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After two weeks of battling Covid-19 thank you, dear readers, for all the good wishes I can report that the droning discomfort has passed, some energy has returned, I can taste again, and, for better or worse, I am recovering my personality from whoever hijacked it. I can also certify that the virus is a devilish addition to life on earth. Do not mess with it.

My memory is also returning, a mixed blessing as it turns to familiar obsessions, like Trumps ego.

You know that ego could not resist 18 interviews with Bob Woodward, just as you know that he spent some of those interviews detailing his lies to the American people about the virus (he preferred to always play it down), just as you know that he said in 2018 that the Aisne-Marne American cemetery in France he declined to visit was filled with losers, just as you know that in 2017 he said Haitians all have AIDS and Nigerian immigrants wouldnt ever go back to their huts.

You know because the presidents personality is consistent: a mix of coward, racist, liar, con artist, narcissist, grifter, and blowhard, with uncanny antennae for the worst instincts of humanity, and for how to use the media to channel insecurity and hatred into a mass political movement galvanized by his fiendish energy.

Yes, you just know with Trump. You know he insisted that Sean Spicer say his inauguration was the largest audience to ever witness the ceremony, and that the former senior White House counselor Kellyanne Conway used the Trump playbook when she said the statement was not false but just alternative facts, and that when Trump started insisting (falsely) that there had been voter fraud in the election he had won, he was laying the groundwork for real voter suppression in November 2020, and that downplaying the virus was about getting the Dow to 30,000 so he would not suffer an impossible defeat in the coming election.

Alternative facts have been the diet of Americans for 44 months now. No democracy, built on accountability and law, can survive such an onslaught indefinitely. That is why Joe Bidens most effective slogan is a simple one: You deserve a president who tells you the truth.

Biden has a fight on his hands. Millions of Americans have lost their jobs. Militarized police confront angry mobs. Insecurity is rampant, as is racial tension. A plague stalks the land. These are near perfect conditions for a proto-fascist like Trump who seeks a disoriented populace.

You just know, and the knowledge is that cloying glob of sludge that can never quite be washed off in the Trump era, however hard you scrub. It permeates existence.

You know he doesnt believe climate change is a threat, that he has done his best to eviscerate the Environmental Protection Agency, that he does not believe in science, that he thought disinfectant might knock out the virus in a minute, that he has hobbled the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, that he couldnt care less about transgender people, that he loathes immigrants he has described as animals, and that he authorized the separation of thousands of immigrant children from their parents at the border. You know that in textbook totalitarian fashion, he calls a free press the enemy of the American people.

Yes, you know, and you also know that Trump wants you to know all this so well, and so relentlessly, that you dont care. He has always gotten away with it. He has no reason to believe he will not continue to bat 1.000.

The fact is, were here, and theyre not, he taunted his opponents at the White House last month. It is a fact, alterable only through an immense summoning of American character and will.

You know Trump thought there were very fine people on both sides at the 2017 neo-Nazi Charlottesville rally, and that he thinks any Jew who votes for a Democrat shows great disloyalty, and that he winks daily at millions of Americans who believe he is their savior from a takeover by Black and brown people, Jewish finance, cosmopolitans, and leftist radicals. You know Trump is very much behind President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt because he has yet to meet a dictator he does not dream of emulating. You know Trump must be compromised with President Vladimir Putin to the point of ignoring Russian bounties on American troops in Afghanistan.

American deaths, as this years virus death toll has shown, are a matter of indifference to a president who believes empathy, like patriotic sacrifice, is for suckers.

Its important not just to know, to be aware, but to remember. Its hard to remember. Its like looking for the way out of a labyrinth in the mist.

Its important to remember that Trump believes he has done more for Black Americans than any president since Abraham Lincoln and that he claims he will preserve coverage for pre-existing conditions even as he is asking the Supreme Court to destroy Obamacare. Because Trump is delusional and a world already on the brink of an armed Chinese-American confrontation may not survive a second Trump term without disaster. Nor will the oldest democracy on earth.

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Remembering the Presidency of Donald Trump - The New York Times

FILE - In this July 1, 2020, file photo, Vice President Mike Pence, left, puts his face mask back on as Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey does the same after a news conference to discuss their meeting on the surge in coronavirus cases in Arizona in Phoenix. With the coronavirus spreading out of control and Arizona cities just beginning to require residents to wear masks in public last month, a few hundred people gathered in Scottsdale to make clear they did not approve of the heavy hand of government telling them to cover their faces. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)

PHOENIX Hot on the heels of the presidents trip to Phoenix to woo Hispanic voters, the vice president will visit the Valley on a similar mission.

