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Monday

Oct052020

The Commentariat -- October 6, 2020

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Reality Chex is still bobbing up & down, but the "down" doesn't last long. However, be sure to save your comments because this also happens when you're trying to post them.

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

John Bowden & Brett Samuels of the Hill: "White House senior adviser Stephen Miller has tested positive for COVID-19 and is currently self-quarantining, The Hill has confirmed. Miller said he began a period of self-isolation several days ago before receiving a positive test for the coronavirus on Tuesday."

Biden's Gettysburg Address:

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: A remarkable contrast with Benito Trumpolini scowling from the balcony yesterday.

Erica Werner & Jeff Stein of the Washington Post: "President Trump said Tuesday that he was withdrawing from economic relief talks until after the election, abruptly ordering Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to stop negotiating with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. In a series of tweets posted less than 24 hours after he was released from the hospital, Trump accused Pelosi of failing to negotiate in good faith, after she rejected an opening bid from Mnuchin in their latest round of talks.... 'I have instructed my representatives to stop negotiating until after the election when, immediately after I win, we will pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hard-working Americans and Small Business,' Trump wrote. The pronouncement was so stunning that Pelosi told Democratic colleagues on a conference call that the president's sudden change in position might be connected to the steroids he's taking as he battles coronavirus.... The pronouncement came just hours after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome H. Powell said in a speech that more economic stimulus was needed.... Three days ago..., follow[ing] his first night in the hospital..., [Trump] wrote on Twitter 'OUR GREAT USA WANTS & NEEDS STIMULUS. WORK TOGETHER AND GET IT DONE. Thank you!'" Politico's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This cannot be a bully taking his marbles & going home because Trump has lost his marbles. So it's a blackmailer telling needy people, "Vote for me or you won't get your measly government handouts." It's just plain mean. ~~~

~~~ Jeanna Smialek of the New York Times: "Jerome H. Powell, the Federal Reserve chair, delivered a blunt message to Congress and the White House on Tuesday: Faced with a once-in-a-century pandemic that has inflicted economic pain on millions of households, go big. Hours later, President Trump delivered his own message: Forget it.... The Fed chair, who has increasingly called for more government help, said policymakers should err on the side of injecting too much money into the economy rather than too little.... In a series of conflicting tweets, the president said the economy was 'doing very well' and coming back 'in record numbers,' suggesting that no additional help was needed while also saying that he would wait until after the election to 'pass a major Stimulus Bill that focuses on hardworking Americans and Small Business.' While the chances of Congress reaching a deal on another package were already slim, Mr. Trump's directive sent markets swooning as the reality sank in that the economic recovery, which is slowing, would not get another jolt before Nov. 3. The S&P 500 fell more than 1 percent soon after Mr. Trump's tweet...."

Florida. Special! Today Only! Really. Gary Fineout of Politico: "Florida extended the deadline for voter registration after the state's online portal crashed under the weight of heavy traffic hours before the Oct. 5 deadline. Registration will be open for an additional seven hours, from noon to 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Secretary of State Laurel Lee said in a written statement. The move should short-circuit a lawsuit that civil rights and voting groups were preparing to file early Tuesday. Lee met with Gov. Ron DeSantis on Tuesday to review trouble with the portal. In a written statement, she said the site's failure appeared to be linked to 'unprecedented volume and traffic' and that her office 'will work with our state and federal law-enforcement partners to ensure this was not a deliberate act against the voting process.' The portal went down Monday afternoon, hours before the midnight deadline for registering."

Lolita Baldor of the AP: "Top military leaders are under self-quarantine after a senior Coast Guard official tested positive for the coronavirus, the Pentagon said Tuesday. The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, was among those affected, U.S. officials said. Military leaders who were in contact with Adm. Charles W. Ray, the vice commandant of the Coast Guard, have been tested, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in a statement. None have [Mrs. McC: has] exhibited symptoms or have so far tested positive." ~~~

~~~ Update. Courtney Kube of NBC News: "Seven members of the eight-member Joint Chiefs of Staff are now quarantining after they attended a Pentagon meeting Friday with a Coast Guard admiral who has since tested positive for Covid-19, said three defense officials. The only member of the Joint Chiefs who is not in quarantine, Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger, was traveling last week and missed the meeting. Assistant Commandant of the Marine Corps Gen. Gary Thomas attended in his place and is now in quarantine."

AP: "Michelle Obama is going after ... Donald Trump in a scathing new video that accuses him of 'willful mismanagement' of the coronavirus crisis and of racism. She calls on Black and all young voters not to 'waste' their votes. In the video, released Tuesday by Joe Biden's campaign, Mrs. Obama notes that more Americans have died from COVID-19 than died in the Iraq, Afghanistan, Vietnam and Korean wars combined. She charges that with respect to the virus, 'our commander in chief, sadly, has been missing in action.'" ~~~

The New York Times' live Trumpidemic updates Tuesday are here: "President Trump announced on Tuesday that he is planning to attend next Thursday's debate in Miami against former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. despite his continued struggle with the coronavirus and unresolved questions about the event's rules. 'FEELING GREAT!' he added in a separate Tweet. By midday Monday, Mr. Trump made it clear he would soon be moving forward with his campaign, even as medical experts warned that the course of his illness is unpredictable in a man of his age and weight." The Hill's story is here. Mrs. McC: If indeed Trump does show up, he should be wheeled in in a hermetically-sealed plexiglass box. Okay with me if he says, "Mmbeep-beep."

Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday continued to downplay the coronavirus and suggested the United States should learn to live with the pandemic, posting to Twitter hours after returning to the White House from being hospitalized with Covid-19. In his morning tweet, the president likened the highly contagious disease to the seasonal flu, reprising a misleading comparison he repeatedly invoked in the early stages of the U.S. outbreak. 'Flu season is coming up! Many people every year, sometimes over 100,000, and despite the Vaccine, die from the Flu,' Trump wrote in a post that was later flagged by Twitter for violating the platform's coronavirus misinformation policies. 'Are we going to close down our Country?' Trump wrote. 'No, we have learned to live with it, just like we are learning to live with Covid, in most populations far less lethal!!!'... Over the past 10 years, an average of just under 36,000 Americans have died annually from the flu." ~~~

~~~ Update. Donie O'Sullivan of CNN: "Facebook on Tuesday removed a post from President Trump in which he falsely claimed that Covid-19 is less deadly than the seasonal flu. Facebook spokesperson Andy Stone confirmed the company removed the post for breaking its rules on Covid-19 misinformation.... While battling his own bout of the disease, he has continued to dishonestly downplay the severity of the virus... The President also posted the same message on Twitter. That post is still live, but Twitter has appended a message to the Tweet stating it violated the company's rule on spreading misleading information related to Covid-19."

Peter Alexander of NBC News: "A military valet who comes in contact with Trump tested positive for Covid-19 over the weekend, a person familiar with the matter tells NBC News." This is part of a liveblog on Trump's condition.

Arkansas. Sarah Burris of the Raw Story: "The chairman of the Craighead County Republican Committee in Arkansas has died from complications while fighting the coronavirus, reported KAIT8 News. Steven Farmer's GOP committee hosted a social gathering with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) and Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX), who just recovered from COVID-19, in mid-September. The Reagan Day event was photographed extensively, and it showed very few masks being worn and no social distancing."

~~~ Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

"Toxic Positivity." Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump returned to the White House on Monday night, staging a defiant, made-for-television moment in which he ripped off his face mask and then urged the nation to put aside the risks of the deadly coronavirus that has swept through his own staff and sent him to the hospital for three days. Just hours after his press secretary and two more aides tested positive, making the White House the leading coronavirus hot spot in the nation's capital, Mr. Trump again dismissed the pandemic that has killed 210,000 people in the United States.... Even afflicted by the disease himself, the president ... appeared unchastened as he pressed America to reopen and made no effort to promote precautions. The regret-nothing approach demonstrated that the president intended no pivot in his handling of the pandemic despite his own medical crisis. The message, in effect, was that Americans should live their lives and not worry about catching the virus because 'we have the best medicines in the world,' never mind that he has had access to experimental treatment and high-quality health care not available to most people.... Mr. Trump pressured his doctors to release him from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in suburban Maryland, but it did not indicate that he had escaped jeopardy, only that he could be treated at the White House, where he has 24-hour medical care." Includes video of Trump's claiming he's a hero. A Washington Post story is here.

