Last Night's Primary Election Results-- Wins And Losses

Ballots are still being counted almost everywhere. Kentucky has already announced that there will be no final vote count until June 30-- which is when the state's two biggest counties, Jefferson (Louisville) and Fayette (Lexington) plan to release their results. Both are considered strongholds for Charles Booker and not a single vote is in the preliminary totals, which represent the 2,005 counted precincts out of a statewide total of 3,685-- 54.41%. This morning Schumer's establishment candidate, Amy McGrath led progressive Charles Booker 27,668 (44.7%) to 22,564 (36.5%), with a second progressive, Mike Broihier a distant third with 3,900 votes (6.3%). As of June 3rd, Massie had raised almost $41 million to Booker's $788,525. She spent $21,492,634 to his $503,623.

The only other Kentucky contest worth noting was the Republican primary in the 4th district, 12 counties that go from the suburbs east of Louisville and south of Cincinnati right into coal mining country as far as the West Virginia border. Trump and the GOP DC Establishment made an attempt to replace independent-minded, libertarian incumbent Thomas Massie with extremist Trumpist robot Todd McMurtry. As of the last FEC deadline, Massie had spent $996,338 to McMurtry's $328,026. An ad hoc Trumpist SuperPAC called Civic PAC spent $132,500 smearing Massie. It didn't work and he has apparently won in a landslide. With 85.42% of precincts counted (463 out of 542) Massie has 16,801 (88%) votes to McMurtry's 2,300 (12%).

Before we get to New York, there were also some relatively sleepy contests in Virginia-- except one. Progressive champion Qasim Rashid beat Lavangelene Williams 21,768 (52.8%) to 19,469 (47.2%) in the first congressional district, an amalgam of 18 almost random counties from the exurbs of DC to the exurbs of Richmond plus James City and Fredericksburg city. Most of the voters live in very blue Prince William County, very red Hanover County and swingy Stafford County. The district PVI is R+8 but Trump just won it with 53.6% in 2016 and incumbent Rob Wittman was reelected last cycle with just 55.2% and could be ousted by Qasim in November.

Now, New York. Let's go through the congressional results district by district, although I want to begin with NY-14, the Bronx and Queens district won in 2018 by AOC. A transpartisan coalition-- funded largely by Wall Street-- backed a Wall Street Republican pretending to be a Democrat, Michelle Caruso-Cabrera and spent immense sums of money smearing AOC with an intensity and virulence no one ever sees in a Democratic primary. The voters weren't buying it and AOC kicked her ass, 27,103 (72.6%) to 7,254 (19.4%). Two vanity candidates drew almost 3,000 votes (close to 8%). Caruso-Cabrera can't switch back to the GOP and run as a Republican in November-- although she is evacuating her Queens apartment and moving back to Trump Tower-- so the GOP is running some guy named John Cummings. You can contribute to AOC's November campaign here.

NY-01 is eastern Long Island, most of Suffolk County and Democrats were vying to see who would take on GOP incumbent Lee Zeldin. There was some fear that the two moderately progressive candidates, Perry Gershon (who Zeldin beat in 2018, 51.5% to 47.4%) and Nancy Goroff, would split progressive votes and allow a more conservative Democrat, Bridget Fleming to win the nomination. Instead, there's an incredibly tight race for number one between Gershon and Goroff, that is unlikely to be decided 'til every last vote is counted and, probably, recounted. As of this morning with all 473 precincts counted:

• Perry Gershon- 5,166 (35.5%)
• Nancy Goroff- 5,022 (34.4%)
• Bridget Fleming- 4,062 (27.9%)
• Gregory-John Fischer 322 (2.2%)

NY-02, the south shore Long Island district that includes parts of both Nassau and Suffolk, should have been a hotspot election... but wasn't. Peter King announced her retirement and Republican Andrew Garbarino will run in his place. The DCCC picked Jackie Gordon-- a typical DCCC pick-- as their candidate and she beat Patricia Maher, who has run unsuccessfully against King before. Sleepy race and Gordon, predictably won with about 73% of the vote (374 precincts out of 524 counted-- about 70%).

The north shore district, which includes some of Suffolk County and a tiny bit of Queens is mostly Nassau and the incumbent is New Dem Tom Suozzi. With just 45.6% of precincts accounted for, he seems to have beat back a weak challenge from the left by Melanie D'Arrigo, 58.9% to 32.7%. It's considered a swing district but Suozzi is an effective and popular congressman and is likely to beat Republican George Santos by something like 60-40% as he did in 2018 against Republican Dan DeBono.

One of my big disappointments of last night was Gregory Meeks' apparent win over Democratic Socialist Shan Chowdhury, although as of this morning, only 39 of 492 precincts have been counted. Predictably-- Meeks being the Queens County machine boss-- NY-05 was the capital of voter suppression and election fraud. I spoke with Shan this morning and his lawyers are investigating how Meeks was able to steal the election and what they can do about it.

The next district with a seriously contested primary was NY-09 a Brooklyn district stretching from Sheepshead Bay to eastern Park Slope, with Prospect Park, Brownsville, Brooklyn College, Flatbush, part of Midwood and Crown Heights in between. Yvette Clarke has one of the most progressive voting records in Congress-- and the second most progressive of any New Yorker in Congress (even higher on the ProgressivePunch list than AOC!) but was primaried from the left again. Grassroots super-progressives Adem Bunkeddeko and Isiah James took about 27% of the vote between them. With all 532 precincts reporting, Clarke was reelected with 62.3%.

