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Trump gets a brand new bag

This morning, Trump issued an updated directive to his most celebrated crackpots in politics and, soon, broadcasting and print. 

"The FBI and others from the Federal Government would not let anyone, including my lawyers, be anywhere near the areas that were rummaged and otherwise looked at during the raid on Mar-a-Lago. Everyone was asked to leave the premises, they wanted to be left alone, without any witnesses to see what they were doing, taking or, hopefully not, 'planting.' Why did they STRONGLY insist on having nobody watching them, everybody out?"

Thus — and there's plenty more to come from every cranny in the Republican asylum ...

Newt Gingrich — who in 1978 told a gathering of College Republicans, "One of the great problems we have in the Republican Party is that we don’t encourage you to be nasty" — may have been the genesis of this silliness, even for Trump. Yesterday The Atlantic reported that he "has gone so far as to suggest that federal agents planted evidence in Trump’s Florida manse."

Silly nastiness, I guess one might call it.

Come here sister, Papa's in the swing
He ain't too hip, about that new breed b.s.
He ain't no drag
Papa Trump's got a brand new bag.

Remind you of anyone?

Mandela Barnes is a former community organizer. Last night he won the Democratic nomination for a Senate seat. He is a clean, articulate, good-looking Black politician who is running against a whacko Republican whose approval rating is abysmal. Mr. Barnes, a progressive, must now cut to the center to win his Senate race. The presidential election will be held in two years. 

How will Fox News cover Trump's third presidential bid?

CNN's Oliver Darcy writes that "in private this year, the Fox Corp. chief executive" — Lachian Murdoch — "has freely criticized Trump, saying that he disagrees with much of the way the former President behaves, sources tell me. Murdoch has gone so far as to tell people that he believes if Trump were to run again, it would be bad for the country.

"But, the sources added, Murdoch has also noted that the Fox News audience continues to support Trump. Which is to say that Murdoch knows that supporting Trump is good for business -- and, more importantly, he knows that pillorying him is bad for business because it would alienate the channel's core audience."

Darcy also writes that "Patriarch Rupert Murdoch's low opinion of Trump has been endlessly covered. But, until now, the younger Murdoch's opinion has been somewhat of a mystery." I'd add that the mystery was mitigated when Lachian seated the Trump-detesting, former House speaker Paul Ryan on the board. That was what political journalists now obsessively, uniformly call a "tell" — an instant cliché.

The CNN reporter then contradicts himself on what he calls the sustaining "mystery" of Lachian's opinion, noting that in July the New York Times and Washington Post published news that the Murdochs "were quietly giving Trump the cold shoulder by emphasizing him less in coverage on Fox." (Do today's journalists read what they've written before sending it to press?)

Otherwise, Darcy is correct, further writing that the "reporting prompted some to wonder: Could the Murdochs finally be steering Fox in an anti-Trump direction?" However "the network's programming over the last 24 hours has shattered any such illusion."

Darcy's judgment is that Fox News may cover Trump sympathetically when sensationalisms such as Monday's night "raid" occur. "But when Trump is at the center of the news cycle" — when is he not? — "it puts Fox in an untenable business position: If the network condemns Trump, it loses its audience. So, in those moments, the default position will be to air supportive coverage of him."

The journalist concludes that if Trump runs again, "he'd have Fox back at his side — regardless of how the Murdochs actually feel about him."

Of that, I am skeptical. Unlike every man, woman and child in the Republican Party, my reason is reality-based. Gov. Ron DeSantis intends to take on Trump, and with the latter bleeding party support, the governor will make even further progress in competing with the wounded, relentlessly under-siege former president.

I expect DeSantis to win a delegate majority. (The one Trumpian countermove would be to monkey with the delegate-selection process. But DeSantis is more clever, organized and Machiavellian than Trump.)

Once the Murdoch muck-a-mucks understand that the Twice-Impeached Blight is thrice-and-then-more-so in a world of serious primary hurt, they'll begin pandering to their audience by cozying with Ron.

Fox News both follows and leads its viewership, just as the GOP does with the base. Its campaign coverage may be a bit muddled at times; eventually it will clear up, though, as DeSantis shines through.

