The Ledes

Thursday, October 31, 2024

New York Times: “Walker Buehler spread his arms wide and waited for his teammates to engulf him, the most fitting symbol of a season defined by persistent resilience. Called into emergency relief, Buehler closed out the World Series and shut the door on the New York Yankees as the Los Angeles Dodgers captured a 7-6 victory in a heart-stopping Game 5.... [Buehler's] scoreless frame stunned the crowd at Yankee Stadium and incited a mid-field jubilee from the Dodgers.”

New York Times: “At least 95 people have died and others were missing after devastating flash floods hit eastern Spain, according to the local authorities, in one of the worst natural disasters to hit the country in recent years. The catastrophic floods, fueled by an unrelenting deluge that began on Monday, washed away cars, inundated homes and knocked out power across eastern Spain. Rescuers waded through neck-high waters to reach some residents.”

The Wires
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The Ledes

Wednesday, October 30, 2024

New York Times: “Teri Garr, the alternately shy and sassy blond actress whose little-girl voice, deadpan comic timing, expressive eyes and cinematic bravery in the face of seemingly crazy male characters made her a star of 1970s and ’80s movies and earned her an Oscar nomination for her role in 'Tootsie,' died on Tuesday at her home in Los Angeles. She was 79.”

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Public Service Announcement

Washington Post: "Americans can again order free rapid coronavirus tests by mail, the Biden administration announced Thursday. People can request four free at-home tests per household through covidtests.gov. They will begin shipping Monday. The move comes ahead of an expected winter wave of coronavirus cases. The September revival of the free testing program is in line with the Biden administration’s strategy to respond to the coronavirus as part of a broader public health campaign to protect Americans from respiratory viruses, including influenza and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), that surge every fall and winter. But free tests were not mailed during the summer wave, which wastewater surveillance data shows is now receding."

New York Times: In a collection of memorabilia filed at New York City's Morgan Library, curator Robinson McClellan discovered the manuscript of a previously unknown waltz by Frédéric Chopin. Jeffrey Kallberg, a Chopin scholar at the University of Pennsylvania as well as other experts authenticated the manuscript. Includes video of Lang Lang performing the short waltz. ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: The Times article goes into some of Chopin's life in Paris at the time he wrote the waltz, but it doesn't mention that he helped make ends meet by giving piano lessons. I know this because my great grandmother was one of his students. If her musical talent were anything like mine, those particular lessons would have been painful hours for Chopin.

New York Times: “Improbably, [the political/celebrity magazine] George[, originally a project by John F. Kennedy, Jr.] is back, with the same logo and the same catchy slogan: 'Not just politics as usual.' This time, though, a QAnon conspiracy theorist and passionate Trump fan is its editor in chief.... It is a reanimation story bizarre enough for a zombie movie, made possible by the fact that the original George trademark lapsed, only to be secured by a little-known conservative lawyer named Thomas D. Foster.”

Washington Post: “Comedy news outlet the Onion — reinvigorated by new ownership over this year — is bringing back its once-popular video parodies of cable news. But this time, there’s someone with real news anchor experience in the chair. When the first episodes appear online Monday, former WAMU and MSNBC host Joshua Johnson will be the face of the resurrected 'Onion News Network.' Playing an ONN anchor character named Dwight Richmond, Johnson says he’s bringing a real anchor’s sense of clarity — and self-importance — to the job. 'If ONN is anything, it’s a news organization that is so unaware of its own ridiculousness that it has the confidence of a serial killer,' says Johnson, 44.” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: I'll be darned if I can figured out how to watch ONN. If anybody knows, do tell. Thanks.

Washington Post: “First came the surprising discovery that Earth’s atmosphere is leaking. But for roughly 60 years, the reason remained a mystery. Since the late 1960s, satellites over the poles detected an extremely fast flow of particles escaping into space — at speeds of 20 kilometers per second. Scientists suspected that gravity and the magnetic field alone could not fully explain the stream. There had to be another source creating this leaky faucet. It turns out the mysterious force is a previously undiscovered global electric field, a recent study found. The field is only about the strength of a watch battery — but it’s enough to thrust lighter ions from our atmosphere into space. It’s also generated unlike other electric fields on Earth. This newly discovered aspect of our planet provides clues about the evolution of our atmosphere, perhaps explaining why Earth is habitable. The electric field is 'an agent of chaos,' said Glyn Collinson, a NASA rocket scientist and lead author of the study. 'It undoes gravity.... Without it, Earth would be very different.'”

The New York Times lists Emmy winners. The AP has an overview story here.

New York Times: “Hvaldimir, a beluga whale who had captured the public’s imagination since 2019 after he was spotted wearing a harness seemingly designed for a camera, was found dead on Saturday in Norway, according to a nonprofit that worked to protect the whale.... [Hvaldimir] was wearing a harness that identified it as “equipment” from St. Petersburg. There also appeared to be a camera mount. Some wondered if the whale was on a Russian reconnaissance mission. Russia has never claimed ownership of the whale. If Hvaldimir was a spy, he was an exceptionally friendly one. The whale showed signs of domestication, and was comfortable around people. He remained in busier waters than are typical for belugas....” ~~~

     ~~~ Marie: Oh, Lord, do not let Bobby Kennedy, Jr., near that carcass. ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: “There’s no evidence that a well-known beluga whale that lived off Norway’s coast and whose harness ignited speculation it was a Russian spy was shot to death last month as claimed by animal rights groups, Norwegian police said Monday.... Police said that the Norwegian Veterinary Institute conducted a preliminary autopsy on the animal, which was become known as 'Hvaldimir,' combining the Norwegian word for whale — hval — and the first name of Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'There are no findings from the autopsy that indicate that Hvaldimir has been shot,' police said in a statement.”

New York Times: Botswana's “President Mokgweetsi Masisi grinned as he lifted the diamond, a 2,492-carat stone that is the biggest diamond unearthed in more than a century and the second-largest ever found, according to the Vancouver-based mining operator Lucara, which owns the mine where it was found. This exceptional discovery could bring back the luster of the natural diamond mining industry, mining companies and experts say. The diamond was discovered in the same relatively small mine in northeastern Botswana that has produced several of the largest such stones in living memory. Such gemstones typically surface as a result of volcanic activity.... The diamond will likely sell in the range of tens of millions of dollars....”

Click on photo to enlarge.

~~~ Guardian: "On a distant reef 16,000km from Paris, surfer Gabriel Medina has given Olympic viewers one of the most memorable images of the Games yet, with an airborne celebration so well poised it looked too good to be true. The Brazilian took off a thundering wave at Teahupo’o in Tahiti on Monday, emerging from a barrelling section before soaring into the air and appearing to settle on a Pacific cloud, pointing to the sky with biblical serenity, his movements mirrored precisely by his surfboard. The shot was taken by Agence France-Presse photographer Jérôme Brouillet, who said “the conditions were perfect, the waves were taller than we expected”. He took the photo while aboard a boat nearby, capturing the surreal image with such accuracy that at first some suspected Photoshop or AI." 

 

Contact Marie

Email Marie at constantweader@gmail.com

Constant Comments

A nation of sheep will beget a government of wolves. -- Edward R. Murrow

Publisher & Editor: Marie Burns


Sunday
Aug092020

The Commentariat -- August 9, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Nicole Winfield & Lisa Pane of the AP: "With confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. hitting 5 million Sunday, by far the highest of any country, the failure of the most powerful nation in the world to contain the scourge has been met with astonishment and alarm in Europe.... Health officials believe the actual number is perhaps 10 times higher.... Much of the incredulity in Europe stems from the fact that America had the benefit of time, European experience and medical know-how to treat the virus that the continent itself didn't have when the first COVID-19 patients started filling intensive care units.... Mistakes were made in Europe, too, from delayed lockdowns to insufficient protections for nursing home elderly and critical shortages of tests and protective equipment for medical personnel."

This Is Not Believable. Karen DeYoung of the Washington Post (at 12:18 pm ET): "White House national security adviser Robert C. O'Brien said Sunday that Trump 'has told the Russians many, many times not to interfere' in U.S. elections, but he declined to specify the substance of those conversations or when they had taken place."

Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "More than 3½ years into his presidency, Trump increasingly finds himself minimized and ignored -- as many of his more outlandish or false statements are briefly considered and then, just as quickly, dismissed. The slide into partial irrelevance could make it even more difficult for Trump as he seeks reelection as the nation's leader amid a pandemic and economic collapse.... Biden, meanwhile, has made a core theme of his campaign the argument that Trump's lack of credibility is eroding the presidency, as well as the relevancy of the United States on the world stage.... At times, Biden has tried ignoring Trump altogether -- or, when he does engage, doing so with a tone of exasperated mockery. 'I can't believe I have to say this, but please don't drink bleach,' Biden wrote on Twitter in April.... '[Trump's] problem is that there's also a collective shrug when he attacks Joe Biden,' [Biden's pollster John] Anzalone said. 'He attacks, attacks, attacks, but people don't believe his attacks. They kind of eye-roll and they shrug.'... A Republican Senate aide likened the president to a sleeping grizzly bear. 'If you woke up the grizzly bear, he could destroy anything -- but now he's just hibernating,'..."

Mario Nicholais of the Lincoln Project: "In fifteen years practicing election law, I have never seen anything as craven and shameful as the Kanye con job Donald Trump and his sycophants have attempted in Wisconsin. After combing through two challenges to Kanye West's nomination signatures at the behest of The Lincoln Project, I have come to two conclusions: not only should Kanye be kept off the ballot, but law enforcement should investigate and prosecute several individuals involved in the effort. Trump and his supporters have spent recent days attempting to place the music mogul on presidential ballots across the country. They believe that a black celebrity on the ballot will pull votes from Joe Biden, who enjoys overwhelming support from Black Americans, and help a flailing Trump campaign in November. Nevermind that West's family and friends issued a public plea for him to seek mental health help just two weeks ago. Nevermind that West cannot qualify for enough state ballots to actually win the presidency. Nevermind that the fundamental assumption -- that black voters will vote for a black man based solely on the color of his skin -- is a profoundly racist position."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here: "... the United States passed another milestone on Saturday: more than five million known coronavirus infections. No other country has reported as many cases.

"Hundreds of children in America, most of them previously healthy, have experienced an inflammatory syndrome associated with Covid-19, and most became so ill that they needed intensive care, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The syndrome, which can be deadly, has rattled parents and education officials as schools across the United States struggle with the prospect of reopening in the fall and the coronavirus continues its spread." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

CBS News: "Nearly 100,000 children tested positive for the coronavirus in the last two weeks of July, a new report from the American Academy of Pediatrics finds. Just over 97,000 children tested positive for the coronavirus from July 16 to July 30, according to the association."

The Autocrat Signs Fake "Bills." Jeff Stein, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Saturday attempted to bypass Congress and make dramatic changes to tax and spending policy, signing executive actions that challenge the boundaries of power that separate the White House and Capitol Hill. At a news event in Bedminster, N.J., Trump said the actions would provide economic relief to millions of Americans by deferring taxes and, he said, providing temporary unemployment benefits. The measures would attempt to wrest away some of Congress's most fundamental, constitutionally mandated powers -- tax and spending policy. Trump acknowledged that some of the actions could be challenged in court but indicated he would persevere. But there were instant questions about whether Trump's actions were as ironclad as he made them out to be. A leading national expert on unemployment benefits said one of the actions would not increase federal unemployment benefits at all. Instead, the expert said it would instead create a new program that could take 'months' to set up. And Trump's directive to halt evictions primarily calls for federal agencies to 'consider' if they should be stopped. Trump also mischaracterized the legal stature of the measures, referring to them as 'bills.' Congress writes and votes on bills, not the White House. The documents Trump signed on Saturday were a combination of memorandums and an executive order." ~~~

     ~~~ The lesson Trump missed in grade school and still can't get straight after three-and-a-half years on the job:

