The Commentariat -- August 28, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Lolita Baldor of the AP: "The U.S. armed forces will have no role in carrying out the election process or resolving a disputed vote, the top U.S. military officer told Congress in comments released Friday. The comments from Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, underscore the extraordinary political environment in America, where the president has declared without evidence that the expected surge in mail-in ballots will make the vote 'inaccurate and fraudulent,' and has suggested he might not accept the election results if he loses. Trump's repeated complaints questioning the election's validity have triggered unprecedented worries about the potential for chaos surrounding the election results. Some have speculated that the military might be called upon to get involved, either by Trump trying to use it to help his reelection prospects or as, Democratic challenger Joe Biden has suggested, to remove Trump from the White House if he refuses to accept defeat. The military has adamantly sought to tamp down that speculation and is zealously protective of its historically nonpartisan nature."

Trump & the Not-Ready-for-Prime-Time Players. Matt Wilstein of the Daily Beast: "The president was telling his closest aides that he was determined to beat his rival Joe Biden in the TV ratings. He was requesting daily ratings for the Democratic National Convention and insisted that his RNC spectacle would demolish their 'pathetic' numbers, according to a senior administration official. In the end, apparently not even all of the unethical pomp and circumstance of a Trump-branded White House as the backdrop of his big speech Thursday night could draw more viewers than Biden's solemnly rousing speech to an empty auditorium. According to initial Nielsen numbers, President Trump's speech Thursday night drew 14.1 million viewers across the three broadcast networks and three major cable news networks. That is more than three million fewer viewers than the 17.5 million who tuned in to watch Biden's speech one week earlier. When those numbers are expanded out across nine broadcast and cable networks, Biden still beat Trump by a fairly wide margin, 23.6 million to 21.6 million. Biden's DNC beat Trump's RNC across the board on all four nights.... None of this stopped Trump from tweeting Friday morning, ;Great Ratings & Reviews Last Night. Thank you!':

