Figuring Out Trump (But Not Really) Plus-- All The President's Taxes

 

While I was working on this post, the NY Times dropped the bombshell opus on Trump's taxes. Who better than Dorothy Reik, President of the Progressive Democrats of the Santa Monica Mountains, to deal with the fact that Donald pays less in taxes than the millions of people who are unemployed due to his criminal mishandling of the pandemic? So... ladies first:

All The President's Taxes
-by Dorothy Reik

Just as I was trying to wrap my head around the two latest books exposing the criminal in the White House, White House, Inc. by Dan Alexander and Kleptopia: How Dirty Money is Conquering the World by Tom Burgis, an alert popped up on my phone from the NY Times. They had the goods-- the tax records Donald Trump has been hiding for the last two decades.

He is right about one thing-- he is under audit and has been for years-- over a tax deduction he took-- $72.9 million-- for abandoning his losing casinos but the deduction is illegal of he received anything in return and he did. The payback to the American taxpayers is over $100M. But the big headline is that Trump paid only $750 in taxes in the year he was elected and the year after. Everyone understands that! And for ten years he paid NO taxes due to a $900 million loss which he was able to "carry forward" for ten years.

Digging further we learn-- as I posited years ago-- that he is cozying up to tyrannical murderers because he has investments in their countries to protect-- the Philippines, Turkey and India are cited in this first installment. I wrote then that he also covets beach front properties in North Korea-- which he admitted. This is the most chilling yet least surprising revelation. The NY Times promises to dribble out more during the weeks to come a la the Hillary emails project.

Another fun fact is that he deducted "consulting fees" for projects that required no such services. The exact amounts of the deductions showed up in Ivanka's financial statements even though she was employed by the entity taking the deduction. My friend just called to suggest Ivanka and Jared head to temple early to start atoning but I think their sins call for a walk to the sea.

They should start now. It's a long walk from their mansion. Whether the Atlantic is big enough to wash away their sins is a question for Jewish scholars. How they allowed Ivanka to convert is another one.

More fun-- entities looking to do business with the government are renting space in Donald's office buildings in Manhattan and San Francisco. They are getting contracts worth many multiples of the rent they are paying.

Donald also has about $400 million in personally guaranteed loans coming due in the next four years and the gravy train of payouts from The Apprentice has stopped.  When asked about the report at his press conference the Donald labeled it "fake news" and walked off.

Maybe Chris Wallace needs to reconsider his questions for Tuesday.

Cousins? Distant

Louisiana is number 1. Louisiana has the most cases per million residents (35,262) in the U.S.-- which is also more than any country in the world, other than make-believe countries like Qatar and Arbua. In 2016 Trump won big in Louisiana-- 1,178,638 (58.1%) to 780,154 (38.4%). Of Louisiana's 64 parishes, Trump won 54. And in those 54 parishes, the folks heard Trump call the pandemic a hoax and they heard him belting people who wear masks or who practice social distancing. The worst hit county in the parish in the state is Jefferson-- Trump territory. It's mostly white and Trump beat Hillary there 55.3% to 40.5%. Jefferson Parish has 17,459 cases... but every single parish in the state has cases. Some are spiking very badly now. On Friday Caddo, Lincoln, Lafayette and West Feliciana led the way in new cases. Hillary won 50% of the votes in Caddo but those are parishes... Trump country.

Though the state elected a Democratic governor-- his election and reelection were outliers. The state Senate consists of 27 Republicans and 12 Democrats. The state House consists of 68 Republicans, 35 Democrats and 2 independents. The Louisiana Democratic Party is a hot mess. Yesterday PBS broadcast a focus on how the party is struggling to stay relevant.

Natasha Williams from Louisiana Public Broadcasting explains that rural voters are Trump's base in the state. "The Democrats," she said, "basically have lost a lot of the rural voters because in their estimation, rural voters feel like the Democratic Party has gone too big. They've gone to big city politics and they basically deal with issues that don't pertain to rural voters."

The Trumpist Secretary of State attempted to promulgate rules that would make it harder-- and in some cases impossible-- for voters to vote by mail. He was shot down by a federal judge who, said Williams, "stopped just short of saying that this was a political move and we are going to not put people in danger while politics kind of rears its ugly head in mail-in voting as well."

Louisiana is very concerned about healthcare and jobs. Education is also a big deal here. A lot of folks are really kind of struggling with the pandemic. You know, how do I pay my bills? How do my kids get a good education? How will I maintain and get what I need for my family?

...[I]n New Orleans in fact, even though we're in phase three, a lot of New Orleans is still closed down. The governor has been very sensitive to the fact that people want to go back to work. We need to open our economy. But also gauging those numbers, watching those numbers. And anywhere you go, you see evidence that the state is trying to indicate to you, we're not out of the woods yet. We need to do what we can to kind of, you know, keep that curve going in the right direction.

The only current polling I've seen in Louisiana was about oil ad gas drilling but they did ask some election questions. Trump's approval has fallen by 10 points, although it's still 51% approve/45 disapprove. And when they asked who people will vote for-- 48% Trump, 42% Biden, a serious erosion for Trump since 2016.

How could that be happening? Andrew Sullivan had an idea about how, generally speaking, on his blog last night. He compared Trump-- a would-be tyrant-- to Shakespeare’s fictional Richard III. "Denial. Avoidance. Distraction. Willful ignorance. These are all essential to enabling a tyrant’s rise," wrote Sullivan. "And keeping this pattern going is Richard’s profound grasp of the power of shock. He does and says the unexpected and unthinkable in order to stun his opponents into a kind of dazed passivity. It’s this capacity to keep you on your heels, to keep disorienting you with the unacceptable (which is then somehow accepted), that marks a tyrant’s relentless drive. He does this by instinct. He craves chaos, lies, suspense, surprises-- not because he’s a genius, but because stability threatens his psyche. He cannot rest. He is not in control of himself. And whenever the dust settles, as it were, he has to disturb it again.

This is what we’ve been dealing with in the figure of Donald Trump now for five years, and it is absurd to believe that a duly conducted election is going to end it. I know, I know. I’m hysterical and over-the-top and a victim of “Trump Derangement Syndrome.” Trump is simply too incompetent and too lazy to be an actual tyrant, I’m constantly scolded. He’s just baiting me again. And so on. But what I think this otherwise salient critique misses is that tyranny is not, in its essence, about the authoritarian and administrative skills required to run a country effectively for a long time. Tyrants, after all, are often terrible at this. It is rather about a mindset, as the ancient philosophers understood, with obvious political consequences. It’s a pathology. It requires no expertise in anything other than itself.

