Banana Republic

Anarchy Central:  Good morning from the anarchist jurisdiction of New York.  Alternative side of the street rules are still in effect, jazz musicians are playing in Central Park and face masked school kids are walking in orderly packs to and from classes and outdoor activities, but according to Trump and his lackey Attorney General Barr, NYC, together with Portland and Seattle, are hotbeds of anarchy and as such are now at risk of being defunded by the federal government at a time that all are suffering from massive budget shortfalls tied to the coronavirus pandemic criminally mishandled by Trump and his administration’s failure to agree to state and local government funding.  It’s no coincidence that all three of these anarchist jurisdictions have Democratic mayors and are in state’s led by Democratic governors and it’s definitely not a coincidence that NYC’s gene pool isn’t as lily white as that Minnesota DNA that Trump celebrated over the weekend.  While pointing out that defunding NY would cause further police cuts, the kind of thing that could really lead to anarchy, NYS Attorney General Letitia James promised to challenge the designation in the courts, of course those are the courts that Trump has been doing his best to stack.  On that front, Trump appears to have secured the Senate votes he needs to move ahead with the confirmation of his as yet named Supreme Court Justice nominee despite all those public statements previously made by dozens of Republican Senators promising that they’d never allow for a Supreme to be considered and seated during the run up to a presidential election.  Last night Colorado’s very vulnerable incumbent Senator Cory Gardner signed on as did Iowa’s Chuck Grassley, the former Chair of the Senate Judiciary committee, who previously said that “you can’t have one rule for Democrat presidents and another rule for Republican presidents.”  Utah’s Mitt Romney still hasn’t weighed in but assuming reports are correct, McConnell and Trump don’t need his vote so the only question that remains is whether they’ll force a confirmation through before the election, or whether they’ll wait and push it through right afterwards.  Trump hasn’t even named his pick but at this point its fair to assume that the Republican led Senate would hold hearings and confirm a pet rock as long as that rock was firmly in the anti-abortion camp and, like leading candidate Amy Coney Barrett, didn’t believe that there was any reason to stick with that principal of stare decisis because who cares about precedent anyway? And for the record, it’s not just Roe v Wade that faces imminent demise, Obamacare is likely in bigly trouble as well even if the RBG spot stays open through the end of the year.  That’s because, in November, the court is due to consider a case by a coalition of red state Attorneys General who are seeking to strike down the entirety of the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare), including the requirement for insurance companies to cover pre-existing conditions.  A lower court in Texas has already concluded that the whole law is invalid and even though a large number of legal experts believe that the lower court’s decision was seriously flawed, it’s highly likely that the SCOTUS conservatives who have previously ruled against Obamacare will agree with the Texas ruling. Though there remains a chance that Chief Justice Roberts will vote with the Court’s liberal contingent, absent RBG that wouldn’t be enough as the resulting 4-4 tie would leave the Texas decision in place.  Trump, who had his Justice Department weigh in on the side of the red state AG continent, wants everyone, especially those with pre-existing conditions to calm down because his health care plan, the top secret one that really doesn’t exist but that he routinely promises to reveal in “two weeks” covers pre-existing conditions including all those lasting COVID side effects so there’s nothing to worry about here.  Who doesn’t trust Trump?  As to timing, though the schedule is tight, don’t be surprised to see Trump push really hard to get his justice in place before the election. He’s been dissing mail in voting and the legitimacy of the election process because he plans to challenge any and all states where he loses by a small margin claiming voter fraud, by blue voters only, and is convinced that “his” judges, including that Supreme newbie will rule in his favor as payback.  Think Bush v Gore on steroids.  On the election front, some positive news:  yesterday another Federal Judge ordered Postmaster General DeJoy to treat all mail-in votes as first class mail and to restore overtime, but of course DeJoy still hasn’t said if he’ll comply or appeal and in Nevada another Federal Judge upheld that state’s new expanded mail-in ballot law but again the Trump campaign may appeal. 

Campaign Trail:  Trump was on the road again yesterday in Ohio.  Before leaving he questioned that RBG had dictated a letter to her granddaughter expressing her dying wish that her seat not be filled until the next president is determined and seated, suggesting instead that those reports were false and that the wish was made up by Democratic leaders Pelosi, Schumer and/or “Shifty Schiff.”  In Ohio, where Lieutenant Governor John Husted’s call for the crowd to don protective face masks was jeered, Trump said that the coronavirus effects virtually no one because all of those 200,000 plus dead people were old, had pre-existing conditions and were due to die anyway.  By contrast, Biden, also on the campaign trail, told a Wisconsin audience that “there are empty chairs at dining room tables and kitchen tables that weeks and months ago were filled with a loved one, a mom, a dad, a brother a sister,” adding “I worry we’re become numb to the toll it has taken to us and on our country.” As to that numbing, another insider reports that son in law Jared was emotionless from the start.  That insider, Max Kennedy Jr, RFK’s grandson, was a volunteer on Kushner’s coronavirus task force, the group of ambitious young’uns in charge of procuring personal protective equipment for virus hot spots back in March. Kennedy, who bolted early says that the team was instructed to prioritize requests from Trump's friends and supporters and told to pay special attention to Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, who he said was "particularly aggressive" in demanding masks be shipped to a hospital she favored.  Back in April, Kennedy sent an anonymous complaint to Congress about what he saw, he has decided to come forward publicly now, despite the NDA he’d been required to sign, to provide more details about Trump and Kushner’s incompetence and their misdirected efforts. 

Et Cetera:  The CDC’s reputation took another hit yesterday after officials posted and then took down a statement saying that it was “possible” that coronavirus spreads via airborne transmission. It was the third major revision to CDC information or guidelines published since May, once again raising valid concerns that the CDC has lost what’s left of its independence not surprising because in banana republics the king makes the rules and gets to makes up the facts.