May 16, 2020

We’ll start today’s post with The Week in Review, some of the headlines that made the week seem more like a month.

Sunday, May 10th. The day is Mother’s Day and my brother’s birthday. King tRump lost his Mother’s Day mind beginning his day with over 50 tweets by 8:20 am and over 100 tweets and retweets by 4:00 pm. That would be a tweet every 7.5 minutes. As you can imagine, none of them mentioned the 80,000 deaths in the U.S. we were at on that day, but we did see the start of #Obamagate and the deflection campaign.

Monday, May 11th. The tough man with them thar bone spurs that kept him out of the military, and who said he would have charged into a school during the shooting at Parkland even if he were unarmed, got bitch slapped by a couple of female reporters at a press briefing and ran off the stage in a fit of anger.

Tuesday, May 12th. The federal judge hearing the Michael Flynn case indicated he was not ready to dismiss the case after AG Barr dropped all the charges against Flynn for lying to the FBI. So, it ain’t over til the fat lady sings. Also, a coalition of nearly 2,000 former DOJ attorneys signed an open letter calling for Barr’s resignation over what they called an “assault” on the rule of law. “If any of us, or anyone reading this statement who is not a friend of the President, were to lie to federal investigators in the course of a properly predicated counterintelligence investigation, and admit we did so under oath, we would be prosecuted for it,” they wrote. Amen.

Wednesday, May 13th. Paul Manafort, tRump’s former campaign manager and now a convicted felon, was released to home confinement over concerns about the spread of coronavirus in prisons. He will spend the remainder of his 7.5 year sentence in home confinement after serving just under 30% of his time in the prison. Meanwhile, the Donald thinks that we should open up the schools and send kids back to school before the end of the school year. Not too concerned about the kiddos. Unbelievable.

Thursday, May 14th. Senator Richard Burr stepped down as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee after the FBI launched an investigation into a series of stock trades he made at the beginning of the pandemic. Burr dumped between $628,000 and $1.72 million’s worth of holdings on Feb. 13, shortly after Congress began receiving intelligence briefings about the threat of the coronavirus. At the time, Burr had been assuring the public that the government was prepared to respond to the threat. 

Also on Thursday, Dr. Rick Bright, the ousted director of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), testified before Congress. He basically gave the administration a big red grade of F, and said there would be dire consequences if the government doesn’t take swift action. “Our window of opportunity is closing,” Bright said. “Without better planning, 2020 could be the darkest winter in modern history.” And of course Captain Clorox had something to say about it. Trump wrote, “I don’t know the so-called Whistleblower Rick Bright, never met him or even heard of him, but to me he is a disgruntled employee, not liked or respected by people I spoke to and who, with his attitude, should no longer be working for our government!” Following Dr. Bright’s testimony, a Republican vice-president of a medical supply testified and also slammed the administration. Mike Bowen, the congressional witness, sent an email to Dr. Bright in January warning about the completely decimated supply of N95 respirators and the government’s refusal to ramp up production. In the email he wrote, “We are in deep shit. The world is.” When Bowen was asked directly about the administration’s lack of action, the downplaying of the pandemic, and the ouster of Dr. Bright, Bowen responded with, “Now that you ask, again, I am a Republican, have been a lifelong Republican. I am embarrassed by how that’s been handled.”

At last, Friday, May 15th. At an event in the oval office yesterday, Defense Department officials presented Donnie a flag for the newest branch of the armed services, The U.S. Space Force. The Commander in Space then went on to boast how the U.S. is developing a “super duper missile,” something the Pentagon was unable to confirm. Gawd, we are now officially in the Idiocracy timeline.

Gonna leave you and go turn on the fake 5 ‘o clock news and pour myself a drink after writing this post reminded me of all the sheeeeeeeet from this week. Ramble at ya’ later. Ziggyman