Spies and Gardeners

The Russia House: As expected by everyone not named Trump, the Supreme Court squashed Texas’ attempt to toss those inconvenient Georgia, Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania election results. That’s the case that was supported by 126 Republican members of the House including Republican leaders Kevin McCarthy and Steve Scalise but not Liz Cheney or Devin Nunes, who was too busy dealing with his recent COVID positive diagnosis to sign on. The Orlando Sentinel was so upset that their local Congressman Michael Waltz endorsed the Texas suit that they apologized for endorsing him.  Though two of the Court’s Justices, Alito and Thomas, would have allowed the case to proceed for a minute longer owing to their position that states’ do get to sue other states for even the most frivolous of reasons, they were fine with the decision to throw the case into the waste bin of history largely because of its baseless claims about the election.  Notably Trump’s three handpicked Justices, Kavanaugh, Gorsuch and Barrett didn’t come to his support and why would they, with their lifetime appointments secured, they can move on to the things they care about, like cutting away at reproductive rights and the separation of church and state, they don’t need Trump in office to do any of that. Trump called the decision wrong, attacked the Justices for having joined the amorphous and growing dark state and said that he would press on with new appeals: to the Galactic Council perhaps? Speaking for others like the Pillow Man, the Proud Boys, Trump era Medal of Honor recipient Rush Limbaugh, and Newt Gingrich, Alan West, the head of the Texas GOP said it was time for “law-abiding states to bond together and form a Union of states that will abide by the constitution.” In other words he called for secession and civil war. To that end after he visited the White House, Proud Boy leader Enrique Tarrio’s followers joined a number of like- minded demonstrators on the streets of Washington DC on Saturday.  By the end of the night, they had desecrated a few African American churches, set fire to a bunch of Black Lives Matter flags and gotten into a few fights with counter protestors.  Oddly enough, Attorney General Bill Barr didn’t call out any of his special forces to shoot off pepper balls and the like possibly because white supremacists acting out hate doesn’t concern him and also because his days are numbered.  It’s only a matter of time before Barr either jumps or is pushed off the Trump train and he has so many other things to do before being replaced by newly minted lawyer Tiffany, like executing a few more inmates, expanding his killing options beyond lethal injection to include firing squads and the electric chair.  As to Proud Boy Tarrio’s White House visit, he asserts that he was invited but apparently he misread his coded message, he was supposed to keep that a secret.  To cover-up for Tarrio’s brag the White House insisted that the patriotic American racist just showed up of his own accord for a routine tour. Apparently, that’s not the only move that the White House tried to keep on the down low.  After it was revealed that all members of the White House staff would be getting those reserved for front line health professionals Pfizer-BioNTech vaccinations this week, Trump retracted the announcement saying that they and he wouldn’t be lining up for a poke anytime soon. Trump is still furious that the Pfizer vaccine wasn’t approved before the election and that the Brits starting jabbing people first so despite concerns that pushing the FDA to jump regulatory hurdles will negatively impact public willingness to get vaccinated, he threatened to fire FDA head Stephen Hahn if he didn’t approve the “dam” (sic) shot by end of day Friday.  Hahn did sign off on Friday night, though he insists that Trump’s threat wasn’t the reason, his assurance probably carries little weight with the vax nervous masses so once again Trump has made things worse. Surprised? Not.  As of this morning 299,597 Americans have died from the COVID, that number will most certainly cross through 300,000 by noon. 

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy:  Something’s rotten at the Department of Veterans Affairs.  Most of the country’s major veterans organizations including the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Disabled American Veterans, Paralyzed Veterans of America, AMVETS, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Minority Veterans of America, the NYC Veterans Alliance, the Modern Military Association of America and the Service Women’s Action Network are calling for the immediate firing of VA Secretary Robert Wilkie, citing a lack of confidence in his leadership over a report from the VA Inspector General.  The IG report blasted Wilkie for his handling of a sexual assault allegation at the Washington DC VA Medical Center.  In short, though Secretary Wilkie promised a full, independent investigation into the allegations asserted by the victim, the IG report concluded that he and other senior leaders instead worked to discredit her, spreading rumors about her honesty. By the way one of those nasty rumor mongers was Congressman Dan Crenshaw, the Republican up and comer best known for his eyepatch.  Of course, dissing women is so on brand for the multiply accused harasser Trump and his crowd which might explain why the Wall Street Journal published a really awful and disrespectful op-ed by one time Northwestern lecturer/Conservative pundit Joseph Epstein. The piece which began by addressing the future FLOTUS as “kiddo," goes on to say that she should drop the “'Dr” before her name saying that  “Dr Jill Biden sounds and feels fraudulent, not to say a touch comic.”  Apparently, Epstein and for that matter the Wall Street Journal editors have no problem with Melania’s questionable route to citizenship, her misrepresentation of her academic credentials or her cribbing of Michelle Obama’s speech but do think that a PhD/active college professor using the Dr title is a stretch. This morning the WSJ editorial board responded to criticism about Epstein’s piece by saying that the complaints were just more organized Democratic kvetching to be ignored.   

Constant Gardener:  The Electoral College Vote takes place today. That’s one of those boring events that most of us ordinarily pay little or no attention to because we live in, or thought we lived in an orderly democracy, but given recent events interest is high, a number of states will be live streaming theirs and Michigan plans to provide its electors with protection in case they  get ambushed by any of those gun toting MAGAs, friends of the ones who tried to kidnap Governor Whitmer.  The good thing is that Biden will get to win again, and Loser Trump who likes to brag about all his winning, will lose again.  The bad thing is that a number of Trump’s diehard Congressman are expected to act out on January 6, turning what should be a routine confirmation of the Electoral College vote into a clown show.   When this is over, and hopefully it will be over in 37 days, Trump will go tend his Mar a Lago garden.  He might not be alone, The New Yorker reports that California’s very senior Senator Diane Feinstein, who recently announced that she would step down as the Democrat’s ranking member of the Justice Committee, is showing signs of dementia. Hugging South Carolina’s Lindsey Graham after the Amy Coney Barrett hearings may have been a tell that all was not well with her thought processes.  Anyway, it’s not clear if the 87 year old Feinstein, the oldest member of the Senate, who was reelected in 2018 will make it to the end of her term. At this rate, California’s Governor Newsom may get to appoint two Senators instead of one.     

Smiley’s People:  It’s hard to know exactly what’s up with Hunter Biden but if the NY Times is right, the Rudy Giuliani inspired investigations into all things Hunter may have turned up some significant unreported earnings and owed taxes, granted not in the order of the $100 million plus that Trump owes the IRS but enough to cause him trouble.  Trump of course is furious that Hunter’s legal problems weren’t fully revealed before the election, just one of those things alongside absentee ballots, a not slow enough Postal Service, the failure of the vaccine to be approved sooner and the moon orbiting the earth that he holds responsible for his loss, the one he won’t acknowledge.  Two more things, last night Trump said he would veto the Defense bill, maybe he will, maybe he won’t and maybe enough Republicans will stand by their votes and maybe they won’t.  The coalition of Senate centrists, or the group that thinks that they’re centrists, and compared to the nefarious Mitch McConnell they are, is still trying to force a vote on a coronavirus relief bill, maybe they will and maybe they won’t.  Stay tuned and keep wearing those masks.  We won’t be getting vaccinated for months.