The Trump Brand: In an unprecedented move, the Internal Revenue Service is putting the name “President Donald J. Trump” on the economic stimulus checks. The President’s name or signature has never appeared on an IRS check, but Trump is putting his name on like it is one of his hotels, golf courses, or his mail order steaks.

  The Washington Post reports that Trump wanted his signature on the checks, but the President is not a legal signer for government disbursements.

  The money comes from Congress through the Treasury Department, not the President, but the President is using the checks to advertise his name in an election year.

Stiffed: Blaming the World Health Organization for the worldwide spread of the coronavirus, President Trump yesterday announced that he’s cutting off funding to the organization. 

  Trump, who once said the virus is “under control” in the US and would disappear, said yesterday, “I’m instructing my administration to halt funding of the World Health Organization while a review is conducted to assess the World Health Organization’s role in severely mismanaging and covering up the spread of the coronavirus. Everybody knows what’s going on there.”

Captain Bligh: President Trump yesterday softened his claim of “total authority” over the states. He said at his daily briefing, “I will be speaking to all 50 governors very shortly and I will then be authorizing each individual governor of each individual state to implement a reopening.” That means he still thinks he has authority over what the states do, he’s just not saying it so bluntly. 

  Trump earlier compared state governors who defy his power to the infamous mutineers on the HMS Bounty, so you know what part he’s playing in the drama.

  The governors were stunned to hear Trump’s claim Monday that his executive power is “absolute” over the states, despite the 10^th Amendment, which he’s probably never read.  Trump tweeted, “Tell the Democrat Governors that ‘Mutiny On The Bounty’ was one of my all time favorite movies. A good old fashioned mutiny every now and then is an exciting and invigorating thing to watch, especially when the mutineers need so much from the Captain. Too easy!.”

  Trump appeared to be specifically picking a fight with New York’s Andrew Cuomo. “Cuomo’s been calling daily, even hourly, begging for everything, most of which should have been the state’s responsibility, such as new hospitals, beds, ventilators, etc.,” Trump tweeted. 

  Cuomo said at his daily briefing, “Sometimes it takes more strength frankly, to walk away from a fight, than engage in it. The President will have no fight with me.”

  But he also said, “Our founding fathers understood, and we have to remember today, that the balance between the state and the federal, that magnificent balance that is articulated in the constitution is the essence of our democracy. We don’t have a king in this country.” 

  Cuomo said, “A king has total authority. That statement cannot stand.”

The Lagging Indicator: Wyoming has become the 50^th state to have a coronavirus death.

  New York State had another 784 deaths in the last 24 hours, but the state’s governor Andrew Cuomo describes death as the “lagging indicator” of the epidemic. New cases are flattening and deaths might be expected to taper down within a week or two.

  Total deaths in New York State have reached 10,842; New York City, 7905.

  The national death total this morning is 26,059, up by 2,410.

The Podcast Campaign: Former President Barack Obama yesterday endorsed his former Vice President Joe Biden to be the Democratic nominee for president this fall. He waited until Joe was the last man standing.

  There were no television cameras for Obama’s announcement. On a video release Obama said, “I know he’ll surround himself with good people – experts, scientists, military officials who actually know how to run the government and care about doing a good job running the government, and know how to work with our allies, and who will always put the American people’s interests above their own.”

  While President Trump gets a couple of hours of airtime every day to brag about his leadership during the corona crisis, the Democrats in the time of social distancing are relegated to video releases and podcasts.

  Joe Biden has a podcast called “Here’s the Deal,” which, according to the app we use, has 1,659 listeners. Alex Shepard wrote for The New Republic that, Here’s the Deal is less a podcast than the audio equivalent of a hostage holding up a newspaper with the day’s date.”

The Bulletin Board: It would have been income tax day, but thanks to the coronavirus, it’s not. You have until July 15^th. — Nearly 30 percent of Americans believe the novel coronavirus didn’t come from an animal but was created in a laboratory, despite the science. Keep in mind, 40 percent of Americans believe God created man in his current form. — The Supreme Court announced that it will hear its remaining cases this spring by conference call. 

The Obit Page: Hank Steinbrenner, son of the infamous George Steinbrenner and a co-owner of the New York Yankees, died at age 63 after a long illness. Like father, like son. When Alex Rodriguez announced he was leaving the Yankees, Hank called a reporter and said, “Does he want to go into the Hall of Fame as a Yankee, or a Toledo Mud Hen?” — Stirling Moss, the British race car driver who was one of the greatest in his sport, died at age 90. He once personified the glamor of the sport with jet set beauties hanging on his elbows. “It was one lap too many,” his wife, Susie, told The Associated Press. “He just closed his eyes.”

Sophie’s Choice: Indiana’s Republican Rep. Trey Hollingsworth said during a radio interview that the government should let more people die rather than keep the economy shut down. “It is always the American government’s position to say, in the choice between the loss of our way of life as Americans and the loss of life, of American lives, we have to always choose the latter.”

  We’d be willing to sacrifice Trey Hollingsworth for the effort. 

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