~~~ Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "It was not clear what authority Mr. Trump had to act on his own on the measures or what immediate effect, if any, they would have, given that Congress controls federal spending. But his decision to sign the measures -- billed as a federal eviction ban, a payroll tax suspension, and relief for student borrowers and $400 a week for the unemployed -- reflected the failure of two weeks of talks between White House officials and top congressional Democrats to strike a deal on a broad relief plan as crucial benefits have expired with no resolution in sight.... Despite Mr. Trump's assertions on Saturday that his actions 'will take care of this entire situation,' the orders also leave a number of critical bipartisan funding proposals unaddressed, including providing assistance to small businesses, billions of dollars to schools ahead of the new school year, aid to states and cities and a second round of $1,200 stimulus checks to Americans.... A few dozen club guests were in attendance [at the signing], and the president appeared to revel in their laughter at his jokes denouncing his political rivals.... ... It was unclear whether the aid would even materialize if lawsuits are filed challenging their legality. Mr. Trump walked away from the lectern after just a few questions from reporters about his claim that he had the ability to circumvent Congress." ~~~

~~~ Trump Promises to Bankrupt Social Security, Medicare. Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "President Trump pledged on Saturday to pursue a permanent cut to the payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare if he wins reelection in November, a hard-to-accomplish political gambit.... Trump unexpectedly promised the policy action as he signed a directive that aims to help cash-starved Americans amid the coronavirus pandemic. The order allows workers to postpone their payroll tax payments into next year but doesn't absolve their bills outright -- though the president said he would seek to waive what people owe if he prevails on Election Day. 'If I'm victorious on November 3rd, I plan to forgive these taxes and make permanent cuts to the payroll tax,' Trump said at a news conference in Bedminster, N.J. 'I'm going to make them all permanent.'... Major changes to the tax code fall entirely to Congress, so Trump alone cannot waive Americans' tax debts or enact permanent changes to tax law.&" ~~~

~~~ "The Most Obvious Cons in the World." Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "As anyone who has been paying the slightest bit of attention to America politics in the last 4 years knows, one of Donald Trump's favorite things is to announce a pending 'executive order' that will accomplish something, followed by the order either failing to materialize or not doing anything. Needless to say, his attempts to bypass Congress in the wake of Mitch McConnell's refusal to negotiate a COVID-19 relief plan are not an exception[.]... Trump is trolling, not offering actual relief measures. The [unemployment insurance] benefit memo, in particular, requires states to use money they don't have because Republicans strongly opposed providing aid during a recession and also involves the unconstitutional appropriation of funds. ('The states have the money. It's sitting there.') Similarly, the payroll tax memo involves usurping a congressional power in order to destroy Social Security and Medicare.... The problem is that, for every responsible report ... there are many more headlines that repeated Trump's 'offer' to extend UI as if it were an actual thing[.]... This is journalistic malpractice[.]... Mitch McConnell and most of the Republican Senate conference prefer trolling and gimmicky buck-passing to governing and much of the political press keeps falling for the most obvious cons in the world." ~~~

This defunds Medicare. This defunds Social Security. Tax collection is just deferred. You still owe these taxes next year. -- The Lincoln Project, in a tweet trying to explain Trumponomics to dummies

Daniel Dale of CNN: "... Donald Trump abruptly ended a Saturday news conference after a reporter challenged him on a lie about veterans health care he has told more than 150 times. Trump, speaking at his Bedminster, New Jersey, golf club, had claimed again that he is the one who got the Veterans Choice program passed -- adding, 'They've been trying to get that passed for decades and decades and decades and no president's ever been able to do it, and we got it done.' In fact, former President Barack Obama signed the Choice program into law in 2014. The law, which allowed eligible veterans to be covered by the government for care provided by doctors outside the VA system, was a bipartisan initiative spearheaded by two senators Trump has repeatedly criticized, Bernie Sanders of Vermont and the late John McCain of Arizona.... 'Why do you keep saying that you passed Veterans Choice?' CBS News White House correspondent Paula Reid asked Trump.... As Trump tried to call on another reporter instead, Reid continued, 'You said that you passed Veterans Choice. It was passed in 2014 ... it was a false statement, sir.' Trump paused, then responded: 'OK. Thank you very much, everybody.' He then walked away as the song 'YMCA played." Mrs. McC: "YMCA"? They shoulda played "Hey, Paula." ~~~

Georgia. Ty Tagami of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "The Paulding County high school that became infamous for hallways crowded with unmasked students reported a half-dozen students and three staffers in the school with COVID-19, the school district told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution Saturday."

MEANWHILE. New Zealand Exceptionalism. Rebecca Falconer of Axios: "New Zealand has now gone 100 days with no detected community spread of COVID-19, the Ministry of Health confirmed in a statement.... New Zealanders are going to the polls on Sept. 19. Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has been widely praised for her leadership that saw NZ lock down hard for several weeks before all domestic restrictions were lifted in June. She sees her government's response to and recovery from the coronavirus outbreak as key to her Labour Party being re-elected.... The border remains closed to non-residents and all newly returned Kiwis must undergo a two-week isolation program managed by the country's defense force, which sees all travelers tested three times before they leave. Police are stationed outside hotels where travelers are in quarantine. Officers have taken prosecutorial action against several returned travelers who've breached these rules by fleeing the facilities under the COVID-19 Public Health Response Act." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Say, you know what country is New Zealand's largest trading partner? The very same country that Trump claims is responsible for the "China virus," the one whose residents he boasted he cut off from entry into the U.S., thereby savings tens of thousands of American lives.

Alan Yuhas of the New York Times writes a summary of Robert Draper's New York Times Magazine story on Trump & the Election 2020 intelligence document (also linked yesterday): "A little more than a year ago, American intelligence agencies drafted a classified document reporting that the Russian government favored President Trump in the 2020 presidential election, a finding that fit with their consensus that the Kremlin tried to help him in 2016. The director of national intelligence [Dan Coats] was asked to modify the assessment -- he did not -- and not long afterward, Mr. Trump declared the director was out. Soon after the new acting director arrived, an intelligence official changed the document, softening the claim that President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia wanted Mr. Trump to win, according to an article published on Saturday by The New York Times Magazine." Within months, Trump fired the new acting director Joseph Maguire because of truthful testimony one of Maguire's subordinates gave before a House committee.


"The White House Is Running So Smoothly." Ellen Nakashima
, et al., of the Washington Post: "Last week, as leaders in Silicon Valley, China and Washington raced to seal the fate of one of the world's fastest-growing social media companies, a shouting match broke out in the Oval Office between two of President Trump's top advisers. In front of Trump, trade adviser Peter Navarro and other aides late last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin began arguing that the Chinese-owned video-sharing service TikTok should be sold to a U.S. company. Mnuchin had talked several times to Microsoft's senior leaders and was confident that he had rallied support within the administration for a sale to the tech giant on national security grounds. Navarro pushed back, demanding an outright ban of TikTok, while accusing Mnuchin of being soft on China, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions freely.... The ensuing argument --; which was described by one of the people as a 'knockdown, drag-out' brawl -- was preceded by months of backroom dealings among investors, lobbyists and executives." The reporters go on to explain the the issues in the TikTok debate. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Literary Corner, Ha Ha. Alexandra Alter of the New York Times: "... Rick Gates, a high-level aide on Donald J. Trump's 2016 campaign, is preparing to tell his story in a memoir that will be published weeks before the 2020 election. Mr. Gates, who was sentenced to 45 days in jail for lying to investigators and for his role in a criminal financial scheme, is the latest former aide to join a parade of former Trump campaign and administration officials who have published memoirs. Given his proximity to President Trump's campaign, and the evidence he provided against two of Mr. Trump's closest advisers, his onetime campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, and his onetime campaign adviser, Roger J. Stone Jr., Mr. Gates's account is likely to generate interest across the political spectrum. The book, which Post Hill Press plans to release Oct. 13, is likely to arrive at the height of the 2020 election cycle. It comes on the heels of unflattering memoirs from John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser, and Mr. Trump's niece Mary L. Trump that are selling briskly despite efforts by the Trump administration and family to prevent their release."

All the Best People, Ctd. Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's something I missed about our new postmaster general Louis DeJoy -- the guy who is slowing down mail delivery & fired all the top USPS employees Friday: Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post (June 15, 2020): "DeJoy and his wife, Aldona Wos, the ambassador-nominee to Canada, have between $30.1 million and $75.3 million in assets in USPS competitors or contractors, according to Wos's financial disclosure paperwork filed with the Office of Government Ethics." Every single thing about the Trump administration is criminal. I'll bet even the paper clips were unlawfully purchased from Jared's Overpriced Office Supply.

Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "Two former members of U.S. Special Forces were sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Venezuelan court for taking part in a murky raid in May to oust President Nicolás Maduro, the country's attorney general announced on Twitter. In the only official statement on the previously unannounced trial, Tarek William Saab tweeted late Friday that Airan Berry, 42, and Luke Denman, 34, admitted 'to having committed the crimes of conspiracy, association, illicit trafficking of weapons of war and terrorism' in connection with the botched mission known as Operation Gideon. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request to comment.... The U.S. government has denied any involvement." Mrs. McC: Murky, indeed. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race

Maureen Dowd recalls Geraldine Ferraro's experiences as a candidate for vice president in 1984. "We don't know whom Biden will choose but we do know the sort of hell she will endure at the hands of Team Trump." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Shooting Off His Mouth at a Gift Horse. Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "When ... Donald Trump connected by phone last week with Republican megadonor Sheldon Adelson -- perhaps the only person in the party who can cut a nine-figure check to aid his reelection -- the phone call unexpectedly turned contentious.... Trump brought the conversation around to the campaign and confronted Adelson about why he wasn't doing more to bolster his reelection, according to three people with direct knowledge of the call. One of the people said it was apparent the president had no idea how much Adelson, who's donated tens of millions of dollars to pro-Trump efforts over the years, had helped him. Adelson chose not to come back at Trump.... Adelson's allies say it's unclear whether the episode will dissuade the Las Vegas mogul -- long regarded as a financial linchpin for Trump's reelection -- from helping the president down the home stretch." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Too bad Donnie's grandpa died years before Donnie was born. Little Donnie could have sent gramps his version of the traditional children's birthday thank-you note: "Dear Grampy Fred: Got your $10 Dollar Bill. who are You kidding? You should have sent much more. you're pore Grand-Son Donnie"


Juliet Eilperin
of the Washington Post writes a long piece (August 7) on the giant climate hot spot in Western Colorado, Eastern Utah & Southern Wyoming that is robbing the West of major water sources. Besides containing a map of the area, the article includes a climate change map for the entire lower 48 that maps how much the average temperature has risen between 1895 & 2019. Mrs. McC: This is pretty incontroveritble evidence of the effects of climate change right here at home, but because scientists compiled the data, I suppose Republicans will label the report a hoax perpetrated by the fake news Amazon/Washington Post. ~~~

~~~ Matthew Cappucci of the Washington Post: "July 2020 was record hot for much of the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast.... The entire Lower 48 experienced temperatures near or above normal during July, the toasty temperatures becoming routine as human-induced climate change continues to take is toll. The month ranked as the 11th warmest on record overall, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Seven states -- Virginia (tie), Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania (tie), New Jersey, Connecticut (tie) and New Hampshire -- all clinched the top spot for their sweltering July heat. Records date back to 1895."

Friday
Aug072020

The Commentariat -- August 8, 2020

Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here: "Hundreds of children in America, most of them previously healthy, have experienced an inflammatory syndrome associated with Covid-19, and most became so ill that they needed intensive care, according to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The syndrome, which can be deadly, has rattled parents and education officials as schools across the United States struggle with the prospect of reopening in the fall and the coronavirus continues its spread."

Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: "Last week, as leaders in Silicon Valley, China and Washington raced to seal the fate of one of the world's fastest-growing social media companies, a shouting match broke out in the Oval Office between two of President Trump's top advisers. In front of Trump, trade adviser Peter Navarro and other aides late last week, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin began arguing that the Chinese-owned video-sharing service TikTok should be sold to a U.S. company. Mnuchin had talked several times to Microsoft's senior leaders and was confident that he had rallied support within the administration for a sale to the tech giant on national security grounds. Navarro pushed back, demanding an outright ban of TikTok, while accusing Mnuchin of being soft on China, the people said, speaking on the condition of anonymity to discuss private discussions freely.... The ensuing argument -- which was described by one of the people as a 'knockdown, drag-out' brawl -- was preceded by months of backroom dealings among investors, lobbyists and executives." The reporters go on to explain the the issues in the TikTok debate.

Anthony Faiola of the Washington Post: "Two former members of U.S. Special Forces were sentenced to 20 years in prison by a Venezuelan court for taking part in a murky raid in May to oust President Nicolás Maduro, the country's attorney general announced on Twitter. In the only official statement on the previously unannounced trial, Tarek William Saab tweeted late Friday that Airan Berry, 42, and Luke Denman, 34, admitted 'to having committed the crimes of conspiracy, association, illicit trafficking of weapons of war and terrorism' in connection with the botched mission known as Operation Gideon. The State Department did not immediately respond to a request to comment.... The U.S. government has denied any involvement." Mrs. McC: Murky, indeed.

Maureen Dowd recalls Geraldine Ferraro's experiences as a candidate for vice president in 1984. "We don't know whom Biden will choose but we do know the sort of hell she will endure at the hands of Team Trump."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Annie Karni & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "After spending a day huddled with his campaign advisers at his private club in Bedminster, N.J., President Trump emerged on Friday night for a surprise 'news conference' that seemed at times to be as much a benefit for his loyal club members as it was about making any news or addressing the crisis facing the nation. Speaking in front of dozens of members who gathered in a ballroom to see him, many of them holding wine glasses and forgoing masks, Mr. Trump ... described the back-and-forth he expected as 'always a lot of fun.' The audience even had a chance to participate, booing loudly when it was suggested by a reporter [Mrs. McC: Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post] that the largely unmasked crowd in the room was violating social distancing guidelines, and then cheering when the president noted that the club's members 'know the news is fake.' As millions of Americans faced threats of eviction and a loss of income or benefits without a deal in Congress, and with the Washington dysfunction Mr. Trump promised to solve reaching new levels, the president rambled, bludgeoned, vowed to take action by presidential fiat and insisted again that the virus was already disappearing -- all from the confines of a gilded room beneath chandeliers, far from Washington, ensconced in his private club." ~~~

