What to Do Now: With the President’s guidelines expired, the states are wrestling today with when and how to let Americans return to restaurants, movie theaters, and shopping malls. Governors in at least 30 states are planning gradual re-openings.

  Coronavirus infections and death still rising and the economy in shambles. Another 2,020 Americans died in the last 24 hours and nearly 30,000 more were diagnosed.

 Nonetheless, governors are under pressure, not only from business and laid off workers. Yesterday a group of protesters, many of them armed, gathered at the Michigan capitol in Lansing, demanding the governor lift the stay-at-home order.

  Hoping the economy will be restored before the election, President Trump is also pushing states to re-open. He said yesterday, “I think next year is going to be a spectacular year in terms of growth, in terms of bringing our country back. I think we’re going to have a really good year.” 

  In Texas, restaurants will be allowed to open at 25 percent capacity, but some events around the country are still altered or cancelled. The Little League World Series has been cancelled for the first time ever. NASCAR is returning to racing with no spectators in the stands.

I, Donald: With the crisis far from over, Trump is returning to running for re-election attacking Democrats and the press while thumping his chest about what a great President he is. This morning Trump tweeted, “I have done more for farmers and ranchers than any President in history, and it has been my honor in doing so!”

  Actually, no one has done more to hurt them. His trade war with China already had farmers losing money, and his fumbling of the virus response has left many unable to harvest and deliver to market.

  He is attacking the press and spurring fear of election tampering. His primary tactic is to undermine the credibility of any institution or person other than himself. Yesterday he wrote, “FAKE POLLING, just like 2016 (but worse)!”

  And he wrote, “We can’t let the Fake News, and their partner, the Radical Left, Do Nothing Democrats, get away with stealing the Election. They tried that in 2016. How did that work out?”

In Like Flynn: Short-term national Security adviser Michael Flynn is seizing on internal FBI investigative notes to claim he was set up in an attempt to undermine President Trump.

  The documents detail a debate between FBI agents before they interviewed Flynn about how to juggle legal, investigative and political issues. In one memo an agent says, “What’s our goal? Truth/admission or to get him to lie, so we can prosecute him or get him fired?”

  President Trump said yesterday, “When I looked at what they did to him, they tormented him. Dirty cops tormented General Flynn. General Flynn is a fine man. 35 years or so in the military. You don’t get to be where he is by being bad. That I can tell you. 

  The problem is that Flynn twice pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI about his conversations with Sergey Kislyak, the Russian ambassador to the United States at the time, before Trump was inaugurated and just as the Obama administration was about to place sanctions on Russia for its election sabotage.

  Trump was on a rant yesterday about the treatment of his criminal cronies. He tweeted, “Does anybody really believe that Roger Stone, a man whose house was raided early in the morning by 29 gun toting FBI Agents (with Fake News  @CNN

closely in toe), was treated fairly. How about the jury forewoman with her unannounced hatred & bias. Same scammers as General Flynn!”

  Roger Stone was found guilty of seven felony counts including lying to authorities, obstructing a congressional investigation, and witness intimidation.

  And by the way, Mr. President, that’s “in tow.”

To the Moon, Alice: NASA has picked designs from three companies for further development of the next generation moon lander. Among the three are Elon Musk’s SpaceX and Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin. Boeing, which has always been involved in space projects, was not among the finalists.

  It’s questionable whether NASA will meet President Trump’s 2024 target date for landing Americans on the moon once again.

Fatherhood: CNN anchor Anderson Cooper announced last night that he and his partner have a son born to a surrogate.  The baby is named Wyatt after Cooper’s father, who died when Cooper was 10. The 52-year-old Cooper wrote online, “As a gay kid, I never thought it would be possible to have a child.”

The Bulletin Board: Macy’s announced plans to re-open all 775 of its stores in six to eight weeks. — Vice President Mike Pence visited a ventilator factory in Indiana, this time wearing a mask. — After the beaches were jammed last weekend, California Gov. Gavin Newsom closed all parks and beaches in Orange County on the south coast. — American Airlines and United reported a combined $4 billion in losses so far in the virus crisis.

Sense and Sensibility: The following is an exchange yesterday in the presence of New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy between a reporter and the President about the possibility of more relief money for Americans:

Q. Mister president, at what point do people need another check? If unemployment’s at 20-

Trump: Well, we’re talking about that I know a lot of people are talking about it, but we’ve given a lot of stimulus and, again, we think now it’s, it’s so great. I’m so happy that you’re opening up parks and things because that’s a big step for New Jersey because they were hit very hard. I think you’re going to see something that’s going to surprise maybe the world. We’re the leader of the world. We’re really the leader in this case, the leader of the world. And we’ve done better. If you look at our deaths, if you look at mortality rates, if you look at the things. In fact, I’m going to get a chart because it’s maybe the most impressive thing, right? How we’ve done.”

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