The Commentariat -- August 2, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Dr. Deborah Birx on Sunday said the US is in a new phase in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the deadly virus is more widespread than when it first took hold in the US earlier this year. 'What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It's into the rural as equal urban areas,' Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, told CNN's Dana Bash on 'State of the Union.'... Asked if it was time to reset the federal government response to the pandemic, Birx said, 'I think the federal government reset about five to six weeks ago when we saw this starting to happen across the south.' But roughly six weeks ago, Vice President Mike Pence ... declared in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the US is 'winning the fight' and there 'isn't a "second wave."' Birx did not address those claims on Sunday." ~~~

~~~ Doina Chiacu & Christopher Bing of Reuters: "U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said on Sunday she does not have confidence in White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx, linking her to disinformation about the virus spread by ... Donald Trump. 'I think the president has been spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee so, I don't have confidence there, no,' Speaker Pelosi told ABC's 'This Week' when asked if she has confidence in Birx. Birx, asked about Pelosi's comment during an interview with CNN's 'State of the Union,' said she had great respect for Pelosi and attributed the criticism to a New York Times article on the White House pandemic response that described Birx as having embraced overly optimistic assessments on the virus."

The Washington Post has a livefeed on its front page of the SpaceX splashdown. The Post is liveblogging events here, and the New York Times is liveblogging developments here.

"We Don't Know WTF We're Doing" -- RNC Officials. Felicia Sonmez of the Washington Post: "The Republican National Committee says no final decision has been made about whether President Trump's renomination will be held in private at the GOP convention, contradicting previous reports that restrictions on crowd size during the coronavirus pandemic would prevent members of the press from attending. Two RNC officials insisted Sunday that they are still working through the logistics and press coverage options, a break with a statement reportedly made by a GOP convention spokesperson the previous day."

Zachary Warmbrodt of Politico: "Rep. Karen Bass on Sunday walked back 2016 comments praising Cuban leader Fidel Castro, as scrutiny of her views toward the Communist government threatened her potential selection as former Vice President Joe Biden's running mate." ~~~

~~~ Evan Semones of Politico: "Rep. Karen Bass, a top-tier contender to be Joe Biden's running mate, on Saturday sought to clarify remarks she made in 2010 praising the Church of Scientology.... In her remarks, Bass called on treating humans with respect and fighting oppression, but also spoke highly of the controversial group and its founder, L. Ron Hubbard." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I wish to clarify or walk back every damned thing I ever said prior to August 2020. One or more of the following applies: "I never said that." "I was misquoted." "Obviously, I was just kidding." "I said 'was' when I meant 'wasn't.'" "My views have evolved." "Since that time, new information has come to light." "I don't recall." "I'll have to get back to you on that." "Fake news." "That's a nasty question."

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The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here: "Hours after unemployment benefits for tens of millions of Americans lapsed, administration officials arrived on Capitol Hill on Saturday morning for a rare meeting with top congressional Democrats to discuss a coronavirus relief package and work to break an impasse over new aid as the American economy continues to shudder. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who hosted the meeting with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York in her Capitol Hill suite, emerged from the three-hour meeting -- the longest meeting held over the last six days -- and said the discussion 'was productive in terms of moving us forward,' but they remained far apart on a number of issues. They declined to offer specifics. Also in attendance were Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ AND what was the fake author of The Art of the Deal doing while Nancy & the boys were trying in vain to make a deal as millions of Americans were out of work and out of money? Maybe getting sick or evicted from their homes? Why, golfing at one of his clubs, of course. ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Saturday are here: "July's infection total was more than double that of June and represents about 42 percent of the 4.5 million cases the country has logged since the outbreak started, according to tracking by The Washington Post.... 'July was definitely a disaster, and even though there was a lot more testing, the percent positivity was quite high in many areas, indicating that the rise in cases wasn't attributable solely to increased detection,' Ellie Murray, an epidemiologist at Boston University, told The Post. 'The U.S. has failed to take the opportunity that the summer could have presented to control this virus and is instead entering the fall in a disastrously bad position.'"

Julie Bosman, et al., of the New York Times: "First, the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast were hit hardest as the coronavirus tore through the nation. Then it surged across the South. Now the virus is again picking up dangerous speed in much of the Midwest -- and in cities from Mississippi to Florida to California that thought they had already seen the worst of it. As the United States rides what amounts to a second wave of cases, with daily new infections leveling off at an alarming higher mark, there is a deepening national sense that the progress made in fighting the pandemic is coming undone and no patch of America is safe. In Missouri, Wisconsin and Illinois, distressed government officials are retightening restrictions on residents and businesses, and sounding warnings about a surge in coronavirus-related hospitalizations. In the South and the West, several states are reporting their highest levels of new coronavirus cases, with outbreaks overwhelming urban and rural areas alike." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ ** Joel Achenbach, et al., of the Washington Post: "The coronavirus is spreading at dangerous levels across much of the United States, and public health experts are demanding a dramatic reset in the national response, one that recognizes that the crisis is intensifying and that current piecemeal strategies aren't working. This is a new phase of the pandemic, one no longer built around local or regional clusters and hot spots. It comes at an unnerving moment in which the economy suffered its worst collapse since the Great Depression, schools are rapidly canceling plans for in-person instruction and Congress has failed to pass a new emergency relief package. President Trump continues to promote fringe science, the daily death toll keeps climbing and the human cost of the virus in America has just passed 150,000 lives." (Also linked yesterday.)

Evan Semones of Politico: "... Donald Trump publicly rebuked Dr. Anthony Fauci on Saturday, forcefully rejecting the nation's top infectious disease expert's testimony on why the U.S. has experienced a renewed surge in coronavirus cases. 'Wrong!' Trump wrote in a retweet of a video where Fauci explained to a House subcommittee that the U.S. has seen more cases than European countries because it only shut down a fraction of its economy amid the pandemic. 'We have more cases because we have tested far more than any other country, 60,000,000. If we tested less, there would be less cases,' the president added."

Kate Bennett of CNN: "As ... Donald Trump continues to demand a return to in-person classes for schools around the country despite the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the school attended by his youngest son has received an order prohibiting on-campus learning for the start of the school year. Montgomery County, Maryland, on Friday issued a directive demanding that private schools not conduct in-person learning until October 1. Barron Trump, who is slated to enter 9th grade in the fall, attends St. Andrew's Episcopal School, a private school in Potomac, Maryland, part of Montgomery County."

Lauren Egan of NBC News: "Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., said Saturday he tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming the second lawmaker this week to announce they had contracted the virus. Grijalva said in a statement that he did not have any symptoms and felt fine. The congressman said he would self-quarantine at the recommendation of the Capitol's attending physician.... Grijalva had attended a a hearing of the Natural Resources Committee with [Rep. Louis] Gohmert [R-Texas] on Tuesday. During the hearing Gohmert [who has refused to wear a mask & tested positive this week] was at times seen without a face covering, sitting in close proximity to other lawmakers including Grijalva. 'While I cannot blame anyone directly for this, this week has shown that there are some Members of Congress who fail to take this crisis seriously,' Grijalva said in his statement, which did not mention Gohmert by name." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

William Saletan of Slate cites statistics that show Republican voters are not only becoming pro-mask, but also favoring mask mandates: "In a Yahoo News poll released on Friday, 57 percent of Republicans said it should be 'mandatory to wear a mask in public,' and 65 percent said it should be mandatory to do so in 'states with large numbers of new COVID-19 cases.'"

Germany. Not All Dummkopfs Are Americans. Loveday Morris & Miriam Berger of the Washington Post: "Thousands of largely mask-less demonstrators marched through central Berlin on Saturday chanting 'We are free people' to the beat of Queen's 'We Will Rock You' in a coronavirus restrictions protest that was also riddled with virus-related conspiracy theories. The demonstration took place despite recent warnings from German health officials about a new rise in infections.... Those present on Saturday included a hodgepodge of science skeptics, libertarians, Germany's far-right and constitutional loyalists, Reuters reported."

