The Commentariat -- Sept. 30, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Sheila Kaplan of the New York Times: "The White House has blocked a new order from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to keep cruise ships docked until mid-February, a step that would have displeased the politically powerful tourism industry in the crucial swing state of Florida. The current 'no sail' policy, which was originally put in place in April and later extended, is set to expire on Wednesday. Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the C.D.C., had recommended the extension, worried that cruise ships could become viral hot spots, as they did at the beginning of the pandemic. But at a meeting of the coronavirus task force on Tuesday, Dr. Redfield's plan was overruled, according to a senior federal health official who was not authorized to comment and so spoke on condition of anonymity. The administration will instead allow the ships to sail after Oct. 31, the date the industry had already agreed to in its own, voluntary plan. The rejection of the C.D.C.'s plan was first reported by Axios."

John Verhovek & Molly Nagle of ABC News: "After a raucous and chaotic first presidential debate, former Vice President Joe Biden is embarking on a roughly 200-mile whistle stop train tour on Wednesday through the battleground states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, pushing his economic agenda while hoping to appeal to voters that have strayed from the Democratic Party in recent years.... The Democratic nominee, long-known for his affinity for Amtrak, briefly commented on last night's debate.... 'Last night's debate, and this election, it's supposed to be about ... you and all the people I grew up with in Scranton, and people in Youngstown and Claymont, Delaware, and all the people who make a difference,' Biden said standing outside at a socially-distanced event just feet away from his newly-minted campaign train. 'Does your president understand at all what you're going through? What so many other people are going through? The question is does he see you where you are and where you want to be? Does he care?' Biden asked rhetorically."

Quint Forgery of Politico: "The Commission on Presidential Debates announced on Wednesday that the prior night's face-off between ... Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden showed the need for 'additional structure' to the format 'to ensure a more orderly discussion.' It added that it would announce the new measures shortly, while also commending Chris Wallace of Fox News for his 'professionalism' moderating the Tuesday night debate." This story has been expanded since linked Wednesday afternoon.

New York Times Upshot: Three "instapolls" peg Biden as winning the debate. "CNN found that Mr. Biden decisively won the debate, 60 percent to 28 percent, while CBS News and an early cut from a Data for Progress poll found far closer seven- and 12-point leads for Mr. Biden.... A closer look [at these polls] ... raises the possibility of good news for Mr. Biden. His favorability rating improved by a net four percentage points, compared with how the same respondents answered before the debate. The president's rating declined by a net four points.... Historically, the winner of these polls tends to gain in the real polls over the next week.... It's hard to say anyone clearly won the debate last night, and that's a win for Mr. Biden. He was the front-runner heading into the debate, and it was the president who needed a win to try to narrow the race." ~~~

~~~ Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "As President Trump argued during Tuesday night's debate that vast numbers of law enforcement officials are supporting his campaign, he began listing the locations of his alleged police backers. 'I have Florida, I have Texas, I have Ohio,' he said. 'Excuse me, Portland, the sheriff there just came out today and said, "I support President Trump."'...Multnomah County [includes Portland] Sheriff Mike Reese quickly took to Twitter on Tuesday night to forcefully deny any affinity for the president. 'In tonight's presidential debate the President said the 'Portland Sheriff' supports him. As the Multnomah County Sheriff I have never supported Donald Trump and will never support him,' Reese tweeted. In fact, as Trump has seized on unrest in Portland as a campaign issue and sent federal agents to the city for weeks of violent standoffs with protesters, Reese has regularly criticized the president's handling of the situation."

Michael Scherer & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "President Trump has scheduled large campaign rallies this weekend in Wisconsin despite recommendations from the White House Coronavirus Task Force that call for increasing social distancing in the state 'to the maximal degree possible.' The task force has further flagged La Crosse and Green Bay, the metropolitan areas where Trump plans to gather thousands of supporters Saturday, as coronavirus 'red zones,' the highest level of concern for community spread of the virus, according to a report from the group released Sunday and obtained by The Washington Post. Wisconsi is listed in the document as the state with the third-highest rate of new cases in the country, with 243 new cases per 100,000 people over the previous week, about 2.6 times greater than the national average. Ahead of Trump's scheduled rally in Green Bay, the Bellin Health System said Tuesday that its hospital in that city is at 94 percent capacity as covid-19 continues to spike in the community." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Should be a big boost to Trump's poll ratings on the "cares about me" question.

Seaborn Larson of the Helena (Montana) Independent Record: "Former Montana governor and Republican National Committee Chair Marc Racicot on Tuesday said he would not vote for ... Donald Trump, citing Trump's character as fault enough to vote for Democrat challenger Joe Biden on Nov. 3.... Racicot is not the only Montana Republican to reject the Trump-bearing GOP. In July, former Secretary of State and state Senate President Bob Brown penned a guest column in the Missoulian, his own 'Declaration of independence from the Republican Party.'" ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Meant to link a story this last week. Arlette Saenz, et al., of CNN: "Tom Ridge, the former Department of Homeland Security secretary during the George W. Bush administration, endorsed Joe Biden in an op-ed published Sunday in The Philadelphia Inquirer. Ridge's backing of the former vice president is the latest among a broad list of prominent Republican endorsements for Biden. Ridge, a former GOP governor of Pennsylvania, wrote in the Philadelphia Inquirer he considers it 'a point of personal pride; to be counted among the first Republicans to reject ... Donald Trump, referencing a 2015 NBC News interview where he called Trump an 'embarrassment to the party' and country." Mrs. McC: I suppose it would be wrong if I wrote that Ridge will always be "Duct Tape Tom" to me.

Battle of the Self-Righteous Phonies. Nicholas Fandos & Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "The former F.B.I. director James B. Comey testified on Wednesday before a Republican-led Senate committee seeking to discredit the investigation he opened during the 2016 election into ties between Donald J. Trump's campaign and Russia.... Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee were eager to portray President Trump as a victim of a politically motivated smear by the F.B.I. that unfairly cast a shadow over his presidency. And they contended that Mr. Comey was the ringleader. Mr. Comey strongly defended the F.B.I.'s handling of the investigation, including his decision to open it. But he acknowledged, as he has before, that his initial claims were wrong that a wiretap of a former Trump campaign adviser, Carter Page, was properly handled and conceded that the bureau had been sloppy on that aspect of the broader inquiry. He testified by video from his home." The Washington Post's report is here. ~~~