From Monday's Washington Post live elections updates: "Trump was discharged from Walter Reed National Military Medical Center early Monday evening and arrived back at the White House after being diagnosed last week with covid-19, experiencing a fever and being given supplemental oxygen treatments. As he left Walter Reed, Trump gave a thumbs up to reporters and ignored questions about how many White House staffers are sick and whether he is a 'superspreader.' 'Thank you very much, everybody,' Trump said, giving a slight wave before heading into his motorcade and taking off for the White House in Marine One. After arriving back at the White House, Trump stood on the Truman Balcony, the second-floor balcony facing the South Lawn, took off his face mask, gave a double thumbs-up and saluted the soldiers down below. He then stood at the balcony for a few minutes before entering the White House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: According to a few teevee hosts (Rachel Maddow & Anderson Cooper), Trump could be seen gasping for breath after climbing the stairs to the Truman Balcony. The hosts also said Trump's Triumphant Return was so fake that he went inside -- maskless with aides nearby, of course -- & came back out for Take 2. From my teevee, I couldn't quite make out the heavy breathing. To me, he just looked like Mussolini on the balcony overlooking Rome's Piazza Venezia.

From Monday's New York Times live updates of Covid-19 developments: "President Trump's physician, Dr. Sean P. Conley, said on Monday that the president would return to the White House after having spent three nights at the Walter Reed medical center, although he was not 'out of the woods yet' in his fight against Covid-19. 'Over the past 24 hours, the president has continued to improve,' Dr. Conley said. 'He's met or exceeded all standard hospital discharge criteria.' The president's doctors evaded some key questions about the president's condition, including his lung function and the date of his last negative coronavirus test." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jack Shafer of Politico: Donald Trump "wants you to believe that all is well because he's 'getting great reports from the doctors,' as he said in a Sunday video from Walter Reed. If he's really getting such great reports from the docs, he must be the first sick person in history to conceal the actual evidence that he's getting better. All we really know for sure is that he's ill and that he and his doctors continue to cover up the extent of his illness. It's a very sick administration."

CNN ran a chyron this morning that read, "Trump makes reckless return to WH..." It's unusual for the news networks (don't know about Fox) to air judgment-loaded chyrons. ~~~

~~~ Stephen Collinson of CNN (who is an opinion writer): "A strongly medicated ... Donald Trump bolted from his VIP hospital bubble Monday, staging a bizarre White House comeback that included an irresponsible mask removal and a reckless pronouncement there is nothing to fear from Covid-19, which has already killed 210,000 Americans. His actions show him, if anything, entrenched deeper in denial over the virus than ever before and more committed to trashing scientific protocols that could slow the pandemic. 'We're going back. We're going back to work. We're gonna be out front. As your leader I had to do that. I knew there's danger to it but I had to do it,' Trump says in a strange campaign video whipped up by aides within an hour of his return to the White House, in which the President framed himself as a warrior who took on the virus and won. 'I stood out front. I led. Nobody that's a leader would not do what I did. I know there's a risk, there's a danger,' Trump said, despite his doctors earlier saying he is still not fully 'out of the woods' in his fight with the virus."

I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don't be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago! -- Most Irresponsible Person in the U.S., in a tweet Monday afternoon ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McC BTW: According to the NYT report by Katie Thomas & Roni Rabin, linked below, "Steroids [like the dexamethasone Trump is taking] may ... give a false impression of the patient's state. The drugs are also known to affect mood, causing euphoria or a general happiness. Steroids can also disrupt sleep, leading to insomnia, irritability or depression. In some cases they may cause psychiatric effects, leading to feelings of grandiosity and mania, or even delirium and psychosis." So Trump's feeling so well is very likely to be drug-induced, not that Trump doesn't suffer from most of these affects in his "natural" state. ~~~

~~~ Even Don Junior Think Dad Has Lost It. Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair, (mostly) republished in LG&$: "'Don Jr. thinks Trump is acting crazy,' one of the sources told me.... According to sources, Don Jr. has told friends that he tried lobbying Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, and Jared Kushner to convince the president that he needs to stop acting unstable. 'Don Jr. has said he wants to stage an intervention, but Jared and Ivanka keep telling Trump how great he's doing,' a source said. Don Jr. is said to be reluctant to confront his father alone. One area where the family seems united is over the president's manic tweeting early Monday morning. After Trump sent out more than a dozen all-caps tweets, the Trump children told people they want Trump to stop. 'They're all worried. They've tried to get him to stop tweeting,' a source close to the family told me."

~~~ Gina Kolata & Roni Rabin of the New York Times: "Scientists, ethicists and doctors were outraged by the president's comments about a disease that has killed nearly 210,000 people in the United States.... Experts pointed out that Covid-19 has 'dominated' the lives of millions of Americans, particularly Black and Latino people who have been hit with devastating force by the virus. The death rate for Black Americans diagnosed with Covid-19 is more than twice the rate for white Americans.... The president has had access to a suite of treatments that few others have, including an antibody cocktail that is still in clinical trials and has not yet been authorized by the Food and Drug Administration. And unlike average Americans, many of whom were unable to get tested for the virus or who got care in hospitals overwhelmed by patients sick with Covid, Mr. Trump has had a full team of specialists devoted to his needs.... To patients who were not as fortunate as the president, his message was distressing." ~~~

Axios: "Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told the Houston Chronicle that President Trump 'let his guard down' when it came to the coronavirus and has created 'confusion' by trying to downplay the severity of the pandemic.... Cornyn is a high-ranking Republican senator who is closely aligned with Trump and has rarely criticized the president. Cornyn is in a tighter-than-expected re-election race against Air Force pilot and Democrat MJ Hegar.... 'I think he let his guard down, and I think in his desire to try to demonstrate that we are somehow coming out of this and that the danger is not still with us -- I think he got out over his skis and frankly, I think it's a lesson to all of us that we need to exercise self discipline,' Cornyn said."

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Americans of all political stripes wished President Trump well in his battle with covid-19. Now he is repaying our compassion with reckless disregard and callous contempt for the well-being of anybody but himself."

He hosted a super-spreader event to honor a justice who would have the government control your body but refuse the duty to care for it, and when the virus he helped go around came around, he availed of the healthcare he would deny others, financed by the taxes he refuses to pay. -- Anand Giridharadas of the Ink (thanks to Lawrence O'Donnell for the lead)

~~~ Trump's Covid-19 Policy, Explained. Michelle Goldberg of the New York Times: "A regime dedicated to creating its own reality doesn't just use language to lie. To truly animate lies, those in power must behave as if they're true, no matter who gets hurt. For the past seven months, Donald Trump's big lie has been that the coronavirus isn't as dangerous as scientists say, and that his administration has the virus under control. To sustain this lie, Trump's circle has had to reject the mitigation and containment strategies that many other countries have used to get a handle on the pandemic, because those strategies are tangible reminders of the threat the virus poses."