Alexander Vindman in a Washington Post op-ed: "At no point in my career or life have I felt our nation's values under greater threat and in more peril than at this moment. Our national government during the past few years has been more reminiscent of the authoritarian regime my family fled more than 40 years ago than the country I have devoted my life to serving. Our citizens are being subjected to the same kinds of attacks tyrants launch against their critics and political opponents. Those who choose loyalty to American values and allegiance to the Constitution over devotion to a mendacious president and his enablers are punished. The president recklessly downplayed the threat of the pandemic even as it swept through our country. The economic collapse that followed highlighted the growing income disparities in our society. Millions are grieving the loss of loved ones and many more have lost their livelihoods while the president publicly bemoans his approval ratings." Thanks to unwashed for the link. Mother Jones has a summary here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Maureen Dowd compares Donald Trump to Shakespeare's MacBeth. She cites liteary historian Stephen Greenblatt: "The tyrant, Macbeth and other plays suggest, is driven by a range of sexual anxieties: a compulsive need to prove his manhood, dread of impotence, a nagging apprehension that he will not be found sufficiently attractive or powerful, a fear of failure. Hence the penchant for bullying, the vicious misogyny, and the explosive violence. Hence, too, the vulnerability to taunts. Especially those bearing a latent or explicit sexual charge." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I've sort of quit blaming Trump for the situation we're in. He's too stupid & crazy to be taken seriously. I blame Republicans who didn't stand up to him when it became clear early on that he could not lead a team to manage the pandemic. mike pence can't be fired; Trump put him in charge of the task force. pence should have actually taken charge. CDC director Robert Redfield should have gone on the teevee & showed some leadership, urging American to pay no attention to Trump. Mitch McConnell should have formed a coalition with Nancy Pelosi to take charge. ~~~

Victoria Vasseti & Norm Eisen in a Politico Magazine opinion piece: "... Attorney General William Barr has pivoted from establishment D.C. attorney -- sworn to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States == into Trump's family lawyer.... Is Election Day set by law? 'I've never looked into it,' Barr demurred in his testimony this week. Is it appropriate for the president to solicit or accept foreign assistance in an election? Barr's first answer: 'It depends what kind of assistance.' These are the answers of a man who has turned the once-proud Department of Justice into the president's personal law firm. That is contrary to every tradition of the Justice Department, but consistent with how Trump has operated for his entire professional life.... Barr has tried to muzzle Trump's critics, protect his friends, hide information from Congress and investigate those who investigated the president." ~~~

~~~ Bill Barr Is Preparing to Lie to You Again. Joshua Geltzer & Ryan Goodman in a Washington Post opinion piece: "... there's every reason to suspect [William] Barr will soon try again to mislead [the public] -- this time regarding one of his most important initiatives to date, an investigation by his handpicked U.S. attorney, John Durham -- in an effort to skew the 2020 elections.... Based on Barr's track record, it's important for the public to realize now that they can't take Barr's word on what Durham actually has found.... Barr has a history of mischaracterizing and even lying about the results of investigations before their details are public. That's what Barr did to special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's investigation... [and when he falsely claimed SDNY U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman had resigned]. The urgency of bracing people to disbelieve the attorney general increased dramatically on Tuesday, as Barr was asked whether he'd apply long-standing Justice Department policy not to announce politically sensitive new cases before an election by holding Durham's findings until after Nov. 3. Barr's answer was, for him, a rarity in its clarity: He said no." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: IOW, Barr is getting ready to tell you that Durham found extensive evidence that Joe Biden is a criminal.

Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "A senior Department of Homeland Security official whose office compiled 'intelligence reports' about journalists and protesters in Portland, Ore., has been removed from his job, according to three people familiar with the matter. Brian Murphy, the acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, was reassigned to a new position elsewhere in the department, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity.... Acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf made the decision on Friday, one person said." A Politico story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ It's Cooch's Fault! Betsy Swan of Politico: "Before the Department of Homeland Security's intelligence arm put together intelligence reports about journalists, its leaders advocated for less internal oversight of the office. Several months ago, the leadership of the Office of Intelligence and Analysis asked DHS's second-in-command, Ken Cuccinelli, to limit a department watchdog from regularly reviewing the intelligence products it produces and distributes. Cuccinelli signed off on the move, according to two sources..., which constrained the role of the department's Office of Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in approving the intelligence office's work. Before the policy change, I&A had to get the civil liberties watchdog's signoff to distribute its intelligence products to law enforcement partners.... In the months since the change, I&A's work has drawn withering criticism."

Elections 2020

GOP Bans Reporters. Frank Lockwood of Arkansas Online: "When Republicans renominate Donald Trump for president in Charlotte, N.C., on Aug. 24, journalists won't be on hand to witness it, a convention spokesperson told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette this week. Reporters also will be kept from the room when the Republican National Committee meets to conduct official party business. The spokesperson couldn't say whether C-SPAN, the nonprofit public service network, would be allowed to air the proceedings." ~~~

~~~ Kevin Freking of the AP: "The vote to renominate ... Donald Trump is set to be conducted in private later this month, without members of the press present, a spokeswoman for the Republican National Convention, citing the coronavirus. While Trump called off the public components of the convention in Florida last month, citing spiking cases of the virus across the country, 336 delegates are scheduled to gather in Charlotte, North Carolina, on Aug. 24 to formally vote to make Trump the GOP standard-bearer once more.... If the GOP decision stands, it will mark the first party nominating convention in modern history to be closed to reporters." Mrs. McC: Wolf Blitzer is exercised about this because freedom of the press, but I see it as just weird. Besides, if there's something crooked about Trump's nomination, it will leak fastly.

Georgia Senate Race. Tia Mitchell & Chris Joyner of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "U.S. Sen. Kelly Loeffler [R-Ga.] granted an interview to a TV pundit associated with white supremacy and Nazism. The interview aired on One America News Network on Thursday and Loeffler promoted it heavily on her Facebook and Twitter accounts Friday.... Jewish groups and media observers pointed out that [interviewer Jack] Posobiec promotes conspiracy theories and once associated with white supremacists including Richard Spencer.... Posobiec has been criticized in the past for posting anti-Semitic tweets.... Loeffler's team would not say whether she was aware of Posobiec's ties to Nazism and anti-Semitism, and they condemned the AJC for asking about it....[When] she spoke to Posobiec..., [she] focused on her ongoing clash with the WNBA over its 'Black lives matter' campaign.... She is co-owner of the Atlanta Dream WNBA team. She has spent about a month criticizing players' decision to wear shirts saying 'Black lives matter' or other social justice slogans and those who walk off the court during the national anthem.... A Monmouth University poll released Wednesday shown Loeffler leading U.S. Rep. Doug Collins [R-Obnoxious] in the November special election with 26% of support compared to his 20%. That free-for-all race also includes Democrats and third-party candidates."

Brian Fung of CNN: "... Donald Trump said Friday night that he will ban the popular short-form video app TikTok from operating in the United States, rejecting a potential deal for Microsoft to buy the app from its Chinese-owned parent company. 'As far as TikTok is concerned, we're banning them from the United States,' Trump said to reporters while aboard Air Force One. Trump said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order. It was not immediately clear what such an order would look like and what legal challenges it might face. 'Well, I have that authority,' he said. Earlier on Friday, people working on the issue within the Trump administration expected the President to sign an order to force ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the social media platform, to sell the US operations of TikTok, according to a person familiar with the matter. The move was aimed at resolving policymakers' concerns that the foreign-owned TikTok may be a national security risk." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "President Donald Trump rocked the social media world when he blurted out that he will be banning TikTok on Saturday, prompting a flood of reactions that pegged his decision to the dual humiliations of comedian Sarah Cooper and the pack of users who sabotaged his Tulsa rally." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Update. Dan Primack of Axios: "President Trump 'has a deal on his desk,' whereby Microsoft would lead an acquisition of 100% of the U.S. operations of TikTok, according to a source familiar with the negotiations.... Trump Friday night said he plans to ban TikTok, as India has done, over concerns that the app could be sharing U.S. user data with the Chinese government.... U.S. presidents don't typically have approval or veto power over merger agreements. But this situation is different because of the involvement of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the U.S. (CFIUS), which has been reviewing ByteDance's 2017 acquisition of U.S. app Musical.ly and eventually merged with TikTok."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Germany. Katrin Bennhold of the New York Times: "Germany has belatedly begun dealing with far-right networks that officials now say are far more extensive than they ever understood. The reach of far-right extremists into its armed forces is particularly alarming in a country that has worked to cleanse itself of its Nazi past and the horrors of the Holocaust. In July the government disbanded an entire company infiltrated by extremists in the nation's special forces.... But ... the problem of far-right infiltration is neither new nor confined to to ... Germany's elite special forces..., the KSK, or even the military. Far-right extremism penetrated multiple layers of German society in the years when the authorities underestimated the threat or were reluctant to countenance it fully, officials and lawmakers acknowledge. Now they are struggling to uproot it." Mrs. McC: Are we paying more attention to German extremism now because the country has become the leader of the free world?

News Ledes

Weather Channel: "Isaias (ees-ah-EE-ahs) is moving on its way to Florida's East Coast, now as a tropical storm, before tracking up the East Coast as far north as New England in the first half of the week ahead. Winds have decreased slightly in Isaias since Saturday afternoon as the storm fights with dry air and wind shear, and tries to recover from interaction with the Bahamas' Andros Island. A hurricane warning is in effect from Boca Raton to the Flagler/Volusia County Line in Florida. A hurricane warning means that hurricane conditions are expected within the warning area within 36 hours." ~~~

~~~ On its front page, the Miami Herald says it is providing unlimited access to Hurricane Isaias stories. It's not clear from the blurb whether or not you have to sign up for access. ~~~

~~~ Update. Washington Post: "Tropica Storm Isaias is skirting along Florida's east coast and, through Sunday night, will unleash scattered areas of strong winds, heavy rain, and, along the shore, rough surf. But the storm, which has spared the Sunshine State from its most severe weather, is ... set to charge up the entire East Coast, crashing ashore in the Carolinas Monday night, before surging up the rest of the Eastern Seaboard from Virginia to Maine and exiting late Wednesday. Tropical storm warnings and watches stretch from the Florida coast to Long Island, including Norfolk, Va., the Chesapeake Bay and Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, coastal New Jersey, and New York City. Heavy rains are predicted to drench large areas of the Southeast, Mid-Atlantic, as well as New England regions."

