Bailout Deadline, Lock Them Up
Monday, October 19, 2020
Vol. 9, No. 236
48 Hours: With layoffs increasing and federal help run out, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi yesterday said the Republicans have 48 hours to offer an acceptable economic stimulus bill if they want to get it passed by election day. She gives them until the end of the day tomorrow.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell plans votes on smaller bills this week, but the Democrats over in the House are holding out for big money as well as coronavirus testing and tracing.
The Political Lockup: A 59-year-old man in Wichita, Kansas has been arrested and accused of threatening to kidnap and kill Mayor Brandon Whipple over coronavirus restrictions. This comes after the feds busted a plot by a bunch of camo-buddies to kidnap and kill Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer.
Feeding the frenzy of hatred for politicians fighting spread of the coronavirus is President Trump, who led a chant in Michigan Saturday calling for Whitmer to be locked up. Trump said, “Now you got to get your governor to open up your state. Okay?”
His crowd chanted, “Lock her up! Lock her up! Lock her up!” and Trump responded, “Lock them all up.” That’s the President of the United States calling for other political leaders to be locked up.
Trump’s daughter-in-law Lara yesterday told CNN’s Jake Tapper that the President “was having fun.”
“It’s got to end,” Michigan’s Whitmer said on another network. “It is dangerous, not just for me and my family, but for public servants everywhere who are doing their jobs and trying to protect their fellow Americans.”
Tapper ended Lara Trump’s interview in frustration with her lies and diversions. Political commentator David Frum later tweeted, “I’ve never understood the point of shows where a network invites world-champion liars onto its air and then the host righteously denounces them for world-champion lying.”
Friends Like These: President Trump’s former friends and aides are turning against him in the closing days of the election, some finally breaking silence, some trying to save their political hide.
Former White House chief of staff, John Kelly told friends “The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me.” According to CNN, the former Marine General said of Trump, “The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it’s more pathetic than anything else. He is the most flawed person I have ever met in my life
The reporting comes from a new CNN special scheduled to air Sunday night, “The Insiders: A Warning from Former Trump Officials,” in which former senior administration officials — including former national security adviser John Bolton, former Health and Human Services scientist Rick Bright and former Department of Homeland Security general counsel John Mitnick explained why they think the President is unfit for office.
Nebraska’s Republican Gov. Ben Sasse said in a recorded phone call, “It isn’t just that he fails to lead our allies, is that the United States now regularly sells out our allies under his leadership. The way he treats women, and spends like a drunken sailor.” Sasse said, “His family has treated the presidency like a business opportunity. He’s flirted with white supremacists.”
The Laptop Scandal: The NY Post, Fox News, and President Trump continue to flog the story about information derived from a laptop purportedly owned by Joe Biden’s son Hunter and abandoned in a Delaware repair shop.
The Post says messages on the laptop reveal that Hunter Biden was cashing in on his father’s position through deals with China and Ukraine, and in some instances, the Post claims, Joe Biden knew it.
There’s some suspicion that the computer hard drive might be the product of Russian election meddling. The roundabout way in which the computer fell into the hands of Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani has the earmarks of an espionage operation, some critics say.
Intelligence officials had warned Trump that Giuliani might be a conduit for Russian disinformation. The NY Times reports that some Post reporters withheld their bylines on the story because they had doubts
The laptop and its information have yet to be examined by neutral investigators — the FBI for instance — but Trump tweeted yesterday, “Joe Biden is a corrupt politician,” and “This is the second biggest political scandal in our history!”
Viral News: New York State health officials have shut down an ultra-Orthodox wedding planned for today that could have gathered up to 10,000 guests at a Brooklyn synagogue, breaking the state’s coronavirus limit of 50.
Some of Brooklyn’s ultra-orthodox Jews have rioted over the coronavirus restrictions.
New York’s quick-lipped Gov. Andrew Cuomo Governor Andrew M. Cuomo said a large wedding could turn into a superspreader event. “My suggestion: Have a small wedding this year,” Cuomo said at a news conference. “Next year, have a big wedding. Invite me, and I’ll come.”
Infections in the US are trending upwards 30 percent over the past two weeks. This morning, 219,676 Americans have died.
Death Be Not Proud: For the first time in 70 years, the US plans to execute a woman. Lisa Montgomery of Melvern, Kansas was convicted of kidnapping a pregnant woman, killing her, and cutting out her live baby to take as her own. The execution by lethal injection is scheduled for Dec. 8th.
Late Series: The Los Angeles Dodgers beat the Atlanta Braves, 4-3, in Game 7 to win a spot in the World Series for the third time in four years. They’ll face the Tampa Bay Rays
Nodding Woman: Over President Trump’s left shoulder during last week’s town hall on NBC was a woman who kept nodding enthusiastically at the President. The audience was supposed to be composed of undecided voters, but this woman was decidedly Trump.
Afterwards she greeted Trump saying, “We have your back! You are the best!”
She’s been identified as Mayra Joli, 55, a native of the Dominican Republic, a lawyer and former beauty queen who ran for Congress in Florida as an independent and failed to get the nod.
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