You need competence if you want to run an effective government, or plan a regular campaign, or master policy with a view to persuading people, or hold power for the sake of something else. You need competence to create and sustain something. But you do not need much competence to destroy things. You just need the will. And this is what tyrants do: they destroy things. Richard III ruled for two short years, ending in his own death in battle, and a ruined country.

This is Trump’s threat. Not the construction of a viable one-party state, but the destruction of practices, norms, civility, laws, customs and procedures that constitute liberal democracy’s non-zero-sum genius. He doesn’t need to be competent to destroy our system of government. He merely needs to be himself: an out-of-control, trust-free, malignant narcissist, with inexhaustible resources of psychic compulsion, in a pluralist system designed for the opposite. All you need is an insatiable pathological drive to avoid any constraint on your own behavior, and the demagogic genius to carry a critical mass of people with you, and our system, designed as the antidote to tyranny, is soon unspooling into incoherence, deadlock, and collapse.

I’m told he’s been ineffective even as a tyrant, so no worries. To which I can only say: really? Once you realize he doesn’t give a shit about any actual policies, apart from doing all he can to wipe the legacy of Barack Obama from planet earth, he’s been pretty competent. Note how he turned Congressional subpoenas into toilet paper; how he crippled and muzzled the Mueller inquiry; how he installed a crony at the Department of Justice to pursue his political enemies and shield him from the law; how effectively he stymied impeachment; how he cucked every previous Republican opponent; how he helped destroy the credibility of news sources that oppose him; how he filled his cabinet with acting secretaries and flunkies; how he declared fake emergencies to claim the power of the purse assigned to the Congress; and how he has reshaped the Supreme Court with potentially three new Justices, whom he sees solely as his loyal stooges if he comes up against the rule of law.

And gotten away with all of it!

In protecting his own power over others, he has been as competent as hell. Imagine where we’d be in four more years. Despite a mountain of criticism, he has not conceded a single error, withdrawn a single statement, or acknowledged a single lie. His party lost the mid-terms, but seriously, what difference did that make? His control of the Republican party, and his cult-like grip on the base, has never been greater than now. Yes, he has said and done racially polarizing things-- but the joke is he may yet have more support from blacks and Latinos in 2020 than he did in 2016. Think of his greatest policy failures: the appalling loss of life in the Covid epidemic and the collapse of law and order in the cities. Now recall that on February 1 of this year, Trump was at 43.4 percent approval; 200,000 deaths later, and the wreckage from Seattle to Portland to Minneapolis, and his approval today is at 43.1 percent.

This is, of course, not enough to win re-election. And Trump has no interest in broadening his appeal, because it would dilute the tribalism he feeds off. So he has made it abundantly clear that if the results of the election show him the loser, he will not accept them. Simple, really. He said this in 2016, of course, refusing to honor the result in advance. But this year, he has stumbled upon something quite marvelous for his purposes. Because of Covid19, it is likely that mail-in ballots will be far higher in number than before, and, as Barton Gellman has shown in this essential new piece, this gives Trump an opportunity he has instinctively seized. He has been saying for months now that: “MAIL-IN VOTING WILL LEAD TO MASSIVE FRAUD AND ABUSE... WE CAN NEVER LET THIS TRAGEDY BEFALL OUR GREAT NATION.” In late summer, Gellman noted, Trump was making this argument four times a day: “Very dangerous for our country.” “A catastrophe.” “The greatest rigged election in history.” He is telling us loud and clear that, if he has anything to do with it, this election will not be decided at the ballot box, but at the Supreme Court, which he expects to control.

...All he wants is chaos, because in chaos, the strong leader wins. Would he incite violence on his behalf if the votes seem to be drifting away from him? You bet he would. Would he urge his supporters to physically prevent ballot-counting? He already has. Would he try to corral Republican state legislators to back him in electing electors? Gellman has sources. Would he take this country to the brink of civil conflict? Way past it. Will anyone in the GOP do anything to stop him? We know the answer to that already. If they cannot condemn him this week, when would they? And he will do all this not out of some strategic calculation or tactical skill but because he cannot do anything else. He is psychologically incapable of conceding anything. And he has no understanding of collateral damage because his narcissism precludes it.

Many People Hope Trump Gets COVID-19 And Dies, But Even If He Doesn't His Mishandling Of The Pandemic Will Kill His Reelection Bid

Killer by Nancy Ohanian

The pandemic is getting frighteningly worse in Africa. Although South Africa has been steadily climbing up the daily case reports ladder-- and is now generally in the number 4 slot after the U.S., Brazil and India-- I had never seen Cameroon or Ghana among the top 30 before this week. On Tuesday Cameroon reported 2,324 new cases and Ghana reported 891. Both countries are dangerously spiking, as is Egypt (1,057 new cases on Tuesday). On Wednesday South Africa was again #4 (with 8,810 new cases), Egypt and Ghana were holding steady with, respectively, 1,025 and 854 new cases, while Ethiopia reported 928 news cases and Cameroon... didn't report at all. On Thursday, South Africa reported 13,674 new cases, Egypt +950, Ghana +641 and Cameroon continued to avoid reporting.

Meanwhile in the U.S., it was all just going from bad to worse. There were 55,442 new cases on Tuesday, 61,848 new cases on Wednesday and 61,067 new cases yesterday. These were the on day new case reports among the 10 most dangerously spiking states on Thursday:

• Texas (8,312 cases per million Texans)
• California (7,677 cases per million Californians)
• Florida- 8,935 (10,835 cases per million Floridians)
• Arizona- 4,057 (15,480 cases per million Arizonans)
• Georgia- 2,837 (10,052 cases per million Georgians)
• North Carolina- 2,059 (7,596 cases per million North Carolinians)
• Alabama- 2,212 (10,029 cases per million Alabamans)
• Louisiana- 1,843 (15,487 cases per million Louisianans)
• South Carolina- 1,782 (9,845 cases per million South Carolinians)
• Tennessee- 1,605 (8,433 cases per million Tennesseeans)

Dr. Fauci-- no doubt angering Trump again-- announced that this mostly Trumpist states should shut down again. "What we are seeing," he told the Wall Street Journal is exponential growth. It went from an average of about 20,000 to 40,000 and 50,000. That’s doubling. If you continue doubling, two times 50 is 100… Any state that is having a serious problem, that state should seriously look at shutting down."