Trump admired, praised, and desired his own Nazi generals

In Susan Glasser and Peter Baker's forthcoming book — The Divider: Trump in the White House, 2017-2021 — there is this exchange between Trump and then-chief of staff John Kelly:

Trump: "You f---ing generals, why can’t you be like the German generals?"

Kelly: "Which generals?"

Trump: "The German generals in World War II."  

Kelly: "You do know that they tried to kill Hitler three times and almost pulled it off?

Trump: "No, no, no, they were totally loyal to him."

The president remained impressed by Nazi generals' loyalty to Hitler — a telling disorder of his authoritarian personality.

He was also impressed by French President Emmanuel Macron's hosting of a military extravaganza held in Trump's honor in 2017. Period tanks propelled down the Champs-Élysées and fighter jets roared above. Macron knew of Trump's vainglory and love of overdone pageantry, as did a French general who had organized the parade. He turned to an American general in attendance and said, "You are going to be doing this next year.” The French general was half right.

Trump pushed for a July Fourth wingding full of martial displays — similar, he hoped, to France's innocuous spectacle and the German dictator's bellicose celebrations.

In a later meeting with his chief of staff and Paul Selva, vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Trump failed to understand Kelly's sarcasm about his July Fourth idea, asking Selva, "So, what do you think of the parade?” Replied the JCS vice-chair, "I didn’t grow up in the United States, I actually grew up in Portugal. Portugal was a dictatorship—and parades were about showing the people who had the guns. And in this country, we don’t do that. It’s not who we are."

Trump's dimwittedness endured. "So, you don’t like the idea?" he asked.

Writing in The Atlantic, former U.S. Naval War College professor Tom Nichol notes that Trump's admiration of Hitler's regime was as misperceived as it was commonly held. For example in a 1968 "Star Trek" episode, Spock commented that, in Nichol's words, "the Nazis ran the most efficient state in Earth’s history" — "which is historical nonsense."

The professor writes in the present tense, since the historical nonsense is still in popular fashion. I recall reading years ago a volume on the Nazis' true regime; its narrative was that Hitler's "government" harbored a collection of criminal misfits who routinely botched their duties.

Yet Americans' almost romantic, Godfatherlike and mythical notion of a smoothly efficient Nazi machine perseveres.

The husband-wide team of Glasser-Baker go on to observe that Trump’s otherwise juvenile adoration of what he called "my generals" was short-lived. The former president provided a typically self-contradictory statement for the author's New Yorker article, in which he related that he lost confidence in them: "These were very untalented people and once I realized it, I did not rely on them, I relied on the real generals and admirals within the system."

Writes the team: "It turned out that the generals had rules, standards, and expertise, not blind loyalty."

When Trump's 2018, soon-to-be Joint Chiefs chairman, Army Gen. Mark Milley, arrived at the White House, he asked Kelly what his thoughts were about his possible appointment. Answered Kelly: "You should go to Europe and just get the f--k out of D.C. Just get as far away as you can."

As for potential service to a United States president who had admired Nazi generals and was clueless about Pearl Harbor, Kelly's ignored advice was on the nose. Trump may no longer be enamored of "his" generals, but he is certainly attracted to Hitler's fascistic ideology and crude manner of rule.     

Another Borowitz keeper

For women and girls, life in Afghanistan is truly a fresh hell

Writing later for The Washington Post, the Pultizer Prize-winning photojournalist Lorenzo Tugnoli revisited Afghanistan. He was absent on 15 August 2021, when Kabul fell to the Taliban and ended the Western-supported government. His story is immensely disheartening to read, beginning with:

"I had done embeds with the group in 2019 and 2020, when I photographed its commanders and fighters.... Their takeover was difficult for me to process. For the losing side, the long years of death, pain and struggle now seemed pointless; the U.S. promises of democracy and civil rights, particularly for women, rang hollow, as the old order and its institutions were quickly swept away."

On his return in September, he saw that men were now wearing traditional Afghan clothing and growing beards. Women were scarcer in view: "many had lost their jobs, especially in the public sector. The Ministry of Women’s Affairs was shut down, and its building now housed the Ministry for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice — the religious police who enforce the Taliban version of sharia law."

