Tower of Babbling

Campaign Central:  Trump was in North Carolina yesterday, holding one of his airport rallies, his new normal.  Though a bunch of the people strategically placed behind him were wearing masks, most of the rally participants were not.  And why would they, it’s not like the failure to wear a mask could lead to a nationwide COVID spike, right?  That’s the argument that South Dakota’s Governor Kristi Noem is still pushing, even though an analysis of cell phone patterns published by the Institute of Labor Economics asserts that a whopping 266,796 coronavirus cases, as in 19% of the new cases in the US between August 2 and September 2, came about as a result of her state’s 500,000 attendee Sturgis Motorcycle Rally. The study’s writers calculate that the Sturgis related virus spread added $12 billion to US public health care costs. Of course virus denier Noem disputes the study pointing out that it hasn’t been peer reviewed.  She’s not wrong about the peer review but cell phone patterns are increasingly being used as indicators of “return to normal” activity that corelate with increased virus incidence and even if the results of the Institute’s study are overstated, they are still quite remarkable, in a very bad way. On the virus front, Trump is still claiming that a vaccine will be ready before the election, but apparently Astra Zeneca hasn’t gotten that hurry up message.  Late yesterday the company announced that it is pausing late-stage trials of its coronavirus vaccine because of a serious suspected adverse reaction in a participant.  The company didn’t provide any more details.  While the “pause” news is both depressing and concerning, that’s the whole point of trials, to make sure that adverse reactions are caught before vaccines are rolled out to the masses, a message that will probably never make it into Trump’s desperate, dare I say, pea sized brain. And how desperate is Trump, well yesterday, while asserting that his campaign was positively swimming in dough, he said that he was considering contributing $100 million of his own funds because he’s that kind of guy. To be clear, while it’s true that his campaign has recklessly burned through a lot of its money, there’s little chance that Trump will contribute any of his own, it’s more likely that he’s trying to bait and switch donors, large and small, into opening up their increasingly closed wallets.  Interestingly enough, one of those stingy contributors might be casino operator Sheldon Adelson, previously an avid and generous Trump supporter, who recently has been blaming Trump’s mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic for the financial damage done to his gambling empire. 

As to Trump’s electoral prospects, though Biden appears to be holding on to his leads, nationally and in most swing states with the exception of Florida where key Latino voters appear to be leaning towards Trump, it’s way too early to count Trump out.  That said, the Rupert Murdoch owned Wall Street Journal is concerned.  In an editorial published today, they warn that it’s time for him to stop with his “tower of babbling,” replacing his contentious old standbys with a focus on the real policy differences between him and Biden, that uber liberal guy who liberals believe is too moderate.  So far Trump hasn’t gotten that message, last night during his viral infused North Carolina hug fest he was back to bragging about his wall, all four miles of it, claiming this time around that he’ll be putting tolls on the border to force Mexico to pay for it.  Of course he also was busy tossing out some not so subtle dog whistles particularly targeting VP candidate Kamala Harris saying that she’s further to the left than Bernie Sanders, the guy he’d really rather be running against.  He made it clear that a woman “like her” would never be a suitable president, a not so subtle swipe at her race and Joe Biden’s age. And maybe he’s not so happy that Kamala’s down to earth fashion sense went viral yesterday, as people rushed to buy black Chuck Taylor All-Stars, her signature campaign shoe. Unlike Trump, the petite Kamala goes without lifts. 

Barring None:  Attorney General Barr is up to some new tricks, and by tricks think ways to subvert justice to protect Trump who he continues to treat as his personal despot.  Yesterday Barr’s Justice Department announced its intention to replace Trump's private lawyers in order to better defend him in the defamation lawsuit brought by E Jean Carroll.  E Jean is the former Elle writer who claims, and contemporaneously told two friends, that Trump raped her in Bergdorf Goodman’s back in the 1990s. She’s been suing Trump for defamation in NY for calling her a liar and has been making progress in the courts.  Of concern to Trump and his loyal toady Barr, she’s been seeking his DNA to compare it with some that is still on the dress that she was wearing the day of the alleged rape.  Though the law gives federal government employees immunity from most defamation lawsuits when they’re acting in their official capacity, it has rarely, if ever, been used before to protect a president, especially for actions taken before that president took office.  The bottom line is that it’s unlikely that it is really within the “scope of the law for government lawyers to defend someone accused of lying about a rape when he wasn’t even president yet,” or at least that’s what a bunch of legal beagles in the know say. Barr and Trump probably know that too but this is a neat way to delay the discovery proceedings and has the added benefit of shifting Trump’s defense costs onto taxpayers like you and me.  Wonder how many of those key suburban women who grew up reading E Jean’s iconic columns will feel about that.    

One More Thing:  Yesterday, the NY Times reported that some scientists are looking into the idea that face masks might  expose wearers to just enough coronavirus to spark a protective immune response.  It’s a provocative, unproven thought but not as crazy as it sounds as it’s also been suggested that most people who get very sick from COVID have been exposed to large virus loads and masks, even the ones that most of us have access to, prevent those large loads from getting to us while still letting small amounts in.  Anyway, while scientists ponder this one and while we wait for a safe and effective vaccine #WearAMask.