In the 10th district (incongruously Manhattan's West Side and Brooklyn's most Hasidic neighborhoods) Jerry Nadler beat back two opponents, an internet progressive and a gay Zionist, former Andrew Yang staffer, to win with 61.8%.

Tragically, odious Blue Dog Max Rose had no primary opponent in the Staten Island, south Brooklyn 11th district. The NRCC chosen candidate, Nicole Malliotakis, won the Republican primary with 70.4%.

In the 12th district there is an incredibly tight race that will probably be finalized next week. Wall Street shill Carolyn Maloney may be defeated by Suraj Patel in this Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens district.

NY-15 in the South Bronx was a real clustefuck on several levels. Longtime progressive incumbent Jose Serrano decided to retire, triggering a complicated primary with a dozen candidates, each appealing to a narrow segment of the population. The common enemy was pretend Democrat Ruben Diaz, Sr., an anti-Choice, homophobic sociopath and Trump supporter and there was tremendous anxiety that the more progressive candidates would split the vote and elect Diaz, who has the most name-recognition in the district. With all 490 precincts counted, this is how the top vote getters fared:

The most closely-watched race in the state was for the Bronx-Westchester district where incumbent Eliot Engel was the designated Joe Crowley of 2020 and faced off against progressive reformer Jamaal Bowman. The most corrupt of the Democratic establishment backed Engel-- Hillary Clinton, Andrew Cuomo, Chuck Schumer, Kirsten Gillibrand, Bob Menendez, Nancy Pelosi, Adam Schiff as well as the DCCC, and a pack of sleazy local politicians. Jamaal was endorsed by virtually every progressive organization in the country as well as by Bernie, AOC, Elizabeth Warren, Ayanna Pressley, Katie Porter, Zephyr Teachout, Marianne Williamson and progressive state legislators Alessandra Biaggi and Jessica Ramos. With 91.5% of the precincts in, Jamaal won 21,851 (60.9%) to 12,769 (35.6%), an ignominious finish to Engel's career as Netanyahu's top shill in the House. This was Jamaal's statement this morning:

From the very beginning, we anchored our campaign in the fight for racial and economic justice. We spoke the truth-- about the police, about systemic racism, about inequality-- and it resonated in every part of the district.

Many doubted that we could overcome the power and money of a 31-year incumbent. But the results show that the people of NY-16 aren’t just ready for change-- they’re demanding it.

We brought people together across race, across class, across religion, across gender, to fight for justice, to fight for equality, and to fight to create a country that works for all of us. We didn’t let them divide us. And we did it all without accepting a dime from corporate PACs or lobbyists.

The world has changed. Congress needs to change too. But if we can take on entrenched power and wealthy interests here in Westchester and the Bronx, then we can do it all across this country.

I’m a Black man who was raised by a single mother in a housing project. That story doesn’t usually end in Congress. But today, that 11-year old boy who was beaten by police is about to be your next Representative.

I cannot wait to get to Washington and cause problems for the people maintaining the status quo.

Just north of NY-16 is the 17th, also in Westchester plus Rockland County. The incumbent Pelosi-ally is retiring and Mondaire Jones, the most progressive candidate running, had already declared he would primary her. Instead he beat a pack of corporate big money Dems and right-wing state Senator David Carlucci. Mondaire is black and gay and progressive, not the profile anyone would have predicted for the 17th.

In Syracuse, NY-24 nominated progressive Dana Balter by a wide margin (64.5% to 35.5%) over conservative Democrat Francis Conole. In the Rochester district (25), conservative New Dem won renomination against progressive challenger Robin Wilt, who picked up 35.2% of the vote.

And the open 27th in western New York, between the suburbs of Buffalo and the suburbs west of Rochester, had a special election to fill the open seat left behind by Trump ally Chris Collins when he was found guilty on multiple economic fraud charges. An heir to a fortune, Republican Chris Jacobs beat Democrat Nate McMurray but the two will face off again in November's general election, when McMurray is thought to have a better chance to win. You can contribute to Nate's general election campaign-- and to the general election campaigns of Mondaire Jones and Jamaal Bowman-- by clicking on the 2020 Blue America congressional thermometer on the right.

One last thing: there was a special election primary runoff in North Carolina yesterday where 24 year old new-comer Madison Cawthorn defeated Lynda Bennett for the GOP nomination to replace Trump's latest chief of staff, Mark Meadows. Both Meadows and Trump had endorsed Bennett. Cawthorn will now face retired Air Force Col. Moe Davis, the Democratic nominee in the heavily Republican district (PVI is R+14, the reddest in the state, and Trump won the district in 2016 with 57.2%). And, yes, he's a total Trumpist.

A Republican soon-to-be congressman (right)

Will Kentucky Democrats Shut Down Boss Hogg-- I Mean Boss Schumer?

Schumer picked a slate of miserable status quo Democratic Senate candidates for 2020. Not one of them stands for any change except the superficial change of replacing a corporate Republican with a corporate Democrat. If there's an anti-red wave, some of them will win. They define why there is no blue wave. There's nothing to vote for-- just a series of less-of-two evils races:

• Arizona- Mark Kelly (a recent Democrat)
• Alaska- Al Gross (not even a Democrat)
• Arkansas- Schumer neglected to recruit a candidate against Tom Cotton
• Colorado- Frackenlooper
• Georgia- Jon Ossoff*
• Iowa- Theresa Greenfield*
• Kansas- Barbara Bollier (a recent "Democrat")
• Maine- Sara Gideon
• Montana- Steve Daines (even a clock is right twice a day; Schumer got it right once)
• New Mexico- Ben Ray Luján*
• North Carolina- Cal Cunningham*
• South Carolina- Jaime Harrison (a lobbyist)
• Texas- MJ Heger*

The asterisk (*) denotes candidates whose photos could be in the dictionary next to the phrase "born loser." and then, at least symbolically, there's the most important Senate race of the cycle: Kentucky, where majority leader and professional impediment Mitch McConnell-- the most hated man in poll after poll-- in American politics. Schumer picked a "born loser" candidate and the media, obediently accepted her as THE candidate and treated it as a fait accompli... until last week, when, despite Schumer's attempt to pretend his candidate, Amy McGrath, was the candidate Kentucky Democrats started asking themselves who some lug from Brooklyn, fully owned and operated by Wall Street, gets to pick their nominee. Especially since there's a better candidate in the race, Charles Booker.

