Two new ones, and they’re rich:

Your campaign was so preoccupied with whether they could, they didn't stop to think if they should. pic.twitter.com/cfAAkGLttH

— The Lincoln Project (@ProjectLincoln) June 22, 2020

Brad Parscale, Trump’s digital marketing guru, boasted earlier this week that one million people had applied for tickets to Coronafest in Tulsa.  Usually brilliant, Parscale fell for a prank by Tik-Tok users whose viral posts prompted all those ticketed no-shows.  Only 6,200 showed, the outdoor events were abruptly canceled, and you know that Trump raged all the way home.  But the best thing?  This photo:

Nothing embodies Trump’s fizzling re-election prospects more than this image.

Every once in a while, the Gameshow President inadvertently blurts out the truth during his streams of unconsciousness. It happened again this last week, when he admitted this:

“If we did very little testing, [America] wouldn’t have the most cases.  So, in a way, by doing all of this testing, we make ourselves look bad.”

There it is.  Trump has been promising millions of “beautiful tests” since February. It’s mid-May, and we’re still testing at extremely anemic rates.  In Texas, for example, our current testing rate is 2%, and that rate ignores possible multiple tests who have already tested positive.  Every single medical expert I’ve heard speak repeats the mantra that massive testing is mandatory for opening economies.  Without it, we’re all flying blind.

The problem? Trump is playing a gameshow and in this game, the smallest number wins.  The prize is another 4 years to tear the US apart and avoid felony indictments from the State of New York.  We’ve been calling this for months, and, once again Trump admits that he doesn’t want testing.  He’s literally risking millions of lives for a win.

Leaving for Arizona yesterday, a reporter asked Trump why he supported reopening even as cases increase.  He said, “”The whole world is excited, watching us, because we’re leading the world.”  Yes, we are leading the world:

Trump’s delusion is complete.  I would think that the only thing the world is excited about is ridding itself of Donald Trump on November 3 (but only if we do our job).

The Lincoln Project, a group of GOP leaders who are trying to oust Trump, released a new ad, this time using Reagan’s “Morning in America” theme from his first campaign.  This one is just a little different.

In the face of the COVID-19 pandemic, Democrats have desperately tried to get vote by mail passed in states that don’t have it in time for the November presidential election.  It’s a non-starter with Republicans lead by Trump.  At the same time, the Postal Service is losing $2 billion per month with reduced volumes of mail.  Democrats tried to put a $15 billion bailout in the relief bill, but Trump threatened to veto the entire multi-trillion dollar bill if it included any money for the Post Office.  The bill finally got passed with a $10 billion loan, by Mnuchin is holding it up in Treasury, and Trump fired the IG assigned to oversee the distribution of funds from the relief bill last week.

Republicans have been trying to kill the US Postal Service for decades, trying to privatize it and hand it over to some of their largest donors.  In 2006, the Republican controlled Congress passed a law that required the Postal Service prefund 75 YEARS of anticipated pensions, totaling $72 billion.  They then diverted that money to paying down federal debt caused by GWB’s slashing tax cuts.  Even though the Postal Service is no longer a full federal agency the Congress still controls its budget, continuously starving it for funding.

Even as the COVID-19 pandemic has caused mail volume to plummet,  Republicans, lead by Trump, have stonewalled any support to keep the service alive, and without funding, it will run out of cash in September.  At the same time, Democrats are trying to introduce voting reforms that allow vote by mail for the November elections.  Of course, Republicans are also stonewalling that.  About 20 states already allow voting by mail.  Why in the world would Republicans want to kill the Postal Service?  That answer is now crystal clear – no Post Office?  No voting by mail.  Trump’s plummet in the polls can be offset by making it almost impossible to vote during the pandemic.

Yep, Republicans figured out many years ago that reducing turnout through voter suppression, as well as radical gerrymandering, improves their chances of hanging on to power.  This effort is that strategy on steroids actually taking away Americans’ Constitutional right to vote.