REALITYCHEX.COM - Constant Comments

Wednesday

Sep232020

The Commentariat -- Sept. 24, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Here's a letter from "generals, admirals, senior noncommissioned officers, ambassadors, and senior civilian national security leaders" endorsing Joe Biden for president. Includes a list of signers.

"Fraud Was a Way of Life.” Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "In her best-selling memoir, Mary L. Trump, President Trump's niece, told a family story that detailed the ways in which she claims her relatives -- the president among them -- tricked, bullied and ultimately cheated her out of an inheritance worth tens of millions of dollars. On Thursday, more than two months after the book was published and a little more than one month before the election, Ms. Trump told her story again -- this time in a lawsuit. The suit, filed in State Supreme Court in Manhattan, accused Mr. Trump, his sister Maryanne Trump Barry and their brother Robert Trump, who died in August, of fraud and civil conspiracy. It seeks to recover the millions of dollars Ms. Trump claims to have lost. In its first sentence, the lawsuit says that, for the Trumps, 'fraud was not just the family business -- it was a way of life.' Beginning in the 1980s, the suit contends, the president and his siblings took control of the New York City real estate empire their father, Fred Trump Sr., had built and 'exploited it to enrich themselves' to the detriment of everyone around them." A copy of the complaint, via the Times, is here. It's an entertaining read. ~~~

~~~ The Daily Beast's story is here. A ScribD copy of the complaint, via the Hill, is here.

When We Should Believe the Biggest Liar. Chuck Todd, et al., of NBC News argue that we should take Trump at his word that he will fight an orderly transfer of power. ~~~

~~~ Kevin Liptak of CNN lists "a string of provocative comments by the President openly undermining the electoral process[.]" ~~~

~~~ Notice how, as the reporter asks the question about the peaceful transfer of power, Trump "signs" an objection to the reporter's mask:

~~~ Orion Rummler of Axios: "FBI Director Christopher Wray responded to a question on the security of mail-in voting to the Senate Homeland Security Committee on Thursday by saying that the agency has 'not seen, historically, any kind of coordinated national voter fraud effort in a major election, whether it's by mail or otherwise.'"

Cameron Joseph of Vice: "President Trump's campaign is running a television ad claiming that he built 'the best' economy in history, and will do so again. But it uses film of a visit he made to a steel plant that recently furloughed hundreds of workers.... The clip is from a 2018 visit to the company's Granite City, Illinois plant.... U.S. Steel notified employees that they would lay off as many as 737 workers at the Granite City plant in late April following news that major auto companies would stop production at many plants as COVID cases spiked across the country. That came as part of a wider series of cuts. A company spokeswoman said at the time that 2,700 total layoffs would occur immediately, and the company warned 6,500 total workers that they could face furloughs or layoffs — one third of the company’s total staff."

Anybody Having Anything to Do with Trump Is Corrupt. Jamie Ross of the Daily Beast: "Alexander Nix, the man who was running Cambridge Analytica when it harvested the Facebook data of tens of millions voters without their knowledge so it could be exploited by the Trump 2016 campaign, has been banned from directing any companies for seven years. The now-defunct Cambridge Analytica was a U.K. digital black-ops firm that collapsed in 2018 following revelations that it secretly collected Facebook profile information on 87 million people. The Daily Beast revealed two years ago that Team Trump used audience lists created by Cambridge Analytica to target 'dark ads' on Facebook during the final months of the 2016 campaign up to Trump's inauguration. Nix ... was secretly recorded by Britain's Channel 4 blabbing about its work for Trump and effectively claiming that Cambridge Analytica was to thank for Trump becoming president."

Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "A leading congressional ally of ... Donald Trump alleged last week that Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-GA) threatened to withhold financial support for the president's re-election effort unless he helped get her top Republican opponent out of the race. According to Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL), Loeffler or her representatives approached the Trump campaign and offered to spend tens of millions of dollars on Trump's behalf. But that financial support would only come, Loeffler's team supposedly said, if Trump helped convince Rep. Doug Collins (R-GA) to drop his Senate bid. Gaetz supports Collins and was speaking at a campaign event. The post is members-only firewalled, but you can read the first bit. The Raw Story has a summary report here.

Robert McCarthy of the Buffalo News: "Michael R. Caputo, the East Aurora political consultant at the center of controversy over the Trump administration's Covid-19 messaging, has been diagnosed with cancer. Assemblyman David J. DiPietro, R-East Aurora, acting as Caputo's spokesman, said Thursday that the Health and Human Services spokesman on leave from his assistant secretary post has 'squamous cell carcinoma, a metastatic head and neck cancer which originated in his throat.'... Caputo said he entered the National Cancer Institute at the urging of Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, who noticed the lump, and that the president directed arrangements for his admission and had checked on him."

Another Ungrammatical Trump Super-lie. I think we're rounding the turn very much. -- Donald Trump, on U.S. progress on management of the coronavirus, September 23 "briefing" ~~~

~~~ Sam Baker & Andrew Witherspoon of Axios: "The coronavirus is surging once again across the U.S., with cases rising in 22 states over the past week.... There isn't one big event or sudden occurrence that explains this increase. We simply have never done a very good job containing the virus, despite losing 200,000 lives in just the past six months, and this is what that persistent failure looks like.... The U.S. is now averaging roughly 43,000 new cases per day, a 16% increase from a week ago." Mrs. McC: Includes a map which shows the virus on the increase mostly in Midwest & Western states; IOW, Trump territory. "Rounding the turn very much"? Uh, very not so much.

David Lieb & Jim Salter of the AP: "Missouri Gov. Mike Parson, a Republican who has steadfastly refused to require residents to wear masks, tested positive for the coronavirus, his office said Wednesday. Parson was tested after his wife, Teresa, tested positive earlier in the day. Teresa Parson had experienced mild symptoms, including a cough and nasal congestion, spokeswoman Kelli Jones said. She took a rapid test that came back positive and a nasal swab test later confirmed the finding. The governor's rapid test showed he tested positive and he is still awaiting results from the swab test.... 'Right now I feel fine. No symptoms of any kind,' Parson said in the video. 'But right now we just have to take the quarantine procedures in place.'"

Fred Imbert of CNBC: "The number of first-time filers for unemployment benefits were slightly higher than expected last week as the labor market continues its sluggish recovery from the coronavirus pandemic. The Labor Department reported Thursday that initial jobless claims for the week ending Sept. 19 came in at 870,000, adjusted for seasonal fluctuations."

If Republicans lose we will accept the result. If the Supreme Court rules in favor of Joe Biden, I will accept that result. -- Lindsey Graham on Fox "News" Thursday ~~~

~~~ Marianne Levine, et al., of Politico: "Congressional Republicans gently pushed back Thursday against ... Donald Trump's refusal to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the November election.... But no one condemned Trump directly by name, and they declined to weigh in on whether it was appropriate for the president to suggest he won't leave office. 'The winner of the November 3rd election will be inaugurated on January 20th,' [tweeted] Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. 'There will be an orderly transition just as there has been every four years since 1792.'... 'As we have done for over two centuries we will have a legitimate [and] fair election,' added Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), the chairman of the Intelligence Committee. 'It may take longer than usual to know the outcome, but it will be a valid one. And at noon on Jan 20, 2021 we will peacefully swear in the president.'... House GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), one of the few Republicans willing to publicly rebuke the president, said Thursday that transferring power 'is enshrined in our Constitution and fundamental survival of our Republic' and vowed that American leaders would uphold their oath to the Constitution. Rep. Steve Stivers (R-Ohio), a former chair of the House Republicans' campaign arm, echoed her remarks." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This would be more reassuring if we knew how Mitch defines "an orderly transition." It very well could include complicity in Trump's plans to undermine the results. ~~~

~~~ Stephen Collinson of CNN: "... Donald Trump's refusal on Wednesday to guarantee a peaceful transfer of power if he loses to Joe Biden in November is leading America towards a dark place during a year of incendiary political tensions. Trump's intransigence, included in his latest assault on perfectly legitimate mail-in ballots on Wednesday, posed a grave threat to the democratic continuum that has underpinned nearly 250 years of republican government....The President's comments risked not only dealing another blow to an election in which he has been trailing and has incessantly tarnished, but could send a signal to his supporters about how to react if the Democratic nominee prevails in 41 days.... Trump's near simultaneous warning on Wednesday that he thinks the election will end up being decided by the Supreme Court also raises the risk of a constitutional imbroglio likely to be worse than the disputed 2000 election."

Emma Austin & Lewis Aulbach of the Louisville Courier Journal: "Louisville police arrested 127 people during Wednesday protests following the announcement that just one of three Louisville Metro Police officers who fired shots in Breonna Taylor's apartment will be criminally charged, and one suspect was arrested after LMPD officials said two officers were shot that night.... Police arrested one suspect in connection with the shooting that injured two police officers. Both victims were taken to the hospital and in stable condition, acting chief Robert Schroeder said Wednesday night. The suspect in that shooting was identified Thursday morning as Larynzo Johnson, of Louisville."

~~~~~~~~~~

Mark Leibovich of the New York Times: "As 20,000 tiny flags waved in the grass around the Washington Monument to memorialize more than 200,000 Americans dead from the coronavirus, mourners lined up on Wednesday to pay respects to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, whose coffin lay outside at the top of the Supreme Court steps. At the same time, Senate Republicans worked to codify the compressed time frame to push through President Trump's conservative nominee to replace the liberal Justice Ginsburg. Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, released an 87-page report targeting the work of Hunter Biden's doings in Ukraine. And President Trump tweeted yet again about his dislike for Senator John McCain while denigrating former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. ... as 'John McCain's lapdog.'... Justice Ginsburg's death has brought a particular whiplash of sadness and rage in recent days to Washington, an overwhelmingly Democratic city...."

Presidential Race, Etc.

Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "Less than six weeks from Election Day, Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday shied away from two major issues of deep importance to Democrats, giving cautious responses to reporters' questions about the police shooting of Breonna Taylor and President Trump's imminent nomination for the Supreme Court.... Mr. Biden said in response to a reporter's question that he had 'not seen the report' [on the Kentucky grand jury findings] and that he knew only broad information.... Two hours later, he issued a statement, sent by his campaign. 'A federal investigation remains ongoing, but we do not need to wait for the final judgment of that investigation to do more to deliver justice for Breonna,' Mr. Biden said in the statement. He said the use of 'excessive force' needed to be addressed and made an appeal against violence.... Mr. Biden's hesitancy to engage with top-of-mind issues reflected the risk-averse approach he has taken to several facets of his campaign...." ~~~

~~~ Mrs Bea McCrabbie: I think Ember is wrong about this. Biden knows how a real president reacts to legal controversies & presidential appointments, and Biden plans to be a real president. You may recall that Biden had to help clean up after President Obama muffed a response to a minor altercation Henry Louis Gates of Harvard had with Cambridge police in 2009. Don't believe everything you read in the papers. ~~~

~~~ Here's Joe Biden's full statement.