As of June 3rd, Booker had raised $788,270, almost entirely from grassroots donors. The Schumer candidate-- with lots of help from Schumer-- brought in $40,825,989. A consultant for Schumer's candidate persuaded her to come off as a pro-Trump Democrat, something that hasn't exactly impressed Kentucky Democrats. Booker's vibrant, progressive grassroots coalition helps explain his growing appeal-- and why the state's two most important newspapers, the Louisville Courier Journal and the Lexington Herald Leader endorsed him so effusively last week.

Schumer must have been going crazy on Wednesday when someone told him the Courier Journal endorsement was going to make much harder for him to quietly slip his nothing candidate into the nomination, the way he had already done in North Carolina, Georgia, Iowa and Texas. "This," wrote the editorial board, "is a historic time in our state and nation. A time when young and old, black, white and brown are calling for change-- not just incremental change, but sweeping reform that will usher in true equality and justice for all. To get there, we need political leaders with insight and vision, who understand the challenges of our times and are willing to put forth bold ideas and fight for everyday people. Voters in Kentucky and around the country deserve the chance to consider candidates who have strident beliefs and the courage to go beyond scripted, milquetoast politics." Schumer is all about pickinging "scripted, milquetoast" hacks. "Political leaders with insight and vision" scares the hell out of him and infuriates him. They wrote that Booker "is the kind of political leader and change agent that our commonwealth needs" but that the Schumer candidate-- doing exactly what Schumer directed her to do-- "has not shown the progressive ideas and bold leadership necessary to move our state forward. She has been overly moderate, measured and cautious throughout this campaign, focusing more on her military service (which we applaud and sincerely respect) or her motherhood than offering a sweeping vision for the commonwealth-- especially in these turbulent times. Unfortunately, her message to voters has been unimaginative and uninspiring."

The Herald-Leader described her as Schumer's "anointed front-runner with a war chest of donations that might even rival McConnell’s usual corporate haul," but Kentucky Democrats have been unimpressed by a campaign that has entirely ignored them and been focussed on appealing to Republicans and independents, once even saying she would have voted to confirm Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court!

By February, Blue America was convinced that Booker is the candidate to beat McConnell and we endorsed him in early March. Since then, AOC and Bernie weighed in for him, as did a whole slew of progressive organizations. The headline at Politico yesterday isn't what Schumer wanted to see: Insurgent threatens to derail McGrath-McConnell showdown in Kentucky. "State Rep. Charles Booker has captured late momentum in the June 23 primary, fueled by prominent endorsements and Amy McGrath's stumbles," wrote Jim Arkin and Burgess Everett. Booker, they wrote "now has all the momentum in the closing days of the election," which takes place June 23. You can contribute to his campaign by clicking on the Blue America Senate 2020 thermometer on the right.

McGrath is the favorite of the Senate Democrats’ campaign arm and many sitting senators, and it’s hard to imagine she could lose a primary in which she’s outspent her opponents combined by a nearly 30-1 margin through early June. But there are signs it's turning into a real race: Booker is panning McGrath as a bland national Democrat who is predictably tacking to the center, while McGrath is biting back at Booker, accusing him of talking a big game on health care and voting rights but not backing it up.

"I don't really know what position Amy McGrath takes because she goes back and forth on everything depending on what consultants seem to say,” Booker said in an interview. “I know that Kentuckians can smell BS from miles away.”

...McGrath had a bumpy rollout last year, saying in one of her first interviews that she would have supported Brett Kavanaugh’s Supreme Court nomination, only to reverse herself later that day. More recently, Republican governors and Cindy McCain, the late Sen. John McCain’s widow, condemned ads of hers using their images to attack McConnell.

And McGrath has few substantial in-state endorsements, while Booker has been endorsed by prominent Kentucky media and close to two-dozen elected officials.

...McGrath is positioning herself somewhere in the realm of Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), a moderate Democrat [a values-free conservative opportunist] elected in 2018 who works with Republicans more than her own party leaders. McConnell himself declined to pinpoint whom he would rather face.

Sanders' and Ocasio-Cortez’s backing helped boost fundraising for Booker, and he raised nearly $1 million in nine days, three times his entire first-quarter haul. Newspaper endorsements and backing from sports radio host Matt Jones gives Booker legitimate in-state boosters outside his base in Louisville.

After coronavirus stalled any effort at toppling McGrath, the protests against police brutality are sparking newfound momentum for Booker.

“How do you run your campaign when you can't go anywhere? And then these protests come around, and I think it helped Charles find his footing and find his voice,” said Jones, who considered running for the seat and criticizes the DSCC. He acknowledged that McGrath remains the favorite but predicted a close finish.

“I don't know that I’ve ever seen a race where somebody has this much money and seems to be struggling,” he added.

