SATURDAY, JULY 30, 2016
Today’s Good News And Bad News
From Our Local Political Junkie We’ll Call “Cincy Dave”

BAD NEWS FOR HILLARY?
The FBI is investigating a possible hack of the Hillary Campaign emails. This is again likely to be the Russians, and is also likely to be in the news a long time. So soon after Trump invited them to look for emails, it may not be good for him either. We will see how this develops.

GOOD NEWS FOR HILLARY
For the third time in a week, a federal court has struck down a voter I.D. law. Similar laws were recently blocked in Texas and Wisconsin. This one was in North Carolina and was called the worst disenfranchisement of African-Americans since the days of Jim Crow. North Carolina has voted mostly Republican since the Civil Rights Bill became law but has become a swing state in the last couple of elections. Obama barely won there in 2008 but lost to Mitt Romney 4 years later. The court stated that the law targeted African Americans by requiring the types of I.D. that they are less likely to have. The court also cancelled other provisions of the law that were aimed at African Americans, such as reducing early voting, eliminating same-day registration and eliminating the ability to vote in another precinct. Proponents of the law, as always, claimed that their only goal was to prevent voter fraud. Courts apparently aren’t buying that argument – at least this year. However, they plan to appeal the ruling to the U.S. Supreme Court, so that whoever takes Scalia’s empty seat will probably be the deciding vote. If Hillary wins, that means that Mitch McConnell will have to prevent anyone from being confirmed to the court for another 4 years. If Trump wins, it will be a green light for the Confederate States (and others) to go back to all kinds of Jim Crow voting laws. In that event, blacks will have to study up for their voter’s exams and save money for the poll taxes.

GOOD NEWS FOR TRUMP?
Well, maybe so, maybe not. Today, a group of Billionaire Republicans are attending a meeting (No, you are not invited) with the Koch brothers (David and Charles) to see how much money they can get out of them to prop up the Donald. So far, the Kochs have not seen fit to support him due to his outrageous statements, and have even implied that they may support, or at least vote for Hillary. It may be that even some greedy billionaires have standards but more likely, they are just risk averse. The Kochs are probably in the top five richest people in the US, at least as rich as Hillary’s own Billionaire supporter, Michael Bloomberg, and they have far more than the Donald’s meager holdings, which are probably highly leveraged (mortgaged) anyway. If the other billionaires are successful in convincing the Koch’s to write some hefty checks it could help a lot because he has trailed Hillary in fundraising the whole year. Right now, it seems like a long shot because yesterday, the Kochs rejected a proposed meeting with Trump himself but maybe the billionaires can get some bucks for down ticket races which will let them concentrate their own money on the presidential race.

Also, TV ratings came in late yesterday for the last day of the DNC Convention. It showed that Trump’s speech edged out Hillary’s in total viewers, although for the whole convention, the Democrats were ahead of the Republicans.

BAD NEWS FOR TRUMP?
The Donald doesn’t take criticism well, to say the least. Yesterday, he said that he wanted to punch some speakers at the Democrat Convention that said some things about him, especially one “little guy,” who “wouldn’t know what hit him.” He didn’t name the “little guy” but people later figured out that he was talking about Michael Bloomberg, who said about Trump, “I am a New Yorker and I know a con when I see one.” By calling him a “little guy,” Trump must have been referring to his physical stature, because Bloomberg is probably worth at least 10 times as much as Trump. That would make him a pretty big little guy.

Later, Trump said “Tell Hillary, I’m not gonna be nice any more,” because apparently he thinks that, so far, he has been way too nice. [SEE THAT STORY HERE] This could turn out to be the nastiest election fight in history. Mudslinging may not describe it. For her part, Hillary implied that if Trump gets any nastier, she may refuse to attend his next wedding.

TRUMP TO SKIP OUT ON DEBATES?
Debates have been a traditional part of the presidential elections since 1960, when Kennedy debated Nixon, and they are looked forward to by anyone interested at all in presidential politics. Three debates have been scheduled this fall, but now Trump is starting to complain about the schedule, claiming that Hillary and the Dems are somehow trying to rig the schedule because a couple of them are (partially) up against football games. What he may not know or care about is that the schedule is set by a non-partisan commission and the dates were set about a year ago. People are starting to believe Trump’s complaining is intended to provide an excuse to refuse to participate. He may be worried about how they would go because he probably couldn’t compete with a former Secretary of State in knowledge of geopolitics or with a former senator and first lady, one who has spent her entire adult life in politics, on domestic issues. The first debate is scheduled for September 26.

TAX RETURNS
Trump keeps getting asked about his tax returns and here is his standard answer: “I have the best tax returns, OK? The best. They’re terrific, all right? They’re fabulous, believe me. And if you saw them, you’d realize that when I say the best, OK, that means THE BEST, all right? They are this high (holds hand four feet above table) Believe me, if you read my tax returns, you’d see that I submit tax returns that are better than anyone’s, OK? Fantastic, terrific tax returns, all right? Believe me. I can’t help that Crooked Hillary and the IRS won’t let me release my tax returns, OK? But if I did, believe me, you’d see that they are the best. Believe me. Because no one has had the kind of success I’ve had, OK, and so no one else’s tax returns are as good, all right? OK? Believe me.”

POLLS
Today’s Meaningless Poll is from Missouri. It shows Hillary ahead, but don’t believe it. Missouri hasn’t voted for a Democrat since Jimmy Carter, in the wake of the Watergate scandal, except for the Bill Clinton years when he had lots of help from Ross Perot, who split the Republican vote. It would take a Hillary landslide for her to win this former slave state.