Courtney Kube & Dan De Luce of NBC News: "More than 200 retired generals and admirals endorsed Joe Biden for president in a letter published Thursday, saying he had the character and judgment to serve as commander-in-chief instead of ... Donald Trump, who has failed 'to meet challenges large or small.' Some of the officers who signed the letter supporting Biden had retired only in the past few years.... By law, military service members must remain apolitical while in uniform, but most senior officers stay out of the political arena even after they hang up their uniforms." Mrs. McC: Whither John Kelly, H.R. McMaster, Jim Mattis?

** Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "President Trump refused Wednesday to commit to a peaceful transfer of power if he loses the election, asserting that if he doesn't win, it will be because of fraudulent mail-in voting and not because more Americans voted against him.... 'Well, we’re going to have to see what happens. You know that I've been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster --' Trump began when asked during a White House press briefing if he would ensure a peaceful transition.... 'Get rid of the ballots, and you'll have a very -- we'll have a very peaceful, there won't be a transfer, frankly. There'll be a continuation,' Trump said. 'The ballots are out of control. You know it. And you know who knows it better than anybody else? The Democrats know it better than anybody else.'" Emphasis added. A CNN story is here. ~~~

~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Perhaps the most stunning part of this report is that it is not a banner headline in either the WashPo or the NYT. In fact, at 9:30 pm ET Wednesday, the Times doesn't even have a stand-alone story on a POTUS* who say he won't commit to leaving the White House at the end of his term. ~~~

~~~ Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) pushed back on Wednesday against President Trump, who refused to commit to a peaceful transition of power should he lose the election in November. 'Fundamental to democracy is the peaceful transition of power; without that, there is Belarus. Any suggestion that a president might not respect this Constitutional guarantee is both unthinkable and unacceptable,' Romney tweeted.... Romney, who is one of the GOP senators most willing to publicly criticize Trump, is the first Republican lawmaker to weigh in on the president's comments made from the White House on Wednesday." Mrs. McC: Romney, of course, knows what it's like to lose a presidential election that he thought he would win right up until the time the results rolled in.

~~~ ** MEANWHILE. Barton Gellman of the Atlantic: "Donald Trump may win or lose, but he will never concede. Not under any circumstance.... A lot of people ... frame [this] as a concern, unthinkable for presidents past, that Trump might refuse to vacate the Oval Office if he loses. They generally conclude, as [Joe] Biden has, that in that event the proper authorities 'will escort him from the White House with great dispatch.' The worst case, however..., is that [Trump] uses his power to prevent a decisive outcome against him. If ... his Republican allies play the parts he assigns them, he could obstruct the emergence of a legally unambiguous victory for Biden in the Electoral College and then in Congress. He could prevent the formation of consensus about whether there is any outcome at all.... Trump's state and national legal teams are already laying the groundwork for postelection maneuvers that would circumvent the results of the vote count in battleground states." Gellman goes through a long list of those maneuvers until he gets to this: "According to sources in the Republican Party at the state and national levels, the Trump campaign is discussing contingency plans to bypass election results and appoint loyal electors in battleground states where Republicans hold the legislative majority. With a justification based on claims of rampant fraud, Trump would ask state legislators to set aside the popular vote and exercise their power to choose a slate of electors directly.... Republicans control both legislative chambers in the six most closely contested battleground states." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The Atlantic story is firewalled; I used perhaps my last freebie on it. But Ken W. has provided a link to a synopsis published in Forbes. BTW, if you watched Frontline's "The Choice," which I did based on P.D. Pepe's advice, you'll understand why this is a genuine threat, not just hot air. And if you've been watching Republicans who condemned Trump before they embraced him, then you will know they will go along with treasonous insurrection. In fact, if you've heard them "explaining" why it's perfectly reasonable to allow Trump to make a Supreme Court appointment while the election was ongoing when they refused to allow Obama to do so many, many months before the 2016 election, then you'll know they will betray their oaths and sleep peacefully. ~~~

~~~ Ari Berman of Mother Jones: "Trump's effort to corrupt core institutions [like the USPS & Census, both of which are mandated in the Constitution] for the benefit of his ruling clique bears an eerie resemblance to the slide toward authoritarianism in other countries.... The extraordinary efforts to undermine the mail and census should prepare us for the possibility of an even more egregious abuse of power to keep Trump in office.... It's not difficult to imagine an Election Day scenario in which Trump prematurely declares victory based on his lead among in-person votes, which are quicker to tally than mail-in votes in many states and are expected to lean more Republican. Trump then seeks to invalidate the mail-in ballots that favor Democrats before they're counted.... If that happens, the question won't be whether American democracy can survive Trump. We'll already know that it hasn't." ~~~

~~~ Richard Hasen in Slate: "With less than six weeks to go before Election Day, and with over 250 COVID-related election lawsuits filed across 45 states, the litigation strategy of the Trump campaign and its allies has become clear: try to block the expansion of mail-in balloting whenever possible and, in a few key states, create enough chaos in the system and legal and political uncertainty in the results that the Supreme Court, Congress, or Republican legislatures can throw the election to Trump if the outcome is at all close or in doubt. It's a Hail Mary, but in a close enough election, we cannot count the possibility out. I've never been more worried about American democracy than I am right now.... This is a five-alarm fire, folks." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It should be clear by now that Trump is not thinking about or planning to overturn a Biden victory; he is in the act of doing so right now.

~~~ Plus This: Trump, et al., Say New Justice Needed to Ensure Trump's Re-Election. Christopher Wilson of Yahoo! News: "President Trump, who has spent the past several months baselessly arguing that Democrats might try to steal the November election from him, now says that the Senate must quickly confirm a new Supreme Court justice to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg in case the court has to rule on the outcome. 'We need nine justices,' Trump said at the White House Tuesday. 'You need that with the unsolicited millions of ballots that they're sending. It's a scam. It's a hoax. Everybody knows that. And the Democrats know it better than anybody else. So you're going to need nine justices out there. I think it's very important.'... Vice President Mike Pence reiterated the message during an interview with CBS News' Norah O'Donnell.... And in an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz also said a new justice should be confirmed by Election Day in case it needs to weigh in on results." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump Plans to Make More Empty Promises Today. Josh Dawsey & Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "President Trump is pushing advisers to deliver health-care 'wins' in the final weeks of the campaign, leading to a frenzied rollout of proposals as polls show the president's handling of the coronavirus pandemic and health-care policy are two of his biggest vulnerabilities in his reelection bid. Trump is scheduled to deliver a speech Thursday in Charlotte, broadly outlining how he would approach health-care policy in a second term, though the speech is likely to be light on details. Instead, Trump will tout the administration's efforts to lower drug prices, address surprise medical bills and improve health-care price transparency, according to two senior administration officials and an outside lobbyist familiar with the plans. He is expected to mostly avoid speaking about repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, something he has long promised to do but a position that is unpopular with voters."

Dan Merica & Devon Sayers of CNN: "Florida's attorney general has requested that the FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement investigate Michael Bloomberg's efforts to reinstate the voting rights of felons by paying their fees, according to a letter to the agencies provided to CNN by the attorney general's office. Republican Attorney General Ashley Moody said she requested that the agencies investigate 'potential violations of election laws.' Bloomberg ... and his political operation have raised more than $16 million from supporters and foundations over the last week to pay the court fines and fees for more than 30,000 Black and Latino voters in Florida with felonies, allowing them to vote in the upcoming election. The fundraising effort, according to multiple Bloomberg aides, will benefit the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, an organization run by formerly incarcerated people who are working to make it easier for ex-felons to vote.... The attorney general said Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis' office had asked her to review the matter." Thanks to Bobby Lee for the lead. Mrs. McC: Floridians voted overwhelmingly to allow ex-felons to vote.

Chutzpah & Corruption, Ctd.

Dan Alexander of Forbes: "Donald Trump never really got out of business. Sure, he handed day-to-day management of his companies to his children, like a lot of tycoons who get preoccupied with other interests late in life. But the president held onto ownership of his assets after taking office, ensuring that he would continue to generate money while serving in the White House. From 2017 to 2019, the president's businesses raked in an estimated $1.9 billion of revenue." --s

Taking the DOJ Further Down the Rabbithole. Adam Goldman, et al., of the New York Times: "From the beginning, John H. Durham's inquiry into the Russia investigation has been politically charged. President Trump promoted it as certain to uncover a 'deep state' plot against him, Attorney General William P. Barr rebuked the investigators under scrutiny, and he and Mr. Durham publicly second-guessed an independent inspector general and traveled the globe to chase down conspiracy theories. It turns out that Mr. Durham also focused attention on certain political enemies of Mr. Trump: the Clintons.... Mr. Durham ... has sought documents and interviews about how federal law enforcement officials handled an investigation around the same time into allegations of political corruption at the Clinton Foundation.... Mr. Durham's efforts suggest the scope of his review is broader than previously known.... Right-wing news media and prominent Republicans have long promoted a narrative that the F.B.I.'s leadership and the Justice Department under the Obama administration were biased in favor of Hillary Clinton."

Michael Schmidt & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "White House aides improperly intervened to prevent a manuscript by President Trump's former national security adviser John R. Bolton from becoming public, a career official said in a letter filed in court on Wednesday, accusing them of making false assertions and trying to coerce her to join their efforts, and suggesting that they retaliated when she refused. In an extraordinary 18-page document, a lawyer for the official who oversaw the book's prepublication review, Ellen Knight, portrays the Trump administration as handling its response to the book in bad faith. Her account implied that the Justice Department may have told a court that the book contains classified information -- and opened a criminal investigation into Mr. Bolton -- based on false pretenses. An aide to Mr. Trump also 'instructed her to temporarily withhold any response' to a request from Mr. Bolton to review a chapter on Mr. Trump's dealings with Ukraine so it could be released during the impeachment trial, wrote Ms. Knight's lawyer, Kenneth L. Wainstein. He said that his client had determined in April that Mr. Bolton's book, 'The Room Where It Happened,' no longer contained any classified information, but the 'apolitical process' was then 'commandeered by political appointees for a seemingly political purpose' to go after Mr. Bolton. The actions she was asked to take were 'unprecedented in her experience,' the letter said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's story, by Spencer Hsu & Rosalind Helderman, is here. See also Patrick's commentary yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Julia Ainsley of NBC News: "The consulting firm where the wife of acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf is an executive has been awarded more than $6 million in contracts from the Department of Homeland Security since September 2018, according to records on the federal government website USA Spending. Wolf became chief of staff at the Transportation Security Administration, a DHS agency, in 2017 and chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen in 2018. He took over as acting secretary in November and has been nominated to become secretary. His confirmation hearing before the Senate is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday...." --s

All the Best People, Ctd. Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "President Trump nominated on Wednesday a onetime aide to one of his top congressional allies to serve as the inspector general of the intelligence community, succeeding a former official who played a role in revealing the Ukraine whistle-blower complaint that prompted impeachment proceedings and was later fired. The nominee, Allen Robert Souza, who must be confirmed by the Senate, is a senior intelligence official on the National Security Council staff who previously served on the intelligence staff of Representative Devin Nunes, Republican of California and one of the president's fiercest supporters on Capitol Hill. The inspector general is traditionally meant to be an apolitical watchdog of the nation's spy agencies.... Critics have seen Mr. Nunes's aides as deeply ideological, in large measure because they viewed the investigation into Russian influence in the 2016 election as a liberal plot to undermine Mr. Trump. As the minority staff director, Mr. Souza helped shape the Republican attack on the report by Robert S. Mueller...." Emphasis added.

Adam Schiff, Jerrold Nadler, Carolyn Maloney, John Yarmuth, Zoe Lofgren, Eliot Engel & Richard E. Neal, all chairs of House committees, in a Washington Post op-ed, propose legislative reforms to curb the illicit activities of "a lawless president." Thanks to Ken W. for the link. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Kevin Williams, et al., of the Washington Post: "A Kentucky grand jury determined Wednesday that two officers involved in the death of Breonna Taylor were justified in firing their weapons into her apartment, while another was charged with recklessly firing rounds into a neighboring unit, an outcome that has inflamed racial protests nationwide. After a four-month investigation into Taylor's death on March 13, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) made the announcement at an emotional news conference that he said marked the end of the state's formal investigation into a death that has galvanized the nation's Black Lives Matter movement. Cameron said the three officers who served a warrant at Taylor's apartment after midnight were justified in shooting at Taylor, a 26-year-old emergency room technician, because her boyfriend fired at them first after officers used a battering ram to break into the unit." Mrs. McC: This is not going to cut it, to say the least. ~~~

