The Next President of the United States

[Karabiner]

This executive order that Trump has signed ordering contaminated(with Covid-19) meat-packing plants to reopen is beyond belief.

It also offers the companies immunity from legal-action by employees who subsequently get infected.

Will they do it, or just ignore him?

He seems to be using a special executive order that hasn't been used since the Korean war.

I think it leaves them little choice or he could charge them with treason.

[Marky147]

https://twitter.com/tomrichell/status/1255558616272252928

I never said that!

[MintTrav]

I mentioned Elaine Chao, the Secretary of Transportation, who is an interesting case. She was born in Taiwan, and lived there til she was eight, speaking no English when her family moved to the US. She only became a US citizen at nineteen. She took an economics degree and a Harvard MBA, and her family is the only one ever to have four daughters attend Harvard Business School. She became a banker at CitiCorp, a VP at BankAmerica, President of a large charity and Director of the Peace Corps. She was Deputy Secretary of Transportation way back under George Bush Snr and, prior to that, headed up several government Transport Agencies under Reagan and Bush Snr.

This is her second time in the Cabinet. She was GWB's Labour Secretary and was the only member of his Cabinet to remain in office throughout his whole Presidency. She was the first Asian-American woman to hold a Cabinet position and was the longest-serving Sec of Labour since WWII. Her appointment this time was one of the least controversial, and the Senate approved her nomination 93-6 (with McConnell abstaining) less than a fortnight after Trump's inauguration. While out of government, she worked for conservative think tanks and was a director of several companies, including News Corp and Wells Fargo.

She married Mitch in 1993, just before she turned 40. He was already a leading Senator, which may answer the question of what she sees in him.

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Wedding Day.

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[MintTrav]

Hassett covering himself 'not announcing a policy', as he knows he'd end up being tucked up.

Both of those seem far too measured to be on Trump's firm, though.

I watched Cuomo's conference from earlier, and he goes after McConnell again.

Not sure if McConnell and him have a lot of history? It really seems to have gotten Cuomo's back up.

I don't know if they have a lot of history. Obviously, they will have crossed swords due to their positions, which both have been in for a long time. It's possible that there are old resentments - Cuomo spent the duration of Clinton's Presidency in DC, where he was HUD Sec in Bill's cabinet, so anything could have happened between them. If there's a more recent issue, it may be more likely to relate to McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, who I imagine would have a lot more dealings with Cuomo in her role as Transportation Sec. But there might not be anything - sticking the boot in seems to be more acceptable in American politics and their politicians often speak extremely harshly about each other.

Yeah, maybe it is just an accumulation of things, and this has brought things to a head.

Sticking the boot in will obviously be even more acceptable when the president spends half his waking hours doing it on Twitter.

McConnell just seems like a bit of a shithouse, and while it seems like absolutely nonsensical from him, is Cuomo right?

NY with their contributions do help fund the poorer states year in/out, one of which is McConnell's.

Yeah he's right, but isn't that how it works? Funds are always transferred from the more prosperous areas to the less well-off ones, to try to narrow the gap, even if bringing them up to the same level isn't feasible. Taxpayers in the prosperous areas often have a problem with it, but their governments generally understand why it should happen - I'm sure Cuomo does and his lashing out is probably partly genuine, but also with a view to it playing well.

[MintTrav]

Something that has received little coverage is a sexual assault allegation against Biden. Tara Reade worked for him in 1993 and ended up being fired, not so unusual in DC. She says she reported it to three of his staff - his Executive Assistant, the Chief of Staff and the Deputy Chief of Staff. They all deny being told anything about it. She also says she told her brother and a friend, and they both confirm that. She said that her mother (now dead) phoned Larry King Live about it. After a while, the tape has been found, though by an investigative journalist, not by CNN.

