Wondering on Wednesday 9/23/20

Ready... Set... Wonder!

OH EM GEE -- Didja know that Hunter Biden worked for Ukrainian energy company Burisma, and didja know that it was stupid that he worked for Burisma when his father was the vice president?  If you didn't know those two things, I've no choice but to wonder where you were during the impeachment.  And, today, I have to wonder what the heck Wisconsin Senator Ron Johnson thought he was going to accomplish by having a lengthy investigation to determine those two facts?  Well, let him tell you himself.

People need to take a look at this report very carefully and understand what the ramifications are for electing Joe Biden as president.

Well, no -- I mean, we knew all of that before, even if Johnson didn't. Heck, even Republicans have called his investigation nonsense, with Utah's Mitt Romney saying

It is not the legitimate role of government, for Congress or for taxpayer expense, to be used in an effort to damage political opponents. 

And from this article in the NY Times, we learn that Johnson

said he was simply conducting the type of oversight with which his committee was tasked, and suggested that the investigation had been thrust upon him because Mr. Biden had opted to challenge Mr. Trump. The senator said that he “never thought Joe Biden should run for president,” and hinted that the former vice president had cognitive problems, a baseless attack frequently hurled by Mr. Trump.

I don't know about you, but I wonder if the most important thing we'll learn from the report is that Ron Johnson is completely unfit for office - something he was hell-bent on proving about Biden.  

And speaking of people profiting from and benefiting from relationships with politicians, let's wonder about these items:

• The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) gave more than $6 million in contracts since September 2018 to the firm where acting Secretary Chad Wolf’s wife serves as an executive.
• Since assuming the presidency, Donald Trump has racked up more than 3,000 conflicts of interest from his refusal to divest from his businesses, according to a report released today by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). Trump averages more than two conflicts of interest per day, an astonishing rate of corruption... Highlights from CREW’s tracking include:  78 visits by members of Congress to Trump properties; 267 visits by the president to his own properties, each of which costs taxpayers money and makes Trump money; at least 30 visits by Cabinet members to events at Trump properties; 117 events hosted or sponsored by special interest groups at Trump properties, and nearly 80 more by political groups; 13 events held by entities with ties to foreign governments, and visits by at least 134 foreign officials, and of course, the 65 trademarks granted to Trump by foreign governments while he's been in office...
• Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross - "The Trump Official Who Keeps Watchdogs Up At Night" - has lied about divesting his vast financial holdings, and his "inaccuracies and omissions have also prompted serious questions about whether he took official actions that could affect his personal financial interests..."

There are so many more of this kind of thing in the Trump administration, either folks who are still there, or the many others who took their ethical challenges and went home. Are any of them fit for a government job, or fit for office, I wonder? Including Trump? 

What else is going on today?  Well, both the Republicans and the Democrats are actively engaged in sticking their noses in the election.  Let's take the Rs first: according to an article in the Atlanta Journal Constitution, 

The Republican National Committee is getting involved in an appeal over absentee ballot deadlines in Georgia, making it the 20th state where the Republican Party is fighting election lawsuits. 

From the Protect The Vote website, which is an arm of the Republican National Committee, 

Is it any wonder that the 20 states where the Rs are involved in lawsuits include Colorado, Florida, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Virginia - are all swing states?  

And the Dems? I don't think we need to wonder why they're fighting to keep Syracuse's own Howie Hawkins, the Green Party's presidential candidate, off the ballot in swing states, including Pennsylvania and Wisconsin... After all, we know that any vote for a candidate other than Joe Biden is a vote for Trump, right? Particularly a vote for a more progressive candidate than Biden. 

A reporter today asked the president what he thought about Harry and Meghan doing a PSA about voting. I was sure it was going to be the reporter from OANN, but it was actually the Daily Mail UK reporter. Trump's answer was typical - rude and denigrating - so no wondering there. Nope - the wondering is why anyone would ask that question in the first place. And then I saw that reporters also asked Buckingham Palace about the former royals, so I guess maybe that's just the way the UK reporters are. 

And we'll close tonight's wondering with this piece of news about the president's second son, Eric. He's been asked to appear for a deposition in a case brought by NY AG Tish James, but wanted to wait until after the election. After all, his lawyer said, Eric is a "vital and integral part" of his father's campaign, and he's traveling way too much to appear. Alas,

Judge Arthur Engoron has ordered President Donald Trump's son to appear for a deposition by Oct. 7, denying Eric Trump's request to wait until after the election.

Engoron said the argument to delay providing testimony was "unpersuasive" because "neither the petitioner nor this court is bound by timelines of the national election." 

So, what's the wondering on that part? 

• Will he really appear as ordered in two weeks? 
• Will the president's campaign legal team join the case? 
• Or, even better, will Snitty Snitty Bill Barr's Justice Department join the case on behalf of the president, because being deprived of having his number two son on the campaign trail makes this a case about the president?

There's more, as usual, but that's enough for one night.