This is a total abdication of responsibility by the Trump administration, said , a public health expert at Boston University, who has advised the City of Boston on contact tracing. The idea that we're not involving the C.D.C. to do contact tracing at this point seems like a massive public health threat. -- Dr. Joshua Barocas, a public health expert ~~~

~~~ More News from the White House Hot Zone. "A Total Abdication of Responsibility." Apoorva Mandavilli & Tracey Tully of the New York Times: "Despite almost daily disclosures of new coronavirus infections among President Trump's close associates, the White House is making little effort to investigate the scope and source of its outbreak. The White House has decided not to trace the contacts of guests and staff members at the Rose Garden celebration 10 days ago for Judge Amy Coney Barrett, where at least eight people, including the president, may have become infected, according to a White House official familiar with the plans. Instead, it has limited its efforts to notifying people who came in close contact with Mr. Trump in the two days before his Covid diagnosis Thursday evening. It has also cut the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which has the government's most extensive knowledge and resources for contact tracing, out of the process."

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Read on. It doesn't get better. Despite the fact that the White House says that whatever it is they're doing in regard to contract tracing is being directed by Dr. Sean Conley, an osteopath, Conley himself said, according to CNN, that he had nothing to do with contract tracing.

Brett Samuels & Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tested positive for COVID-19, she said Monday, making her the latest person in President Trump's orbit to contract the virus. 'After testing negative consistently, including every day since Thursday, I tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday morning while experiencing no symptoms. No reporters, producers or members of the press are listed as close contacts by the White House Medical Unit,' she said in a statement." Mrs. McC: According to CNN, two people on McEnany's staff also tested positive. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ From the Washington Post's live election updates: "Less than a day before she tested positive for the coronavirus, McEnany declined to wear a mask while talking with reporters outside the White House."

The Washington Post's live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "About two-thirds of U.S. states reported an increase in new coronavirus cases in the past week, according to data tracked by The Washington Post, indicating that colder temperatures in much of the country may be driving people indoors and helping to spread the virus. Several states in the once hard-hit Northeast were among those posting their largest new-case counts in months. But many of the sharpest increases per capita came in the Midwest and Mountain West, including Wisconsin, Iowa, Utah and the Dakotas." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "Two weeks after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention took down a statement about airborne transmission of the coronavirus, the agency on Monday replaced it with language citing new evidence that the virus can spread beyond six feet indoors. 'These transmissions occurred within enclosed spaces that had inadequate ventilation,' the new guidance said. 'Sometimes the infected person was breathing heavily, for example while singing or exercising.'... Notably, the C.D.C.'s new guidance softens a previous statement referring to the coronavirus as 'an airborne virus,' a term that may have required hospitals to treat infected patients in specialized rooms and health care workers to wear N95 masks anywhere in a hospital. The new advice instead says the virus can 'sometimes be spread by airborne transmission' and can be spread by both larger droplets and smaller aerosols released when people 'cough, sneeze, sing, talk, or breathe.'"

** Sharon LaFraniere & Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "Top White House officials are blocking strict new federal guidelines for the emergency release of a coronavirus vaccine, objecting to a provision that would almost certainly guarantee that no vaccine could be authorized before the election on Nov. 3, according to people familiar with the approval process. Facing a White House blockade, the Food and Drug Administration is seeking other avenues to ensure that vaccines meet the guidelines. That includes sharing the standards with an outside advisory committee of experts -- perhaps as soon as this week -- that is supposed to meet publicly before any vaccine is authorized for emergency use. The hope is that the committee will enforce the guidelines, regardless of the White House's reaction." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So the guy who is telling us the pre-election vaccine is totally safe is the same guy who told us Monday that we shouldn't fear the coronavirus, shouldn't let it "dominate" us & might make us feel better than we've felt in 20 years. ~~~

~~~ Adam Cancryn of Politico: "A White House decision to halt release of new standards for emergency authorization of a Covid-19 vaccine came after officials close to ... Donald Trump told the FDA that the pharmaceutical industry had objected to the tougher requirements, according to three people with knowledge of the situation. The White House cited the private-sector opposition as a chief reason for blocking the guidelines, which aim to hold companies' vaccines to a higher bar for safety and effectiveness and would likely push any authorization beyond Election Day, they said. The fact that the president was siding with drug makers over his own regulators in shelving the guidance -- which has not been previously reported -- adds a new dimension to concerns about White House interference in the FDA...." Mrs. McC: Ah, well, that's better. Let the regulated control the regulators.

~~~ Pam Belluck of the New York Times: "Nearly a third of hospitalized Covid-19 patients experienced some type of altered mental function -- ranging from confusion to delirium to unresponsiveness -- in the largest study to date of neurological symptoms among coronavirus patients in an American hospital system. And patients with altered mental function had significantly worse medical outcomes, according to the study, published on Monday in Annals of Clinical and Translational Neurology." Mrs. McC: But in Trump's case, how will we tell?

Dan Diamond of Politico: "In early September, as many school districts were still deciding whether to hold in-person classes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention altered the title of a scientific report on the coronavirus and removed words like 'pediatric' from its text, days after a Trump administration appointee requested similar changes, according to emails obtained by Politico. That request -- issued by then-public affairs official Paul Alexander -- came amid ... Donald Trump's broader push to reopen schools, with the president issuing demands on Twitter the prior day that 'Democrats, OPEN THE SCHOOLS ( SAFELY),' and holding a press conference that touted data on the relatively low risk of Covid-19 for children." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Presidential Race, Etc.

Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "As President Trump battled the coronavirus on Monday, Joseph R. Biden Jr. ventured onto the campaign trail, where he wished the president a speedy recovery but criticized his leadership, suggesting that he bore some responsibility for his positive test after flouting public health guidelines around masks and social distancing. During campaign stops in Miami and later at a town hall event hosted by NBC News, Mr. Biden sought to draw contrasts with his rival on some of the most searing matters of the day for South Florida voters, denouncing Mr. Trump's stewardship of the pandemic and lashed him for embracing autocrats. 'Anybody who contracts the virus by essentially saying masks don't matter, social distancing doesn't matter, I think is responsible for what happens to them,' Mr. Biden said at the town hall, asked whether Mr. Trump shouldered some responsibility for contracting the virus. 'Quite frankly, I wasn't surprised,' he said in response to another question. Mr. Biden ... traveled to Miami to speak to Haitian-Americans, Cuban-Americans and others from immigrant backgrounds, working to strengthen his standing with a range of constituencies in a state widely regarded as a must-win for Mr. Trump." A Washington Post story is here.

From Monday's Washington Post's live election updates: "En route to campaign stops in South Florida, [Joe] Biden said he would listen to experts to gauge whether it would be safe for him and Trump to participate in the second presidential debate next week. Trump was hospitalized Friday night after testing positive for the coronavirus. Biden so far has tested negative but shared the stage with Trump for a prolonged period during the first presidential debate last Tuesday, when the president may have already been infected.'I'll do whatever the experts say,' Biden said before boarding his campaign plane Monday morning in Delaware. 'I think we should be very cautious.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Biden Has 16-Point Lead Over Trump. Jennifer Agiesta of CNN: "Joe Biden's advantage over ... Donald Trump has expanded and the former vice president now holds his widest lead of the cycle..., according to a new nationwide CNN Poll conducted by SSRS. Among likely voters, 57% say they back Biden and 41% Trump in the poll that was conducted entirely after the first debate and mostly after the President's coronavirus infection was made public. Regardless of Biden's national lead, the race for the White House will ultimately come down to a handful of swing states that will drive the outcome in the Electoral College.... Likely voters broadly prefer Biden over Trump on a number of issues that voters consider critically important in the race, including the coronavirus outbreak (59% prefer Biden, 38% Trump), health care (59% to 39%), racial inequality in America (62% to 36%), nominations to the Supreme Court (57% to 41%) and crime and safety (55% to 43%). The two are about even over who would better handle the economy (50% say Biden, 48% Trump)...." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Don't get too excited. As Robert Gibbs pointed out on MSNBC last night when they were discussing Biden's 14-point lead in an NBC/WSJ poll, Hillary Clinton had a 14-point lead over Trump at this point in the 2016 race.

Chelsea Janes, et al., of the Washington Post: "The vice-presidential debate set for Wednesday will feature plexiglass barriers between Vice President Pence (R), Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.) and the moderator, organizers said Monday, amid a growing dispute over whether in-person debates should be held at all. The Commission on Presidential Debates agreed to the request from the Biden campaign. The Trump team did not object, though 'they didn't want the vice president surrounded by plexiglass,' said commission co-chairman Frank Fahrenkopf Jr. "They don't want to have him in what looks like a box.' Top Pence advisers said late Monday they did not support plexiglass for their candidate and that discussions were ongoing."

Is Anybody Running the Trump Campaign? Eric Bradner, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump's campaign canceled its planned television advertising in Iowa and Ohio this week, focusing its spending on states where Trump is behind even as polls show he is neck-and-neck with Democratic challenger Joe Biden in the two Midwestern states. Trump's campaign canceled its ad reservations of $2.5 million in Ohio and $820,000 in Iowa this week, according to ad-tracking firm CMAG. It'll be his third consecutive week without television ads in Iowa and Ohio. The moves come even as public polls suggest Trump needs to shore up support in the two states that he won by about 9 percentage points each in 2016.... Biden's campaign has made limited plays for Iowa and Ohio -- a state that was one of the nation's most important battlegrounds until recent elections, but has drifted in Republicans' favor in recent years."

David Edwards of the Raw Story: "Trump campaign aide Erin Perrine on Monday suggested that ... Donald Trump is a better leader than Democratic candidate Joe Biden because he has the 'firsthand experience' of being infected with COVID-19." Mrs. McC: Perrine did not address the fact that Biden has firsthand experience being a human being while Trump does not. Anyway, this is the dumbest candidate's argument I've heard in a while. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

South Carolina. Supreme Suppression. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Monday night agreed with South Carolina Republicans and said mail-in ballots must contain a witness's signature, something federal courts had said should be waived because of the coronavirus pandemic. The high court made one concession, saying ballots already sent in without a witness should be counted. Tens of thousands of ballots have been sent to voters across the state. The court's brief order did not list any objecting justices. Justices Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr. and Neil M. Gorsuch said they would have granted the request in full, meaning the ballots already in without a witness signature would not be counted." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This is a pretty good indication that the Supremes will be hard-nosed advocates for voter suppression. Biden will have to win by a lot.

Trump Invited Hate Group Leader to Covid Superspreader. Emily Holden of the Guardian: "The head of a conservative Christian non-profit organization that has been designated an anti-LGBTQ+ hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) attended the White House event announcing Donald Trump's nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett for the supreme court.... Michael Farris, who is CEO and general counsel for the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), is seen in videos speaking closely with the Republican senator Mike Lee, who has since tested positive for the coronavirus along with a number of other attendees. Farris also spoke with the Louisiana Republican congressman Mike Johnson, the head of the conservative Republican study committee who, before his election to Congress, was senior attorney and spokesman for ADF." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe I'll have to start the XAnon conspiracy theory, wherein Trump is secretly trying to save the U.S. from the Republican party & right-wing hate groups. Part of his closely held plan to disintegrate these reprobates is to make them all sick. Now I'm so ashamed of having accused him of being a treacherous junior KGB agent.

Ed Shanahan & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "After months of delays, President Trump's son Eric was questioned under oath on Monday as part of a civil investigation by New York's attorney general into whether the Trump family's real estate company committed fraud.... And while the interview was not made public, the mere fact that it happened before Election Day was a victory for the attorney general, Letitia James.... The attorney general's investigation is focused on whether the Trump Organization inflated its assets to get bank loans and tax benefits."

Buh-bye to a Bigot. Pete Williams of NBC News: "The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from Kim Davis, the former Kentucky county clerk who gained national attention five years ago when she cited her religious beliefs in refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Although the court was apparently unanimous in refusing to hear her appeal, two of the conservative justices said the 2015 ruling making same-sex marriage the law of the land amounted to a 'cavalier treatment of religion.' Davis 'may have been one of the first victims' of the decision, 'but she will not be the last,' wrote Clarence Thomas fo himself and Samuel Alito." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mike Ives of the New York Times: "John David McAfee, an antivirus software pioneer who fled Belize in 2012 ahead of a murder investigation there, has been arrested in Spain on tax evasion charges, the U.S. Justice Department said on Monday. Mr. McAfee, 75, is a Silicon Valley legend who earned millions from the computer virus-fighting software company that still bears his surname. In 2012, he disappeared from his home in Belize after the local police sought him for questioning over the death of his neighbor. He resurfaced in Guatemala City a few weeks later, then largely dropped out of the public eye for years -- until 2016, when he attempted to run as a Libertarian candidate for president of the United States. The Justice Department said on Monday that Mr. McAfee’s extradition from Spain to the United States was 'pending.'"

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "Hurricane Delta - a tiny, but intense Category 4 hurricane - is closing in on a potentially catastrophic strike on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula, including Cancún and Cozumel, and thereafter is a significant danger to the U.S. Gulf Coast beginning later Friday. Residents from the extreme upper Texas coast and Louisiana to Alabama should be checking frequently for important forecast updates and have their hurricane plans ready to go."

Rolling Stone: "Eddie Van Halen, the legendary guitar innovator and virtuoso who led Van Halen through five decades and three lead singers, establishing himself as one of the all-time great players in rock history, died Tuesday after a long battle with cancer. He was 65."

New York Times: "The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded jointly to Roger Penrose, Reinhard Genzel and Andrea Ghez on Tuesday for their discoveries that have bettered understanding of the universe, including work on black holes. Dr. Penrose was awarded half the prize 'for the discovery that black hole formation is a robust prediction of the general theory of relativity,' the committee said. The second half was split between Dr. Genzel and Dr. Ghez 'for the discovery of a supermassive compact object at the center of our galaxy,' the committee said." A CNN story is here.

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Monday

Oct052020

The Commentariat -- October 5, 2020

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Reality Chex is still bobbing up & down, but the "down" doesn't last long. However, be sure to save your comments because this also happens when you're trying to post them.

Afternoon Update:

From Monday's New York Times live updates of Covid-19 developments: "President strong> Trump's physician, Dr. Sean P. Conley, said on Monday that the president would return to the White House after having spent three nights at the Walter Reed medical center, although he was not 'out of the woods yet' in his fight against Covid-19. 'Over the past 24 hours, the president has continued to improve,' Dr. Conley said. 'He's met or exceeded all standard hospital discharge criteria.' The president's doctors evaded some key questions about the president's condition, including his lung function and the date of his last negative coronavirus test."

I will be leaving the great Walter Reed Medical Center today at 6:30 P.M. Feeling really good! Don’t be afraid of Covid. Don't let it dominate your life. We have developed, under the Trump Administration, some really great drugs & knowledge. I feel better than I did 20 years ago! -- Most Irresponsible Person in the U.S., in a tweet Monday afternoon

News from the White House Hot Zone. Brett Samuels & Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany tested positive for COVID-19, she said Monday, making her the latest person in President Trump's orbit to contract the virus. 'After testing negative consistently, including every day since Thursday, I tested positive for COVID-19 on Monday morning while experiencing no symptoms. No reporters, producers or members of the press are listed as close contacts by the White House Medical Unit,' she said in a statement." Mrs. McC: According to CNN, two people on McEnany's staff also tested positive. ~~~

