Choppy Waters

55 Days and Counting:  So here we are, Labor Day is behind us, the coronavirus pandemic is still upon us, and the election of our lifetime is only fifty-five days away.  On the virus front, somewhere around 190,000 Americans have died so far, a number that has been increasing by more than 1000 each day.  The frequently cited Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington predicts that absent more mask wearing somewhere around 410,000  (not a typo) of us will be dead by January, an increase in the daily mortality count to 3000 or so.  Nevertheless, yesterday at another one of his news conferences, one that quickly morphed into a grievance filled campaign rally, Trump berated Reuters correspondent Jeff Mason for wearing a mask, claiming he couldn’t hear his “muffled” voice even though Mason’s voice was clearly audible.  Mason, who’s been bullied by Trump before for mask wearing kept his mask on.  During the same press conference, Trump continued to deny that he’d ever said anything bad about our soldiers, a theme that several members of his cabinet and current and former staff members including that great truth teller Sarah Huckabee Sanders pushed over the airwaves over the weekend though no senior members of the military nor any of the generals who previously made up his cabinet had anything to say in his defense and Fox, AP, the Washington Post, the New York Times and niece Mary Trump all independently confirmed large parts of The Atlantic article and his general disdain for military service.  That Fox confirmation which was detailed by Fox’s respected national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin, really got under Trump’s skin so naturally he called for her immediate dismissal while also attacking Steve Jobs’ widow Laurene Powell for her investment in The Atlantic. Notably, former Homeland Secretary/Chief of Staff John Kelly remained silent, his friends say that’s not because he didn’t personally witness Trump’s scathing remarks but because he believes that current and former military leaders shouldn’t publicly criticize the commander in chief.  Not surprisingly Kelly’s silence which is frustrating but not a shock as after all he was okay with Trump’s harsh migrant policies, didn’t win him any points with Trump who had no problem lashing out at him for failing to defend him; Trump said Kelly was “petered out” and couldn’t “handle the pressure.”  As to things military, on Friday after it was reported that the Pentagon planned to defund Stars and Stripes, the independent newspaper read by US soldiers everywhere, Trump denied he knew anything about the planned closure, and announced that the paper would continue to be funded, an effort to look soldier friendly. The paper will continue to publish but Trump’s efforts suffered another self-imposed blow on Sunday when he ripped into  military leadership, accusing them of waging wars just to boost the profits of arms manufacturers. That’s the same Trump who continuously brags about all the weaponry “he” sells abroad, overlooks Saudi atrocities because they buy our equipment, and who appears to have used the promise of advanced plane sales to the UAE as inducement for their recent agreement to publicly embrace Israel.   

Viral Musings: Getting back to the virus, Democratic VP candidate Kamala Harris, not one to mince words, said what many of us are thinking, that if Trump rushes out a vaccine before the election it would be rational to question its safety and efficacy.  Trump and his political machine of course attacked that liberal/radical and her running mate Biden as anti-vaxx for expressing doubt but who is he kidding: Trump insists that the virus is going away, has pushed bleach, hydroxychloroquine, asserted that still unproven convalescent plasma is saving lives and touted the modest benefits of anti-viral Remdesivir, making it sound like a cure-all, why would we ever take his word on a vaccine’s readiness?  As to that vaccine, when one or more are finally good to go, the distribution process will be complicated.  All of the likely early winners of the vaxx derby require two doses, spread about a month a part and the two currently leading the pack have to be refrigerated until delivered, at hugely  different temperatures.  We can only hope that the delivery efforts are not headed up by jack of no trades Jared Kushner.   

Going Postal:  It turns out that in addition to disrupting postal service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy may have committed some bigly campaign finance violations, the kind that have resulted in others spending time in the slammer.  The Washington Post reports that he “urged” employees of New Breed, his former company, to make donations to Republican candidates and then reimbursed them by upping their annual bonuses to cover the forced contributions. Democratic Congressman Jim Cooper of Tennessee must have had a heads up about DeJoy’s campaign finance scheme. In some unusually contentious questioning he’d pressed DeJoy on the subject during last month’s Oversight Hearing.  At that time DeJoy denied he’d engaged in any illegal campaign finance, expressing outrage at Cooper’s suggestion so in addition to committing campaign finance crimes, it appears that DeJoy also lied to Congress.  Yesterday, when asked about DeJoy, Trump first denied knowing anything about his alleged misdeeds, but then threw him under the bus, saying that  he’s “open to him being investigated.”  It’s not clear what if anything AG Barr will do but last night House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn Maloney announced that her committee is opening up an investigation into DeJoy, she also called for the USPS Board of Governors, whose decision to hire him in the first place was questionable,  to fire him if he doesn’t resign first.  By the way, those problems with mail delivery have not been fixed. Don’t vote often but do vote early. 

Sinking Ships:  Over the weekend Trump called for federal agencies to end racial sensitivity training, calling it “un- American” and “divisive” because now really is the time to do that? On Sunday, while Trump was out golfing, his campaign’s quick response team posted a video of Joe Biden, mocking him for “dodging” questions while he was walking from his Delaware church to the graves of his first wife, daughter and son.  Suffice it to say, that tone deaf action was widely derided and did nothing more than highlight that Biden was in church while Trump was on the links.  As to Trump’s campaign, the NY Times reports that despite its early advantage, its running low on cash, something to do with devil may care spending, millions upon millions used to pay Trump and his team’s legal expenses, the payment of various bills to Trump hotels and golf courses, salaries to people like Don Jr’s girlfriend and Eric’s wife, and the running of advertisements in unwinnable markets like Washington DC to sooth Trump’s ego. To compensate for the cash short fall Trump is taking full advantage of his White House pulpit but still needs money to run ads in states that his campaign hadn’t thought would be competitive.  By the way his much bragged about boat parades haven’t been doing all that well either, this weekend a few Trump emblazoned sail boats sunk.  By comparison,  Biden who started his campaign with little in the bank and doesn’t appear to have even one dinghy raised a record $300 million last month.  In addition to hitting the campaign trail, Biden’s been doing what serious candidates are supposed to do, building up a transition team, recent additions include Former Mayor/presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg, Former Acting AG Sally Yates and Obama era National Security Advisor Susan Rice.