The Afghan economy, notes Tugnoli, is in trouble. He witnessed families trying to sell their appliances in exchange for whatever gettable cash. Others stood in bank lines waiting to grab their savings. "In the main currency exchange market, traders counted bundles of Afghan bank notes that were quickly losing value."

Many Taliban fighters were pleased to speak with Tugnoli, although on one occasion a commander in the Haqqani network — "a splinter group of the Taliban known for kidnappings and terrorist attacks against U.S. forces" — asked that he leave.

The Italian photojournalist remarks that following Kabul's collapse, the Taliban have had a hard time converting from "an irregular militia to a functioning government." He writes that hospitals in the capital city are groaning with "malnourished children, many of whom were sent home with packets of therapeutic food because of the lack of beds."

As heartbreaking as that is, the lives of Afghan women and girls are ones of pure wretchedness. In a 27 July research study titled "Death in Slow Motion," the human-rights group Amnesty International reported that "in less than a year, the Taliban ... have violated women’s and girls’ rights to education, work and free movement; demolished the system of support for women and girls fleeing domestic violence; arbitrarily detained women and girls for infractions of the Taliban’s discriminatory rules; and contributed to a surge in the rates of child, early and forced marriage."

(Photos by Tugmoli: Outside beauty parlors, women's images have been painted over.)

Amnesty further wrote that "Women who peacefully protested against these restrictions and policies have been harassed, threatened, arrested, forcibly disappeared, arbitrarily detained and tortured. Taken together, these policies form a system of repression that discriminates against women and girls in almost every aspect of their lives." Perhaps in dreams they are happy and free, although I imagine their nights are nightmarish hells, too.

The human-rights watchdog then more appropriately omitted "almost" in its description of women and girls' mere existence: "Every daily detail – whether they go to school, if and how they work, if and how they leave the house – is controlled and heavily restricted," and "this suffocating crackdown against Afghanistan’s female population is increasing day-by-day."

Amnesty called for the world to "urgently demand" that women and girls' rights be respected and protected by the Taliban. The organization overlooked international demands' abundance. The Taliban don't care. Perhaps they will with great reluctance at some point down their increasingly troubled, isolated road. For now, the ancient religious mutterings of an illiterate and probably schizophrenic Arab merchant command their mind, emotions, and misogynistic behavior. Allah 'Akbar! — right?

The FBI should release information on the Mar-a-Lago bust. Plus a note on Republicans, 2023.

That the Justice Department's national security division — doubtless with Attorney General Merrick Garland's approval — persuaded a federal judge that probable cause existed in searching Trump's Florida home suggests that the agency wielded a sense of urgency. 

I disagree with Washington Post reporter Rosalind Helderman's tweet just moments ago: "Search warrant served at Mar-a-Lago indicated agents were investigating possible violations of laws governing the handling of classified material, the President Records Act." No such hastened and startling search would have been conducted to investigate mere violations of the toothless Records Act.

Perhaps the Justice Department is weighing whether to indict Trump on more serious charges, which I re-noted earlier today; crimes that entail prison time for anyone who "willfully injures or commits any depredation against any property of the United States" and anyone who "willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates or destroys" government documents. Or something of even greater criminal exposure, related perhaps to his Jan. 6th felonies.  

Excepting Republicans, we all agree that fair is fair. In that light, it seems to me the Department of Justice should reveal to the public at least its realm of investigation in last night's Trump quest. After all, its then-FBI Director James Comey revealed his law-enforcement explorations into presidential nominee Hillary Clinton's activities — and during the general election season to boot.  

*** 

An aside. For 24 hours now, House Republicans have been broadcasting that they'll be doing nothing about the abominable condition of President Biden's booming, full-employment economy in which inflation is subsiding. They won't have time. Republicans have been loud and unmistakable about what they'll be doing instead: a committee investigation of the 6 Jan. committee, an investigation into the "rigged" 2020 election, an investigation into the solely Biden-created Afghanistan Affair, an investigation into the Biden-created baby formula shortage — pardon me while I catch my breath ...

an investigation into the Biden-created "border crisis," an investigation into the Biden-created Department of Homeland's "disinformation" board, investigations into Biden's Securities and Exchange Commission and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an investigation of Twitter for being mean to Elon Musk, and an investigation into everything Hunter Biden, which A.G. Garland is already investigating. 