A Green-Screen Canvas. Andrew Limbong of NPR: "When first lady Melania Trump appeared at the last night of the RNC Thursday, she wore a Valentino dress in a lime green shade -- a green screen green, of sorts. And as she walked down the steps of the White House, everyone who spent the past four nights hate-watching the proceedings saw their time to shine. Images referencing the more than 180,000 Americans dead from the coronavirus pandemic, President Trump's relationship with Jeffrey Epstein, as well as the immigration crisis at the border were plastered onto the dress, online, last night." With images.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here: "Groups representing nearly every public health department called Friday for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to reverse 'haphazard' changes the agency recently made to its public testing advice. The CDC's decision to stop recommending that asymptomatic people who were exposed to the virus get tested is 'bad policy' that 'costs lives and livelihoods,' the groups wrote -- a striking rebuke of the premiere U.S. health authority by towns and cities across the country. ~~~

~~~ "Nearly all of the California Senate's Republican caucus is now under mandatory quarantine after being exposed to one senator -- a skeptic on government statistics about the coronavirus -- who tested positive, state lawmakers said this week."

Sheila Kaplan & Katie Thomas of the New York Times: "Two senior public relations experts advising the Food and Drug Administration have been ousted from their positions after fumbled communications about a blood plasma treatment for Covid-19. President Trump and the head of the F.D.A. had erroneously boasted on the eve of the Republican National Convention that the treatment sharply lowered mortality from the disease. On Friday, the F.D.A. commissioner, Dr. Stephen M. Hahn, removed Emily Miller, the agency's chief spokeswoman. The White House had installed Ms. Miller, who had previously worked in communications for the re-election campaign of Senator Ted Cruz and as a journalist for One America News, the conservative cable network, in this post just 11 days ago. Ms. Miller's removal came one day after the F.D.A.'s parent agency, the Department of Health and Human Services, terminated the contract of a public relations consultant [-- Wayne Pines --] who had advised Dr. Hahn to correct misleading comments about the benefits of blood plasma for Covid-19."

At the Unmasked Ball. James Poniewozik of the New York Times: "Donald J. Trump could not truthfully appear at the Republican National Convention as a president who got America safely through the Covid-19 pandemic. But he could play one on TV.... Mr. Trump sandwiched the virus discussion among his preferred topics, as if it were a speed bump.... This is a technique first articulated by the political strategy guide 'Seinfeld.' 'This administration accomplished great things through 2019, yada yada yada, we'll do great things in 2021.'... The mostly maskless guests [of the show] seated cheek by jowl for hours, like the teeming crowd for the big finale of a pandemic reality show: The Celebrity Appestilence."

Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "For more than 10 hours this week, President Trump and his allies used the unfiltered platform of a national political convention to paint a portrait of two Americas that do not exist. In one -- a misrepresentation of life under Trump -- the coronavirus has been conquered by presidential leadership, the economy is at its pre-pandemic levels, troops are returning home, and the president is an empathetic figure who supports immigration and would never stoke the nation's racial grievances. In the other -- a hypothetical preview of a Joe Biden presidency that mischaracterizes many of his proposals -- police are defunded, taxes are increased, infanticide is legal, suburbs are abolished and cities burn as violence spreads nationwide.... While Trump, a former reality television star, has long trafficked in mistruths and innuendo, the broad cast of characters who took up his tactics during prime-time speeches underscores how his brand of politicking has taken root in the GOP."

AP: "A crowd of protesters surrounded U.S. Sen. Rand Paul as he was leaving the White House following the Republican National Convention early Friday, shouting for the lawmaker from Kentucky to acknowledge the shooting of Breonna Taylor. Video posted on social media showed dozens of people confronting Paul and his wife, who were flanked by Metro Police, in a Washington street after midnight. Protesters could be heard shouting 'No Justice No Peace' and 'Say Her Name' before one appears to briefly clash with an officer, pushing him and his bike backward, sending the officer into Paul's shoulder.... After the encounter Friday morning, Paul tweeted that he 'got attacked' by a 'crazed mob' one block away from the White House, later thanking police for 'saving his life.' It was not clear whether any protesters made physical contact with Paul. The senator and his wife kept walking and did not appear to have suffered any injuries."~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: In fairness to Paul, he did write a bill titled "Justice for Breonna Taylor Act," which would prohibit no-knock warrants, the type of warrant that led to her killing. The confrontation Thursday night might have been a good time for him to mention that.

The Great Lego Mystery. Martin Belam of the Guardian: During her convention speech "On Thursday [Ivanka Trump] said: 'When Jared and I moved with our three children to Washington..., my son Joseph promptly built grandpa a Lego replica of the White House. The president still displays it on the mantel in the Oval Office and shows it to world leaders, just so they know he has the greatest grandchildren on earth.'... Andrea Bernstein, a WNYC reporter who wrote the book American Oligarchs about the Trumps, noted that in 2007 Ivanka said she had once made a Lego model of Trump Tower for her father, only to have it criticised by him several days later because it wasn't accurate enough. Bernstein also cast doubt about the veracity of the earlier story.... There is, however, photographic evidence that, as recently as March 2019 at least, there was a Lego model of the White House in the White House." Mrs. McC: Joseph would have been not quite 3-1/2 years old when Trump became president. I would be really surprised if a child that young could build a Lego replica of the White House.

Aaron Morrisson & Kat Stafford of the AP: "Capping a week of protests and outrage over the police shooting of a Black man in Wisconsin, civil rights advocates began highlighting the scourge of police and vigilante violence against Black Americans at a commemoration of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. An estimated thousands have gathered Friday near the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, where the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. delivered his historic 'I Have A Dream' address, a vision of racial equality that remains elusive for millions of Americans." ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post is live-updating the event.

We Are Amused. Melissa Eddy of the New York Times: "Asked during her annual summer news conference about a claim made by Richard Grenell, the former U.S. ambassador to Germany, that he had 'watched President Trump charm the chancellor of Germany,' [Angela] Merkel drew her eyebrows together, tilted her head and leaned toward the reporter. 'He did what?' she asked. 'Charmed,' repeated Marina Kormbaki, a journalist with the German reporting collective R.N.D. 'Ah, OK,' Ms. Merkel said. Then she added with a laugh, 'I don't talk about internal discussions.'... [Grenell's] comment [-- made during a speech at the Republican convention --] sparked outrage over social media ... and brought derision on both sides of the Atlantic."

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race

T-R-U-M-P Corrupts, Lies About Everything.* Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump delivered a scathing and wholesale attack on Democrat Joe Biden and fiercely defended his stewardship of a nation buffeted by historic crises on Thursday night, appealing to voters for a second term in an election he said would either preserve or destroy the 'American way of life.' In formally accepting the Republican presidential nomination from the South Lawn of the White House, Trump cast himself as an insurgent rather than the incumbent he is, railing against Biden as eminence of 'the failed political class.' He blamed the former vice president and his Democratic Party for the nation's chronic socioeconomic problems as well as for the anger and unrest coursing through the country today.... Trump spoke from a red-carpeted stage adorned with American flags and bookended by massive campaign signage, with the White House's grand portico illuminated against the night sky as his backdrop. After his 70-minute speech, among the longest acceptance speeches in history, fireworks exploded over the Mall, some of the blasts bearing the president's name, T-R-U-M-P. And as the coronavirus pandemic still rages coast to coast, an estimated 1,500 guests gathered on the South Lawn flouting social distancing recommendations and mostly forgoing face masks -- exemplifying the convention's aim to falsely portray the virus as fading away."

     * Generic headline.

Alexander Burns & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "In a 70-minute speech on the South Lawn of the White House, Mr. Trump repeatedly misrepresented his own record on the coronavirus, part of a broader attempt to minimize his lapses in office and turn a harsh light toward his opponent, Mr. Biden, a moderate Democrat. The president also accused his rival and Democrats of failing to take on rioters, though Mr. Biden has condemned recent acts of violence, and of harboring designs to restructure the American economic system along socialist lines. Mr. Trump, by contrast, adopted the role of a defender of traditional American values and an unbending ally of the police.... Much of the night was given over to unusually explicit rebuttals to Mr. Trump's vulnerabilities: Seldom if ever has a political party spent so much time during a convention insisting in explicit terms that its nominee was not a racist or a sexist, and that its standard-bearer was, perhaps despite public appearances, a person of empathy and good character.... The program took on an atmosphere of pomp and celebration with Mr. Trump's arrival late in the evening, as he and the first lady, Melania Trump, made their entrance down the White House stairs like the guests of honor at a gala. And when Mr. Trump concluded his speech, the atmosphere of festivity erupted again in the form of a bellowing opera singer and exploding fireworks that put an exclamation point on a convention determined not to be overtaken by a continuing crisis of mass death and economic adversity.... Mr. Trump spoke from a prepared text.... Underscoring the scripted nature of the speech, Mr. Trump misspoke in a high-profile, symbolic moment: 'I profoundly accept this nomination,' he declared, though the word in his prepared text was 'proudly.'"

