Last Call For Trump Goes Viral, Con't

As the US closes in on 120,000 COVID-19 deaths and growing spikes in a dozen-plus states, the FDA is quietly pulling emergency use of hydroxychroloquine because it's not an effective treatment of the virus.

The Food and Drug Administration on Monday withdrew emergency use authorizations for two coronavirus treatments that President Donald Trump promoted despite concerns about their safety and effectiveness.

The agency revoked the authorizations for hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine after a request from Gary Disbrow, acting director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority.

After reviewing new information from large clinical trials the agency now believes that the suggested dosing regimens "are unlikely to produce an antiviral effect," FDA chief scientist Denise Hinton said in a letter announcing the decision.

Critics have accused the agency of caving to political pressure when it authorized use of hydroxychloroquine and chloroquine in hospitalized Covid-19 patients in late March despite thin evidence. More recent randomized controlled trials have found the drugs do not benefit coronavirus patients, and doctors have reported that hydroxychloroquine can cause heart problems.

Because hydroxychloroquine is approved for other uses — treating lupus and arthritis — doctors could still use it "off label" to treat coronavirus patients, and clinical trials examining their use against Covid-19 can continue. The FDA noted that the version of chloroquine that had been authorized for emergency use is not approved in the U.S. so all use of that drug, donated by Bayer, will now end.

The administration’s focus on the malaria medicines in the early months of the pandemic deepened a divide between the White House and its health agencies. Several administration officials told POLITICO they felt the drugs got outsized attention while FDA scrambled for solutions in March. Other current and former Health and Human Services officials later said that the emergency authorities and White House demands cast a shadow on FDA as it struggled to remain independent.

Rick Bright, the former BARDA director whom Disbrow replaced, has accused health officials of removing him from his role overseeing millions of dollars to develop treatments and vaccines because he raised health concerns about hydroxychloroquine and resisted its widespread use.

Trump pushed the drug as a treatment and the right latched onto it, declaring the pandemic over in dozens of states and ending social distancing.  Bright was fired for raising questions.  Now, Bright's replacement has done the same thing, and I fully expect Trump to fire him as well and to demand the FDA reinstate the drug's emergency use status from the FDA before the end of the week.

If he doesn't, Trump admits defeat and that he utterly failed on COVID-19 in every concievable way. The micron-thin hope that hydroxycholroquine actually was effective was the last hope Trump had politically to salvage this disaster, not to mention a path to actually helping sick Americans.

It's gone now.

Trump should resign, for the 419th time, but he won't.

A Supreme Day All Around

Mondays in June mean that the US Supreme Court hands down major case decisions, and today was one of the biggest in history. The Roberts Court ruled 6-3 that the Civil Rights Act of 1964's protected classes against job discrimination does indeed include LGBTQ Americans.

The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a landmark civil rights law protects LGBT people from discrimination in employment, a resounding victory for LGBT rights from a conservative court.

The court decided by a 6-3 vote that a key provision of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 known as Title VII that bars job discrimination because of sex, among other reasons, encompasses bias against LGBT workers.

“An employer who fires an individual for being homosexual or transgender fires that person for traits or actions it would not have questioned in members of a different sex. Sex plays a necessary and undisguisable role in the decision, exactly what Title VII forbids,” Justice Neil Gorsuch wrote for the court.
Justices Samuel Alito, Brett Kavanaugh and Clarence Thomas dissented.

The Court tries to convince readers that it is merely enforcing the terms of the statute, but that is preposterous. Even as understood today, the concept of discrimination because of ‘sex’ is different from discrimination because of ‘sexual orientation’ or ‘gender identity,’” Alito wrote in a dissent that was joined by Thomas.

The outcome is expected to have a big impact for the estimated 8.1 million LGBT workers across the country because most states don’t protect them from workplace discrimination. An estimated 11.3 million LGBT people live in the U.S., according to the Williams Institute at the UCLA law school.
The cases were the court’s first on LGBT rights since Justice Anthony Kennedy’s retirement and replacement by Kavanaugh. Kennedy was a voice for gay rights and the author of the landmark ruling in 2015 that made same-sex marriage legal throughout the United States. Kavanaugh generally is regarded as more conservative.

The Trump administration had changed course from the Obama administration, which supported LGBT workers in their discrimination claims under Title VII.

And yeah, Neil Gorsuch wrote this opinion playing the role of the late Justice Antonin Scalia saying "Sorry conservatives, technically this is correct if we look at the law" and Chief Justice Roberts signed on along the right side of history with the four liberals.

So yeah, this is a huge, huge decision. You can no longer be fired for being gay.

And that brings us to the other major decision of the Court, the decision to reject taking up any of the major gun control cases next term.

The Supreme Court on Monday turned away a host of challenges to state laws placing restrictions on firearms, declining to take up the contentious matter of gun rights in the U.S. after sidestepping the issue in April.

In declining to take up the appeals, the justices leave intact laws from several states that gun rights supporters said violated their Second Amendment rights. Among the cases turned away were legal battles over laws in at least four states — Massachusetts, Maryland, Illinois and New Jersey — that require residents to meet certain criteria in order to get a permit, including demonstrating a specific need, to carry a handgun outside the home.