Washington Post: "The launch two months ago went about as smoothly as possible, flying American astronauts into orbit from U.S. soil for the first time since 2011. And SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft docked so gracefully with the International Space Station that NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley didn't even feel it. Now they are coming home.... [Behnken and Hurley] boarded their Endeavour spacecraft and undocked from the station at 7:35 p.m. Eastern time Saturday. [They are] aiming [to splash down at] a site in the Gulf of Mexico near Pensacola in the Florida Panhandle.... Splashdown Sunday is scheduled for 2:48 p.m."

New York Times: "Wilford Brimley, a portly actor with a walrus mustache who found his niche playing cantankerous coots in 'Absence of Malice,' 'The Natural,' 'Cocoon' and other films, died on Saturday at age 85.:

The Commentariat -- August 1, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Lauren Egan of NBC News: "Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Ariz., said Saturday he tested positive for the coronavirus, becoming the second lawmaker this week to announce they had contracted the virus. Grijalva said in a statement that he did not have any symptoms and felt fine. The congressman said he would self-quarantine at the recommendation of the Capitol's attending physician.... Grijalva had attended a a hearing of the Natural Resources Committee with [Rep. Louis] Gohmert [R-Texas] on Tuesday. During the hearing Gohmert [who has refused to wear a mask & tested positive this week] was at times seen without a face covering, sitting in close proximity to other lawmakers including Grijalva. 'While I cannot blame anyone directly for this, this week has shown that there are some Members of Congress who fail to take this crisis seriously,' Grijalva said in his statement, which did not mention Gohmert by name."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here: "Hours after unemployment benefits for tens of millions of Americans lapsed, administration officials arrived on Capitol Hill on Saturday morning for a rare meeting with top congressional Democrats to discuss a coronavirus relief package and work to break an impasse over new aid as the American economy continues to shudder. Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California, who hosted the meeting with Senator Chuck Schumer of New York in her Capitol Hill suite, emerged from the three-hour meeting -- the longest meeting held over the last six days -- and said the discussion 'was productive in terms of moving us forward,' but they remained far apart on a number of issues. They declined to offer specifics. Also in attendance were Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, and Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary."

Julie Bosman, et al., of the New York Times: "First, the Pacific Northwest and the Northeast were hit hardest as the coronavirus tore through the nation. Then it surged across the South. Now the virus is again picking up dangerous speed in much of the Midwest -- and in cities from Mississippi to Florida to California that thought they had already seen the worst of it. As the United States rides what amounts to a second wave of cases, with daily new infections leveling off at an alarming higher mark, there is a deepening national sense that the progress made in fighting the pandemic is coming undone and no patch of America is safe. In Missouri, Wisconsin and Illinois, distressed government officials are retightening restrictions on residents and businesses, and sounding warnings about a surge in coronavirus-related hospitalizations. In the South and the West, several states are reporting their highest levels of new coronavirus cases, with outbreaks overwhelming urban and rural areas alike." ~~~

~~~ Joel Achenbach, et al., of the Washington Post: "The coronavirus is spreading at dangerous levels across much of the United States, and public health experts are demanding a dramatic reset in the national response, one that recognizes that the crisis is intensifying and that current piecemeal strategies aren't working. This is a new phase of the pandemic, one no longer built around local or regional clusters and hot spots. It comes at an unnerving moment in which the economy suffered its worst collapse since the Great Depression, schools are rapidly canceling plans for in-person instruction and Congress has failed to pass a new emergency relief package. President Trump continues to promote fringe science, the daily death toll keeps climbing and the human cost of the virus in America has just passed 150,000 lives."

Alexander Vindman in a Washington Post op-ed: "At no point in my career or life have I felt our nation's values under greater threat and in more peril than at this moment. Our national government during the past few years has been more reminiscent of the authoritarian regime my family fled more than 40 years ago than the country I have devoted my life to serving. Our citizens are being subjected to the same kinds of attacks tyrants launch against their critics and political opponents. Those who choose loyalty to American values and allegiance to the Constitution over devotion to a mendacious president and his enablers are punished. The president recklessly downplayed the threat of the pandemic even as it swept through our country. The economic collapse that followed highlighted the growing income disparities in our society. Millions are grieving the loss of loved ones and many more have lost their livelihoods while the president publicly bemoans his approval ratings." Thanks to unwashed for the link. Mother Jones has a summary here.

Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "A senior Department of Homeland Security official whose office compiled 'intelligence reports' about journalists and protesters in Portland, Ore., has been removed from his job, according to three people familiar with the matter. Brian Murphy, the acting undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, was reassigned to a new position elsewhere in the department, the people said, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss a personnel matter. Acting homeland security secretary Chad Wolf made the decision on Friday, one person said." A Politico story is here.

Brian Fung of CNN: "... Donald Trump said Friday night that he will ban the popular short-form video app TikTok from operating in the United States, rejecting a potential deal for Microsoft to buy the app from its Chinese-owned parent company. 'As far as TikTok is concerned, we're banning them from the United States,' Trump said to reporters while aboard Air Force One. Trump said he could use emergency economic powers or an executive order. It was not immediately clear what such an order would look like and what legal challenges it might face. 'Well, I have that authority,' he said. Earlier on Friday, people working on the issue within the Trump administration expected the President to sign an order to force ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the social media platform, to sell the US operations of TikTok, according to a person familiar with the matter. The move was aimed at resolving policymakers' concerns that the foreign-owned TikTok may be a national security risk." ~~~

~~~ Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "President Donald Trump rocked the social media world when he blurted out that he will be banning TikTok on Saturday, prompting a flood of reactions that pegged his decision to the dual humiliations of comedian Sarah Cooper and the pack of users who sabotaged his Tulsa rally."

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The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar & Matthew Perrone of the AP: "Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that he remains confident that a coronavirus vaccine will be ready by early next year, telling lawmakers that a quarter-million Americans already have volunteered to take part in clinical trials.... Don't look for a mass nationwide vaccination right away, Fauci told lawmakers. There will be a priority list based on recommendations from scientific advisers. Topping the list could be critical workers, such as as medical personnel, or vulnerable groups of people such as older adults with other underlying health problems.... Officials testifying with Fauci at a contentious House hearing acknowledged that the U.S. remains unable to deliver all COVID-19 test results within two or three days, and they jointly pleaded with Americans to comply with basic precautions such as wearing masks, avoiding crowds, and washing their hands frequently." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Carol Morello of the Washington Post: "The failure of the United States to stem the ferocious spread of the coronavirus was on stark display Friday as top administration health officials appearing before a House panel acknowledged lengthy testing delays and a hodgepodge of state policies that protected no more than half the country with restrictions aimed at stopping more infections.... Anthony S. Fauci ... told the panel that a 'diversity of response' from states had hampered efforts to bring down the number of new infections. In contrast, he said, many European nations went into near-total lockdowns." MEANWHILE, Donald Trump was hanging out in the White House trash-treating Rep. Jim Clyburn (D-S.C.) with disinformation about Clyburn's accurate data. The article is free to nonsubscribers. ~~~

~~~ So, why exactly, was no national testing plan developed? Well, actually there was. But the White House dropped it. And for such good reasons: ~~~

~~~ Katherine Eban in Vanity Fair: "This spring, a team working under [Jared Kushner] produced a plan for an aggressive, coordinated national COVID-19 response that could have brought the pandemic under control.... Kushner then appears to have decided, for reasons that remain murky, to scrap its proposal.... The plan would have set up a system of national oversight and coordination to surge supplies, allocate test kits, lift regulatory and contractual roadblocks, and establish a widespread virus surveillance system by the fall, to help pinpoint subsequent outbreaks.... Kushner then appears to have decided, for reasons that remain murky, to scrap its proposal." Both Donald Trump & Deborah Birx were predicting the virus would all but disappear. And Trump was afraid more testing would reveal more Covid cases. But more troubling perhaps, "was a sentiment [a public health] expert said a member of Kushner's team expressed: that because the virus had hit blue states hardest, a national plan was unnecessary and would not make sense politically. 'The political folks believed that because it was going to be relegated to Democratic states, that they could blame those governors, and that would be an effective political strategy,' said the expert." Emphasis added. Firewalled. This is a longish article that contains some rather striking details, like how Jared & the Wonder Boys bought $52MM worth of diagnostic kits without following any federal procurement procedure. You know, they just bought 'em. Oh, and the kits didn't work.

Georgia. 3/4ths of Young Campers Test Positive. Scott Trubey of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Some 260 cases of the coronavirus have been tied to attendees and staff at a North Georgia YMCA children's camp in June, according to a report released Friday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, one of the largest known superspreading events in the state.... Three-quarters of the 344 attendees and staff for whom the CDC was able to obtain test results tested positive for the virus.... The report details how COVID-19 spread rapidly among children and teens within the camp and raises questions about the effectiveness of safety protocols as school districts and colleges contemplate reopening for in-person instruction this fall.... The CDC study of 597 campers and staff from Georgia found the camp did not follow its guidance to require campers wear masks, though staff did." A New York Times story is here.