~~~ Olivia Beavers of the Hill: "Former FBI Director James Comey on Wednesday warned that government officials with significant personal debt could pose a risk to national security. Comey, who was responding to a question about President Trump's finances during congressional testimony, said personal debt is a serious consideration when granting security clearances because it could be leveraged by a foreign foe. 'A person's financial situation could make them vulnerable to coercion by an adversary and allow an adversary to do what we try to do to foreign government officials we find are indebted, which is to try to recruit them to our side,' Comey told Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.).... 'I don't know whether the Russians have something over President Trump, but it is difficult to explain his conduct, his statements in any other way, especially as a refusal to criticize [Russian President] Vladimir Putin. So it raises significant questions and obviously the question is only deepened by disclosure, if it is true, of significant indebtedness,' Comey said." ~~~

~~~ Kyle Cheney & Andrew Desiderio of Politico: "Former FBI Director James Comey said on Wednesday that the Justice Department's attempt to drop the prosecution of Michael Flynn is 'deeply concerning,' suggesting ... Donald Trump’s former national security adviser is receiving special treatment and key pieces of evidence have been misrepresented. 'It's deeply concerning because this guy is getting treated in a way that nobody's been treated before,' Comey said during public testimony to the Senate Judiciary Committee.... Comey also questioned Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe's decision to release a Russian intelligence assessment stating that Hillary Clinton tried to pin Russia's 2016 hack of the Democratic National Committee on Trump. Specifically, Ratcliffe wrote that Comey was briefed on that assessment.... 'That doesn't ring any bells with me,' Comey said, adding that he had 'trouble understanding' Ratcliffe's letter."

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

New York Times' reporters' snark discussion of the debate is here. The page includes live video of the debate. Politico's live analysis is here. Politico also has live video.

Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "The first presidential debate between President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. unraveled into a rhetorical melee Tuesday, as Mr. Trump hectored and interrupted Mr. Biden nearly every time he spoke and the former vice president denounced the president as a 'clown' and told him to 'shut up.' In a chaotic, 90-minute back-and-forth, the two major party nominees expressed a level of acrid contempt for each other unheard-of in modern American politics. Mr. Trump, trailing in the polls and urgently hoping to revive his campaign, was plainly attempting to be the aggressor. But he interjected so insistently that Mr. Biden could scarcely answer the questions posed to him, forcing the moderator, Chris Wallace of Fox News, to repeatedly urge the president to let his opponent speak.... The president's bulldozer-style tactics represented an extraordinary risk for an incumbent who's trailing Mr. Biden because voters, including some who supported him in 2016, are so fatigued by his near-daily attacks and outbursts. Yet the former vice president veered between trying to ignore Mr. Trump by speaking directly into the camera to the voters, and giving in to temptation by hurling insults at the president. Mr. Biden called Mr. Trump a liar and a racist."

Anne Gearan, et al., of the Washington Post: "The presidential campaign devolved into chaos and acrimony here Tuesday night as President Trump incessantly interrupted and insulted Democratic nominee Joe Biden while the two sparred over the economy, the coronavirus pandemic, the Supreme Court and race relations in their first debate. The most anticipated event on the fall campaign calendar was an uncontrollable spectacle of badgering and browbeating, of raised voices and hot tempers. Trump's interjections and jeers, some of them false and made in an apparent effort to fluster Biden, landed with such ferocity that moderator Chris Wallace pleaded multiple times with the president to follow the agreed-upon debate rules. Biden, exasperated, asked Trump during the opening segment on the Supreme Court, 'Will you shut up, man?'"

Jonathan Lemire, et al., of the AP: "The first debate between ... Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden deteriorated into a bitter showdown Tuesday as the president repeatedly interrupted his opponent with angry -- and personal -- taunts that sometimes overshadowed the sharply different visions each man has of a nation facing historic crises."

Lauren Gambino of the Guardian: "In a sign of the times, there was no public audience, handshakes were omitted, the podiums were staged a safe distance apart and empty seats separated the campaign staff and the candidate's family members in attendance. In a striking contrast, Biden's family and guests wore masks for the duration of the event, while the first lady, Melania Trump, and the rest of the president's family removed theirs after being seated.... Even as Trump attempted to pin Biden, he trampled his own message with a stunning refusal to condemn white nationalism and commit to a peaceful transition of power...."

David Siders of Politico: "The mayhem Donald Trump subjected Americans to on Tuesday might have helped him if Joe Biden had disintegrated. Biden didn't. Trump -- and viewers everywhere -- just left the night worse off for having sat through the whole, weird thing. The president interrupted and bullied. Biden called the president a 'clown.' Chris Wallace, the moderator, despaired. 'The country would be better served,' the veteran journalist said to Trump, 'if we allow both people to speak with fewer interruptions.['] The result was a circus that will be viewed as one of the strangest confrontations in modern presidential history."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Instead of engaging with Biden in good faith, [Trump's] approach was quite simply to bluster and bully his way through every discussion. Rather than let Biden offer a thought and respond to it on the merits, Trump decided not to let Biden offer any thoughts in the first place. At first, he was clearly trying to fluster Biden, probably in an effort to reinforce his long-standing baseless assertion that Biden was suffering from a mental decline.... But Trump's strategy didn't change [when Biden adjusted to the onslaught].... Trump attacked moderator Chris Wallace as readily as he did Biden.... His approach was the approach he takes on Twitter: lifting up various unfounded allegations, shouting at everyone for hours on end, celebrating obscure memes and jokes. Biden found himself debating @realdonaldtrump and not the sitting president of the United States."

Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post: “Perhaps the most chaotic presidential debate in modern American history inspired unprecedented reactions on cable and broadcast news by pundits who, in other circumstances, would have been combing over minor moments to gauge who won and lost. The consensus among many commentators: The losers of the night were the American public. 'That was a hot mess, inside a dumpster fire, inside a train wreck,' said CNN host Jake Tapper. 'That was the worst debate I have ever seen. It wasn't even a debate, it was a disgrace.' His CNN colleague Dana Bash had even sharper words: 'I'm just going to say it like it is: That was a s[hit] show.'... Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume [-- Mrs. McC: a pretty rabid right-winger --] said Trump 'was like a bucking bronco the entire time. I don't know how the people at home would find that appealing.' As for Biden -- who Hume earlier in the evening repeatedly said was 'senile' -- he 'came across as competent' during the debate[, Hume said]." But Hannity liked it.

Natasha Korecki & Alex Isenstadt of Politico: "The moment Joe Biden's first debate against Donald Trump ended, his campaign was already confronted with questions about whether it should be his last. In the two men's first head-to-head matchup, Trump bullied moderator Chris Wallace, blew past his time limits and repeatedly and loudly interrupted Biden. It resulted in a mockery of presidential debates, growing so chaotic that it was impossible to follow entire segments. The Biden campaign immediately shot down any notion the former vice president wouldn't show up to debates in Miami and Nashville next month. In a call with reporters after the debate, the campaign was asked whether it would commit to the next two debates and whether it would seek changes with the debate commission. Biden Deputy Campaign Manager Kate Bedingfield said only that the campaigns were in ongoing talks with the debate commission and 'I would imagine there would be some additional conversations' going forward."

Mike Allen, et al., of Axios on "Trump's two chilling debate warnings": "President Trump pointedly refused to condemn white supremacist groups... after four months when millions marched for racial justice in the country's largest wave of activism in half a century.... This was a for-the-history-books moment in a debate that was mostly headache-inducing noise.... Trump also telegraphed with clarity that there's unlikely to be a clean outcome to the Nov. 3 election: 'We might not know for months, because these ballots are going to be all over. ... It's a fraud and it's a shame. ... It's a rigged election.' On the Supreme Court, Trump said: 'I think I'm counting on them to look at the ballots, definitely. I hope we don't need them, in terms of the election itself. But for the ballots, I think so, because what's happening is incredible.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm not sure anyone has noticed, but what Trump was saying about the election results was that "the election itself" means in-person voting (at least where Trump wins), and illegitimate mail-in "ballots" that the Supremes will have to adjudicate. These "ballots" are separate from and not part of "the election itself."

Proud Boys, stand back and stand by, but I'll tell you what, somebody's got to do something about antifa and the left, because this is not a right-wing problem. This is a left-wing problem. -- Donald Trump, during the debate ~~~

~~~ Ben Collins & Brandy Zadrozny of NBC News: "The Proud Boys, a far-right extremist group, pledged allegiance to ... Donald Trump on Tuesday night after he told the group to 'stand back and stand by' during the first presidential debate. Many people on social media who identify with the group echoed that language, saying they were 'standing down and standing by.' One known social media account for the group made 'Stand back. Stand by' part of its new logo.... The Proud Boys, a self-described 'Western chauvinist' organization, is considered a violent, nationalistic, Islamophobic, transphobic and misogynistic hate group, according to the Anti-Defamation League...." A New York Times story is here. ~~~

~~~ Hanna Trudo, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Outside of the debate, Proud Boys leader Joe Biggs saw Trump's remarks as permission to 'fuck' up the group's foes."

Pre-Debate Brawl Reports

Wired on how to watch the first presidential debate, which begins tonight at 9 pm ET: "... the presidential debates are simulcast across all the major networks and cable news programs. If you have cable or satellite TV, or a live streaming TV service or a Mohu antenna, check your local listings -- do those exist anymore? -- and you're good.... You can find the debate on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, Telemundo, Univision, CNN, MSNBC, and CSPAN. Basically it'll be harder to avoid it than to watch it. You can also stream it on those various networks' sites and/or YouTube channels. If you're looking for something to bookmark, CBS, CSPAN, and ABC News have YouTube streams ready to go." And more. (Also linked yesterday.)

Kelly Hooper of Politico: "The Trump campaign claimed the president 'finished debating Joe Biden' and bragged about his performance hours before the debate even started Tuesday night.... The message was sent to Trump campaign email subscribers about 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday; the first presidential debate will begin at 9 p.m."

Mrs. McCrabbie: As much as I hate to link to a Fox "News" report, especially one co-authored by someone named Doocy, this is to rich to pass on: Peter Doocy, et al., of Fox "News": "Fox News has learned that the president's re-election campaign wants the Biden campaign to allow a third party to inspect the ears of each debater for electronic devices or transmitters. The president has consented to this kind of inspection, but a source said the Biden campaign has declined the ear check." Apparently President* Con S. Piracy has given up on his demand for urine tests after Biden refused to submit a sample of his mule piss, so Trump now is pretending that he fears that Biden not only is using performance-enhancing drugs, he also is getting the "answers" fed to him by Black-Girl-President-in-Waiting Kamala Harris or other unnamed smart people. If I were Biden, I'd show up on-stage with a big ole electronic-looking device in my ear & keep muttering, "testing, testing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Update. I see Joe more or less took my advice:

It’s debate night, so I’ve got my earpiece and performance enhancers ready. pic.twitter.com/EhOiWdjh1b

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) September 29, 2020

     ~~~ Update. Ben Collins of NBC News: "A conspiracy theory that Joe Biden would wear an electronic device in his ear during the first presidential debate went wildly viral Tuesday in the hours before the debate, and the groundless theory was later amplified by conservative news outlets that claimed that Biden had backed out of an ear 'inspection.' The conspiracy theory, which was pushed in a text message sent by the Trump campaign after it went viral on Facebook and YouTube, claimed that Biden had declined to 'undergo inspection for electronic ear pieces before debate.'"

DNI John Ratcliffe (& Lindsey Graham) Are Keeping Us Safe from Hillary Clinton. Andrew Desiderio & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe on Tuesday declassified a Russian intelligence assessment that was previously rejected by Democrats and Republicans on the Senate Intelligence Committee as having no factual basis, according to two sources familiar with the matter. The extraordinary disclosure, released to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) earlier Tuesday, rankled Democrats, who said the move effectively put Russian disinformation into the public sphere in order to boost ... Donald Trump's unsubstantiated claims about the government's efforts to investigate Russian interference in the 2016 election.... And several former senior intelligence officials described Ratcliffe's move as incendiary and irresponsible, given the manner in which he was publicly releasing unverified information that originated from a foreign adversary. The assessment claims that Hillary Clinton ... personally approved an effort 'to stir up a scandal against U.S. Presidential candidate Donald Trump by tying him to Putin and the Russians' hacking of the Democratic National Committee.' But in his letter to Graham, Ratcliffe noted that the U.S. intelligence community 'does not know the accuracy of this allegation or the extent to which the Russian intelligence analysis may reflect exaggeration or fabrication.'" ~~~