In one of the cases out of Massachusetts, the justices declined to weigh in on the state's ban on certain semiautomatic firearms and high-capacity magazines. A dispute over a similar rule in Cook County, Illinois, was also rejected by the Supreme Court. In the case from California, the justices turned away a challenge to a state law that requires handguns sold in the state to use microstamping technology and meet specific design requirements.

The legal battle from New Jersey involved a state law that requires residents to demonstrate they have a "justifiable need" to carry a firearm, which can be satisfied if a private citizen can "specify in detail the urgent necessity for self-protection, as evidenced by specific threats or previous attacks which demonstrate a special danger to the applicant's life that cannot be avoided by other means other than by issuance of a permit to carry a handgun."

Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, dissented from the court's denial of certiorari in the New Jersey case, writing it is time for the Supreme Court should not prolong its "decade-long failure to protect the Second Amendment."

"This Court would almost certainly review the constitutionality of a law requiring citizens to establish a justifiable need before exercising their free speech rights. And it seems highly unlikely that the Court would allow a State to enforce a law requiring a woman to provide a justifiable need before seeking an abortion," Thomas wrote. "But today, faced with a petition challenging just such a restriction on citizens' Second Amendment rights, the Court simply looks the other way."

The cases presented the Supreme Court with the chance to expand the scope of the Second Amendment, which it has declined to do since its last major ruling in a gun rights case in 2010.

You only need four justices to agree to hear a case, which means the four conservatives (note that Alito and Gorsuch did not sign on the Thomas and Kavanaugh's dissent) don't think they would win in a 5-4 Roberts decision, and that the four liberals were happy enough to leave the laws in Massachusetts and New Jersey alone.

That means that for now, SCOTUS won't go after striking down firearms safety laws in states, and it means that Roberts probably isn't willing to be the fifth justice to strike down those laws in the future.  Yet.

We'll see.

Retribution Execution, Con't

Donald Trump's personal executive agency axe man, John McEntee, is making major hiring and firing decisions by going over the heads of agencies and even cabinet heads to ensure 100% loyalty to Dear Leader.

President Trump, in a highly unusual new effort, has begun making significant staffing changes inside top federal agencies without the consent — and, in at least one case, without even the knowledge — of the agency head, according to officials familiar with the effort.

Why it matters: This campaign — helmed by Trump's loyalty enforcer, a 30-year-old former body man who now runs hiring for the government — is part of the systematic purging or reassigning of those deemed insufficiently supportive of Trump. 

The effort's pace has alarmed top officials, according to 11 current and former officials with direct knowledge of the situation.

Behind the scenes: Trump has empowered John McEntee, director of the Presidential Personnel Office, in a way his predecessors never were. In his short time on the job, McEntee has flexed this power, steamrolling Cabinet officials and agency heads to install his chosen candidates. 

An extraordinary scene played out late in the morning on March 26, according to two administration officials with direct knowledge of the events, when Chad Wolf, the acting secretary of homeland security, learned he would have a new head of public affairs at his agency. 

A crucial position such as this would normally be appointed only with the agency head’s support. But Wolf learned about his new public affairs chief, Alexei Woltornist, by reading the White House's public press release. 

Wolf was furious, according to these sources. He called the White House Situation Room to try to reach McEntee to find out how this could happen without his knowledge, let alone consent. And he complained privately to colleagues about how PPO treated him.
McEntee's PPO has also clashed with the acting chief of immigration and customs enforcement over personnel, as Politico first reported.

The other side: Wolf is an acting Cabinet secretary, so McEntee can overrule him on staffing in a way he wouldn’t do with a favored Cabinet official like Mike Pompeo. And given the importance that both the president and his conservative allies place on immigration, they are determined to install their preferred political appointees at the Department of Homeland Security.

If all of this seems very, very Soviet Politburo to anyone my age or older, that's because it is.  Trump is compelling ongoing loyalty tests and those who fail get removed.

Who would want to work for the guy in the first place though?

Why, the people who think Soviet-style governance in America is a good idea.

StupidiNews!

• South Carolina GOP Sen. Tim Scott is casting doubt on a federal police use of force law, saying legislation would be too difficult to codify given the "millions of scenarios" police face.
• Philippines journalist Maria Ressa has been convicted for cyber libel under a recent law demanded by President Rodrigo Dueterte, Ressa faces up to six years in prison for her criticism of Dueterte.
• The death of Rayshard Brooks on Friday, killed by Atlanta police, was ruled a homocide, Brooks was shot twice in the back by a police officer, sparking major protests in Atlanta.
• Boko Haram militants are being blamed for the deaths of at least 50 people in Northeast Nigeria, three towns were attacked by militants on Sunday.
• A challenge by Facebook for coders to beat deepfake videos wasn't very successful, the winning algorithm still missed one-third of altered videos.

The Blue Wave Rises, Con't

President Barack Obama's support of Black Lives Matter during his second term was absolutely the right thing to do, but there's no question that it cost the Democrats dearly with white voters in 2014 and 2016. Now, in 2020, things have changed so rapidly that Democrats across the board look to be gaining massive support heading into November, in one of the biggest political shift of our era. CNN's Harry Enten:

The Iowa Poll released Saturday night showed Democratic Senate candidate Theresa Greenfield with major momentum. 

Forty-six percent of likely voters would vote for Greenfield if the election were held today compared to 43% who would vote for Republican Sen. Joni Ernst -- a within the margin of error advantage for the challenger. 