The only joy we'll get from a Republican House is watching Speaker McCarthy wrench his already malfunctioning brain and put his floppy foot in his lying mouth every morning.

Trumpers' craziest idea

ffThere is no statute, state or federal, no constitutional provision, not even an executive order by Trump himself when he blackened the White House for any entity to retract Electoral Votes cast in a presidential election — especially two years later. And yet many Wisconsin voters are demanding that their next governor do just that.  

Former lt. gov. Rebecca Kleefisch also knows just that. So she's been waging a battle in her gubernatorial campaign, trying to convince Wisconsin's Republicans to accept this one disappointing reality — although at first she acknowledged that President Biden was legitimate, which she then re-acknowledged was a mistake. She reversed and agreed with the whackos that the election had been "rigged." 

She will not, however, agree to the base's absurdity that Wisconsin's results in favor of Biden can somehow be clawed back. "And for that," writes the Times's Reid Epstein, "she is taking grief from voters egged on by one of her opponents, Tim Ramthun." He's the state’s most outspoken advocate of absurdity, "held in high regard by the state’s most devoted conspiracy theorists." He's also a Christian nationalist who presents himself as "a messianic figure." Said Ramthun last night in a debate, "I’m what you’ve been looking for for decades." Oookay.  

An April Marquette University Law School poll — rated A/B by 538 — found that nearly 40% of Wisconsin's Republicans supported decertifying the 2020 presidential election. Notes Epstein, "Since then, momentum for decertification has built." He interviewed Republican voters and activists throughout the state who affirmed their demand that legislators simply take it back, so to speak.

Said one blinkered voter, "Everybody that I’ve talked to voted for Trump. He should be reinstated and resume the position, because he never surrendered it." Who knew retaining the presidency could be so easy? For that matter, why should any first-term president even bother with a second-term campaign? He or she could merely say, "I do not surrender." And that would be that. Be advised, Joe Biden.

The Messiah is trailing Kleefisch and billoinare Tim Michels, the Trump-endorsed candidate who said in an earlier debate that to decertify would be a lower priority for him, which of course was a huge mistake. He quickly backtracked, saying he was actually "very, very fired up about this election integrity issue," promising to sign a decertification bill if the legislature passed one.

Last night he blundered again. Would Michels support another Trump run? He answered, "I’m focused on this election right now. I have made no commitments to any candidates in 2024." The gubernatorial candidate had forgotten that his very highest priority lay in seeing to Trump's welfare. Today: "The day President Trump announces that he’s going to run for president in 2024, if he does, I will support him and I will endorse him." Good boy. 

Kleefisch, meanwhile, is left with one truth a partial ethic. "The idea that you can disavow the Constitution and statutes and do things that are not articulated anywhere in law is a lost cause.... It’s irresponsible to pander." Yet that she did by agreeing about the "rigged" election thing.   

Ukraine hits ... Crimea!

It's a major victory for Ukrainian forces. Today they struck an airbase on the Russian-occupied Crimea, delivering unto the world these beautifully disastrous pictures of Vladimir Putin's first Eastern European playground.

In July, a drone dropped what the press called a small "device" — which is what the U.S. called China's first atomic bomb — on Sevastopol, home of Russia's Black Sea Fleet off the Crimean Peninsula. It caused only minor damage. Russia blamed Ukraine and Ukraine denied it — with a wink, no doubt.

This time, no Russian blame ensued, embarrassed by Ukraine's stunning attack. The head of Crimea's occupation government appeared at the scene of destruction, declaring that a three-mile perimeter had been formed to keep locals away, and pleaded, "I asked you to believe only official information." In brief, lies.

Russia's defense ministry issued the Kremlin's lie that a detonation of ordnance has caused the explosion, further saying in lie #2 that nothing, neither people nor more aircraft, had been harmed. It's likely that Ukraine used a U.S.-supplied long-range rocket to strike Crimea. 

Putin must be smoking as much as his airbase. Ukraine's bombing is yet another humiliation of his imperial persona. One imagines he soon plotted with his generals to see if his incompetent forces can execute an even bigger strike somewhere in Ukraine. For now, though, President Zelensky can sit back and smile.  