Where the Goverment Treats the Press and the People As "Adversaries"

Yesterday we learned from Shane Harris the Washington Post that "the Department of Homeland Security has compiled 'intelligence reports' about the work of American journalists covering protests in Portland, Ore., in what current and former officials called an alarming use of a government system meant to share information about suspected terrorists and violent actors." DHS's targets were Mike Baker of the New York Times & Ben Wittes, editor-in-chief of the blog Lawfare (and, probably not coincidentally, the guy who first released one of the Comey memos). Mrs. McC: But I missed this story from July 29: ~~~

~~~ Lara Seligman of Politico: "A mandatory Pentagon training course newly sent to the entire force and aimed at preventing leaks refers to protesters and journalists as 'adversaries' in a fictional scenario designed to teach Defense Department personnel how to better protect sensitive information. The course, which was created originally for a select group of officials in 2010, is part of Defense Secretary Mark Esper's force-wide effort to improve 'operational security,' or OPSEC, and clamp down on leaks." Mrs. McC: If you don't think the press, as well as citizens exercising their First-Amendment rights, are essential to democracy, here's the follow-up to Seligman's 7/29 story: ~~~

~~~ Lara Seligman: "Defense Secretary Mark Esper has directed the Pentagon to adjust the wording in a mandatory training course that identifies protesters and journalists as 'adversaries,' a day after Politico first reported on the materials. The training material has been in use since 2010 and was last updated in 2015, but it was shared with a wider audience following Esper's new guidance aimed at clamping down on leaks released this month...." Mrs. McC: Just because Seligman embarrassed the Pentagon into changing the words, doesn't mean the military brass have changed their attitudes about protesters & journalists.

Spying and Lying. Now this from Shane Harris of the Post: "A senior Department of Homeland Security official [Brian Murphy] told a Senate committee earlier this month that the department had not collected, exploited or analyzed information from the electronic devices or accounts of protesters in Portland, Ore. But an internal DHS document obtained by The Washington Post shows the department did have access to protesters' electronic messages and that their conversations were written up in an 'intelligence report' that was disseminated to federal law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, as well as state and local governments.... The [protesters'] messages don't show the protesters planning to harass or target police or damage property. A significant portion of their discussion is about how to avoid encounters with police, particularly federal officers, who they knew had detained protesters. In a letter sent Friday, Democratic members of the Senate Intelligence Committee asked Brian Murphy, acting DHS undersecretary for intelligence and analysis, about statements he made to committee staff on July 23 regarding the department's intelligence activities in Portland."

Trump Brought Violence to Portland. Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "After President Trump ordered federal law enforcement officers into Portland, Ore., earlier this month, the protests largely ended the same way for days: with tear gas, rubber bullets and arrests. On Thursday, the first protest held since the federal agencies agreed to pull back their officers was a markedly more peaceful affair. As the Black Lives Matter-inspired vigil wound down early Friday morning, there was virtually no sign of the Oregon State Police officers who had taken over protection of the federal buildings at the center of the protests. Instead of being forcibly removed from downtown's Lownsdale Square and the adjacent Chapman Square, which lie opposite the barricaded Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, the crowd thinned out on its own, with many protesters heading home of their own accord." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Update. Adam Taylor, et al., of the Washington Post: Portland, Oregon's, "battle-scarred downtown was calm much of Friday after federal agents withdrew from the streets where thy had faced off with protesters for days, though dozens remained stationed downtown to respond to any further violence.... The Department of Homeland Security is keeping more than 130 federal agents stationed near the courthouse as a 'quick reaction force,' in case protests turn violent again, according to an internal DHS document reviewed by The Washington Post."

Ariane de Vogue of CNN: "A divided Supreme Court on Friday allowed continued construction of a portion of ... Donald Trump's border wall while legal challenges play out. The 5-4 order represents a loss for environmental groups represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, which had asked the justices to lift an order from a year ago that allowed the government to continue building the wall pending appeals. It is a win for Trump, who has made the construction of the wall a cornerstone of his presidency."

Rosalind Helderman & Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: "For at least 15 years ... [beginning in 1989 when they met], Ghislaine Maxwell and [Donald] Trump continued to mingle in the same gilded circles, attending the same parties in Florida and New York, sharing meals and flying together at least once on [Jeffrey] Epstein's private plane, according to documents, interviews and media accounts. They were captured together in photographs and videos several times in that period, and Maxwell got to know two of Trump's wives.... When asked last week if he thought Maxwell would give prosecutors information about powerful men who may have been involved in the exploitation of minors, the president simply said, 'I wish her well, frankly.'... Trump's kind words toward Maxwell are a reminder of his long-standing tendency to extend sympathy to friends or social peers who have been accused of serious wrongdoing -- a sharp contrast to the rhetoric he often deploys against political enemies he accuses of 'treason' and 'corruption.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

The Trump Crime Family, Ctd. William Bredderman of the Daily Beast: "Disclosures obtained by a watchdog group show that White House Senior Advisor and presidential son-in-law Jared Kushner raked in as much as $3 million from projects benefiting from Trump administration initiatives in 2019, plus up to $1 million more in rent money from firms which later received COVID-related small business loans from the government. The documents, released by Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, show that the Kushner windfall includes revenues from a Jersey Shore luxury development that benefited from a real estate tax break publicly pushed by First Daughter Ivanka Trump -- Kushner's wife -- in 2017."

Elections 2020

An Embarrassment of Riches? Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: "Joe Biden will most likely announce his running mate in the second week of August, again breaking a self-imposed deadline for unveiling the choice, according to two people familiar with his plans. Biden ... initially said he'd select his running mate by Aug. 1. Then on Tuesday, he told reporters that he intended to make up his mind by the end of the first week of August, which would be Aug. 8."

Nick Corasaniti, et al., of the New York Times:"On Tuesday, the messaging behemoth that has been the Trump campaign ground to a halt, as it temporarily suspended all television advertising nationwide in order to review its strategy under its new campaign manager, Bill Stepien. While the pause will likely be short-lived -- in a tweet on Friday afternoon, the president said that they would be launching 'a new ad campaign' on Monday -- the sudden decision is yet another sign that the campaign is reckoning with a yawning deficit in battleground state polling and an inability to find a defining message against [Joe] Biden." ~~~

~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: The Trump campaign's new attack ad against Joe Biden is just like its old campaign ad against Biden. "Notably, this ad doesn't just recapitulate previous attack lines. It also does so by recycling the same distortions used in previous ads." Mrs. McC: I wouldn't call the example Sargent cites a "distortion." I'd call it a "lie." The reason the Trumpies can't mount an "honest" campaign against Biden is that the places where voters don't like him tend to be the places where conservatives do like him: support for police and tough sentencing laws, for instance. (They could get Biden for his support for the Iraq war, I guess, but that would sweep in a lot of down-ticket GOP candidates.)

John Wagner of the Washington Post: "The White House on Friday condemned Hong Kong's decision to postpone September legislative elections by a year because of the coronavirus, denouncing the action a day after President Trump floated the idea of delaying the U.S. presidential election in November. 'We condemn the Hong Kong government's decision to postpone for one year its legislative council elections and to disqualify opposition candidates,' White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said at a news briefing. Reading from a prepared statement, she characterized the move as part of an effort by China to deny 'promised autonomy and freedom to the Hong Kong people.' On Thursday, Trump drew immediate rebukes from across the political spectrum after proposing to delay the Nov. 3 election and claiming without evidence that widespread mail balloting would be a 'catastrophic disaster' leading to fraudulent results -- an assertion he repeated later Friday when speaking to reporters."

Far from undermining public confidence in the democracy over which he presides, it is the obligation of every president to cultivate that confidence by guaranteeing voting rights, by condemning foreign interference in American political campaigns, by promoting free, safe and secure elections, and by abiding by their outcome. -- Jill Lepore, historian ~~~

~~~ Peter Baker, the very sober NYT White House correspondent (or his headline writer), has gone radical: "More Than Just a Tweet: Trump's Campaign to Undercut Democracy.": That's the headline. "Never before has a sitting president of the United States sought to undermine public faith in the election system the way Mr. Trump has. He has refused to commit to respecting the results and, even after his election-delay trial balloon was panned by Republican allies, he raised the specter on Thursday evening of months of lawsuits challenging the outcome.... Even some of Mr. Trump's own current and former advisers see his attacks on the election system as a reflection of fear that he may lose and as a transparent effort to create a narrative to explain that away." ~~~