~~~ Richard Oppel, et al., of the New York Times: "... no one was charged for causing Ms. Taylor's death." Mrs. McC: This is probably the most stunning outcome of a grand jury probe led by the state's attorney general Daniel Cameron, a protégé of Mitch McConnell's, who spoke at Trumpapalooza convention. One pundit on MSNBC suggested that Cameron was waiting for a federal judgeship. Sounds plausible. ~~~

~~~ Ray Sanchez & Elizabeth Joseph of CNN: "A former Louisville police officer has been indicted by a grand jury on three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree in connection with the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor. The long-awaited charges against the former officer, Brett Hankison, were immediately criticized by demonstrators who had demanded more serious counts and the arrests of the three officers involved in the March shooting. The other two officers -- Sgt. John Mattingly and Det. Myles Cosgrove -- were not charged following months of demonstrations." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ From New York Times live updates: "Two Louisville police officers were shot during demonstrations on Wednesday night, the police chief said, after a grand jury decided to not charge any officer in the killing of Breonna Taylor, instead indicting one former detective for recklessly firing into another apartment during the raid of her home. Robert J. Schroeder, the Louisville police chief, said at a brief news conference that a suspect was in custody and that neither of the officers' injuries were life-threatening. One of the officers was alert and stable, and the other was in surgery, he said." ~~~

~~~ Chelsea Janes of the Washington Post: "Top Democrats decried the decision by Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron (R) to charge only one officer involved in Breonna Taylor's shooting, and not for her death, calling it another example of the systemic injustice faced by Black Americans. 'Breonna Taylor. Breonna Taylor. Breonna Taylor,' House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) interrupted as a previously planned segment on MSNBC wrapped up Wednesday afternoon. 'Say her name.' Pelosi and other congressional leaders also used the moment to call for police reform and an overhaul of the criminal justice system."

Robert Barnes, et al., of the Washington Post: "Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. eulogized Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a 'rock star' whose legal victories as a crusading lawyer for women's rights and her decisions over 27 years as a justice moved the nation closer to the goal of 'equal justice under law.... Among the words that describe Ruth: Tough. Brave. A fighter. A winner,' a red-eyed Roberts said during a ceremony in the Supreme Court's Great Hall. 'But also: Thoughtful. Careful. Compassionate. Honest.' Dozens of black-clad former clerks lined the steps of the marble building as Supreme Court police officers delivered Ginsburg's casket to the Great Hall, where justices traditionally have been remembered.... A small gathering of family and close friends gathered for words from Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt, whose husband, Ari, is among 159 former clerks who served Ginsburg in her more than 40 years as a justice and an appeals court judge." A Politico story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Andrew Keh of the New York Times: In 1972, Ruth Bader Ginsburg & an ACLU colleague filed a lawsuit on behalf of Abbe Seldin, a 15-year-old Teaneck, New Jersey, tennis player who wanted to play on her school's only tennis team, which was limited to male players. The State of New Jersey & the school ultimately relented before the case was tried.

Abby Livingston of the Texas Tribune: "A ceremonial resolution honoring the life of the late U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg failed in the Senate on Tuesday after U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz objected to language his Democratic counterparts added noting her dying wish that a successor not be chosen until after the presidential inauguration early next year. The war of words on the Senate floor is likely a preamble to a coming brawl to replace Ginsburg.... 'Under the Constitution, members of the judiciary do not appoint their own successors[, Cruz said]. [Minority Leader Chuck] Schumer took to the floor immediately after Cruz spoke, stating that he believed 'Justice Ginsburg would easily see through the legal sophistry' of Cruz's argument. He said Cruz turned the late justice's 'dying words' against her, which Schumer said is 'so, so beneath the dignity of this body. I do not modify.' Cruz then objected to the resolution, and it did not pass." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jamelle Bouie, speaking to Mary Harris of Slate: "On a practical level, the United States population has grown by about 100 million since the last time the courts were expanded under Jimmy Carter. So there's a very real need for more judges at the district and circuit court level. Create more circuits and create more districts -- that would have the side effect of basically nullifying most of Trump's additions to the judiciary. And that can stand as a threat to the Supreme Court, to say that if you stand in our way, we will just add more seats to your lower courts." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here.

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Wednesday that the White House 'may or may not' approve new Food and Drug Administration guidelines that would toughen the process for approving a coronavirus vaccine, and suggested the plan 'sounds like a political move.'... 'That has to be approved by the White House.'... The pronouncement once again undercut government scientists who had spent the day trying to bolster public faith in the promised vaccine. Just hours earlier, four senior physicians leading the federal coronavirus response strongly endorsed the tighter safety procedures, which would involve getting outside expert approval before a vaccine could be declared safe and effective by the F.D.A.... [Trump] pointedly said he had 'tremendous trust in these massive companies' that are testing the vaccines, adding, 'I don't know that a government as big as' the federal government could do as well."

Ed Pilkington of the Guardian: "There is a Groundhog Day quality to the American experience of Covid-19. Back in March there was public outcry that, under Trump, protective gear to keep health workers safe was in critically short supply, testing for coronavirus was woefully inadequate and black Americans were dying in grotesquely disproportionate numbers. Today, six months later, exactly the same laments can be heard.... In March the Guardian asked Jeremy Konyndyk ...[of] the Center for Global Development who was at the forefront of the US government response to Ebola in 2014, to give his take on how the pandemic was being handled. He called the Trump administration's effort 'one of the greatest failures of basic governance in modern times'." --s

In testimony Wednesday morning, Dr. Tony Fauci politely slaps down a self-certified know-it-all ophthalmologist:

~~~ Brianna Ehley of Politico: "The government's top infectious disease doctor on Wednesday accused Sen. Rand Paul of repeatedly misconstruing information about the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, including making misleading claims about herd immunity and the effects of mitigation measures. Testifying before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, Anthony Fauci rejected Paul's assertion that the United States' mitigation and lockdown efforts were misguided. Paul cited the experiences of countries like Sweden that did not take aggressive measures to control the virus, arguing that 'our death rate is essentially worse than Sweden's.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "Whenever Sen. Rand Paul and Anthony S. Fauci appear at the same hearing together, they are bound to clash.... Through it all, Fauci has been characteristically diplomatic. But on Wednesday, he seemed to reach his breaking point. Paul (R-Ky.), as he often has, questioned the strict mitigation measures that states across the country had undertaken. He accused Fauci of being too laudatory of New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D).... 'No, you misconstrued that, senator, and you've done that repetitively in the past,' Fauci shot back. 'They got hit very badly. They've made some mistakes. Right now — if you look at what's going on right now, the things that are going on in New York to get their test-positivity 1 percent or less is because they are looking at the guidelines that we have put together from the task force....' Paul interrupted, positing that New York is actually in much better shape right now because it has attained some form of herd immunity.... 'I challenge that,' [Fauci] said. He asked for more time to respond, 'because this happens with Senator Rand all the time.... You are not listening to what the director of the CDC [Robert Redfield] said,' Fauci added, 'that in New York, it's about 22 percent [that have tested positive]. If you believe 22 percent is herd immunity, I believe you're alone in that.'... Paul's claims are indeed highly questionable."

Louisiana. Mimi Dwyer of Reuters: "A Louisiana megachurch pastor charged with repeatedly violating state coronavirus orders was denied entry to his court hearing Tuesday morning after refusing to wear a face mask. Tony Spell, pastor of Life Tabernacle Church in Baton Rouge, was charged in late March with violating stay-at-home orders implemented by Governor John Bel Edwards. His lawyer pleaded not guilty Tuesday morning while Spell remained outside." --s

The Smear That Wasn't. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "An election-year investigation by Senate Republicans into corruption allegations against Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his son, Hunter, involving Ukraine found no evidence of improper influence or wrongdoing by the former vice president, closing out an inquiry its leaders had hoped would tarnish the Democratic presidential nominee.... An 87-page report summing up the findings, released jointly on Wednesday by the Senate Homeland Security and Finance Committees, contained no evidence that the elder Mr. Biden improperly manipulated American policy toward Ukraine or committed any other misdeed. In fact, investigators heard witness testimony that rebutted those charges. The homeland security panel's Republican chairman, Senator Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, had made little secret of his political ambitions for his report, boasting for weeks that his findings would demonstrate Mr. Biden's 'unfitness for office.' Instead, the result delivered on Wednesday appeared to be little more than a rehashing six weeks before Election Day of unproven allegations that echo an active Russian disinformation campaign and have been pushed by Mr. Trump." ~~~