She has found it difficult to get support. Time's Up told her to take a hike and none of the major channels are covering it. The Democrats are ignoring it and the Republicans are storing it til the Trump-Biden contest hits top gear. Some of the VP candidates have been asked gently in an apologetic "I have to ask you about..." way, but have just swatted it away, casting the New York Times snow job as vindication for Joe. And so far, no interviewer has asked Joe Biden about it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden_sexual_assault_allegation

[MintTrav]

Interview with Tara Reade.  https://soundcloud.com/katie-halper/tara-to-post

She has had her credibility attacked because she can't remember where the incident took place, because she has tweeted support for Biden many times and because she has tweeted support for Putin a lot of times too. Not saying she's credible, but those aspects don't really change whether the incident took place.

[MintTrav]

Michigan is an open carry State so protesters were allowed to take their weapons into the Senate yesterday.

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[Marky147]

Hassett covering himself 'not announcing a policy', as he knows he'd end up being tucked up.

Both of those seem far too measured to be on Trump's firm, though.

I watched Cuomo's conference from earlier, and he goes after McConnell again.

Not sure if McConnell and him have a lot of history? It really seems to have gotten Cuomo's back up.

I don't know if they have a lot of history. Obviously, they will have crossed swords due to their positions, which both have been in for a long time. It's possible that there are old resentments - Cuomo spent the duration of Clinton's Presidency in DC, where he was HUD Sec in Bill's cabinet, so anything could have happened between them. If there's a more recent issue, it may be more likely to relate to McConnell's wife, Elaine Chao, who I imagine would have a lot more dealings with Cuomo in her role as Transportation Sec. But there might not be anything - sticking the boot in seems to be more acceptable in American politics and their politicians often speak extremely harshly about each other.

Yeah, maybe it is just an accumulation of things, and this has brought things to a head.

Sticking the boot in will obviously be even more acceptable when the president spends half his waking hours doing it on Twitter.

McConnell just seems like a bit of a shithouse, and while it seems like absolutely nonsensical from him, is Cuomo right?

NY with their contributions do help fund the poorer states year in/out, one of which is McConnell's.

Yeah he's right, but isn't that how it works? Funds are always transferred from the more prosperous areas to the less well-off ones, to try to narrow the gap, even if bringing them up to the same level isn't feasible. Taxpayers in the prosperous areas often have a problem with it, but their governments generally understand why it should happen - I'm sure Cuomo does and his lashing out is probably partly genuine, but also with a view to it playing well.

It all made sense, but that just makes it seem all the more stupid for McConnell to come out with the 'blue state bailout' nonsense. I wasn't sure if I was missing something, which is often the case.

Definitely going to play well, and has McConnell got something up his sleeve to play down the line, or just a case of him thinking IDGAF and nobody else will.

I saw a few people mentioning Tara Reade on Twitter, and didn't look into it too much, because Twitter is generally just a smorgasbord of bots/left-right vitriol.

[MintTrav]

I no sooner get around to posting that Biden hasn't been questioned on the Tara Reade allegations, than he goes on Morning Joe and takes pretend-tough questions from one of his biggest fans, Mika Brzezinski. These will be posed by more hostile interviewers later on, so there was no point in avoiding them, but I'm sure the interview was well choreographed.

[MintTrav]

Older people may remember Mika's father Zbigniew Brzezinski, who was Jimmy Carter's National Security Advisor, and seemed to always be by his side during those days.




The Zbigniew Brzezinski Annual Prize "honours his legacy by recognizing and promoting the importance of geostrategic thinking with a transcending moral purpose".
2017 winner - Joe Biden.

[MintTrav]

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[MintTrav]

There have been some important personnel changes in the White House lately. Mick Mulvaney, the Director of the Office of Management and Budget, had filled in as Acting Chief of Staff for 15 months since John Kelly's departure. He has now been moved on to become US Special Envoy for Northern Ireland (incidentally, a role last filled by Gary Hart, who some might remember could well have become President in 1988 if his run wasn't scuppered by the Donna Rice / Monkey Business scandal).

Mulvaney has been put out to grass to make way for Mark Meadows, a right-wing Tea Party Congressman from North Carolina, who has been one of Trump's biggest supporters in Congress. I would expect him to be more high-profile than Mulvaney.