And if that wasn't enough to drive Trump crazy-- already flipping out over two Supreme Court rulings that went against him-- another Republican senator announced he doesn't feel safe going to the Trump convention in Jacksonville, this time Moscow Mitch. Oh, and a new poll of North Carolina voters show Biden beating Trump 50-46% and Democrat Cal Cunningham beating Republican incumbent Thom Tillis 47-39%.

On Wednesday both Trump and Pence ordered the CDC to change the guidelines for opening schools next month. Just hours later the director, Dr. Robert Redfield, went on Good Morning America to publicly refuse: "Our guidelines are our guidelines, but we are going to provide additional reference documents to aid basically communities that are trying to open K-through-12s. It’s not a revision of the guidelines; it’s just to provide additional information to help schools be able to use the guidance we put forward... Right now, we’re continuing to work with the local jurisdictions to how they want to take the portfolio of guidance that we’ve given to make them practical for their schools to reopen."

Louisiana was hit in the very first spike and New Orleans had a terrible time of it. But, thanks to a Democratic governor who stood up to the right-wing Death Cult neanderthals in the state legislature, they started getting it under control. Now Trumpist goons all over this very red state have decided to flaunt the rules and invited the plague back into their state. The plague has graciously accepted their invitation. Louisiana, which has a total of 71,994 cases, the 13th most in the country, is spiking terribly. On Wednesday they reported 1,888 new cases, bringing the number of cases per million residents to 15,090 (the 5th worst in the U.S.). On Thursday there were 1,843 new cases, which brought the cases per million up to 15,487. By the end of the week Louisiana will replace Massachusetts, another early hard hit state-- but one that is generally being careful about following medical protocols-- as the 4th hardest hit state. Gov. John Bel Edwards warned that the state has been "going in the wrong direction" for the last 3 weeks, losing all the gains they had made in flattening the curve since the pandemic peaked in April.

However, unlike that previous peak which had an epicenter in the New Orleans metro area, Edwards said Louisiana is facing a “statewide epidemic” in which no one region is driving case growth and hospitalizations.

The Louisiana Department of Health said the top five places for COVID-19 outbreaks in the state are bars, industrial settings, restaurants, food processing, and colleges and universities.

The governor said he joined a phone call Wednesday morning with 20 hospital CEOs and medical directors from around the state. He said “nearly every” one of the call participants reported sustained increases in COVID-19 hospitalizations.

As of Wednesday, Louisiana reported 70,151 total cases and 3,231 deaths since the virus’ outbreak was first discovered in early March. While black people accounted for more than half of those cases, Edwards said Wednesday that newer cases tended to trend whiter and male.

Total patients hospitalized with COVID-19 have rebounded, reaching 1022 Wednesday, the highest level since May 18.

Those hospital health leaders also said they were having issues with staffing, testing, and access to COVID-19 treatments like Remdesivir.

Edwards, along with Louisiana Office of Public Health Assistant Secretary Dr. Alexander Billioux, stressed that individuals who are exposed to the virus should be quarantined for a full 14 days, even if they receive a negative coronavirus test result in that time.

Of the 10 worst-off parishes (above), Trump won all but 3: Calcasieu (64.7%), Jefferson (55.3%), Lafayette (64.6%), Ouachita (61.4%), Rapides (64.8%), St Tammany (73.1%) and Tangipahoa (64.8%).

And then there's the news about Tulsa, where Trump brought the plague with his disgusting (and failed) rally. CNN: "The city of Tulsa is experiencing a surge in coronavirus cases, a little over 2 weeks after President Donald Trump held a campaign rally in an indoor arena there. Dr. Bruce Dart, Executive Director of the Tulsa Health Department, said in a press conference on Wednesday there are high numbers being reported this week, with nearly 500 new cases in two days and trends are showing that those numbers will increase. There had been a 20% decline in new Covid-19 cases the week of June 28 through July 4. The Tulsa Health Department reported 266 new cases on Wednesday, bringing the total number in the county to 4,571. There are 17,894 cases in Oklahoma and 452 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University's tally of cases in the United States. When asked if the cases in Tulsa are going up due to the rally on June 20, Dart said that there were several large events a little over two weeks ago. 'I guess we just connect the dots,' Dart said."

In a statement to CNN, Leanne Stephens of the Tulsa Health Department said, "Our epidemiologists and contact tracers are inundated with following up with Tulsa County residents who are confirmed positive as the numbers have been extremely high in recent days. Yesterday, we set a new single day case high and you can see on our website where the trends are moving."

This coronavirus has a lengthy incubation period -- the time between when someone gets infected to when they start showing symptoms (if they get symptoms at all).The incubation period is about three to 14 days, with symptoms typically appearing "within four or five days after exposure," according to Harvard Medical School.

Neither Oklahoma nor Tulsa has a mask mandate. Asked why, Mayor Byrnum, a Trumpist, said: "I think that the thing that citizens need to understand is that when we put that kind of mandate in place, we will be putting it there because we had no other choice but to do that to protect their ability to get medical care over the long term of this pandemic." On Wednesday, Oklahoma reported 673 new cases and on Thursday 603 new cases, which brought the number of cases per million Oklahomans to 4,674 and the total number of cases in the state to 18,496.

Republican Leaders Are Ginning Up The Social Distancing Protests, Not The GOP Grassroots

Noam Chomsky couldn't be more correct: Señor Trumpanzee is culpable in the deaths of thousands of Americans by using the coronavirus pandemic to boost his electoral prospects and line the pockets of big business. And he's not alone. The Republican Party is right there with him.

The memo was specifically for Louisiana, a red state with a Democratic governor, by it outlines how the GOP plans to stir up protests and undermine orders meant to stem the pandemic. I don't know if it applies to other states' Republican parties, but my guess is that it does. The talking points came from GOP operative Jay Connaughton and was addressed to state Senator Sharon Hewitt of Slidell, but has circulated to all Republican legislators in the state.

Last week Lamar White wrote at the Bayou Brief that Governor John Bel Edwards' "orders are in conformance with the guidelines issued by the White House and follow the recommendations of public health experts and medical professionals... Covid-19 has now killed more people in Louisiana than those who perished as a consequence of the Federal Flood after Hurricane Katrina. More than one out of every 1,000 residents of New Orleans have died from the virus, which had been disproportionately affected when the novel Coronavirus was first reported in the state. Since then, the pandemic has spread to all 64 parishes.

