Six Days

Campaign Trail:  The number of new US coronavirus cases is now averaging more than 70,000 a day, virus hospitalizations are up 46% and medical experts are warning of a dark winter, but nothing to worry about because the virus has been dealt with brilliantly. At least that’s the position of the White House Office of Science and Technology; yesterday they announced that they considered “ending the pandemic” to be one of Trump’s “major first term accomplishments.”  To that end, Trump who seems to be pushing to get that daily infection number into the six figures as soon as possible because, duh, obviously more is better, continues to pack his days with super spreader rallies. During one of those rallies he told his largely un-masked, closely packed crowd that he had to win because if he doesn’t and if Joe Biden is assassinated after taking office, we’ll be left in the hands of that “monster” Kamala Harris, you know the woman with the “demonic” laugh. Assassination talk from a sitting leader whose fans cling on to his every word, what could go wrong?  In addition to going after Biden, Trump  continues to attack Democratic Governors suggesting that he’s got them under surveillance.  He’s particularly agitated by those swing state ones who aren’t all in on his devil may care approach to dealing with the virus.  Of course being personally attacked by Trump has consequences, 60 Minutes moderator Lesley Stahl is now getting death threats and has joined the list of Trump targets needing protection.  As to death plots, while taking credit for his Justice Department’s capture of the extremists who’d been planning to kidnap and kill Michigan’s Governor Whitmer, Trump also said that he doubted that she was ever really in danger, maybe that’s another thing he can take up with FBI Director Wray when he fires him as Wray’s FBI recently discovered that those not so dangerous plotters had accumulated a stash of bomb making materials.  The Justice Department is now considering adding that to the indictments against those “nice people on both sides” kidnappers who wanted to do away with Whitmer.   Trump is also quite annoyed that despite his assertion that we’ve turned the corner, whatever that means, the press remains focused on “COVID,  COVID, COVID.” From Florida where he’s holding socially distanced car rallies for Biden, Former President Obama, who appears to be enjoying how much he gets under Trump’s skin, mocked Trump saying that he’s just jealous of COVID’s higher media ratings.  Though a number of still shell shocked veterans of Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign are concerned that Biden isn’t spending all his time in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin, the states where Trump eked out the wins that led to his 2016 electoral college victory,  Biden was off in Georgia yesterday, trying to turn that state, which hasn’t gone for a Democrat since Bill Clinton, blue, or at the very least, give Democratic Senate Candidates Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock an assist. In a sign that Biden’s expand the map strategy may not be that farfetched, NBC’s pollsters recategorized Texas which hasn’t voted for a Democratic presidential candidate since 1976 from lean Republican to “toss-up.”  And in case you were worrying, you’ll be relieved to know that Melania has recovered from her bout with COVID and/or has a new post-nup that requires her to hit the campaign trail.  Yesterday, the long time birther told her audience that “children watching and learning about politics deserve a better display of political responsibility.”  Seriously, she said that. For what it’s worth, the national polls remain steady and Biden’s leads in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin seem solid but we’ve been here before.    

Money, Money, Money:  The NY Times posted another article about Trump’s questionable finances. In this one they dive into the details behind the $270 million of debt that his lenders, primarily Deutsche Bank, forgave after he failed to make payments related on his Chicago Tower project.  There’s not much new in the article, the back story related to that unsuccessful project have been in the public domain for a while, much of it is detailed in David Enrich’s Dark Towers book,  but the NY Times does note that Trump used the taxable gain associated with the forgiven loan to offset taxes from other earnings, pointing out that it’s quite possible that he overreached and that his tax avoidance scheme may be among the things that NY State is investigating.  Also in the financial realm, the Washington Post’s David Farenthold posted another one of his articles on how Trump and his organization have been ripping off taxpayers.  In this one Farenthold details some of the line items that make up the $2.5 million that the US government has paid for the use of Trump properties since 2017.  That figure represents only the amount that Farenthold has managed to track down so far, there’s more out there but he only reports when he finds receipts. You might be a bit distressed to know that the Trump organization charges the US taxpayers $3 per glass of water and that the FBI holds on to and pays for some expensive digs at Trump’s Bedminster club because they never know when Trump or one of his kids, as in Ivanka, might decide to travel to NJ for a jaunt. 

Justice:  Since the COVID House swearing in ceremony was just for show, Justice Amy was officially sworn in by Chief Justice Roberts yesterday.  Though there’s no indication that she’ll comply, the Luzerne County Board of Elections has asked her to recuse herself if the Supreme Court reconsiders its decision to reject efforts by Pennsylvania Republicans to force them to refuse to count ballots postmarked by election day but received as late as November 6. The Luzerne Board noted that “the nomination and confirmation of a Supreme Court justice this close to a presidential election is unprecedented,” adding “as concerning as that is, what is even more troubling is the language”  Trump “has used in consideration of this nomination, linking it directly to the electoral season at hand, with implications for his own re-election.” We should know very soon where Justice Amy stands.  In other court news a federal circuit judge in Manhattan ruled that Trump can be personally sued for defamation in connection with the E Jean Caroll rape allegation. Not buying that defamation is part of Trump’s job, the judge rejected the Justice Department’s attempt to step into the case.