Schiff In Gear

U.S. Representative Adam Schiff, who prosecuted Donald Trump in Trump's first impeachment trial in early 2020, is now an announced candidate for the U.S. Senate from his home state in California in 2024.

Having been kicked off the House Intelligence Committee by Speaker McCarthy, he has nothing else to do.

Schiff and fellow California Democrat Eric Swalwell were both expelled from the House Intelligence Committee, Schiff for having "openly lied to the American public" (to quote McCarthy) about proof of Trump's efforts to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to investigate Joe Biden and for lying about not knowing the anonymous individual who made the original allegations (no evidence of that) and Swalwell for being involved with a Chinese national who was most likely a spy (whom Swalwell dissociated himself from the second he was informed about this individual).  Schiff is very popular in California for his crusade against Trump and is a darling of the anti-Trump media for his crusade for preserving the Constitution, so he should be a formidable candidate in the "jungle primary" in June 2024 that will pit all wannabe senators of both parties against each other for the two ballot positions in the general election.

Schiff, however, has two obstacles.  The first is that Katie Porter, an Orange County congresswoman, is also standing for election to the Senate.  The second is that incumbent Senator Dianne Feinstein, despite being 89 year old, has not announced her retirement yet.

My guess i thateht November 2024 election to the Senate from California wil lbe a POrter-Schiff contest, as Feinstein is likely to retire or be retired, and in this scenario, I'd give the edge to Porter because . . . she's a woman.

After all, it is California . . .     

Inside Information

I can't keep up with all of this coronavirus news.  I want to write about everything else going on the world, but there's nothing else going on in the world.

I'm a little late in commenting on this, and I can't add much to it, but here it is: As you already know, U.S. Senator Richard Burr (R-NC), chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, privately warned attended of a luncheon in North Carolina about a month ago that the coronavirus outbreak was going to hit America and hit it hard, calling it "probably more akin to the 1918 pandemic," and then proceeded to sell stocks before the market tanked.  Where did he get this information and why didn't he tell anyone else?

Because Burr (above) shared information in private rather than keep it to himself, he doesn't believe that he violated any insider-trading laws, but just to make sure he didn't, he's asked the Senate Ethics Committee to investigate him.  Wow, what integrity.  No one is buying this.  Consider this reaction from a leading pundit: "He [Burr] must resign from the Senate and face prosecution for insider trading . . ..  He had inside information about what could happen to our country, which is now happening, but he didn't warn the public . . ..  Instead, what did he do? He dumped his shares in hotel stocks so he wouldn’t lose money."  The pundit's name? Tucker Carlson.

You know you screw up badly when you are a Republican and you tick off Tucker Carlson.

Equally appalling is the situation of appointed Republican U.S. Senator Kelly Loeffler of Georgia, who also sold stocks before COVID-19 eighty-sixed the Dow and who is - MAXIMUM BIG SURPRISE! - married to Jeffrey Srpecher, the chairman of the New York Stock Exchange! Burr sold only (only?) $628,000 to $1.72 million in stocks, but  Loeffler sold between $1,275,000 and $3,100,000 in stock.  Forbes magazine's Jack Brewster (who, by the way, wrote a very good opinion piece about Joe Biden's stutter for Newsweek) reported that both Burr and Loeffler were downplaying the coronavirus crisis even as they were unloading their portfolios. 

While Burr and Loeffler sold their stocks directly, two other senators had their stock sold by third parties before the market tanked, one Democrat, Dianne Feinstein of California and one Republican, James Inhofe of Oklahoma.  I'm willing to give both of them the benefit of the doubt because of their different situation - even the insufferable Inhofe, who was one of the eight senators who voted against an earlier coronavirus relief bill.  But Burr ought to take Tucker Carlson's advice, and Loeffler, running in a special election to complete the remainder of former Senator Johnny Isakson's term, should not be given the opportunity to do so.