Most Democrats declined to criticize McGrath on the record. Even Sanders gave a guarded response when asked why he felt the need to weigh in.

“We’re going to support progressive candidates who are fighting for the issues that we believe in,” Sanders said this week.

Democratic leaders were perplexed by Sanders’ intervention. As Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-IL) put it: “Bernie may have made some promise to someone along the way.”

“She is in the mainstream of Democratic thinking, and I think is very electable in the commonwealth of Kentucky,” said Durbin, who is from neighboring Illinois.

Despite the intrigue in the primary, Kentucky is not central to Democrats’ campaign for the majority. Party officials say that it’s one of the longest shots to flip this election, and the money soaked up by McGrath would arguably go much further in North Carolina, Montana and Iowa.

“Those polls that show it tied are real. But the composition of the undecideds should give us great pause. I am more bullish on South Carolina, Texas-- I mean, almost every other race,” said one Democratic senator familiar with party strategy.

McGrath has been squeezed on both sides down the stretch: Booker is running an ad claiming she’s not a “real Democrat” and suggesting she’s too pro-Trump, while McConnell’s campaign released a new ad attacking her support for Trump’s impeachment and calling her “extreme.”

“You can’t run against McConnell from a defensive crouch with a playbook that was obviously cooked up by consultants. You have to perform every day, drive a message and keep him on his back foot,” said Adam Jentleson, who was a top aide to former Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV). "Only Charles will be able to do that."

Is It Really Possible That History Will Judge Mitch McConnell More Harshly Than Trump?

Yesterday, The Nation published a piece by Jeet Heer, Mitch McConnell Is Even Worse Than Trump, which notes that both are now basically AWOL is the pandemic crisis. While Trump spends his days "stirring up culture-war controversies with the media and Democrats as a way to move the discussion beyond the pandemic and the economic crisis. A distraction strategy makes sense because Trump has effectively given up on crafting any serious policy response to the pandemic. As Greg Sargent of the Washington Post notes, 'Trump’s war on reality has veered into a new place. Trump is responding to our most dire public health and economic crises in modern times with a concerted, far-reaching effort to concoct the mirage that we’re racing past both. The signs of this,' Sargent observes, 'are everywhere: in a new federal testing blueprint that largely casts responsibility on the states. In Trump’s new rage-tweets at the North Carolina governor over whether a full convention will be held under coronavirus conditions. And in demands for liability protections for companies so sickened workers can’t sue.'Trump’s response to the pandemic, now that the first wave has peaked and is perhaps beginning a slow decline, is to ride it out. He is going to do as much as he can to pretend that it is all but over and to distance himself from any responsibility for the continuing deaths."

Trump has in effect gone AWOL. Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell has been equally derelict, taking repeated breaks from Washington and focusing his energies more on filling court vacancies than crafting a policy response to the pandemic. In mid-March, the hashtag #WheresMitch gained currency because he recessed the Senate to return to his home state of Kentucky to celebrate the elevation of a protégé, Justin Walker, to the federal bench.

Last Friday, the Senate started another recess, this one lasting three weeks. That leaves the $3 trillion relief package that the House has passed in a limbo, awaiting McConnell’s return for negotiations to even start deliberating about any Senate revisions. McConnell’s decision to delay the relief package comes at a time when unemployment rates are about to approach 20 percent, a catastrophic level not seen since the Great Depression. Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell warns that the recession could last until the end of 2021.

Donald Trump and Mitch McConnell are often treated like an odd couple, a pair of opposites who have been forced together. Trump is the loud outsider who has no real understanding of how government works. McConnell is the low-key consummate insider, skilled at gaming the system through backroom deals.

Jane Mayer’s in-depth profile of the Kentucky senator in the New Yorker quotes many Washington observers who draw a contrast between the two men. One former Trump administration official told Mayer, “It would be hard to find two people less alike in temperament in the political arena. With Trump, there’s rarely an unspoken thought. McConnell is the opposite-- he’s constantly thinking but says as little as possible.” The official added, “Trump is about winning the day, or even the hour. McConnell plays the long game. He’s sensitive to the political realities. His North Star is continuing as Majority Leader-- it’s really the only thing for him. He’s patient, sly, and will obfuscate to make less apparent the ways he’s moving toward a goal.”

But as Mayer makes clear, McConnell’s single-minded focus on keeping his position as majority leader aligns him in a deep way with Trump, despite their superficial dissimilarities. Both Trump and McConnell are nihilists, eager above all to hold on to power and to serve the wealthy donors of the Republican Party. Mayer quotes John David Dyche, a conservative lawyer in Louisville who had been a McConnell admirer until recently and wrote an admiring biography of him. According to Dyche, McConnell “of course realizes that Trump is a hideous human being and utterly unfit to be president” but doesn’t do anything about it because the senator has “no ideology except his own political power.”

Far from being an odd couple, Trump and McConnell are a perfectly paired duo. They work well together as a grifter team. Trump is the clown who grabs all the attention, while McConnell picks the pockets of the distracted crowd.

As grotesque as Trump is, McConnell is worse. McConnell has been around longer and has helped create the conditions that made Trump’s rise possible. McConnell’s obstruction during the Obama years, including blocking the Supreme Court nomination of Merrick Garland, contributed to the demoralization of the Democratic base and the larger feeling in America that Washington is hopelessly gridlocked. In 2016 Trump skillfully exploited the anxiousness created by gridlock and sold himself as the outsider who can fix it.

Democrats are eager to defeat Trump in the fall election. But they should bear in mind that McConnell is the bigger villain. The goal should be to make sure McConnell loses his position as majority leader. Even sweeter would be if he were ejected from his seat.