~~~ "En route to campaign stops in South Florida, [Joe] Biden said he would listen to experts to gauge whether it would be safe for him and Trump to participate in the second presidential debate next week. Trump was hospitalized Friday night after testing positive for the coronavirus. Biden so far has tested negative but shared the stage with Trump for a prolonged period during the first presidential debate last Tuesday, when the president may have already been infected.'I'll do whatever the experts say,' Biden said before boarding his campaign plane Monday morning in Delaware. 'I think we should be very cautious.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Monday are here: "... the number of new cases reported each day across the United States has been slowly rising. The country is at a key moment in the pandemic, and spread of the virus could worsen significantly through the autumn, experts fear, as colder weather forces people indoors. Every day, some 43,000 new cases are being reported -- far fewer than during the surge in the summer, but still an uncomfortably large number. Some of the country's least populous states are now seeing their highest infection rates." ~~~

~~~ Natasha Korecki & David Lim of Politico: Joe Biden "is facing the prospect that the president of the United States himself might have posed the biggest Covid-19 risk to his health since the pandemic began. It could be days before the 77-year-old Biden will be in the clear, despite recent negative tests. The virus can incubate for up to 14 days. Donald Trump was quite likely infectious at the Tuesday debate, medical professionals say, considering the severity of the symptoms on Friday, in which he necessitated oxygen before being transported to Walter Reed Military Medical Center. 'A person is at their peak infectiousness in the 48-hour period before they start showing symptoms,' said Leana Wen, a former health commissioner for Baltimore and ER physician. 'If that timeline is correct, then [Trump] would actually be at the peak of contagion on Tuesday night.'... Among those inside the debate hall or who traveled with Trump that night who announced positive tests later in the week: former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, who had helped Trump with debate prep, First Lady Melania Trump, senior adviser Hope Hicks and Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien." They did not wear masks.

Thomas Kaplan, et al., of the New York Times: "For months, Joseph R. Biden Jr. has gone to great lengths to model responsible behavior in the coronavirus era.... These actions have so far helped keep Mr. Biden healthy and able to continue campaigning while President Trump, who mocked masks and held large events, is now hospitalized with Covid-19. But beyond the public examples of safety precautions, Mr. Biden's health protocols have remained largely under wraps, with his campaign saying little about what steps it is taking to protect the 77-year-old Democratic nominee. His aides will not answer questions about whether Mr. Biden is tested daily; they say simply that he is tested 'regularly.' Until this weekend, they had promised to inform the public only if he had a confirmed positive case. Then, on Saturday night..., the campaign committed to releasing the results of all of his tests. He tested negative on Sunday, the campaign said. Transparency has taken on new significance in the presidential race given the conflicting information about Mr. Trump's health and the fact that his Democratic rival, who is also in an age group that is particularly susceptible to Covid-19, was exposed to the president during their 90-minute debate on Tuesday. Mr. Biden, who is ahead in national polls and many battleground state surveys, still faces the possibility of a positive test...."

The New York Times' main article on Donald Trump's condition, by Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman, is here.

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday greeted supporters outside Walter Reed Medical Center from his motorcade, leaving his hospital suite for a 'surprise' visit as he undergoes treatment for COVID-19. The president tweeted a video in which he said he planned to go say hello to the dozens of supporters who had gathered across the street, waving Trump flags as the president was hospitalized. Moments later, video emerged of the president's motorcade passing by, with a masked Trump visible waving in the backseat. The decision raised immediate safety concerns, as the president is infected with a highly contagious virus...." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course Trump got up out of his sickbed, risking his own health as well as the health of a couple of Secret Service agents & the driver. According to reporters, some of the well-wishers were chanting QAnon conspiracy memes & holding QAnon signs. (Guardian @ 16:44 Sunday) ~~~