~~~ Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump's yearslong assault on the Postal Service and his increasingly dire warnings about the dangers of voting by mail are colliding as the presidential campaign enters its final months. The result has been to generate new concerns about how he could influence an election conducted during a pandemic in which greater-than-ever numbers of voters will submit their ballots by mail.... Members of Congress and state officials ... are warning that a huge wave of ballots could overwhelm mail carriers unless the Postal Service, in financial difficulty for years, receives emergency funding that Republicans are blocking during negotiations over another pandemic relief bill. At the same time, the mail system is being undercut in ways set in motion by Mr. Trump.... In recent weeks, at the direction of a Trump campaign megadonor who was recently named the postmaster general, the service has stopped paying mail carriers and clerks the overtime necessary to ensure that deliveries can be completed each day. That and other changes have led to reports of letters and packages being delayed by as many as several days." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ David Siders of Politico: "... Democrats are already bracing for Republican challenges to absentee ballots and at vote counting on Election Day. They have good cause to be prepared: the president has repeatedly raised the prospect of a 'rigged election' and recently declined to say if he'll accept the results. Trump's rhetoric points increasingly to the possibility that he will dispute the outcome in a year marked by primary election administration meltdowns -- a prospect that is heightened by his absolute control of state and national party machinery and an attorney general who has amplified Trump's unsubstantiated claims about mail-in voting fraud.... [Joe] Biden and the Democratic National Committee, in coordination with state parties and advocacy groups, have lawyers and political operatives working across the battleground map and have hired voter protection directors in 20 states." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ The Trump Plot to Toss Your Vote. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "According to the Brennan Center for Justice and the Democratic-run Democracy Docket, swing states that currently do not accept ballots that are postmarked before but arrive after Election Day include: Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Georgia. Those states will decide the election.... Democrats will use vote-by-mail in far higher numbers than Republicans -- due to Trump's nonstop attacks on it -- yet absentee ballots get rejected at disproportionate rates, due to procedural complexities.... In very close races, the impact could be serious.... Top Democratic lawyer Marc Elias tells me Democrats are litigating against these laws in every swing state, with an eye toward getting ballots counted that are postmarked before but arrive after Election Day." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That is, the Trump plan is not only to "undermine public faith in the election system," as Peter Baker writes, but also to significantly undermine the election system itself. And we haven't even talked about backing other GOP voter suppression measures or inviting foreign interference or engaging the DOJ to interfere in vote counts or or or. ~~~

~~~ Like This. Natasha Bertrand & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other top House Democrats admonished the country's top counterintelligence official during a classified election security briefing Friday, accusing him of keeping Americans in the dark about the details of Russia's continued interference in the 2020 campaign. Pelosi hinted at the conflict upon emerging from the briefing Friday morning, saying she thought the administration was 'withholding' evidence of foreign election meddling. Multiple sources who attended the briefing told Politico that both Pelosi and House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) chastised William Evanina, director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center, for issuing a statement last week warning the public of election interference by China, Russia and Iran. Democrats have described the statement as so vague as to be 'almost meaningless.'... Evanina ultimately acknowledged that Russia is again trying to boost President Donald Trump's reelection and denigrate ... Joe Biden, sources who attended the briefing said. But that didn't satisfy Democrats, who urged him to say as much publicly -- and to be specific." ~~~

~~~ AND This. Ernesto Londoño, et al., of the New York Times: "Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee said Friday they were 'extremely alarmed' by assertions that the American ambassador in Brazil had signaled to Brazilian officials they could help get President Trump re-elected by changing their trade policies. In a letter sent Friday afternoon, Committee Chairman Eliot L. Engel demanded that the ambassador, Todd Chapman, produce 'any and all documents referring or related to any discussions' he has held with Brazilian officials in recent weeks about their nation's tariffs on ethanol, an important agricultural export for Iowa, a potential swing state in the American presidential election. The committee's letter was sent in response to reports in the Brazilian news media this week saying that Mr. Chapman, a career diplomat, made it clear to Brazilian officials they could bolster Mr. Trump's electoral chances in Iowa if Brazil lifted its ethanol tariffs.... Promoting favorable terms for American industries abroad is a core priority for American ambassadors. But American diplomats are reminded in election years to steer clear of any actions that might reasonably be construed as partisan." ~~~

~~~ AND This. Pompeo (Probably) Smears Biden. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Rep. Eliot Engel, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, subpoenaed the State Department on Friday demanding copies of documents that Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has already provided to Senate Republicans investigating Joe Biden. Engel indicated he subpoenaed the documents because the department had ignored his initial request to share copies of any material being provided to the Senate. Democrats view the Senate GOP investigation, led by Sen. Ron Johnson's Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, as an effort to smear Biden on false corruption allegations related to his diplomacy in Ukraine. 'After trying to stonewall virtually every oversight effort by the Foreign Affairs Committee in the last two years, Mr. Pompeo is more than happy to help Senate Republicans advance their conspiracy theories about the Bidens,' Engel said in a statement. 'I want to see the full record of what the department has sent to the Senate and I want the American people to see it too.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Eliot Engel may be about to lose his job (he lost to a primary challenger), but he sure isn't acting like a short-timer.

"Access Hollywood" Keeps on Giving. Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Video of then-businessman Donald Trump struggling to vote in-person before declaring he would fill out an absentee ballot in 2004 has resurfaced this week amid a new round of unfounded attacks on mail-in voting from the President. The 'Access Hollywood' segment, filmed as Trump was attempting to vote in the 2004 election, shows Trump alongside TV host Billy Bush visiting multiple New York City polling locations. Trump, however, is blocked from voting at each location because he is not on any of the voter rolls at each stop. Trump can be seen becoming increasingly frustrated before declaring, 'I'm going to fill out the absentee ballot.' The segment ends with Trump filling out what Bush describes as a provisional ballot in his car." ~~~

Indiana. Casey Smith of the AP: "U.S. Rep. Greg Pence [R-Ind.] is coming under criticism for allowing the sale of objects with racist depictions of African Americans at a sprawling antiques mall he co-owns -- and the issue has taken on particular significance as the Republican defends his congressional seat in Indiana amid a national reckoning on race. The Exit 76 Antique Mall in Edinburgh, Indiana, has more than 4 million items for sale by the merchants who rent booths from Pence, the vice president's older brother, and his wife.... Jeannine Lee Lake, Pence's Democratic challenger, drew attention to the objects recently on social media, but customers say they have complained to management at the mall about the items as far back as 2008.... Lake, who is one of three Black candidates for federal office in Indiana this fall, said the issue was brought to her attention by a woman who used to live near the mall who sent photos of 'awful objects degrading and dehumanizing Black people' for sale." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Pennsylvania. Marc Levy of the AP: "Pennsylvania will foot the cost of postage for voters to mail in ballots in November's general election, officials said Friday, a move that Gov. Tom Wolf [D] has made a priority as the coronavirus pandemic unexpectedly fueled high interest in voting by mail under a new state law. The administration plans to use money from federal emergency coronavirus aid to foot the bill, which could run to several million dollars to cover 55 cents for millions of ballots."

Alanna Richer of the AP: "A federal appeals court Friday threw out Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's death sentence in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, saying the judge who oversaw the case did not adequately screen jurors for potential biases. A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new penalty-phase trial on whether the 27-year-old Tsarnaev should be executed for the attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others. 'But make no mistake: Dzhokhar will spend his remaining days locked up in prison, with the only matter remaining being whether he will die by execution,' the judges said, more than six months after arguments were heard in the case." Donald Trump called the ruling ridiculous. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Michael Grynbaum & Edmund Lee of the New York Times: "Once considered a potential successor to Rupert Murdoch, [James] Murdoch on Friday resigned from the board of the newspaper publisher News Corp, severing his last corporate tie to his father's global media empire. 'My resignation is due to disagreements over certain editorial content published by the Company's news outlets and certain other strategic decisions,' Mr. Murdoch, 47, wrote in his resignation letter, which News Corp disclosed in a filing shortly after the close of business on Friday.... A political outlier in his conservative-leaning family, James Murdoch has sought to reinvent himself as an independent investor with a focus on causes more closely associated with liberals, like environmentalism, which he and his wife, Kathryn Murdoch, have long championed. He has also taken public stands against President Trump, who has counted Fox News, a prime Murdoch asset, among his closest media allies. Weeks ago, James and his wife jointly contributed more than $1 million to a fund-raising committee for former Vice President Joseph R. Biden...." A Hollywood Reporter story is here.

Jacob Bogage & Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "Avowed white supremacist David Duke was permanently banned from Twitter for repeated violations of the social media platform's rules on hate speech. The former Ku Klux Klan leader and one-time Louisiana legislator's most recent tweets included a link to an interview he conducted with Holocaust denier Germar Rudolf. Other posts promised to expose the 'systemic racism lie,' as well as the 'incitement of violence against white people' by Jewish-owned media. He also shared misinformation about the danger and spread of the coronavirus." (Also linked yesterday.)

Kate Conger & Nathaniel Popper of the New York Times: "One by one, the celebrity Twitter accounts posted the same strange message: Send Bitcoin and they would send back double your money. Elon Musk. Bill Gates. Kanye West. Joseph R. Biden Jr. Former President Barack Obama. They, and dozens of otherswere being hacked, and Twitter appeared powerless to stop it. While some initially thought the hack was the work of professionals, it turns out the 'mastermind' of one of the most high-profile hacks in recent years was a 17-year-old recent high school graduate from Florida, the authorities said on Friday. Graham Ivan Clark was arrested in his Tampa apartment, where he lived by himself, early Friday, state officials said. He faces 30 felony charges in the hack, including fraud, and is being charged as an adult. Two other people, Mason John Sheppard, 19, of the United Kingdom, and Nima Fazeli, 22, of Orlando, Fla., were accused of helping Mr. Clark during the takeover."

News Lede

AP: "Hurricane Isaias ripped shingles off roofs and blew over trees as it carved its way through the Bahamas early Saturday and headed toward the Florida coast, where officials in Miami said they were closing beaches, marinas and parks. Miami-Dad Mayor Carlos Giménez said Friday that 20 evacuation centers were on standby that could be set up with COVID-19 safety measures. 'We still don't think there is a need to open shelters for this storm, but they are ready,' he said. Authorities in North Carolina ordered the evacuation of Ocracoke Island, which was slammed by last year's Hurricane Dorian, starting Saturday evening. Meanwhile, officials in the Bahamas evacuated people on Abaco island, who have been living in temporary structures since Dorian. People living in the eastern end of Grand Bahama were also being moved."

The Commentariat -- July 31, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Alanna Richer of the AP: “A federal appeals court Friday threw out Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's death sentence in the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, saying the judge who oversaw the case did not adequately screen jurors for potential biases. A three-judge panel of the 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ordered a new penalty-phase trial on whether the 27-year-old Tsarnaev should be executed for the attack that killed three people and wounded more than 260 others. 'But make no mistake: Dzhokhar will spend his remaining days locked up in prison, with the only matter remaining being whether he will die by execution,' the judges said, more than six month after arguments were heard in the case." Donald Trump called the ruling ridiculous.

Casey Smith of the AP: "U.S. Rep. Greg Pence [R-Ind.] is coming under criticism for allowing the sale of objects with racist depictions of African Americans at a sprawling antiques mall he co-owns -- and the issue has taken on particular significance as the Republican defends his congressional seat in Indiana amid a national reckoning on race. The Exit 76 Antique Mall in Edinburgh, Indiana, has more than 4 million items for sale by the merchants who rent booths from Pence, the vice president's older brother, and his wife.... Jeannine Lee Lake, Pence's Democratic challenger, drew attention to the objects recently on social media, but customers say they have complained to management at the mall about the items as far back as 2008.... Lake, who is one of three Black candidates for federal office in Indiana this fall, said the issue was brought to her attention by a woman who used to live near the mall who sent photos of 'awful objects degrading and dehumanizing Black people' for sale."

Ricardo Alonso-Zaldivar & Matthew Perrone of the AP: "Dr. Anthony Fauci said Friday that he remains confident that a coronavirus vaccine will be ready by early next year, telling lawmakers that a quarter-million Americans already have volunteered to take part in clinical trials.... Don't look for a mass nationwide vaccination right away, Fauci told lawmakers. There will be a priority list based on recommendations from scientific advisers. Topping the list could be critical workers, such as as medical personnel, or vulnerable groups of people such as older adults with other underlying health problems.... Officials testifying with Fauci at a contentious House hearing acknowledged that the U.S. remains unable to deliver all COVID-19 test results within two or three days, and they jointly pleaded with Americans to comply with basic precautions such as wearing masks, avoiding crowds, and washing their hands frequently."

Michael Shear, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump's yearslong assault on the Postal Service and his increasingly dire warnings about the dangers of voting by mail are colliding as the presidential campaign enters its final months. The result has been to generate new concerns about how he could influence an election conducted during a pandemic in which greater-than-ever numbers of voters will submit their ballots by mail.... Members of Congress and state officials ... are warning that a huge wave of ballots could overwhelm mail carriers unless the Postal Service, in financial difficulty for years, receives emergency funding that Republicans are blocking during negotiations over another pandemic relief bill. At the same time, the mail system is being undercut in ways set in motion by Mr. Trump.... In recent weeks, at the direction of a Trump campaign megadonor who was recently named the postmaster general, the service has stopped paying mail carriers and clerks the overtime necessary to ensure that deliveries can be completed each day. That and other changes have led to reports of letters and packages being delayed by as many as several days."

David Siders of Politico: "... Democrats are already bracing for Republican challenges to absentee ballots and at vote counting on Election Day. They have good cause to be prepared: the president has repeatedly raised the prospect of a 'rigged election' and recently declined to say if he'll accept the results. Trump's rhetoric points increasingly to the possibility that he will dispute the outcome in a year marked by primary election administration meltdowns -- a prospect that is heightened by his absolute control of state and national party machinery and an attorney general who has amplified Trump's unsubstantiated claims about mail-in voting fraud.... [Joe] Biden and the Democratic National Committee, in coordination with state parties and advocacy groups, have lawyers and political operatives working across the battleground map and have hired voter protection directors in 20 states." ~~~