While it's still early and things could change, this Iowa poll, conducted by Selzer & Co., is the latest state survey for either the race for the White House or Senate to show a clear shift toward Democrats since protests began nationwide following the death of George Floyd at the hands of a white police officer. 

These state polls in aggregate suggest that the movement toward former Vice President Joe Biden seen in the national polls is funneling down to the state level. 

As previously done, I gathered all the telephone state polling that called cellphones. This time I limited my data set to surveys conducted after the protests began. Then I compared the result of those questions to the 2016 presidential vote in the state. In total, we're looking at 11 questions that asked about either the presidential or the Senate race in any particular state. 

The Democratic candidate is running ahead of Hillary Clinton's margin by an average of 10 points. Although the sample size is small, the average overperformances were within a point of the 10 point average when examining the Senate and presidential races as distinct groups. When a similar calculation was made about a month ago, Biden was doing about 5 or 6 points better than Clinton on average in the state polling. 

The latest state polls imply that Biden has a double-digit advantage nationally given that Clinton won the popular vote by 2 points. These state polls are in sync with the national polls that show Biden's lead at 10 points. 

Importantly, many of these polls have been conducted across states that are the heart of the 2020 battleground. States like Arizona and Wisconsin are included in this group. Polls have also been conducted in states that Biden would like to win, but aren't must wins for him, such as Ohio and Texas. Crucially, these are demographically distinct states in different regions of the country indicating that Trump is losing ground in a lot of different places. 

All together, it's the latest evidence that Trump cannot count on the electoral college to save him. The leads that Biden is earning right now are well outside any potential polling miscue like the one that occurred on the state level in 2016. The former vice president, simply put, is well ahead of Trump at this time.

It's finally settling with voters that Donald Trump considers everyone expendable as far as maintaining his grip on power, the elderly and immuno-compromised with COVID-19, the working class and tens of millions of unemployed with the Trump Depression, and anyone who disagrees with him on racism as shown by his willing to use the military against Black Lives Matter demonstrations across the country.

Nearly everyone falls into at least one of these three categories, and they are finally, finally realizing that the problem is the Republicans who continue to enable Trump's immorality time and time again.

They want them all gone.

Four years ago the last-minute break of "I hate both of them but I have to vote for one of them" voters to Trump sealed the fate of the country.  This time that choice has been made months in advance, and it's to see the GOP wiped out.

Trump's people know the 2018 blue wave is a 2020 blue tsunami this time, and very few Republicans will survive.

In the characterization of one source close to the president, a chunk of the re-election team focuses on proving to the president that his “dumpster-fire numbers” aren’t as bad as they seem, or reinforcing Trump’s conviction that pollsters get it wrong “all the time. 

But not everyone on Team Trump is buying the spin. In fact, efforts to pacify the president about the polls and his campaign’s position ahead of November have been undercut from within, with several key advisers making personal entreaties to Trump in the past few weeks to try to convince him that he should not brush off the numbers, even unpleasant ones that comes from news organizations such as CNN.

“I have told the president that the numbers are real and that I believe he can and will win, but that right now it looks bad,” said a Republican who recently spoke to Trump. “He said, ‘Come on, don’t you know that’s all fake?’ But in a lot of these internal numbers [that I’ve seen], we’re way down right now.” 

“Something needs to change,” the Trump ally added.

This person wasn’t the only one sounding the alarm over the past month. Two other sources who’ve spoken to the president lately—one of whom is a senior administration official—said that when the topic of polls came up they advised Trump that the surveys on swing states and key demographics seemed bleak. Both said they were concerned the president wasn’t taking them as seriously as they had wished.

Outside the campaign, a belief has grown that the Pollyannaish advisers surrounding the president—and who are feeding him news that won’t puncture his feel-good bubble—are doing a disservice to both their clients and their professions.

“There are a few pollsters who are bought and paid for, and they will tell you [the client] what you want to hear,” Frank Luntz, a famed-GOP pollster and Trump-skeptical conservative, said, without naming names. “There are pollsters [for whom] if the check is big enough, the lie will be big enough.” 

“I don’t envy those who have to tell Donald Trump what he doesn’t want to hear,” Luntz continued. “I’ve met him several times, I’ve met Biden several times. I would rather present bad [polling] information to Biden than Donald Trump. Presenting bad information or tough information to Joe Biden, you’ll break his heart, if you present tough information to Donald Trump, he breaks your arm.”

I'm perfectly fine with this arrangement.  Biden has to win by double-digits to keep Trump from doing something catastrophic and to keep his dirty tricks from being enough to steal the election.  But I worry about what Trump's October Surprise this time around will be.  He won in large part thanks to James Comey in the last two weeks.

What will happen this time around and what will the sheer scope of it have to be to overcome a pandemic that has killed 115,000, an economic depression, and the largest civil rights movement since the 60's?

Sunday Long Read: War-Weary Of COVID

America has all but given up on fighting COVID-19, and the consequences are going to be catastrophic, as Alexis Madrigal and Robinson Meyer at The Altantic warn.

After months of deserted public spaces and empty roads, Americans have returned to the streets. But they have come not for a joyous reopening to celebrate the country’s victory over the coronavirus. Instead, tens of thousands of people have ventured out to protest the killing of George Floyd by police.

Demonstrators have closely gathered all over the country, and in blocks-long crowds in large cities, singing and chanting and demanding justice. Police officers have dealt with them roughly, crowding protesters together, blasting them with lung and eye irritants, and cramming them into paddy wagons and jails.