~~~ Brooke Seipel of the Hill: "'You said that the pandemic is disappearing, but we lost 6,000 Americans this week and just in this room you have dozens of people who are not following the guidelines in New Jersey,' a reporter said while asking Trump a question.... 'You're wrong about that because it's a political activity,' Trump argued. 'And it's also a peaceful protest. To me they all look like they pretty much all have masks on.'... He went on to argue the crowd was protesting the news media.... New Jersey's coronavirus restrictions require that golf courses limit the number of patrons in an indoor part of the property to 25 percent capacity or no more than 25 people, while also requiring that all workers and customers wear face coverings.... 'You have an exclusion in the law it says peaceful protest,' Trump continued. 'I'd call it peaceful protest because they know you're coming up and they know the news is fake.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Glad to hear Trump admits his so-called press conference was a political event. As such, his campaign should pay for this weekend's golf outing instead of foisting the costs on us taxpayers. Trump, of course, was not wearing a mask. According to Seipel's report, "Guests at the golf club were seen joining in the crowd at the press conference. Initial photos appeared to show a lack of social distancing and mask wearing. Later photos showed guests wearing masks that were handed out by officials." ~~~

~~~ Public Enemy No. 1. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: Two weeks ago at a signing ceremony aides set up to provide social distancing, Donald "Trump invited a dozen people to crowd behind him shoulder-to-shoulder as he signed several executive actions and handed out ceremonial pens. Four wore face masks, while the others did not, including the president and four doctors in white medical smocks. The juxtaposition of the safeguards set up to protect the president and model safe behavior for the public with Trump's seemingly arbitrary decision to override them in pursuit of a photo op illustrates his administration's ongoing inability or unwillingness to send a clear message to the public on how to protect themselves against a pandemic...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Friday signaled he was ready to forge ahead without Congress to try to address lapsed economic relief measures for millions of Americans, but he stopped short of declaring negotiations dead. The path forward remained unclear, as he used a press conference Friday evening to discuss steps he might take but he didn't stipulate whether he would follow through.... Democratic leaders on Friday said the White House refused to meet them even halfway in negotiations, which dragged on for two weeks with little signs of progress. The discussions were meant to provide additional relief to address the coronavirus pandemic's economic fallout."

"The Lost Year." Heather Long of the Washington Post: "The U.S. economy is facing one of its most uncertain moments ever as the deadly coronavirus remains a constant threat. According to Pew Research, people are growing more pessimistic about how America's leaders have handled the virus and the nation's ability to contain it, which only digs a deeper hole for the economy. As soon as the virus flares in a part of the country, cellphone data show people immediately stay home instead of instead of venturing out to restaurants, stores and entertainment.... When uncertainty is high, it usually triggers more layoffs, less investment and more business closures. Business investment fell to the lowest level in 68 years this spring, and consumer spending has stalled in recent weeks.... For many, there's a growing sense it's a 'lost year.'"

"The Lost Summer." Dana Goldstein of the New York Times: "... many educators spent their summers planning, in minute detail, how to safely reopen classrooms. Teachers stocked up on sanitation supplies as superintendents took a crash course in epidemiology and studied supply chain logistics for portable air filters. But with the pandemic now surging across a wide swath of the country, many of those plans have been shelved.... Millions of American children will spend their fall once again learning in front of laptop screens.... [Now] educators are spending the little time they have left before the new academic year moving to focus more fully on improving online instruction, which failed to reach and engage many children in the spring, leading to growing achievement gaps by income and race." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is yet another way the Trump administration has dramatically failed American families. Besides the petty, mean-assed threat to withhold funds from schools that don't fully re-open, Trump & his toadies repeatedly insisted the virus was on the wane ("about to disappear"), misdirecting school boards and administrators to spend their efforts & money preparing to re-open rather than beefing up their physical plants & lessons plans to accommodate online learning. Children, teachers, the cafeteria lady are going to get sick & die because of Trump's lies and deception.

Freedumb. Andy Fies of ABC News: "Despite concerns about large gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many as 250,000 motorcycle enthusiasts from around the country are expected to roll into western South Dakota for the 80th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally beginning Friday and lasting 10 days. Such a crowd would make it the largest event in the country to take place during the pandemic. In a survey by the city in May, 60% of Sturgis residents said they preferred to cancel the event. But local business owners who rely on this once-a-year gathering for a huge percentage of their revenues, combined with a realization by city managers that the bikers were going to come to the area no matter what, prompted the city council to sanction the rally.... Brent Bertlson, who has a home in Sturgis and will be attending his 26th rally this year..., called Sturgis 'a freedom rally,' adding, 'Bikers are big believers in freedom. I've heard from people tired of being locked down and being told what they can and can't do. A lot of these people are saying, "I'm going to Sturgis."'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)


** Pompeo Goes Behind Trump's Back to Undo the Treachery. Edward Wong & Eric Schmitt
of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned Russia’s foreign minister against Moscow paying bounties to Taliban-linked militants and other Afghan fighters for killing American service members, U.S. officials said. Mr. Pompeo's warning is the first known rebuke from a senior American official to Russia over the bounties program, and it runs counter to President Trump's insistence that the intelligence from U.S. government agencies over the matter is a 'hoax.' The action indicates that Mr. Pompeo, who previously served as Mr. Trump's C.I.A. director, believes the intelligence warranted a stern message. Mr. Pompeo delivered the warning in a call on July 13 with the minister, Sergey V. Lavrov.... The secretary of state did not explicitly point to the covert bounties scheme organized by a Russian military intelligence unit that was first reported in late June by The New York Times, most likely because the details of what American intelligence has learned and how it gathered the information remain classified, one of the officials said. In public, Mr. Pompeo has carefully avoided answering direct questions about American intelligence on the Russian bounties.... Mr. Pompeo's private move is the latest example of a common occurrence in the administration: American officials quietly carrying out actions that are at odds with Mr. Trump's statements and his stance on important issues." (Also linked yesterday.)

Robert Draper writes a long piece for the New York Times Magazine on Donald Trump's malign effect on the intelligence community, particularly the Office of the Director of National Intelligence. "Under Trump, intelligence officials have been placed in the unusual position of being pressured to justify the importance of their work, protect their colleagues from political retribution and demonstrate fealty to a president. Though intelligence officials have been loath to admit it publicly, the cumulative result has been devastating..., [revealing] a sobering new development of the Trump era: the intelligence community's willingness to change what it would otherwise say straightforwardly so as not to upset the president.... Those who remain in the community are acutely mindful of the risks of challenging Trump's 'alternative facts.'..." More on the intel community linked under "Elections 2020."

McGahn, DOJ Lose Appeal, But They're Running Out the Clock. Mark Sherman of the AP: "A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday revived House Democrats' lawsuit to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to appear before a congressional committee, but left other legal issues unresolved with time growing short in the current Congress. The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 7-2 in ruling that the House Judiciary Committee can make its claims in court, reversing the judgment of a three-judge panel that would have ended the court fight. The matter now returns to the panel for consideration of other legal issues. The current House of Representatives session ends on Jan. 3. That time crunch means 'the chances that the Committee hears McGahn's testimony anytime soon are vanishingly slim,' dissenting Judge Thomas Griffith wrote. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson also dissented. A separate case in which the House is suing to stop the Trump administration from spending billions of dollars that Congress didn't authorize for the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border also was returned to a lower court. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said the administration would continue to seek dismissal of both cases." A Washington Post story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"Take the Oil." Kylie Atwood & Ryan Browne of CNN: "The Trump administration has approved the first-ever deal for an American firm to develop and modernize oil fields in northeast Syria under control of the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The secretive contract ... was signed in Syria last month, is expected to produce billions of dollars for Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria, none of which will be shared with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.... News of the deal drew an immediate rebuke from the Assad government in Damascus.... The State Department and the Pentagon have officially sought to distance themselves from the project, but sources tell CNN that behind the scenes the State Department was active in making the deal happen. Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for the first time confirmed the deal in answering a question from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham during a hearing on Capitol Hill.... Russia ... was also competing to win the contract. --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Hajar Haammado of CREW: "The Environmental Protection Agency illegally destroyed records, deceived the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) about that destruction, and falsely blamed the coronavirus pandemic to escape accountability, according to internal documents uncovered by CREW." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Adolfo Flores & Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News: "The deaths of two men this week made it the most fatal year for immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since 2006. The men, a 51-year-old from Taiwan and a 72-year-old from Canada, died on Wednesday, according to ICE, which provided no additional information. The total number of ICE deaths so far this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, is now 17, making it the highest total since 2006, when 19 immigrants died, according to ICE records." --s (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michigan. Not All the Rabid Racists Live in Dixie. Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "A local road commission meeting in northern Michigan on Monday started with one commissioner asking another why he wasn't wearing a mask.... The unmasked official responded with a racist slur and an angry rant against the Black Lives Matter movement. 'Well, this whole thing is because of them n-----s in Detroit,' Tom Eckerle, who was elected to his position on the Leelanau County Road Commission..., said. The commission chairman, Bob Joyce, immediately rebuked his colleague, but Eckerle, who is White, continued his diatribe. 'I can say anything I want,' Eckerle said at the meeting, which the public could listen to via a dial-in number, the Leelanau Enterprise first reported. 'Black Lives Matter has everything to do with taking the country away from us.' Eckerle's remarks came the same week Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) declared racism a public health crisis.... Michigan has reported at least 94,656 cases and 6,506 deaths since the start of the pandemic.... The racist remark spurred widespread condemnation of Eckerle, who is a Republican, and calls to resign from party officials.... 'I don't regret calling it a n----r,' Eckerle told Interlochen Public Radio. 'A n----r is a n----r is a n----r. That's not a person whatsoever.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Update. John Flesher of the AP: "An elected official in a mostly white county in northern Michigan who used a racist slur prior to a public meeting to describe Black people in Detroit will resign, the county administrator said Friday. Leelanau County Administrator Chet Janik said Tom Eckerle, a member of the county road commission, would step down after receiving criticism from across the U.S. for his comments.... Democratic Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and Eckerle's fellow road commission members were among those demanding he step down."

Elections 2020

** Deb Riechmann & Eric Tucker of the AP: "U.S. intelligence officials believe that Russia is using a variety of measures to denigrate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden ahead of the November election and that individuals linked to the Kremlin are boosting ... Donald Trump's reelection bid, the country's counterintelligence chief said Friday. U.S. officials also believe that China does not want Trump to win a second term and that Beijing has accelerated its criticism of the president and its efforts to shape American opinion and public policy. The statement from William Evanina comes amid criticism from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats that the intelligence community has been withholding from the public specific intelligence information about the threat of foreign election interference in the upcoming election.... The latest intelligence assessment reflects concerns to varying degrees about China, Russia and Iran, warning that hostile foreign actors may seek to compromise election infrastructure and interfere with the voting process." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Obviously, it is not only Evanina who has been withholding evidence that Russia is interfering on Trump's behalf; Donald Trump is the withholder-in-chief. ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Here is the statement Evanina released. As you can see, he begins with China's preference for Biden, then writes that "Russia is using a range of measures to primarily denigrate former Vice President Biden...," then speculates that Iran will try "to undermine U.S. democratic institutions" that "probably will focus on on-line influence...." This is how a number of outlets, including, for instance, NPR, -- and initially, the Washington Post -- reported the story. The Post has since greatly modified its breaking story: ~~~

~~~ Shane Harris, et al., of the Washington Post: "Russia is 'using a range of measures' to interfere in the 2020 election and has enlisted a pro-Russian lawmaker from Ukraine -- who has met with President Trump's personal lawyer -- 'to undermine former vice president [Joe] Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party,' a top U.S. intelligence official said in a statement Friday. The remarks by William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, were some of the most detailed to date about foreign interference in the presidential race and come after earlier criticism from Democratic lawmakers that he had not shared with the public some of the alarming intelligence he gave them in classified briefings. Evanina also said that the government of China does not want Trump to win reelection in November, seeing the incumbent as 'unpredictable.' Evanina described China's efforts to date as largely rhetorical and aimed at shaping policy and criticizing the Trump administration for actions Beijing sees as harmful to its long-term strategic interests. By contrast, Evanina described Russia as actively engaged in efforts that are reminiscent of the Kremlin's attempts to influence the outcome of the 2016 election." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It appears that Evanina has tried a little sleight-of-hand -- and it has worked on a number of reporters, and will therefore work on most of their readers -- to equate Russia's active efforts to aid Trump with China's "preferences" -- preferences shared by the heads of state of most liberal democracies, BTW -- and speculation about what Iran may do. But one of these things is not like the others. "I'm working on Donnie's campaign" is not the same as "I hope Joe wins but I'm not gonna vote." Much further down in the WashPo story, the reporters make this same point, citing that famous unnamed "U.S. official": "Between China and Russia, only one of those two is trying to actively influence the outcome of the 2020 election, full stop." As Robert Draper writes in his NYT Mag article linked above, Evanina's "statement seemed to be tortured with political calculation -- an implicit declaration of anguish rather than of independence." ~~~

~~~ Pretty much the only specific Evanina mentions in his statement is this: "For example, pro-Russia Ukrainian parliamentarian Andriy Derkach is spreading claims about corruption -- including through publicizing leaked phone calls -- to undermine ... Biden's candidacy and the Democratic Party." Mrs. McC: Well, the Post tells us a little more about Derkach, some of which you may recall from earlier reporting: "Derkach met in December with [Trump's personal lawyer Rudy] Giuliani as part of an effort by Trump's allies to obtain damaging information about Biden in Ukraine, The Washington Post has reported. Giuliani also hosted Derkach on his podcast in February and has said the two have spoken repeatedly about Ukraine and Biden, terming the Ukrainian lawmaker 'very helpful.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Oh, and there's this from Natasha Bertand & others of Politico (July 20): "Democratic leaders are asking the FBI for an urgent briefing arising out of concern that members of Congress are being targeted by a foreign operation intended to influence the 2020 presidential election, according to a letter they released publicly on Monday. Among the Democrats' concerns is that a Senate investigation being led by Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has become a vehicle for 'laundering' a foreign influence campaign to damage ... Joe Biden....&" On July 23, the same Politico team reported, "Top congressional Democrats are sounding the alarm about a series of packets mailed to prominent allies of ... Donald Trump -- material they say is part of a foreign disinformation plot to damage... Joe Biden, according to new details from a letter the lawmakers delivered to the FBI last week. The packets ... were sent late last year to Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), Sens. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa), and then-White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney.... The packets, the sources said, were sent by Andrii Derkach, a Ukrainian lawmaker who met with ... Rudy Giuliani in Kyiv last December to discuss investigating the Biden family." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That "vast right-wing conspiracy" now has the best offices in the White House and the Capitol. ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Chait of New York has a good take on Evanina's statement: "In reality, it is not a scandal about Biden at all. It’s a scandal about Republican cooperation with a Russian propaganda campaign.... What makes Evanina's statement today so significant is that it makes clear that the passing of information, real or otherwise, from various Ukrainian figures to various Trump allies is part of a Russian-directed scheme to help Trump win." Firewalled. ~~~

~~~ Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump dismissed new intelligence that Russia is working to denigrate former Vice President Joe Biden, maintaining he's taken a tough stance on Moscow during his time in the White House. '... I think that the last person Russia wants to see in office is Donald Trump because nobody's been tougher on Russia than I have, ever,' Trump said at a briefing Friday when asked about the intelligence. When pressed by a reporter over the new report's conclusion that Russia is working to hinder Biden's presidential bid, Trump fired back: 'I don't care what anybody says.'... 'China would love us to have an election where Donald Trump lost to sleepy Joe Biden. They would dream, they would own our country,' Trump said. 'If Joe Biden was president, China would own our country.""