On Monday morning, Vice President Mike Pence announced he is coming to town Friday to participate in a Libre Initiative Roundtable for Hispanic Heritage Month.

Pence will also take part in a Veterans for Trump event during the campaign trip.

No other details about the vice presidents visit were made available.

It will come four days after President Donald Trump is scheduled to campaign at a Latinos for Trump roundtable event at the Arizona Grand Resort on Monday afternoon.

Trumps visit and the announcement of Pences visit came on the same day a new poll showed the Republican ticket falling behind former Vice President Joe Biden and running mate Sen. Kamala Harris by 10 percentage points in Arizona.

That represented a shift of 6 points in Bidens favor over the past month, according to polling by Phoenix-based research firm OH Predictive Insights.

According to the polling average compiled by FiveThirtyEight.com, Trump trails Biden by 5 points in Arizona.

Only one Democrat, Bill Clinton in 1996, has won a presidential race in Arizona since Harry Truman in 1948.

The incumbent trails in Arizona despite Mondays visit being his fifth to the state during the campaign cycle.

Fridays trip to the Grand Canyon State will be Pences third in the past three months. He was last in Arizona on Aug. 11, when he attended campaign stops in Phoenix and Tucson.

Before then, July 1, he met with Gov. Doug Ducey in Phoenix to discuss the states effort to stop the spread of coronavirus.

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Following Donald Trumps footsteps, Mike Pence to visit Phoenix this week - KTAR.com

WASHINGTON Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is further distancing himself from the prospect of serving on the U.S. Supreme Court, saying that while he was honored to be mentioned by President Donald Trump as a potential justice, the high court is not where I want to serve.

Its not the desire of my heart, the Republican senator said over the weekend on Fox News' Sunday Morning Futures. I want to be in the political fight. I want to stay fighting right where I am in the U.S. Senate.

Asked point-blank if he wanted a job on the Supreme Court, Cruz didnt hesitate.

I dont, he said.

Cruz still didnt explicitly say that he would turn down the opportunity if offered.

But his comments on Fox News pointed to a far stronger level of disinterest in the gig than he had initially indicated last week, when Trump included him on a list of 20 additional potential justices he would nominate in a second term if any Supreme Court spots came open.

At that time, Cruz said only that he looked forward to continuing to serve in the U.S. Senate.

Trump last week unveiled the slate of potential Supreme Court justices as a way to fire up conservatives heading into the November election. He deployed a similar tactic in 2016, pitching a focus on the federal judiciary that helped solidify his standing with the Republican base.

Cruz, while better known these days as a politician, has a lengthy legal rsum.

He clerked for the late Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist after graduating from Harvard Law School in 1995. He then served as Texas' solicitor general, with Texas Sen. John Cornyn calling him one of the premier appellate lawyers in the state, if not the nation.

Cruz also has a new book coming out on the Supreme Court.

But Democrats in Texas and beyond were quick to dismiss Cruz as a potential justice, in part because of the partisan record hes developed in the Senate. The Texan has also made clear his ambition to run again for the White House after nearly winning the GOP nomination in 2016.

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Does Ted Cruz want to be Donald Trumps future Supreme Court pick? I dont, the Texan says - The Dallas Morning News

Although the 2020 election cycle has been dominated by the covid-19 pandemic and widespread social justice movements, the election will have profound implications for U.S. trade policy and particularly, for our state. Texas exports totaled $330 billion dollars in 2019, roughly 20% of total U.S. exports, and account for more than 30% of the states GDP. Where do the presidential candidates stand on trade? There are some key differences.

Donald Trump ran in 2016 on a populist, anti-globalization platform promising to put America first and get tough on trade partners like China. Since taking office, he has followed through on many of his goals, announcing U.S. withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (proposed but not ratified under the Obama Administration), renegotiating several aspects of NAFTA to produce the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement, and engaging China in a trade war, putting tariffs on many of its products.

These policies help some segments of the population but hurt others. Some manufacturing workers in industries that compete with Chinese imports benefit, as do workers in industries that have chosen to keep production in the U.S. because of new local content requirements in the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.

But all tariffs create higher prices for consumers, as importers within the U.S. pay tax revenue to the government and must adjust their prices to offset those costs. And many exporters, such as farmers in Midwest states like Iowa, Illinois, or Wisconsin, have been hurt by retaliatory tariffs from China.

