Say Hey ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Primarily Yours:  It’s Juneteenth, the newest federal holiday that celebrates the day in 1865 when slaves finally found out that they’d been freed.  Check out google for some neat celebratory graphics.  Someone should do a wellness check on Martha-Ann Alito who is probably rifling through her flag collection in search of a suitable one to fly in protest and maybe also searching in her closet for a white robe and conehead cap. Or maybe she’ll just settle for one of those “white boy summer” pink hats handed out at uber-right wing, white supremacist Charlie Kirk’s Turning Point convention where Trump recently spoke. She might not be the only one stressing today, Representative Bob Good, one of Congress’ most conservative members and the chair of the hard-right House Freedom Caucus, is locked in a nail-biting, too close to call Virginia primary race with his equally hard right-wing Trump endorsed challenger, State Senator John McGuire.  As of this morning Good trails McGuire by 327 votes, tight enough to send the race into a recount. Good is in this pickle because early in the primary season he endorsed Florida’s Ron DeSantis run for the presidency.  Though he ultimately shifted his allegiance back to Trump, even making one of those de rigueur appearances outside Judge Juan Merchan’s New York Court, felonious grudge holder Trump slammed him by endorsing McGuire, not over policy but because when Trump says he’s into retribution, he means it, regardless of party affiliation. However, Eugene Vindman, not to be confused with his identical twin brother Alexander, is celebrating this morning. Eugene, like his twin, was both a military officer and a Trump term whistle blower whose complaint to his supervisors about Trump’s efforts to pressure Ukraine President Zelenskyy led to Trump’s first impeachment.  He garnered 50% of the vote, easily trounced his seven opponents, to win the Democratic primary for the Virginia seat being vacated by Abigail Spanberger who has announced her intention to run for governor in next year’s state election. Vindman has his work cut out for him since the seat he’s seeking is in a swing district, but challenges appear to suit the high achieving immigrant VIndman brothers, which in addition to the twins includes older brother Leonid, another military veteran.

Presidential Politics:  It turns out that Trump really does hate “horrible” Milwaukee, either that or he was looking for a way to pad his own pockets by diverting campaign cash into his Chicago hotel because though the upcoming Republican convention is being held in the brew city, until yesterday Trump plans included staying at his Chicago property.  After those plans were leaked by a Chicago official who revealed that security arrangements were being made by local police and the Secret Service for his Chicago stay, Trump’s campaign did the “fake news” thing while Trump scurried to change his accommodations. While Trump was adjusting his reservations, President Biden was also engaged in some politicking.  Yesterday he announced that he is using his executive powers to make it easier for somewhere around 500,000 undocumented spouses and children of US citizens to apply for lawful permanent residency without having to first leave the country to do so.  Not having to leave the country is important because it avoids the sometimes-lengthy family separation that can happen if a person leaves the country to apply for residency and then is either denied reentry or gets stuck in a long bureaucratic process.  To qualify an applicant has to have been in the US for ten years and to pass a criminal background check, so contrary to what Trump acolyte Stephen Miller and the rest of the felonious Trump echo chamber is saying, this isn’t a program for criminals and drug kingpins. Biden also announced that he would be making it somewhat easier for DACA Dreamers, those high performing, squeaky clean migrants who came here as kids, to get work visas.  That’s important because absent immigration legislation, the Dreamers have been stuck in permanent limbo, fearful that another Trump administration could send them packing to a country where they have no family ties and where they may not even speak the language.  Of course, things being what they are, the same group of anti-immigrant Republicans who insist that as president, Biden doesn’t need legislation to implement harsher border policies will soon be suing, asserting he’s overstepped his powers. Also, for the record, though Biden clearly made these announcements to appeal to immigration friendly voters, especially those in the Latin American community, none of the individuals likely to benefit from these policies will become instant citizens so they won’t qualify to vote in upcoming elections.    

Debate Club:  In other election news, the first presidential debate between Biden and Trump takes place on June 27.  Contrary to a recent tweet by the right leaning Washington Reporter that was then retweeted by Republican politicians Mike Lee, Elise Stefanik, and Josh Hawley among others, the Biden campaign has not asked for the debate to be reconfigured to take place with the candidates seated at a table so that Biden can rest his “geriatric” legs.  That lie has been debunked by CNN which confirmed that neither candidate has made that request though last time I checked it’s Trump who takes golf carts everywhere and Biden who’s still takes the occasional bike ride, something that admittedly freaks me out. Of course, Missouri’s Josh Hawley who really is a miserable guy, doubled down on his tweet by saying that anyone who has to sit doesn’t qualify for office, apparently he’s forgotten that four term president FDR was a polio survivor who spent much of his presidency in a wheel chair and also hasn’t spent much time with Texas Governor Abbott, who as a result of a spinal cord injury runs Texas from his chair.  Much to his chagrin, RFK Jr will not be participating in the debate as he has failed to qualify for the ballot in enough states and hasn’t reached the polling numbers required to qualify. And if the ruling made by New York’s highest court yesterday that it will not consider Judge Juan Merchan’s gag order because “there is no substantial constitutional question directly involved” isn’t overturned by SCOTUS, assuming it even makes it there, Trump won’t be able to say some of the really mean things that he wants to say during that debate or on his campaign junket without giving Merchan another reason to incarcerate him.

And:  Surprise, surprise Republican Senator Pete Ricketts of Nebraska who apparently was assigned by Republican leader Mitch McConnell to the role of bump stock protector, put the kibosh on an attempt by Democratic Senator Martin Heinrich of New Mexico, Senate leader Chuck Schumer’s designated bump stock killer, to bring up a bill banning bump stocks by unanimous consent, a process that would have led to fast passage of the ban. Sadly, if the bill ever makes it to the floor, getting 60 votes will likely prove impossible.

#BringThemAllHomeNow