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Louis DeJoy, the postmaster general and a major donor to Mr. Trump's campaigns..., on Friday..., shifted top personnel, including some decades-long veterans of the Postal Service, and made changes to its organizational structure." Mrs. McC: Surely DeJoy is up to no good. I'm hoping reporters will soon get some first-hand evidence of his malign intent.

Maanvi Singh of the Guardian: "Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff notorious for his abusive policing and hardline anti-immigration tactics, has lost his bid to win back the post he held for 24 years. An early Donald Trump supporter and proponent of the racist theory that Barack Obama was not born in the US, Arpaio lost the Republican primary for Maricopa county sheriff to a former aide, Jerry Sheridan. Sheridan will face off against Democrat Paul Penzone in the November elections. This is Arpaio's second failed attempt to return to politics since Trump pardoned him in 2017, months after he was convicted of criminal contempt of court for violating a judge's order to stop racially profiling Latinos. In 2018, he finished last in a three-way race for a Senate nomination in Arizona."


Michael Stratford of Politico: "Jerry Falwell Jr., one of ... Donald Trump's leading evangelical supporters, has agreed to take 'an indefinite leave of absence' from his role as president of Liberty University after the release of a viral photo that showed him vacationing on a yacht with his pants unzipped, holding a drink, and with his arm around a woman. 'The Executive Committee of Liberty University's Board of Trustees, acting on behalf of the full Board, met today and requested that Jerry Falwell, Jr. take an indefinite leave of absence from his roles as President and Chancellor of Liberty University, to which he has agreed, effective immediately,' the university said in a statement on Friday.... Liberty University has a strict code of conduct for students that, among other things, prohibits students from having sexual relations outside of a 'biblically-ordained' marriage and consuming media with lewd lyrics, sexual content and nudity." Mrs. McC: Hey, more time to go yachting & whatever with his young lady friends. ~~~

     ~~~ A New York Times story is here.

News Lede

New York Times: "Brent Scowcroft, a pre-eminent foreign policy expert who helped shape America's international and strategic decisions for decades as the national security adviser to Presidents Gerald R. Ford and George Bush and as a counselor to seven administrations, died on Thursday at his home in Falls Church, Va. He was 95."

Thursday
Aug062020

The Commentariat -- August 7, 2020

Afternoon Update:

** Deb Riechmann & Eric Tucker of the AP: "U.S. intelligence officials believe that Russia is using a variety of measures to denigrate Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden ahead of the November election and that individuals linked to the Kremlin are boosting ... Donald Trump's reelection bid, the country's counterintelligence chief said Friday. U.S. officials also believe that China does not want Trump to win a second term and that Beijing has accelerated its criticism of the president and its efforts to shape American opinion and public policy. The statement from William Evanina comes amid criticism from House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other congressional Democrats that the intelligence community has been withholding from the public specific intelligence information about the threat of foreign election interference in the upcoming election.... The latest intelligence assessment reflects concerns to varying degrees about China, Russia and Iran, warning that hostile foreign actors may seek to compromise election infrastructure and interfere with the voting process." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Obviously, it is not only Evanina who has been withholding evidence that Russia is interfering on Trump's behalf; Donald Trump is the withholder-in-chief.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here.

** Pompeo Goes Behind Trump's Back to Undo the Treachery. Edward Wong & Eric Schmitt of the New York Times: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has warned Russia's foreign minister against Moscow paying bounties to Taliban-linked militants and other Afghan fighters for killing American service members, U.S. officials said. Mr. Pompeo's warning is the first known rebuke from a senior American official to Russia over the bounties program, and it runs counter to President Trump's insistence that the intelligence from U.S. government agencies over the matter is a 'hoax.' The action indicates that Mr. Pompeo, who previously served as Mr. Trump's C.I.A. director, believes the intelligence warranted a stern message. Mr. Pompeo delivered the warning in a call on July 13 with the minister, Sergey V. Lavrov.... The secretary of state did not explicitly point to the covert bounties scheme organized by a Russian military intelligence unit that was first reported in late June by The New York Times, most likely because the details of what American intelligence has learned and how it gathered the information remain classified, one of the officials said. In public, Mr. Pompeo has carefully avoided answering direct questions about American intelligence on the Russian bounties.... Mr. Pompeo's private move is the latest example of a common occurrence in the administration: American officials quietly carrying out actions that are at odds with Mr. Trump's statements and his stance on important issues."

Public Enemy No. 1. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: Two weeks ago at a signing ceremony aides set up to provide social distancing, Donald "Trump invited a dozen people to crowd behind him shoulder-to-shoulder as he signed several executive actions and handed out ceremonial pens. Four wore face masks, while the others did not, including the president and four doctors in white medical smocks. The juxtaposition of the safeguards set up to protect the president and model safe behavior for the public with Trump's seemingly arbitrary decision to override them in pursuit of a photo op illustrates his administration's ongoing inability or unwillingness to send a clear message to the public on how to protect themselves against a pandemic...."

Adolfo Flores & Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News: "The deaths of two men this week made it the most fatal year for immigrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement since 2006. The men, a 51-year-old from Taiwan and a 72-year-old from Canada, died on Wednesday, according to ICE, which provided no additional information. The total number of ICE deaths so far this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, is now 17, making it the highest total since 2006, when 19 immigrants died, according to ICE records." --s

"Take the Oil." Kylie Atwood & Ryan Browne of CNN: "The Trump administration has approved the first-ever deal for an American firm to develop and modernize oil fields in northeast Syria under control of the US-backed Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces. The secretive contract ... was signed in Syria last month, is expected to produce billions of dollars for Kurdish authorities in northeast Syria, none of which will be shared with the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.... News of the deal drew an immediate rebuke from the Assad government in Damascus.... The State Department and the Pentagon have officially sought to distance themselves from the project, but sources tell CNN that behind the scenes the State Department was active in making the deal happen. Last week, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo for the first time confirmed the deal in answering a question from Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham during a hearing on Capitol Hill.... Russia ... was also competing to win the contract. --s

McGahn, DOJ Lose Appeal, But They're Running Out the Clock. Mark Sherman of the AP: "A federal appeals court in Washington on Friday revived House Democrats' lawsuit to force former White House counsel Don McGahn to appear before a congressional committee, but left other legal issues unresolved with time growing short in the current Congress. The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit voted 7-2 in ruling that the House Judiciary Committee can make its claims in court, reversing the judgment of a three-judge panel that would have ended the court fight. The matter now returns to the panel for consideration of other legal issues. The current House of Representatives session ends on Jan. 3. That time crunch means 'the chances that the Committee hears McGahn's testimony anytime soon are vanishingly slim,' dissenting Judge Thomas Griffith wrote. Judge Karen LeCraft Henderson also dissented. A separate case in which the House is suing to stop the Trump administration from spending billions of dollars that Congress didn't authorize for the wall on the U.S.-Mexico border also was returned to a lower court. Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said the administration would continue to seek dismissal of both cases." A Washington Post story is here.

Hajar Haammado of CREW: "The Environmental Protection Agency illegally destroyed records, deceived the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) about that destruction, and falsely blamed the coronavirus pandemic to escape accountability, according to internal documents uncovered by CREW." --s

Freedumb

Andy Fies of ABC News: "Despite concerns about large gatherings during the COVID-19 pandemic, as many as 250,000 motorcycle enthusiasts from around the country are expected to roll into western South Dakota for the 80th annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally beginning Friday and lasting 10 days. Such a crowd would make it the largest event in the country to take place during the pandemic. In a survey by the city in May, 60% of Sturgis residents said they preferred to cancel the event. But local business owners who rely on this once-a-year gathering for a huge percentage of their revenues, combined with a realization by city managers that the bikers were going to come to the area no matter what, prompted the city council to sanction the rally.... Brent Bertlson, who has a home in Sturgis and will be attending his 26th rally this year..., called Sturgis 'a freedom rally,' adding, 'Bikers are big believers in freedom. I've heard from people tired of being locked down and being told what they can and can't do. A lot of these people are saying, "I'm going to Sturgis."'"

Michigan. Not All the Rabid Racists Live in Dixie. Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "A local road commission meeting in northern Michigan on Monday started with one commissioner asking another why he wasn't wearing a mask.... The unmasked official responded with a racist slur and an angry rant against the Black Lives Matter movement. 'Well, this whole thing is because of them n-----s in Detroit,' Tom Eckerle, who was elected to his position on the Leelanau County Road Commission..., said. The commission chairman, Bob Joyce, immediately rebuked his colleague, but Eckerle, who is White, continued his diatribe. 'I can say anything I want,' Eckerle said at the meeting, which the public could listen to via a dial-in number, the Leelanau Enterprise first reported. 'Black Lives Matter has everything to do with taking the country away from us.' Eckerle's remarks came the same week Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Mich.) declared racism a public health crisis.... Michigan has reported at least 94,656 cases and 6,506 deaths since the start of the pandemic.... The racist remark spurred widespread condemnation of Eckerle, who is a Republican, and calls to resign from party officials.... 'I don't regret calling it a n----r,' Eckerle told Interlochen Public Radio. 'A n----r is a n----r is a n----r. That's not a person whatsoever.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here. (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times' live updates for Thursday are here.