Charles Booker resigned from his state Rep job to run full-time against McConnell. This morning he told me that "The reality is that Mitch McConnell controls so much of what happens in Washington. As reckless and dangerous as Trump is, it is Mitch McConnell’s absolute abandonment of his oath, our constitution, and our lives that has allowed Trump to balloon our deficit, uproot our progress on the world stage, and willfully ignore the chances to lead in the face of COVID-19. Donald Trump is an idiot, but Mitch McConnell is intentional. There is no progress for our country that includes him remaining in office. That is why I am building a movement of fed up and fired up Kentuckians to beat him."

The other progressive in the Kentucky Democratic primary is Mike Broihier, who has been endorsed by Marianne Williamson, This morning, Mike told us that "It was the slow realization that Trump was a symptom and McConnell the disease that pulled me into the fight to rid the Republic of him. In rare moments of honesty McConnell himself will tip his hand and tell us he is, '...changing America for ever,' with his agenda of, 'Judges, judges, judges.' The smoke and noise from the daily dumpster fire at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue is perfect cover for him packing the federal bench with unqualified, ideologically driven judges with lifetime appointments. Judges that are hostile to women, hostile to racial minorities, hostile to LGBTQ persons, hostile to labor and hostile to immigrants. Long after Trump is gone and long after McConnell is gone generations of Americans will be dealing with the fallout of this tactic."

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

I love Republican signage! It so often gets right to the core of their nihilism and stupidity, and they're so proud of it too! This sign comes to us from a convenience store in Manchester, Kentucky by the name of Alvin's. Generous spirit that I am, though, I'll give Alvin some credit. At least he spelled every single word in his sign correctly. Nailed it, Alvin! Good on you! I'm guessing Alvin's mother-sister did a good job of homeschooling him when he wasn't out doing his Kentucky Junior Militia drills with brother-dad. He even spelled the governor's name right; a Democratic governor at that! Extra credit for you, Alvin!

I first spotted this story in Tiki Torch Tucker Carlson's Daily Stormer, er, Daily Caller but it has been circulating widely among the republican "Give Me Liberty & Death" crowd over the las several days. Hey, after all, wearing a mask that might save your life and the life of others! That is just so... so inconvenient! Yep, there's that ol' endemic republican selfishness again!

Refusing service is as Confederate as pecan pie so I'm waiting for Alvin's next signage creations, not to mention the one's his idiocy has inspired. What's next? "No Service To You If You Came Here In A Car That Has Protective Airbags!" How about "No Customer Service If You Swim In A Chlorinated Pool!" And for you seniors: "If you Were Ever Vaccinated For Polio, Get Lost!"

McConnell Is Literally Making The Pandemic Worse

Kentucky hasn't been hit too hard by the pandemic yet-- just 8,951 confirmed cases-- 2,004 cases per million. The residents are lucky that they have a governor willing to listen to public health experts and not a crackpot right-wing fringe motivated by Trumpist incompetence, personal ambition and dysfunction. The state's senior senator-- actually the junior one too-- aren't taking the pandemic seriously. And the senior senator matters-- he's Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. a self-described Grim Reaper for anything meant to help ordinary working families. Having become a multimillion by marrying the daughter of a Chinese shipping magnate who has been bribing him on behalf of both his own business and the government of China for years, he sure isn't feeling the urgency and anxiety most working families are feeling today.

Yesterday he told reporters in Louisville that there would probably be a fifth coronavirus relief bill "in the next month or so... It will not be the $3 trillion bill the House passed the other day. But there's still a likelihood that more will be needed." McConnell only has one interest right now-- indemnifying Big Business from law suits resulting from reopening too quickly in a way that sickens or even kills their employees and customers.

No wonder Bess Levin, writing for Vanity Fair last month, reminded readers to not forget to blame McConnell for the pandemic crisis. "More than anyone," she wrote, "the Senate majority leader enabled Trump, whose reckless leadership has made the covid-19 crisis much worse than it had to be. Something you’ve probably heard once or twice over the last month is that the coronavirus crisis in the United States is significantly worse than it had to be thanks to the leadership style of Donald Trump, the pillars of which include ignoring experts, not reading his briefing materials, and thinking that he, a man who can’t pronounce the word “Nevada,” is some kind of genius. Applied to the current situation, that meant downplaying the deadly virus even as it engulfed China and other parts of the world; refusing to “do anything” throughout January and February, despite dire warnings coming from his own officials; and not pushing for testing because he thought the numbers would hurt his reelection chances. And listening to the advice of his equally dim son-in-law. And focusing on the stock market instead of the actual health crisis. And calling COVID-19 “fake news” as recently as March 9. So yes, when you think about who deserves the most blame for the United States surpassing Italy for the country with the highest number of coronavirus deaths, the answer is obviously Donald Trump. But let us not also forget to spread some of that blame around to his neck-pouched enabler, Mitch McConnell... [There is an] extremely convincing argument that the Senate majority leader‘s decision to let Trump rule unchecked, in order to preserve his own standing, will be viewed one of the chief causes of thousands of American deaths."

