“A Republic, if you can keep it.”
* In the midst of a health crisis caused by respiratory disease, Trump rolls back pollution standards. It’s beyond ironic; it’s outrageously dangerous and negligent.
* Thanks to another reality-TV, Trump ad lib riff, the maker of Lysol actually has had to go public to underscore that its product should never be used internally. Of course it shouldn’t, but Trump’s recent bluster sounded a lot more like support for the possible injection and ingestion of disinfectants than mere “sarcasm.” It’s part of the Trump-plague, communications normal. Amid the uncertainties about COVID-19, there is at least this assurance: Come November, there will be an electoral disinfectant available for this presidential plague.
* Trump’s COVIDiocy press briefings underscore on a daily basis that he is the self-serving, mixed-messaging charlatan-in-chief who dearly misses his cult-follower rallies and craves pop-culture celebrity. May this exercise in self-serving infomercials be self-sabotaging.
* “Hey, Phil. I’m the president, and you’re fake news.”–Trump’s response to a challenging question about presidential rumor-mongering from Washington Post White House bureau chief Phil Rucker.
* All of Congress, including, of course, House and Senate Republicans, are in recess (until May 4) to avoid spreading the coronavirus. No, Nancy Pelosi is not on “vacation,” as asserted by President Donald Trump.
* Isn’t it, well, embarrassing that more Americans aren’t, well, embarrassed by having a reality TV alpha male simpleton with no filter for president? Has a political base, still quaffing the Kool Aid, if not the Clorox, ever been more deplorably duped?
* After flailing about in response to the coronavirus tanking the economy, the Trump campaign has had to do a less-than-nuanced, COVID pivot. The new MAGA message: “We built the greatest economy in the world; I’ll do it a second time.”
* In case you missed it because it was buried in the COVID-dominated news cycle, the Senate Intelligence Committee, chaired by North Carolina Republican Richard Burr, UNANIMOUSLY endorsed the U.S. intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia did, indeed, conduct a sweeping and unprecedented campaign to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. And, yes, that assuredly included Russia wanting to boost the prospects of Donald Trump.