~~~ Ron & Chuck's Excellent Misadventure. Andrew Desiderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "For a year, Senate Republicans have teased a bombshell investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden that could rock the former vice president's campaign for the White House. But an interim report, issued by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) less than six weeks before the presidential election and released publicly on Wednesday, is largely a compilation of previously public information -- some of it rehashed anew by witnesses who already testified during the House's impeachment inquiry last year -- as well as news articles and strongly worded insinuations with little evidence to back them up.... The report does little to substantiate allegations against the Democratic presidential nominee, which have been fueled in part by foreign actors linked to the Kremlin whom U.S. officials have said are attempting to interfere in the 2020 election.... The investigation -- which lacked majority support among members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that Johnson chairs -- ... states that Hunter Biden's role 'cast a shadow' over U.S.-Ukraine policy, but provides no evidence that U.S. foreign policy was impacted." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sounds as if Ron & Chuck put together a teenage-type scrapbook of their childish hopes & dreams. Such a fun way to while away the hours -- and at taxpayer expense! ~~~

~~~ It Gets Worse. Josh Kovensky of TPM: "Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) accidentally revealed more evidence of corruption in the Trump administration's dealings with Ukraine in the course of his investigation into Hunter Biden, according to a letter from Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR).... Lawmakers came across the evidence last week during the testimony of Amos Hochstein, who serves on the supervisory board of state-owned Ukrainian oil and gas holding Naftogaz. Hochstein told the investigation that former Energy Secretary Rick Perry 'inappropriately pressured the Ukrainian government' to place a Houston-based businessman named Robert Bensch on the board of Naftogaz, while other DOE officials pressed Kyiv to sign an agreement with a 'private business entity connected to Mr. Bensh,' the letter reads." ~~~

~~~ Kovensky's post includes a reproduction of Wyden's letter, which also fingers Perry for placing a second guy, Michael Bleyzer, on the Naftogaz board; Bleyzer then miraculously got favorable business deals in Ukraine, too. Mrs. McC: So the Dumbest Senator tried to smear Joe Biden for exerting improper influence on the Ukraine government & instead he accidentally nailed Rick Perry for actually exerting improper pressure on Ukraine. Kinda perfect. ~~~

~~~ Greg Sargent & Paul Waldman of the Washington Post find this all fairly delightful: "President Trump has spent over two years trying to 'prove' that Joe Biden's activities in Ukraine were corrupt. He and lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani schemed over this for many months, with Trump ultimately trying to strong-arm the Ukrainian president into announcing an investigation into those activities, which got Trump impeached even as the smears they manufactured crashed and burned. Now Trump has been counting on Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) to validate these narratives.... But as befits this cast of bumblers and incompetents, the star witness in the GOP's own investigation [--State Department official George Kent --] has actually further undermined those smears.... In that testimony, as the Democratic response to the GOP report details, Kent knocked down every key pillar of the GOP story line.... Just as Trump subverted U.S. foreign policy to his personal gain by attempting to bulldoze a foreign ally under duress into helping validate his campaign messaging, the GOP report is yet another attempt to manipulate a government product for Trump’s benefit.... It's just one more crass, shameless misuse of official resources."

Henry Fountain of the New York Times: "The chief executive of the partnership developing the Pebble Mine in Alaska resigned on Wednesday over comments made in meetings recorded by an environmental advocacy group. In a statement, Northern Dynasty Minerals, the Pebble Limited Partnership's Canada-based parent company, said the executive, Tom Collier, 'embellished both his and the Pebble Partnership's relationships with elected officials and federal representatives in Alaska.' The comments were 'offensive' to 'political, business and community leaders in the state and for this, Northern Dynasty unreservedly apologizes to all Alaskans,' the company said.... On Monday, a Washington, D.C.-based advocacy group, Environmental Investigation Agency, released video recordings of recent remote meetings between Mr. Collier; the chief executive of Northern Dynasty, Ronald W. Thiessen; and members of E.I.A. posing as potential investors." Related WashPo story also linked yesterday.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Emma Graham-Harrison of the Guardian: "China has built nearly 400 internment camps in Xinjiang region, with construction on dozens continuing over the last two years, even as Chinese authorities said their 're-education' system was winding down an Australian thinktank has found.... That is over 100 more than previous investigations have uncovered, and the researchers believe they have now identified most of the detention centres in the region.... The information has been made public, including the coordinates for individual camps, in a database that can be accessed online, the Xinjiang Data Project.... Many are also near industrial parks; there have been widespread reports that inmates at some internment camps have been used as forced labour.... Uighur families have been forced to have Han Chinese officials living in their homes as 'relatives', part of a comprehensive surveillance system" --s ~~~

~~~ Cate Cadell of Reuters: "China is pushing growing numbers of Tibetan rural laborers off the land and into recently built military-style training centers where they are turned into factory workers, mirroring a program in the western Xinjiang region that rights groups have branded coercive labor. Beijing has set quotas for the mass transfer of rural laborers within Tibet and to other parts of China, according to over a hundred state media reports, policy documents from government bureaus in Tibet and procurement requests released between 2016-2020 and reviewed by Reuters. The quota effort marks a rapid expansion of an initiative designed to provide loyal workers for Chinese industry." --s

News Lede

New York Times: "Harold Evans, the crusading British newspaperman who was forced out as editor of The Times of London by Rupert Murdoch in 1982 and reinvented himself in the United States as a publisher, author and literary luminary, died on Wednesday night in New York City. He was 92. His wife, the editor Tina Brown, confirmed his death in a statement."

Comments Off

Permalink

Email Article

Tuesday

Sep222020

The Commentariat -- Sept. 23, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Of the three officers potential charged in grand jury proceedings related to Breonna Taylor's killing, only one was charged and that was the lesser charge of "wanton disregard for human life" -- generally not used when an actual killing takes place -- and a charge for which the maximum sentence is five years. Mrs. McC: This is not going to cut it, to say the least. I'll get up a real story when one becomes available. ~~~

~~~ Mark Berman, et al., of the Washington Post in what appears to be a first draft: "A grand jury in Jefferson County, Ky., has charged Brett Hankison, a former Louisville police detective, with three counts of wanton endangerment in the first degree. Hankison, one of the officers involved in the March shooting death of Breonna Taylor, was fired by the department in June, with a termination letter saying he 'wantonly and blindly' shot 10 times into Taylor's apartment.... The grand jury did not announce any charges against the other officers involved in Taylor's death." ~~~

Robert Barnes, et al., of the Washington Post: "Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. eulogized Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as a 'rock star' whose legal victories as a crusading lawyer for women's rights and her decisions over 27 years as a justice moved the nation closer to the goal of 'equal justice under law.... Among the words that describe Ruth: Tough. Brave. A fighter. A winner,' a red-eyed Roberts said during a ceremony in the Supreme Court's Great Hall. 'But also: Thoughtful. Careful. Compassionate. Honest.' Dozens of black-clad former clerks lined the steps of the marble building as Supreme Court police officers delivered Ginsburg's casket to the Great Hall, where justices traditionally have been remembered.... A small gathering of family and close friends gathered for words from Rabbi Lauren Holtzblatt, whose husband, Ari, is among 159 former clerks who served Ginsburg in her more than 40 years as a justice and an appeals court judge." A Politico story is here.

In testimony Wednesday morning, Dr. Tony Fauci politely slaps down a self-certified know-it-all ophthalmologist:

Ron & Chuck's Excellent Misadventure. Andrew Desiderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "For a year, Senate Republicans have teased a bombshell investigation into Joe and Hunter Biden that could rock the former vice president's campaign for the White House. But an interim report, issued by Sens. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) less than six weeks before the presidential election and released publicly on Wednesday, is largely a compilation of previously public information -- some of it rehashed anew by witnesses who already testified during the House's impeachment inquiry last year -- as well as news articles and strongly worded insinuations with little evidence to back them up.... The report does little to substantiate allegations against the Democratic presidential nominee, which have been fueled in part by foreign actors linked to the Kremlin whom U.S. officials have said are attempting to interfere in the 2020 election.... The investigation -- which lacked majority support among members of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee that Johnson chairs -- ... states that Hunter Biden's role 'cast a shadow' over U.S.-Ukraine policy, but provides no evidence that U.S. foreign policy was impacted." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sounds as if Ron & Chuck put together a teenage-type scrapbook of their childish hopes & dreams. Such a fun way to while away the hours -- and at taxpayer expense!

~~~ The Washington Post's story, by Spencer Hsu & Rosalind Helderman, is here. See also Patrick's commentary below.

Trump, et al., Say Justice Needed to Ensure Trump's Re-Election. Christopher Wilson of Yahoo! News: "President Trump, who has spent the past several months baselessly arguing that Democrats might try to steal the November election from him, now says that the Senate must quickly confirm a new Supreme Court justice to replace the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg in case the court has to rule on the outcome. 'We need nine justices,' Trump said at the White House Tuesday. 'You need that with the unsolicited millions of ballots that they're sending. It's a scam. It's a hoax. Everybody knows that. And the Democrats know it better than anybody else. So you're going to need nine justices out there. I think it's very important.'... Vice President Mike Pence reiterated the message during an interview with CBS News' Norah O'Donnell.... And in an interview with ABC News on Sunday, Republican Sen. Ted Cruz also said a new justice should be confirmed by Election Day in case it needs to weigh in on results."

~~~~~~~~~~

CBS News: "The late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is lying in repose Wednesday and Thursday at the U.S. Supreme Court, where Americans can pay their respects to a woman who spent her career fighting for equality and justice. Ginsburg's casket will arrive in front of the court shortly before 9:30 a.m. Wednesday, according to the court, and a private ceremony will take place in the court's Great Hall at 9:30 a.m. Following the private ceremony, the public will be able to pay its respects on the portico at the top of the Supreme Court steps. 'The public is invited to pay respects in front of the Building from approximately 11 a.m. until 10 p.m. on Wednesday, September 23, and from 9 a.m. until 10 p.m. on Thursday, September 24,' the Supreme Court said in a statement.... On Friday, Ginsburg will lie in state in the U.S. Capitol. She will become the first woman to do so."

Presidential Race, Etc.

Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "Debate organizers have decided the six debate topics for next week's showdown between ... Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden. According to a person familiar with the planning, the 90-minute debate will be divided into six 15-minute discussion areas. They include: Trump's and Biden's records, the Supreme Court, the coronavirus pandemic, race and violence in cities, election integrity, and the economy."

Eric Bradner & Sarah Mucha of CNN: "Cindy McCain, the widow of longtime Republican Sen. John McCain of Arizona, said Tuesday night on Twitter that she endorses Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden. The endorsement follows McCain's appearance in a video about Biden's relationship with her late husband at the Democratic National Convention in August. McCain offered her endorsement on Twitter after Biden had told donors she was supporting him. 'My husband John lived by a code: country first. We are Republicans, yes, but Americans foremost. There's only one candidate in this race who stands up for our values as a nation, and that is @JoeBiden,' she said in a series of tweets. 'Joe and I don't always agree on the issues, and I know he and John certainly had some passionate arguments, but he is a good and honest man. He will lead us with dignity,' she said. 'He will be a commander in chief that the finest fighting force in the history of the world can depend on, because he knows what it is like to send a child off to fight.'"

** Ursula Perano of Axios: "Billionaire Michael Bloomberg has raised over $16 million to help felons pay outstanding fines and fees to regain their voting rights in Florida.... Bloomberg's fundraising, in addition to $5 million from the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, has now paid off monetary obligations for 32,000 felons in Florida just before Election Day. Voters who were already registered to vote, Black or Latino, and had fines and fees of less than $1500 were eligible for the payback initiative." (Also linked yesterday.)

Russian Trolls Amplify Trump's Lies. David Sanger & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "Four years ago, when Russian intelligence agencies engaged in a systematic attempt to influence the American presidential election, the disinformation they fed American voters required some real imagination at the troll farms producing the ads.... This year, their task is much easier. They are largely amplifying misleading statements from President Trump, mostly about the dangers of mail-in ballots. In interviews, a range of officials and private analysts said that Mr. Trump was feeding many of the disinformation campaigns they were struggling to halt. And rather than travel the back roads of America searching for divisive issues -- as three Russians from the Internet Research Agency did in 2016 -- they are staying home, grabbing screenshots of Mr. Trump's Twitter posts, or quoting his misleading statements and then amplifying those messages." ~~~