There’s no point in denying the obvious: Standing in a crowd for long periods raises the risk of increased transmission of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. This particular form of mass, in-person protest—and the corresponding police response—is a “perfect set-up” for transmission of the virus, Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a radio interview on Friday. Some police-brutality activists (such as Black Lives Matter Seattle) have issued statements about the risk involved in the protests. Others have organized less risky forms of protests, such as Oakland’s Anti Police-Terror Project’s massive “caravan for justice.”

The risk of transmission is complicated by, and intertwined with, the urgent moral stakes: Systemic racism suffuses the United States. The mortality gap between black and white people persists. People born in zip codes mere miles from one another might have life-expectancy gaps of 10 or even 20 years. Two racial inequities meet in this week’s protests: one, a pandemic in which black people are dying at nearly twice their proportion of the population, according to racial data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project at The Atlantic; and two, antiblack police brutality, with its long American history and intensifying militarization. Floyd, 46, survived COVID-19 in April, but was killed under the knee of a police officer in May.

Americans may wish the virus to be gone, but it is not. While the outbreak has eased in the Northeast, driving down the overall national numbers, cases have only plateaued in the rest of the country, and they appear to be on the rise in recent days in COVID Tracking Project data. Twenty-two states reported 400 or more new cases Friday, and 14 other states and Puerto Rico reported cases in the triple digits. Several states—including Arizona, North Carolina, and California—are now seeing their highest numbers of known cases.

These numbers all reflect infections that likely began before this week of protest. An even larger spike now seems likely. Put another way: If the country doesn’t see a substantial increase in new COVID-19 cases after this week, it should prompt a rethinking of what epidemiologists believe about how the virus spreads.

But as the pandemic persists, more and more states are pulling back on the measures they’d instituted to slow the virus. The Trump administration’s Coronavirus Task Force is winding down its activities. Its testing czar is returning to his day job at the Department of Health and Human Services. As the long, hot summer of 2020 begins, the facts suggest that the U.S. is not going to beat the coronavirus. Collectively, we slowly seem to be giving up. It is a bitter and unmistakably American cruelty that the people who might suffer most are also fighting for justice in a way that almost certainly increases their risk of being infected.

The protests have led to unusually agonized public-health communication. They have not been met with the stern admonition to stay home that has greeted earlier mass gatherings. Given the long-standing health inequities that black Americans have experienced, hundreds of public-health professionals signed a letter this week declining to oppose the protests “as risky for COVID-19 transmission”: “We support them as vital to the national public health and to the threatened health specifically of Black people in the United States,” they wrote. Yet the protests are indisputably risky, and officials at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have warned that the gatherings might “seed” new outbreaks.

Protesters themselves are not necessarily ignoring the pandemic. In videos of marches taken this week, many if not most of the demonstrators appeared to be wearing masks. Photos and videos of protests show both large, tightly packed crowds and some demonstrators attempting to adhere to some form of social distancing. Protesters carrying hand sanitizer and water pass through the crowd in many cities.

But the evidence does not reveal universal compliance with public-health guidelines. Protesters lay close together on the ground in many cities for nearly nine-minute-long “die-ins,” evoking the length of time that Derek Chauvin, a Minneapolis police officer, knelt on Floyd’s neck. Many protests have involved some form of shouting, chanting, or singing, which research suggests can be especially effective modes of transmission for the virus. Earlier this week, near the White House, a mostly masked crowd loudly sang “Lean on Me.”
Protesters and public-health officials alike may be taking into account what The New York Times called “a growing consensus” that being outdoors mitigates some risk of transmission. The virus appears to perish quickly in a sunny, humid environment, even at room temperature, according to research conducted in April by the Department of Homeland Security. (Viral particles may survive for hours longer in drier conditions, and epidemiologists do not believe that these climatic effects alone will dampen the outbreak.) The virus also seems to be more difficult to transmit outside, especially during the day, though scientists still do not know enough about the virus to say confidently that large outdoor gatherings are completely safe. The number of protests over the past week means that researchers will soon have a much better understanding of the risks of outdoor transmission.

So we'll see.  It's possible that things won't be as bad as previously thought.  But it's also possible that the country will see a massive spike in new COVID-19 cases that will quickly overwhelm places without the resources of a New York City or Los Angeles.

And then?

Then things get really awful.

Black Lives Still Matter, Con't

Another black life taken, another black person shot and killed by police, this time in Atlanta. Remember the name Rayshard Brooks. But unlike the times before it, accountability of those in charge of the police was taken with a swiftness.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms announced Saturday that police Chief Erika Shields is stepping down after an officer shot and killed a black man during an arrest attempt the night before.

Bottoms said Shields made the decision to resign her top post, which the mayor accepted. The city will launch a national search for her replacement.

“Chief Erika Shields has been a solid member of APD for over two decades and has a deep and abiding love for the people of Atlanta. And because of her desire that Atlanta be a model of what meaningful reform should look like across this country, Chief Shields has offered to immediately step aside as police chief so that the city may move forward with urgency in rebuilding the trust so desperately needed throughout our community,” Bottoms said.

Assistant police Chief Rodney Bryant will serve as the interim chief. Bottoms said Shields “will continue in a role, to be determined.”

