On to Chicago ✡️🌻✡️🌻✡️

Eliquis, Xarelto, Etc:  Yesterday with VP/Candidate Kamala Harris by his side President Biden announced that as a result of the passage of his Inflation Reduction Act, Medicare had negotiated down the prices of ten commonly prescribed drugs.  It’s estimated that the reduced drug prices will result in around $6 billion in savings for the federal government and a $1.5 billion reduction in out-of-pocket costs for seniors once those price reductions go into effect in 2026 assuming Republicans don’t take over and unwind the deal. Biden who looked and sounded better than he has in a while jokingly called the former guy Donald Dump while “signaling unity” with Kamala, a sign that while he may hold a grudge against those who pushed him aside, she’s remains solidly in his good graces. Fresh off a speech in North Carolina where he was supposed to talk about the economy but instead went with his usual grievance full rant, Trump held another hastily scheduled “press conferences,” this one at his Bedminster Club AKA Ivana’s cemetery. Surrounded by boxes of cereal and slabs of bacon which were there to serve as props for what was supposed to be another speech about the economy, Trump once again went with the airing of grievances.  By the way, does anyone believe he’s ever been in a Stop and Shop?  Trump is harping, or at least he’s supposed to be harping on the economy because historically, despite evidence to the contrary, voters rate Republicans higher when it comes to economic issues but like almost everything related to this election cycle, precedent is proving meaningless. According to the latest Financial Times poll 42% of voters say they trust Harris most to handle the economy, while 41% trust Trump.  That’s a slim difference but notable, Harris’s trust number represents a 7% gain on where Biden was just one month ago. That and this week’s inflation figure which shows inflation down to 2.9%, the first time it’s been below 3% since 2021, is a problem for Trump who has been campaigning on what he’s been calling Biden and Harris’ “disastrous economy.” Harris is expected to detail her economic plans shortly, if she veers to far to the left, maybe Trump will retake the usual Republican position but even if she doesn’t, he’ll call her out as a communist as will his echo chamber and maybe that will be enough for him.     

Bets: The expectation that there isn’t a recession ahead combined with the surprising rise of Kamala Harris and Trump’s shtick wearing thin may be why Real Clear Politics’ average of six betting markets now shows Harris with a 54% chance of winning in November with Trump at 45%. Not that any of us should let our guard down, Trump has remarkable staying power but at the very least Kamala’s improvement in the polls, betting and otherwise, has definitely gotten under Trump’s skin, hence these pointless, stupid “press conferences” and the return of former campaign aide Corey Lewandowski to his campaign leadership team.  Lewandowski, who like Trump has a habit of sexually harassing women and engaging in public messy extra marital affairs, the most recent with South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem,  is one of Trump’s comfort blankets, so is Steve Bannon but since he’s currently in prison, he’s unavailable. However, Kellyanne Conway is out and about so don’t be surprised if she shows up next. On the subject of weird guys, I’d be remiss if I didn’t mention RFK Jr’s newest gambit.  First, he offered to pull out of the race and endorse Trump in exchange for a cabinet position.  Nothing came of that, at least so far, so he made the same offer to Kamala’s team.. He’s mad because they haven’t returned his calls so he appears to be turning back to Trump’s team, who may be desperate enough to give him something in exchange for his endorsement.  With this election likely to be close, nepo-RFK’s power to disrupt is real and disturbing because who doesn’t think Trump would promote polio if it got him back to the Oval office.           

Vets:  Trump who announced that he was again running for president back in 2022, had plenty of time to vet his running mate while Harris had only two weeks to bring hers onboard.  So far, we’ve learned that Kamala’s choice, Tim Walz, is all in on making tampons available in school bathrooms and that he left the National Guard after “only” 24 years of service.  In contrast we keep on learning more disturbing factoids about JD Vance. Not only has he dissed childless cat women, a group that includes the ultimate influencer Taylor Swift, but more recently we learned that he believes that raising grandchildren is the sole purpose of post-menopausal women, that it isn’t normal for women to care about their reproductive rights, and that corporations who support abortion rights do so only because they “want a pool of cheap labor.”  JD Vance’s views shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone who did any research on him since he made many of them known during a series of podcast appearances that were easily available to a vetting team.  Either Trump’s team did a really bad job, or they found nothing problematic about Vance’s positions which says a lot about them and Trump.  Similarly, while Trump keeps trying to distance himself from the extreme right- wing positions that make up Project 2025, JD Vance is closely tied to the plan and its author.  No surprise then that Trump is bleeding support among women, even among white women, a group that he usually wins. Trump also appears to be doing his best to offend veterans and Jews.  Last night during an event which was about combatting anti-Semitism, odd in itself since Trump sees good people on both sides and dines with neo-Nazis, he said that the presidential medal he gave Miriam Adelson, one of his largest donors, was better than the top military honor given to heroic soldiers because “they’re either in very bad shape, hit so many times by bullets or they’re dead.”  A wonderful way to show appreciation for those who put their lives on the line for his country?

Will You Still Love Me:  The Democratic convention takes place next week in Chicago, not the city I would have chosen given what happened in 1968.  In case that’s before your time, think violence, anti-Viet Nam War protests, Mayor Daly, blood and guts rather than Saturday in the Park. if the expected pro-Palestinian protestors don’t pull off a repeat of 1968, and they might, the Harris/Walz ticket could get a post-convention bump.  If so, expect Trump to further unravel.

#BringThemAllHomeNow