normalize relations in exchange for Israel suspending annexation of occupied West Bank territory, a notable agreement if it comes to fruition, one that under normal times would have received the lion’s share of yesterday’s news.  Then again these are not normal times.