How fitting that Trump accepted his renomination with a mass violation of the rule of law And an intentional mass Covid exposure event. The two core failures that history will remember him for.... Literally thousands of Hatch Act violations-- one for every federal official who helped with or participated in this revolting display. The greatest mass Hatch Act transgression in US history. Even the fireworks are a violation. -- Norm Eisen, in tweets

Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "... Donald Trump formally accepted the Republican presidential nomination on Thursday night, directly countering Joe Biden's own convention address, as the sound of racial justice protesters echoed in the background.... Here are the key moments from the Republican National Convention's final night."

As usual, Stephen Colbert provides a good summary and analysis of the latest Trumpisode:

Daniel Dale, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump is a serial liar and he serially lied during his speech accepting the Republican nomination. CNN counted more than 20 false, exaggerated or misleading claims from Trump on Thursday night. That's in addition to a number of falsehoods from other speakers. Trump's dishonesty touched on a range of topics, from the economy to his administration's performance during the coronavirus pandemic. Some of Trump's most egregious false claims were directed at ... Joe Biden.... Here's a look at a selection of false and misleading claims from the final night of the Republican National Convention." ~~~

"A Volcano of Lies." Fred Kaplan of Slate: "The profusion of falsehoods from Tom Cotton, Rudy Giuliani, and Ivanka Trump provided a fitting setup for the big man at the Republican National Convention." Kaplan runs down some of the most blatant lies delivered during the final episode of the Fantasy Trump Show.

From the New York Times' live updates of Black Lives Matter developments Thursday: "President Trump made only a glancing reference to Kenosha, Wis., in his speech on Thursday accepting the Republican nomination for a second term, linking it to other American cities where protests against systemic racism and police brutality have sometimes turned violent. Mr. Trump's mention of Kenosha, the scene of several chaotic nights of demonstrations this week, and the other cities was shorthand for what he claims is a creeping lawlessness that will blanket the United States if his Democratic opponent, Joseph R. Biden Jr., is elected. But, like Vice President Mike Pence, who hit the same theme on Wednesday, Mr. Trump did not say what touched off the unrest in Kenosha: the shooting of a Black man, Jacob Blake, by a white police officer in an episode that has drawn widespread condemnation and is being investigated by state authorities and the Justice Department."

The New York Times' live updates of the Trump Circus & the Ringmaster-in-Chief are here. Times reporters' snark analysis is here, & includes a video livefeed to the convention.

The Washington Post's live updates are here: Yay! Rudy Giuliani is one of the speakers. Trump will speak on the South Lawn. "More than 1,000 people are to be in attendance, and the overwhelming majority will not be tested for the novel coronavirus." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I unmuted the video for Rudy, and here's my advice to anyone who finds herself in his vicinity: Get out! He will spit on you.

The Guardian's live updates are here.

Trolling Trump. Dominic Patten & Ted Johnson of Deadline: "..., the Biden campaign has a two-minute 'Keep Up' ad that will air on ABC, NBC, CBS and Trump's beloved Fox News Channel just before the incumbent speaks tonight. Here it is:" ~~~

Matt Viser of the Washington Post: "Joe Biden on Thursday blamed President Trump for the racial unrest that has roiled the country and in recent days has gripped Kenosha, Wis., saying the president is fomenting animosity and cheering on a spasm of violent protests to benefit himself politically.... 'I think he [Trump] views it as a political benefit,' Biden said on MSNBC. 'He's rooting for more violence, not less.'... Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), the first Black woman on a major-party ticket, also delivered her most detailed remarks on the Kenosha protests, saying that 'we must always defend peaceful protest and peaceful protesters' but also that 'we should not confuse them with those looting and committing acts of violence.... The reality is the life of a Black person in America has never been treated as fully human.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: In case you think Joe is making up stuff, see Philip Bump's analysis, linked under "Black Lives Matter" below.

Adam Edelman & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "A Joe Biden administration would address systemic racism and tackle police reform, Sen. Kamala Harris said on Thursday, invoking the 'sickening' shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin as further evidence for the need to address racial injustice in the U.S.... She also noted that the topic of racial justice has been avoided at the Republican convention.... Harris spoke hours before ... Donald Trump is set to formally accept his party's nomination for re-election at the final night of the Republican National Convention, pre-emptively criticizing the president for his response to the coronavirus pandemic.... 'Instead of rising to meet the most difficult moment of his presidency, he froze. He was scared. He was petty and vindictive,' Harris said."

Max Cohen & Matthew Choi of Politico: "Support for Joe Biden's White House bid is growing among staffers of past presidential campaigns -- Republican ones, that is. Several dozen former staffers from Sen. Mitt Romney's (R-Utah) presidential campaign, the George W. Bush administration and the campaign and Senate staff of former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have signed on to an effort to elect Joe Biden. For the Romney and McCain staffers, they're working to elect the same man they tried to defeat in 2012 and 2008, respectively.... In an open letter obtained by Politico, the group 'Romney Alumni for Biden' says Trump's rhetoric and actions are antithetical to the Republican Party they believe in.... The 34 total signatories include finance, operations, policy and events staffers from Romney's presidential bid. Politico also received in advance a letter from Bush alumni supporting Biden, whose signatories include former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Bush domestic policy adviser Sally Canfield, former Ambassador James Glassman and former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin. The group praised Biden's decency and ability to work across party lines and launched a website raising money for the Delaware Democrat." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Shabad & Mike Memoli of NBC News: "Several hundred former aides to President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain announced Thursday that they are endorsing Joe Biden for president.... A political action committee, 43 Alumni for Biden, that launched last month posted a list of nearly 300 members of the Bush administration or campaigns who are publicly backing Biden.... Earlier this week, more than two dozen former Republican Congress members backed Biden for president." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "More than 100 former staff members for Senator John McCain are supporting Joseph R. Biden Jr., a show of support across the political divide that they hope amplifies the 'Country First' credo of the former Arizona senator. That motto and 'his frequent call on Americans to serve causes greater than our self-interest were not empty slogans like so much of our politics today,' the group of aides, most of them still Republicans, wrote in a joint statement, praising Mr. McCain and implicitly taking aim at President Trump.... The list of signatories includes a range of people -- from chiefs of staff in Mr. McCain's Senate office to junior aides on his campaigns -- who worked for him over his 35 years in Congress and during two presidential bids. Mark Salter, Mr. McCain's longtime chief aide and speechwriter, helped organize the letter.... Coinciding with Mr. Trump's renomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday and the second anniversary of Mr. McCain's death this week, the joint endorsement of Mr. Biden represents the latest effort from anti-Trump Republicans to lure conservatives and moderates away from the president." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Salter's letter is published as an op-ed in the Washington Post. Here's the statement by the McCain group, published in Medium, & the list of signatories. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matthew Choi of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday there shouldn't be any presidential debates this year between Joe Biden and Donald Trump, adding that the president would debase the debate stage with poor behavior.... Pelosi called Trump's 2016 debates with Hillary Clinton 'disgraceful,' emphasizing how he loomed behind her on the stage as she spoke. Clinton later admitted that Trump's lurking made her 'skin crawl.' 'He'll probably act in a way that is beneath the dignity of the presidency,' Pelosi said. 'He does that every day.'... Speaking with MSNBC's Andrew Mitchell, Biden said Thursday afternoon that he planned to face Trump so long as the debates remained on the docket. Still, he conceded that the president would probably use the debate stage to spread misinformation, similar to the instances of revisionism displayed at the Republican National Convention this week."

Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "The third night of the Republican National Convention yet again offered a cascade of false claims, especially in Vice President Pence's speech. Here are 20 claims that caught our attention." Mrs. McC: This is a remarkable lost of whoppers. All of the puppet-makers in all the world could not make enough Pinocchio marionettes to cover one GOP convention. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: An MSNBC pundit (David Jolly?) noted that Trump has managed to find more black people to speak at his convention than he has placed among those approximately 4,000 political-appointee jobs he can fill.

Jane Lytvynenko of BuzzFeed News (Aug. 26): "On the first night of the Republican National Convention, the party aired a segment featuring Catalina and Madeline Lauf warning of dire consequences if Democratic candidate Joe Biden is elected president. 'This is a taste of Biden's America,' one sister says in a voiceover as images of protests play onscreen. The problem is that one of the images in the segment doesn't show the US at all -- it shows Spain. As first reported by Catalonian public broadcaster CCMA and independently verified by BuzzFeed News, one of the four images of protests was filmed in October 2019 in Barcelona." Mrs. McC: Wow! Barcelona is a beautiful, vibrant city. I can hardly wait till Biden makes America look more like Barcelona. Could we have Gaudi-style apartment buildings, Joe, & public spaces like Park Guell?