Bottoms also called for the termination of the police officer who shot and killed Rayshard Brooks on Friday. Brooks took a Taser from an arresting officer, officials said. As Brooks ran away, Bottoms said he turned over his shoulder and appeared to fire the Taser at one of the officers. The officer shot Brooks.

“While there may be debate as to whether this was an appropriate use of deadly force, I firmly believe that there is a clear distinction between what you can do and what you should do. I do not believe that this was a justified use of deadly force and have called for the immediate termination of the officer,” Bottoms said.

Another officer at the scene has been placed on administrative duty, Bottoms said.

Atlanta protesters took to the streets Saturday for the third weekend with added outrage after Brooks, a 27-year-old black man,was shot and killed at a Wendy’s amid a struggle with police.

Video footage of the incident has been posted on social media and shared widely. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident.

There was no way Shields could have continued as Chief of Police after this, not in Atlanta.  While I expect the now terminated officer to face legal charges, it's also extremely positive to see Shields step down on her own accord.

The problem isn't just the officers, it's the administration.  And Shields doing the right thing and making way for someone else should be an example to police departments across the country.

Black Lives Matter is having an impact.  Before, Shields would have remained, maybe the officer would have been put on leave pending investigation, then cleared to go back to work while the city settled out of court.

No longer. It's a new era.

The police chief on a Lake Erie resort island has been placed on leave and two officers have resigned following the arrests of a group of black tourists riding on a golf cart, the mayor said.
Police body cameras showed Put-in-Bay officers used stun guns on at least two people during the stop last weekend that began when two white officers said the golf cart’s operator was driving recklessly.

In all, nine people were arrested on charges including assault, aggravated rioting and resisting arrest. A county prosecutor dismissed the charges against six and told the Sandusky Register that charges against the others also would likely be dropped.

Eight of the nine arrested were black, the newspaper said. Some of their family members said the arrests were racially motivated.

Village Mayor Jessica Dress said Thursday there will be a thorough review of what happened, and that Police Chief Steve Riddle was being placed on administrative leave during the investigation.

Two officers also resigned, Dress said, without explaining why. Several other officers were involved in the arrests.

“As a community, we hold our police department accountable for any and all of its decisions,” the mayor said in a statement.

I would say that we need more of this, but we don't need any more racism and any more killings and injuries.  We need racist cops to be let go and more importantly the police unions and administration that enable these assholes need to be gone as well.

Black Lives Matter.

Last Call For Who Ditches Mitch?

The Kentucky Democratic Senate primary to go up against Mitch McConnell was all about former fighter pilot Amy McGrath, who made a solid run at knocking off Andy Barr in Lexington in a 51-48% loss in 2018 and has spent the last 18 months girding up for taking on the Turtle. McGrath has acted all along like she had already won the primary and has a considerable war chest to prove it.

I say was because the primary, just ten days away now, is about to get competitive here in the home stretch.

Amy McGrath is a national Democratic icon for her bid to take out Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate leader and reviled figure on the left, raising tens of millions of dollars to fuel her campaign.

But McConnell isn't the opponent McGrath, a former fight pilot, is sweating most right now. Instead, it's her rival in the June 23 Democratic primary: Charles Booker, a state lawmaker who was virtually ignored for months but now has all the momentum in the closing days of the election.
Booker has been endorsed by Bernie Sanders, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Kentucky’s two largest newspapers. And the recent protests over racial injustice and police misconduct in Louisville, Booker's hometown, has shined a spotlight on a candidate who otherwise might have been left in the wake of McGrath's television ad blitz.

McGrath is the favorite of the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm and many sitting senators, and it’s hard to imagine she could lose a primary in which she’s outspent her opponents combined by a nearly 30-1 margin through early June. But there are signs it's turning into a real race: Booker is panning McGrath as a bland national Democrat who is predictably tacking to the center, while McGrath is biting back at Booker, accusing him of talking a big game on health care and voting rights but not backing it up.

"I don't really know what position Amy McGrath takes because she goes back and forth on everything depending on what consultants seem to say,” Booker said in an interview. “I know that Kentuckians can smell BS from miles away.”

“I’m not, as Mr. Booker claims, 'a pro-Trump Democrat.' I’m pro-Kentucky and pro-America,” McGrath said, refuting her top opponent in a POLITICO interview after months of keeping her fire trained on McConnell.

McGrath's position as McConnell's leading challenger and the then-viral advertising for her failed 2018 House bid have made her a darling of Democratic small donors. As of early June, she had a staggering $19 million in cash on hand, more than McConnell's 2014 opponent, then-Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes, spent for the entire election — and that's after already running more than $8 million in TV ads.

She's not just using that spending advantage to pummel voters with advertising. She's also touting her campaign’s high wages, generous health care and efforts to inform people about changes to voting amid the pandemic — contrasting herself with Booker and underdog Mike Broihier.

“It’s really disappointing that I’m the only candidate in the Democratic primary that has the integrity to lead on these issues within their own campaigns," she said.

But beneath her powerhouse fundraising, there are signs of struggles. McGrath had a bumpy rollout last year, saying in one of her first interviews that she would have supported Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, only to reverse herself later that day. More recently, Republican governors and Cindy McCain, the late Sen. John McCain’s widow, condemned ads of hers using their images to attack McConnell.

And McGrath has few substantial in-state endorsements, while Booker has been endorsed by prominent Kentucky media and close to two-dozen elected officials.