~~~ Spencer Ackerman & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "Former Hillary Clinton aides, ex-intelligence officials and Senate Democrats are accusing Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe of laundering Russian disinformation before an election after Ratcliffe suggested Clinton attempted to manufacture a scandal about Russian interference in the 2016 election on behalf of President Trump.... [Sen. Lindsey] Graham [R-Trump], who spoke to The Daily Beast on the phone Tuesday evening, said he did not know whether the information presented by Ratcliffe was true and said he was not concerned with releasing the uncorroborated allegations to the public even with the presidential election just 35 days away.... Graham's post-facto rationalization was just the latest illustration of how uniformly invested Trump allies have become in the narrative that Russian involvement in U.S. politics is either overstated or deliberately fabricated as a means of delegitimizing the president." Emphasis added.

~~~ Bill Barr Is Here to Help, Too. Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The prosecution of Michael Flynn. A Senate investigation into the provenance of the Steele Dossier. The nascent federal probe of discarded absentee ballots in Pennsylvania. In recent days, the Justice Department has declassified or disclosed sensitive materials related to each of these proceedings that, on the surface, have little to do with each other. Yet within hours..., Donald Trump had weaponized each to boost his reelection campaign. It's the latest evidence that veteran prosecutors and attorneys -- and, over the weekend, even a current DOJ official -- describe as an intensifying effort to use the department to support Trump's political fortunes. 'These actions are not typical,' said William Jeffress, a veteran defense lawyer who represented former President Richard Nixon after he left the White House. 'Tradition is that politically sensitive actions by DOJ go dark at least 60 days before an election.'"

Natalia Alamdari of the Delaware News Journal: "This past week, conservative media outlets like Fox News, the Washington Times and The Blaze reported that [Joe] Biden lied about attending DSU, and that the school refuted those claims.... No, Joe Biden did not say he attended Delaware State University. But DSU is now pushing back against conservative media outlets reporting that Biden falsely said he attended the school, the only historically Black university in the state." Mrs. McC Note: Trump accused Biden during the debate Tuesday of not knowing what college he attended.

Ha Ha! Alexi McCammond of Axios: "Joe Biden's campaign released his 2019 tax returns on Tuesday, showing that he and his wife, Jill, paid nearly $300,000 in federal taxes last year.... The release, timed just hours before the first presidential debate, comes days after a bombshell New York Times report said that President Trump paid only $750 in federal taxes in 2016 and 2017.... Biden's deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, told reporters on a call that this marks 22 years of publicly available tax returns fo Biden and 16 years for [Kamala] Harris. Bedingfield said ... the campaign's message to Trump is simple: 'Mr. President, release your tax returns, or shut up.'" The post includes a copy of the Bidens returns. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ryan Lizza of Politico: "After watching hours of Trump's debates from 2015 and 2016, what comes across in hindsight is that he had an under-appreciated style, strategy, and message.... The conventional wisdom about Trump arriving in Cleveland Tuesday as a manic and extremely, well, Trumpy, debater could be wrong. Trump won the Republican nomination partly on the strength of his debate appearances.... What comes across watching these events back-to-back is the power of Trump's populism and demagoguery and the relative restraint he showed [during his debates with Hillary Clinton] compared to what we have seen on his Twitter feed and at his press conferences for much of this year.... [Philippe] Reines [-- who played Trump in Clinton's debate prep sessions --] described that three-step response that Trump patented in 2016 as, 'word salad, weird digression, I'm great and she's terrible.'... [Trump] shouldn't be underestimated." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ben Ashford, et al., of the Daily Mail: "Donald Trump's demoted campaign boss Brad Parscale is under investigation for 'stealing' between $25-$40 million from Trump's 2020 presidential campaign, well-placed sources exclusively told DailyMail.com. The 44-year-old is also being investigated for 'pocketing' nearly another $10 million from the Republican National Committee, the insiders added. The revelation comes as Parscale was involuntarily committed to a hospital by Fort Lauderdale police on Sunday following a concerning episode at his $2.4 million Florida home.... Tim Murtaugh, the Communications Director for Trump's 2020 campaign, said in a statement to DailyMail.com: 'It's utterly false. There is no investigation, no audit, and there never was.' Steve Guest, the RNC Rapid Response Director, said: 'This report is categorically false. There is no audit or investigation of Brad at the RNC.'" Mrs. McC: This is a Daily Mail report, which automatically makes it suspect, so make of it what you will. I have read stories in the past that accused Parscale of taking liberties with Trump campaign funds.

Mississippi Senate Race. Senator Shows She's Working Hard for Foreigners. Ashton Pittman of the Mississippi Free Press: "Canadian, Russian, South African and Ukrainian models appear in U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith's first 2020 campaign ad for her Mississippi campaigns -- but no Mississippians. Instead, the ad uses stock footage from foreign production companies as the senator talks about the work she has done to bring jobs and economic growth to Mississippians.... Hyde-Smith has not made any publicly announced campaign appearances in the state since the 2018 special election, which took place after then-Gov. Phil Bryant appointed her to fill a vacant Senate seat.... Her Democratic opponent, former U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Mike Espy, has held a number of socially distanced, outdoor campaign events this month and earlier in the summer."

Alexander Vindman & John Gans, in a New York Times op-ed: "As the 2020 election grew closer, the president increasingly ignored the policies developed by his own government and instead pursued transactions guided by self-interest and instinct. The result is a patchwork of formal policies and informal deals that has undermined America's interests and credibility. But Mr. Trump's sloppy management matters less than its result: No one can trust American foreign policy right now.... Trust is the coin of the realm in national security.... Increasingly, the president and his loyalists in and out of government undermined [the] process [of developing & executing consistent, strategic international polices] with winks, nods and WhatsApp messages, seeking side transactions that prioritize personal benefit, break norms and invite corruption.... In the homestretch before the election, Mr. Trump has overridden many of the remaining safeguards against bad deals, and ignores his professional advisers even more often." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nick Miroff & Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration is preparing an immigration enforcement blitz next month that would target arrests in U.S. cities and jurisdictions that have adopted 'sanctuary' policies, according to three U.S. officials who described a plan with public messaging that echoes the president's law-and-order campaign rhetoric. The Immigration and Customs Enforcement operation, known informally as the 'sanctuary op,' could begin in California as soon as later this week. It would then expand to cities including Denver and Philadelphia, according to two of the officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe sensitive government law enforcement plans. Chad Wolf, acting secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, probably will travel to at least one of the jurisdictions where the operation will take place to boost President Trump's claims that leaders in those cities have failed to protect residents from dangerous criminals, two officials said." A Slate story is here.

Ted Barrett & Manu Raju of CNN: "Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, in an extremely rare move Tuesday, took control of the Senate floor and is forcing a procedural vote on a bill, a step that is typically done only by the Senate majority leader. The top Democrat's action now sets up a vote later this week related to a bill that would protect people with pre-existing conditions if the Supreme Court sides with the Trump administration's Department of Justice and strikes down the Affordable Care Act after arguments are heard in November. Schumer's surprise steps were extraordinary because such motions are typically offered by Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who controls the Senate and dictates what gets considered on the floor. Schumer has never before tried to force such a cloture vote in his time as the top minority leader, aides said. The rules say any senator can do what Schumer did Tuesday but senators typically don't take these extreme steps because doing so regularly would shut down the Senate."

Andrew Desiderio & Marianne Levine of Politico: "... Donald Trump’s nominee to the Supreme Court did not commit to recusing herself from cases related to the outcome of the 2020 presidential election, according to her written responses to a Senate Judiciary Committee questionnaire. Amy Coney Barrett's responses, obtained by Politico on Tuesday night, also provide a window into the breakneck pace at which the White House operated in the aftermath of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death, with Barrett revealing that Trump settled on her as his pick just three days after Ginsburg's death."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Lindsey Tanner of the AP: "After preying heavily on the elderly in the spring, the coronavirus is increasingly infecting American children and teens in a trend authorities say appears fueled by school reopenings and the resumption of sports, playdates and other activities. Children of all ages now make up 10% of all U.S cases, up from 2% in April, the American Academy of Pediatrics reported Tuesday. And the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Monday that the incidence of COVID-19 in school-age children began rising in early September as many youngsters returned to their classrooms."

Donald McNeil of the New York Times: "In the last week, leading epidemiologists from respected institutions have, through different methods, reached the same conclusion: About 85 to 90 percent of the American population is still susceptible to SARS-CoV-2, the virus causing the current pandemic. The number is important because it means that 'herd immunity' -- the point at which a disease stops spreading because nearly everyone in a population has contracted it -- is still very far off.... 'The idea that herd immunity will happen at 10 or 20 percent is just nonsense, said Dr. Christopher J.L. Murray, director of the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. That belief began circulating months ago on conservative news programs like those of Rush Limbaugh and Laura Ingraham. It has been cited several times by Dr. Scott W. Atlas, President Trump's new pandemic adviser. It appears to be behind Mr. Trump's recent remarks that the pandemic is 'rounding the corner' and 'would go away even without the vaccine.' But it is also gaining credence on Wall Street and among some business executives, said prominent public health experts, who consider the idea scientifically unfounded as well as dangerous...."

Caitlin Dickerson, et al., of the New York Times: "The Irwin County Detention Center in Ocilla, Ga., drew national attention this month after a nurse, Dawn Wooten, filed a whistle-blower complaint claiming that detainees had told her they had had their uteruses removed without their full understanding or consent. Since then, both ICE and the hospital in Irwin County have released data that show that two full hysterectomies have been performed on women detained at Irwin in the past three years. But firsthand accounts are now emerging from detainees ... who underwent other invasive gynecological procedures that they did not fully understand and, in some cases, may not have been medically necessary. At least one lawyer brought the complaints about gynecological care to the attention of the center's top officials in 2018..., but the outside referrals continued. The Times interviewed 16 women who were concerned about the gynecological care they received while at the center.... All 16 were treated by Dr. Mahendra Amin, who ... has been described by ICE officials as the detention center's 'primary gynecologist.' The cases were reviewed by five gynecologists -- four of them board-certified and all with medical school affiliations -- who found that Dr. Amin consistently overstated the size or risks associated with cysts or masses attached to his patients' reproductive organs."

Brooks Barnes of the New York Times: "For six months, Disney has kept tens of thousands of theme park workers on furlough with full health-care benefits in hopes that a light at the end of the pandemic tunnel would appear. On Tuesday, Disney conceded that none was coming. The company's theme park division said it would eliminate 28,000 jobs in the United States. Theme parks will account for most of the layoffs, although Disney Cruise Line and Disney's retail stores will also be affected."

The Commentariat -- Sept. 29, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Mrs. McCrabbie: As much as I hate to link to a Fox "News" report, especially one co-authored by someone named Doocy, this is to rich to pass on: Peter Doocy, et al., of Fox "News": "Fox News has learned that the president's re-election campaign wants the Biden campaign to allow a third party to inspect the ears of each debater for electronic devices or transmitters. The president has consented to this kind of inspection, but a source said the Biden campaign has declined the ear check." Apparently President* Con S. Piracy has given up on his demand for urine tests after Biden refused to submit a sample of his mule piss, so Trump now is pretending that he fears that Biden not only is using performance-enhancing drugs, he also is getting the "answers" fed to him by Black-Girl-President-in-Waiting Kamala Harris or other unnamed smart people. Were I Biden, I'd show up with a big ole electronic-looking device in my ear & keep muttering, "testing, testing."

Ha Ha! Alexi McCammond of Axios: "Joe Biden's campaign released his 2019 tax returns on Tuesday, showing that he and his wife, Jill, paid nearly $300,000 in federal taxes last year.... The release, timed just hours before the first presidential debate, comes days after a bombshell New York Times report said that President Trump paid only $750 in federal taxes in 2016 and 2017.... Biden's deputy campaign manager, Kate Bedingfield, told reporters on a call that this marks 22 years of publicly available tax returns for Biden and 16 years for [Kamala] Harris. Bedingfield said ... the campaign's message to Trump is simple: 'Mr. President, release your tax returns, or shut up.'" The post includes a copy of the Bidens' returns. ~~~