Worst President Ever + Worse Senate Majority Leader Ever = Bad Pandemic

The lede picture for Neil Irwin's chilling NY Times essay-- How Bailout Backlash and Moral Hazard Outrage Could Endanger the Economy wasn't of Trump or Mnuchin; it was a silhouette of a chinless, bespectacled turtle with this caption "Mitch McConnell at the U.S. Capitol. He opposes federal bailouts of Democratic-leaning states with large public employee pension obligations." Irwin wrote that the economy is "in free fall, with tens of millions of people unemployed and countless businesses at risk of collapse" but that almost instantly "the political conversation has pivoted from whatever-it-takes determination toward a different feeling: outrage." Austeritarian conservatives are increasingly "focused not on preventing a potential depression, but on litigating which recipients of federal rescue are morally worthy and which are not." Republicans are adamantly opposed to-- and angered by-- "federal government support for state and local governments, and at expanded unemployment insurance benefits supporting the jobless."

In Bush's 2008 global financial crisis, the same worthless sacks of senatorial shit-- Irwin described them differently because it's The Times-- bitched and whined "about mortgage relief for home buyers who had borrowed more than they could afford-- a televised rant about one such program helped spawn the Tea Party movement."

Mitch McConnell, the Senate majority leader, raised the possibility in an April interview that states that found themselves short of cash should be able to allowed to go bankrupt. Though he later backed away from that position, he and other Republicans have made clear they don’t want Democratic-leaning states with large public employee pension obligations to be bailed out with federal money.

States are uniformly facing collapsing revenue because of the pandemic, raising the prospect that even those with sound pre-crisis finances will have to make deep cuts in the coming years. This could hold the economy back even once the private sector rebounds.

The Paycheck Protection Program, the government’s signature effort to pump money to smaller businesses that agree to keep their employees on staff, has proceeded amid recriminations over whether businesses are truly worthy if they have access to funding elsewhere.

Part of the problem was Congress’s decision to initially fund the program with $350 billion, far below the needs of smaller businesses looking to cover their payrolls, and to expand it in a second round. The limited availability of money created an atmosphere of scarcity in which any business that gets aid-- including large restaurant chains like Shake Shack and Ruth’s Chris Steak House, and firms with venture-capital funding-- does so at the cost of another firm that might seem more worthy.

“The fact that there is more outrage over one bad business getting a P.P.P. loan than 100,000 companies deserving one but not getting one because of the anemic funding is ludicrous,” Mr. Lettieri said. “People have been chasing the shiny object of ‘who is most deserving, who isn’t, and where do you fall on the spectrum of need,’ which is a completely misguided way to approach this.”

The pandemic has no moral logic of its own. The steps that are most likely to revive the economy don’t depend on some abstract notion of what is fair. And outrage that some group you don’t like received help probably won’t make things better.

Mike Broihier, one of the progressives trying to defeat McConnell, told us last night that "Not surprisingly, McConnell's pitch to allow states to go bankrupt was couched as a Red State/Blue State conflict. Constantly appealing to what he believes are the worst angels of his fellow Kentuckians, McConnell wrongly bets that all evidence that blue states are net tax payers and red states, Kentucky among them, are net tax takers, will be ignored. This crass, classist appeal will only work with the Commonwealth's dimmest bulbs.  Fortunately, McConnell's visits to the Bluegrass State are so infrequent and brief that he doesn't realize he's played this trick too many times. Loathsome and unmissed ex-governor, Matt Bevin, tried this crap in 2019 and was send packing by teachers, grassroots organizers and, well, right thinking Kentuckians."

Early yesterday morning-- as it was announced that the U.S. was about to pass the 70,000 deaths milestone-- Trump was playing on his Twitter account, boasting about his "great reviews... for how well we are handling the pandemic." It almost made me feel sorry for whichever White House stooge is tasked with finding news clips to tickle his ego every morning.

As for McConnell, he's still polling as the most hated U.S. Senator and is increasingly vulnerable to go down the electoral tubes the same way Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin did last year when Democrat Andy Beshear beat him by just over 5,000 votes in a shocking repudiation of Trumpism. It's ironic that Beshear's hate line against the pandemic-- certainly at odds with what Bevin would have done-- is keeping the pandemic at bay in Kentucky. Other Trump extremist governors-- in effect, Bevin dopplegängers-- have catastrophic through-the-roof rates of infection:

• Pete Ricketts (R-NE)- 3,103 per million
• Eric Holcomb (R-IN)- 3,090 per million
• Kristi Noem (R-SD)- 3,087
• Kim Reynolds (R-IA)- 3,098 per million
• Brian Kemp (R-GA)- 2,850 per million
• Tate Reeves (R-MS)- 2,636 per million
• Bill Lee (R-TN)- 2,040 per million
• Ron DeSantis (R-FL)- 1,791 per million

Thanks to Beshear's relatively hard line, Kentucky's rate is just 1,155 infections per million, below the national average and a more manageable pandemic in McConnell's home state, despite McConnell and his party's approach.

It Appears That Trump Is About To Deliver The Senate To The Democrats

Democratic primary voters-- for whatever reasons-- didn't support Bernie to the extent he needed them for the fight to fundamentally reorder American society. And yet the vast majority of Democrats tell pollsters that they want Medicare-for-All, Bernie's signature policy, one that Status Quo Joe has threatened to veto if it ever reaches his desk. Among all registered votes, between 69 and 70% of us want to provide Medicare to every American. Between 2018 and 2020 support among Democrats grew from 86% to 88%, stayed steady among independents (68%) and even in sinking by 6 points among Republicans still leaves 46% of Republicans in favor of Medicare-for-All. Men and women support Medicare-for-All equally and every region of the country backs it:

• West- 78%
• Midwest- 70%
• Northeast- 64%
• South- 64%

Because of the Trump regime's incompetence and dysfunction and because Trump himself is a malignant narcissist incapable of grappling with society's problems, the U.S. is the worst-hit of any country in the world by the pandemic. Last week we crossed over 50,000 deaths, Next week we will cross over a million confirmed cases. The dozen countries worst hit as of Saturday:

• U.S.- 926,530
• Spain- 223,759
• Italy- 192,994
• France- 159,828
• Germany- 155,054
• U.K.- 143,464
• Turkey- 104,912
• Iran- 89,328
• China- 82,816
• Russia- 74,588
• Brazil- 54,043
• Belgium- 45,325

And now the pandemic is spreading beyond big cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston, Baltimore, New Orleans, Atlanta, Newark, Detroit and Chicago and on into Trumpistan. Last week, the states with huge growth in confirmed cases relative to their populations were South Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Mississippi, Utah, Alabama, Arkansas, Tennessee, Kansas, Wisconsin and South Carolina.