Trump gets busted. Brace for deadly impact.

While Trump was promoting doomed congressional candidate Sarah Palin at a "telephone rally" last night, the FBI was on a "deep state" scavenger hunt in the doomed presidential candidate's Florida home, which, possessed by ill-gotten gains, is fittingly reminiscent of syphilitic Al Capone's Miami mansion. The National Archives has yet to retrieve all the White House papers stolen by Trump, who said of the search, "After working and cooperating with the relevant Government agencies, this unannounced raid on my home was not necessary or appropriate," adding that "such an assault could only take place in broken, Third-World Countries."

There was some truth in Trump's statement. As president he tried his best to convert the U.S. into a third-world country. His past cooperation with government agencies, however, is not quite the truth. For months he refused the National Archives' request for 15 boxes of his pilfered materials, complying only when threats of legal action were made. That would be materials he failed to shred by machine, rip up by hand, flush down the toilet or simply throw away, all of which his aides were aware.

In late July I had to perform a bit of legal research into federal charges that Trump-appointed Homeland Security officials and career Secret Service agents could face for having destroyed text messages — the press at that time was doing a less-than-admirable job on the matter. The findings apply to Trump. This morning The NY Times also got around to looking into "criminal statutes [that] can come into play," noting that they "carry jail time" for anyone who "willfully injures or commits any depredation against any property of the United States" and anyone who "willfully and unlawfully conceals, removes, mutilates, obliterates or destroys" government documents.

As delightful as the thought of Trump serving a well-earned prison sentence may be, whether for the above crimes or some of his many others, there's an alarming side to his encounter with justice, or Justice. The Times reports "Local television crews showed supporters of Mr. Trump gathering near Mar-a-Lago, some of them being aggressive toward reporters." Local could easily become "national," and reporters could become everyday Trump opponents.

The vastly indictable, twice-impeached president set forth instantly to exploit his "persecution," shotgunning fundraising emails to supporters, as did the Republican National Committee. Both claimed the "raid" was the doing of "Biden’s FBI" or 'Biden’s Department of Justice," although, as usual, they had no evidence of either. The Times reports that President Biden's aides were "stunned," and learned of it from Twitter."

Other Republicans roused the rabble last night. Their riot-prone agitprop, Orwellian Two-Minute Hates and potentially deadly incitements were merely an overture to much more to come.  Said the House's Kevin McCarthy, "I’ve seen enough. The Department of Justice has reached an intolerable state of weaponized politicization." He also previewed at least two years of Attorney General Garland's Benghazilike vilification should his party retake the House. In 2016, McCarthy harbored a radically different view of perhaps classified materials' mishandling: "Secretary Clinton’s fundamental lack of judgment and wanton disregard for protecting and keeping information confidential raises continued questions about the exposure of our nation’s diplomatic and national security secrets," recalls The Washington Post. 

Also jumping on the butcher's wagon was Sen. Lindsey Graham who tweeted, in part: "We’re 100 days away from midterm elections. Trump is likely going to run again in 2024. Launching such an investigation of a former President this close to an election is beyond problematic." Again the Post recalls that Graham had a different view in August 2016, just 75 days before the presidential election: "We need a special prosecutor, someone outside the Justice Department, to look into this matter," he said of Hillary Clinton.  

Probable presidential candidate Sen. Marco Rubio bewailed the search of Trump's home as being similar to the political persecution witnessed in "3rd world Marxist dictatorships." Fellow Floridian Ron DeSantis, the governor who will likely beat Trump in the 2024 primaries, also capitalized on his competitor's woes: "The raid of [Mar-a-Lago] is another escalation in the weaponization of federal agencies against the Regime’s political opponents." Florida state Representative and U.S. House candidate Anthony Sabatini suited up for some double-time unhingement: "It’s time for us in the Florida Legislature to call an emergency legislative session.... Sever [sic] all ties with DOJ immediately. Any FBI agent conducting law enforcement functions outside the purview of our State should be arrested upon sight," notes the Times in another article.

