Monday Reading

As always, please go to the links for the full articles/ op eds.

It didn't take long for the Potemkin orders mango Mussolini Donald "COVID Donnie" Trump signed at his Bedminster golf club ($350,000 member fee) to be recognized for the bullshit they are:

President Trump’s new executive actions to disburse coronavirus relief without congressional approval sparked confusion and frustration on Sunday among businesses, Democrats and state officials, some of whom lamented the moves would not deliver the necessary relief to cash-strapped Americans.

Trump’s directives were aimed at offering new unemployment benefits, protecting renters from eviction and postponing the payment of a federal tax. But some economists and experts faulted these policies as incomplete or legally questionable — raising the prospect that the president’s attempt to boost the economy may have only a muted impact.  (our emphasis)

Here's another reality check:

Already largely absent from intense negotiations for a coronavirus stimulus package, President Trump fully distanced himself from the thorny legislative process by leaving Washington on Thursday for a weekend at his private golf resort in New Jersey.

After talks on Capitol Hill collapsed, Trump assembled some of his dues-paying club members to watch him complete the final step of what has become a familiar routine in his turbulent presidency: signing a legally dubious executive order after failing to reach a deal with Congress.

The president who pitched himself to voters as the consummate negotiator and ultimate dealmaker has repeatedly found his strategies flummoxed by the complexities and pressures of Washington lawmaking. In response, he has frequently relied on showmanship and pageantry to try to turn negotiating failures into victories. (our emphasis)

When even one of your Republican senators calls it "unconstitutional slop," you're losing. The sociopathic bonus of floating an end to the payroll tax, which doesn't help the unemployed but does rob Social Security and Medicare, is peak Trump Republicanism, though.

The Washington Post also had a front pager on "The lost days of summer: How Trump fell short in containing the virus."  One name pops up immediately (not coincidentally the same name refusing to negotiate with Democrats on the coronavirus relief bill):

As the White House chief of staff, Mark Meadows is responsible for coordinating the vast executive branch, including its coronavirus response. But in closed-door meetings, he has revealed his skepticism of the two physicians guiding the anti-pandemic effort, Deborah Birx and Anthony S. Fauci, routinely questioning their expertise, according to senior administration officials and other people briefed on the internal discussions.

Meadows no longer holds a daily 8 a.m. meeting that includes health professionals to discuss the raging pandemic. Instead, aides said, he huddles in the mornings with a half-dozen politically oriented aides — and when the virus comes up, their focus is more on how to convince the public that President Trump has the crisis under control, rather than on methodically planning ways to contain it.

During coronavirus meetings, Meadows has repeatedly questioned the scientific consensus that wearing masks helps contain the spread of the novel coronavirus, officials said. He has regularly raised with Fauci and others a range of issues on which he thinks Fauci has been wrong, and he personally monitors the infectious-disease expert’s media appearances. When he catches Fauci sounding out of sync with Trump, the chief of staff admonishes the doctor to “stay on message,” officials said — and he has impressed upon Fauci, Birx and other public health professionals that they should not opine on restrictions or make policy in the media.  (our emphasis)

Meadows, you should know, brings his background expertise as a restaurant and real estate company owner in Highlands, NC, to the table. He also was memorably the leader of the House Freedom Freedumb Caucus, a collection of sociopaths and nihilists (think Jim "Gym" Jordan, Andy Biggs, and Steve King).  So, we're in the best hands.

Robert Draper has a long read about the history between Trump and the Intelligence Community, specifically how he's managed over time to subvert our intelligence gatherers into often- cowering functionaries fearful of reporting the truth to Putin's puppet.  The barbered report from the most recent investigation of Russian interference in the 2020 election is just the latest evidence:   

Just as this article was going to press — and shortly after I submitted a list of questions to the O.D.N.I. relating to its struggle to avoid becoming politically compromised — Evanina put out a new statement. In it, the O.D.N.I. at last acknowledged publicly that Russia “is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden and what it sees as an anti-Russia ‘establishment.’” In the same statement, however, Evanina also asserted for the first time that both China and Iran were hoping to defeat Trump. As with the preceding statement, the O.D.N.I. made no distinction between Russia’s sophisticated election-disrupting capabilities and the less insidious influence campaigns of the two supposedly anti-Trump countries. Like its predecessor, the statement seemed to be tortured with political calculation — an implicit declaration of anguish rather than of independence.

It called to mind something the former C.I.A. acting director Michael Morell said several months before, when we were discussing Russia’s interference in the 2016 election. “This is the only time in American history when we’ve been attacked by a foreign country and not come together as a nation,” Morell said. “In fact, it split us further apart. It was an inexpensive, relatively easy to carry out covert mission. It deepened our divisions. I’m absolutely convinced that those Russian intelligence officers who put together and managed the attack on our democracy in 2016 all received medals personally from Vladimir Putin.”  (our emphasis)

Now that you're finished this modest reading, please do yourself a favor and check out Infidel 753's link round- up for a comprehensive array of links to topics from around the Internet.  He's done all the work;  all you need to do is browse.