More Good-ish News. Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Two months of record-setting payroll growth slowed in July but was still better than Wall Street estimates even as a rise in coronavirus cases put a damper on the struggling U.S. economy. The total nonfarm payroll increased of 1.763 million for the month. The unemployment rate fell to 10.2% from its previous 11.1%, also better than the estimates from economists surveyed by Dow Jones. An alternative measure that includes discouraged workers and the undermployed holding parttime jobs for economic reasons fell from 18% to 16.5%."

Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "White House officials and Democratic leaders ended a three-hour negotiation Thursday evening without a coronavirus relief deal or even a clear path forward, with both sides remaining far part on critical issues.... President Trump called into the meeting several times but they were unable to resolve key issues.... [Treasury Secretary Steve] Mnuchin said after the meeting that if they decide Friday that further negotiations are futile, Trump would move ahead unilaterally with executive orders. [Senate Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer countered that they were 'very disappointed' in how the meeting went and that any White House executive orders could challenged in court."

Axios: "A federal judge on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit brought by House Republicans against Speaker Nancy Pelosi that sought to invalidate a resolution that allows members to vote via proxy during the coronavirus pandemic.... The lawsuit, led by House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, alleged that the system is unconstitutional because the Constitution requires a quorum, or a majority, of lawmakers to be physically present in order to conduct business. Pelosi, who has defended the resolution as vital to public health, argued that 'the Constitution empowers each chamber of Congress to set its own procedural rules.'"

She Persists. Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Old allies and public health experts have expressed disgust at [Dr. Deborah Birx'] accommodations to Mr. Trump and, more so, at the performance of the federal response she is supposed to be leading against the most devastating public health crisis in a century. [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi said she had lost confidence in Dr. Birx, while Mr. Trump called her 'pathetic' after she suggested the obvious: The coronavirus is in a 'new phase' and is spreading rampantly.... But beyond the cameras and outside the Washington media bubble, governors say she deserves praise for persistence and presence.... Some [public health professionals] say ... the dangerous misinformation [Trump] has spread has often gone uncorrected by Dr. Birx.... Some also fault her for offering unduly rosy assessments of the pandemic -- both in public and in private."

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "Most of the evidence for asymptomatic spread has been based on observation (a person without symptoms nevertheless sickened others) or elimination (people became ill but could not be connected to anyone with symptoms). A new study in South Korea, published Thursday in JAMA Internal Medicine, offers more definitive proof that people without symptoms carry just as much virus in their nose, throat and lungs as those with symptoms, and for almost as long.... Discussions about asymptomatic spread have been dogged by confusion about people who are 'pre-symptomatic' -- meaning they eventually become visibly ill -- versus the truly asymptomatic, who appear healthy throughout the course of their infection."

Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: "President Trump has repeatedly claimed that the U.S. has one of the lowest COVID-19 mortality rates anywhere in the world, even though the nation has recorded more deaths from the coronavirus than any other country. The U.S. also has a mortality rate per 100,000 about twice that of Canada. While the U.S. rate is lower than Spain, the United Kingdom and Italy per 100,000 people, it is higher than such nations as Germany, France and the Netherlands.... Rather than the mortality rate, Trump has been fixated on the percentage of people who die after contracting COVID-19, a figure called the case fatality rate. In doing so, he has downplayed the scope of the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. and the extremely high rate of deaths as a proportion of the population.... Amesh Adjala, a senior scholar at the Johns Hopkins University Center for Health Security, said case fatality is not a bad statistic by itself, but it can't be compared to the actual number of deaths per capita. 'Case fatality rate is important and the fact that it is lower in some countries is really reflective of the sophistication of the medical system, adeptness of critical care physicians, and what segment of the population is getting infected,' Adjala said." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: You understand this, I understand this, but it was clear from the video of Jonathan Swan's interview of Trump that Trump doesn't understand this. At all. When Swan tries to explain to Trump the difference between per-capital mortality rates & case mortality rates, Trump is completely at sea. "Wha, wha?" he stammers. "You can't do that.... It's cases. And we have cases because of good testing...," he says, which makes no sense.

John Fauber & Daphne Chen of USA Today: "[A]s prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine boomed, reports of serious adverse events linked to the drug during the first half of the year more than doubled, according to a Milwaukee Journal Sentinel analysis of newly released data from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.... That's despite the fact that overall adverse event reports for all drugs remained flat.... Retail prescriptions for hydroxychloroquine in the U.S. jumped 81% from 460,000 in March 2019 to 833,000 in March 2020, according to IQVIA, a company that collects prescription data.... Experts said it soon became clear that solid evidence of the drugs' effectiveness was not materializing despite millions of doses being dispensed around the world." --s

Good-ish News. Jeff Cox of CNBC: "Weekly jobless claims hit their lowest level of the pandemic area, totaling 1.186 million last week, well below Wall Street expectations. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 1.42 million. The level for the week ended Aug. 1 represented a drop of 249,000 from the previous period. Amid worries that the employment picture was faltering after two record-breaking months of job creation, the claims number indicates some momentum. Continuing claims, or those who have collected benefits for two straight weeks, dropped by 844,000 to 16.1 million." (Also linked yesterday.)

And the Winners Are .... Reed Abelson of the New York Times: "The nation's leading health insurers are experiencing an embarrassment of profits. Some of the largest companies, including Anthem, Humana and UnitedHealth Group, are reporting second-quarter earnings that are double what they were a year ago. And while insurance profits are capped under the Affordable Care Act, with the requirement that consumers should benefit from such excesses in the form of rebates, no one should expect an immediate windfall.... The Health and Human Services Department advised companies to consider speeding up rebates, and on Tuesday suggested that they reduce premiums...." Abelson goes on to describe some of the potential political consequences of the insurance companies' windfalls. (Also linked yesterday.)

Georgia. How to Re-open Schools: Punish Kids Who Publicize What a Piss-Poor Job You're Doing. Lateshia Beachum of the Washington Post: "At least two North Paulding High School students have been suspended after sharing images of a school hallway jammed with their mostly maskless peers, and the principal has warned other students against doing the same. North Paulding High School in Dallas, Ga., about an hour's drive from Atlanta, was thrust into the national spotlight this week when pictures and videos surfaced of its crowded interior on the first and second days of its first week back in session. The images, which showed a sea of teens clustered together with no face coverings, raised concerns over how the district is handling reopening schools during the novel coronavirus pandemic." A New York Times story is here. BuzzFeed News has the story here. ~~~

~~~ Laura Thompson of Mother Jones: "'Wearing a mask is a personal choice, and there is no practical way to enforce a mandate to wear them,' the [Paulding school district] superintendent wrote to the Times." However, the district mandates an elaborate dress code. Mrs. McC: Thompson does not report the consequences of violating the dress code. But I'll bet the district has found a "practical way to enforce" the code. It's evah so disturbing to young people when they find out the school board is made up of supercilious hypocrites.

** Mississippi. Sarah Fowler, et al., of the Washington Post: "Mississippi, now experiencing the country's highest rate of positive tests, is emblematic of the pandemic's new reality. The virus is no longer principally an urban problem: It is present throughout every state, and those infected often don't know it, leading to what top public health officials call 'inherent community spread.'... The situation in Mississippi is unfolding as well in other largely rural parts of the country, including in Alabama, South Carolina and California's Central Valley, places where so much viral material is circulating that when people get infected, many are unsure when or how it happened -- so the outbreaks cannot be easily traced and contained." The article is free to nonsubscribers. ~~~

~~~ Jaclyn Peiser of the Washington Post: "Last week, schools in Corinth, Miss., welcomed back hundreds of students.... By early this week, the count [of positive Covid-19 tests] rose to six students and one staff member infected. Now, 116 students have been sent home to quarantine, a spokeswoman for the school district confirmed.... The district's superintendent said he has no plans to change course." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's how these mandatory back-to-school orders are going to work. (1) Kids go to school. (2) Kids get sick. (3) Kids get quarantined. So roughly the same number of kids will be at home under the mandatory system (because they're sick and/or quarantined) as under an opt-in-or-out hybrid system, where some kids go to school & others school-at-home. The difference is that under the mandatory plan, many more of the kids at home will be sick than will those in the hybrid system. But mandatory schooling a great plan!

Ohio. Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine announced on Thursday that he has tested positive for coronavirus. The announcement came shortly before DeWine, a Republican, was scheduled to meet with ... Donald Trump in Cleveland. DeWine was tested as part of the 'standard protocol' to greet Trump on the tarmac at Burke Lakefront Airport, the governor's office said in a statement. He is returning to Columbus, where he and his wife Fran will both be tested. DeWine tweeted Thursday that he's not experiencing symptoms at this time." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ ** Update. Randy Ludlow of the Columbus Dispatch: "A more sensitive coronavirus test has determined that Gov. Mike DeWine does not have COVID-19, his office announced Thursday night. A rapid-test before DeWine was scheduled to greet ... Donald Trump in Cleveland determined he was positive for the virus. A second test administered later in Columbus produced a different result. 'The PCR tests for the Governor, First Lady, and staff were run two times. They came back negative the first time and came back negative when they were run on a second diagnostic platform,' DeWine's office said.... DeWine and his wife plan to have another PCR -- polymerise chain reaction -- test on Saturday to confirm this evening's results."


** Trump & the Trumplodytes Continue Skewing the Census. Michael Wines
of the New York Times: "A Census Bureau memorandum on creating a state-by-state estimate of people illegally in the country is raising new fears of a politicized census — this time involving the population totals that will be used to reapportion the House of Representatives next year. The memo, issued Monday, orders an internal task force to explore statistical methods of compiling an accurate estimate of noncitizens. It says the aim is to carry out President Trump's July mandate to exclude undocumented residents from population totals used to determine how many House seats each state is entitled to. The directive, which is being challenged in court, is widely seen as an effort to shift some House seats to Republicans during reapportionment next spring.... Some career Census Bureau employees say it's hard to see an innocent reason for the request.... The experts are convinced that the memorandum was written [outside the Bureau], by political appointees recently added to the bureau or by the Commerce Department, which oversees the agency."