~~~ Update. A doctor who is an expert on the matter has harsher words for Trump than I ~~~

~~~ Brooke Seipel of the Hill: "An attending physician at Walter Reed Medical Center swiped at President Trump for leaving his hospital room and waving to supporters gathered outside from his motorcade, saying it puts those in the vehicle at risk. 'That Presidential SUV is not only bulletproof, but hermetically sealed against chemical attack. The risk of COVID19 transmission inside is as high as it gets outside of medical procedures. The irresponsibility is astounding. My thoughts are with the Secret Service forced to play,' Dr. James P. Phillips, who is also the Chief of Disaster Medicine at George Washington University Emergency Medicine. 'Every single person in the vehicle during that completely unnecessary Presidential "drive-by" just now has to be quarantined for 14 days. They might get sick. They may die. For political theater. Commanded by Trump to put their lives at risk for theater. This is insanity,' he continued." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ AND Now This. Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "Current and former Secret Service agents and medical professionals were aghast Sunday night at President Trump's trip outside the hospital where he is being treated for the coronavirus, saying the president endangered those inside his SUV for a publicity stunt. As the backlash grew, multiple aides who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal deliberations also called Trump's evening outing an unnecessary risk — but said it was not surprising. Trump had said he was bored in the hospital, advisers said. He wanted to show strength after his chief of staff offered a grimmer assessment of his health than doctors, according to campaign and White House officials. A growing number of Secret Service agents have been concerned about the president's seeming indifference to the health risks they face when traveling with him in public, and a few reacted with outrage to the trip, asking how Trump's desire to be seen outside his hospital suite justified the jeopardy to agents protecting him. 'He's not even pretending to care now,' one agent said...." ~~~

~~~ AND This. Patricia Yeo of the Daily Beast: "After teasing a 'little surprise visit' via video on Twitter, President Trump left the hospital on Sunday afternoon to wave to supporters from the back seat of an SUV. 'It's been a very interesting journey. I learned a lot about COVID,' Trump, who is still suffering from the coronavirus, said in the video. 'I learned it by really going to school, this is the real school, this isn't the "let's read the book" school, and I get it, and I understand it,' he added. Then, contradicting his own words and the advice of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the president left Walter Reed National Military Medical Center's presidential suite to wave to supporters from a car -- a decision that forced at least two Secret Service agents to don personal protective equipment as they shared the same air and enclosed space of the vehicle.... Dr. Irwin Redlener, a Columbia University expert on pandemic readiness..., said it was an awful spectacle. 'If I was his physician, I would not have approved of that. If I were the Secret Service agents' physicians, I wouldn't have approved of that either,' he said. 'The president and his entourage have been creating, almost daily, potentially superspreader events,' Redlener added." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Obviously, Trump is surrounded by flunkies who won't stand up to him even when he needlessly endangers their own health & safety. This might not be the best time to remind you that accompanying Trump into the hospital was an aide carrying the nuclear football, a briefcase that allows him to authorize a nuclear attack. Who will say "no" when Trump says, "Bring me the black box"?

Katie Thomas & Roni Rabin of the New York Times: "President Trump's doctors offered rosy assessments of his condition on Sunday, but the few medical details they disclosed -- including his fluctuating oxygen levels and a decision to begin treatment with a steroid drug -- suggested to many infectious disease experts that he is suffering a more severe case of Covid-19 than the physicians acknowledged.... Some experts raised an additional possibility: that the president is directing his own care, and demanding intense treatment despite risks he may not fully understand."

From a Guardian elections liveblog Sunday: @17:24: "The White House did not disclose that Donald Trump received a positive test result from a Covid-19 rapid test on Thursday, opting to carry on business-as-usual until the more thorough Covid-19 screening confirmed the president has Covid-19. The Wall Street Journal is reporting this afternoon from anonymous sources familiar with the matter that the president attempted to keep the positive test result from the rapid test mum, saying on Fox News Thursday night that he was awaiting test results when the president already knew about his positive rapid test result. Trump tweeted at 1 am that morning that he tested positive for Covid-19."Also, according to Political Wire, The WSJ reported that "As the virus spread among the people closest to him, Mr. Trump also asked one adviser not to disclose results of their own positive test:'Don't tell anyone.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It appears, according to the WSJ report, that Trump was trying to keep his own positive results secret until (a) he was feeling too sick to fake it, or (b) he wasn't feeling too bad & thought he could show how strong he was by easily beating the virus. That is, Trump would either hide his illness, thus infecting more people, or -- if that failed -- follow a "Cat on the Roof" strategy. ~~~

~~~ OR, as Scott Lemiuex puts it in LG&$: "The President of the United States is a remorseless sociopath."

The New York Times' live Covid-19 updates Sunday are here: "President Trump's medical team acknowledged delivering an overly rosy description of the president's illness on Saturday. 'I didn't want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction, and in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn't necessarily true,' Dr. Sean P. Conley, the White House physician, said in a briefing with reporters Sunday. The doctors said [Mrs. McC: admitted] that Mr. Trump had a 'high fever' on Friday, and that there had been two incidents when his oxygen levels dropped -- one on Friday and one on Saturday. They said Mr. Trump received oxygen at the White House on Friday; they were not clear about whether it was administered again on Saturday.... Dr. Conley said that the president had been given the steroid dexamethasone on Saturday. The drug has been shown to help patients who are severely ill with Covid-19, but it is typically not used in mild or moderate cases of the disease, and in fact could be harmful early in the course of the illness...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Conley's excuse for dissembling is a wonder to behold: "I admit I lied & covered up the truth about the status of Patient No. 1's health, but if I hadn't lied & covered up, the patient might have turned purple with rage & died because he can't handle the truth & he sure as hell doesn't want voters to know it." ~~~

~~~ Also from the Times Covid-19 updates: "Two members of the White House residence staff tested positive for the coronavirus roughly three weeks ago, according to two people familiar with the diagnoses. The people who tested positive were not employees who come in direct contact with the president and the first lady, one of the people familiar with the diagnoses said. But the positive results again raise questions about how and when President Trump may have been exposed to the virus."

None of Your Beeswax, Nosy Nancy. Axios: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said on Sunday she is receiving health updates on President Trump, who is in the hospital with the coronavirus, through the media and not through official briefings or contact with the White House.... Pelosi is second in the line of succession behind Vice President Mike Pence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Philip Bump of the Washington Post shows how the Trump campaign faked some video footage of Trump which they falsely claimed was "all one take" & staged some photos of Trump, a Sharpie & some papers a few minutes apart to give the impression Trump was working all day Saturday. (Mrs. McC: Looks to me like the same set of folders & binder in both photos.) (Also linked yesterday afternoon.

Doubling Down on Irresponsibility. Fred Hiatt of the Washington Post: "... you might have thought that President Trump's infection at least could have offered a learning moment for his supporters. If so, you would have underestimated the cynicism and amorality of the Trump campaign. So far, although it wouldn't have seemed possible, the Trump team is using this occasion to peddle even more dangerous misinformation and advice than before.... His irresponsibility in the past days, as in the past weeks and months, is beyond dispute.... Now that so many people who attended ... events [Trump held] are falling ill, the humane response would be, first, to apologize for having put people at risk -- particularly people who have no choice about the danger being imposed on them, such as security officers and servers. Then you'd hope to hear an apology for having put millions more people indirectly at risk by discouraging mask-wearing, encouraging reckless opening and undermining governors who have tried to find the right balance.... Instead, National security adviser Robert C. O'Brien ... [said on 'Face the Nation,'] 'I think the president made this very clear, he's going to continue to run this government. And we have to face this virus. We have to open up the country... It's very hard no matter what precautions you take.'" ~~~

MEANWHILE, from the "You Can't Make Up This Stuff" red file:

The White House Gift Shop is selling a “Donald J. Trump defeats Covid” commemorative coin. You can pre-order it now for $100. https://t.co/aPQ0vNRHB3
— Christina Wilkie (@christinawilkie) October 4, 2020

Michigan. Beth LeBlanc of the Detroit News: "Attorney General Dana Nessel will no longer enforce Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's executive orders after the Michigan Supreme Court ruled Friday that one of the laws underpinning the orders was unconstitutional. Nessel's decision comes as Whitmer's team has argued that her orders would stay in effect for 21 days after the ruling, a reference to a 21-day period in which parties can ask for reconsideration. But opponents have said the 21-day rule doesn't apply to rulings issued in response to a federal certified question as was the case in Friday's Supreme Court decision. Further, the language of the order, clearly calling all orders issued after April 30 to be unconstitutional seems to support immediate effect."