The GOP memorandum contains a series of factual distortions about the state’s response and falsely claims that Gov. Edwards’s order was made against the advice of the Trump White House. The White House actually recommended Edwards take the exact approach that he’s now implementing, telling governors to ensure their states have satisfied a set of criteria before ordering a “phased reopening.”

The Trump administration also makes it abundantly clear that plans for a phased reopening are at the “governors’ discretion,” and recommends that any phased reopening-- which could only occur after meeting the initial “gating criteria” listed below-- consider “local circumstances.” As an example, the White House distinguishes between urban areas with severe outbreaks and “rural and suburban areas where outbreaks have not occurred or have been mild.”

...Trump has repeatedly singled out Edwards, a Democrat, for his coordination with his administration, praising the governor’s leadership during the Covid-19 pandemic on more than one occasion. “In the case of Louisiana, we have a very good governor, John Bel Edwards, though he’s a Democrat,” Trump told Fox News.

Vice President Mike Pence also praised the state’s response under Edwards. “I have to say how proud we are, despite the heartbreaking loss of people in our community and the families who’ve lost loved ones, New Orleans has made great progress, and Louisiana has made great progress by putting the health of their neighbors first.” Pence told WWLTV on Monday.

In a list of talking points outlined in the Louisiana GOP document, legislators are encouraged to argue that they are “disappointed in the Governor’s decision to delay the restart of our economy” (emphasis added), and to share the fact that some cities in Louisiana are closer to Dallas, Jackson, and Houston” than they are to New Orleans, though the memo leaves out the words “New Orleans.”

Already, legislators have lifted passages from the memo- often verbatim- to share on social media. One of the first members to do so was Hewitt herself:

Hewitt also prompted her followers to sign a petition, which is mentioned in the memo to legislators as well, by sharing a tweet from Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, announcing the state’s decision to no longer require visitors from Louisiana self-quarantine for 14 days. Abbott’s order created an almost entirely unworkable regime that attempted to force non-commercial traffic arriving from Interstates 10 and 20 into a check-in area (in the case of I-20, the area was located nearly five miles from the state border).

“Texas Governor lifts the quarantine of Louisiana citizens entering his state, but our LA Governor keeps us locked down,” Hewitt declared, misapprehending a “stay at home order” as an order preventing citizens from traveling anywhere. The Slidell lawmaker also failed to appreciate the justification Abbott provided for eliminating the requirement, which had been widely seen as an act of political theater.

“Louisiana has done a good job of corralling the coronavirus and because their increased rate of new coronavirus cases is less than what we have in the state of Texas now, it’s important for these people who either have families who live across the Louisiana border, or they may be living in Louisiana but working in the state of Texas, or they may need to come to the state of Texas for doing business-- whatever the case may be-- it was determined by the doctors and the data that it was fine at this time for people to be able to come into the state of Texas from Louisiana,” Abbott said.

While Abbott announced he would also let Texas’s statewide “stay at home order” lapse on Thursday, his directive is phased approach, and, like Edwards’s order, it follows the guidelines set out by the White House. 200 of 254 of Texas’s counties report no deaths as a result of the virus, compared with only 10 of Louisiana’s 64 parishes.

Although Texas’s population is 6.1 times larger, Louisiana has reported more than three times the number of Covid-19 fatalities than the Lone Star State.

As of yesterday Louisiana was reporting 6,844 cases per million and 496 deaths per million. Texas is reporting 1,376 cases per million and 39 deaths per million. The Louisiana Republicans are counting on no one bothering to look up the numbers.

Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), a medical doctor and far right extremist, "is," wrote Melanie Zanona for Politico, "fed up with being locked down. He wants the freedom to get his nails done, even if it means steepening the curve and killing more people. Maryland is having one of the worst pandemic experiences in the country. From Sunday to Monday there were 786 more cases bringing the total to 33,373, and 39 more deaths, bringing that total to 1,683. Maryland's cases per million: 5,520, the 8th worst in the country, even though Maryland is just the 19th most populous state!

Harris fumed at a teletownhall that "They promised 2 million dead at the beginning of this... The media has a vested interest in making things sound worse so that you tune in the next day." A million was predicted if no precautions-- like social distancing-- were taken. And that's exactly what crackpots like Harris want to try now. He screamed and yelled-- without wearing a mask-- at a reopen America protest. And he's not the only one. Zanona wrote that "A growing list of House hard-liners say they have reached their breaking point with the stay-at-home orders, which flipped a switch on the once-booming economy in a bid to limit the spread of coronavirus.

In recent weeks, Republicans have been angrily lashing out at the media, local and state officials and House Democratic leadership over the continued shutdown-- and are now actively encouraging the fired-up protesters swarming state capitols across the country.

“It’s ludicrous, it’s arbitrary and it’s absolutely unnecessary,” said Rep. Jody Hice (R-GA), whose state has been one of the earliest to lift coronavirus restrictions. “In some cases, there’s no evidence whatsoever that they eliminate the spread of Covid-19. It’s just abusive, dictatorial, tyrannical-type leadership.”

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ), chairman of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, is also cheering on the protests.

"It's organic, it's nonpartisan, and it's basically an effort to send a message to government,” he said. “It's clear people across all spectrums are feeling the pain of these government actions."

The push among GOP lawmakers to end isolation orders comes as activist groups look to mobilize the conservative grassroots just as they fueled the tea party movement a decade ago. The move is intended not only to give the economy a boost but also potentially build momentum on the right ahead of the November elections.

“Time will tell if this will turn into a tea party-type movement,” Hice said of the growing social unrest. “Part of me is hopeful this will begin a movement of Americans taking a stand for constitutional liberties that have been eroding for quite some time, but rapidly eroding through this pandemic.”

Yet for all the heated protests taking place-- and as several states begin to wind down restrictions-- the desire to immediately end the lockdowns remains a minority opinion. According to new polling, most Americans do not feel comfortable with their states reopening salons, gyms, movie theaters and other businesses.

That might explain why some Republicans have taken a more measured approach to the debate, acknowledging it’s difficult to strike a balance between public health concerns and the need to get the economy humming again. And even if the economy is technically reopened, it’s not clear there will be many customers if fear of the virus is widespread.