Matthew Daly of the AP: "Lawmakers from both parties are calling on the U.S. Postal Service to immediately reverse operational changes that are causing delays in deliveries across the country just as big volume increases are expected for mail-in election voting. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday that changes imposed by the new, Republican postmaster general 'threaten the timely delivery of mail -- including medicines for seniors, paychecks for workers and absentee ballots for voters -- that is essential to millions of Americans.' In separate letters, two Montana Republicans, Sen. Steve Daines and Rep. Greg Gianforte, also urged the Postal Service to reverse the July directive, which eliminates overtime for hundreds of thousands of postal workers and mandates that mail be kept until the next day if distribution centers are running late. And 84 House members -- including four Republicans -- signed yet another letter blasting the changes and urging an immediate reversal.... The flurry of letters came as the top Democrat on a Senate panel that oversees the Postal Service launched an investigation into the operational changes.″

Nikki Carvajal & Caroline Kelly of CNN: "... Donald Trump on Thursday issued an executive order that would ban the social media app TikTok and WeChat from operating in the US in 45 days if they are not sold by their Chinese-owned parent companies."

Trump's So Crazy That..., Ctd. Jim Sciutto of CNN: "Amid escalating tensions with both North Korea and Iran..., Donald Trump's advisers hesitated to give him military options fearing the President might accidentally take the US to war and deliberately informed their counterparts in both countries that they did not know what the President would do next, multiple former administration officials tell me.... Joseph Yun, who served as President Trump's special representative for North Korea policy until 2018..., recalled that during the worsening standoff with North Korea in 2017, the Pentagon hesitated to give the President a broad range of military options, concerned that he might indeed order a major military attack on the North. 'You had to be careful what options you gave him,' he said. 'We were being very cautious, because any options you put out there, he could use them.' That frustrated the White House. 'The White House viewed it as "Goddamnit! The President is looking for all options!'" Yun recalled. But the Pentagon, under Defense Secretary James Mattis at least, didn't budge."

Josh Rogin of the Washington Post: "The Trump foreign policy team is racing the clock to establish facts on the ground on a range of issues. One key aim: to make it as difficult as possible for a potential Biden administration to undo the Trump team's actions. In the most glaring example, the Trump administration is trying to smash the Iran deal into so many bits that a Biden administration would never be able to piece it back together. Although they would never admit it publicly, several administration officials have privately acknowledged that the current flurry of foreign policy activity is partly attributable to the realization that President Trump might lose [the November election]."

Edward Moreno of the Hill: "A New York State Supreme Court justice on Thursday denied a motion by President Trump asserting absolute immunity in a defamation lawsuit brought by E. Jean Carroll. The ruling allows the case to go forward without waiting for a decision from an appeals court on a separate similar suit.... The decision opens the door for Carroll's attorneys to collect DNA samples from the president, which they hope to compare to genetic material on the dress she said she wore during the incident."

All the Best People, Ctd. Kathryn Watson of CBS News: "Brian Hook, the administration's special representative for Iran, is leaving and will be replaced by Elliott Abrams, convicted of misleading Congress about the Iran-Contra affair. Abrams, who has been serving as the special representative for Venezuela, will continue in that position in addition to his new role. He pleaded guilty to lying to Congress in 1991 as a part of the Iran-Contra affair and was later pardoned by then-President George H.W. Bush. Abrams, who was assistant secretary of state at the time, admitted he had unlawfully withheld information from congressional committees in 1986 when he testified about the secret Contra supply network and his role in soliciting a $10 million contribution for anti-Sandinista rebels in Nicaragua. Abrams also served in the George W. Bush administration and was a [Mrs. McC: rabid] advocate of the Iraq War. (Mrs. McC PS: Guess who lobbied Poppy Bush for Abrams' pardon? Why, young Billy Barr.)

Derrick Taylor of the New York Times: "Michelle Obama said this week that she was experiencing 'low-grade depression' and seemed to suggest that it was because of a combination of quarantine, racial unrest and the Trump administration's response to the pandemic. In the second episode of her new podcast, which was released on Wednesday, Mrs. Obama ... told the Washington Post columnist Michele Norris that she has had low points recently. 'There have been periods throughout this quarantine where I just have felt too low,' Mrs. Obama said, adding that her sleep was off. 'You know, I've gone through those emotional highs and lows that I think everybody feels, where you just don't feel yourself. I know that I am dealing with some form of low-grade depression... Not just because of the quarantine, but because of the racial strife, and just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting.'" ~~~

     ~~~ CNN has a story here, but it doesn't mention how depressing Obama finds Trump's hypocrisy. Mrs. McC: For any thinking person who's been paying at least a little attention to Trump's so-called presidency*, it's only natural to feel stressed and/or depressed -- even before the pandemic altered our lives.

Black Lives Matter. Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "Department of Homeland Security acting secretary Chad Wolf on Thursday defended his handling of the protests in Portland, Ore., and bristled at criticism from his predecessors, telling a Senate panel that former DHS secretaries Tom Ridge and Michael Chertoff were 'dead wrong' when they raised concerns that the Trump administration's response had gone too far. Appearin before the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, Wolf said DHS officers and agents were deployed to Portland to protect federal buildings from destructive attacks and claimed they did not interfere with peaceful protests. He faulted city and state officials as cutting off cooperation with the Trump administration.... Wolf avoided placing blame on any one side or party, even when GOP senators appeared eager to make Democrats responsible for the unrest and to tie the Portland protests to rising crime in other cities." Mrs. McC: Perhaps he's hoping for a job in the Biden administration.

Louisiana. Kay Jones & Leah Asmelash of CNN: "A Black Louisiana man will spend the rest of his life in prison for stealing hedge clippers, after the Louisiana Supreme Court denied his request to have his sentence overturned last week. Fair Wayne Bryant, 62, was convicted in 1997 on one count of attempted simple burglary. In his appeal to the Second Circuit Court of Louisiana in 2018, his attorney, Peggy Sullivan, wrote that Bryant 'contends that his life sentence is unconstitutionally harsh and excessive.' Last week, though, the state Supreme Court disagreed -- with five justices choosing to uphold the life sentence. The lone dissenter in the decision was Supreme Court Chief Justice Bernette Johnson, who wrote that 'the sentence imposed is excessive and disproportionate to the offense the defendant committed.' Johnson is the only female and Black person on the court. The rest of the justices are White men."

Azi Paybarah of the New York Times: "The police have identified a suspect and prosecutors decided to charge him with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of a man in June that took place during protests in Seattle seeking racial justice, the authorities said on Wednesday. The authorities said they were able to identify the gunman as Marcel Levon Long, 18, after collecting 'extremely high quality' surveillance video footage and statements from several eye witnesses. Mr. Long, whose last-known address was in Renton, Wash., about 20 minutes south of Seattle, remained at large as of Wednesday evening. The killing was among several shootings in and around a six-block area that protesters controlled for several weeks. The area was alternately called the Capitol Hill Organized Protest (CHOP), or the Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone (CHAZ). It was cleared out by the police on July 1." (Also linked yesterday.)

Elections 2020

** Jessie Balmert of the Cincinnati Enquirer: "Rapper Kanye West filed an independent bid for U.S. president in Ohio on Wednesday, aided by GOP operatives in the state. To qualify as an independent candidate for president, West will need 5,000 valid signatures of registered Ohio voters. His campaign submitted 14,886 signatures and other paperwork on Wednesday afternoon. Election officials will now check for possible errors or missing information.... Prominent Republican consultants have helped West's campaign in several states, lending credence to the claim that West's candidacy is meant to draw Democratic voters away from Vice President Joe Biden. West and his wife, celebrity Kim Kardashian West, have been high-profile supporters of Trump for years." ~~~

~~~ Daniel Bice of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Did West's team file his [Wisconsin] nomination papers by Tuesday's 5 p.m. deadline? Or did he miss it by a couple of crucial minutes?... Lane Ruhland, an attorney for ... Donald Trump who was assisting West's campaign, and an assistant arrived outside the state Elections Commission's office in Madison right at 5 p.m. The two rushed past a reporter and cameraman and into the building. One record of the incident, reviewed by the Journal Sentinel, had Ruhland's assistant entering the building about 20 seconds after 5 p.m. The pair then had to go to the commission's third-floor offices, using the building's notoriously slow elevator, and get their petitions stamped by state officials. From all appearances, it looks likes West's team was a minute or two late. A WISN-TV (Channel 12) reporter at the scene tweeted that Ruhland entered the commission's building 'just after 5.'... Milwaukee's top three African-American officials held a news conference Thursday to denounce the efforts to get West on the ballot, something they said was a cynical ploy by Trump officials to dupe Black voters." ~~~

~~~ Randall Lane of Forbes: "Amid various reports that Republican and Trump-affiliated political operatives are trying to get Kanye West onto various state ballots for November's presidential election, the billionaire rap superstar indicated, in an interview by text today, that he was in fact running to siphon votes from the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden. Asked about that directly, West said that rather than running for president, he was 'walking,' quickly adding that he was 'walking . . . to win.' When it was pointed out that he actually can't win in 2020 -- that he won't be on enough ballots to yield 270 electoral votes, and that a write-in campaign isn't feasible -- and thus was serving as a spoiler, West replied: 'I'm not going to argue with you. Jesus is King.'" ~~~

~~~ Ben Collins & Kevin Collier of NBC News: "Facebook removed hundreds of accounts on Thursday from a foreign troll farm posing as African-Americans in support of Donald Trump and QAnon supporters. It also removed hundreds of fake accounts linked to conservative media outlet The Epoch Times that pushed pro-Trump conspiracy theories about coronavirus and protests in the U.S. Facebook took down the accounts as part of its enforcement against coordinated inauthentic behavior, which is the use of fake accounts to inflate the reach of content or products on social media. The foreign pro-Trump troll farm was based in Romania and pushed content on Instagram under names like 'BlackPeopleVoteForTrump' and on Facebook under 'We Love Our President.'"

Donald's Dumbest Diss of the Day. Lisa Lambert of Reuters: "... Donald Trump asserted on Thursday that ... Joe Biden, is 'against God,' even though Biden frequently discusses how his Catholic faith has guided his actions as a public official.... After addressing a small crowd at a Cleveland airport on Thursday, Trump went on to deliver a campaign-style speech at a Whirlpool plant in Clyde, Ohio. 'He's following the radical-left agenda: take away your guns, destroy your Second Amendment, no religion, no anything, hurt the Bible, hurt God,' Trump said about Biden in his Cleveland speech. 'He's against God.'" Mrs. McC: Yeah, Donnie, I've heard Joe really hates those Two Corinthians. Idiot. (BTW, that link to the two Corinthians story is interesting. I don't think I was aware Donnie had Two Excuses for Two Corinthians, one of which was to falsely blame his dear, departed mother.) I heard a clip of Trump's claim; he also said Biden was "against energy." What does that even mean? ~~~