A new Brookings study shows that "during the first three weeks of April, new counties showing a high prevalence of COVID-19 cases are more suburban, whiter, and voted more strongly for Donald Trump than counties the virus hit first. Note in the chart below how between March 29 and April 19 how counties that supported Trump went from about 34% of the infection rates to around 42%.

NY Times star reporters Jonathan Martin and Maggie Haberman wrote yesterday that Nervous Republicans See Trump Sinking, And Taking Senate With Him. A great part of their nervousness revolves around Trump's continued inability to confront the pandemic. They wrote that his "erratic handling of the coronavirus outbreak, the worsening economy and a cascade of ominous public and private polling have Republicans increasingly nervous that they are at risk of losing the presidency and the Senate if Mr. Trump does not put the nation on a radically improved course... [His] standing in states that he carried in 2016 looks increasingly wobbly: New surveys show him trailing significantly in battleground states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, and he is even narrowly behind in must-win Florida... Trump’s single best advantage as an incumbent-- his access to the bully pulpit-- has effectively become a platform for self-sabotage. His daily news briefings on the coronavirus outbreak are inflicting grave damage on his political standing, Republicans believe, and his recent remarks about combating the virus with sunlight and disinfectant were a breaking point for a number of senior party officials." Trump's late February standing in a dozen swing states according to the Morning Consult Trump Tracker in terms of what has happened to his net approval since taking office:

• Arizona- down 19
• Florida- down 19
• Georgia- down 16
• Iowa- down 14
• Michigan- down 18
• Minnesota- down 8
• New Hampshire- down 19
• North Carolina- down 13
• Ohio- down 15
• Pennsylvania- down 11
• Texas- down 13
• Wisconsin- down 17

In their report Martin and Haberman noted that "Glen Bolger, a longtime Republican pollster, said the landscape for his party had become far grimmer compared with the pre-virus plan to run almost singularly around the country’s prosperity. 'With the economy in free-fall, Republicans face a very challenging environment and it’s a total shift from where we were a few months ago,' Mr. Bolger said. 'Democrats are angry, and now we have the foundation of the campaign yanked out from underneath us.' ... Republicans were taken aback this past week by the results of a 17-state survey commissioned by the Republican National Committee. It found the president struggling in the Electoral College battlegrounds and likely to lose without signs of an economic rebound this fall, according to a party strategist outside the R.N.C. who is familiar with the poll’s results. The Trump campaign’s own surveys have also shown an erosion of support, according to four people familiar with the data, as the coronavirus remains the No. 1 issue worrying voters."

The Republican Senate woes come as anger toward Mr. Trump is rising from some of the party’s most influential figures on Capitol Hill.

After working closely with Senate Republicans at the start of the year, some of the party’s top congressional strategists say the handful of political advisers Mr. Trump retains have communicated little with them since the health crisis began.

In a campaign steered by Mr. Trump, whose rallies drove fund-raising and data harvesting, the center of gravity has of late shifted to the White House. His campaign headquarters will remain closed for another few weeks, and West Wing officials say the president’s campaign manager, Brad Parscale, hasn’t been to the White House since last month, though he is in touch by phone.

Then there is the president’s conduct.

In just the last week, he has undercut the efforts of his campaign and his allies to attack Mr. Biden on China; suddenly proposed a halt on immigration; and said governors should not move too soon to reopen their economies-- a week after calling on protesters to “liberate” their states. And that was all before his digression into the potential healing powers of disinfectants.

Republican lawmakers have gone from watching his lengthy daily briefings with a tight-lipped grimace to looking upon them with horror.

...Privately, other party leaders are less restrained about the political damage they believe Mr. Trump is doing to himself and Republican candidates. One prominent G.O.P. senator said the nightly sessions were so painful he could not bear watching any longer.

Charles Booker is a progressive state Rep from Louisville who is running for the Kentucky Senate seat McConnell uses as his base of power. "Mitch McConnell," he told us yesterday, "knows that Donald Trump's lack of leadership is hurting Americans-- including his own constituents in Kentucky-- but in order to preserve his own power he has made himself into the President's lapdog, covering up his corruption, facilitating his failures, working to suppress the vote and hijack our democracy from American voters who he knows don't approve of the direction of the country."