Finally, job loss in some sectors of the U.S. economy are driven by larger, long-term structural forces that tariffs cant address, such as automation in manufacturing.

The Trump Administration has also rejected multilateral governance of trade, opting to operate outside of the World Trade Organizations Dispute Settlement Mechanism a court of sorts for resolving trade disputes. In fact, the U.S. has now effectively paralyzed the mechanism by refusing to approve the appointment of new appellate judges. This has undermined the ability of other countries to seek redress for allegations of unfair trading practices.

As for Joe Biden, he comes from a tradition of centrist, pragmatic democrats that generally embrace free trade. Yet he has also been supportive of labor protections, and may seek to do more to compensate those displaced by foreign competition, especially with pressure from the far left of the Democratic Party.

He has criticized many of Donald Trumps trade policies as overly erratic, which may undermine U.S. credibility. He has also argued for a tough stance on China, but in the past supported multilateral initiatives like the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which would have positioned the U.S. as an alternative trade partner to China for many Asian countries.

Biden has been critical of the Trump Administrations negotiations with China, arguing that China has been let off easy. It is likely that a Biden Presidential Administration would seek to repair many of the frayed relations with traditional U.S. trading partners, while seeking greater multilateral cooperation to push back against Chinas growing economic influence.

Biden would also most likely seek to restore American leadership within international institutions, such as the Word Trade Organization. As a senator and later as Vice President, Biden was known for his foreign policy expertise. He views a robust U.S. presence in the world as critical to U.S. power and prosperity, and one way the U.S. has helped maintain a liberal order since 1945 is by wielding its power through institutions. The Obama Administration attempted to utilize the Dispute Settlement Mechanism to put pressure on China, filing multiple disputes that resulted in several policy concessions.

The candidates pose a stark contrast on many issues, including their approach to international trade policy. Their only point of agreement would seem to be confronting China, although they differ on the approach. The choice will be an important one for Texas, given the size of its export sector.

Terrence Chapman is an associate professor of government at The University of Texas at Austin.

A version of this op-ed appeared in the San Antonio Express News.

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Joe Biden vs. Donald Trump on US Trade Policy - UT News - UT News | The University of Texas at Austin

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President Donald Trump on Wednesday named U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, as a potential nominee to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Trump included Cruz among 20 possible picks for the high court if Trump wins a second term in November and a seat later becomes open. The 20 new names come in addition to a group of prospective justices that Trump named during the 2016 campaign and has since drawn from to fill two vacancies on the court.

Cruz's name has come up before as a potential Supreme Court appointee, and he has said he isn't interested. In a statement released moments after Trump's announcement, Cruz was noncommittal and seemed to suggest he was satisfied with serving in the Senate.

"It's humbling and an immense honor to be considered for the Supreme Court," Cruz said. "In the Senate, I have been blessed to lead the fight to preserve our constitutional liberties every day, to defend the rights of 29 million Texans and I look forward to continuing to do so for many years to come.

Trump also added a second Texan, James Ho, to his list of potential Supreme Court picks. Ho is a judge on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals and former Texas solicitor general.

Since Trump locked down the GOP nomination in 2016, Cruz has occasionally fielded questions about the possibility of serving on the Supreme Court, given his background in constitutional law. He usually denies interest and says he is more interested in shaping the court as a U.S. senator and politician.

Four years ago, Trump's commitment to naming the justices he could appoint to the court was one of the reasons that Cruz endorsed him after their bitter primary battle.

Ho, who succeeded Cruz as Texas solicitor general, has earned a reputation as one of Trump's most hard-line picks for the federal appellate courts.

Ho has been pivotal in inching the 5th Circuit, already one of the country's most conservative federal appellate courts, further right. He wrote that the Second Amendment has been treated as a "'second-class' right."

In his very first writing for the court, Ho panned campaign donation limits, writing, "if there is too much money in politics, it's because there's too much government." He suggested a long-serving federal judge had shown bias in allowing a subpoena of a religious group in a lawsuit over the handling fetal remains, decrying "the moral tragedy of abortion." In March 2019, he misgendered a transgender plaintiff.

Another 5th Circuit judge with Texas ties, Kyle Duncan, is also on the list. Duncan, who is from Louisiana, is a former assistant Texas solicitor general.

Emma Platoff contributed reporting.

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Ted Cruz is on Donald Trump's list of potential Supreme Court picks - The Texas Tribune