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.

OrangeVerse X: To Infinity + Beyond (part 1)

On Friday, the president signed another Executive Order, his 39th if my count is correct.

We are reminded that he was not going to do all that many of these, but it does get him in front of the cameras, and there's nowhere else he'd rather be. It gets Mike Pence in front of cameras, too -- since he's the Introducer-in-Chief, and, not for nothing, it gives the @TrumpDraws Twitter account something to do. Let's look in on the festivities.

Open Wide

The future of

American space leadership

we're going to lead

again. It's been 

a long time. 

It's over

25 years

and we're opening up

and we are going to be

leading again like

we've never led before. 

Frontierus Interruptus

We are a nation

of pioneers and the next

great American frontier is space.

And we never completed

-- we started but we never completed. 

We stopped.

But now we start again.

And we have

tremendous spirit and

we're going to have tremendous spirit

from the private sector--

maybe in particular

from the private sector.

Oh Look, There's Wilbur
We're also joined
by our great Secretary of Commerce
Wilbur Ross.
who spent the morning
negotiating
trade deals with South Korea.

And I think

we're going to make a 

good deal

right?

I think so.

That's what the

word is. 

And good for both 

countries.

National Space Council

Today we're taking

a crucial step

to secure America's future

in space

by reviving the

National Space Council

after it was - has been

dormant

almost 25 years

if you can believe it.

The Pence Promise

Vice President Pence promised

that our administration -

because Mike is very into space

would revive the National Space Council... 

we're keeping that promise. 

Feel very strongly

about it. I've felt

strongly about it for 

a long time.

I used to say

before doing what I did -

I used to say

what happened?

Why aren't we moving

forward?

OrangeVerse VIII: Indescribable

Six minutes is a long time, especially when you're the president, you're talking to folks at the American Leadership in Emerging Technology Event, and your son is the expert at cyber in your household.

Here are part of the president's remarks; I'll have more in an upcoming post.

I Know You!

Good morning, everybody, 

Very nice 

to have you here.

It's a great honor. So many of you, 

I recognize

And others I do from reading 

business magazines and other magazines.

You've done well.

Greatness

I want to thank my Office

of Science and Technology - and

this has been a great office; 

they have

done such incredible work - 

The Hawkeye State

And we just got back

from Iowa last night.

A big speech

in Iowa. 

That was an amazing group

of people. Those people

were excited. 

I guess most people saw it,

but they were excited.

Oh Wilbur

I want to thank Secretary Ross

for joining us today...

Wilbur has done a fantastic job

and I want to thank you

very much for it,

Wilbur.

Everybody understands it.

Wilbur, as Jeff - as you know - 

Wilbur is known just as Wilbur

on Wall Street. 

They don't even call him

Wilbur Ross. 

They just say, oh, Wilbur

is involved -- right?

He's done

a great job

Thank you.

Percolating

And Mr Vice

President, thank you

very much for being here.

We've had some busy schedules

and we have a thing called 

healthcare

that you might hear

is percolating

in the outside

as we've discussed.

And I think

it's going to come out.

Obamacare

is a disaster; it's 

dead.

Totally dead.

And we're putting in a

plan today

that's going 

to be negotiated. 

We'd love to have some

Democrat support but they're

obstructionists.

They'll never support.

We won't get one

no matter how

good it is.

But we will

hopefully

get something done

and it will be

something with

heart

and very meaningful.

Steve

It's great to have you here

by the way.

Really

good.

You've done

a great job

I always say

you got a hell of a lot of money

for that sale. 

I don't think

you've been given enough -- 

I mean, I don't think

you were

ever given enough

credit for the deal

you did

for your shareholders.

What a deal that was.

Fairly Unbelievable

"Fairly unbelievable" is how White House press secretary and Melissa McCarthy impersonator Sean Spicer described how the president would describe his relationship with Angela Merkel. Honest.

Q. Sean, where do you see the states of the US-German relationship right now? And how important is that relationship to the president and the American public?

A. I think the relationship that the president has had with Merkel he would describe as fairly unbelievable. They get along very well. He has a lot of respect for her. They continue to grow the bond that they had during their talks in the G7. 

Cool, huh?

Fairly unbelievable could also be used to describe a whole lot of other stuff in the news, coming from or about this administration.

For example, could the Department of Homeland Security be making public information on  domestic violence victims and children who have been trafficked? Fairly unbelievable, I know, but it seems to be true.  DHS, you recall, created the Victims of Immigrant Crime Engagement (VOICE) office,  at the president's request and to further his efforts at casting illegal immigrants as the rapists, murderers and drug dealers he told us about as a candidate. To go along with VOICE, there was a database, called DHS-VINE (Victim Information and Notification Exchange) where people can track the cases of the bad hombres who are committing crimes against white Americans, above and beyond being in the country illegally.

Unfortunately, the database includes the names, addresses and other information of illegal immigrants who happen to be crime victims themselves, including domestic violence and trafficking victims - which means that it will allow their abusers to keep tabs on them, when they were released, and so on.

"We're concerned that DHS does not seem to be seriously considering the concerns of victims of crime," says Archi Pyati, chief of policy for the Tahirih Justice Center. The inclusion of survivors' information, she says, is a violation of federal law protecting the information of people applying for special visas or other protections for victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, or human trafficking.  