Shutting the Stable Door After the Horse's Ass Has Bolted. Vivian Salama of CNN: "The Department of Homeland Security sent an agency-wide email to its employees Thursday morning reminding them not to participate in partisan politics, citing "heightened scrutiny." While directives like this are standard in election years, the warning comes days after acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf participated in a swearing in ceremony with ... Donald Trump for naturalized Americans as part of the Republican National Convention, raising ethics concerns.... Signed by Joseph Maher, the agency's designated ethics official, the email references the Hatch Act, which stipulates that most executive-branch officials must not engage in political activity in an official capacity at any time...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: BTW, the official name of the Hatch Act is "An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities." Nearly everything Trump does is a pernicious political activity.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Now, Don't Get Confused by Another Quasi-Reversal by Another Gutless Wonder. From Thursday's NYT coronavirus updates: "The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has scaled back the agency's recommendation advising some people not to get tested after exposure to the novel coronavirus, now saying 'testing may be considered for all close contacts of confirmed or probable Covid-19 patients.' The statement by Dr. Robert R. Redfield was issued to some news outlets late Wednesday, and more broadly Thursday morning, after a storm of criticism over the new C.D.C. guidelines -- involving potentially asymptomatic people -- which were the product of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and not C.D.C.'s own scientists. Dr. Redfield made the statement in an effort to clarify the new policy, an official said. However, the guidelines issued earlier this week remained on the C.D.C.'s website as of Thursday morning, and it appears unlikely that the agency will change them." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ryan Reilly of the Huffington Post: "... Donald Trump's top civil rights official at the Department of Justice announced this week that he was considering launching investigations into how state-owned nursing homes responded to the coronavirus. The four states he targeted all have Democratic governors. This highly unusual public announcement of potential investigations raised alarm bells among Civil Rights Division alumni and Democrats that DOJ's move was motivated by partisan politics. Eric Dreiband, the assistant attorney general running the Civil Rights Division, sent letters to Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo on Wednesday, requesting documents and information under the Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act (CRIPA) about how public nursing homes in their states responded to the COVID-19 pandemic. Cuomo and Whitmer said in a joint statement that the inquiries were 'nothing more than a transparent politicization of the Department of Justice in the middle of the Republican National Convention.' They called DOJ's move a 'nakedly partisan deflection' and questioned why Republican-run states that, based on federal guidelines, had similar rules about nursing home admissions were not being targeted."

Kate Riga of TPM: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Thursday that during a call with White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows, she offered to drop the price tag on the top-line spending for COVID-19 relief legislation to $2.2 trillion, well down from the original $3.4 trillion. Meadows, Pelosi said, rejected the offer. The 25-minute phone call was the first significant contact the two have had since negotiations fell apart earlier this month."

Black Lives Matter

Adding Insult to Multiple Injuries. Edward Moreno of the Hill: "The father of Jacob Blake, the 29-year-old Black man shot seven times by a Kenosha, Wis., police officer, told the Chicago Sun-Times that his son is handcuffed to his hospital bed. 'I hate it that he was laying in that bed with the handcuff onto the bed,' Blake's father said Thursday, the day after he visited his son in the hospital. 'He can't go anywhere. Why do you have him cuffed to the bed?' Officials have not announced any charges against Blake." The Sun-Times story is here.

Adam Kilgore & Ben Golliver of the Washington Post: "A day after the Milwaukee Bucks' sudden, historic strike spread throughout the sports world, athletes continued protests of racial injustice and police brutality Thursday as the NBA suspended another night of playoff games, the WNBA remained dormant, more than a quarter of NFL teams canceled preseason practices, the NHL suspended its Thursday and Friday playoff schedule and multiple MLB games -- but not all ... -- were called off. The NBA playoffs, painstakingly constructed within a bubble on the Disney World campus, hung in the balance as players met Wednesday night and Thursday morning to determine whether they would play again this year in the wake of Jacob Blake's shooting by police in Kenosha, Wis. Players agreed to continue the season, and the NBA announced it planned to resume the playoffs either Friday or Saturday. The protests spread into politics as Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden praised players for 'moral leadership' and ... Jared Kushner told CNBC that players should seek 'actual action' to solve problems and cast athletes who short-circuited the peak of their professional career in pursuit of racial justice as lucky to get a break from work."

Dropping the Mic. Ben Strauss of the Washington Post: "About 30 minutes into a makeshift pregame show without any basketball to follow it, TNT's 'Inside the NBA' cut to former NBA star Chris Webber. Webber was supposed to call one of Wednesday night's playoffs games from the Orlando bubble. But all three games were postponed after players, led by the Milwaukee Bucks, said they would not play in protest of the shooting of Jacob Blake, the unarmed Black man, by police in Kenosha, Wis. Choking back tears, Webber delivered an impassioned monologue supporting the players' historic actions.... Webber’s words came just a few minutes after the opening moments of the show, during which Kenny Smith, a former NBA player and host, walked off the set in solidarity with the players. 'For me, I think the biggest thing now -- as a black man and a former player -- I think it's best for me to support the players and just not be here tonight,' Smith said before taking off his microphone and leaving his chair." The Colbert segment embedded yesterday has video of Smith's extraordinary protest. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Racist-in-Chief, Racist Family, Racist Staff Weigh in. Cindy Boren of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Thursday afternoon dismissed the NBA player-led protest of the police shooting of Jacob Blake, hours after Jared Kushner ... called NBA players 'very fortunate' to be 'able to take a night off from work.' 'I don&'t know much about the NBA protest,' Trump told reporters during a news briefing on Hurricane Laura. 'I know their ratings have been very bad because I think people are a little tired of the NBA. ... They've become like a political organization, and that's not a good thing.'... Also on Thursday, Vice President Pence's chief of staff called the NBA protests 'absurd' and 'silly.' Marc Short, appearing on CNN's 'New Day,' also said that he believed the Trump administration shouldn't speak out on the boycott. 'If they want to protest, I don't think we care,' he said." A Hill story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Ah, I remember fondly those innocent days of 2016 when we thought the stupidest thing a politician could say about basketball was that time then-presidential candidate Sen. Ted Cruz [R-Texas] called a hoop a "basketball ring" when he was speaking at Indiana's Hoosier Gym Center.

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: Speaking on "Fox & Friends" Thursday, Kellyanne "Conway made explicit the strategy that the president and his team have been making obvious for months now: Trump's team sees violent protests as politically advantageous.... '... [Donald Trump is] trying to send federal reinforcements in. And you've got these governors saying, oh, no. They're putting their pride in their politics ahead of public safety.... The more chaos and anarchy and vandalism and violence reigns, the better it is for the very clear choice on who's best on public safety and law and order.'... Trump is happy to present himself as powerless here specifically because he thinks it reinforces weakness on the part of his opponents.... An administration official who spoke with The Washington Post at the time [Trump sent ... federal law enforcement officials to] Portland[, Oregon,] made clear that the White House didn't necessarily see [the escalation of violence the feds caused] as a bad thing, that the White House had wanted to amplify tension in cities for some time. 'It was about getting viral online content,' [the] official told The Post."

Sam Levin of the Guardian: "White supremacist groups have infiltrated US law enforcement agencies in every region of the country over the last two decades, according to a new report about the ties between police and far-right vigilante groups. In a timely new analysis, Michael German, a former FBI special agent who has written extensively on the ways that US law enforcement have failed to respond to far-right domestic terror threats, concludes that US law enforcement officials have been tied to racist militant activities in more than a dozen states since 2000, and hundreds of police officers have been caught posting racist and bigoted social media content."

Grifter-in-Chief. David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "Trump has now visited his own properties 270 times as president, according to a Washington Post tally -- with another visit planned for Thursday, when he is scheduled to meet GOP donors at his Washington hotel. Through these trips, Trump has brought the Trump Organization a stream of private revenue from federal agencies and GOP campaign groups. Federal spending records show that taxpayers have paid Trump's businesses more than $900,000 since he took office. At least $570,000 came as a result of the president's travel, according to a Post analysis. Now, new federal spending documents obtained by The Post via a public-records lawsuit give more detail about how the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service -- a kind of captive customer, required to follow Trump everywhere.... The documents show that the Trump Organization charged daily 'resort fees' to Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Pence in Las Vegas and in another instance asked agents to pay a $1,300 'furniture removal charge' during a presidential visit to a Trump resort in Scotland. In addition, campaign finance records have provided new details about the payments the Trump Organization received from GOP groups, as a result of the 37 instances in which Trump headlined a political event at one of his properties. Those visits have brought the company at least $3.8 million in fees, according to a Post analysis of campaign spending records." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie's Financial Planning Advice to Future Presidents & Vice Presidents: Buy or build an expensive resort in some isolated place in the USA & go there at every opportunity and charge the federal government exhorbitant rates for every possible thing. I'm sure Republicans wouldn't mind if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris tried this stunt.

