9.27.20: The President's Supreme Court Nominee Isn't There to Save Him

The respective interviews today with Senators Roy Blunt (R-MO) and Corey Booker (D-NJ) are superfluous due to all the answers they gave on Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett make no difference in the what is to come. Judge Barrett will be confirmed by the Republican-lead United States Senate before the election on November 3rd. 

Never mind that Senate Republicans four years ago said that a Supreme Court Justice shouldn't be confirmed in an election year and denied Judge Merrick Garland (President Obama's nominee) hearings. The hypocrisy of Republicans is baked into their political cake and frankly, they don't care about being called out on it. It's an opportunity at a naked power grab and there is no doubt that Republicans will take advantage of it no matter what Democrats in congress say, no matter what the press says and definitely no matter what the will of the American people is. 

Judge Barrett will be confirmed before the November election. Hard Stop. 

However (there's always a however), and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell certainly knows this, the effect of this confirmation is not going to bode well for Republicans in the election. This confirmation is going to motivate Democratic turn-out in a major way and will also sway independents toward Joe Biden and Democrats down ballot. Republican voters still left to vote may not feel as motivated because they got 'their pick.' But none of this matters because Mr. McConnell already sees the writing on the wall. The Republicans in the Senate are headed for the minority and in the lame duck session it will be politically untenable to confirm a justice. Given this, why not get out of the majority what Republicans can while they can? 

Also, much has been made of President Trump's judicial nominee list for the Supreme Court and part of Republicans rhetorical argument is that Joe Biden has presented a list because he's a tool of the left. This column finds this tact typically Republican. We all know that Mr. Trump's list is in actuality not his list, but a list provided to him by the Federalist Society so couldn't the argument be made that the Trump is a tool of the right when it comes to the court?

The president has said that nine justices on the court are a necessity to resolve any election disputes, but if the polls and Mitch McConnell's calculations are correct, the Supreme Court won't be a factor in deciding the election like in 2000. Instead, this shift in the court will address something more important to Republicans, which is getting rid of the Affordable Care Act, that's the real motivation. Even if Joe Biden is elected, the court could strike down the ACA, which would be invalidated around June when the decision comes and then some months after until it's void. There is no way to recover the bill in time so that millions of Americans won't lose their healthcare. Republicans pay lip service to preexisting conditions and keeping young adults on their parents' plan, but without the ACA those two aspects will become unaffordable.

What this nomination does and what the president said this week about not committing to a peaceful transfer of power, something that Senator Booker described as menacing our democracy, all serve to distract from the fact... the fact that Mr. Trump has presided over the fourth largest mass casualty event in American history - his horrendously inexcusable handling of the coronavirus pandemic. 

Over 7.1 million Americans infected and 204,450 (756 yesterday) dead. (source: NY Times)

So the complainer-in-chief who famously doesn't prepare for debates (the one upcoming on Tuesday being no exception) better not be surprised when those numbers and that failure are shoved into his face during the debate.

Panel: Yamiche Alcindor, PBS; Peter Baker, The New York Times; Lanhee Chen, fellow at the Hoover Institute at Stanford; Claire McCaskill, fmr. Senator from Missouri l Court Press 

9.20.20: Deeper Into Political Warfare

As if we couldn't go any deeper into chaos and civil political warfare, the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg silences an essential voice on the Court and in American life and history writ large. She can never be replaced.

Here's a link to The Washington Post's obituary...

The sad news of her passing and her legacy has been predictably overshadowed by what will be the most ferocious political battle in modern history on top of a presidential election will determine the course of the American democratic experiment. 

Justice Ginsburg’s dying wish was to not have her seat filled until after the election, but Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) has no inclination to honor Justice Ginsburg already having stated that the Republican-controlled Senate will have a floor vote on a new nominee. Never mind that NBC's Pete Williams said that the average turnaround time for seating a Supreme Court Justice is seventy days, never mind the damaging of the court's credibility, and never mind the rank hypocrisy of behalf of Republicans who all said four years ago that they wouldn't seat a justice until after the election so that the American people can decide.

Now, to hell with the American people making the decision. 

Senator Tom Barrasso (R-WY) tried to defend why the rules that Republicans made in 2016 only apply to Democrats and not Republicans by citing the fact that the presidency and the senate are both controlled by the same party, to which he said there was historical precedent. Republican senators already have all their talking points down pat, citing the number of times this has happened and each nuance blah blah blah... But there is no precedent and there is no 'Biden rule' as Senator Barrasso tried to through out there. 

This hypocritical power grab is NOT the will of the people either, with President Trump never having won the support of a majority of Americans and there is no 'will of the electoral college.' But Republicans aren't interested in the will of the people if it doesn't serve there interest. This is the latest move that exacerbates those feelings of foreboding as if we're living in an apartheid-type state where the minority rules the majority. 

However, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) may be correct that Senate Republicans do not have the votes because a few are resisting the majority leader for various reasons, top among them is the vulnerability of their seats, e.g. Susan Collins of Maine, Corey Gardner of Colorado. Then there are senators like Mitt Romney (R-UT) and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) who recognize the hypocrisy but want to either stick it to the president or don't trust the president's pick will protect women's issues.

Secretary Hillary Clinton, the person who recommended Justice Ginsburg for the court, said that the nominating and confirmation process is broken and that this was another blow to our institutions. But maintaining institutions was never of interest to Mitch McConnell, unless the institution is a Republican-controlled Senate. When in the minority, Mr. McConnell would obstruct and when in the majority, as we see now, he makes up rules for Democrats that don't apply to Republicans. But Mitch McConnell has always been like this; he hasn't co-authored a bill since the last century. Now, with a president intent on taking down American institutions and politicizing everything, Mr. McConnell's destructive actions only get magnified.

And speaking of destructive, or non-constructive as it were, Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar is firmly in denial mode. Like other administration officials he refuses to acknowledge the numbers never verbally uttering that there are 200,000 Americans dead... in six months. Mr. Azar must have won a big game recently because they've poured Kool-Aid all over this guy (We know, it's Gatorade, but for the purposes of this analogy...) with his sunny statements of things to come. He also disagreed with CDC Director Robert Redfield who testified to Congress this week saying the mask is the most effective tool in fighting the virus, more so than a vaccine because it's determined that 'successful' means 50 percent effectiveness. This column's earlier determination that Mr. Azar was for the most part a straight shooter was misplaced. He's just another nail for Trump's hammer.

 

Panel: No panel

Latest Coronavirus Numbers:
    6.8 million+ infected
    199,308 deaths
    (source: NY Times)

9.13.20: A New Presidential Norm - Lying about Lies

"I didn't lie."

President Trump responding to Jonathan Karl's question about lying to Americans by downplaying the severity of the coronavirus.

Trump on the defensive.

"Downplaying something is really a threat."

Dr. Anthony Fauci responding to Andrea Mitchell about downplaying the virus.

Thank goodness, we had Republican National Committee Chair, Ronna McDaniel, to clear up the confusion and put our minds at ease. Ms. McDaniel explained that the president has taken all the right actions to protect the American people and that "history will look on him well" with regard to his leadership.  She also condemned the Democrats for politicizing the pandemic because Speaker Pelosi called it the "Trump virus." That is disgusting, indeed. And the president doesn't lie about lying.

Now that the record is straight, don't you feel much better? 

There's one question, however, that keeps putting a monkey wrench in all that logic. Why does the United States have 4 percent of the world's population but 25 percent of the total deaths?

The latest CDC Numbers:

6,427,058 total cases (46,045 cases in the last 24 hrs.)

192,388 total deaths (1,035 dead in the last 24 hrs.)

Basically, in the span of 6 months, over 190,000 people have died from the coronavirus in the United States. Unless history loses its pencil, the record is going remember this most of all. Ms. McDaniel said in response of this '25 percent' that we have increased testing, which translates into more positive cases, hence deaths; so essentially we have more deaths because we have more testing. We'll call this 'head in the sand' logic - if we don't know, there's no problem. By contrast, Dr. Michael Osterholm, Dir. of the Center of Disease Control at the University of Minnesota, said today that he is on the same page as Dr. Fauci assessing that we've plateaued at 40,000 confirmed cases and 1,000 deaths per day. 

How in the real world is 1,000 dying everyday, the equivalent to a 9/11 death toll every 4 days, remotely acceptable? Of course, the president downplayed and politicized the danger and he's lying about it as of this very writing, saying that we've 'rounded the corner' on the virus. The president explained that he wanted people to remain calm, not creating a panic, but as Chuck Todd explained the last thing the president exerts is calm, indeed with a wantonness to incite panic - they're coming to get you in the suburbs...

Long time Republican strategist Al Cardenas explained that people are accepting it as a norm that this president lies, which is an incredible statement unto itself, but factor in that 38 to 45 percent of Americans still support the president despite this, and it becomes... well, sad.

The answer to this pandemic crisis is not to downplay it and draw our attention to another crisis, like the continuing social unrest in the country and demonizing protesters. But as the crises mount, the economy in shambles with millions still out of work and devastating fires overwhelming the west coast, smoke from which has been detected in Europe by the way, blame and deflection and telling us to put our heads in the sand is only going to bring more catastrophe on the heads of Americans.

 

Panel: Kasie Hunt, NBC News; Jeffrey Goldberg, Editor in Chief of The Atlantic; Al Cardenas, Republican Strategist

A couple more things...

Even if you believe that fmr. FBI Director of Counter-Intelligence Peter Strzok is a partisan, there is no denying what he said as fact, as it's in the public record - no Presidential Administration in modern history has had this many broad and deep contacts with Russian Intelligence officers. Coincidence, this definitely is not. Does Putin have something on Trump? Yes. Financial. For sure.

