The Tarnished Idol

 

By now you must have seen the cartoonish “golden idol” statue of the former president (DJT), dressed in flip-flops and beach attire displayed at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in Orlando Florida. Several GOP wannabees are on the schedule, Senators Lee (UT) Cruz (TX) Hawley (MO) Scott (FL) Cotton (AR) are some of the speakers; also on the list is former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and Donald Trump Jr. as well as Florida Governor DeSantis.  Not attending, perhaps wisely, are former VP Mike Pence and former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley.  Haley is said to be on the outs since she criticized the former president after the insurrection; Pence declined an invitation to speak and is lying low for the time being.  He, of course, understood that he would not be the headliner, his former boss would perform that function. But, despite the speeches from the senators and others, until the former president steps back from his ‘will he or won’t he’ stance, none of them has a chance and will just dangle, no matter how many demagogic speeches they make.

And, as might be expected, the recently impeached insurrection instigator went against the common courtesies usually shown to predecessors and attacked President Biden for his policies. He reveled in the adulation shown by the CPAC followers in the audience who have become members of the MAGA cult, along with others from the GOP.  They applauded his lies about the previous election and cheered his hints at a possible third try for the White House. Reason and truth had no place at this conference. He encouraged further voter restrictions to keep elections from being stolen. It remains to be seen whether he will take his followers on a road trip and start campaigning, much as he did shortly after his 2016 election.  It feeds his need for applause, but certainly not the needs of this country for unity and stabilization.

I can only hope that DJT will soon be otherwise occupied by litigation, both civil and criminal; these were ignored during his presidency but now he will have to face the music, especially since the Supreme Court refused to deny access to his tax records to Federal prosecutors in New York. There are also civil suits from women who claimed abuse or worse from him as well as suits arising from the insurrection where he may also have criminal liability. In the state of Georgia, the Fulton County District Attorney has launched an investigation into his actions trying to influence the counting of ballots; this is now on the horizon for a grand jury review. Since he could hardly find attorneys to represent him for the impeachment hearing, I wonder where he will now find legal representation. The crew he had for the impeachment impressed few viewers but then given a pre-ordained mostly deaf and mute Republican Senate, they did not have to.

Out in the real world, the business of governing continues. President Biden flew to Texas to review the FEMA actions toward recovery from the deep freeze, power, and water problems suffered by those who lived in the area. It is becoming quite apparent that the state must start to better regulate the maintenance of its power supplies, insist on adequate insulation and winterizing and restructure the payment of power bills from the approximately 70 separate entities providing power there. Economist and consultant James Galbraith was quoted in the Business Insider about these power issues.  He indicated that the lack of regulation led to fierce competition to provide the cheapest power so necessary maintenance and upgrades were not done. The ability to have redundancy and resilience were not built into the system, which was then left without safeguards when stressed. The system of locking customers into a fluctuating rate determined by the cost to produce power led to the outrageous bills of over 10,000 dollars and more for a week’s power. That is a ruinous rate and, even a state which dislikes regulation must see the need to step up and fix the problem. Homes that were built without insulation or protections for plumbing under freezing conditions, need to have better building codes and some retroactive refits to avoid future mishaps such as the broken pipes seen in this event.

In the House of Representatives, the massive 1.9 Trillion-dollar COVID relief bill passed on a mostly party-line vote, although 2 Democrats did defect. It is a broad bill providing payments to families and to states and assistance to speed up vaccines. It now goes to the Senate with the increase in the Federal minimum wage rate of $15.00 per hour.  The Senate Parliamentarian has ruled that that clause is not appropriate in a revenue bill, so it should not be allowed when the Senate votes.  Since this bill is being presented under the Reconciliation process to not need 60 votes but can pass with a simple majority, all Democratic Senators are needed to be on board. The 15-dollar wage is a problem for Democratic Senators Manchin (WV) and Sinema (AZ) who had protested this change from the $7.25 Federal minimum wage, even though those upticks would be phased in over several years. If the Senate removes this provision, some Democrats are hoping that it could pass as a provision separately in the future.  This measure is a must-have for many in the progressive wing of the party.

Another concern for the President is the slow walking of his nominees through the senatorial hearing process.  To many Democrats, the attacks on nominees of color by the Republicans are unprecedented.  To those outside DC, you might not see it but the TV lobbying by attack groups such as Heritage Foundation and other right-wingers is unrelenting. They are airing smear campaigns against Neera Tanden, CEO of Center for American Progress and aide to President Obama on the ACA (Director, Management and Budget), Vanita Gupta, Attorney, former Obama DOJ head for Civil Rights (Associate AG), Congresswoman Deborah Haaland (Secretary of the Interior), Kristin Clark, current President of the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights (DOJ head for Civil Rights Division), and former Congressman Xavier Becerra (Secretary of HHS).

Many of the complaints against these nominees are certainly petty and were not issues when Republican nominees had some of the same issues.  Becerra is criticized because he is not a physician, neither was the latest HHS secretary. Tanden is criticized for her tweets – did anyone ever read the Twitter feed of the former president? Several male persons approved by a majority of Senators under the former president had many damning tweets but were not openly criticized. It should also be noted that not only are all of these persons of color but all, except Becerra, are female.  Granted, there have been some minorities approved, General Lloyd Austin and the UN Ambassador Linda Thomas Greenfield, both African American, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (Hispanic), to be certain, but those are small numbers. Those abysmal hearings and slanted remarks against accomplished candidates as well as the attacks on Dr. Rachel Levine (HHS – a pediatrician who is transgender) by Senator Rand Paul have not demonstrated any sense of brotherhood or humanity by the Republican senators.

What has happened to the tradition of allowing a president his nominees, unless they were woefully unqualified? The administration is standing behind all of these nominees, so I hope they will all each be approved by the full Senate.  Manchin, again, is a hold-out here; he claims to be off-put by Tanden’s tweets. I doubt, however, that there will be many cross-party votes, so all we can do is hope that they all get through this currently unfair process.

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This week The CDC and FDA evaluated the Vaccine developed by Johnson & Johnson and approved it for immediate release.  Four million doses are expected to be released this week with more production next month.  This vaccine only requires a single vaccination as opposed to Moderna and Pfizer, which are two doses. Current counts indicate that more than 72 million vaccines for 14.6 % of the population have been administered in the US so far.  That pace is ahead of President Biden’s goal of 100 million doses in 100 days, so we may yet reach the goal of more complete coverage by the summer. Maryland has increased its vaccination percentage to 14.6% but remains in the lowest third of state totals.  Case totals have decreased by 28% over the last two weeks nationwide.

COVID stats: from NY Times 2/28/21

US total cases: 28,622,900. New cases: 50,925

Total deaths: 512,979. New Deaths: 1,129

Maryland Cases:  Total cases: 381,272 Total new cases: 836

Total deaths: 7,856. Total new Deaths: 18.

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And in late news today, NY Governor Andrew Cuomo has been accused by two women of harassment and unwanted sexual advances over the past few years.  The State Attorney General will investigate. The oft combative Governor apologized saying he was sorry if his remarks or actions were considered inappropriate, but stated that he had never made any advances toward either of the two women. He is also embroiled in a situation over the counting of COVID nursing home deaths and aggressive actions toward others regarding reporting those numbers. Stay tuned, as they say!

And finally, the panda cub climbs a tree and falls out of it – but Mama bear is close behind to offer comfort!

“Til next week – peace!