~~~ AND There's This from the WashPo report: "In response to questions for this report, White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement..., 'The Washington Post is blatantly interfering with the business relationships of the Trump Organization, and it must stop.... Please be advised that we are building up a very large "dossier" on the many false David Fahrenthold and others stories as they are a disgrace to journalism and the American people.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Oliver Darcy of CNN: David "Fahrenthold wrote on Twitter that if anyone knows 'anything about a dossier the White House has supposedly compiled' on him, to let him know or provide him a copy. Fahrenthold won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for 'casting doubt' on Trump's 'generosity toward charities' in his coverage. He has also reported on Trump's businesses. Last summer, The New York Times reported that allies of the White House had compiled dossiers on hundreds of people who work for top news organizations. The White House's boasting of building a dossier on Fahrenthold and other journalists is jarring, but perhaps not surprising from an administration that has branded the press as 'the enemy of the people.' Trump and his allies have for years aimed to discredit journalists and news organizations, often through the use of lies and dishonest rhetoric." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Jarring? Compiling dossiers on reporters & warning them off negative stories about a "leader" & his cohort are exactly what repressive dictators & their henchmen do in repressive, non-democratic regimes. I don't of an American president* who has done so and admitted to it. Richard Nixon, infamously, did have an "enemies list" (or two) that included journalists, the purpose of which was to "screw" the "enemies" with tax audits & other means. But Nixon didn't kept his tactics secret. John Dean revealed it to the Senate Watergate Committee during hearings, & journalist Daniel Schorr -- who made the list -- obtained a copy of the original list "and read names from the list live on CBS television on this day." (Schorr didn't realize he was included until he read it on TV.)