"No matter what decision you make, there's going to be people second-guessing it,” said Sen. John Cornyn (R-TX), who is up for reelection this fall. “You need to do it gradually and you need to be careful... We all know how to manage risks in our own life-- that's if we have good information and know how to do that. But right now people are being inundated.”

President Donald Trump-- who has also encouraged protesters with tweets to "liberate" Democratic-run states-- recently tapped a bipartisan congressional task force to explore ways to get the nation back to work. It's a sign the White House wants some bipartisan buy-in for reopening the economy, one of the most consequential decisions that will be made during the pandemic.

Coronavirus casualties are still climbing, with over 80,000 Americans dead from the virus thus far. Republicans who have been clamoring to reopen the country have faced accusations from Democrats that they care more about the economy than people’s lives.

Many GOP lawmakers, however, counter that continuing the lockdown carries its own set of health risks, pointing to the increase in suicides and routine health exams getting pushed to the back burner.

“We need to get back to our way of life, because there are serious mental health issues,” said House GOP Whip Steve Scalise (R-LA). “You’re seeing suicides on the rise.”

Others have given more blunt assessments. Rep. Trey Hollingsworth (R-IN) told a local radio station last month that the health risks are the "lesser of two evils” compared with the economic damage from the virus.

Republicans have also begun to decry the stay-at-home orders as a violation of constitutional rights-- a call to arms that plays directly to the right’s fears about government overreach.

“Power has gone to their heads, and they believe government is the answer to everything,” said GOP Rep. Debbie Lesko of Arizona, who accused Democratic Chicago Mayor Lori Lightfoot of going “ballistic” with her threats to jail people who violate social distancing orders.

Meanwhile, Hice and Biggs wrote a letter to Trump over Easter weekend voicing concern that virus-related restrictions on public gatherings are infringing on Americans’ religious freedoms. They've complained that in some places, you can buy alcohol and a lottery ticket but can't attend your place of worship.

“Just because we have a pandemic does not mean our constitutional rights evaporate or disappear,” Hice said. “I believe there’s a tremendous abuse of civil liberties in certain cases across the country, and I’m hopeful some of these people will be held accountable.”

Attorney General William Barr has said the Department of Justice is monitoring the stay-at-home orders to ensure they don’t violate civil liberties, and he didn’t rule out stepping in if states go too far.

Republicans have also slammed various reports of law enforcement aggressively going after people and businesses who violate the rules.

“I don’t think [the police] should be going after them at all... It’s overkill,” Biggs said. “That’s where you begin saying, have we crossed the line? In some states, have we become martial law?”

The debate over reopening the country is also playing out in the Capitol. The Senate returned to D.C. last week, but Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) has delayed the House’s return, citing recommendations from the Capitol physician.

Republicans hammered Pelosi for keeping lawmakers away from Washington in the middle of a crisis that requires congressional action. Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) is seeking signatures for a letter calling on the GOP to come back to D.C. no matter what this week and blaming the high infection and death rates in New York on "poor leadership at the state level."

“This is why we, as Republicans, must demonstrate leadership for the country by safely and responsibly coming back to work in Washington in order to minimize an impending economic calamity which could ultimately cost lives and dramatically increase misery across the United States,” the letter states, according to a draft copy obtained by Politico.

Some lawmakers have defiantly chosen not to wear masks in the Capitol. Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY), however, vigorously defended his decision not to wear a facial covering, maintaining that he is immune to the virus because he already contracted it in March while also denouncing the “Nanny State.”

“Modern medicine shows us that immunity is based on having antibodies,” Paul tweeted. “Why are fake news media and [petty] tyrants denying medical science? They so want to have everyone submit to busybody rules and regulations that they can’t stand it that someone might be immune and therefore immune to their people controls.”

Last week, the YouGov poll for The Economist asked if voters thought stay-at-home orders are an infringement of constitutional rights. 66% said no and just 19% said yes. But when you break that down by party, it looks very different. 85% of Democrats and 64% of independents say stay-at-home orders do not infringe on constitutional rights, while just 46% of Republicans agree with them that it isn't. Who thinks it is an infringement? 6% of Democrats, 19% of independents and 35% of Republicans. That's how out of step with the mainstream Republicans are!

The effectiveness of social distancing measures in limiting the spread of COVID-19 is agreed on by most of the population-- 90% of Democrats, 83% of independents and even 79% of Republicans. It is their leaders and a small radical contingent of extremists stirring up these protests. The answer to this question was important: "Many U.S. states have already announced plans to reopen large sectors of their economy. Do you believe it is likely or unlikely that this will result in an increase in COVID-19 cases ?" Overall 75% of voters think reopening will increase cases-- 87% of Democrats, 74% of independents and 61% of Republicans. 29% of Republicans disagree; they're going to be in for a big shock.

Another poll, this one for the Associated Press, reported that "55% of Americans disapprove of the protests that have popped up in some states as some Americans begin chafing at public health measures that have decimated the global economy. Thirty-one percent approve of the demonstrations."

Audrey Denney is the progressive Democrat running in pretty red terrain in a seat help by GOP radical Doug LaMalfa in northeast California. Yesterday she told us that "While Congressman LaMalfa believes we should disregard CDC reopening guidelines and that we should fully fling open our communities yesterday without any regard to public safety, I am grateful for the science and data based plan put forward by the state of California. No matter how worn down we are by the last two months, we must use data acquired from testing, contact tracing and tracking to establish how quickly or how slowly our communities and economies are able lessen our current stay at home guidelines. The only path forward to achieve our collective wellbeing is through facts, not emotions."

Chris Armitage is also running for a seat occupied by a Trump enabler, his in eastern Washington and the incumbent is shameless Cathy McMorris Rodgers. "Watching my opponent, who claims to be 'Pro-Life,'" he told us last night, "act as if human life doesn't matter, is unsurprising. This savage hypocrisy puts their dishonesty in full view and will cost them votes."

Lisa Ring's opponent is Buddy Carter in Georgia's coastal region, another one who has abdicated any pretense of independence to support whatever insane scheme Trump has cooked up. "Instead of advocating legislation assisting folks in staying home until the virus has waned and we have the resources to deal with it as responsible leaders should, Rep. Buddy Carter has joined his GOP colleagues in pushing to open everything immediately. In his weekly email, Carter highlighted expanded testing and stated, 'We must get back to work and fully reopen our economy, and testing will be critical to get us there.' I wonder if Carter and his donors in the pharmaceutical industry are looking for the many ways they will profit from a pandemic that has devastated his constituents and the rest of the country."

