Thighs and Wingnuts

Circling the Drain:  Yesterday Trump went to Ohio to tour a Whirlpool factory and talk about his “great” economy, light bulbs and water pressure.  Ohio is one of those states that is supposed to be a slam dunk for Team Trump but with polls showing him lagging, his campaign decided he’d better show up to sure up local support.  The trip got off to a bad start when Ohio’s Governor Mike DeWine flunked his White House supplied insta-COVID test moments before he was supposed to greet Trump on the tarmac.  The good news for DeWine is that after heading home he passed a more reliable test, and even better for him he didn’t have to meet with Trump or listen to him when he turned what was supposed to be an economic speech into a taxpayer funded political rant where he mispronounced Thailand, calling it Thighland, possibly a reference to a kosher chicken and wings restaurant on the outskirts of  Yo Semite Park.  DeWine also didn’t have to listen to Trump say that Joe Biden “was following a radical left agenda, would take away your guns, destroy your second amendment.  No religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God” because “he’s against God.”  Given NY Attorney General Letitia James’ morning announcement that she was moving to dissolve the NRA, Trump’s gun comment was no surprise, but Trump attacking Biden, who is actually fairly religious and who has many times said that his Catholicism has helped him deal with the tragic loss of his first wife and several of his children is totally ridiculous especially coming from Trump who only uses religion as a prop, invents books of the Bible, has been married three times, has a history with porn stars and playmates and who used to hang with pedophile Jeffrey Epstein.  Biden who had a gaffe of his own yesterday when he inadvertently insulted the Black community by saying that “the Latino community is "incredibly diverse," "unlike" the Black community” must have breathed a sigh of relief as the combination of Trump’s “Thighland” and God slam gave him cover.  Unlike Trump who never apologizes  or admits to doing anything wrong, earlier in the day he told Fox’s Geraldo Rivera that his coronavirus moves have been perfect,  Biden, apologized for his misstatement saying “In no way did I mean to suggest the African-American community is a monolith — not by identity, not on issues, not at all.” In contrast, Dinish D’Souza, the far right pundit who was pardoned by Trump after being found guilty of a felony campaign finance crime, actually defended Trump asserting that Thighland was the correct way to pronounce Thailand.  It’s not, but D’Souza’s defense proves once again that Trump’s diehard fans will go out on a limb for him for anything and everything from kids in cages to obvious mispronunciations.

 

Gun Wars: Getting back to guns, as promised by her earlier Twitter tease, Letitia James’ announcement regarding the NRA was bigly big, the kind of story that in ordinary times would have more than dominated the news cycle. Citing years of runaway misspending and corruption James’ suit demands the dissolution of the NRA.  She detailed how Wayne LaPierre, the NRA’s long time chief executive spent tens of millions of dollars of membership dues on lavish trips and family vacations, kickbacks and sweetheart deals, all in violation of NRA rules and IRS requirements. Her suit also named several other NRA executives.  James did not act alone, later in the day Washington DC’s Attorney General Ken Racine piled on suing the NRA Foundation, accusing the charity of diverting funds to the NRA to help pay for improper spending by top NRA executives.  Of course, LaPierre responded by calling the actions an unprecedented, political attack on guns and personal freedom and with a counter lawsuit while Trump, a major beneficiary of the NRA’s largesse said “that’s a very terrible thing that just happened,” adding that “the N.R.A. should move to Texas and lead a very good and beautiful life” even though the NRA can’t move its assets to another state while the investigation is ongoing; though the NRA is headquartered in in Virginia, it was chartered as a non-profit in New York in 1871 and continues to be incorporated in the state. 

 

Et Cetera: Negotiations on the next coronavirus aid package appear to be going nowhere right now with Democrats and Republicans, or at least Trump’s negotiators Chief of Staff Mark Meadows and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin “only” about $2.5 trillion apart, not surprising since Meadows has a history of voting against every spending deal ever put in front of him.  Kanye West isn’t even pretending anymore.  In a text interview yesterday he admitted that he’s still Team Trump and that he’s running for president to siphon votes that might otherwise go to Biden.  He also said that he is “designing a school within the next month” and that he’s “meeting with (Education Secretary) Betsy DeVos about the post-COVID curriculum.”  Trump of course denied that he was aware that Republican operatives have been helping Kanye get on state ballots but did say that he “likes Kanye very much,” not the kind of thing that Trump would say about someone who was really running against him. Virus guru Fauci who has been getting death threats is increasingly concerned about the safety of his family and Dr Debby spent much of her week warning cities and states throughout the country that they need to be more vigilant as virus hotspots are popping up all over but not to worry, Trump says that the virus will go away on its own and that in any case a vaccine will be ready by Election Day.  The US death count is closing in on 163,000.

Stay safe and have a good weekend