Gangsta Rap. David Corn of Mother Jones: "On December 10, 2015, Donald Trump took time off from campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination to spend hours sitting for a videotaped deposition in a lawsuit alleging that he and Trump University had defrauded people who had plunked down thousands of dollars to learn the secrets of his financial success as a developer. During a break in the proceedings, the camera continued to roll. And Trump and his attorney, Daniel Petrocelli ... were captured discussing the case. In this 13-minute hot-mic video ... Trump boasted about how his company threatened the Better Business Bureau to change the D rating it had assigned Trump University to an A. He complained about the federal judge overseeing the suit, Gonzalo Curiel, elliptically talking about how to challenge him and referring to 'the Spanish thing.' Trump also griped that he had been sued personally in this case, and Petrocelli had to explain to Trump that he, not just Trump University itself, was in the legal crosshairs because Trump had been accused of making false statements to promote the venture. And Petrocelli pointed out that the case was not a lock for Trump because some of Trump's 'guys' had been 'sloppy.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

How Did Such a Dummy Get into Penn? Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: "A professor at the University of Pennsylvania has renewed a request to investigate how President Trump was admitted to the school in 1966, citing what he called 'new evidence' on secretly recorded tapes in which Trump's sister says a friend took his entrance exam. The professor, Eric W. Orts, is one of six faculty members who asked Penn's provost earlier this summer to launch an investigation into how Trump transferred into the school. He noted that the president's niece, Mary Trump, wrote in her book published in July that the president paid someone to take his SATs. The provost, Wendell E. Pritchett, replied to Orts on July 20 that 'we certainly share your concerns about these allegations.... However..., we have determined that this situation occurred too far in the past to make a useful or probative factual inquiry possible. If new evidence surfaces to substantiate the claim in the future, we will continue to be open to investigating it.'... The Washington Post on Saturday published a story that included audio of conversations Mary Trump recorded in 2018 and 2019 with Maryanne Trump Barry, the president's sister. [Barry] said Donald Trump '... got into University of Pennsylvania because he had somebody take the exams.'"