Kathy Ellis has a tough race in a deep red district. But that doesn't prevent her from talking with the people there in southeast Missouri about how to make their lives better. "The decision by Republican leadership to sacrifice lives in an effort to line their own pockets is shameful. Since the beginning of this crisis, my opponent Rep. Jason Smith, has applauded Republican leadership, claiming that we must 're-open' our state immediately because  'there’s a lot of people that will make more money sitting at home on unemployment than if they’re at their job.' Seriously. Look, nothing about this situation is ideal, and our Republican leadership has made the entire situation much, much worse. But, our priority has to be the health and safety (and lives) of our neighbors, which is why I strongly oppose 're-opening' our country. This feeling is echoed by the large majority of Americans, and folks like Smith and other Republican leaders should be ashamed of themselves for using political ploys and American lives to build campaign support."

Texas progressive Julie Oliver is also taking on a Trump clone, Roger Williams. She told us that "The leadership at the Federal and State levels has been anything but leadership. State leaders in Texas continue to weaponize the ignorance surrounding Coronavirus, and in doing so, jeopardize the lives of thousands of Texans, including those serving on the front lines. And it's so unnecessary. There were opportunities to thoughtfully navigate this pandemic to not only save lives but to save the economy, but those opportunities were squandered by Republicans who have an insatiable desire to rile up their base."

Trump May Have A Perfectly Valid Point About His Followers Drinking Bleach

CoronusCzar by Nancy Ohanian

Pence was on the air with Geraldo Rivera on Thursday, lying the the listeners. When Geraldo started whining about when he could be back on his yacht Pence said, "Honestly," always a giveaway about what's coming next from a Republican, "you look at the trends today, I think by Memorial Day Weekend we will largely have this coronavirus epidemic behind us." The trends? The only trends that would indicate that are the frequency of lies coming out of the Trump Regime. With the Financial Times explaining that the coronavirus deaths could be 60% higher than what governments are reporting, the trends are actually very, very scary. Let's take the U.S., which never really shut down sufficiently to flatten the curve and where the Trumpists are pressuring states to start opening up again. The U.S. was reporting 55,094 deaths yesterday afternoon-- and a crossing of the million case line. But if the Financial Times is correct, tonight's cumulative death toll, already the highest in the world, will be over 88,000.

And the day isn't over

On Saturday I looked at the cases per million people in 8 hard-hit states:

• New York- 13,690 cases per million
• New Jersey- 11,262 cases per million
• Massachusetts- 6,738 cases per million
• Connecticut- 6,450 cases per million
• Rhode Island- 5,921 cases per million
• Louisiana- 5,519 cases per million
• Michigan- 3,544 cases per million
• Delaware- 3,484 cases per million

I liked at the same metric in the same 8 states yesterday, one day later:

• New York- 14,953 cases per million
• New Jersey- 12,277 cases per million
• Massachusetts- 7,811 cases per million
• Connecticut- 6,864 cases per million
• Rhode Island- 7,040 cases per million
• Louisiana- 5,741 cases per million
• Michigan- 3,794 cases per million
• Delaware- 4,249 cases per million

And here they are this afternoon:

• New York- 15,150 cases per million
• New Jersey- 12,519 cases per million
• Massachusetts- 8,267 cases per million
• Connecticut- 7,055 cases per million
• Rhode Island- 7,295 cases per million
• Louisiana- 5.804 cases per million
• Michigan- 3,837 cases per million
• Delaware- 4,383 cases per million

Notice the trend isn't what you might expect from what Pence told Geraldo's listeners. Every state is going up, up, up. And by the way, this is building in anti-distancing red states as well. Here are the numbers from 8 Trump states yesterday:

• South Dakota- 2,559 cases per million
• Georgia- 2,272 cases per million
• Indiana- 2,262 cases per million
• Mississippi- 1,978 cases per million
• Iowa- 1,748 cases per million
• Tennessee- 1,453 cases per million
• Nebraska- 1,434 cases per million
• Utah- 1,352 cases per million

And, here are the same 8 red states' numbers this evening:

• South Dakota- 2,598 cases per million
• Georgia- 2,322 cases per million
• Indiana- 2,405 cases per million
• Mississippi- 2,039 cases per million
• Iowa- 1,873 cases per million
• Tennessee-1,491 cases per million
• Nebraska- 1,590 cases per million
• Utah- 1,390 cases per million

We've discussed Louisiana crackpot Tony Spell a few times before. He's been arrested a couple of times, encouraging his disciples to break social distancing rules (and also for attempted murder). But, of course, no one is serious about it-- not even the attempted murder-- so all he got was house arrest, which he ignored. Yesterday, The Advocate reported that he was peaching again, this time with an ankle bracelet, telling his congregation it's a "dirty rotten shame when you're hiding in America." Its members sang and waved signs reading "I stand with Pastor Spell."

One condition of Spell's release is that he "refrain from any and all criminal conduct, including but not limited to strictly abiding by the all emergency orders issued by the Governor of the State of Louisiana."

...The pastor has said the state's stay-at-home and social distancing orders, both aimed at limiting the novel coronavirus, violate his and his congregants' First Amendment rights to assemble and practice their faith.

At least one church member had died after contracting COVID-19, the respiratory illness caused by the new virus, and a lawyer tapped to represent the church's fight to hold services was hospitalized.

It isn't known where the men contracted the virus.

Spell has told congregants who've attended services to refrain from touching each other and to stay home if they're sick.

"God gave you an immune system to kill the virus," Spell told his flock Sunday morning. "I'm not going to bind the virus."

Along with the recent aggravated assault and improper backing infractions, Spell has also been cited on  six misdemeanor counts of violating the governor's stay-at-home order.

The house arrest order and condition he remain on his property about 50 yards from the church and refrain from criminal activity-- including violating the state's ban on large gatherings-- stem from the assault charge.

Parish officials have noted other houses of worship have streamed their services in place of in-person gatherings.

Aside from the parishioner who attended services at the church and died, Spell's lawyer, Jeff Wittenbrink, is now in the hospital with COVID-19. Spell has asked his followers to send their $1,200 bailout checks to the church.

Two responses to this kind of story might be:

1- Let them all get sick and die; the country would be way better off without them and their genes.

2- They have the freedom to practice their religion and it's unconstitutional to try to stop them.