“There's not a lot of enthusiasm for Amy among Democrats. Charles’ supporters are very enthusiastic,” said one prominent Kentucky Democrat, who requested anonymity to speak candidly.

Booker has taken the lead on Black Lives Matter issues in the state after the murder of Breonna Taylor at the hands of the LMPD while McGrath has been concentrating on McConnell, and the ground has absolutely shifted under her feet in the last three weeks.

The real question is who has the best shot at dethroning Mitch McConnell, when both of them are long shots at best?

My brain says McGrath can keep it close, but Booker would be an amazing shift.  I just don't think he can beat Mitch.

We'll see.

Orange Meltdown, Con't

It seems somebody at the White House managed to convince Trump that Stephen Miller's too-clever-by-half idea of Trump resuming his racist roadshow rallies starting in Tulsa on Juneteenth was in fact a horrific idea that was going to get his hatefest blacked out or boycotted by the networks, and that apparently was enough to convince him to reschedule.

President Donald Trump announced late Friday night that he is rescheduling a rally that was to be held on June 19 -- Juneteenth, the holiday commemorating the end of slavery in the United States -- "out of respect for this holiday." 

Trump's decision to hold his first campaign rally in months on the holiday was met with widespread criticism amid the national outcry following George Floyd's death at the hands of police officers and nationwide protests about police brutality and racial inequality. 

"We had previously scheduled our #MAGA Rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, for June 19th -- a big deal," Trump tweeted. "Unfortunately, however, this would fall on the Juneteenth Holiday. Many of my African American friends and supporters have reached out to suggest that we consider changing the date out of respect for this Holiday, and in observance of this important occasion and all that it represents. I have therefore decided to move our rally to Saturday, June 20th, in order to honor their requests." 

Earlier Friday, Trump denied in an interview with Fox News that the rally was purposefully scheduled for June 19 in Tulsa -- the site of one of the worst atrocities against African Americans in the nation's history a century ago -- and instead said it should be thought of as a "celebration."

"It's an interesting date. It wasn't done for that reason, but it's an interesting date," he said.

I'm betting Ivanka and Jared pointed this out to the old man, and that convinced him that Stephen Miller was putting one over on him. What really convinced Trump though is that whoever did tell him this must have pointed out that the networks would be under massive pressure not to carry him if he went through on the 19th, but they would have to if he rescheduled for later in the month.

Maybe it was Hannity, maybe it was Ben Carson or Jerome Adams, maybe it was a wealthy black Republican donor like BET's Bob Johnson who called him up, I don't know. But somebody sure talked him out of this Friday night.

Trump loves revenge more than anything and a rally in Tulsa on Juneteenth was definitely a message of vengeance and punishment to the Black community, but if there is something he loves more than petty vengeance, it's his own image in the press as the great white savior of Black America. Trump wants to believe that we black folk love him, because his malignant narcissism demands it, and that delusion is about the only thing that can stand up to his constant desire for destroying everyone who doesn't love him.

Of course, it means the man in the Oval Office is easily manipulated by others, a fact not lost on, well, every foe the United States has (and basically all of our allies).

The Country Goes Viral, Con't

COVID-19 hasn't just gone away, folks.

The US could suffer 130,000 coronavirus deaths by July 4, according to a projection released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. 

And Covid-19 cases could rise this summer as states reopen, the CDC's deputy director for infectious diseases said during a conference call with reporters. 

"If anything, we must be overprepared for what we might face later this year," said Dr. Jay Butler. "Getting the flu vaccine will be more important than ever, as flu and Covid-19 could be circulating together as we move into the fall and winter months." 

More cities and states have reported increasing rates of new coronavirus cases per day as the nationwide total number of cases passed 2 million this week. 

According to a CNN analysis of data from Johns Hopkins University, 19 states have increasing case rates, several of which have seen record or near-record highs. And for the first time, rising caseloads have led some officials to delay phased re-opening plans. 

Months into the pandemic, more than 114,300 people in the US have died, according to Johns Hopkins, with about 1,000 deaths reported each day. 

"We know the pandemic is not over," Butler said.

That 130,000 number makes sense if you expect the 1,000/day number to remain constant or drop slightly, but I think the number of deaths is going to rise significantly before July 4 and keep rising throughout next month as hospitals are overwhelmed.  New York planned for the worst *and* made a lot of mistakes, but they got lucky.  Texas, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, these places are opening back up restaurants and theaters at full capacity in the next week or two and it's going to get bad fast.

Social distancing is all but dead.

It's going to take another massive wave of deaths to fix that.

The Mustache's Revenge

John Bolton's Mustache's book will be out in under two weeks, and we're already getting leaks of the story of Trump's disaster circus through his impeachment.

John Bolton taunts President Trump, his former boss, on the back cover of his forthcoming book: "Game on." 

In a memoir coming June 23 that the White House has tried to delay, former national security adviser Bolton will offer multiple revelations about Trump’s conduct in office, with direct quotes by the president and senior officials, according to a source familiar with the book.

Why it matters: Bolton, who was U.S. ambassador to the U.N. under President George W. Bush, is a lifelong conservative and longtime Fox News contributor who is well-known by the Trump base, the source pointed out. 

In "The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir," Bolton will go beyond Ukraine, and argue there was "Trump misconduct with other countries," the source said. 

Axios agreed to grant anonymity to the source in order to give readers a window into the book ahead of publication.