Presidential Race, Etc.

Mark Murray of NBC News: "Joe Biden's national lead over ... Donald Trump nearly doubled after Tuesday's presidential debate, with voters saying by a 2-to-1 margin that Biden has the better temperament to be president, according to a new NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll. The poll was conducted in the two days after the unruly and insult-filled Sept. 29 debate, but before Trump tested positive for Covid-19 and was hospitalized Friday at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center. The Democratic nominee is now ahead of Trump by 14 points among registered voters, 53 percent to 39 percent -- up from his 8-point lead in the previous poll before the debate." Mrs. McC: Other polls have Biden up, but not by as much as 14 points. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jason Wilson of the Guardian: "A militia-promoting father and son duo of fake news publishers and a Trump-connected social media consultant are linked to pages which promote the idea of an American civil war with material presented in a way that appears to be an effort to sidestep Facebook's fact-checking system.... The network is comprised of websites owned and operated by Dino Porrazzo Sr and Dino Porrazzo Jr, whose company, AFF Media, is headquartered in Pinon Hills in California. The pair have been running rightwing websites since at latest 2013.... AFF Media was incorporated on Donald Trump's inauguration day, 20 January 2017.... A Guardian review of that site's content shows ... warnings of civil war stretching back to the lead-up to the 2018 midterm elections.... The Vici Media Group [a partner company], meanwhile, is run by Patrick Mauldin, who is a social media consultant for the Trump campaign and other Republican politicians, and his brother, Ryan. The company was hired in 2016 by one-time Trump campaign manager and recently-resigned campaign consultant, Brad Parscale, to be part of the team that was widely credited with winning Trump the election.... Facebook Media did not immediately respond to a request for comment." --s ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course these are Trump's people, just like those QAnon doofuses standing outside Walter Reed that Trump jumped in an SUV to acknowledge. And for Trump, this alliance is not a temporary marriage of convenience or a pact with the devil, as many have presumed. While he may think the people themselves are "disgusting," he likes their ideas & he's counting on them to rise up if Joe Biden whups him in November.

South Carolina Senate Race. Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite: "Jaime Harrison, the former South Carolina Democratic Party Chairman who is challenging incumbent Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), brought his own plexiglass barrier to Saturday's debate to separate him from his Republican opponent.... 'We shouldn't blame the president for the inception of this disease. We shouldn't blame anybody for the inception of this disease, but where blame should come is how we handle this disease, whether or not we take it seriously.... You know, tonight, I am taking it seriously.... That's why I put this plexiglass up.'... Polls have shown the race to be a virtual tie for several months...." Mrs. McC: When Lindsey gets sick next week from palling around with Covid carriers, Harrison will be doubly thankful for that plexiglass. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "A short-handed Supreme Court -- driven from its courtroom by the pandemic, grieving over the loss of a colleague and awaiting the outcome of a divisive confirmation battle -- will return to the virtual bench on Monday to start a term that will present Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. with a daunting test. 'The chief's leadership of the court, which just a few weeks ago appeared to be at its zenith, is now in peril,' said Richard J. Lazarus, a law professor at Harvard who has taught courses on the Supreme Court with Chief Justice Roberts. 'An addition of yet another very conservative justice could quickly eliminate the chief's ability to steer the court toward moderation.' The court will again hear arguments by telephone, starting with a timely case on the role of partisanship in judging, a subject that will also figure in Senate hearings on the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett, which are scheduled to start a week from Monday."

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Rick Rojas of the New York Times has picked up a story linked here yesterday: "Seven members of the staff of Ken Paxton, the Texas attorney general, including some of his top aides, wrote a letter that surfaced over the weekend saying he should be investigated in connection with offenses including improper influence, abuse of office, bribery and other potential criminal acts.... Mr. Paxton, one of the state's highest-profile elected officials, casts himself as a conservative warrior. He appears often on Fox News and boasts of close ties to the president. Texas is leading the latest major challenge to the Affordable Care Act to reach the Supreme Court."

News Lede

New York Times: "The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine was awarded jointly to Dr. Harvey J. Alter, Michael Houghton and Charles M. Rice on Monday for the discovery of the hepatitis C virus, a breakthrough the Nobel committee said had 'made possible blood tests and new medicines that have saved millions of lives.... For the first time in history, the disease can now be cured, raising hopes of eradicating hepatitis C virus from the world population,' the committee said in a statement. They announced the prize at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm."

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Sunday

Oct042020

The Commentariat -- October 4, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Sunday greeted supporters outside Walter Reed& Medical Center from his motorcade, leaving his hospital suite for a 'surprise' visit as he undergoes treatment for COVID-19. The president tweeted a video in which he said he planned to go say hello to the dozens of supporters who had gathered across the street, waving Trump flags as the president was hospitalized. Moments later, video emerged of the president's motorcade passing by, with a masked Trump visible waving in the backseat. The decision raised immediate safety concerns, as the president is infected with a highly contagious virus...." ~~~

~~~ Update. A doctor who is an expert on the matter has harsher words for Trump than I ~~~

From a Guardian elections liveblog Sunday: @17:24: “The White House did not disclose that Donald Trump received a positive test result from a Covid-19 rapid test on Thursday, opting to carry on business-as-usual until the more thorough Covid-19 screening confirmed the president has Covid-19. The Wall Street Journal is reporting this afternoon from anonymous sources familiar with the matter that the president attempted to keep the positive test result from the rapid test mum, saying on Fox News Thursday night that he was awaiting test results when the president already knew about his positive rapid test result. Trump tweeted at 1 am that morning that he tested positive for Covid-19." Also, according to Political Wire, The WSJ reported that "As the virus spread among the people closest to him, Mr. Trump also asked one adviser not to disclose results of their own positive test:'Don't tell anyone.'" ~~~

The New York Times' live Covid-19 updates Sunday are here: "President Trump's medical team acknowledged delivering an overly rosy description of the president's illness on Saturday. 'I didn't want to give any information that might steer the course of illness in another direction, and in doing so, you know, it came off that we were trying to hide something, which wasn't necessarily true, Dr. Sean P. Conley, the White House physician, said in a briefing with reporters Sunday. The doctors said [Mrs. McC: admitted] that Mr. Trump had a 'high fever' on Friday, and that there had been two incidents when his oxygen levels dropped -- one on Friday and one on Saturday. They said Mr. Trump received oxygen at the White House on Friday; they were not clear about whether it was administered again on Saturday.... Dr. Conley said that the president had been given the steroid dexamethasone on Saturday. The drug has been shown to help patients who are severely ill with Covid-19, but it is typically not used in mild or moderate cases of the disease, and in fact could be harmful early in the course of the illness...." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Conley's excuse for dissembling is a wonder to behold: "I admit I lied & covered up the truth about the status of Patient No. 1's health, but if I had not lied & covered up, the patient might have turned purple with rage & died because he can't handle the truth & he sure as hell doesn't want voters to know it." ~~~

Philip Bump of the Washington Post shows how the Trump campaign faked some video footage of Trump which they falsely claimed was "all one take" & staged some photos of Trump, a Sharpie & some papers a few minutes apart to give the impression Trump was working all day Saturday. (Mrs. McC: Looks like the same set of folders & binder in both photos.)

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

SN.AFU. Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "The White House offered a barrage of conflicting messages and contradictory accounts about President Trump's health on Saturday as he remained hospitalized with the coronavirus for a second night and the outbreak spread to a wider swath of his aides and allies. Just minutes after the president's doctors painted a rosy picture of his condition on television, Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, gave reporters outside Walter Reed National Military Medical Center a far more sober assessment off camera, calling Mr. Trump's vital signs worrisome and warning that the next two days would be pivotal to the outcome of the illness.... The comments infuriated the president, according to people close to the situation, and he intervened directly to counter the perception that he was sicker than the White House had admitted. Within hours, he posted a message on Twitter saying, 'I am feeling well!' and called his friend and personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani to have him convey a message to the outside world. 'I'm going to beat this,' Mr. Trump told him. By evening, the president released a four-minute video meant to reassure the nation, showing him sitting at a conference table at the hospital and wearing a suit jacket but no tie. He looked wan and sounded less energetic than usual in a rambling message that included campaign talk and boasts about his record.... At one point, he offered a muddled explanation for his behavior.... Mr. Meadows later tried to walk back his earlier comments.... The inconsistencies and confusion may presage an unsettling period for the president and the country. As the doctors indicated, it may be a week to 10 days before the course of Mr. Trump's illness becomes clear, leaving America, as well as its allies and adversaries, guessing about the [country's] leadership..."

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Baker & Haberman explain how Meadows came to be named in news reports after he asked to be cited on background. Of course it was a typical Trump White House screw-up. ~~~

