The Week Ahead

Good morning. Today is a slow news day, so in lieu of an in depth Monday dive I want to briefly highlight a few stories I’ve been tracking.

Trump suggests he’s the target of an Insurrection Act charge

Trump may have received a target letter from the Department of Justice on the charge of violating the Insurrection Act—or he may have just been having a senior moment. On “Truth Social” Trump posted the following:

He later deleted this post, however, changing “Insurrection Act” to “Espionage Act,” which makes more sense in the context of the rest of the post. But what a Freudian slip that was, no? It’s not like people go around talking about the Insurrection Act, unless somehow it’s on his mind—perhaps because his lawyers have been talking about it. Just a thought.

RFK, Jr. shows his true conspiracy stripes

Trading on nothing more than his family name, the son of Bobby Kennedy continues to bring dishonor to that legacy. During a recent interview RFK, Jr. suggested that the Covid virus was a bioweapon “ethnically targeted” to “attack Caucasians and Black people” while sparing “Ashkenazi Jews and Chinese people.”

The unhinged rantings of this man could be ignored, but for the platforming that billionaire tech bros like Jack Dorsey, Elon Musk and Fox give him. That is particularly upsetting, because it is precisely this kind of irresponsible, conspiratorial rhetoric that has led to the stunning rise of hate crimes against AAPIs and Jews in the U.S.

Democratic leaders roundly condemned his words, but right-wing media continues to amplify his dangerous rhetoric in order to weaken Democratic unity by sowing chaos. They hope to suggest Biden is cowardly for choosing not to debate him. But as with any lunatic, QAnon. fringe anti-vaxxer, it is best not to engage with him publicly, lest his outrageous views be further legitimized.

DeSantis is Deflating while inflation in his state soars

In better news, the once mighty DeSantis campaign, which has yet to catch fire and is apparently still cleaning pudding off the candidate’s fingers, announced it was laying off a dozen staffers in an effort to cut costs. This is largely because big donors have soured on the Florida governor, and he’s deflating and losing top-challenger status faster than you can say “Jeb Bush.”

It remains unclear what path, if any, remains for DeSantis. He has attempted to run to the right of Trump and position himself as the true champion of the most regressive, cruel policies. But that hasn’t won over any MAGA faithful who prefer the real fascist to the wannabe. And it has turned much of moderate America against him. Meanwhile, the Florida economy continues to suffer as insurance companies pull out of the housing market and inflation continues to run red hot in the state, even as it has eased sharply elsewhere. Two of the three metropolitan regions in the country with the highest inflation include Miami / Ft. Lauderdale (at 9%) and Tampa / St. Petersburg (at 7.3%).

Perhaps focusing on demonizing vulnerable minorities instead of fixing the state’s economic problems wasn’t a winning strategy. Neither apparently was driving out migrants with new draconian work requirement laws that went into effect July 1, leaving many construction, shipping and agricultural employers with a shortage of available workers.

A personal note

As I wrote about Sunday night, this has been a very tough few days for me and my household with the sudden loss of our doghter Hudson. I deeply appreciate the many kind words and the outpouring of love and support I have received from so many of you.

While many understandably are urging me to take more time off, it honestly feels good to be engaging productively here, even if it means not going for deep analytical dives. Taking care of Hudson taught me that doing things to help others is its own beautiful reward. And while I can’t do any more for her, now that her brief time here with us is over, I can redirect some of my energy, compassion and sense of duty and obligation to others, including this community. She would give that two ruffs up.

So thanks for having my back, just as I hope to always have yours.

Jay