Keith Alexander of the Washington Post: "A man, who officials said had announced he was armed before he was shot by a Secret Service officer earlier in the month near the White House, was apparently holding a comb, according to new court documents. Myron Berryman, 51, was charged with one count of assault on a police officer in the incident and has been hospitalized since the Aug. 10 shooting. Berryman's first hearing on the misdemeanor charge was held Thursday afternoon in D.C. Superior Court. His lawyer said he has been moved to a psychiatric hospital. According to initial charging documents and Secret Service officials, Berryman walked up to the uniformed officer and said he was armed. Charging papers say Berryman reached along the right side of his body as if to retrieve an object, clasped his hands together and pointed his arms toward the officer. The officer then shot Berryman once in the torso. No weapon was found."

Brandon Ambrosino of Politico: "A former Liberty University student says Becki Falwell, the wife of the university's then-President Jerry Falwell Jr., jumped into bed with him and performed oral sex on him while he stayed over at the Falwell home after a band practice with her eldest son in 2008. The student was 22 at the time of the encounter, near the start of Liberty's fall semester. He said she initiated the act, and he went along with it. But despite his rejection of further advances, he said, Falwell continued pursuing him, offering him gifts and engaging in banter through Facebook messages.... The messages, screenshots of which were provided by the former student to Politico, suggest a flirtatious relationship that went beyond what might be expected of a mother communicating with her son's bandmate."

Way Beyond the Beltway

** Motoko Rich of the New York Times: "Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan will resign because of ill health, he said on Friday, just four days after he exceeded the record for the longest consecutive run as leader in Japanese history. Mr. Abe, 65, had been prime minister for nearly eight years, a significant feat in a country accustomed to high turnover in the top job." An AP story is here.

News Lede

New York Times: "In a region so accustomed to epic hurricanes that residents recall them by name, Laura was one of the strongest on record to hit the U.S. mainland. It continued to carve a path of destruction and fear as it chugged north through Arkansas as a tropical depression on Thursday night, and was responsible for at least six deaths in Louisiana -- most of them caused by trees falling on homes."

The Commentariat -- August 27, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Max Cohen & Matthew Choi of Politico: "Support for Joe Biden's White House bid is growing among staffers of past presidential campaigns -- Republican ones, that is. Several dozen former staffers from Sen. Mitt Romney's (R-Utah) presidential campaign, the George W. Bush administration and the campaign and Senate staff of former Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) have signed on to an effort to elect Joe Biden. For the Romney and McCain staffers, they're working to elect the same man they tried to defeat in 2012 and 2008, respectively.... In an open letter obtained by Politico, the group 'Romney Alumni for Biden' says Trump's rhetoric and actions are antithetical to the Republican Party they believe in.... The 34 total signatories include finance, operations, policy and events staffers from Romney's presidential bid. Politico also received in advance a letter from Bush alumni supporting Biden, whose signatories include former Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez, Bush domestic policy adviser Sally Canfield, former Ambassador James Glassman and former U.S. Treasurer Rosario Marin. The group praised Biden's decency and ability to work across party lines and launched a website raising money for ... [Biden]." ~~~

~~~ Rebecca Shabad & Mike Memoli of NBC News: "Several hundred former aides to President George W. Bush and Sen. John McCain announced Thursday that they are endorsing Joe Biden for president.... A political action committee, 43 Alumni for Biden, that launched last month posted a list of nearly 300 members of the Bush administration or campaigns who are publicly backing Biden.... Earlier this week, more than two dozen former Republican Congress members backed Biden for president." ~~~

~~~ Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "More than 100 former staff members for Senator John McCain are supporting Joseph R. Biden Jr., a show of support across the political divide that they hope amplifies the 'Country First' credo of the former Arizona senator. That motto and 'his frequent call on Americans to serve causes greater than our self-interest were not empty slogans like so much of our politics today,' the group of aides, most of them still Republicans, wrote in a joint statement, praising Mr. McCain and implicitly taking aim at President Trump.... The list of signatories includes a range of people -- from chiefs of staff in Mr. McCain's Senate office to junior aides on his campaigns -- who worked for him over his 35 years in Congress and during two presidential bids. Mark Salter, Mr. McCain's longtime chief aide and speechwriter, helped organize the letter.... Coinciding with Mr. Trump's renomination acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Thursday and the second anniversary of Mr. McCain's death this week, the joint endorsement of Mr. Biden represents the latest effort from anti-Trump Republicans to lure conservatives and moderates away from the president." ~~~

     ~~~ Salter's letter is published as an op-ed in the Washington Post. Here's the statement by the McCain group, published in Medium, & the list of signatories.

Glenn Kessler, et al., of the Washington Post: "The third night of the Republican National Convention yet again offered a cascade of false claims, especially in Vice President Pence's speech. Here are 20 claims that caught our attention." Mrs. McC: This is a remarkable list of whoppers. All of the puppet-makers in all the world could not make enough Pinocchio marionettes to cover one GOP convention.

