Trumpolitics: In the irony of  ironies, the race for the Republican senate nomination in Pennsylvania might come down to absentee ballots, the very form of voting that Donald Trump claims fraudulently cost him the 2020 election. 

  Television doctor Mehmet OZ, the Trump-endorsed candidate for the Senate from Pennsylvania, still leads by a hair over Dave McCormick, but by late yesterday there were 22,000 absentee ballots that could not be counted by machine because they were improperly coded. McCormick, who espouses the big Trump election lie, has been doing better than Oz with the absentees.

  Late yesterday, Oz led McCormick by 0.2% of the vote.  Pennsylvania calls for an automatic recount if the final margin is 0.5% or less. Final results may not be available  until Tuesday.

  Nonetheless, Trump was calling for Oz to declare victory before the final count. “Dr. Oz should declare victory,”  Trump wrote on his social media platform. He said, “Here we go again! In Pennsylvania they are unable to count the Mail-In Ballots. It is a BIG MESS.”

  Trump’s influence on the current round of elections is mixed. His candidates lost governor’s races in Idaho and Nebraska. North Carolina’s Madison Cawthorn lost his House race, but that was a vote against him, not Trump.  Trump’s pick won the Senate contest in Ohio and while Pennsylvania is still too close to call, roughly 70 percent of Republicans voted against Trump’s endorsed candidate.

Oh Baby: President Biden announced that he’s invoking the Defense Production Act not to make missiles, but baby formula.

  His order would increase US production and create an “Operation Fly Formula” to use Defense Department planes for bringing foreign-made formula shipments to the US.

  Biden said in a video posted on Twitter, “I know parents all across the country are worried about finding enough infant formula to feed their babies — as a parent and as a grandparent, I know just how stressful that is.” 

  The shortage was spurred by the shutdown of an Abbott Nutrition plant that makes about 40 percent of formula in this country. The shortage and panic buying have left many shelves empty. Aggravating the situation is an FDA rule that requires people on food assistance to buy only certain brands of formula.

  Although the problem was not created by President Biden, he’s been blamed for not doing something sooner to solve it.

Econ 101: The Dow Jones dropped 1,164 points yesterday as stocks continue their dramatic spring slide. The S&P 500 fell 164 points — that’s 4 percent —  its biggest drop since June 2020 

  Retailers led the decline. Inflation is cutting into business as prices rise and sales drop. Walmart, for instance, announced that profits were down 25 percent in the first quarter from a year ago. Target was down 24.9 percent for the quarter.

The War Room: A Russian soldier on trial for a war crime in the killing of an unarmed 62-year-old Ukrainian man yesterday pleaded guilty.

    Do you accept your guilt?” the judge asked twenty-one-year-old Sgt. Vadim Shishimarin. “Yes, fully yes,” Shishimarin replied. He could be sentenced to life in prison.

  Shishimarin was a member of a tank unit broken up early in the war. He and three other soldiers commandeered a civilian car to retreat. They came across a man with a bicycle who had a cell phone and Shishimarin killed him to prevent him from reporting their presence. In a videotape made after his capture, Shishimarin  said, “I was ordered to shoot. I shot one (round) at him. He falls. And we kept on going.”

  Despite numerous incidents of civilians being raped, murdered, and targeted by artillery and missiles, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov called the allegations against Russian soldiers “simply fake or staged.” 

  Not so with Ukrainian prisoners. Russia is considering war crimes trials for the Ukrainians taken into custody after the surrender of the steel plant in Mariupol.

  Many of the Ukrainians who defendded the plant are members of the Azov Brigade with connections to far right politics.

  The Russian Supreme Court said it would hold a hearing next week on whether to declare the Azov group a “terrorist organization,” which could give Moscow cover to deprive them of their rights as prisoners of war. Russia says roughly 800 prisoners are from the Azov battalion. As many 1,700 Ukrainians have surrendered so far in Mariupol. 

The Shooting Gallery: A 911 operator in Buffalo is under investigation and could be fired for hanging up on a caller during the Tops market massacre.

  Latisha Rogers told The Buffalo News, “She was yelling at me, saying, ‘Why are you whispering? You don’t have to whisper and I was telling her, ‘Ma’am, he’s still in the store. He’s shooting. I’m scared for my life. I don’t want him to hear me. Can you please send help?’ She got mad at me, hung up in my face.”

The Spin Rack: — The US Soccer Federation for the first time agreed to equal pay for men and women playing for United States national teams competing in international matches and competitions. The women have won the World Cup five times and the men, never. — Former Minneapolis Police officer Thomas Lane, who held down George Floyd’s legs while he died with another cop on his back, pleaded guilty yesterday to second-degree manslaughter. By pleading, the 39-year-old Lane avoids the charge of abetting second-degree unintentional murder in Floyd’s 2020 death. Prosecutors recommended a three year sentence. — The Department of Homeland Security says it is preparing for potential violence when the Supreme Court releases its final opinion on abortion. The justices known to have voted to repeal the landmark Roe v. Wade decision have been getting threats. A DHS memo says threats “are likely to persist and may increase leading up to and following the issuing of the Court’s official ruling.”

Headline of the Day: From the NY Times, “Your Dog Is Not Ready for You to Return to the Office.”

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