~~~ Julian Barnes & David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia is most likely continuing to approve and direct interference operations aimed at raising President Trump's re-election chances, a recent C.I.A. analysis concluded, a signal that intelligence agencies continue to back their assessment of Russian activities despite the president's attacks.... Mr. Trump himself remains hostile to arguments that Russia is intervening to support him.... The president has pushed various [Russian-generated] theories about Ukrainian involvement in the 2016 election and has supported efforts to raise questions about the work Mr. Biden's son did for a Ukrainian energy company, namely a Senate investigation led by Senator Ron Johnson, Republican of Wisconsin, that Democrats have warned is the target of Russian disinformation." A Washington Post story by Josh Rogin was linked yesterday. ~~~

~~~ Natasha Bertrand & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "The CIA has made it harder for intelligence about Russia to reach the White House, stoking fears among current and former officials that information is being suppressed to please a president known to erupt in anger whenever he is confronted with bad news about Moscow. Nine current and former officials said in interviews that CIA Director Gina Haspel has become extremely cautious about which, if any, Russia-related intelligence products make their way to President Donald Trump's desk. Haspel also has been keeping a close eye on the agency's fabled 'Russia House,' whose analysts she often disagrees with and sometimes accuses of purposefully misleading her."

"Trump Explicitly Embraces Eugenics." Tim Dickinson of the Rolling Stone: "Last Friday, on the night that Ruth Bader Ginsburg died, Donald Trump made a campaign appearance in Bemidji, a small city in northern Minnesota. Trump played to the base instincts of an adoring crowd at the airport, where MAGA hats outnumbered face masks by an extraordinary margin -- before he slipped into a terrifying embrace of eugenics, 'the racehorse theory' of human breeding, and the superiority of Minnesota genes.... [After a racist warm-up in which he denigrated Somali refugees, including Rep. Ilhan Omar as well as Minneapolis protesters against George Floyd's killing, & made a joke of a police attack on reporter Ali Velshi], Trump then veered into an open endorsement of eugenics -- the discredited theory that the human race can be improved with selective breeding for superior traits. The theory has an ugly history in America. And Hitler's embrace of eugenics in Nazi Germany gave rise to the program of 'race hygiene' that culminated in the extermination of millions of Jewish people and others at death camps. 'You have good genes, you know that right?' Trump said to the nearly all-white crowd. 'A lot of it is about the genes, isn't it? Don';t you believe? The racehorse theory,' Trump said. 'You think we're so different? You have good genes in Minnesota.'" ~~~

~~~ Update. Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday attacked Rep. Ilhan Omar yet again for her Somali origins, saying the Minnesota Democrat is 'telling us how to run our country.' 'How about Omar of Minnesota?' Trump said at a rally in Moon Township, Pa., outside Pittsburgh. 'We're going to win the state of Minnesota because of her, they say. She's telling us how to run our country. How did you do where you came from? How's your country doing? She's going to tell us -- she's telling us how to run our country.' Omar is a U.S. citizen -- a requirement for serving in Congress -- and was naturalized after coming to the country as a child refugee from Somalia. The comment was one of the president's many jabs suggesting Omar is not an American. Going after her has become almost a staple of his campaign rallies, where he often focuses on her more than other progressive lawmakers critical of the president." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Perhaps it would be okay if the son & grandson of immigrants, who does in theory "run our country," thought that actual immigrants should not "run our country." After all, the Constitution requires that anyone holding Trump's current job be a natural-born citizen. But, as you'll see in the story linked at the end of today's page, Trump was happy to name an immigrant -- Pete Hoekstra -- as his government's representative in the Netherlands. So what's the difference between Hoekstra & Omar? I'll bet you have a theory.

Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "Pennsylvania Republicans will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to decide the legality of allowing voters to return mail ballots up to three days after Election Day, potentially queuing up the first partisan election case for the court to consider since the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.... The Republicans filed a stay request with the Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Tuesday, writing that they planned to appeal to the country's highest court, as well.... The death of Ginsburg ... has brought new uncertainty to the battles over election rules in 2020 playing out across the country. Last week, the Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in Democrats' favor on a number of mail-voting rules, permitting voters to turn in ballots via drop box in addition to using the U.S. Postal Service; allowing ballots to be returned up to three days after Election Day; and blocking a Republican effort to allow partisan poll watchers to be stationed in counties where they do not live."

Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "A Canadian woman who was arrested on suspicion of mailing the lethal substance ricin to the White House wanted President Trump to drop out of the presidential race and pledged to find other ways to assassinate him if her poisoning plot failed, according to court documents unsealed on Tuesday. The woman, Pascale Cecile Veronique Ferrier, has been charged by the Justice Department with threatening to kill the president. A federal judge entered a not guilty plea for Ms. Ferrier in a brief appearance on Tuesday at the federal courthouse in Buffalo. Ms. Ferrier wrote in a threatening and scornful letter sent with the ricin that she believed Mr. Trump was a dictator who was hurting the United States."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

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

Tomi Kilgore of Market Watch: "The number of deaths as a result of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 surpassed 200,000 in the U.S., as the global total moved closer to 1 million..., even as ... Donald Trump went against facts and his own previous statements by saying virtually nobody was affected.... The U.S. ... saw 54,874 new cases on Monday, and at least 428 deaths. The new case tally is 31% above the average of 41,812 cases a day over the past week, which was a 7% increase from the average two weeks earlier, New York Times data show."

Trump walks away from & refuses to answer female reporter who asks about 200,000 U.S. death from Covid-19, answers male reporter's similar question, claiming it's "a shame" and "If we didn't do it properly & do it right, you'd have 2-1/2 million deaths." ~~~

Andrew Jacobs of the New York Times: ";President Trump has sweeping powers to compel companies to produce protective gear and to guarantee that the federal government will pay them for it -- and as his election campaign intensifies, he has been boasting about aggressively using them. But in fact, most of his administration's use of that authority, granted under the Cold-War Defense Production Act, has had nothing to do with the pandemic. A White House report released last month claimed that Mr. Trump has wielded the act nearly 80 times to alleviate shortages of masks and other medical supplies. 'My administration has harnessed the full power of the Defense Production Act to achieve the greatest industrial mobilization since World War II,' Mr. Trump said at a briefing to announce the report's release.... Yet all but six of the examples cited in the report were either executive orders unrelated to the production of medical equipment or Defense Department expenditures that do not address the nation's supply shortages.... Mr. Trump's newfound embrace of the law comes as Joseph R. Biden ... has attacked the president's failure to use it.... An analysis by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service described the administration's use of the act as 'sporadic and relatively narrow,' noting that most of the $1 billion that Congress allocated ... was shifted to the Defense Department, which spent most of the money -- $688 million -- on semiconductors, shipbuilding and space surveillance." ~~~

~~~ A related Washington Post story, by Aaron Gregg & Yeganeh Torbati, was linked yesterday. ~~~

~~~ Update: Aaron Gregg & Yeganeh Torbati of the Washington Post: "Congressional Democrats sharply criticized a Defense Department decision to repurpose a $1 billion coronavirus fund into an economic stimulus for defense contractors, a change the lawmakers say violated congressional intent. Two lawmakers asked for an investigation and public hearings on the matter following a Washington Post article that revealed the change.... Reps. Mark Pocan (D-Wis.) and Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) called for a formal investigation reviewing the legality of the Defense Department's decision to use any of the coronavirus funding for defense industry stimulus."

Our Great International Embarrassment. Scott Neuman of NPR: "In a speech Tuesday to the U.N. General Assembly, President Trump once again sought to blame China for the COVID-19 pandemic and called on Beijing to be punished for its handling of the disease, which has killed nearly 1 million people worldwide -- a fifth of them in the United States. Trump, speaking in a video address from the White House to a sparsely occupied hall of mask-wearing delegates at U.N. headquarters in New York, referred to the disease as the 'China virus' and implied that Beijing and the World Health Organization had worked in tandem to cover up the danger of the pandemic.... Despite his own efforts to downplay the pandemic in its early days and criticism over his administration's slow response to combat it, the president defended the U.S. action on Tuesday, calling it 'the most aggressive mobilization since the Second World War.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm disappointed Trump didn't take the time to blame Spain for the "1917" "Spanish Flu," which "probably ended the Second World War, all the soldiers were sick." The influenza was first detected in Kansas in 1918. (How could anyone born in 1946 not know at least approximately the dates of WWII? Our childhoods were filled with it, from soldiers' tales to movies to "war games" we played.) ~~~

~~~ "U.S., Object of Pity." Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "... Donald Trump's former top Russia adviser said Tuesday that the United States is increasingly seen as 'an object of pity' and its standing on the world stage is eroding. 'We are increasingly seen as an object of pity, including by our allies, because they are so shocked by what's happening internally, how we're eating ourselves alive with our divisions,' Fiona Hill, who was a witness in the Trump impeachment hearings, told CNN's Jim Sciutto on Tuesday.... 'We're the ones who are creating all this. It's not the Russians or the Chinese or anyone else. We are doing this to ourselves.' Asked whether the US is still seen as a model, Hill replied, 'Unless we get our domestic act together, no.'"

The Most Dangerous, Diabolical Lie of All. Helen Sullivan of the Guardian: "As the United States' coronavirus death toll edged closer to 200,000..., Donald Trump claimed falsely at a rally in Ohio that the country's fatality rate was 'among the lowest in the world' and that the virus has 'virtually' no effect on young people. Speaking in the town of Swanton, Trump said: 'It affects elderly people. Elderly people with heart problems and other problems. If they have other problems that's what it really affects, that's it,' he claimed. 'You know in some states, thousands of people -- nobody young.... Take your hat off to the young, because they have a hell of an immune system. But it affects virtually nobody. It's an amazing thing. By the way, open your schools.'... In August, the World Health Organization warned that young people were becoming the primary drivers of the spread of coronavirus in many countries." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: How innocent we were just three-and-a-half years ago when we could guffaw over Trump's ridiculous lies about the size of his inaugural crowd or the busloads of Massachusetts residents who sneaked into New Hampshire to vote for Hillary. Those lies of course did present a certain danger -- a danger that some Americans would lose touch with reality or would believe the presidential election was "rigged." And they did. But nobody died.

Laurie McGinley & Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "The Food and Drug Administration is expected to spell out a tough, new standard for an emergency authorization of a coronavirus vaccine as soon as this week that will make it exceedingly difficult for any vaccine to be cleared before Election Day. The agency is issuing the guidance to boost transparency and public trust as it approaches the momentous decision of whether a prospective vaccine is safe and effective. Public health experts are increasingly worried that President Trump's repeated predictions of a coronavirus vaccine by Nov. 3, coupled with the administration's interference in federal science agencies, may prompt Americans to reject any vaccine as rushed and potentially tainted." Includes an overview of how Trump & HHS have been strongarming the FDA. The article is free to nonsubscribers.

The Consequences of Trump's Fight to Abolish Obamacare. Reed Abelson & Abby Goodnough of the New York Times: "... the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg increases the possibility that the [Supreme C]ourt could abolish [the Affordable Care Act], even as millions of people are losing job-based health coverage during the coronavirus pandemic.... Many millions more people would be affected by such a ruling than those who rely on the law for health insurance. Its many provisions touch the lives of most Americans, from nursing mothers to people who eat at chain restaurants.... As many as 133 million Americans -- roughly half the population under the age of 65 -- have pre-existing medical conditions that could disqualify them from buying a health insurance policy or cause them to pay significantly higher premiums if the health law were overturned.... [Coronavirus could be considered a pre-exisiting condition.] About 21 million are at serious risk of becoming uninsured." Insurance companies may not cover substance abuse treatment. One hundred sixty-five million Americans could find that insurers capped their payouts for expensive treatments. Sixty million seniors would have to pay more for wellness treatment & prescription drugs. Two million young people would lose coverage under their parents' policies.

White Supremacy as Federal Policy. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday extended his administration's ban on training involving race- and sex-based discrimination to include federal contractors, doubling down on an issue to appeal to his base, and white voters in particular.... The order applies to executive departments and agencies, the U.S. military, federal contractors and federal grant recipients.... Trump has in recent weeks turned his attention to rooting out concepts that he claims 'indoctrinate' Americans and school children into believing the country is inherently racist in an attempt to stoke cultural issues that appeal to his base...."

** Is It Nearly Time to Ditch Marbury v. Madison? Ryan Cooper of the Week presents a radical -- but not far-out -- idea: that "judicial review" is not Constitutional. Read it. I don't quite know what else could keep an out-of-control president* or Congress in line (though I have some ideas), but maybe it isn't Johnnie & the Dwarfs, after all. Food for thought. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

... if the policy of the Government upon vital questions affecting the whole people is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court..., the people will have ceased to be their own rulers, having to that extent practically resigned their Government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. -- Abraham Lincoln ~~~