~~~ Ryan Lizza of Politico: "After watching hours of Trump's debates from 2015 and 2016, what comes across in hindsight is that he had an under-appreciated style, strategy, and message.... The conventional wisdom about Trump arriving in Cleveland Tuesday as a manic and extremely, well, Trumpy, debater could be wrong. Trump won the Republican nomination partly on the strength of his debate appearances.... What comes across watching these events back-to-back is the power of Trump's populism and demagoguery and the relative restraint he showed [during his debates with Hillary Clinton] compared to what we have seen on his Twitter feed and at his press conferences for much of this year.... [Philippe] Reines [-- who played Trump in Clinton's debate prep sessions --] described that three-step response that Trump patented in 2016 as, 'word salad, weird digression, I'm great and she's terrible.'... [Trump] shouldn't be underestimated."

Alexander Vindman & John Gans, in a New York Times op-ed: "As the 2020 election grew closer, the president increasingly ignored the policies developed by his own government and instead pursued transactions guided by self-interest and instinct. The result is a patchwork of formal policies and informal deals that has undermined America's interests and credibility. But Mr. Trump's sloppy management matters less than its result: No one can trust American foreign policy right now.... Trust is the coin of the realm in national security.... Increasingly, the president and his loyalists in and out of government undermined [the] process [of developing & executing consistent, strategic international polices] with winks, nods and WhatsApp messages, seeking side transactions that prioritize personal benefit, break norms and invite corruption.... In the homestretch before the election, Mr. Trump has overridden many of the remaining safeguards against bad deals, and ignores his professional advisers even more often."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Big Con, Ctd.

Dan Alexander of Forbes: "In fact, Trump is a multibillionaire, worth $2.5 billion, by our count. His portfolio, which includes commercial buildings, golf properties and branding businesses, is worth an estimated $3.66 billion before debt. The president has a fair amount of leverage [Mrs. McC: i.e., debt] -- adding up to a roughly $1.13 billion -- but not enough to drag his net worth below a billion dollars.... In 2016 and 2017, according to the Times, Trump paid just $750 of federal income taxes. The scandal isn't that he's broke and paying those meager sums -- it's that he remains quite rich." Alexander runs down some of Trump's assets & liabilities.

As you read the NYT Trump tax story, remember the Eric Trump statement in 2014: 'We don't rely on American banks. We have all the funding we need out of Russia.' Now ask to whom does Trump owe the hundreds of millions of dollars coming due soon? -- Andrew Weissmann, former Mueller probe prosecutor, in a tweet ~~~

~~~ Greg Miller & Yeganeh Torbati of the Washington Post: "... former intelligence officials and security experts said [Donald Trump's long-secret tax records] raise profound questions about whether he should be trusted to safeguard U.S. secrets and interests. The records show that Trump has continued to make money off foreign investments and projects while in office; that foreign officials have spent lavishly at his Washington hotel and other properties; and that despite this revenue he is hundreds of millions of dollars in debt with massive payments coming due.... Officials and experts said that Trump has made himself vulnerable to manipulation by foreign governments aware of his predicament, and put himself in a position in which his financial interests and the nation's priorities could be in conflict.... 'From a national security perspective, that's just an outrageous vulnerability,' said Larry Pfeiffer, who previously served as chief of staff at the CIA. Pfeiffer ... said that if he had faced even a fraction of Trump's financial burden, 'there is no question my clearances would be pulled.'... The [NYT's] revelations add to long-standing suspicions about Trump's approach to foreign policy and seeming deference to leaders of countries where he has either pursued real estate projects or could do so upon leaving office. The list includes Russia, Turkey and the Philippines, where Trump has sought to erect office towers bearing his name or made millions of dollars from licensing deals and other ventures."

"It Was All a Hoax." Mike McIntire, et al., of the New York Times: "From the back seat of a stretch limousine heading to meet the first contestants for his new TV show 'The Apprentice,' Donald J. Trump bragged that he was a billionaire who had overcome financial hardship. 'I used my brain, I used my negotiating skills and I worked it all out,' he told viewers. 'Now, my company is bigger than it ever was and stronger than it ever was.' It was all a hoax. Months after that inaugural episode in January 2004, Mr. Trump filed his individual tax return reporting $89.9 million in net losses from his core businesses for the prior year. The red ink spilled from everywhere, even as American television audiences saw him as a savvy business mogul with the Midas touch.... The president's tax returns reveal ... how the popularity of [his] fictional alter ego rescued him, providing a financial lifeline to reinvent himself yet again. And then how, in an echo of the boom-and-bust cycle that has defined his business career, he led himself toward the financial shoals he must navigate today.... Just as, years before, the money Mr. Trump secretly received from his father allowed him to assemble a wobbly collection of Atlantic City casinos and other disparate enterprises that then collapsed around him, the new influx of cash helped finance a buying spree that saw him snap up golf resorts, a business not known for easy profits. Indeed, the tax records show that his golf properties have been hemorrhaging millions of dollars for years."

Martyn Mclaughlin of The Scotsman: "[T]he...New York Times exposé will ... lend even greater urgency to questions surrounding the Trump Organisation's finances [in Scotland]. 21 October marks the fifteenth anniversary of the incorporation of Mr Trump's first Scottish company.... [I]n that entire time, not a single one of Mr Trump's companies has paid a penny in corporation tax to authorities in the UK. The reason? Not a single one has ever turned a profit.... [W]hen he took over Turnberry in 2014 - a year in which he paid no federal income taxes, according to the New York Times - the £35m purchase price [for Turnberry golf course & resort] was settled in cash.... Mr Trump declared more than £1bn in losses from his core businesses in 2008 and 2009.... [I]n November 2008, as a global recession hit, the then Trump Organisation executive vice-president, George Sorial, told The Scotsman that Mr Trump had £1bn 'sitting in the bank and ready to go' to finance his course in Aberdeenshire.... [W]here did his money come from?" --s

Colbert explores Trump's financial difficulties:

Presidential Race, Etc.

** Washington Post Editors Endorse Joe Biden for President: "The Democratic nominee, former vice president Joe Biden, is exceptionally well-qualified, by character and experience, to meet the daunting challenges that the nation will face over the coming four years. Those challenges have been, to varying degrees, created, exacerbated or neglected by the incumbent: the covid-19 pandemic, which has claimed more lives in this country than anywhere else in the world; rising inequality and racial disparities; a 21st-century, high-tech authoritarianism ascendant in the world, with democracy in retreat; a planet at risk due to human-caused climate change.... In contrast to Mr. Trump's narcissism, Mr. Biden is deeply empathetic; you can't imagine him dismissing wounded or fallen soldiers as 'losers.' To Mr. Trump's cynicism, Mr. Biden brings faith -- religious faith, yes, but also faith in American values and potential." Read on.

Wired on how to watch the first presidential debate, which begins tonight at 9 pm ET: "... the presidential debates are simulcast across all the major networks and cable news programs. If you have cable or satellite TV, or a live streaming TV service or a Mohu antenna, check your local listings -- do those exist anymore? -- and you're good.... You can find the debate on ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox, PBS, Telemundo, Univision, CNN, MSNBC, and CSPAN. Basically it'll be harder to avoid it than to watch it. You can also stream it on those various networks' sites and/or YouTube channels. If you're looking for something to bookmark, CBS, CSPAN, and ABC News have YouTube streams ready to go." And more.

Peter Baker & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The disclosure that President Trump paid little or no federal income taxes for years, including while in the White House, convulsed the presidential campaign on Monday ... and immediately scrambled the equation and stakes of the first debate to be held on Tuesday night. While Mr. Trump tried to deflect the news about his taxes, and his Republican allies generally kept their silence, Democrats pounced and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. ... posted a video noting that the president paid less in income taxes than everyday Americans like teachers, firefighters and nurses.... 'The Fake News Media, just like Election time 2016, is bringing up my Taxes & all sorts of other nonsense with illegally obtained information & only bad intent,' he wrote. 'I paid many millions of dollars in taxes but was entitled, like everyone else, to depreciation & tax credits.' He later refused to take questions at his only public event of the day." A CNN story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The Times maintains that its reporters obtained the tax documents from "sources with legal access to [them]," so Trump's claim about "illegally obtained information" appears to be baseless. Here's the Biden Twitter ad:

Teachers paid $7,239
Firefighters paid $5,283
Nurses paid $10,216

Donald Trump paid $750 pic.twitter.com/5YE1cbYsBN

— Team Joe (Text JOE to 30330) (@TeamJoe) September 28, 2020

~~~ Toluse Olorunnipa & Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "President Trump heads into his and Joe Biden's first debate already on defense as he fights off attacks stemming from a damning report that he avoided federal taxes for years and has racked up more than $400 million in debt, potentially putting his family-run business on shaky ground. With Trump's campaign hoping the first meeting between the two candidates Tuesday night would help him overcome his deficit in both national and key state polls, the New York Times report documenting Trump's tax avoidance strategies became the latest impediment to the president's ongoing effort to revive his flagging reelection bid. The report gave Biden, his Democratic opponent, a fresh line of attack and left Trump struggling to defend himself on an issue that has dogged him throughout his presidency. For Trump, who has fought relentlessly to keep his tax records private, a report showing he had paid $750 in federal income taxes in 2016 and again in 2017 immediately posed a threat to his carefully crafted image as a successful businessman and 'America First' patriot. The revelations appeared to take his campaign by surprise.... 'How much more did you pay in taxes than President Trump?' Biden wrote on Twitter, linking to a website with a 'Trump Tax Calculator.'"