~~~ The Trump Plot to Toss Your Vote. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "According to the Brennan Center for Justice and the Democratic-run Democracy Docket, swing states that currently do not accept ballots that are postmarked before but arrive after Election Day include: Arizona, Florida, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio and Georgia. Those states will decide the election.... Democrats will use vote-by-mail in far higher numbers than Republicans -- due to Trump's nonstop attacks on it -- yet absentee ballots get rejected at disproportionate rates, due to procedural complexities.... In very close races, the impact could be serious.... Top Democratic lawyer Marc Elias tells me Democrats are litigating against these laws in every swing state, with an eye toward getting ballots counted that are postmarked before but arrive after Election Day."

~~~ "Access Hollywood" Keeps on Giving. Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Video of then-businessman Donald Trump struggling to vote in-person before declaring he would fill out an absentee ballot in 2004 has resurfaced this week amid a new round of unfounded attacks on mail-in voting from the President. The 'Access Hollywood' segment, filmed as Trump was attempting to vote in the 2004 election, shows Trump alongside TV host Billy Bush visiting multiple New York City polling locations. Trump, however, is blocked from voting at each location because he is not on any of the voter rolls at each stop. Trump can be seen becoming increasingly frustrated before declaring, 'I'm going to fill out the absentee ballot.' The segment ends with Trump filling out what Bush describes as a provisional ballot in his car." ~~~

Trump Brought Violence to Portland. Adam Taylor of the Washington Post: "After President Trump ordered federal law enforcement officers into Portland, Ore., earlier this month, the protests largely ended the same way for days: with tear gas, rubber bullets and arrests. On Thursday, the first protest held since the federal agencies agreed to pull back their officers was a markedly more peaceful affair. As the Black Lives Matter-inspired vigil wound down early Friday morning, there was virtually no sign of the Oregon State Police officers who had taken over protection of the federal buildings at the center of the protests. Instead of being forcibly removed from downtown's Lownsdale Square and the adjacent Chapman Square, which lie opposite the barricaded Mark O. Hatfield U.S. Courthouse, the crowd thinned out on its own, with many protesters heading home of their own accord."

Rosalind Helderman & Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: "For at least 15 years ... [beginning in 1989 when they met], Ghislaine Maxwell and [Donald] Trump continued to mingle in the same gilded circles, attending the same parties in Florida and New York, sharing meals and flying together at least once on [Jeffrey] Epstein's private plane, according to documents, interviews and media accounts. They were captured together in photographs and videos several times in that period, and Maxwell got to know two of Trump's wives.... When asked last week if he thought Maxwell would give prosecutors information about powerful men who may have been involved in the exploitation of minors, the president simply said, 'I wish her well, frankly.'... Trump's kind words toward Maxwell are a reminder of his long-standing tendency to extend sympathy to friends or social peers who have been accused of serious wrongdoing -- a sharp contrast to the rhetoric he often deploys against political enemies he accuses of 'treason' and 'corruption.'"

Jacob Bogage & Eugene Scott of the Washington Post: "Avowed white supremacist David Duke was permanently banned from Twitter for repeated violations of the social media platform's rules on hate speech. The former Ku Klux Klan leader and one-time Louisiana legislator's most recent tweets included a link to an interview he conducted with Holocaust denier Germar Rudolf. Other posts promised to expose the 'systemic racism lie,' as well as the 'incitement of violence against white people' by Jewish-owned media. He also shared misinformation about the danger and spread of the."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

"Re-open the Country" -- the Gigantic Trump Fuck-up. Ben Casselman of the New York Times: "The coronavirus pandemic's toll on the nation's economy became emphatically clearer Thursday as the government detailed the most devastating three-month collapse on record, which wiped away nearly five years of growth. Gross domestic product, the broadest measure of goods and services produced, fell 9.5 percent in the second quarter.... The drop -- the equivalent of a 32.9 percent annual rate of decline -- would have been even more severe without trillions of dollars in government aid to households and businesses. But there is mounting evidence that the attempt to freeze the economy and defeat the virus has not produced the rapid rebound that many envisioned. A surge in coronavirus cases and deaths across the country has led to a renewed pullback in economic activity.... Data from Europe shows what might have been. Germany on Thursday reported a drop in second-quarter G.D.P. that was even steeper than the U.S. decline. But in Germany, coronavirus cases fell sharply and remain low, which has allowed a much stronger economic rebound in recent weeks. In the United States, the rebound appears to have stalled." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I've been sort of trying not to use the word "fuck" in the body of the Commentariat, but sometimes I cannot avoid it. Trump's insistence on "re-opening the country" -- and his followers' willingness to play along (here's looking at you, Ron DeSantis) -- is far more consequential than even some of his crazier suggestions and advice. You could argue that his refusal to wear a mask was worse, but he did not -- as apparently some Members of Congress did -- tell us not to wear masks. Or his refusal to lead a national response to the pandemic was worse, but if every state had followed sound practices we might have come out okay. But his demand that we get back to "business as usual," and his pressure on state governors to follow his lead, has tanked the economy, and it is improving far more slowly than necessary.

Young people are almost immune to this disease. The younger, the better, I guess. They're stronger. They're stronger. They have a stronger immune system. It's an incredible thing. Nobody has ever seen this before.... But young people are almost immune. If you look at the percentage, it's a tiny percent of 1 percent. It's a tiny percent of 1 percent. So we have to have our schools open. -- Donald Trump, telling another dangerous lie, Thursday ~~~

~~~ Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: Results from a new peer-reviewed study show that "infected children have at least as much of the coronavirus in their noses and throats as infected adults, according to the research. Indeed, children younger than age 5 may host up to 100 times as much of the virus in the upper respiratory tract as adults, the authors found. That measurement does not necessarily prove children are passing the virus to others. Still, the findings should influence the debate over reopening schools, several experts said."