~~~ Update. Jamelle Bouie mainstreams the Not-So-Supreme thesis in the New York Times: "The Supreme Court has the power to interpret the Constitution and establish its meaning for federal, state and local government alike. But this power wasn't enumerated in the Constitution and isn't inherent in the court as an institution.... If Democrats win in 2020 and want to deliver on their promises, they will have to do something about the courts. There is no choice other than impotence in the face of a conservative judicial redoubt. The United States may not be a 'pure democracy,' but it's not a judgeocracy either, and if protecting the right of the people to govern for themselves means curbing judicial power and the Supreme Court's claim to judicial supremacy, then Democrats should act without hesitation. If anything, they'll be in good historical company." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It could not please me more if it turns out that the most significant aspect of the Roberts Court is to greatly diminish the power & stature of said Court. John Roberts' willingness to go along with the Court's liberals -- up till now -- suggests to me he is aware that the other two co-equal branches of government could ignore the courts or, more generously, view them as "advisory boards."

Meh, Whoever. Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Tuesday appeared to have secured the votes needed to confirm his Supreme Court nominee days before he even names the candidate, while Senate Republicans began working on plans to hold a final vote on the pick before the Nov. 3 election."

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) signaled on Tuesday that he is open to confirming a Supreme Court nominee this year. 'My decision regarding a Supreme Court nomination is not the result of a subjective test of "fairness" which, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. It is based on the immutable fairness of following the law, which in this case is the Constitution and precedent. The historical precedent of election year nominations is that the Senate generally does not confirm an opposing party's nominee but does confirm a nominee of its own,' Romney said." Mrs. McC: Not sure Romney got his history right, but I guess that doesn't really matter. If he's wrong about that, he'll come up with another thin rationale. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Mitt's Delusion. Mrs. McCrabbie: One of Romney's stated fake excuses for confirming a Trump Supreme Court nomination was, "It's also appropriate for a nation, which is, if you will, center-right to have a court which reflects a center-right point of view." But how is that a given? ~~~

~~~ Bryan Schott of the Salt Lake Tribune: "... if Romney's contention were true, the 2012 Republican nominee might be finishing his second term in the White House. Only once since 1992 has the Republican presidential candidate received more votes than their Democratic opponent and that's when George W. Bush [Mrs. McC: -- an incumbent --] defeated John Kerry in 2004. But thanks to the Electoral College, Republican candidates won the White House in 2000 and 2016." Mrs. McC: In the most recent federal election -- the 2018 midterms -- slightly more than 9 million Americans voted for Congressional Democrats than voted for Republicans; that's an 8.1 percent advantage for Democrats and Republicans.

Trump Uses EPA to Threaten New York City. Dana Rubinstein & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: “President Trump's politicized campaign to label New York City an 'anarchist jurisdiction' broadened on Tuesday, with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency threatening to move its regional headquarters out of Lower Manhattan. The E.P.A. administrator, Andrew R. Wheeler, suggested that local agency officials had become so fearful of New York streets that they are now considering moving offices. The root of those fears? Mr. Wheeler cited three-month old protests against police brutality, and a small, recent protest against another federal agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at a nearby building. That demonstration was quickly shut down by the police. Few in New York have taken the president's rhetoric seriously, and the threat from the E.P.A. administrator was also being dismissed as political theater to be deployed in Mr. Trump's re-election campaign."

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "The House overwhelmingly approved a bipartisan bill late Tuesday to keep the government funded through early December and avoid a shutdown just before the election. The 359-57 vote sends the legislation to the Senate, which could take it up later this week and send it to President Trump. White House officials say they don't want a shutdown, and Trump is expected to sign the bill, though he's wavered at the last minute in such scenarios in the past. The deal was negotiated by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin in a chaotic series of events over the past several days."

Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "A direct line to the White House, but routed through a third party to hide it from public view. Easy access to Alaska's governor, as well as the state's two U.S. senators. A successful push to unseat nine Republican state lawmakers who opposed their plan to build a massive gold and copper mine -- the biggest in North America -- near Bristol Bay in Alaska. Those were some of the boasts made by two top executives of a company trying to build the Pebble Mine in videotapes secretly recorded by an environmental group and made public Monday. It was a rare glimpse into the private discussions surrounding the company's heated campaign to win federal permits for the project, which environmentalists say will destroy a pristine part of Alaska and decimate its world-famous sockeye salmon fishery."

Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "Dutch officials demanded answers from Pete Hoekstra, the U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, on Tuesday in light of reports that the Trump appointee had held a private event for a rising right-wing political party and its donors at the U.S. Embassy in The Hague earlier this month. On Monday, Dutch magazine De Groene Amsterdammer published a detailed description of the Sept. 10 gathering, attended by a large group of Forum for Democracy (FvD) members and supporters in the business community, bringing it to widespread attention.... U.S. officials told the Dutch media that the proceeding was nothing out of the ordinary, but lawmakers argued it blurred the line between a typical embassy event and a fundraising gathering for the FvD -- a potential breach of international law, which prohibits interference in domestic politics.... 'This is interference in our elections,' Bram van Ojik, a member of parliament with the left-wing GroenLinks, or GreenLeft, party, told public broadcaster Nederlandse Omroep Stichting."

News Lede

New York Times: "Gale Sayers, the will-o'-the-wisp running back who in a short but brilliant career with the Chicago Bears left opponents, as they used to say, clutching at air, died on Tuesday at his home in Wakarusa, Ind. He was 77. His son Guy Bullard said the cause was complications of dementia and Alzheimer's disease. In March 2017, his family revealed that Sayers had dementia after he had publicly displayed symptoms of it for four years. He joins a growing list of football players who developed dementia and died of brain damage while still young.... Sayers's fame reached beyond the football field in 1971 with the broadcast of the Emmy Award-winning television movie 'Brian's Song,' based on his friendship with his teammate Brian Piccolo, who died of cancer at 26."

Comments Off Share Article Permalink Email Article

Monday
Sep212020

The Commentariat -- Sept. 22, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Our Great International Embarrassment. Scott Neuman of NPR: "In a speech Tuesday to the U.N. General Assembly, President Trump once again sought to blame China for the COVID-19 pandemic and called on Beijing to be punished for its handling of the disease, which has killed nearly 1 million people worldwide -- a fifth of them in the United States. Trump, speaking in a video address from the White House to a sparsely occupied hall of mask-wearing delegates at U.N. headquarters in New York, referred to the disease as the 'China virus' and implied that Beijing and the World Health Organization had worked in tandem to cover up the danger of the pandemic.... Despite his own efforts to downplay the pandemic in its early days and criticism over his administration's slow response to combat it, the president defended the U.S. action on Tuesday, calling it 'the most aggressive mobilization since the Second World War.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm disappointed Trump didn't take the time to blame Spain for the "1917" "Spanish Flu," which "probably ended the Second World War, all the soldiers were sick." The influenza was first detected in Kansas in 1918. (How could anyone born in 1946 not know at least approximately the dates of WWII? Our childhoods were filled with it, from soldiers' tales to movies to "war games" we played.)

The Most Dangerous, Diabolical Lie of All. Helen Sullivan of the Guardian: "As the United States' coronavirus death toll edged closer to 200,000..., Donald Trump claimed falsely at a rally in Ohio that the country's fatality rate was 'among the lowest in the world' and that the virus has 'virtually' no effect on young people. Speaking in the town of Swanton, Trump said: 'It affects elderly people. Elderly people with heart problems and other problems. If they have other problems that's what it really affects, that's it,' he claimed. 'You know in some states, thousands of people -- nobody young.... Take your hat off to the young, because they have a hell of an immune system. But it affects virtually nobody. It's an amazing thing. By the way, open your schools.'... In August, the World Health Organization warned that young people were becoming the primary drivers of the spread of coronavirus in many countries." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: How innocent we were just three-and-a-half years ago when we could guffaw over Trump's ridiculous lies about the size of his inaugural crowd or the busloads of Massachusetts residents who sneaked into New Hampshire to vote for Hillary. Those lies of course did present a certain danger -- a danger that some Americans would lose touch with reality or would believe the presidential election was "rigged." And they did. But nobody died.

** Is It Nearly Time to Ditch Marbury v. Madison? Ryan Cooper of the Week presents a radical -- but not far-out -- idea: that "judicial review" is not Constitutional. Read it. I don't quite know what else could keep an out-of-control president* or Congress in line (though I have some ideas), but maybe it isn't Johnnie & the Dwarfs, after all. Food for thought.

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) signaled on Tuesday that he is open to confirming a Supreme Court nominee this year. 'My decision regarding a Supreme Court nomination is not the result of a subjective test of "fairness" which, like beauty, is in the eye of the beholder. It is based on the immutable fairness of following the law, which in this case is the Constitution and precedent. The historical precedent of election year nominations is that the Senate generally does not confirm an opposing party's nominee but does confirm a nominee of its own,' Romney said." This is a breaking news story. Mrs. McC: Not sure Romney got his history right, but I guess that doesn't really matter. If he's wrong about that, he'll come up with another thin rationale.

Mrs. McCrabbie: Donald Trump is addressing the U.N. Before I could get to the teevee to turn him off, he was bragging about the great job the U.S. has done combatting the coronavirus. Since his audience consists of people, many of whom represent countries that have done way better than the U.S. in fighting the virus, I guess he thinks non-Americans are stupid.

** Ursula Perano of Axios: "Billionaire Michael Bloomberg has raised over $16 million to help felons pay outstanding fines and fees to regain their voting rights in Florida.... Bloomberg's fundraising, in addition to $5 million from the Florida Rights Restoration Coalition, has now paid off monetary obligations for 32,000 felons in Florida just before Election Day. Voters who were already registered to vote, Black or Latino, and had fines and fees of less than $1500 were eligible for the payback initiative."