Jeffrey Goldberg mentioned that the president keeps 'shadow boxing' by fighting old battles, citing that last night at a campaign rally, Mr. Trump was arguing with Hillary Clinton. He also said that Bob Woodward, the legendary most-trusted reporter in Washington D.C., a whack job. Really? Smell that? Smells like desperation in the morning. 

It begs the question that Mr. Trump has yet to answer, what's your vision for a second term? And political survival isn't a vision. 

9.6.20: 1.3 Million Losers and Suckers, and Other Voting Disses

Editor's Note: This week's "Meet The Press" was a Special Vote Watch edition, and it must have been taped on Wednesday at the latest because given the week's events in the aftermath of Geoffrey Goldberg's bombshell story in the Atlantic magazine released on Thursday, in which President Trump disparages the United States' war dead, disabled veterans and our P.O.W.'s calling them losers and suckers. We'll comment on this Special Vote Watch edition, but we'll be more timely and poignant this week than our namesake. (Hey, can't blame them, this administration runs everyone in the press ragged so they could use a longer break, and we only comment once a week... work/ life balance is vital.)

Way back on May 26, 2013, we posted an article entitled Our Soldiers - Recognized and Unrecognized, which is the most widely read post on this blog. The primary reason must be this referential list:

The total number of deaths in U.S. major wars:

American Revolutionary War:  25,000
War of 1812:  15,000
Mexican-American War:  13,283
U.S. Civil War:  625,000
Spanish-American War:  2,446
Philippine-American War:  4,196
World War I:  116,516
World War II:  405,399
Korean War:  36,516          
Vietnam War:  58,209
The Gulf War:  294
Afghanistan:  2,031
Iraq War:  4,487

Total: 1,308,377 

Over 1.3 million "suckers and losers," according to President Donald Trump. The Atlantic story has been verified by The Washington Post, Fox News, CNN and the Associated Press among others, and given the president's past comments it's easy to see the truth in his statements.

Think about that... Died for the cause of the Revolution or of ending slavery, sucker. Why did the U.S. fight on the side of the allies in WWI? (a question asked by Mr. Trump) So the Marines who died at Belleau Wood, losers. The Greatest Generation... losers. Didn't get out of service in Vietnam? Sucker. Disabled in Afghanistan or Iraq... don't expect to be included in any parades for the military.

It's difficult to comment on something so alien in the mind of every American, that we wouldn't honor our war dead and veterans; and that it is our president making these statements is all beyond our collective comprehension.

What can we possible say that hasn't already been said about this with the exception of pointing out the obvious, which is a vote for Donald Trump is a vote of profound disrespect for our military, and supportive of antithetical statements and feelings in contrast to every president that has preceded him.

And speaking of the vote, this entire Special Vote Watch edition of this week's "Meet The Press" is directly due to the chaos and doubt through statement and action that President Donald Trump sows every day. If we had two candidates (instead of only Joe Biden) who actually believed in democracy then this "special edition" probably wouldn't even be necessary, but oh well, here we are.

Mr. Todd checked off a series of issues concerning election officials this November that included voter suppression, election meddling and the possibility of voter fraud because of mail-in ballots. 

Here's the good news as we see it. Given the amount of scrupulous attention that this election has been getting for the past two years already with marches on the streets and litigation in the courts already at full speed and 330 million other observers, in the end we feel that we will get it right. Everyone watching and drawing attention to every aspect in every corner is a good thing.

That little optimist bit is in spite of the Trump Administration's efforts. It's no wonder that 52 percent of Trump supporters don't trust mail-in balloting, it reflects the president's comments. Mr. Trump, the hypocrite, votes by mail. Mr. Trump, he idiot and accessory to felony, has told his North Carolina supporters to vote twice and see what happens. 

The Trump Administration has been trying to kneecap the Post Office, as we all know, which has provided the opening for conservative lawyers to question the security of drop boxes such as Ben Ginsberg did today. However, in Ohio the Secretary of State Frank LaRose outlined that the drop boxes have 24/7 security cameras and are emptied by a bi-partisan team every day. Listening to the other respective election officials in Michigan (Jocelyn Benson) and North Carolina (Karen Brinson Bell) they have been working in the same vain to ensure ballot integrity. No secretary of state in either party wants to have the vote in their state mismanaged - that's failing democracy on your watch - and you don't want to go down with that on your record, no mention that your career is basically over at that point.

For average voters, let us, it's essential to be factually informed on the election laws of your state and yes, to plan your vote but outside of that right now you can't worry about what you can't control.

 

Panel: Janai Nelson, NAACP Legal Defense Fund and Education; Michael Waldman, NYU Law School; Clint Watt, fmr. FBI agent and NBC security analyst