I tend to agree with #1-- except for one factor. The religionist nuts who contract the disease might be asymptomatic and could go to the grocery store and spread the contagion to normal people. It's an abstract contention that's a tad difficult for most low-IQ Trump supporters to grapple with and understand. And that's, basically, the same reason why #2 doesn't work. They certainly do have the freedom to practice their religion-- unless doing so is harming other people. That's why I think practicing their religion by injecting Lysol and drinking bleach-- the blood of Trump-- instead of consecrated wine is the perfect answer. Suicide doesn't hurt anyone else and society is rid of them and their gene pools and they're happy enough to martyr themselves. Win-Win!

Snake-Oil by Chip Proser

Americans Are Finally Figuring Out What We Have In The White House-- And That They Don't Like It

This morning, the IMF released its annual World Economic Outlook report, which predicts that "this year the global economy will experience its worst recession since the Great Depression, surpassing that seen during the global financial crisis a decade ago. The Great Lockdown, as one might call it, is projected to shrink global growth dramatically." The fallout in the U.S.-- which is the worst in the developed world because of Trump regime dysfunction and incompetence-- could actually rejigger the electoral map strongly enough to give the Democrats wins in states they haven't taken in decades. Politico, for example, sees Texas as up for grabs. The last time Texas gave it's electoral votes to a Democratic presidential nominee was over 4 decades ago when when Jimmy Carter beat Gerald Ford (1976). Even if Biden can't close the deal, "The economic impact threatens to hurt down-ticket Republicans, who for decades have hitched their fortunes to a robust economy. Democrats are targeting seven U.S. House seats and defending two, mostly in the suburbs of the largest cities: Houston, Dallas, San Antonio, Austin, El Paso and Fort Worth. Winning the state House is not out of the question for Democrats. They need to flip nine seats and are targeting districts that O'Rourke carried two years ago to get there."

New polling of likely voters, from a Firehouse Strategies survey, shows Señor Trumpanzee's pandemic approval ratings continuing to underperform, especially in relation to governors-- and even Congress! They found that "among 2020 general likely voters, Trump’s approval rating on coronavirus (51%) is currently lower than the approval ratings of Congress (57%) and governors (75%)" and that Biden would beat him 53-43%. Voters are starting to conclude exactly who is to blame.

Trump’s approval rating on the coronavirus crisis (51%) is currently lower than the approval ratings of Congress (57%) and governors (75%). That gubernatorial approval doesn't extend to clueless Trumpist allies like Ron DeSantis (R-FL).Tampa Bay Times reporters Steve Contoro and Larry Mower reported that among governors, DeSantis is standing out-- for his sheer incompetence. "Unlike other governors," they wrote, "DeSantis doesn’t hold regular public briefings. He has ceded the biggest decisions, like whether to close beaches, to city and county officials, yet he hasn’t talked to many of them. Early on, he clashed with federal officials over whether Florida had community spread of the virus. DeSantis’ uneven response has made him an outlier among his counterparts across the country. The approval ratings of most governors have soared during the crisis. DeSantis, one of America’s most popular governors a few months ago, has seen his support plummet. One poll found him the third-worst rated governor at handling the coronavirus in the country."

The poll they were referring to shows TRump's corona-approval at 45%. Compare that to the half dozen best-rated:

• Mike DeWine (R-OH)- 85%
• Larry Hogan (R-MD)- 84%
• Andy Beshear (D-KY)- 83%
• Tim Walz (D-MN)- 82%
• Charlie Baker (R-MA)- 81%
• Andrew Cuomo (D-NY)- 81%

The 6 worst performing governors, according to voters in their own states, are all Trump goons who do whatever he wants them to. Nevertheless, they all rate considerably higher than Trump:

• Henry McMaster (R-SC)- 63%
• Tate Reeves (R-MS)- 62%
• Bill Lee (R-TN)- 60%
• Ron DeSantis (R-FL)- 53%
• Mike Parson (R-MO)- 53%
• Doug Ducey (R-AZ)- 52%

Before the pandemic hit, DeSantis' overall job approval was 58%. It has sunk 7 points in just a few weeks. Most other governors have seen their approvals go much higher. Gavin Newsom, California's very mediocre neo-liberal governor went up 41 points to 83%, mostly because of the reflected glory of the county official and mayors of the 6 Bay Area counties who ignored his cautious, stupid approach and shit down their own jurisdictions while he sat around doing nothing. Ditto for Cuomo, whose ratings went up 32 points.

Lousiana's governor, Democrat John Bel Edwards, acted faster than most governors and saw his job approval go up 14 points in this Trump state, from 54% to a robust 68%. The state's Lt. Governor, Republican Billy Nungesser isn't faring as well. He was on CNN with Wolf Blitzer the other day admitting he was wrong in his reticence to do anything to help the citizens. He consistently pushed business interests over healthcare and now wishes he hadn't encouraged Mardi Gras, which is responsible for God-knows-how-many infections and deaths. As of Monday morning Louisiana had 21,016 confirmed cases and 884 deaths, both rising figures. Nungesser said he "absolutely" regrets his comments. Nungesser also apologized to New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell (D) for criticizing her decision to cancel events: "So the mayor did the right thing. In hindsight, I was wrong and she was right."

Another poll, YouGov's for The Economist, had even worse news for Trump. They found that 57% of Americans say Trump waited too long to respond to the pandemic.That includes 85% of Democrats and 56% of independents and even 20% of Republicans.

Here in Los Angeles, where it is an infraction to walk into a store without a mask, you almost never see anyone not wearing one. Nationally though-- especially in red states where people get their information from Fox and other fake news outlets (including Trump)-- many people still don't wear masks. My unhealthy Trump-loving brother-in-law went shopping a few days ago without one. YouGov reported that "Up until this week, relatively few Americans wore a face mask in public. Only one in five (20%) said they did that last week. This week, one-third (34%) said they had done so... Looking ahead, however, a majority (55%) said they would. That still leaves large numbers who either aren't sure or-- like my brother-in-law-- refuse to. YouGov reported that Republicans are as likely to trust Trump’s medical advice than they are to trust legitimate medical advice from the CDC; they have more confidence in what Señor Trumpanzee says than in Dr. Fauci’s advice. Let's see how long it takes for Darwinian natural selection to kick in and rid the country of people that dumb.