An oxymoronically overtly subtle appeal for arming the Trumpian troops — and from there, who knows? — the House Republican caucus declared that "If they can do it to a former President, imagine what they can do to you." Further potboiling came from Breibart News' senior editor, Joel Pollak: "There is suddenly a very real risk of violent political instability in this country for the first time in more than 150 years." This, rather obviously, was more wish than warning.

And let us not forgot Fox News, such as this deranged commentary from Mark Levin: 

9/11 was nothing compared to the feds breaking into Trump's safe https://t.co/zPREzhFhsH

— Justin Baragona (@justinbaragona) August 9, 2022

The Republican caucus was nevertheless correct in advising, in 1994 movie terms, that It Could Happen to You. But — to reference again everyone's favorite mobster of yore — only if you have "more avenues to prison than Al Capone did," as Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen tweeted of Trump. Cohen's colleague Don Beyer observed that "[The House minority leader] and his fellow bootlickers hid under a rock rather than respond every time Donald Trump called for persecution, investigation, imprisonment, or violence against his political opponents." 

In full accord with Republicans' unsurpassed hypocrisy, they're now vocally surfacing their way to sunlight's violence. The untethered, logic-free agitation they're instigating among Trump supporters not only suggests violence, it shall almost certainly produce violence.

Improbable is that America will suffer another authentic, 19th-century civil war. But readily imaginable are armed gangs and lone assassins lurking in threatening shadows, hunting for the virtuous who demand that America's present-day top mobster be prosecuted.

A Borowitz keeper

Update: I'm so pleased to report that regarding my recent plea (below), many of you have helped out. Your to-the-rescue contributions have dramatically reduced my acute financial need, leaving, in fact, only a $703 expense to be met. I very much appreciate the help provided so far — and there's not much farther to go. 

***

Okay, this is a big ask, perhaps the biggest yet. I need some help, as always, in this financial go-around to eliminate the potential time spent away from writing on politics and international affairs, working a part-time job instead. To pay dentistry bills. Because of long-standing oral pain, I'm now looking at a denture on the top and restorative work plus a partial on the bottom, which will cost $3,757. In addition, an oral surgeon, whom I must see for extractions — well, I don't even want to think about that expense. At any rate, as noted, these combined costs could interrupt this site's continuing, full-time operation. The only way I can otherwise pay these expenses is by taking what would probably be a minimum job for at least a year. So I'm making this very special plea. Whether it's $5 or $500 or any amount between, please chip something into the kitty. Just visit the "Make A Donation" button in the sidebar. Making a much-needed contribution takes only a minute, and you will have my everlasting thanks. For now, thank you, very much. —PM   

You want stupid? Try this.

This, from Peter Baker, chief White House correspondent, is I believe the dumbest thing I have ever read in The NY Times.

Mr. Biden emerged from medical isolation [Sunday] to a new political world. Suddenly, the administration that could not get anything right, that could not catch a break, was on a roll that any president would relish.

It's true that President Biden couldn't catch a break, largely because of dumb coverage like that. But his administration couldn't get anything right? See: preceding sentence — although I think Mr. Baker was writing about the president's terrible, just terrible legislative record. Such as ...

The American Rescue Plan, $1.9 trillion, March 2021.

The Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, $1.2 trillion, November 2021.

 

Government Shutdown Avoidance, twice, September and December 2021.

 

Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, December 2021.

 

And assorted other achievements, mainly through executive orders.

 

Peter Baker has been in Washington, D.C. too long.

Republicans really screwed up. Miserable Mitch, the main master of management, magnificently mauled their amorality.

Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, who is not known for his tactical brilliance, nevertheless outfought Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who is known for his tactical brilliance. Schumer's keen maneuver followed his recent tripping of Senate Republicans on the veterans PACT Act, propelling an embarrassing pratfall.       

When the Senate parliamentarian speared the insulin price cap in Democrat's climate and healthcare bill — the Inflation Reduction Act — Schumer chose to retain the cap anyway, knowing that Republicans would raise a point of order about the parliamentarian's ruling. That's precisely what they did. And that led to a separate vote on the insulin cap. The provision failed to break a Republican filibuster — and today, Republicans are wishing it had.  