Zachary Basu of Axios: "The Senate has adjourned until 3pm on Monday, as Congress failed to reach an agreement on extending extra unemployment benefits that are set to expire on Friday.... Tens of millions of Americans are out of work and have been receiving $600 per week on top of their regular unemployment payments. That money has been used both to pay expenses and to prop up the broader economy via consumer spending.... Congress and the Trump administration are still painfully deadlocked over the next stimulus bill, with at least 20 Senate Republicans pledging to vote 'no' on another massive relief package no matter what."

The Peasants Revolt. Sort of. Anna Palmer of Politico: "The revelation Wednesday that Texas Republican Louie Gohmert, a renegade lawmaker known for stalking the halls of Congress without a mask, tested positive for Covid-19 has unleashed a fusillade of anger on Capitol Hill -- a sudden release of built-up tension over how the institution has dealt with the coronavirus pandemic within the confines of its own workplace. For months, the leaders of Congress have allowed lawmakers to enter the Capitol without being screened for the deadly virus, rejecting an offer from the White House to provide rapid testing while trusting that the thousands who work across the massive complex of offices, meeting rooms and hallways will behave responsibly. Now, legislative aides, chiefs of staff, press assistants, members of Congress, career workers and maintenance men and women are venting their fury with an institution that does not have uniform rules or masking requirements, does not mandate testing, is run with minimal oversight and must contend with a gaggle of lawmakers who doubt scientists and hold themselves out as experts on everything from disease hygiene to pharmacology."

Adam Edelman of ABC News: "Herman Cain, a successful businessman who ran for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination and later became a backer of ... Donald Trump, has died from complications from COVID-19, according to a statement posted Thursday on his personal website. He was 74.... Last month, Cain had tested positive for COVID-19, just a little over a week after he had attended a Trump campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma on June 20." (Also linked yesterday.)

Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Michael D. Cohen now will be allowed to finish his tell-all book about President Trump after the government said on Thursday that it had given up a legal battle to prevent him from expressing himself on television, on social media or in books while he serves a prison sentence at home. The government, writing to a federal judge in Manhattan, said it would not challenge a ruling last week that cleared the way for Mr. Cohen, who once was Mr. Trump's lawyer and fixer, to publish a memoir about his former boss before the election. The government said it had agreed to omit a condition in Mr. Cohen's home-confinement agreement that would have banned him from any contact with the media, including making posts on social media, appearing on television or publishing a book."

Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "A federal appeals court in Washington will take a second look at a judge's effort to scrutinize the Justice Department's decision to drop its case against President Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn. The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit agreed Thursday to revisit U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan's plan to examine the politically charged matter, reviving the unusual case testing the limits of the judiciary's power to check the executive branch. The court's brief order set oral arguments for Aug. 11. The decision to rehear the case before a full complement of judges wipes out the June ruling from a three-judge panel that ordered Sullivan to immediately dismiss the case and said Sullivan was wrong to appoint a retired federal judge to argue against the government's move to undo Flynn's guilty plea." A Reuters story is here. (Also linked yesterday.)

CNN is republishing adapted portions of Jeff Toobin's new book, True Crimes & Misdemeanors, an examination of the Mueller investigation. One revelation: Andrew McCabe secreted copies of key documents, including memos by Jim Comey, in the FBI's secure case management system and "in remote locations around the Bureau. This was to make sure that in the event Trump directed an end to these inquiries, the documents could always be preserved, located, and shared."

Trump, Spies, Cops & Sundry Bigots

Shane Harris of the Washington Post: "The Department of Homeland Security has compiled 'intelligence reports' about the work of American journalists covering protests in Portland, Ore., in what current and former officials called an alarming use of a government system meant to share information about suspected terrorists and violent actors. Over the past week, the department's Office of Intelligence and Analysis has disseminated three Open Source Intelligence Reports to federal law enforcement agencies and others, summarizing tweets written by two journalists -- a reporter for the New York Times [Mike Baker] and the editor in chief of the blog Lawfare [Ben Wittes] -- and noting they had published leaked, unclassified documents about DHS operations in Portland." The Raw Story has a summary report here.

"I Can't Breathe." Timothy Bella of the Washington Post: For 6½ minutes, Lionel Morris "begged police to stop using a Taser on him on a supermarket's floor ... in Conway, Ark.... Morris had run from officers on Feb. 4 and then placed one officer in a chokehold and tried to [pull] out a knife, according to police, after the supermarket had reported him for removing a drone from its packaging. But as an officer had his knee on the 39-year-old's back inside Harps Food Store, Morris, handcuffed and lying face down, repeatedly offered a succinct and familiar plea: 'I can't breathe.' 'If you can talk, you can breathe. Chill out,' replied the officer, according to body-cam footage released by the Conway Police Department on Wednesday.... Minutes later, Morris was 'pulseless and unresponsive' when medical personnel arrived. He was pronounced dead while being transported to the hospital. On Wednesday, the officers involved in Morris's death were cleared of criminal wrongdoing by the Arkansas State Police and prosecutors. That decision came the same day that police released edited body-cam and security footage that illustrated a chaotic incident in which Morris seemingly made clear repeatedly that he was in medical distress." ~~~

~~~ The Disappeared? Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "An Immigration and Customs Enforcement guard at an immigration jail in Virginia knelt dangerously on the upper back of a man already bleeding from his head, two detained men who said they saw the disturbing incident told The Daily Beast. 'It was like seeing George Floyd all over again,' said one detainee.... Since the incident on Monday, July 13, the detained men said that they have not seen the beaten man, identified as 31-year old Carlos Rivas Monsano. 'Right now, we don't know where he is,' a second detainee ... said on Monday. A third detainee gave a similar account. In a statement to The Daily Beast, ICE said it was investigating what is said to have happened to Rivas."

     ~~~ Jaclyn Peiser of the Washington Post: "Over the three days Rob Bliss held the sign in the sweltering July heat in Harrison, a town known as a haven for white supremacists and home to the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan, similar interactions happened again and again.... Bliss is a director and producer based in Los Angeles and is known for making viral stunts aimed at socially conscious messages.... Bliss's video swiftly went viral after he uploaded it Monday...." (Also linked yesterday.)

Elections 2020

~~~ For those who don't subscribe to the New York Times, digby has republished John Lewis' NYT op-ed. I don't know whether or not she violated copyright law, and here is an instance where I don't care. (The Times should have made the essay free for nonsubscribers, IMO.) Many thanks to Keith H. for the link. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ digby appends this to the end of the essay: "Meanwhile, Trump, who couldn't be bothered to pay tribute or even have the decency to STFU, has spent this week pushing racist housing policies and trying to manipulate, suppress and now, delay the vote. If there's a more graceless barbarian on earth I don't know who it might be." Amen, Sister. ~~~

~~~ Ari Berman of Mother Jones: "... Lewis was right to be concerned about the threat to voting rights. Since the 2010 election, half the states in the country have passed new restrictions on voting, such as voter ID laws, cutbacks to early voting, and closing polling places. In 2013, the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act, unleashing a wave of new voter suppression in states with a long history of discrimination like Georgia and Texas. (Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has been blocking a vote on bipartisan legislation to restore the VRA for most of a year.) More recently, the Trump administration has waged an unrelenting campaign against vote-by-mail, lying about mail ballot fraud and filing a series of lawsuits opposing efforts to make it easier to vote by mail. He has also politicized the United States Postal Service by appointing the former top fundraiser for the Republican National Committee as postmaster general, cutting overtime for postal workers, and slowing down mail delivery at a time when the agency faces a major budget crisis, which could lead to mail ballots not arriving in time to be counted."

~~~ Richard Fausset & Rick Rojas of the New York Times: "Three former presidents and dozens of other dignitaries were drawn to Ebenezer Baptist Church on Thursday to bid farewell to John Lewis, a giant of Congress and the civil rights era whose courageous protests guaranteed him a place in American history. But even as the funeral looked back over Mr. Lewis's long life, it also focused very much on the tumultuous state of affairs in the country today. The most pointed eulogy came from former President Barack Obama, who issued a blistering critique of the Trump administration, the brutality of police officers toward Black people and efforts to limit the right to vote that Mr. Lewis had shed his blood to secure." ~~~

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: "President Barack Obama hailed the late Rep. John Lewis as a modern-day founding father of a more perfect union that has not yet come to fruition -- and challenged Americans to carry on Lewis' legacy. In a 40-minute eulogy that was part a celebration of Lewis and part a call to action, Obama chronicled Lewis' journey as a young civil rights activist to an elderly congressman who led a sit-in inside the U.S. Capitol, evidence that Lewis never stopped fighting for what was right. Former Presidents George W. Bush and Bill Clinton and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi paid tribute to the late Democratic congressman before Obama spoke. Former President Jimmy Carter sent his condolences in a letter that was read aloud during the service." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

Bull Connor may be gone. But today we witness with our own eyes police officers kneeling on the necks of Black Americans. George Wallace may be gone, but we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators. -- President Barack Obama, eulogy for John Lewis

