Fortune Fritter

Politics As Usual: Last week, full of unbridled enthusiasm about the bipartisan infrastructure plan that his team had hashed out with about twenty “moderate” Senators from both sides of the aisle, Joe Biden went off script and said that he wouldn’t sign the bipartisan legislation until a Democrat-only mega reconciliation bill also hit his desk.  That remark, his way of assuring the left wing of his party that he still planned to move forward with their multi-trillion wish list of projects, went over about as well as expected with the Republican crowd.  Egged on by Republican leader Mitch McConnell, who would rather bridges fall down than see Biden have any successes, quite a few of them then said not so fast, if that’s the deal we’re not going to support the bipartisan plan that we just said we supported even though we kind of knew that the Democratic mega reconciliation bill was going to follow a parallel track. Biden spent part of his weekend walking back his off the cuff remarks, issuing a carefully worded statement in an attempt to keep the bipartisan deal on track with Republicans while also insuring that he doesn’t lose the prickly progressives he’ll need to get it through the House.  As indicated by Senator Mitt Romney who did the Sunday talk show thing this weekend, the Biden “fix it” statement combined with a series of one on one phone calls has the Republican “moderates” back in the deal.  That said, to get to the endgame, Biden’s going to have to keep on script while threading the needle to keep Pelosi’s left flank on board. 

Crazy Train: While Biden was playing his balancing game, the Former Guy took off on his grievance tour.  He headed to Ohio where he attacked Republican Congressman Anthony Gonzales, one of the Republicans who voted for his impeachment, throwing his weight behind Gonzales’ primary opponent.  Of course the delusional FG also insisted to the equally delusional crowd that he won the last election. Rumor has it that the Delta coronavirus variant was also in attendance, we’ll know for sure when Ohio’s positivity levels start pointing upward.  So far the FG hasn’t endorsed a candidate for the seat being vacated by retiring Senator Rob Portman, one of the so-called moderates who endorsed the bipartisan infrastructure plan.  A gaggle of fairly despicable Senator wannabees, including Hillbilly Elegy scribe JD Vance, one time state party chair Jane Timken and former state treasurer Josh Mandel who always shows up in the mix are doing their worst to earn his praise.  By the way it turns out that Ivanka and Jared aren’t the only ones trying to distance themselves from the FG.  Over the weekend, The Atlantic ran an article detailing how former Attorney General William Barr “finally” turned on him.  Barr wants us to know that his relationship with the FG hit bottom once he told him and the public that the election hadn’t been rigged.  He also wants us to know that McConnell encouraged him get that message to the FG because all that election doubt was making the Georgia elections more challenging.  That’s Mitch who condemned the Trump inspired January insurrection but then refused to vote for impeachment or for the establishment of a commission to investigate it. While there will be no bipartisan commission, Speaker Pelosi is now in the process of setting up a House select committee to do what would  have been its job.  Of course House Leader Kevin McCarthy, who finally, after months of delay, met with injured Capitol Police Officer Michael Fanone at the end of last week is dismissing her efforts.  Despite Fanone’s request, McCarthy also refused to publicly chastise his insurrectionist members or to promise not to appoint any of them to Nancy’s new committee which makes Margie Q very happy as she is seeking a spot.  Getting back to Georgia, where newbie Senator Raphael Warnock will be back on the ballot in 2022, on Friday Attorney General Merrick Garland announced that the Justice Department is suing the state to get some of its recently passed election provisions declared illegal for being disproportionately discriminatory against minorities.  He’s facing an uphill battle.

Indictment Week?  Those indictments that many of us been waiting for could start flying as early as today.  On Friday, the NY Times reported that the Manhattan District Attorney’s office has informed the FG’s lawyers that it is “considering” criminal charges against the FG Organization  “in connection with fringe benefits the company awarded a top executive.”  After the article appeared an assortment of legal pundits, including a few former US and Manhattan office Attorneys, took to the airwaves to interpret that tidbit.  They say that despite the hedgy language the indictments are happening, that the “considering” is legal speak for giving the FG Organization and its CFO Allen Weisselberg one last opportunity to cut a deal.  They also say that it’s more than likely that the indictments will cover far more than just untaxed fringe benefits and that being indicted will make it difficult, if not impossible, for the FG’s business to remain financially viable as financial institutions don’t do business with indicted entities. They even used words like foreclosure and bankruptcy.  Needless to say, the FG isn’t going to go down without a messy  fight, he’s issued one of his “it’s just more of a witch hunt” statements and it’s fair to assume that he’ll be saying and doing far worse shortly. In other legal news, one time convict/former NYC Police Commissioner Bernie Kerik took to Twitter to announce that he’s set up a Rudy Giuliani Freedom Fund to help the former Mayor fund his legal defense.  It’s not clear why Rudy needs his fans to fund his defense as he reportedly has or at least had $45 million in assets which makes him only a bit less wealthy than Britney Spears whose assets are around $60 million. Makes you wonder why it is that wacko Rudy was allowed to fritter away his fortune on multiple wives, girlfriends, trips to Ukraine and Four Seasons Total Landscaping while Britney remains under the control of a conservatorship and forced to sport an IUD.  Several members of the Missouri Republican party are really upset, not about Britney being subjected to forced birth control but because they believe that IUDs are abortifacients and therefore should be outlawed. Given that, it’s not all that surprising that Missouri has the third highest COVID positivity rate in the country. Apparently neither vaccines nor science comprehension are a thing in the Show Me state.     

US Average 7 day case count 11,867  

603, 597          

(source NY Times)