Things can get a lot worse for Trump between now and November. If he really tries to "open up" the economy on May Day-- as he keeps threatening-- there may well be a million deaths, especially in red states that will do what he says. And then there's the economy. A sharp nasty recession could turn into a long drawn-out depression, which would then be the main thing Trump would be remembered for. Brookings released this chilling report on Sunday: The Coronavirus Collapse Is Upon Us. "The world economy is facing its most severe challenge of the postwar period," wrote Eswar Prashad and Ethan Wu. "Economic activity, financial markets, and private sector confidence are all collapsing... much worse is to come. Will the present downturn prove to be sharp but relatively brief, with a snapback of economic activity once the COVID-19 pandemic curve is flattened? Or is the stage set for a deep and protracted global recession? The outcome depends on the trajectory of the pandemic, the responses from policymakers, and whether these are sufficient to contain the damage while rebuilding consumer and business confidence. In any event, the combined public health and economic crisis makes a rapid recovery less likely. Demand has been ravaged, there are extensive disruptions to manufacturing supply chains, and a financial crisis is unfolding simultaneously. Unlike the 2008-09 crisis that was triggered by liquidity shortages in financial markets, the crisis now unfolding involves more fundamental solvency issues for many firms and industries beyond finance."

The U.S. economy has come to a virtual standstill, with a large share of the services sector shutting down, industrial activity being disrupted, and a red-hot labor market giving way, in the space of a few weeks, to a dramatic surge in unemployment. The U.S. has responded with an extraordinary series of fiscal and monetary stimulus measures, which will help mitigate the immediate fallout from the crisis. Still, to alleviate the longer-term damage from this economic sudden stop, further targeted stimulus measures are needed, especially to protect economically vulnerable households and small businesses.

Europe and Japan, which were facing economic stresses even before the pandemic, are likely to suffer substantial declines in output and increases in unemployment. France, Germany, and the U.K. face historic recessions as all indicators of activity and trade tumble. In some of these countries, social safety nets that are stronger than those in the U.S. will mitigate the impact of the crisis on the most economically vulnerable. But the path to recovery will be long and difficult.

China’s economy seems to be getting restarted, at least to a limited extent and despite the restrained monetary and fiscal policy responses to date. Key economic indicators such as industrial output, retail sales, and fixed asset investment contracted sharply in the first two months of the year, but there are signs that the contraction might have bottomed out. In some respects, China’s command economy is built to better withstand such massive shocks compared to market economies. Its government can aggressively marshal national resources beyond the limits of traditional macroeconomic tools, by directly supporting enterprises and banks. But the economy is hardly out of the woods yet, especially with unemployment rising, domestic and external demand likely to remain weak, and given the risks of a second wave of infection.

Other emerging market economies are heading for a traumatic period. Many have decrepit health care systems, congested urban population centers, and high levels of poverty, leaving little room for maneuver between controlling the pandemic and sliding into economic disaster. Making matters worse, some of these economies are also having to cope with sudden stops of capital inflows, depreciating currencies, and a lack of external demand for their exports. Others face formidable debt loads that are only growing harder to finance.

The Indian government, which was already grappling with a sharp growth slowdown, has put the economy on lockdown but faces both a health crisis and an economic crisis. Brazil’s limited pandemic response so far may sustain economic activity in the short run. But its financial markets and currency have tumbled, reflecting the likelihood of an eventual lockdown.

The economic and financial carnage wrought by the pandemic could leave deep scars on the world economy for a long time to come. Central banks, at least, are stepping up to the challenge. The Fed has taken extraordinary measures to bolster U.S. financial markets through asset purchases and by providing dollar liquidity to many foreign central banks. The ECB has stated that there are “no limits to our commitment to the euro” while announcing massive purchases of government and corporate bonds and other assets. The Bank of England is set to directly finance government spending. Even some emerging market central banks, such as the Reserve Bank of India, are considering quantitative easing operations. Such measures will keep financial markets from freezing up but will not by themselves offset the fall in consumer demand or stimulate investment.

With both conventional and unconventional monetary policy tools already stretched to the limit, fiscal policy will have to do more of the heavy lifting. Well-targeted fiscal measures can soften the blow on consumers and businesses, especially small and medium enterprises that tend to have minimal buffers, thereby helping sustain employment and demand. In these desperate times, this option ought to be exercised by governments that face low borrowing costs, even if they already have high levels of public debt. Low- and middle-income countries with inadequate health systems-- where the pandemic could be catastrophic-- need support from the international community, potentially including concessionary debt relief.

The inability of national governments to come together even at such a critical time to forge a common front against the pandemic highlights a dangerous fracturing of international cooperation. This is further damaging business and consumer confidence, which are already in free fall. The need of the hour is honest and transparent information-sharing by national leaders, coupled with aggressive steps to contain the epidemic, extensive stimulus to limit the economic fallout, and a carefully calibrated strategy to restart economic activity before too long.

While multiple leading conservative advocacy groups plan to soon announce a joint coalition to demand the reopening of the U.S. economy despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, pushing for government authorities to loosen restrictions against the warnings of leading public health experts, And Borowitz reported that the governors-- not DeSantis, right-wing dim bulb (at best, murderer at worst) Kristi Noem and Kevin Stitt-- are considering forming their own country. "In order to better coördinate their efforts to combat the coronavirus, the nation’s governors are considering the extraordinary step of forming a country," wrote Borowitz. "The radical proposal is an unusual bipartisan effort, spearheaded by the Democratic governor of Michigan, Gretchen Whitmer, and the Republican Governor of Ohio, Mike DeWine."

“Mike and I were bidding against each other for masks and ventilators, and I was, like, ‘Mike this is crazy,’” Whitmer said. “‘It would be so much better if we just worked together and formed a country.’”

DeWine said that Whitmer’s proposal of creating a country out of the fifty states “made a lot of sense.”

“It was one of those moments where someone throws out a nutty idea and you think, ‘Hold on, let’s think on that for a second,’” he said.

While the idea of the fifty states coming together to form a country is still in the embryonic stage, DeWine said that the states would ideally create a “federal government” led by a “President.”

“We’re all in agreement that it would be amazing to have a President right now,” DeWine said.

A straw poll of the governors indicates that the front-runner for President of this yet-to-be-named country is one of their own: Governor Andrew Cuomo, of New York.

“Andrew keeps saying that he doesn’t want to be President,” Whitmer said. “And I’m, like, ‘Dude, you already are.’”