Stay Calm and Carry On

Raging On: Trump shares a few characteristics with the coronavirus, they’re both still raging and they’re both responsible for the deaths of far too many people.  Trump’s rage has a lot to do with the fact that Bob Woodward actually published the implicating things he said during their taped interviews so naturally he is now blaming him rather than his only inaction for the virus’ deadly trajectory.  Yesterday during another one of his hastily scheduled White House press conferences, one clearly called to give him an opportunity to push back at the things disclosed in Woodward’s book, Trump went with his usual mostly false assertions about all the wonderful things he’s done, how under his watch the US has done so much better than Europe, not true but he keeps saying it anyway, and then called for college football to get back to a full schedule because apparently his eight hours a day of watching Fox News is not filling up enough of his day.  Suffice it to say he wasn’t all that pleased when ABC’s Jon Karl asked him "Why did you lie to the American people? And why should we trust what you have to say now?" Trump responded by to that query by lashing out at Karl, calling the question and the “phraseology” terrible, and then saying he didn’t lie focusing instead on how important it was to prevent all of us from panicking. He went with that theme again during his night time rally in Michigan, where thousands of his red hatted fans stood mostly mask-less, packed into an airport hangar in another super spreader event to listen to him rage on about how a Joe Biden victory would result in looters and anarchists moving into their suburbs because who “wants to have somebody from antifa as a member and as a resident….Say darling, look who moved in next door.” Hate to break it to them, but some of those antifa people as well as a few of those radicals are probably already in the suburbs alongside a larger contingent of violent white supremacists but whatever.  Trump actually compared himself to Winston Churchill who he claimed lied to the Brits during WW II to keep them calm, that’s the Churchill who said “The British people can face any misfortune with fortitude and buoyancy as long as they are convinced that those in charge of their affairs are not deceiving them, or not dwelling in a fool’s paradise.”  And because it was Michigan, he also took credit for saving the auto industry, the auto industry that the Obama/Biden administration saved after the 2008 financial crisis. 

Russia, Russia, Russia:  That radical leftist newspaper the Wall Street Journal reports that the Russians are back to their old election meddling games, that they’re targeting Democrats again and that their efforts which are being led by the same cast of government-directed hackers that attacked in 2016 are more sophisticated this time around.  Citing Microsoft the WSJ reported that the Chinese and the Iranians are also up to no good, but to a significantly lesser degree.  Of course the Trump party line is that the Russians aren’t doing anything wrong.  Not surprising as Trump still refuses to acknowledge that his good friend Vlad is responsible for the poisoning of Russian dissident Alexei Navalny.  While Trump’s Russian affinity remains as strong as ever, the Treasury Department appears to be going rogue.  Yesterday Treasury announced new sanctions against Andrii Derkach, accusing the controversial Ukrainian lawmaker of being a long term “active Russian agent” who is part of Putin’s 2020 election interference campaign.  That’s particularly notable because Derkach has close ties to Rudy Giuliani and has been providing him and Republican Senator/Homeland Security Committee Chair Ron Johnson and Republican Congressman/Intel ranking member Devon Nunes with the “dirt” on Joe and Hunter Biden that they keep asserting will take Biden down.  The Treasury action means that Giuliani has been collaborating with an active Russian agent; when asked by CNN about that Giuliani texted back “Who cares?” And really, why should he, Trump has his back.  Anyway, the Treasury’s action makes you wonder if Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin or one of his aides is the insider anti-Trumper who goes by the name of Anonymous. 

Et Cetera:  A NY Federal Court handed Trump a setback yesterday, rejecting his efforts to exclude undocumented immigrants from the census population counts that will be used in next year’s congressional seat reapportionment.  By a unanimous vote the three judge panel ruled that Trump’s gambit was so obviously illegal that the lawsuit challenging his order need not even go to a trial.  As expected Senate Democrats voted down Majority Leader McConnell’s “skinny” relief bill, one that House Speaker Pelosi called an “anorexic” attempt to deal with a huge problem.  The Republican bill which McConnell only offered up so that he could attack the Democrats for not lining up behind it would have raised only $350 million in new money, Pelosi who has whittled her ask from the $3 trillion passed by the House a few months ago down to around $1.5 trillion said that “We don’t want to go home without a bill, but don’t want to be a cheap date….When you are in a negotiation, the last place to get weak knees is at the end.”  Unfortunately for those individuals and hard hit states that really need the money to go on, nothing will be forthcoming for now and maybe at all.  One more factoid, the CDC reports that dining out raises the risk of contracting COVID more than other activities including shopping or going to a salon.  They attribute that to the obvious: that diners congregate too close, aren’t masked when they chow down and then fail to put their masks back on when they’re not eating.  Eating outside is better than eating indoors but the CDC recommends that people be very, very cautious.  Keep that in mind the next time you get an insatiable craving to eat at your favorite haunt. 

Remembering all those lost on 9.11 today and all those lost in the aftermath.  May their memories be a blessing today and always.