Catherine Rampell of the Washington Post: "When President Trump steps on the debate stage Tuesday night in Ohio, no doubt he will claim the Buckeye State as his turf -- living proof of his economic prowess, his ability to deliver an American manufacturing renaissance. 'It's incredible what's happened to the area,' he said Monday, in remarks at the White House previewing his talking points about supposedly resuscitated Ohio factories. 'It's booming now.' It's a lie. Not only because the poorly managed pandemic recession has destroyed 720,000 manufacturing jobs on net nationwide, including 38,000 in Ohio alone. Also because even before covid-19 broke out, Trump had deserted Ohio's manufacturing workers."

Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "In a meandering press conference on Sunday..., Donald Trump repeatedly accused his Democratic opponent's son, Hunter Biden, of receiving millions of dollars from the wife of Moscow's late mayor Yury Luzhkov, asking why 'nobody even has any question about it.' But Trump himself sought to do business with Luzhkov's government in the late 1990s, according to press reports from the time, SEC filings and comments made by Luzhkov last year.... The GOP report does not support the allegation that Hunter Biden personally accepted money from Baturina.... Trump's dealings in Moscow under Luzhkov are newly significant in light of the report released by Republican Sens. Ron Johnson and Chuck Grassley last week, which accused Luzhkov of facilitating corrupt real-estate deals during his 18-year reign." --s

Elise Viebeck of the Washington Post: "For six months, the rules for how Americans can vote during the coronavirus pandemic have been locked in court battles while states across the country rushed to embrace mail ballots. Now..., voting rights advocates and Democrats have advanced on key fronts in the legal war, scoring victories that make mail voting easier, ensure votes cast by mail are counted and protect the wide distribution of mail ballots in some states. A review by The Washington Post of nearly 90 state and federal voting lawsuits found that judges have been broadly skeptical as Republicans use claims of voter fraud to argue against such changes, declining to endorse the GOP's arguments or dismissing them as they examined limits on mail voting. In no case did a judge back President Trump's view -- refuted by experts -- that fraud is a problem significant enough to sway a presidential election. Some of the Democrats' wins have been preliminary. And in many cases, judges issued split decisions, granting some of the changes sought by liberal plaintiffs and otherwise maintaining the status quo as favored by Republicans." ~~~

~~~ Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "Pennsylvania's Republican legislative leaders asked the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday to stop a decision by the state's high court to count mail-in ballots received up to three days after Election Day. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruled in Democrats' favor on a number of mail-voting rules: permitting voters to turn in ballots via drop box in addition to using the U.S. Postal Service; allowing ballots to be returned up to three days after Election Day; and blocking a Republican effort to allow partisan poll watchers to be stationed in counties where they do not live.... The request was filed with Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., who oversees the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit in Philadelphia. It is likely to be referred by him to the entire court. The justices usually are reluctant to intervene in legal battles over voting close to an election. The court often defers to state courts over such matters." The AP's story is here.

Eric Lichtblau of Time: "For three weeks in August, as election officials across the country were preparing to send out mail-in ballots to tens of millions of voters, the U.S. Postal Service stopped fully updating a national change of address system that most states use to keep their voter rolls current, according to multiple officials who use the system. A USPS spokesperson acknowledged the failure in response to questions from Time, and said that at least 1.8 million new changes of address had not been registered in the database."

Channel 4 News (UK): "Channel 4 News has exclusively obtained a vast cache of data used by Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign on almost 200 million American voters. It reveals that 3.5 million Black Americans were categorised by Donald Trump's campaign as 'Deterrence' -- voters they wanted to stay home on election day.... Vast in scale, it contains details on almost 200 million Americans, among more than 5,000 files.... It reveals not only the huge amounts of data held on every individual voter, but how that data was used and manipulated by models and algorithms.... The 2016 campaign preceded the first fall in Black turnout in 20 years and allowed Donald Trump to take shock victories in key states like Wisconsin and Michigan by wafer-thin margins.... Two senior members of the Cambridge Analytica team are working on the Trump 2020 campaign." --s ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post has a story here. ~~~

~~~ Sarah Burris of RawStory: "Associate professor of media design David Carrell walked through transcripts of Congressional interviews with former digital director turned ex-campaign manager Brad Parscale.... He cited Channel 4 News which cited a Trump campaign data leak, exposing how 3.5 million Black Americans were listed as 'Deterrence' in an effort to get them to not vote. When Parscale testified to Congress, Rep Jackie Speier (D-CA) asked Parscale if the campaign targeted people like 'white men.' 'I did not target by race specifically in GOTV and/or persuasion efforts,' Parscale testified under oath. The new leaked data revealed that Parscale lied. He was also asked, 'Did you participate in a voter suppression operation targeting African Americans?' Again, he lied, saying, 'no.'" --s   More on Parscale linked below.

Rob Mudge of Deutsche Welle: "For their documentary People You May Know, Charles Kriel, special adviser to the UK Parliament on disinformation, and filmmaker Katharina Gellein traveled across the United States accompanied by a team of journalists and whistleblowers. Their film reveals the political connection between religious fundamentalists, oligarchs and Cambridge Analytica and its shell companies, which have fundamentally shifted the balance of politics in the United States.... [The] new film reveals how Cambridge Analytica, collaborating with a software company, has created a platform for US churches that targets the poor, the addicted and the disabled -- to radicalize them for far-right politics." --s

Patricia Yeo, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Brad Parscale, President Trump's former 2020 campaign manager, was taken to a Fort Lauderdale hospital Sunday night after his wife called police saying he had firearms and was threatening to harm himself.... After a three-hour standoff with police, Parscale was eventually physically taken down and detained by several officers and had 10 firearms seized from his home. Fort Lauderdale Police Chief Lauren Dietrich told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel..., 'We went out and it was very short. We went and got him help,' Dietrich told the Sentinel.... A police report obtained by The Daily Beast on Monday contradicts that account, however. Per the newly released records, the initial call came from a next-door neighbor who said [Candace Parscale] came to her saying her husband may have shot her... 'Candace,' had bruises on her arms and face that she told an officer she received earlier in the week from Brad Parscale.... According to the Sun-Sentinel, the encounter lasted for more than three hours. At first, Parscale barricaded himself inside his home, though he later spoke to the intervening officers. At one point, he drank a beer in his driveway. Only when Officer Christopher Wilson, a personal friend, arrived on the scene did Parscale exit his house. It took a 'double-leg takedown' requiring several officers to detain Parscale, who is at least 6-foot-6." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Lauren, you have some explaining to do. I really would like to know why the police chief lied to reporters about the extent to which the police had to go to subdue Parscale, especially since Parscale posed a threat not only to his wife but also to police officers.

Texas. Mustn't Let "Those People" Vote. Emma Platoff of the Texas Tribune: "A litigious conservative activist in Houston, the Harris County Republican party, and a number of Republican officials and candidates are asking the Texas Supreme Court to limit in-person and absentee voting options for Harris County voters during the pandemic. The county, the state's most populous and a major Democratic stronghold, began letting voters drop off absentee ballots Monday for the Nov. 3 general election at 11 annexes. In line with a directive from Republican Gov. Greg Abbott, the county also intends to begin in-person early voting Oct. 13."

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "President Trump has accused his opponent, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., of being 'against God,' 'against the Bible' and 'essentially against religion.'... [Mrs. McC: Biden is a practicing Roman Catholic.] As Mr. Trump seeks to court Catholic voters with five weeks to go in the election, he and his top advisers are claiming that any discussion of Judge Amy Coney Barrett's religious beliefs is tantamount to an anti-Catholic attack, as the president tries to rouse his voters by ginning up a culture war with what Republicans call a 'woke clan' on the left. At a Sunday night news conference at the White House, Mr. Trump accused Democrats of 'playing the religious card' with Judge Barrett, his nominee to the Supreme Court, who is a mother of seven and a devout Roman Catholic. 'On the religious situation with Amy, I thought we settled this 60 years ago with the election of John F. Kennedy,' Mr. Trump said. 'Seriously, they're going after her Catholicism.' Without evidence, the president then accused Democrats of 'basically fighting a major religion in our country.'" ~~~

~~~ Amy Goldstein & Alice Crites of the Washington Post: "In his third chance to shape the high court, the president is turning to a conservative judge who could tilt its balance toward his goal of abolishing the [Affordable Care law]. Barrett has not participated in any cases during three years on the Chicago-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit that dealt with the decade-old law, which has widened insurance coverage and altered many other aspects of the nation's health-care system. Yet her academic writing and public action offer glimpses into her views: She has criticized the legal logic behind a Supreme Court decision that preserved the law and opposed a provision involving birth control. Among the most revealing was an essay she wrote at the start of 2017, four months before Trump nominated her to the circuit bench. In the essay published by a journal of Notre Dame Law School..., Barrett argues that judges should respect the text of laws and contends that Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr., who wrote the majority opinion the first time the Supreme Court upheld the health-care law, 'pushed the Affordable Care Act beyond its plausible meaning to save the statute.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: IOW, those advocating against Barrett's confirmation -- including Joe Biden & Nancy Pelosi -- are not exaggerating when they argue that Barrett poses an existential threat to Americans' access to affordable health insurance. Trump, et al.'s challenge to the law comes before the Court for oral arguments November 10. ~~~

~~~ Samantha Schmidt of the Washington Post: "The day after President Trump's inauguration in 2017, the Women's March drew millions of people to the streets of Washington, D.C., and cities across the country in a collective display of outrage and grief that was widely considered the largest single-day protest in American history.... Last week, the Women's March organization said it is planning a 'socially distant march' in Washington and more than 30 other cities on Oct. 17, days before Senate Republicans aim to vote on Trump's pick to replace Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the Supreme Court." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It is pleasant to remember that even as Trump falsely & hilariously claimed to have the biggest inaugural crowd ever, the march against him was actually the largest in U.S. history. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: John Oliver has got me to thinking that Trump had a great idea, after all: annex Greenland! -- so long as it became a state with two voting U.S. senators.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

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

Dave Lawler in Axios: "The global toll of confirmed deaths from COVID-19 crossed 1 million on Monday, according to data from Johns Hopkins.... More than half of those deaths have come in four countries: the U.S. (204,762), Brazil (141,741), India (95,542) and Mexico (76,430). The true global death toll is likely far higher.... India is approaching 100,000 deaths. It's currently tallying the world's highest daily totals, followed by the U.S. and Brazil."