Behind the scenes: People close to Trump have been worried about the book because Bolton was known as the most prolific note taker in high-level meetings, Jonathan Swan reports. 

Bolton would sit there, filling yellow legal pad after yellow legal pad with notes.
In short: Bolton saw a lot, and he wrote it down in real time. And when he left, the White House never got those notes back.

The juiciest parts of the book will end up in the press, I'm sure.  But all this explains why Trump wants to get out and have at least one rally before Bolton ruins the rest of his summer, not that Trump isn't doing an amazing job of ruining everyone's summer by himself.

Of course, Bolton refused to release this information when it could have actually been used to stop the man he purportedly hates so much, but then again he wouldn't be getting this big fat check for his book advance, huh.

It's always a grift with Republicans.  Always.

Last Call For Retribution Execution, Con't

Never forget that the primary goal of the Trump regime is to exterminate every possible legacy of Barack Obama and to use federal power to directly punish the coalition of voters that chose Clinton over Trump.

The Trump administration Friday finalized a rule that would remove nondiscrimination protections for LGBTQ people when it comes to health care and health insurance.

"HHS respects the dignity of every human being, and as we have shown in our response to the pandemic, we vigorously protect and enforce the civil rights of all to the fullest extent permitted by our laws as passed by Congress," said Roger Severino, who directs the Office for Civil Rights in the Department of Health and Human Services, in written statement announcing that the HHS rule had become final. The rule is set to go into effect by mid-August.

This is one of many rules and regulations put forward by the Trump administration that defines "sex discrimination" as only applying when someone faces discrimination for being male or female, and does not protect people from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation or gender identity.

Supporters of the rule say this is a necessary reversal of Obama-era executive overreach, and will reduce confusion about the legal meaning of "sex discrimination." Critics argue the rule could further harm an already vulnerable group — transgender people — in the midst of a pandemic and historic unrest spurred by the killing of George Floyd at the hands of police in Minneapolis.

"I can't help but wonder if the timing [of this rule] is by design so that this is something that people won't pay attention to," says Tia Sherèe Gaynor, a political science professor at the University of Cincinnati.

Defining trans people as non-existent in federal law so that they literally cannot be discriminated against is pretty evil.  But it's not just trans folks who will suffer.

The rule focuses on nondiscrimination protections laid out in Section 1557 of the Affordable Care Act. That federal law established that it is illegal to discriminate on the basis of "race, color, national origin, sex, age or disability in certain health programs and activities." In 2016, an Obama-era rule explained that protections regarding "sex" encompass those based on gender identity, which it defined as "male, female, neither, or a combination of male and female."

In June 2019, under Trump, the HHS Office for Civil Rights proposed a rule (the one finalized this week) that reverses the one from the Obama administration. Severino explained at the time, "We're going back to the plain meaning of those terms, which is based on biological sex." He also said the rule could save hospitals and insurers and others $2.9 billion over five years, since they will be relieved of the requirement to print notices of non-discrimination in several languages and include them with any "significant" mailings.

Under the new rule, a transgender person could, for example, be refused care for a checkup at a doctor's office, explains Lindsey Dawson associate director of HIV Policy at the Kaiser Family Foundation. Other possible scenarios include a transgender man being denied treatment for ovarian cancer, or a hysterectomy not being covered by an insurer — or costing more when the procedure is related to someone's gender transition.

The Trump rule makes changes to gender-based discrimination protections beyond Section 1557 of the ACA; it affects regulations pertaining to access to health insurance, for example, including cost-sharing, health plan marketing, and benefits. Under the new rule, an insurance company could "charge higher premiums or other fees for those who are LGBTQ [or] cancel or deny coverage," Dawson says. The rule could also mean that those seeking an abortion could be denied care if performing the procedure violates the provider's moral or religious beliefs.

Even with the rule now finalized, an LGBTQ person who is discriminated against or denied health care can still sue, and courts may rule that their civil rights were violated in such a case. But that's not an easy avenue, says Dawson.

"Because of limited access to litigation, I think that it's fair to state that the ramifications [of this rule] could be pretty significant," she says. Protections will also vary based on where someone lives, she adds, so the rule "creates a patchwork of civil rights, compared to standardized protections."

Doing this during Pride Month, during nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, during a global health pandemic, during a period in which a record number of black trans folks are being murdered (the latest being right here in Cincinnati), and on the 4th anniversary of the Pulse nightclub massacre in Orlando is 100%, absolutely on purpose and straight-up evil incarnate.

Period. Full stop.

Vote out these assholes in November.

Republican Conventional Warfare, Con't

Me, last week, on the GOP moving the Republican National Convention out of Charlotte:

I fully expect the convention to be moved before the end of the month.  Trump will demand it. He will not tolerate anyone standing up to his bullying and performative chaos, and Trump figures it will cost Cooper a second term in November against Cooper's Republican Lt. Governor, Dan Forest (Governor and Lieutenant Governor have always been separate elections in NC, which makes for some weird stuff like this.)

The GOP, Thursday afternoon:

Officials announced Thursday that the main event of the Republican National Convention will now be held in Jacksonville, Florida instead of Charlotte.
The new location of the August convention will also include President Donald Trump’s acceptance speech.

“We are thrilled to celebrate this momentous occasion in the great city of Jacksonville,” said RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. “Not only does Florida hold a special place in President Trump’s heart as his home state, but it is crucial in the path to victory in 2020. We look forward to bringing this great celebration and economic boom to the Sunshine State in just a few short months.”