~~~~~~~~~~

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will lie in state in the United States Capitol's Statuary Hall on Friday, an unusual honor for a Supreme Court Justice that has not been bestowed since the death of William Howard Taft, who served as chief justice from 1921 to 1930, after having served as president, and one that has never before been granted to a woman. Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced the rare distinction on Monday after describing Justice Ginsburg's death last week as 'an incalculable loss for our democracy and for all who sacrifice and strive to build a better future for our children.' The formal ceremony at the Capitol will be open to invited guests only because of the pandemic, Ms. Pelosi's office said. Also out of the ordinary, Justice Ginsburg will lie in repose at the Supreme Court for two days, on Wednesday and Thursday, and her coffin will be placed under the portico at the top of the building's front steps, a setup meant to allow for social distancing.... A private interment service will be held next week at Arlington National Cemetery, where Justice Ginsburg's husband, Martin D. Ginsburg, was buried in 2010." A Politico story is here.

Natasha Korecki of Politico: "As the Supreme Court debate raged in Washington, Joe Biden went to Wisconsin Monday and gave it nary a mention. Instead, the former vice president focused on Covid-19 and the economy. He highlighted the 200,000 deaths and counting on Trump's watch. 'I worry we risk becoming numb to the toll it's taken on us and our country and communities like this,' Biden said in a speech in Manitowoc, Wis., a small city in the Green Bay media market.... Biden criticized Trump for downplaying the virus, which the president admitted he did to Bob Woodward, before later arguing that he didn't want the country to panic. Actually, it was Trump who panicked, Biden charged: 'The virus was too big for him.' Biden's remarks came as the Badger State is seeing a sharp spike in Covid-19 cases, up 130 percent in the last two weeks, according to a New York Times database."

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump plans to announce his nominee to replace the late Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court on Friday or Saturday, he said in an interview on 'Fox & Friends' Monday morning. 'I think it'll be on Friday or Saturday,' Trump said when asked when he would announce his decision, adding that he wanted to 'pay respect' to Ginsburg ... by waiting until after her funeral services. Trump also said that he had narrowed his list down to five potential nominees. Trump has already committed to choosing a woman to replace Ginsburg on the Supreme Court." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Trump Suggests Ginburg's Granddaughter Is a Liar. Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "Asked about Ginsburg's dying wish, in which she reportedly said she doesn't want to be replaced until a new presidential is installed, Trump said, 'I don't know that she said that, or was that written out by Adam Schiff, and Schumer and Pelosi? I would be more inclined to the second, okay, you know. It came out of the wind, it sounds so beautiful. But that sounds like a Schumer deal, or maybe a Pelosi or shifty Schiff. So that that came out of the wind.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: According to Nina Totenberg of NPR, who is a long-time friend of Justice Ginsburg, "Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera: 'My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed.'" (Also linked here Saturday.) So either Totenberg made up that story out of whole cloth about her friend of decades, or Ginsburg's own granddaughter did -- according to Trump. Trump is withholding his nomination to "pay respect" to Ginsburg? Right. He's just teasing his next show. ~~~

~~~ Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Asked later why he believed the words attributed to Ginsburg might not have actually come from the justice, Trump told reporters her stated position 'was just too convenient.' 'It sounds to me like it would be somebody else. I don't believe -- it could be, it could be, and it might not be, too,' he said without elaborating." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Kevin Roose of the New York Times: "This baseless claim appears to be a Trump original. Questions about the legitimacy of Justice Ginsburg's 'dying wish' were not circulating online in any significant way before his Fox News appearance. But after the appearance, social media has filled with false claims echoing Mr. Trump's conspiracy theory, and taking it even further into the land of nonsense.... In an appearance on MSNBC on Monday, Ms. Totenberg confirmed her account of Justice Ginsburg's statement, and said that others in the room at the time witnessed her making it, including her doctor. 'I checked,' Ms. Totenberg added, 'because I'm a reporter.' Mr. Schiff ... responded on Twitter, saying 'Mr. President, this is low. Even for you.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Update Update. Here's audio of Clara Spera, Justice Ginsberg's granddaughter, who holds a law degree, telling BBC News that her grandmother dictated the statement: "My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed." Spera says she typed it into her computer.

Now we're counting on the federal court system to make it so that we can actually have an evening where we know who wins. Not where the votes are going to be counted a week later or two weeks later. -- Donald Trump, at a rally in North Carolina Saturday, articulating the quid pro quo he expects from judges he has appointed ~~~

~~~ ** Nina Golgowski of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump said he is 'counting on the federal court system' to ensure that the winner of the November presidential election is called just hours after the polls close, despite current rules across the country allowing ballots to be counted several days to weeks after the election.... Trump also shared his plans to nominate a new Supreme Court associate justice 'next week' to fill Ruth Bader Ginsburg's seat following her death on Friday." Mrs. McC: Trump boasts often of all the judges he has appointed, and now he's calling in a big chit. What Trump is saying here is that he expects judges -- in exchange for his giving them lifetime appointments -- to shut down legal vote counts in states where he has more votes than Biden shortly after the polls close.

Mrs. McCrabbie: Many news outlets have published stories examining the backgrounds & decisions of the judges on Trump's shortlist. I've avoided them, because there's little use learning too much about the views of judges who won't be nominated. But Khaleda Rahman of Newsweek has a story worth highlighting: "Amy Coney Barrett, a favorite to be ... Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee..., is affiliated with a type of Christian religious group that served as inspiration for Margaret Atwood's dystopian novel, The Handmaid's Tale. Barrett, a devout Catholic, and her husband both belong to the People of Praise group, current and former members have said, according to The New York Times. Their fathers have served as leaders in the group. The charismatic Christian parachurch organization, which was founded in South Bend, Indiana in 1971, teaches that men have authority over their wives. Members swear a lifelong oath of loyalty to one another and are expected to donate at least 5 per cent of their earnings to the group. Members of People of Praise are assigned to personal advisers of the same sex -- called a 'head' for men and 'handmaid' for women, until the rise in popularity of Atwood's novel and the television series based on it forced a change in the latter."

Peter Baker & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "President Trump appeared to secure enough support on Monday to fill the Supreme Court seat left open by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg without waiting for voters to decide whether to grant him a second term in what would be the fastest contested confirmation in modern history. As Mr. Trump promised to announce his choice for the seat by Friday or 'probably Saturday,' after memorial services for Justice Ginsburg, several key Senate Republicans threw their support behind a campaign-season dash to replace the liberal jurist by the election on Nov. 3 with a conservative who would shift the court's ideological center to the right for years to come. 'We've got the votes to confirm Justice Ginsburg's replacement before the election,' Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, the Republican chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and a close Trump ally, said Monday night on Fox News. 'We're going to move forward in the committee; we're going to report the nomination out of the committee to the floor of the United States Senate so we can vote before the election.'"

Lili Loofbourow of Slate: "... this nation's decline accelerates when the conventional wisdom becomes that believing what the Senate Majority Leader says is self-evidently foolish. The chestnut that politicians always lie is overstated -- a society depends on some degree of mutual trust. One party has embraced nihilism, pilloried trust, and turned good faith into a sucker's failing in a sucker's game." ~~~

Grassley Joins the Liars Parade. Brianne Pfannenstiel of the Des Moines Register: "U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley [R-Iowa] said Monday that he will not oppose holding hearings or taking a vote on ... Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee if the proceedings move forward. 'Over the years, and as recently as July, I've consistently said that taking up and evaluating a nominee in 2020 would be a decision for the current chairman of the Judiciary Committee and the Senate majority leader,' he said in a statement provided to the Des Moines Register. 'Both have confirmed their intentions to move forward, so that's what will happen. Once the hearings are underway, it's my responsibility to evaluate the nominee on the merits, just as I always have.' The statement sidesteps Grassley's past position. In 2016, he was chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and became the face of Republican efforts to block Democratic President Barack Obama's Supreme Court nominee, Merrick Garland. Grassley has since reiterated that stance, saying in a July 2018 taping of Iowa Press that he would not support confirming a Supreme Court nominee in a presidential election year. 'It was very legitimate that you can't have one rule for Democrat presidents and another rule for Republican presidents,' he said at the time." ~~~

~~~ Stewart Thompson of the New York Times makes the case against vetting a Supreme Court nominee today, based on statements Republican senators made in 2016. With footnotes. Mrs. McC: Gosh, I'm convinced.

Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "The death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is putting ObamaCare at risk, as a more conservative Supreme Court could strike down the law in a case to be heard shortly after Election Day. The high court will hear arguments on Nov. 10 in a lawsuit brought by a group of Republican-led states, and backed by President Trump, seeking to strike down the law. Before Ginsburg's death, the court's four liberals plus Chief Justice John Roberts, who has twice upheld the law already, were expected to provide the five votes to keep the law.... Democrats are now hammering Republicans to point out that the Trump-backed lawsuit would overturn popular protections for people with pre-existing conditions and throw roughly 20 million people off their health insurance, even amid the coronavirus pandemic." Sullivan sort of explains how the various ruling scenarios would play out. ~~~

~~~ Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "... you should be aware that the stakes in this year's election go beyond abstract things like, say, the survival of American democracy. They're also personal. If Donald Trump is re-elected, you will lose the protection you've had since the Affordable Care Act went into effect almost seven years ago.... In fact, it's now possible that coverage of pre-existing conditions will be stripped away even if Trump loses to Joe Biden, unless Democrats also take the Senate and are prepared to play serious hardball. But health care was always on the line. Now, Trump denies this; like almost every other politician in his party, he keeps insisting that he has a plan to protect Americans with pre-existing conditions. But he and they are lying. And no, that's not too strong a term."