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "The White House and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) resumed discussions over a possible economic relief bill as Democrats offered a $2.2 trillion package and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin immediately engaged in talks. Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke Monday evening and agreed to talk again Tuesday morning, according to Pelosi spokesman Drew Hammill.... Democrats described their new offer as an updated version of the $3.4 trillion Heroes Act the House passed in May, which the White House and Senate Republicans dismissed as far too costly. Senate Republicans and Mnuchin have also said $2.2 trillion is too much to spend, but Mnuchin has said he is open to negotiations." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Please keep Mark Meadows out of the room! Reportedly, it was he who gummed up the last round of negotiations. I don't think that strident cheapskate could negotiate his way out of the proverbial paper bag.

** Mark Mazzetti, et al., of the New York Times: "Top White House officials pressured th Centers for Disease Control and Prevention this summer to play down the risk of sending children back to school, a strikingly political intervention in one of the most sensitive public health debates of the pandemic, according to documents and interviews with current and former government officials. As part of their behind-the-scenes effort, White House officials also tried to circumvent the C.D.C. in a search for alternate data showing that the pandemic was weakening and posed little danger to children. The documents and interviews show how the White House spent weeks trying to press public health professionals to fall in line with President Trump's election-year agenda of pushing to reopen schools and the economy as quickly as possible.... The effort included Dr. Deborah L. Birx, the White House's coronavirus response coordinator, and officials working for Vice President Mike Pence, who led the task force. It left officials at the C.D.C., long considered the world's premier public health agency, alarmed at the degree of pressure from the White House."

Tony Fauci Is Tired of Trying to Reason with You People. Reed Richardson of Mediaite: "... Dr. Anthony Fauci, directly called out both Fox News and Trump's newly-appointed Covid adviser, Dr. Scott Atlas, for spreading misleading information about the Covid pandemic. During an interview on CNN on Monday with Brian Stelter, Fauci pulled few punches in naming the network and the Trump confidante as doing a disservice to the public.... The comments from Fauci came just hours after he publicly questioned the decision by Florida Governor Ron DeSantis to effectively end all indoor lockdowns in that state. With Covid cases up nearly 20 percent nationwide since the week after Labor Day, Fauci warned that 'we're not in a very good place' and singled out Florida's full re-opening of bars as 'very concerning.'" Includes CNN clip.

Everything Is Going Very Smoothly. Mrs. McCrabbie: In a new book he crayoned with Dave Bossie, Cory Lewandowski claims then chief-of-staff John Kelly body-slammed him up against a wall outside the Oval Office. I suppose Kelly might tell a different story, but since they're both liars, we'll never know.

MEANWHILE at State Media. Annals of "Journalism," Ha Ha Ha. Diana Falzone & Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast: "The recent mass layoffs at Fox News -- an estimated body count of around 70, amounting to a little less than 3 percent of the cable channel's workforce -- signal what current and former employees describe as the purposeful devaluing of fact-based journalism in favor of right-wing opinion, race-baiting, and conspiracy-mongering at the top-rated, Donald Trump-friendly cable outlet. Fox News' PR department used anodyne corporate-speak to characterize the job losses, namely 'restructuring various divisions in order to position all of our businesses for ongoing success.' But the layoffs, outside of the hair and makeup department, cut most deeply into the channel's straight-news operations at Fox News Digital and elsewhere, according to insiders, while protecting the ratings-heavy, revenue-generating domains of Fox & Friends in the morning, and of Trump cheerleaders Tucker Carlson, Sean Hannity, and Laura Ingraham in primetime. The outlet's so-called 'Brain Room,' which the late Fox News founder Roger Ailes established as the 24-year-old channel's fact-checking and research unit, has been especially hard-hit, losing around one-fourth of its 30-person staff along with two supervisors -- a virtual frontal lobotomy, according to sources familiar with the cutbacks." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Whoda thunk Fox could have a brain drain? But there you go.

