Truth, Justice and the American Way? 🌻🌻🌻

Fascist Much:  Coming off a summer of legislative wins and with primary season now in the rear window, President Biden is on the campaign trail rallying for Democratic candidates.  Yesterday he slammed “semi-fascism” in the Republican Party, an understatement given that the MAGA dominated GOP, with its continued adoration of the Former Guy, affinity for Putin, embrace of Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orban, advocacy of oppressive social policies and support of candidates who reject the results of the 2020 election while promising to overturn future ones that don’t go their way moved way past the “semi” part quite a while ago. Take a hard look at Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, the current GOP heir apparent, missing that George Orwell’s 1984 was never intended to be an Idiot’s Guide to Fascism, he’s added banning “opposition” as in mainstream reporters from his campaign events to his repertoire, what’s next a Ministry of Truth? On the subject of “truth,” it turns out that the problems at the FG’s Truth Social continue to mount. The media platform is still being investigated by the SEC over its SPAC shenanigans and yesterday Fox Business reported it missed $1.6 million in payments to RightForge, its internet hosting vendor. Truth Social last made a payment to RightForge in March, since then bupkus. Additionally, the US Patent and Trademark Office has refused the FG’s application for a trademark for the Truth Social name, something about there being at least two other companies with similar monikers. You’d think that the FG and his team would have done a bit more homework before settling on a name but then again business acumen is hardly one of the former steak hawker’s strong points.

Student Loans:  On the policy front, earlier this week the Biden administration announced its long awaited student loan forgiveness plan.  Essentially, the plan involves the forgiving of up to $20,000 in federal student loans to individuals who earn less than $125,000 per year or heads of households earning less than $250,000.  In addition the plan caps monthly payments on undergraduate federal loans to 5% of a borrower’s discretionary income and extends the “coronavirus” pause on student loan repayments through the end of the year. Those on the left are very upset that Biden’s forgiveness plan isn’t way more encompassing and those on the right are calling it out as a Communist conspiracy that will lead to hyper-inflation.  Ironically, ignoring that their mango god has declared bankruptcy multiple times and now is stiffing another one of his vendors, the Republican position is that paying ones debts on time is right up there with mom and apple pie. They also say that forgiving student loans is unfair to truck drivers and others who haven’t gone to college as well as to those who’ve paid their loans off. To that end the Biden administration took to Twitter last night, blasting out the names of those GOP lawmakers who while loudly bashing the student loan cancellation program personally benefited from having their COVID related Paycheck Protection Program loans forgiven in amounts far greater than $20,000.  Among others that list includes Vern Buchanan with a whopping $2.3 million forgiven,  Margie Q with $183k and Matt Gaetz with $482k. As to those inflation fears, while some respected economists have expressed concerns that the loan forgiveness plan will feed inflation just as it appears to be abating, Goldman Sachs’ economists, hardly a bunch of socialists, have concluded that it won’t amount to much, saying the headlines are bigger than the macroeconomic impact.  Morgan Stanley and Bank of America agree with Goldman’s assessment, calling the loan forgiveness plan nothing more than meh. My view for what it’s worth is that if both the left and right are unhappy, then maybe Biden found the right “sweet” spot. As to the Republican party’s outrage over loan forgiveness, maybe some of it is driven by an attempt to divert attention from what the Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board calls the party’s “abortion problem” and how eviscerating reproductive rights has been driving Democratic voter turnout and could well be the deciding factor in turning what was supposed to be a very red midterm wave into a pink or even blue one.   

Legally Yours:  Pursuant to an order of the Judge who approved the warrant to search Mar a Lago, a redacted  version of the warrant affidavit will be released later today. It’s not clear that the affidavit will reveal much as its fair to assume that the DOJ redacted as much as it could get away with.  Also on the legal front, Fulton County DA Fani Willis remains hard at work.  Add former Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, who seems to be in hiding these days, to the list of FG associates that she’s now subpoenaed. Though Senator Lindsey Graham got a reprieve from his subpoena last weekend after a Federal Appeals Court judge put a hold on his testifying, that reprieve is likely to be temporary as his case has been expedited.  The current expectation is that despite his protests, he will be compelled to show up, probably in September.  Also, though we haven’t heard much about it lately the case against panhandle putz Matt Gaetz who recently won his primary because Florida is after all Florida is still out there and reports are it is progressing, though the conclusion, if any comes to pass, may be an episode in next year’s season of Maga Maniacs Run Amok.

Viral Musings:  Add FLOTUS Jill Biden to the list of those whose turned COVID positive after being COVID negative.  She doesn’t appear to be having any symptoms but is back in quarantine pending  some more negative results.  As to Paxlovid, a recent Israeli study shows that while it does excel at keeping those over 65 alive and out of the hospital, it doesn’t do much if anything for those in the 44 to 64 age group. Notably, almost all of the people in the Israel study were vaccinated unlike tennis player Novak Djokovic who still isn’t and as a result will not be allowed into the US to play at the US Open.