Sam Levine & Alvin Chang of the Guardian: "The United States Postal Service (USPS) saw a severe decline in the rate of on-time delivery of first-class mail after Louis DeJoy took over as postmaster general, according to new data obtained by the Guardian that provides some of the most detailed insight yet into widespread mail delays this summer." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Josh Rogin of the Washington Post: "Russian President Vladimir Putin and his top aides are 'probably directing' a Russian foreign influence operation to interfere in the 2020 presidential election against former vice president Joe Biden, which involves a prominent Ukrainian lawmaker connected to President Trump's personal lawyer Rudolph W. Giuliani, a top-secret CIA assessment concluded, according to two sources who reviewed it. On Aug. 31, the CIA published an assessment of Russian efforts to interfere in the November election in an internal, highly classified report called the CIA Worldwide Intelligence Review, the sources said.... 'We assess that President Vladimir Putin and the senior most Russian officials are aware of and probably directing Russia's influence operations aimed at denigrating the former U.S. Vice President, supporting the U.S. president and fueling public discord ahead of the U.S. election in November,' the first line of the document says, according to the sources."

Nevada. Michelle Price of the AP: "A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit from ... Donald Trump's reelection campaign challenging Nevada's new vote-by-mail law, saying the campaign failed to show how it could be harmed by the law. The campaign, which has filed lawsuits in several states over voting rules, had asked the judge to block a new Nevada law that calls for mail-in ballots to automatically be sent to all active Nevada voters, a change prompted by efforts to contain the coronavirus." Mrs. McC: Mahan is a Bush II appointee.

Ohio. Trumpbots Boo GOP Leaders for Saving Lives. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "Attendees at one of President Trump's rallies in Ohio on Monday booed Gov. Mike DeWine (R), catching the president by surprise. Trump introduced DeWine at the top of his remarks in Dayton.... The boos for DeWine came after CNN correspondent Jeremy Diamond reported that Lt. Gov. Jon Husted (R) appealed to the crowd before Trump arrived to wear face coverings to help slow the spread of the coronavirus. He was roundly booed, Diamond wrote on Twitter. DeWine, who was endorsed by Trump and won election in 2018, likely earned the hostile reception because he has taken stiff measures to try to slow the spread of COVID-19. DeWine has generally earned high marks for his handling of the pandemic, but some of his actions have been at odds with Trump."

Wisconsin. Scott Bauer & Todd Richmond of the AP: "A federal judge ruled Monday that absentee ballots in battleground Wisconsin can be counted up to six days after the Nov. 3 presidential election as long as they are postmarked by Election Day. The highly anticipated ruling, unless overturned, means that the outcome of the presidential race in Wisconsin might not be known for days after polls close. Under current law, the deadline for returning an absentee ballot to have it counted is 8 p.m. on Election Day."

Benjamin Weiser & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "The Manhattan district attorney's office, which has been locked in a yearlong legal battle with President Trump over obtaining his tax returns, suggested for the first time in a court filing on Monday that it had grounds to investigate him and his businesses for tax fraud. The filing by the office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., offered rare insight into the office's investigation of the president and his business dealings, which began more than two years ago. Mr. Vance, a Democrat, has never revealed the scope of his office's criminal inquiry, citing grand jury secrecy.... In a carefully worded new filing ... [Mr. Vance] did not directly accuse Mr. Trump or any of his businesses or associates of wrongdoing.... Prosecutors listed news reports and public testimony that alleged misconduct by Mr. Trump and his businesses. The reports, prosecutors wrote, would justify a grand jury inquiry into a range of possible crimes, including tax and insurance fraud and falsification of business records."

Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The team led by Robert S. Mueller III, the special counsel, failed to do everything it could to determine what happened in the 2016 election, shying away from steps like subpoenaing President Trump and scrutinizing his finances out of fear that he would fire them, one of Mr. Mueller's top lieutenants [-- Andrew Weissmann --] argued in a new book that serves as the first insider account of the inquiry.... Mr. Weissmann sharply criticized the president as 'lawless' but also accused Mr. Mueller's deputy, Aaron M. Zebley, of being overly cautious, according to an account in The Atlantic of the book, 'Where Law Ends: Inside the Mueller Investigation.'"

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General William P. Barr on Monday escalated the Trump administration's attacks on Democratic-led cities by threatening to withhold federal funding from New York, Seattle and Portland, Ore., over their responses to protests against police brutality, portraying them as inadequate as President Trump seeks to make the unrest a cornerstone of his re-election campaign. The cities 'permitted violence and destruction of property to persist and have refused to undertake reasonable measures to counteract criminal activities,' the Justice Department said in a statement announcing its response to a directive by the president this month to find ways to cut funding from such cities. 'We cannot allow federal tax dollars to be wasted when the safety of the citizenry hangs in the balance,' Mr. Barr said in a statement.... Democrats threatened legal action should the administration move to curtail their federal funding. New York, Seattle and Portland called any move by the Trump administration to defund their cities unconstitutional and noted that Congress, not the president, controls federal funding."

Hailey Fuchs of the New York Times: "An independent government agency will investigate whether Education Secretary Betsy DeVos breached a law forbidding federal employees from engaging in political activities on the job after her department distributed a clip of Ms. DeVos criticizing the Democratic presidential nominee, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., through government channels. The U.S. Office of Special Counsel, which has jurisdiction to investigate violations of the law, known as the Hatch Act, will conduct the inquiry, according to the investigative watchdog blog that filed the complaint. The revelation is the latest in a string of Trump administration officials to face accusations of breaching the government ethics law. But the power to levy penalties on officials like Ms. DeVos falls to President Trump, and he has shown little inclination to mete out punishment or follow the office's recommendations."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention quietly introduced -- and then on Monday quietly withdrew -- guidance on its website acknowledging that the coronavirus is transmitted mainly through the air. The rapid reversal is another in a string of confusing missteps from the agency regarding official guidance that it posts on its website. The latest debacle concerns the spread of the virus by aerosols, tiny particles containing the virus that can stay aloft for long periods and travel farther than six feet. Aerosol experts noticed on Sunday that the agency had updated its description of how the virus spreads to say that the pathogen is spread primarily by air.... The document was posted to the C.D.C.'s website 'prematurely' and is still being revised, according to a federal official familiar with the matter." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: CDC guidance on the coronavirus is like what Mark Twain said about New England weather: "If you don't like it now, wait a few minutes." ~~~

~~~ Ben Guarino, et al., of the Washington Post: "Evidence that the virus floats in the air has mounted for months, with an increasingly loud chorus of aerosol biologists pointing to superspreading events in choirs, buses, bars and other poorly ventilated spaces. They cheered when the CDC seemed to join them in agreeing the coronavirus can be airborne.... Many experts outside the agency say the pathogen can waft over considerably longer distances to be inhaled into our respiratory systems, especially if we are indoors and air flow conditions are stagnant.... What's clear ... is that while the virus ... spreads rapidly in indoor events that bring lots of people together. Perhaps most telling of all is the infamous March choir practice in Skagit Valley, Wash., where 52 out of 61 attendees are suspected to have been infected by a single sick individual over roughly 2 ½ hours of practice. The participants didn't interact much socially, except to sing -- making this a difficult-to-dispute case of airborne transmission over large distances in a space where the air was not changing often enough to clear out the virus, and where someone was propelling the virus over extra long distances due to the exertion of singing."

The Saboteur Within. Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "The managing editor of the prominent conservative website RedState has spent months trashing U.S. officials tasked with combating COVID-19, dubbing White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Anthony Fauci a 'mask nazi,' and intimating that government officials responsible for the pandemic response should be executed. But that writer, who goes by the pseudonym 'streiff,' isn't just another political blogger. The Daily Beast has discovered that he actually works in the public affairs shop of the very agency that Fauci leads. William B. Crews is, by day, a public affairs specialist for the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. But for years he has been writing for RedState under the streiff pseudonym. And in that capacity he has been contributing to the very same disinformation campaign that his superiors at the NIAID say is a major challenge to widespread efforts to control a pandemic that has claimed roughly 200,000 U.S. lives.... After The Daily Beast brought those and other quotes from Crews to NIAID's attention, the agency said in an emailed statement that Crews would 'retire' from his position." A New York Times story is here.

** Aaron Gregg & Yeganeh Torbati of the Washington Post: "A $1 billion fund Congress gave the Pentagon in March to build up the country's supplies of medical equipment has instead been mostly funneled to defense contractors and used for making things such as jet engine parts, body armor and dress uniforms.... The Cares Act, which Congress passed earlier this year, gave the Pentagon money to'prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus.' But a few weeks later, the Defense Department began reshaping how it would award the money in a way that represented a major departure from Congress's original intent. The payments were made even though U.S. health officials believe there are still major funding gaps in responding to the pandemic. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said in Senate testimony last week that states desperately need $6 billion to distribute vaccines to Americans early next year. There remains a severe shortage of N95 masks at numerous U.S. hospitals."

The Amateurs. David Edwards of the Raw Story: "A former member of the White House coronavirus task force explained why he blew the whistle on what he saw as deadly incompetence within the group. Max Kennedy, Jr. -- the 26-year-old grandson of Robert F. Kennedy -- told The New Yorker that he initially agreed to join the task force that was being put together by White House adviser Jared Kushner because of the serious nature of the COVID-19 pandemic.... Kennedy recalled being shocked because a skeleton crew of unpaid task force volunteers were forced to use their personal laptops and email accounts to track down medical supplies. [Mrs. McC: This of course is also a big fat violation of the federal records act.]... Volunteers were also urged to pay close attention to Fox News host Jeanine Pirro and to ship medical supplies to her favored hospitals, Kennedy said.... Kennedy said that the task force 'was like a family office meets organized crime, melded with "Lord of the Flies." It was a government of chaos.... If you see something that might be illegal, and cause thousands of civilian lives to be lost, a person has to speak out,' he insisted." Mrs. McC: If you can read Jane Mayer's New Yorker story instead of Edward's summary, that's probably the route to go.

Tennessee. Yihyun Jeong & Holly Meyer of The Tennessean: "Former Nashville Council Member Tony Tenpenny has died due to complications from COVID-19, Vice Mayor Jim Shulman confirmed Sunday. Tenpenny was hospitalized for more than a month at one of the St. Thomas hospitals and was placed on a ventilator earlier in September. He died overnight, Shulman said on Sunday afternoon.... In the months before his death, Tony Tenpenny shared social media posts calling into question the veracity of the ongoing global pandemic and the government's response." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Fiona Harvey of the Guardian: "The wealthiest 1% of the world's population were responsible for the emission of more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the poorer half of the world from 1990 to 2015, according to new research. Carbon dioxide emissions rose by 60% over the 25-year period, but the increase in emissions from the richest 1% was three times greater than the increase in emissions from the poorest half." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Comments Off Share Article Permalink Email Article

Page 1 ... 444 445 446 447 448 ... 1691 Next 3 Entries »