The first thing Meadows did was install Kayleigh McEnany as WH Press Secretary. The previous Press Sec, Stephanie Grisham, was long overdue for replacement. Remember how Sean Spicer and Sarah Huckabee Sanders used to hold regular briefings? They were pugnacious and paid little attention to the truth, but they were entertaining - and at least they held them. In nine months, Grisham didn't hold a single press briefing, and was accused of doing the job in name only, though she did give private briefings to some reporters and appeared regularly on Fox and other sympathetic channels. It's not clear why Trump put up with it but he may have felt some loyalty to her as she worked on his campaign and was Melania's Press Sec before moving over to Donald. Her job with Melania was never filled and she has now gone back to that.

Kayleigh was a Trump surrogate during the 2016 campaign, but popped up as a supporter all the way back to 2012 and Birtherism. She has a degree in International Politics from Georgetown and spent time at Oxford. She won a scholarship for being in the top 1% on a law degree at Miami and transferred to Harvard, finishing in 2016. While studying she was appearing regularly as a contributor on Fox and CNN defending Trump. https://www.law.miami.edu/news/2014/july/classroom-newsroom-rising-2l-kayleigh-mcenany-appears-tv-guest-political-commentator. Between Georgetown and Miami, she spent three years as a producer on the Mike Huckabee Show.

She has been National Spokesperson for the Republican National Committee since 2017. Since starting her new role in early April, she has suggested a few times that she would be holding press briefings and yesterday she held her first one. She was great, performing confidently and competently, and without the aggression or bad-temperedness usually forthcoming from Spicer and Sanders. Most of the time was spent answering questions, and one of the first was whether she would undertake to tell the truth at the briefings, which she said she would always do, and then proceeded to lie, exaggerate and bend the truth about a dozen times. Nevertheless, she is a welcome addition - she is well-qualified for the role and has a reputation for preparing diligently. it will at least be good to get some clear statements from someone intelligent, even if they need to be filtered for accuracy.

[MintTrav]

Dynamite tweet from Biden.



The US women's national team players lost their court case for equal pay with the male players on Friday. Biden has backed them and tweeted his support last year. If he carries this through it'll be devastating for US Soccer, which is due to co-host the World Cup in 2026. Joe Manchin introduced a Bill in the Senate last year for the same thing, but it doesn't seem to have got anywhere: "Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no Federal funds may be appropriated or otherwise made available to provide support for the 2026 World Cup, including support for a host city, a participating State or local agency, (CONCACAF), or (FIFA), until the date on which the United States Soccer Federation agrees to provide equitable pay to the members of the United States Women’s National Team and the United States Men’s National Team."  https://www.manchin.senate.gov/imo/media/doc/070919%20MCC19853.pdf?cb

Joe and Jill were interviewed by the US Women's captain, Megan Rapinoe, on her Instagram on Thursday. They had a nice chat, without any challenging questions, as you might expect. He repeated his support for their case and his previous pledge to appoint someone who has been a public school teacher as Secretary of Education.

[MintTrav]

NBC political analyst / MSNBC anchor Nicolle Wallace: "The Right isn't running an intellectually honest operation to get to the bottom of whether Tara Reade was victimised. The Right is running a smear campaign against Joe Biden".




Wallace was White House Communications Director for George W Bush and was the main spokesperson for the McCain campaign, so Trump doesn't like her anyway. The President of America took the time to respond with another childish tweet. Honestly, if he wasn't President, you'd think it's wrong for people to argue with him as it's not a fair contest.

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[MintTrav]

The Democrat-dominated House Appropriations Committee has called Fauci to testify this week, but the White House has declined, saying "it is counter-productive to have the very individuals involved in those [Covid-19] efforts appearing at Congressional hearings". I can understand why, even if it's convenient that he doesn't show up.

Meanwhile, the GOP-controlled Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee has called him to appear on 12 May, and the White House has agreed that he can attend.

The Appropriations Committee isn't happy: http://twitter.com/AppropsDems/status/1256620031217188866

https://edition.cnn.com/2020/05/01/politics/anthony-fauci-white-house-blocks-house-testimony/index.html