An official with the Polk County Democrats tries to clear a path for Joe Biden and his supporters during the opening of the 2019 Iowa Steak Fry. Photo by Dominic Gwinn
Good evening, this is The Smoke Eater for Thursday, May 21, 2020 and yawn, cough, sneeze, yawn.
Quick Hit
* "Dog shit" and the coronavirus * The political inconvenience of a social safety net during a simultaneous health and economic crisis * Trump to sing his greatest hits * Joe Biden was hiding inside all us all along * Asking Berners to turn down the flames * Hong Kong fury * "All work and no play makes Jack a vital member of society" *
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Mission Accomplished
New data shows a spike in infections across vast areas of the southern U.S. that rushed to reopen businesses. Medical experts are already warning the U.S. has only a few months to prepare national stockpiles for a "second wave," Ed Pilkington reports for The Guardian.
BONUS: The administration is suddenly reconsidering a move to pull National Guard troops helping medical workers after their deployments are up next month. The Guard has been tasked with a wide array of duties in almost every state, like helping disinfect nursing homes and administer COVID-19 tests. "An extension [of deployment passed June 24] would also help thousands of Guard members qualify for federal retirement and education benefits for which they would otherwise fall only one day short of obtaining," Politico reports. New York Democratic Rep. Max Rose, a combat vet and Captain in the National Guard, said Guard members were being treated like "dog shit" if deployments aren't extended passed 90 days, adding, "This isn’t a coincidence. We’re not idiots. This is spitting at our soldiers who have done the right thing."
TrumpBuck$
Over at CNET, Clifford Colby has a summary of what's been going on in the debate about injecting more cash into American's pockets. The TLDR is bean counters think it's a good idea, but some people in D.C. think we should wait and "see what happens." Earlier this week Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell promised his Republican colleagues he would not extend the $600 boost to unemployment checks that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi included in one of the earlier stimulus bills.
Full Disclosure: I'm currently on unemployment after being laid off from the bar I work(ed) at. That $600 is the only thing keeping me (and this newsletter) alive. I have not received my $1,200 TrumpBuck$.
Yesterday I wrote that the Trump campaign has been moving aggressively to reopen the country in order to hold MAGA rallies. Anita Kumar reports for Politico that the GOP is hoping to nudge Trumpland into running on the economy with a message like “Making America Great Again...again.” With almost 40 million people unemployed due to the coronavirus, the strategy might be fruitless.
Gabe Sherman gossips in Vanity Fair that the Trump campaign wants to cast Barack Obama as the villain in its 2020 shitshow. Politico reports that Republicans think this is a stupid idea. Additionally, Hannah Trudo and Asawin Suebsaeng gossip in The Daily Beast that Trumpworld is super bummed it can't just lie and call Joe Biden names like they did to Hillary Clinton in 2016.
Recent polling of registered voters (from a progressive PR firm) found Obama would crush Trump 54 to 43 percent were an imaginary election held today. New York journalist Errol Louis opines that Trump's "playing the race card because he's holding a weak political hand" as we crash into November.
NPR's Asma Khalid has a good long read about the difference between the White House's cross-country flailing and ceaseless shitposting, and Joe Biden's hum drum video chats with local news outlets in battleground states.
The VEEP Stakes
Stacey Abrams has made no secret about her intention to be Joe Biden's running mate over the last several months (and that's left some conservative columnists too butthurt to present reasonable arguments effectively), but there's other players in that race too!
Florida Rep. Val Demmings has been trying to break out following a piece in Politico last weekend. Demmings criticized current Vice President Mike Pence earlier this week after Pence ate cheeseburgers during a recent photo op following an additional photo op with restaurant owners and hoteliers in Orlando Wednesday. "Pay no attention to the people who have died," Demmings said during a video call. "Pay no attention to the people who are sick." Earlier today Demmings confirmed she was on Biden's "shortlist." Demmings was also set to appear on The Root's Instagram live chat thingy, but it got canceled for some reason.
Biden already acknowledged that his shortlist contains Demmings and about a dozen others. Back in March, Biden promised he would select a woman as his running mate for the general election. The list is rumored to include Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, Rep. Ayanna Pressley, and former 2020 rivals Sen. Kamala Harris, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. For her part, Warren has been trying to calm the respective fears of the Democratic party's two prominent factions. On the one hand, some progressives feel Warren isn't radical enough to win over disaffected Berniecrats. On the other hand, there's a fear from establishment (and red state) Democrats that her folksy eat-the-rich policies are too extreme for flyover country.
Speaking of Sen. Sanders, Bernie is asking his legion not to be jerks to people who just don't feel the Bern, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post. The agreement warns his revolutionaries could face disciplinary action that includes revocation of their delegate status at the 2020 convention. Most of the document seems aimed at keeping intraparty beefs quiet and off the front pages. "Before tweeting or posting from your personal social media accounts," the agreement reads, "Ask yourself these questions: If this appeared on the front page of The New York Times, would it compromise Bernie Sanders’s message, credibility, or reputation?"
This comes as the Biden campaign offers an olive branch to Berners in the form of policy working groups, Rebecca Morin reports (at length!) for USA Today. Progressive groups, like the Sunrise Movement and March for Our Lives, that supported Sanders say they won't endorse Biden until he meets their standards on a range of issues, such as gun violence, climate change, and wealth inequality, but they say they're interested in working with the campaign to bridge the gaps ahead of the Democratic convention in Milwaukee this August (the scale of the convention is still unclear due to the coronavirus).
Playing With Fire
Chinese Communist Party (CCP) officials say they will move to squelch the growing political dissent in Hong Kong by making it a crime during an upcoming meeting of the National People's Congress. For over a year, massive pro-democracy protests have rocked the city -- a massive hub of global finance and trade -- as residents fought to effectively secede from the CCP's iron-fisted rule. Though the protests drew hundreds of thousands into the streets, China has blamed this on foreign influence operations.
BONUS: The Washington Post's Siobhán O'Grady has a great breakdown of what's been happening in Hong Kong, and why foreign policy nerds think Hong Kongers are likely to fight back. For more context, the NYTimes has a piece on why China's president-for-life, Xi Jinping, is making his moves now that the rest of the world isn't paying attention.
One More Thing...
In "Ghost Town, famed British comedian Ricky Gervais stars as Bertram Pincus, a misanthropic dentist who is able to see spirits following a botched colonoscopy. The opportunity to resolve unfinished business prompts New York's specters, led by Greg Kinnear, to stalk the ill-tempered Pincus. (via Crackle)
OK, here's a cute critter video: IT'S MAYA!
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