** Kentucky. Rukmini Callimachi of the New York Times: "A juror in the Breonna Taylor case contends that the Kentucky attorney general misrepresented the grand jury's deliberations and failed to offer the panel the option of indicting the two officers who fatally shot the young woman, according to the juror's lawyer. The unnamed juror filed a court motion on Monday seeking the release of last week's transcripts and permission from a judge to speak publicly to set the record straight. Hours later, the office of Attorney General Daniel Cameron granted both requests, saying that the juror is free to speak and that recordings of the session will be made public." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: There's been an extraordinary amount of lying going on in Breonna Taylor's case, from conflicting accounts of what went down in her murder to trying to frame Taylor as some kind of drug mole, to now, perhaps, misrepresenting what evidence Cameron put before the grand jury. (On the other hand, Brad Parscale, Trump's former campaign manager, is a grand fellow who, as Akhilleus wryly put it, "just had a bad day.") ~~~

~~~ Marisa Iati of the Washington Post: "A former Louisville police officer involved in the death of Breonna Taylor pleaded not guilty on Monday to charges that he recklessly fired into a neighboring apartment during the fatal drug raid. At an arraignment via audio conference call, an attorney for Brett Hankison entered not guilty pleas on his behalf to three charges of wanton endangerment stemming from the fatal shooting of Taylor in her apartment on March 13."

Maryland. Heather Murphy of the New York Times: "A Maryland county has reached a $20 million settlement with the family of an unarmed Black man who was fatally shot by a police corporal while he was handcuffed in a patrol car in January, officials said on Monday. The figure, announced on Sunday, makes it among the largest settlements in a case involving a killing by a police officer.... The corporal, Michael Owen Jr., a 10-year veteran of the Prince George's Police Department, shot the man, William H. Green, 43, multiple times on Jan. 27, while Mr. Green's hands were handcuffed behind his back and as he sat in the front seat of a parked police cruiser, officials said. Officials said Corporal Owen, who is Black, fired seven shots from inside his patrol car, six of which struck Mr. Green, killing him. Mr. Green, a father of two who worked for Megabus, had been pulled over and handcuffed because he was suspected of driving under the influence after hitting several cars, the police chief said at the time.... An initial police account suggested that a struggle preceded the shooting. But after a review of what occurred, investigators concluded that there was 'no plausible explanation for how Mr. Green could have attempted to control the gun' of the corporal, [Angela] Alsobrooks[, the Prince George's county executive,] said. Within 24 hours of the killing, police officers charged Corporal Owen with second-degree murder."

News Lede

AP: "Helen Reddy, who shot to stardom in the 1970s with her rousing feminist anthem 'I Am Woman' and recorded a string of other hits, has died. She was 78." ~~~

The Commentariat -- Sept. 28, 2020

Your Sunday Evening News Bombshell:

** The Biggest Tax Cheat. Russ Buettner, et al., of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. In his first year in the White House, he paid another $750. He had paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made. As the president wages a re-election campaign that polls say he is in danger of losing, his finances are under stress, beset by losses and hundreds of millions of dollars in debt coming due that he has personally guaranteed. Also hanging over him is a decade-long audit battle with the Internal Revenue Service over the legitimacy of a $72.9 million tax refund that he claimed, and received, after declaring huge losses. An adverse ruling could cost him more than $100 million. The tax returns that Mr. Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public. The tax returns that Mr. Trump has long fought to keep private tell a story fundamentally different from the one he has sold to the American public. His reports to the I.R.S. portray a businessman who takes in hundreds of millions of dollars a year yet racks up chronic losses that he aggressively employs to avoid paying taxes. Now, with his financial challenges mounting, the records show that he depends more and more on making money from businesses that put him in potential and often direct conflict of interest with his job as president." Emphasis added. (Also linked yesterday.)

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: By way of comparison, I am a middle-middle-class taxpayer, definitely nowhere near upper-middle class. I have some tax writeoffs, too. I just checked my return for one of the years Donald Trump paid $750; I paid almost $36,000 in federal income tax. You think I don't resent carrying Donald Trump? You can bet the millions of lower- and middle-class taxpayers who paid far more than $750 (or nothing, as Trump paid in previous years) also resent carrying a fat tax cheat who lives in a grotesque gold-and-marble NYC penthouse and a Palm Beach mansion. What American voters need to get straight in their wee, bitty brains is that Donald Trump is a crime boss, and he has been shaking them down for decades. According to CNN this morning, the average U.S. taxpayer pays $12,000/year in federal income taxes.

The tax returns ... demonstrate that [Donald Trump] was far more successful playing a business mogul than being one in real life. -- Russ Buettner, et al., in a series of charts & graphs that detail Trump's business career

David Leonhardt of the New York Times outlines key findings from the Times' report. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump-supporting pundits have been making the argument, more or less, that "all billionaires do it." While it is true that everyone, especially the very wealthy, take the tax breaks the Congress so kindly grants them, Leonhardt points out that the very wealthy, on average, still pay much higher taxes than does Cheeto von Cheat-o (thanks, Akhilleus!): "... most affluent people still pay a lot of federal income tax. In 2017, the average federal income rate for the highest-earning .001 percent of tax filers — that is, the most affluent 1/100,000th slice of the population — was 24.1 percent, according to the I.R.S. Over the past two decades, Mr. Trump has paid about $400 million less in combined federal income taxes than a very wealthy person who paid the average for that group each year."

We're Going to Keep on Drip-Drip-Dropping This Stuff Till the Election. Dean Baquet, Executive Editor of the New York Times: "A team of New York Times reporters has pored over this information to assemble the most comprehensive picture of the president’s finances and business dealings to date, and we will continue our reporting and publish additional articles about our findings in the weeks ahead. We are not making the records themselves public because we do not want to jeopardize our sources, who have taken enormous personal risks to help inform the public.... The records ... underscore why citizens would want to know about their president’s finances: Mr. Trump’s businesses appear to have benefited from his position, and his far-flung holdings have created potential conflicts between his own financial interests and the nation’s diplomatic interests.... The Supreme Court has repeatedly ruled that the First Amendment allows the press to publish newsworthy information that was legally obtained by reporters even when those in power fight to keep it hidden."

Kevin Drum of Mother Jones: "Trump’s story turns out to be pretty simple. After screwing everybody in sight during the ’90s, he entered 2000 in parlous shape. What saved him was The Apprentice, which earned him a boatload of money and formed the foundation of his flurry of licensing and endorsement deals over the next few years. But as revenue from the show faded, so did Trump’s finances, and since 2012 he’s been losing money every year. Long story short, Trump has lost money at pretty much everything he’s ever done. The only exception is The Apprentice and the licensing money it enabled — which probably owes more to reality show mogul Mark Burnett than to Trump himself. Trump’s ability to squander the money he inherited is breathtaking. He’s also deeply in debt, it turns out, with about $300 million in loans coming due over the next few years."

Time for a U.S. Tax Code Revision. Will Sommer & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: “Tucked into the paper’s report is a damning graph that examines how Trump’s tax liabilities are far greater for his ventures overseas than they are at home. 'In 2017,' the Times writes, 'the president’s $750 contribution to the operations of the U.S. government was dwarfed by the $15,598 he or his companies paid in Panama, the $145,400 in India and the $156,824 in the Philippines.'”

David Atkins of the Washington Monthly: "... despite [the] potential [of Trump's apparent tax cheating] to land the entire Trump family in penury and jail, what is far more terrifying for the country isn’t what lies in his past of tax avoidance. It’s the time bomb of debt that lies in Trump’s very near future. It’s about the mystery of who owns Trump’s outlandish debts, and the degree of secret power they may be wielding over the country. One fact stands out far above all the others in its staggering implications: Donald Trump is personally responsible for $421 million worth of loans coming due in the next few years. Not his business. Him. Personally. He has no means of repaying them. He already refinanced his few profitable properties, and sold off most of his stocks to stay afloat. He appears short on liquidity. And we still don’t know to whom he owes the money.... This fact has frightening implications for public policy and national security. Even minor debts are a frequent reason for the government to deny a security clearance, for the obvious reason that indebted and financially desperate public servants make easy marks for bribery, blackmail and potential treason." Emphasis original. ~~~    

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Atkins manages to implicate former Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in Trump's convoluted financial schemes. "Donald Trump’s history with Deutsche Bank has always merited special scrutiny, but never more than now. The head honchos at Deutsche would have known just how desperate Trump’s financial position was. But they lent to him anyway. Why? It certainly looks even more ominous that Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy’s son was managing the real estate division at Deutsche that lent to Trump, and that Justice Kennedy unexpectedly retired to ensure Trump could seat his replacement."

Ivanka Trump, Fake Consultant. Andrew Prokop of Vox: "One major theme of the Times piece is that the IRS audit of Trump is extremely serious, and that he could end up owing the US government more than $100 million....  Trump’s tax returns became the white whale of his critics, with everyone from reporters to House Democrats to New York state prosecutors trying to get ahold of them. After more than four years, Buettner, Craig, and McIntire of the Times got the goods.... The specific reason Trump paid no taxes is embarrassing — it’s because his businesses lost tons of money. (At least, that’s what he claims — keep in mind that the tax return information is his representation of his businesses to the IRS.)... There’s clearly some legally questionable stuff in there. For instance, the records obtained by Buettner, Craig, and McIntire show that Trump wrote off $26 million in supposed consulting fees as a business expense between 2011 and 2018. But the reporters took the added step of uncovering where some of that money was going — and they figured out that some of those write-offs matched payments to Trump’s daughter Ivanka, as revealed on her own financial disclosure forms. Now, Ivanka was an executive vice president of the Trump Organization — not some outside consultant."

Nolan McCaskill of Politico: “... Donald Trump on Sunday dismissed as 'totally fake news' a New York Times report about how little he has paid in federal taxes. 'It’s fake news,' Trump told reporters at a news conference in the White House briefing room. 'It’s totally fake news. Made up. Fake.'... Trump on Sunday reprised his long-held argument that he can’t release his taxes because he’s under audit by the IRS, an agency he claimed treats him 'very badly.' But the president said he would be 'proud to show' his tax returns once the audit was over, and insisted that he’d paid 'a lot' of money in taxes, including New York state income taxes.... Former IRS officials, however, have ... said there‘s nothing stopping the president from releasing his taxes during an audit.” Mrs. McC: Yeah, shame on the Times & the IRS. P.S. It is not only former IRS officials who have said there is not legal impediment for Trump to release his taxes; so has Charles Rettig, Trump's very special hand-picked IRS chief (see Alberto Luperon's post, linked below).

Brooke Seipel of the Hill: "Democrats sounded off against President Trump on Sunday evening after The New York Times dropped a bombshell report detailing 20 years of his tax history, including that he avoided income taxes for 10 of those years.... Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) ask[ed] people to raise their hands if they paid more than Trump.... [Sen. Elizabeth Warren tweeted,] 'Donald Trump ... knows better than anyone that there’s one set of rules for the wealthy and giant corporations and another for hardworking Americans—and instead of using his power to fix it, he's taken advantage of it at every turn.'... [Bill] Pascrell, the chair of the House Ways and Means Subcommittee on Oversight, said in his own statement that the Times' findings 'reveal absolutely staggering theft by Trump before and while he has been in office,' and that 'Trump must release his tax returns as is longstanding practice and is required by law to Congress instead of grandstanding and attacking the media.'"

Alberto Luperon of Law & Crime: “A former federal prosecutor says there’s enough to justify an investigation, and that the possible appointment of another special counsel 'should be in play.'... Daniel R. Alonso, a former federal prosecutor who worked in the Eastern District of New York..., [tweeted,] ' Those who are writing that tax *avoidance* (the term @nytimes uses) is not a crime are exactly right - tax *evasion* is a crime, not 'avoidance.' But there is a lot here that with a proper investigation could lead to discovery of criminality.... This article contains what federal agents and prosecutors call 'predication,' which is the bare amount you need to open a criminal investigation. But who would investigate? The President himself oversees @IRS_CI and @FBI and @TheJusticeDept.... Luckily, regulations from 20 years ago provide for what happens when such a conflict of interest exists: the Attorney General “will appoint a Special Counsel.”'... Alonso cited a case in which Albert J. Pirro Jr., the now-former husband of Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, was found guilty in a 2000 tax fraud case. 'Pirro deducted personal expenses as business, and therefore “had brazenly violated a fundamental tenet of the American tax system: that every taxpayer must pay his or her fair share, regardless of wealth or influence.” He got 29 months in prison.'” ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump, for instance, wrote off more than $70,000 for getting his hair done when filiming "The Apprentice." You do not get to write off your haircuts because you are required to look presentable on the job.

Steve M.: "The Times story suggests two possibilities: that Trump is much less wealthy (and more in debt) than he claims to be and that he pays far less in taxes than he should. Both appear to be true, but Trump's base simply can't process the first notion, so they're responding only to the second one. The responses, as seen in this Breitbart comment thread, are exactly what you'd expect: What about Soros? What about Hunter? What about other Democrats? And of course everyone should pay very little in taxes, because freedom! (Except Hunter and Soros and Democrats in Congress, presumably.)... To the right, government is liberal, and cheating the government is patriotic (unless you're a liberal). This story might make Trumpers like him even more than they already do." See also Ken W.'s comment in today's thread.

Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: “Donald Trump was facing financial disaster in 1990 when he came up with an audacious plan to exert control of his father’s estate. His creditors threatened to force him into personal bankruptcy, and his first wife, Ivana, wanted 'a billion dollars' in a divorce settlement, Donald Trump said in a deposition. So he sent an accountant and a lawyer to see his father, Fred Trump Sr., who was told he needed to immediately sign a document changing the will according to his son’s wishes, according to depositions from family members. It was a fragile moment for the senior Trump, who was 85 years old and ... would soon be diagnosed with cognitive problems, such as being unable to recall things he was told 30 minutes earlier or remember his birth date, according to his medical records, which were included in a related court case. Now, those records and other sources of information about the episode obtained by The Washington Post reveal the extent of Fred Trump Sr.’s cognitive impairment and how Donald’s effort to change his father’s will tore apart the Trump family, which continues to reverberate today.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race, Etc.

Joe Biden responded Sunday afternoon to Donald Trump's nomination of Amy Barrett to the Supreme Court: ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Martin & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "A clear majority of voters believes the winner of the presidential election should fill the Supreme Court seat left open by the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, according to a national poll conducted by The New York Times and Siena College, a sign of the political peril President Trump and Senate Republicans are courting by attempting to rush through an appointment before the end of the campaign.... [Fifty-six] percent said they preferred to have the election act as a sort of referendum on the vacancy. Only 41 percent said they wanted Mr. Trump to choose a justice before November." Mrs. McC: This poll is consistent with several others conducted last week. (Also linked yesterday.)

Mrs. McCrabbie: We have known all along, if sometimes not knowing to what extent, that Donald Trump is a crook & a con artist with no allegiance to his country of birth. Do you think the guy who worked so hard to cheat his own family and the American people won't work just as hard to cheat us in the upcoming election? ~~~

~~~ In Fact, It's Been the Plan All Along. Anita Kumar of Politico: "A year before ... Donald Trump alarmed Americans with talk of disputing elections last week, his team started building a massive legal network to do just that. Dozens of lawyers from three major law firms have been hired. Thousands of volunteer attorneys and poll watchers across the country have been recruited. Republicans are preparing pre-written legal pleadings that can be hurried to the courthouse the day after the election, as wrangling begins over close results and a crush of mail-in ballots. Attorneys from non-battleground states, including California, New York and Illinois, are being dispatched to more competitive areas and trained on local election laws. A 20-person team of lawyers oversees the strategy, which is mainly focused on the election process in the 17 key states the Trump campaign is targeting, like Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. In total, it means the Republican Party will have thousands of people on hand to shape every element of voting — both on Election Day and in the days after. It’s a massive undertaking — one the RNC calls its largest election-year legal effort ever." (Also linked yesterday.)