~~~ Sarah Ellison of the Washington Post has a full report on Meadows' "background" mess. And Jon Karl of ABC News has had enough:

It was maddening to see the White House doctor come out and refuse to answer basic questions and be clearly spinning. And then to see the background quote come out that effectively was diametrically opposed to what the doctor had just said on camera -- this is the frustration of covering this White House. You can really take almost nothing that is on the record at face value.... [Karl's New Rule:] If someone lies to you off the record, it is no longer off the record. -- Jonathan Karl of ABC News, Saturday

~~~ From Saturday's New York Times live coronavirus updates: "President Trump's vital signs were concerning over the last day and he was not out of danger, a person close to the situation said on Saturday, even as doctors mounted an aggressive effort to treat him and the coronavirus infected an ever widening swath of the president's aides and allies. While doctors maintained during a televised briefing that Mr. Trump was 'doing very well' after a night at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, they refused to provide critical details and left open the impression that the president was actually known to be sick a day earlier than previously reported.... Shortly after the upbeat briefing by the doctors, a person familiar with the president's health gave a far more sober assessment to reporters at Walter Reed on the condition of anonymity. 'The president's vitals over the last 24 hours were very concerning and the next 48 hours will be critical in terms of his care,' this person said. 'We're still not on a clear path to a full recovery.' Two people close to the White House said in separate interviews with The New York Times that the president had trouble breathing on Friday and that his oxygen level dropped, prompting his doctors to give him supplemental oxygen while at the White House.... During his televised briefing, Dr. Sean P. Conley, the White House physician, told reporters outside Walter Reed that the president was not currently on supplemental oxygen ... but repeatedly declined to say definitively whether he had ever been on oxygen." Read on. Somebody is lying here, Dr. Conley. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Update: The "person close to the situation" turns out to be Mark Meadows. Jonathan Lemire, et al., of the AP: "... Donald Trump went through a 'very concerning' period Friday and the next 48 hours 'will be critical' in his care as he battles the coronavirus at a hospital, White House chief of staff Mark Meadows said Saturday. Meadows' comments contradicted the rosy assessment of Trump's condition offered by his staff and doctors, who took pains not to reveal the president had received supplemental oxygen at the White House before his hospital admission. 'We're still not on a clear path yet to a full recovery,' said a weary Meadows.... [Dr. Sean] Conley ... revealed that Trump began exhibiting 'clinical indications' of COVID-19 on Thursday afternoon, earlier than previously known." (Also linked yesterday.)

~~~ Maeve Reston of CNN: "An attempt by ... Donald Trump's doctor to reassure the public about Trump's condition following his infection with Covid-19 only created widespread confusion and concerns about transparency on Saturday, as a source familiar with the President's health told reporters that the next 48 hours will be critical in determining how he fares.... Moments earlier on Saturday morning, the President's physician, Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley, had offered an upbeat assessment of the President's condition stating that he was feeling well, that he had been 'fever-free' for 24 hours and that his symptoms -- which included an 'extremely mild cough,' nasal congestion and fatigue -- 'are resolving and improving.'... Conley offered scant and insufficient details about the President's vital signs. He acknowledged that the President had a fever at one point, but refused to say what it was.... Conley ... declined to say when Trump had his last negative Covid-19 test...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The Lyin' King May Go Down Fighting -- the Truth. Annie Karni of the New York Times: "When Dr. Sean P. Conley stepped in front of the cameras at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center on Saturday, he delivered a briefing that seemed intended less to inform the American public than to satisfy the public relations demands of a famous and famously demanding patient -- President Trump.... But moments later, the president's chief of staff, Mark Meadows, speaking off camera and on the assumption he would not be identified, offered a contradictory assessment.... The discordant statements were a revealing insight into the dynamics behind the Trump White House's frequent release of misleading information, particularly about the president's health. Dr. Conley is a Navy doctor and Mr. Trump is not only his patient but his commander in chief."

Two Unbelievable "Corrections." Lawrence Gostin of the Daily Beast: “At the press conference Saturday, the president's doctors implied Mr. Trump has been symptomatic for 72 hours -- or at least diagnosed that long ago.... That would have been on Wednesday, well before the public was notified early Friday morning.... [Dr. Sean Conley] has since sought to correct [his original statement] to indicate he simply meant this is the third day of the president facing a COVID-19 case.... Dr. Conley did also say there was 'repeated testing' on Thursday afternoon due to exposure to a close contact.... Dr. Brian Garabaldi, another Trump physician, suggested the president received [an antibody cocktail REGN-COV2] 48 hours ago -- that is Thursday morning, a day before the White House informed the public that he had been given REGN-COV2. That timeline, too, was subsequently walked-back -- though not by Garabaldi himself -- in an attempt to suggest what was meant was in fact that this is the second day since the president received the treatment." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So far, no one has been willing to tell us the last time Trump received a negative test result. Since he went galavanting around the country to campaign events Wednesday & Thursday, we know for certain he traveled when he was contagious. The question is, did he know he know he had the virus? I would guess yes. If Conley's walkback is not believable, the walkback of Garabaldi's timeline is even less credible. No one would say, "He had a shot 48 hours ago" when he meant, "He had a shot yesterday."

White House Conducts No Contact Tracing. Josh Dawsey, et al., of the Washington Post: "Hours before President Trump tested positive for the novel coronavirus and just one day before he was admitted to the hospital, he mingled with more than 200 people at his New Jersey golf club for a campaign fundraiser. Less than a week before that, he welcomed 150 political allies and religious leaders -- including several who are now infected -- to the White House to meet the jurist he has nominated to the Supreme Court. In between, the president met with dozens of aides without wearing a mask -- even in close quarters and after top aide Hope Hicks had tested positive. He appeared before thousands at a rally in Minnesota. And he held a nationally televised debate with former vice president Joe Biden after holing up with debate preppers. But there was little evidence on Saturday that the White House or the campaign had reached out to these potentially exposed people, or even circulated guidance to the rattled staffers within the White House complex. It was the latest evidence of the administration's casual and chaotic approach to the viral threat that has already claimed more than 200,000 lives in the United States."

White House Misuses Covid-19 Testing Device. Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "For months, the White House's strategy for keeping President Trump and his inner circle safe has been to screen all White House visitors with a rapid test. But one product they use, Abbott's ID Now, was never intended for that purpose and is known to deliver incorrect results. In issuing an emergency use authorization, the Food and Drug Administration said the test was only to be used by a health care provider 'within the first seven days of symptoms.' The ID Now has several qualities in its favor: It's portable, doesn't need skilled technicians to operate and delivers results in 15 minutes. Used to evaluate someone with symptoms, the test can quickly and easily diagnose Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. But in people who are infected but not yet showing symptoms, the test is much less accurate, missing as many as one in three cases.... Still, the Trump administration has routinely used the test to screen people without symptoms, allowing anyone who tested negative to go without a mask during meetings and official proceedings." (Also linked yesterday.)