     ~~~ At about 22 min. in, President Obama begins speaking about how civil rights are being curbed today. At 27:55, he speaks about expanding the Voting Rights Act. The full transcript of his eulogy, via the New York Times, is here. ~~~

~~~ Paul Kane & John Wagner of the Washington Post: "Former president Barack Obama delivered a call to action in his eulogy Thursday of late congressman John Lewis, urging Congress to pass new voting rights laws and likening tactics by President Trump and his administration to those used by racist Southern leaders who fought the civil rights movement in the 1960s. Obama, speaking for 40 minutes at the pulpit where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. once preached, tied Lewis's early life as a Freedom Rider to the nationwide protests that followed the killing of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police. He compared today's federal agents using tear gas against peaceful protesters, an action that Trump has cheered on, to the same attacks Lewis faced on the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Ala., in 1965."

Marc Fisher of the Washington Post: "Three presidents spoke in poetry, paying tribute to a fallen hero who believed -- often against evidence to the contrary, including the cracking of his skull by state troopers -- that America was good, its people driven by love to do right by one another. One president, the current commander in chief, did not attend the funeral of Rep. John Lewis but instead spoke of dark forces in the country and suggested that the United States not hold its next presidential election on time."

** Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "Facing disastrous economic news and rising coronavirus deaths, President Trump on Thursday floated delaying the Nov. 3 election, a suggestion that lacks legal authority and could undermine confidence in an election that polls show him on course to lose. Republican leaders in Congress, who often claim not to have seen Mr. Trump's outlandish statements and tweets and who infrequently challenge him in public, promptly and vocally condemned any notion that the election would be moved. It was a moment of striking political isolation for the president, as Republicans felt no need to defend him, Democrats condemned him, and three former presidents gathered in a rare moment together, paying tribute at the funeral of Representative John Lewis of Georgia.... 'With Universal Mail-In Voting (not Absentee Voting, which is good), 2020 will be the most INACCURATE & FRAUDULENT Election in history, Mr. Trump wrote. 'It will be a great embarrassment to the USA. Delay the Election until people can properly, securely and safely vote???'... Mr. Trump said in a separate tweet, 'Must know Election results on the night of the Election, not days, months or even years later!' That second statement reflects a concern that Democrats have given voice to -- that Mr. Trump will try to focus on the same-day voting tallies to claim victory, even when the full results may be unknown for days."~~~

     ~~~ Politico's story is here. ~~~

Never in the history of the country, through wars, depressions, and the Civil War have we ever not had a federally scheduled election on time, and we'll find a way to do that again this Nov. 3. -- Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, shortly after Donald Trump suggested the election be delayed

So many dead and the economy in free fall -- and what's his reaction? Delay the election. It's a sign of a mind that's having a great deal of difficulty coming to terms with reality. -- Former Massachusetts Gov. William Weld (R) ~~~

~~~ Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "... with Mr. Trump suggesting for the first time that the election could be delayed, his proposal appeared as impotent as it was predictable.... Far from a strongman, Mr. Trump has lately become a heckler in his own government, promoting medical conspiracy theories on social media, playing no constructive role in either the management of the coronavirus pandemic or the negotiation of an economic rescue plan in Congress -- and complaining endlessly about the unfairness of it all." ~~~

~~~ Cory Bennett, et al., of Politico: "For months, faced with the dual crises of a life-altering pandemic and a nationwide protest movement against racism, Trump has been laying the groundwork to contest the election results -- refusing to commit to accepting the results, leveling baseless allegations that mail-in balloting will create the 'the greatest Rigged Election in history.' Jared Kushner ... told Time magazine that he could not 'commit one way or the other' to holding the election on Nov. 3, the date that is set by law. 'Right now that's the plan,' he said...." ~~~

~~~ ** Steve M.: "We're being assured that Trump can't postpone the election." But the 1845 law that sets the date of the election of the president & veep also provides that "When any State shall have held an election for the purpose of choosing electors, and shall fail to make a choice on the day aforesaid, then the electors may be appointed on a subsequent day in such manner as the State shall by law provide." That suggests to Steve "that states can alter their procedures for choosing presidential electors. And this, from the National Constitution Center, is ominous: 'Three opinions from the Congressional Research Service explain scenarios about the possible delays in the presidential election process. One report, released [in March], indicates a state under its own laws could postpone the general election date that results in the selection of electors; in the election this year that date is Tuesday, November 3, 2020. At least 45 states have statutes that deal with election day emergencies, the CRS says.' There are several states in which Republicans fully control the government but voters might prefer Joe Biden to Donald Trump -- Florida, Arizona, and possibly Georgia and Texas." Read the whole post. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So it appears reporters have asked the wrong people how they feel about changing the election date: Congressional leaders like McConnell & McCarthy, Cruz & Rubio naturally want to preserve their own prerogative to set the date. Rather, reporters should be asking those reprobates like Ron DeSantis, Doug Ducey, Brian Kemp, etc. Oh, and the biggest reprobate of all, Bill Barr. My bet is if the election once again came down to "Florida, Florida Florida," Mitch would suddenly find he just had to defer to DeSantis.

~~~ Impeach & Remove Trump! Steven Calabresi, co-founder of the far-right Federalist Society, in a New York Times op-ed: "I have voted Republican in every presidential election since 1980, including voting for Donald Trump in 2016. I wrote op-eds and a law review article protesting what I believe was an unconstitutional investigation by Robert Mueller. I also wrote an op-ed opposing President Trump's impeachment. But I am frankly appalled by the president's recent tweet seeking to postpone the November election. Until recently, I had taken as political hyperbole the Democrats' assertion that President Trump is a fascist. But this latest tweet is fascistic and is itself grounds for the president's immediate impeachment again by the House of Representatives and his removal from office by the Senate." ~~~

     ~~~ Calabresi Spies a Loser. Paul Campos in LG&$: "Guys like Calabresi are political hacks who are also deeply invested in the belief that they are devoted to The Rule of Law. The way this works is that when a politician starts looking like a bad bet, they suddenly become all principled and stuff, without noticing the practical convenience of their conversion." ~~~

~~~ Ken Meyer of Mediaite remembers way back in late April when Joe Biden said, "Mark my words, I think he is going to try to kick back the election somehow, come up with some rationale why it can't be held. Imagine threatening not to fund the post office. Now, what in God's name is that about?" Trumpophiles came out en masse to accuse Biden of pushing a nutty conspiracy theory. As Bennett, et al., note in the Politico story linked above, "Trump himself explicitly shot down the prospect: 'I never even thought of changing the date of the election. Why would I do that?'" Mrs. McC: Sometimes a conspiracy theory is just a conspiracy. Unfortunately for Trump, in this case, most of his designated co-conspirators are having none of it -- although the postmaster is definitely doing his part. ~~~

~~~ Trump Flunky Engineers USPS Havoc. Michelle Lee & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Postal Service is experiencing days-long backlogs of mail across the country after a top Trump donor running the agency put in place new procedures described as cost-cutting efforts, alarming postal workers who warn that the policies could undermine their ability to deliver ballots on time for the November election. As President Trump ramps up his unfounded attacks on mail balloting as being susceptible to widespread fraud, postal employees and union officials say the changes implemented by Trump fundraiser-turned-postmaster general Louis DeJoy are contributing to a growing perception that mail delays are the result of a political effort to undermine absentee voting. The backlog comes as the president, who is trailing presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden in the polls, has escalated his efforts to cast doubt about the integrity of the November vote, which is expected to yield record numbers of mail ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's how it works: Trump predicts mail-in ballots will be slow to arrives. Trump appoints postmaster general who makes sure mail-in ballots will be slow to arrive. This is not a magic trick. It's a Trump trick, so no sleight-of-hand is involved. How it's done is damned obvious.

Kyle Cheney of Politico: "Rep. Devin Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, this week declined to answer a colleague's question about whether he had received derogatory information about Vice President Joe Biden from Andrii Derkach, a Kremlin-linked Ukrainian lawmaker who has worked to foment allegations of corruption by Biden and his son Hunter. During a closed-door business meeting of the panel on Wednesday -- a transcript of which was made publicly available Thursday -- Rep. Sean Patrick Maloney (D-N.Y.) pressed Nunes about news reports indicating that he was one of several GOP lawmakers to whom packets of information were delivered from Derkach in December 2019 that contained allegations about Joe Biden. Derkach has confirmed he sent the packages to Nunes, as well as GOP Sens. Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Lindsey Graham of South Carolina." Mrs. McC: So Nunes, et al., are likely sitting on (fake) oppo research against Biden, which they intend to spring as an October surprise. AG Bill Barr is probably doing the same with his so-called "investigations" of the Russia & Ukraine matters.

Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court on Thursday shut down a lower court's decision that cited the coronavirus pandemic as reason to ease the rules on gathering signatures for a citizens ballot initiative. The case from Idaho was the latest example of the high court deferring to state officials, rather than lower-court judges, in how to deal with election-related issues caused by the outbreak of covid-19.... It is unclear exactly how the court's vote broke down, although at least five of the nine justices had to agree with the action. Justices Sonia Sotomayor and Ruth Bader Ginsburg dissented. Three justices joined Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. in explaining the action. But the order did not state how the other three justices -- Clarence Thomas, Stephen G. Breyer and Elena Kagan -- voted, which sometimes happens when the court settles an emergency request."