~~~ Update. Sarah Mucha of CNN: "... Joe Biden on Thursday countered ... Donald Trump's baseless attack that he, a practicing Roman Catholic, would somehow 'hurt God.'... 'Like so many people, my faith has been the bedrock foundation of my life: it's provided me comfort in moments of loss and tragedy, it's kept me grounded and humbled in times of triumph and joy. And in this moment of darkness for our country -- of pain, of division, and of sickness for so many Americans -- my faith has been a guiding light for me and a constant reminder of the fundamental dignity and humanity that God has bestowed upon all of us,' Biden said. 'For President Trump to attack my faith is shameful. It's beneath the office he holds and it's beneath the dignity the American people so rightly expect and deserve from their leaders,' he added.... Biden has long spoken publicly about the role his faith has played in his life, particularly during moments of tragedy." ~~~

     ~~~ Biden's full statement, published on Medium, is here. ~~~

~~~ ** S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "Air Force cargo jets hauled in armored SUVs and White House advance teams spent weeks preparing a remote oil rig site for a presidential visit, at a total cost of millions, so that Donald Trump could get on stage and attack Democratic rival Joe Biden. And who picked up tab? If you pay U.S. taxes, you did. 'I don't think Biden is going to do too well in Texas. He's already written it off. It's gone,' Trump said, a stack of oil barrels arranged behind him for the camera shot. 'If these far-left politicians ever get into power, they will demolish not only your industry, but the entire U.S. economy.' Last week's foray into partisan politics at an 'official' event was, for Trump, hardly unusual. More than any president in modern times, he has openly conscripted American taxpayers into underwriting the costs of his reelection campaign, from travel aboard $273,000-an-hour Air Force 1 to the dozens of staff who arrange his trips to the salaries of his own White House employees who regularly โ€• and illegally โ€• engage in politics on his behalf. And on Wednesday, Trump told Fox News he was 'thinking about' holding his renomination speech later this month on the South Lawn of the White House โ€• which is government property." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is exactly what I was thinking yesterday when Trump made his attacks on Joe Biden at the Whirlpool plant in Ohio. Everything Trump does is corrupt.

Orion Rummler of Axios: "The Commission on Presidential Debates on Thursday denied the Trump campaign's request to add a fourth debate in the first week of September or move up one of the existing debates in order to get ahead of an expected surge in early voting.... Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden are set to debate on Sept. 29 in Cleveland, Oct. 15 in Miami, and Oct. 22 in Nashville."

Colby Itkowitz & Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "After a bruising and bitter campaign to replace retiring Sen. Lamar Alexander, Bill Hagerty ... fended off a challenge from the right questioning his loyalty to the president to win the Tennessee Senate GOP primary on Thursday, according to the Associated Press. Hagerty, Trump's former ambassador to Japan..., was on Trump's transition team after serving as a high-dollar fundraiser for his campaign. He has received the president's endorsement, and many national Republicans quickly lined up behind him. But he faced a challenge from Nashville surgeon Manny Sethi, who gained traction by challenging Hagerty's conservative credentials, pointing to his early support for Jeb Bush in 2016 and his prominent role on Mitt Romney's 2012 presidential campaign." A Politico story is here.


Letitia Get Your GunNuts. Danny Hakim
of the New York Times: "New York's attorney general ... [brought a lawsuit against] the National Rifle Association on Thursday, arguing ... that years of runaway corruption and misspending demanded the dissolution of the nation's most powerful gun rights lobby. While the legal confrontation could take years to play out, it constitutes yet another deep blow to an organization whose legendary political clout has been diminished by infighting and financial distress. The suit was swiftly followed by two others: The N.R.A. struck back with a federal lawsuit against the office of the attorney general, Letitia James, claiming her action was politically motivated and violated the organization's First Amendment rights. And the attorney general of Washington, D.C., filed suit against the N.R.A. and its charitable foundation, alleging that the N.R.A. misused millions of dollars of the foundation's funds. Ms. James -- who has special jurisdiction over the N.R.A. because it was chartered as a nonprofit in New York 148 years ago -- also sued four current or former N.R.A. leaders, seeking tens of millions of dollars in restitution." An NPR story is here.

Zack Budryk of the Hill: "Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. addressed a now-deleted Instagram post depicting his pants unzipped and his arm around a woman, apologizing but saying the photo was 'just in good fun.' 'I've apologized to everybody,' Falwell said in an interview with WLNI 105.9FM, a Lynchburg, Va.-area radio station. 'And I've promised my kids I'm going to try to be a good boy from here on out.'" BUT WAIT! Jerry has an excuse! "He told the radio station the woman in the photo, seemingly taken on a yacht, was his 'wife's assistant' and that he regretted involving her. 'She's pregnant, so she couldn't get her pants up,' he told the radio station. 'And I had on pair of jeans that I hadn't worn in a long time so I couldn't get mine zipped either. And so I just put my belly out like hers.'" Mrs. McC: So Jerry was really showing empathy for the woman -- walking a mile in her pants, as Jesus might say. Nothing whatsoever untoward going on! I wonder how many ole Moral Majority heard from his namesake that the dog ate his homework. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Michael Stratford of Politico: "A top House Republican with ties to Liberty University is calling on Jerry Falwell Jr. to step down as president of the large Christian school in the wake of a viral photo that showed him vacationing on a yacht with his pants unzipped, holding a drink, and with his arm around a woman. 'Jerry Falwell Jr's ongoing behavior is appalling,' Rep. Mark Walker, the vice chair of the House Republican Conference, wrote in a tweet on Thursday that called for Falwell's resignation."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Saudi Arabia/Canada. Ben Hubbard & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "A former top Saudi intelligence official publicly accused Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman on Thursday of sending a team of agents to Canada to kill him. The allegation came in a lawsuit filed in United States federal court on Thursday by the former official, Saad Aljabri, who has accused Prince Mohammed of seeking to silence or kill him to stop him from undermining the prince's relationship with the United States and the Trump administration. The suit marks the first time a former senior Saudi official has publicly accused Prince Mohammed, the kingdom's de facto ruler, of carrying out a widespread and sometimes violent campaign to silence critical voices.... Mr. Aljabri's suit contained scant evidence to support its charges, including about the alleged Canada operation, nor could they be independently verified by The New York Times."

Moira Warburton of Reuters: "The last fully intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic has collapsed, losing more than 40% of its area in just two days at the end of July, researchers said on Thursday. The Milne Ice Shelf is at the fringe of Ellesmere Island, in the sparsely populated northern Canadian territory of Nunavut.... The shelf's area shrank by about 80 square kilometers. By comparison, the island of Manhattan in New York covers roughly 60 square kilometers." --s

This Month in History

** A Man with a Plan. Fred Kaplan of Slate: "Seventy-five years ago [Thursday], on Aug. 6, 1945, the world erupted into a new era. A single B-29 Superfortress airplane, nicknamed Enola Gay, dropped a new kind of weapon -- an atomic bomb — on the Japanese city of Hiroshima.... Along with a second A-bomb dropped on Nagasaki three days later, it forced the Japanese to surrender, ending the Second World War.... Declassified archival documents are pretty clear: There never was a decision to drop either bomb. Instead, there was a decision to build an atom bomb. Once it was ready, it was used; once the second bomb was ready, it too was used. From the outset, this was the plan -- an automatic sequence from building the bomb to testing it to dropping it on the enemy. The only decision [Harry] Truman made was not to alter the plan."

Michael Rosenwald of the Washington Post: "In the fall of 1945..., New Yorker writer John Hersey ... [and] his editor ... William Shawn ... suspected that the U.S. government's wartime propaganda machine had covered up the human suffering of the atomic bombs that leveled Hiroshima and Nagasaki 75 years ago this month. Pictures from Japan showed destroyed buildings and decimated neighborhoods, but little was known about the human toll, especially from radiation. The U.S. government controlled access to the bomb sites. The War Department quietly asked American news outlets to limit information about nuclear aspects of the attacks. When reports of widespread suffering from radiation began to emerge from international journalists and Japanese officials, the American government downplayed it all as propaganda. One general even told Congress that dying from radiation was, in fact, 'a very pleasant way to die.'... [Hersey] traveled to Hiroshima and spent two weeks reporting the misery from the point of view of six survivors. His 30,000-word account, told in a harrowing narrative using the tools of a novelist, took up an entire issue of the New Yorker in August 1946, stirring outrage throughout the world.... Hersey's story, later published as a book, has been celebrated as a journalistic and historical masterpiece. A panel of journalists and critics ranked it first on a list of the top 100 works of journalism in the 20th century.... Many historians and foreign policy experts say its impact was profound enough to help prevent future use of nuclear weapons." (Also linked yesterday.)

Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "On the morning of Aug. 6, 1945, Setsuko Thurlow, then just 13, reported for her first full day of duty in Japan's increasingly desperate war effort. Together with 30 other girls, she had been recruited to assist with code breaking at a military office in Hiroshima.... At 8:15 a.m., a blast detonated over the city.... She was then thrown into the air, losing consciousness. When she came to, it was dark and silent, and she was pinned under parts of the wooden building. 'I'm going to die here,' she thought to herself.... Ms. Thurlow survived, but the attack would shape the rest of a life spent fighting for the abolition of nuclear weapons -- work for which she jointly accepted a Nobel Peace Prize in 2017.... In advance of the 75th anniversary of the dropping of the two bombs, Ms. Thurlow wrote to 197 heads of state asking them to ratify the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons, which was formally adopted at the United Nations three years ago. The world's nine nuclear-armed countries have refused to sign the treaty on the grounds the weapons are necessary for deterrence." (Also linked yesterday.)"

News Lede

New York Times: Breaking @ 1pm ET: "An Indian jetliner with more than 180 passengers skidded off a wet runway in southern India Friday night and split in half, and Indian media said three people were killed and dozens injured. The Air India Express flight was returning from Dubai to Kozhikode, a city in India's Kerala state. Indian media showed injured passengers lying in the hallways of a hospital. According to news reports, a pilot and two passengers died, and 30 to 40 passengers were hospitalized with injuries."