Michael Shear & Michael Crowley of the New York Times: “President Trump sought again on Saturday night to cast doubt on the integrity of the presidential election, telling supporters that the only way Democrats can win in Pennsylvania is to 'cheat on the ballots' and raising the prospect that a disputed election could be decided by Congress. Pressing his baseless case that the election in November will be a 'disaster,' Mr. Trump said at a rally just outside a hangar at the Harrisburg airport that he would have 'an advantage' if Congress were to decide.... Shortly after announcing Judge Barrett’s nomination in a Rose Garden event on Saturday at the White House, Mr. Trump flew to the Harrisburg airport to speak to an outdoor crowd of perhaps a few thousand — far fewer than the 'tens of thousands' he claimed from onstage. It was the latest of several rallies he has held in which his supporters packed together, mostly without face masks.” (Also linked yesterday.)

John Bresnahan, et al., of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi has begun mobilizing Democrats for the possibility that neither Joe Biden nor President Donald Trump will win an outright Electoral College victory, a once-in-a-century phenomenon that would send the fate of the presidency to the House of Representatives to decide. Under that scenario, which hasn’t happened since 1876, every state’s delegation gets a single vote. Who receives that vote is determined by an internal tally of each lawmaker in the delegation. This means the presidency may not be decided by the party that controls the House itself but by the one that controls more state delegations in the chamber. And right now, Republicans control 26 delegations to Democrats’ 22, with Pennsylvania tied and Michigan a 7-6 plurality for Democrats, with a 14th seat held by independent Justin Amash. A battle inside the House could be brutal.... Trump, too, has taken notice of the obscure constitutional resolution to a deadlocked Electoral College, both in public and private."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: “A third federal judge on Sunday ordered the U.S. Postal Service to halt changes that have delayed mail delivery nationwide, handing the latest judicial rebuke to unilateral service cuts that critics allege would suppress mail-in voting in November’s elections. U.S. District Judge Emmet G. Sullivan of Washington, D.C., sided with the states of New York, Hawaii and New Jersey and the cities of New York and San Francisco. They alleged that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy disrupted operations without first submitting changes to the Postal Regulatory Commission, and told Congress he had no intention of returning removed collection boxes or high-speed sorting equipment. 'It is clearly in the public interest to mitigate the spread of COVID-19, to ensure safe alternatives to in-person voting, and to require that the USPS comply with the law,' Sullivan wrote in a 39-page opinion.”

Christopher Ingraham & Emily Guskin of the Washington Post: “Postmaster General Louis DeJoy was brought on, in part, to use his extensive private-sector experience to make the nation’s venerable mail service more efficient. But the net effect of DeJoy’s operational changes has been a slowdown in the pace of mail delivery. It may be no surprise, then, that a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll showed that Americans, by a more than 2-to-1 margin, reject the notion that the U.S. Postal Service should be 'run like a business,' to use a phrase prevalent in conservative policymaking circles. Instead, most said the USPS should be run as a 'public service,' even if doing so would cost the government money.”

Florida. “An Appalling New Low.” Washington Post Editors: “... Republicans are working feverishly to make it harder for people — or certain kinds of people — to vote. They have undertaken efforts across the country to purge voters from registration rolls, impede voting by mail and stop early voting. An appalling new low in their campaign to disenfranchise people in advance of the Nov. 3 elections has been reached with the bid by Florida Republicans — cheered on by President Trump — to investigate Mike Bloomberg for the 'crime' of trying to help people to be able to vote. Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody (R) called on the FBI and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to investigate efforts by the businessman, philanthropist and former New York mayor on behalf of an organization that is raising money to pay off the court debt of former felons so they can vote.... Ms. Moody cited 'potential violations of election laws.' Mr. Trump (naturally) went further: 'It’s a felony. He’s actually giving money to people. He’s paying people to vote. He’s actually saying, “Here’s money, now you go ahead and vote for only Democrats.” Right?' Nonsense. Any money raised to pay fines and fees goes to a 501(c)(4) foundation, which then goes to the county or state, not to the former felons, who have no idea who helped pay their fines and fees. No one is obligated to register to vote or support a specific candidate. That the coalition’s effort has been underway for more than a year — with some debts already paid off — seems to have escaped the notice of Ms. Moody and other Republicans.”

Austen Erblat, et al., of the Orlando Sun Sentinel: “President Trump’s former campaign manager Brad Parscale was taken from his Fort Lauderdale home by police Sunday afternoon after his wife reported that he was armed and threatening suicide. The police, called by his wife, went to the house in the Seven Isles community, an affluent area in which houses have access to the water. They made contact, 'developed a rapport' and negotiated his exit from the house, the police said in a statement. He was taken to Broward Health Medical Center under the Baker Act, which provides for temporary involuntary commitment.”

"Notorious ACB"? No Way. Dahlia Lithwick of Slate: Ruth Bader Ginsburg's "death was painful for the millions of women who called her a role model and hero, because her work mattered to us, and to our material lives. It was made more painful because Mitch McConnell was already dancing on her grave back in May, months before she died, and because within an hour of her death, he announced that her seat was his to fill. This was an act of erasure by a man who didn’t mind that his rush to replace her violated the old fashioned idea that the country should be given just one moment to honor her legacy before going to war over what remained. And it was painful because we knew that whoever was named to her seat would be tasked with undoing her legacy.... As Donald Trump explained when he introduced her, [Amy Coney Barrett's] work to dismantle Ginsburg’s legacy in abortion, health care, discrimination, and gun rights is to be construed as pro-women simply because a woman will be doing it. Even Judge Barrett’s own remarks relied on coopting Ginsburg’s reputation and legacy, as if the fact that one’s husband is the better cook is the only hallmark of female empowerment." ~~~

~~~ Emma Brown & Jon Swaine of the Washington Post gingerly examine how Amy Coney Barrett's Roman Catholic faith could influence her Supreme Court opinions. An important point: "It is not possible to fully know from past rulings what any nominee would actually do once on the court. Appeals court judges are bound by precedent in a way that justices are not; only the latter can overturn Supreme Court precedent."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Sunday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Talking on Planes When Others Can Hear. Monica Alba of NBC News: "The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has grown increasingly concerned that ... Donald Trump, pushed by a new member of his coronavirus task force, is sharing incorrect information about the pandemic with the public. Dr. Robert Redfield, who leads the CDC, suggested in a conversation with a colleague Friday that Dr. Scott Atlas is arming Trump with misleading data about a range of issues, including questioning the efficacy of masks, whether young people are susceptible to the virus and the potential benefits of herd immunity. 'Everything he says is false,' Redfield said during a phone call made in public on a commercial airline and overheard by NBC News.... Redfield acknowledged after the flight from Atlanta to Washington, D.C., that he was speaking about Atlas...."

Rep. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) isn't just super-smart; she's funny, too: ~~~

Good-ish News for TikTok Users. Rachel Lerman of the Washington Post: "TikTok received a reprieve of its ban from U.S. app stores on Sunday after a federal judge in Washington granted a preliminary injunction blocking an order from President Trump. It was the second setback for the Trump administration in its effort to curb U.S. residents’ access to popular Chinese mobile apps. Last weekend, a federal magistrate in San Francisco cited First Amendment issues in blocking a proposed ban of the WeChat app. U.S. District Judge Carl J. Nichols, who was appointed to the bench by Trump in 2019, was not expected to make public his full ruling until Monday. He filed his decision publicly, but his full reasoning was filed separately as a sealed document. Nichols granted the injunction for the piece of the ban that was set to go into effect Sunday night, but denied a motion to halt a second aspect of the ban that doesn’t go into effect until Nov. 12."

Who Shot John Mattingly? Roberto Ferdman, et al., of Vice (Sept. 25): "As part of Wednesday’s long-waited announcement about charges related to the March 13 police raid that killed Breonna Taylor, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron stated as fact that Taylor’s boyfriend Kenneth Walker fired a shot that hit an officer in the leg that night. But the initial ballistics report, which was conducted by Kentucky State Police and included in the investigative file provided to the attorney general’s office by the Louisville Metro Police Department, failed to prove that Walker fired the bullet that hit the officer, Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly. That means it’s entirely possible that while Walker admitted to firing a bullet, it wasn’t necessarily the one that hit Mattingly, as his lawyer has already publicly insinuated. Walker was charged with attempted murder of a police officer and held in jail for two weeks on a $250,000 bond. The charges have since been dropped, although Walker may still be re-indicted." ~~~

     ~~~ Andrew Wolfson of the Louisville Courier Journal: “A Kentucky State Police ballistics report does not support state Attorney General Daniel Cameron’s assertion that Breonna Taylor’s boyfriend, Kenneth Walker, shot a Louisville police officer the night she was killed. Cameron told reporters Wednesday the investigation into Taylor’s March 13 death had ruled out 'friendly fire' from ex-Louisville Metro Police officer Brett Hankison as the source of the shot that went through LMPD Sgt. Jonathan Mattingly’s thigh, prompting him and officer Myles Cosgrove to return fire, killing Taylor. The KSP report says 'due to limited markings of comparative value,' the 9-mm bullet that hit and exited Mattingly was neither 'identified nor eliminated as having been fired' from Walker’s gun.”