DHS says it will remove the information, although pressure will be kept on them to make sure it happens.

Or, this example. Could it be possible that about half of president Trump's Twitter followers are fake? Fairly unbelievable, I know, but it appears to be true. There's this software called Twitter Audit, which allows an analysis of any Twitter user's followers to determine if they're real users (people who actually have profiles, and who tweet) or bots or otherwise added to pad the all-important bottom line. You can buy those, if you're so vain.  Anyway, Trump's analysis shows he has about 51% fake followers. According to this article,

This isn't the first time someone has pointed out that a good portion of Trump's Twitter following is fake, but what's interesting is that its fakeness seems to be increasing. In January, journalist Yashar Ali ran an audit on Trump's Twitter account and found that 68% of his then 20 million followers were real. Now he's at 30 million followers, but only 51% are real, which means of 10 million followers Trump has gained since January, about 8.3 million are fake. 

The article also notes that President Obama has both more followers in total than Trump (89 million to 30 million) and a much higher percentage of real ones (79% to 51%). Nothing unbelievable about that...

Or, how about this one? Could Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross really be as clueless as he sounded, talking about the reaction in Saudi Arabia when Trump was there?  Watch the video, or take a look below at a transcript of his interview with Becky Quick:

Ross: There's no question that they're liberalizing their society. And I think the other thing that was fascinating to me: There was not a single hint of a protester anywhere there during the whole time we were there. Not one guy with a bad placard. Instead...

Fairly unbelievable?  You betcha!  Ross doubled down:

Quick: But Secretary Ross, that may be not necessarily because they don't have those feelings there, but because they control people and don't allow them to come and express their feelings quite the same as we do here.

Ross: In theory, that could be true, but boy there was certainly no sign of it. There was not a single effort at any incursion. There wasn't anything. The mood was a genuinely good mood. And at the end of the trip, as I was getting back on the plane, the security guards from the Saudi side who'd been helping us over the weekend all wanted to pose for a big photo op, And then they gave me two gigantic bushels of dates as a present, as a think you for the trip that we had had. That was a pretty from the heart very genuine gesture and it really touched me.  

In theory? Seriously? Is he Secretary of Commerce, or Secretary of Comedy?

And finally, I leave you with these tweets, which nicely summarize our fairly unbelievable president.
Read the first series (they're in reverse sequence) to understand Trump's opinion on unnamed sources used in articles about him or his administration.

And then, of course, this retweet by the president two days later, speaks for itself.

Trump in Transition (v5)

Reuters photo

Ah, a quiet Sunday night, after a long day of getting ready for the holidays, and a chance to sit down and reflect on the past few days of the POTUS-elect and his transition.

The clock is ticking - we're under 47 days now till the Inauguration and the start of his administration.

Let's start with the easy one: I did another check to see if there had been an official announcement on the alleged appointment of Dr. Ben "Hey, I've lived in a city before" Carson and found that even the National Mortgage Professionals Magazine is wondering if Carson's going to head HUD. Glad I'm not the only one wondering what's happening on that front. Maybe no news is good news - or maybe no news is the news, who knows.

We did have an announcement since we last talked - a few, actually.

We added another billionaire, Wilbur Ross, as Secretary of Commerce, and another former Goldman Sachs-er, Steve Mnuchin, as Treasury Secretary, and businessman Todd Ricketts as Deputy Commerce Secretary. The first two more of what we would expect in the swamp that Trump promised to drain. Mnuchin, who was Trump's chief fundraiser, made a bundle while foreclosing on some 36,000 mortgages back in the day, which might make things ugly during his confirmation, and with all those blue-collar Trump voters who lost their homes back in the day.

The Ricketts announcement is much more fun and interesting -- and may not have happened at all, if not for one really impressive baseball season. You see, Ricketts is one of the owners of the Chicago Cubs, and we all know what happened with them. Here's part of the POTUS-elect's statement:

Todd Ricketts is an immensely successful businessman with unparalleled knowledge of the finance industry. As Deputy Commerce Secretary he will help us cut waste and streamline government so that it works for the people of America. The incredible job he and the Ricketts family did in the purchase and turnaround of the Chicago Cubs - one perfect step after another, leading to the World Championship, is what I want representing our people. I am very proud to have him on our team.

Had the Cubbies lost that dramatic Game Seven of the World Series, I doubt we would be looking at Ricketts for any Cabinet Apprentice position. After all, earlier in the year, Trump was much less fond of the Ricketts family. Here's what Trump tweeted about them back in February:

I hear the Ricket(t)s family, who own the Chicago Cubs, are secretly spending $s against me. They better be careful, they have a lot to hide!

According to the article linked above, Trump denied knowing "Those Ricketts." (who were supporting Scott Walker) and added

I actually said they ought to focus on the Chicago Cubs and, you know, stop playing around. They spent millions of dollars fighting me in Florida. I'll start spending on them. I'll start taking ads telling them all what a rotten job they're doing with the Chicago Cubs. I mean, they are spending on me. I mean, so am I allowed to say that?

Those Ricketts, darn them. We could have been looking at Paul Dolan in the administration, if only the Indians had won.