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "... in the end, the con man in the Oval Office could not con the virus.... He seemed oddly intent on tempting fate. Certainly, he put a lot of his fans, especially older ones in the most vulnerable demographic (like Herman Cain, who died of Covid after attending a Trump rally in Tulsa, Okla.), at risk with his dismissiveness about the virus, laxity on testing and tracing, and his insistence on continuing rallies.... Democrats tried to be nice. On Friday, the Biden campaign paused their negative ads, and Barack Obama said at a virtual fund-raiser that despite being in a fight 'with issues that have a lot at stake,' we're still Americans and 'we want to make sure everybody is healthy." (At the same moment, the Trump campaign issued an attack on 'lyin' Obama.')" (Also linked yesterday.)

Kevin Bohn of CNN: "One of the White House aides who works closest to ... Donald Trump has tested positive for coronavirus, a White House official confirmed to CNN. Nicholas Luna, an assistant to the President, acts as one of his 'body men,' whose job is to accompany the President throughout the day and night, putting him in close proximity to Trump...."

Chris Christie has tweeted that he has tested positive for Covid-19. Christie was part of the team that prepped Trump for the presidential debate. He has previously said that no one in the small room wore a mask. A CNN story is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Emma Newberger of CNBC: "Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has tested positive for the coronavirus and checked into Morristown Medical Center as a precautionary measure on Saturday afternoon."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) has tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming the third senator to announce in the past two days that they had contracted the virus. Johnson's office said in a statement on Saturday that he was exposed to an individual on Sept. 29 who has since tested positive for the virus." (Also linked yesterday.)

"Monomaniacal Mitch.” Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, said on Saturday that the Senate would not meet as planned next week after three senators tested positive for the coronavirus, even as he pledged to press ahead to confirm Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court.... A spokesman for the Senate Judiciary Committee said on Saturday that the panel would begin four days of confirmation hearings on Oct. 12 as planned. Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, condemned Mr. McConnell's decision to press ahead with the proceedings, calling the effort 'monomaniacal.... If it's too dangerous to have the Senate in session, it is also too dangerous for committee hearings to continue.'"

Tarpley Hitt of the Daily Beast: "As the president was treated in the hospital, the Trump campaign held indoor events and top officials said they wouldn't quarantine despite their exposure." Hitt runs down many of the events featuring maskless Trumpbots squeezed together in indoor settings & describing officials like Bill Barr & Ron Johnson flouting CDC guidelines.

The Trumpidemic Is Not All About Trump. Jay Cannon of USA Today: "The news of ... Donald Trump and members of his inner circle testing positive for COVID-19 has sent shock waves across the country, but it's not just the White House dealing with an onslaught of cases: Friday's nationwide case count was the highest daily total in nearly two months. There were 54,441 positive cases of the coronavirus reported on Friday, the highest single-day case count since Aug. 14, when the country recorded just over 64,000 cases, per Johns Hopkins University data. The country's daily cases peaked on July 16, when 77,362 positive tests were reported."

Jeanna Smialek, et al., of the New York Times: "The United States economy is facing a tidal wave of long-term unemployment as millions of people who lost jobs early in the pandemic remain out of work six months later and job losses increasingly turn permanent. The Labor Department said on Friday that 2.4 million people had been out of work for 27 weeks or more, the threshold it uses to define long-term joblessness. An even bigger surge is on the way: Nearly five million people are approaching long-term joblessness over the next two months. The same report showed that even as temporary layoffs were on the decline, permanent job losses were rising sharply. Those two problems -- rising long-term unemployment and permanent job losses -- ... could foreshadow a period of prolonged economic damage and financial pain for American families."

Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "A Philadelphia company that sells software used in hundreds of clinical trials, including the crash effort to develop tests, treatments and a vaccine for the coronavirus, was hit by a ransomware attack that has slowed some of those trials over the past two weeks. The attack on eResearchTechnology, which has not previously been reported, began two weeks ago when employees discovered that they were locked out of their data by ransomware, an attack that holds victims' data hostage until they pay to unlock it. ERT said clinical trial patients were never at risk, but customers said the attack forced trial researchers to track their patients with pen and paper."

Michigan. Dave Alsup & Susannah Cullinane of CNN: "The Michigan Supreme Court ruled Friday that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer had no authority to issue or renew executive orders relating to Covid-19 beyond April 30. The Democratic governor extended the state's coronavirus emergency declaration by executive order April 30 after the Republican-controlled Legislature advanced a bill that would not have renewed the original declaration.... Whitmer noted that the court's ruling would not take effect for at least 21 days and that her emergency declaration and orders would remain in place until then. She stressed that the coronavirus pandemic remains a clear danger...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race, Etc.

Marc Caputo of Politico: "Joe Biden is on the campaign trail. Donald Trump is in the hospital. In a role reversal, the president who mocked his rival for being weak and hiding 'in his basement' is stuck in isolation under doctors' supervision while Biden jets off to states like Michigan on Friday and Florida on Monday, with the battleground map all to himself.... Only a month remains until Election Day, and a record 3.2 million Americans already cast early ballots in 21 states, with Democrats out-voting Republicans so far. 'There is no reason not to show the country that, yes, you can go about your business -- if you do it safely, if you wear masks, if you socially distance,' Biden adviser Anita Dunn told Politico. 'The vice president has talked about this since March.' The Biden campaign, under strict orders from the candidate to not speak ill of Trump personally while he's in the hospital, announced it was pulling its negative ads out of respect to the president, though some still aired on stations that didn't take them down quickly enough."

Nate Cohn of the New York Times: "By overwhelming margins, voters in Pennsylvania and Florida were repelled by President Trump's conduct in the first general election debate, according to New York Times/Siena College surveys, as Joseph R. Biden Jr. maintained a lead in the two largest battleground states. Over all, Mr. Biden led by seven percentage points, 49 percent to 42 percent, among likely voters in Pennsylvania. He led by a similar margin, 47-42, among likely voters in Florida. The surveys began Wednesday, before the early Friday announcement that President Trump had contracted the coronavirus. There was modest evidence of a shift in favor of Mr. Biden in interviews on Friday...."

Missed this earlier this week: Cristina Marcos of the Hill (Sept. 29): "The House adopted a resolution on Tuesday to affirm the chamber's support for a peaceful transfer of power after President Trump last week declined to commit to it if he loses reelection. Lawmakers adopted the measure in a bipartisan 397-5 vote.... The five Republicans who voted against the resolution were Reps. Matt Gaetz (Fla.), Louie Gohmert (Texas), Clay Higgins (La.), Steve King (Iowa) and Thomas Massie (Ky.).... Tuesday's vote followed one last week on a virtually identical measure in the Senate, which lawmakers in that chamber passed unanimously." (Also linked yesterday.)

North Carolina Senate Race. Yes But No Dick Pix! Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Late Friday night, Cal Cunningham, the former Democratic state senator and Iraq war veteran who has been leading in his bid to oust Senator Thom Tillis, one of the Republican Party's most vulnerable incumbents, admitted to exchanging flirtatious texts with a woman who is not his wife. That news came nearly three hours after Mr. Tillis announced that he had tested positive for the coronavirus and would close his campaign headquarters, in a devastating blow to his already lagging re-election campaign.... Taken together, Mr. Cunningham's scandal and Mr. Tillis's diagnosis have upended the critical race just a month before Election Day, laying waste to both candidates' core messages just as they were preparing to make their final appeals to voters. For Mr. Cunningham, a married father of two, news of his romantic texts with a strategist based in California, reported earlier by The Raleigh News and Observer, was a blow to a carefully cultivated personal image that has been a centerpiece of his campaign."

Annals of "Journalism" to Make You Sick. Erik Wemple of the Washington Post has a report on the disgusting sexual harassment & abuse that still goes on at Fox "News" subsequent to the Roger Ailes scandal of 2016. Wemple's report centers on Kimberly Guilfoyle: what she did & what she did to cover it up. Mrs. McC: This stuff fits in with Fox's essential goal: to return to the good ole days when certain privileged white men ruled & everyone else was at their mercy.

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: "The Attorney General of Texas should be investigated by federal law enforcement for political corruption in office, according to his own aides. 'Top aides of Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton [R] have asked federal law enforcement authorities to investigate allegations of improper influence, abuse of office, bribery and other potential crimes against the state's top lawyer,' the Austin American-Statesman reported on Saturday." ~~~

~~~ Tony Plohetski of KVUE News (Austin): "The letter -- signed by executives who include Paxton's first assistant and deputies overseeing divisions such as criminal investigations and litigation -- does not provide details of the conduct they allege Paxton committed. Paxton's first assistant, Jeff Mateer, resigned last week.... Paxton, a Republican, is already facing criminal charges alleging securities fraud in Collin County."

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