Congressional Democrats can now proceed in this election season reminding voters at every turn that Republicans opposed a $35 limit on insulin costs for those with private health insurance, roughly 150 million Americans. fMedicare will honor the cap, but diabetes waits not for its victims to age. The Dems can also boast about their authorization of Medicare's ability to negotiate lower drug prices, long a party priority.  

All this comes after Republicans blundered on the veterans bill, hailed the Supreme Court's enormously unpopular abortion ruling, and threatened to block, in all their pettiness, the essential microchip bill if Democrats continued pushing the climate and healthcare-oriented Inflation Reduction Act. McConnell & Friends mistakenly believed that Democrats were overreaching with the climate-healthcare bill; the GOP could happily, preemptively scream that the enemy's big government would gobble more of your money through higher taxes — a straight-up lie, though nothing unusual among Republicans.

McConnell's offensive gimmickry on the microchip bill only incensed and motivated Sen. Joe Manchin to silently regroup and work with Schumer in reaching a compromise on yesterday's legislation. Said Sen. Chris Van Hollen, "Any time you threaten a bill you support because you are not getting your way on something else, you are in a bad spot. It just looks bad. It was so crassly political." In speaking of McConnell, the senator was redundant. 

And McConnell, speaking of his later, flip-floppery support of government's assistance to the microchip industry, told Fox News last week that "Just because there is a Democrat in the White House, I don’t think means Republicans should do nothing that is good for the country in the meantime." This was the laughable opposite of what McConnell expressly promised on 23 October 2010: "The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president" — that is, to obstruct and wreck his agenda. 

Meanwhile, Schumer is reveling in the departure of his approach from McConnell's customary approach: "He brags about the graveyard. I’d like to be proud of the achievements, of getting things done — not not getting things done." From here, he and his fellow Senate Democrats plan on further pushing for same-sex marriage protection, lower oil prices, and any other bills that will lead to Republicans looking like what they are: small, mean, and altogether out of touch.

Sen. John Barrasso is already suited up for Republicans' especial out of touchness: "The highest inflation in 40 years, 9.1 percent, families are hurting, they can’t afford a full tank of gas. The end of the month just came, and they ran out of money before they ran out of month."

In other words, unremitting falsehoods and do-nothing negativity. In the past, the strategy has also unremittingly helped Republicans electorally. But in this election season, their squalid do-nothingness could boomerang. Democrats might retain their 50 Senate seats; they may even add to that number. If nothing else, the 2022 midterms are going to be one unbuckled ride.    

Trump's perfect demagogic speech (and Mitch McConnell as an "old broken crow")

Under international laws of war I'm owed a Beverly Hills psychiatrist's one-hour fee for sitting through a viewing of nearly all of Trump's torturous "Save America" rally in Waukesha, Wisconsin Friday. My painfully earned compensation is spelled out in Geneva's 1949 Convention IV, Protocol III, Article 3: a guarantee of citizens' humane treatment in non-international conflicts.

The acute motivation for my claiming due recompense is that the twice-impeached former president opened his one-hour and 20-minute screed/reelection stump by denouncing what's occurring on the Senate floor today, which I have running on my android C-Span in the background. "The radical Democrats now intend to impose the biggest tax hike in American history, the exact opposite of what I did," Trump emphasized. 

The agony of listening to this tripe was indescribable, interrupted only on occasion by Trump's overt admission of arrested cerebral development: For example, somewhere in his speech he said it took him "years and years" to learn how to pronounce Reince Priebus's name. In another vein — that of his tedious name-calling, amusing only in Trump's self-definition of adolescent "cognition" —  there was this, at 00.06.47: "Joe Manchin has totally sold out West Virginia. What he's done to that state is disgraceful. And I told the old broken crow, Mitch McConnell, that this was going to happen." 

Perhaps this is on me, however —the torture, I mean. I behaved recklessly; I walked right in to his speech just as some Americans travel to Iran or Russia, which is really dumb. I will advise that you watch the final couple minutes of Trump's bombast, beginning at 01.06.15. It is absolutely, exactingly perfect demagoguery, outdoing even his heretofore darkest, inaugural "American Carnage" address.

Evidently, his four years in office did nothing to "Save America," the title of his Friday harangue.