McConnell And The GOP Would Like To Force State Governments Into Bankruptcy, Something That Would Absolutely Cause The U.S. To Collapse Economically

Some states-- most of them blue-- pay far more into the federal government than they get out. Kentucky-- like many more economically backward red states-- get much more than they pay in. The 6 states that pay the most per capita for the least return are Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Colorado and Nebraska. And the states that get the most after giving the least are Virginia, Kentucky, Alaska, New Mexico, Maryland and Alabama-- with Mississippi and West Virginia almost tied with Alabama. That said, the senior senator from Kentucky, Miss McConnell, was making an awful lot of noise yesterday about the federal government cutting off aid to states most afflicted with COVID-19 so far and letting them go bankrupt. These are the states with the most cases per million population (with the raw number of confirmed cases in parenthesis):

• New York- 13,687 (268,512)
• New Jersey- 11,258 (99,989)
• Massachusetts- 6,287 (42,944)
• Connecticut- 6,274 (22,469)
• Rhode Island- 5,921 (6,256)
• Louisiana- 5,519 (25,739)

McConnell's staff refers to the idea of helping the states hardest hit by the pandemic so far a blue state bailout." The New York Daily News wasn't amused and noted that in Kentucky almost 40% of the state's budget comes as handouts from DC, much of that financed by the very states that are hardest hit how. The state is either the 4th or 2nd most dependent on on the federal government.

Kentucky, which, despite having 3.8 COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 residents, collected $1.7 billion from D.C. in the massive new virus-focused stimulus, which works out to $377 per resident. New York, with a per capita death rate 20 times that, got roughly the same amount per resident.

Kentucky, where the unemployed are getting help, thanks to an additional $600 in weekly help the feds are delivering, that adds up to much more than their average wages, as opposed to New York, where it’s far less.

Kentucky, which has pocketed loads of federal transportation aid, a fact that of course has nothing to do with the fact that McConnell’s wife runs the federal Department of Transportation.

“All 100 senators may have one vote,” McConnell proudly proclaimed last year, “but they’re not all equal. Kentucky benefits from having one of its own setting the agenda for the country.”

He may want states to restructure their finances rather than take any more federal cash, but he’s the one who’s morally bankrupt.

Moscow Mitch by Chip Proser

At a press conference, Andrew Cuomo called McConnell's idea for states like New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts going bankrupt "one of the really dumb ideas of all time... You will see a collapse of this national economy. The entire nation is dependent on what the governors do to reopen. But then you’re not going to fund the state government? You think I’m going to do it alone? How do you think this is going to work? You want to see that market fall through the cellar? Let New York declare bankruptcy... I would’ve insisted that state and local funding is in this current bill because I don’t believe they want to fund state and local governments. And not to fund state and local governments is incredibly short sighted. They want to fund small business, fund the airlines, I understand that, but state and local government funds police, and fire, and teachers and schools. How do you not fund police and fire and teachers and schools in the midst of this crisis? When you don’t fund the state then the state can’t fund those services... How ugly a thought. I mean, just think of what he’s saying: People died, 15,000 people died in New York, but they were predominantly Democrats, so why should we help them?"

CNN reported that Long Island Congressman Pete King (R-NY) slammed McConnell's comments Wednesday night, tweeting that his 'dismissive remark' is 'shameful and indefensible.' To say that it is 'free money' to provide funds for cops, firefighters and healthcare workers makes McConnell the Marie Antoinette of the Senate."

And New York isn't the only source of criticism for McConnell's horrible comments. Louisville state Rep. Charles Booker is one of the progressives going to take McConnell on in November. Yesterday he sent his own supporters an e-mail noting that McConnell "is dead wrong. Let me be clear: bankrupting state and local government threatens vital services, and it means that every hardworking public employee is in danger of losing his or her job, health care, and retirement benefits. We’ve already had 30 million people lose their jobs in this pandemic; we don’t need to add to that. What McConnell proposes would undoubtedly lead to a recession. I’ve been fighting for the past two years to protect the pensions of our hardworking public employees in Kentucky, and I’ll be damned if we’re gonna let Mitch McConnell kick our families off the cliff. Mitch McConnell is a bully, and we’ve beaten bullies before in Kentucky."

Earlier this week, one of McConnell's home-state political allies, state Rep. Robert Goforth, a serial sex offender and former GOP gubernatorial candidate, was arrested and charged with assault, strangulation and terroristic threatening.

The victim told police that she tried to flee from Goforth, and that he made several attempts to “hog tie her,” according to the citation. He also allegedly strangled her with an ethernet cable to the point where she said she thought she was going to pass out, according to the citation.

She also told police that Goforth said he was going to kill her during the altercation, according to the arrest citation.

The alleged victim told police she was able to escape by promising to unlock her phone, the issue that set off the incident, according to the citation.

Police determined that Goforth didn’t appear to be under the influence of drugs or alcohol once they made contact with him, and the three children were found safe, according to the report.

Goforth was released from jail later Tuesday on a $25,000 cash bond, according to court records. He could not be reached for comment.

Goforth of East Bernstadt, represents the 89th District, which covers Jackson County, as well as parts of Laurel and Madison counties.


The Kentucky Democratic Party called on Goforth to resign Tuesday following the arrest.

“State Representative Goforth must resign immediately,” Kentucky Democratic spokeswoman Marisa McNee said in a statement. “This is not the first time a victim of Mr. Goforth’s violent assaults has come forward. Republican Leadership has ignored this for far too long, it is time for them to take action. Goforth needs to go.” 
During his run for governor in 2019, Goforth faced sexual assault allegations, which he denied.

Goforth pulled in nearly 40 percent of the vote in the Republican primary when he ran for governor, but lost to incumbent Gov. Matt Bevin who lost to Democratic challenger Andy Beshear.


Kentucky hasn't been hard hit by the pandemic yet-- just 3,373 confirmed cases-- in large part because the Democratic governor, Andy Beshear, moved relatively fast to implement social distancing rules. But with groups of Republican protestors ignoring them, Kentucky is bound to see increased problems as the pandemic thrives in places where people ignore precautions.