Officials said the celebration of Trump’s re-nomination will take place at the VyStar Veterans Memorial Arena.

The decision comes after North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper voiced concerns about holding a full-scale convention. The governor balked at promising Trump a full-blown convention in Charlotte without social distancing measures during the coronavirus pandemic.

The RNC voted Wednesday to hold a significantly scaled-down convention in Charlotte, allowing the party’s more mundane business, including discussions over the platform, to be held in the Queen City because of contractual obligations.

The decision means a little more than 300 delegates will come to Charlotte to officially select Trump as the party’s nominee. That will likely be the only official business actually done in the city. 

A proposal from Republican State Rep. John Torbett of Gaston to keep Trump in Charlotte for the Republican National Convention will not go up for a vote.

The Republican National Committee, which oversees the convention says Jacksonville, Florida is the top site for Trump to accept his party’s nomination. The last ditch-effort by state lawmakers contradicted Cooper’s insistence that the state could not promise a full capacity crowd because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

While Trump will speak elsewhere, the RNC insists some of its business activities will continue to be held in Charlotte.

So Charlotte can't sue for breach of contract, and Trump gets his convention floor filled with slavering fans, with yet another opportunity for a massive spike in Florida's COVID-19 infections, all to placate Trump's massive ego. An almost Trumpian solution to a 100% Trump-created disaster.

Ohio Goes Viral, Con't

Ohio's top public health official, Dr. Amy Acton, has resigned over anti-COVID-19 lunatics stalking her family.

Turning down pleas from Gov. Mike DeWine to stay on the job, Dr. Amy Acton surprisingly resigned Thursday as director of the Ohio Department of Health amid the coronavirus pandemic.

DeWine said Acton’s resignation is effective Thursday, although she now will become his chief health adviser.

“It is difficult for me to put in words how grateful I am for Dr. Acton’s service to the state,” he said.

The governor said he has asked Acton, who was appointed health director on Feb. 26, 2019, to “take a big-picture look” at improving public health while still working to address the pandemic.

Acton became both a beloved and polarizing figure to Ohioans for her candid, personal talks at televised coronavirus news briefings and for issuing orders closing down parts of the state’s economy that some found excessive.

Thursday, Acton praised local health officials, members of her team and those on the front lines of battling the pandemic. She also thanked her family and the governor — and the State Highway Patrol protective detail assigned to her after threats.

“Her knowledge, compassion and determination have set an example for all of us, and Dr. Acton’s extraordinary bedside manner and wise counsel have helped us all get through this pandemic,” DeWine said.

Asked why she quit, Acton said she couldn’t do justice to what amounts to three jobs at once. She said she now will have time to spend with her family, whose Bexley home has attracted protesters, some armed.

So congrats, "COVID hoax" nutjobs, you drove off yet another dedicated public health official so you can feel better about stuffing your face at Golden Corral on Sundays and not tipping the waitstaff.

And let's not forget the anti-semitic attacks from Ohio Republicans too.

An Ohio state representative drew criticism for calling the state’s Jewish Department of Health director a “globalist.” 

In a Facebook post on Friday, Rep. Nino Vitale said the director, Amy Acton, was denying state residents their human rights by extending a stay-at-home order until May 29. 

“Your basic human rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness do not come from an unelected Globalist Health Director, who signed the order in the dark of night. Your basic human rights are inalienable and cannot be bought, sold, traded or taken from you,” Vitale wrote in a post on Facebook on Friday and in a letter to supporters. 

Vitale’s Facebook page has since become unavailable, but in a note on his campaign website Vitale said “it appears web search engines and web relays are currently banning my Facebook page.” 

In a statement, the Cleveland office of the Anti-Defamation League urged Vitale to apologize for using the term, which recalls the anti-Semitic stereotype that a Jewish cabal secretly controls the world. 

“Whether Rep. Vitale purposely invoked anti-Semitism or not, we strongly urge him to remove that term from his vocabulary, and to issue an apology to Dr. Acton and the entire Jewish community. ADL is willing and able to provide Rep. Vitale, and all elected officials, training on anti-Semitism,” the ADL wrote on Facebook. 

Vitale’s statement comes a week after the wife of an Ohio state senator compared Acton’s support for the idea of issuing certificates to people who had proven immunity to COVID-19 to Nazi Germany. The senator, Andrew Brenner, later apologized to Acton and the Jewish community.

Vitale is also in trouble over Black Lives Matter comments.  I'll tell you what, Kentucky may be full of racists, but there are times where it has nothing on Ohio.

StupidiNews!

• Louisville's metro council unanimously passed "Breonna's Law" eliminating no-knock raids by the city police department after Breonna Taylor was killed by police in her own home in March.
• A Tennessee judge is threatening the state's election officials with criminal contempt unless the state expands voting-by-mail under a previous judicial order.
• Major US stock indexes dropped more than 6% on Thursday as fears of a second wave of COVID-19 infections threatens the fragile American economy.
• Joint Chiefs of Staff head General Mark Milley apologized to troops on Thursday saying he should have never participated in Donald Trump's now infamous St. John's Church photo op.
• Knoxville, Tennessee is the latest city government to be shut down by ransomware attacks, more than 50 US cities and counties have been hit by ransomware attacks in 2020 alone.