Shutting the Stable Door After the Horse's Ass Has Bolted. Vivian Salama of CNN: "The Department of Homeland Security sent an agency-wide email to its employees Thursday morning reminding them not to participate in partisan politics, citing "heightened scrutiny." While directives like this are standard in election years, the warning comes days after acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf participated in a swearing in ceremony with ... Donald Trump for naturalized Americans as part of the Republican National Convention, raising ethics concerns.... Signed by Joseph Maher, the agency's designated ethics official, the email references the Hatch Act, which stipulates that most executive-branch officials must not engage in political activity in an official capacity at any time...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: BTW, the official name of the Hatch Act is "An Act to Prevent Pernicious Political Activities." Nearly everything Trump does is a pernicious political activity.

Now, Don't Get Confused by Another Quasi-Reversal by Another Gutless Wonder. From Thursday's NYT coronavirus updates: "The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has scaled back the agency's recommendation advising some people not to get tested after exposure to the novel coronavirus, now saying 'testing may be considered for all close contacts of confirmed or probable Covid-19 patients.' The statement by Dr. Robert R. Redfield was issued to some news outlets late Wednesday, and more broadly Thursday morning, after a storm of criticism over the new C.D.C. guidelines -- involving potentially asymptomatic people -- which were the product of the White House Coronavirus Task Force and not C.D.C.'s own scientists. Dr. Redfield made the statement in an effort to clarify the new policy, an official said. However, the guidelines issued earlier this week remained on the C.D.C.'s website as of Thursday morning, and it appears unlikely that the agency will change them."

Dropping the Mic. Ben Strauss of the Washington Post: "About 30 minutes into a makeshift pregame show without any basketball to follow it, TNT's 'Inside the NBA' cut to former NBA star Chris Webber. Webber was supposed to call one of Wednesday night's playoffs games from the Orlando bubble. But all three games were postponed after players, led by the Milwaukee Bucks, said they would not play in protest of the shooting of Jacob Blake, the unarmed Black man, by police in Kenosha, Wis. Choking back tears, Webber delivered an impassioned monologue supporting the players' historic actions.... Webber's words came just a few minutes after the opening moments of the show, during which Kenny Smith, a former NBA player and host, walked off the set in solidarity with the players. 'For me, I think the biggest thing now -- as a black man and a former player -- I think it's best for me to support the players and just not be here tonight,' Smith said before taking off his microphone and leaving his chair." The Colbert segment embedded below has video of Smith's extraordinary protest.

Grifter-in-Chief. David Fahrenthold, et al., of the Washington Post: "Trump has now visited his own properties 270 times as president, according to a Washington Post tally -- with another visit planned for Thursday, when he is scheduled to meet GOP donors at his Washington hotel. Through these trips, Trump has brought the Trump Organization a stream of private revenue from federal agencies and GOP campaign groups. Federal spending records show that taxpayers have paid Trump's businesses more than $900,000 since he took office. At least $570,000 came as a result of the president's travel, according to a Post analysis. Now, new federal spending documents obtained by The Post via a public-records lawsuit give more detail about how the Trump Organization charged the Secret Service -- a kind of captive customer, required to follow Trump everywhere.... The documents show that the Trump Organization charged daily 'resort fees' to Secret Service agents guarding Vice President Pence in Las Vegas and in another instance asked agents to pay a $1,300 'furniture removal charge' during a presidential visit to a Trump resort in Scotland. In addition, campaign finance records have provided new details about the payments the Trump Organization received from GOP groups, as a result of the 37 instances in which Trump headlined a political event at one of his properties. Those visits have brought the company at least $3.8 million in fees, according to a Post analysis of campaign spending records." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie's Financial Planning Advice to Future Presidents & Vice Presidents: Buy or build an expensive resort in some isolated place in the USA & go there at every opportunity and charge the federal government exorbitant rates for every possible thing. I'm sure Republicans wouldn't mind if Joe Biden and Kamala Harris tried this stunt.

~~~ AND There's This from the WashPo report: "In response to questions for this report, White House spokesman Judd Deere said in a statement..., 'The Washington Post is blatantly interfering with the business relationships of the Trump Organization, and it must stop.... Please be advised that we are building up a very large "dossier" on the many false David Fahrenthold and others stories as they are a disgrace to journalism and the American people.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Oliver Darcy of CNN: David "Fahrenthold wrote on Twitter that if anyone knows 'anything about a dossier the White House has supposedly compiled' on him, to let him know or provide him a copy. Fahrenthold won a Pulitzer Prize in 2017 for 'casting doubt' on Trump's 'generosity toward charities' in his coverage. He has also reported on Trump's businesses. Last summer, The New York Times reported that allies of the White House had compiled dossiers on hundreds of people who work for top news organizations. The White House's boasting of building a dossier on Fahrenthold and other journalists is jarring, but perhaps not surprising from an administration that has branded the press as 'the enemy of the people.' Trump and his allies have for years aimed to discredit journalists and news organizations, often through the use of lies and dishonest rhetoric." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Jarring? Compiling dossiers on reporters & warning them off negative stories about a "leader" & his cohort are exactly what repressive dictators & their henchmen do in repressive, non-democratic regimes. I don't of an American president* who has done so and admitted to it. Richard Nixon, infamously, did have an "enemies list" (or two) that included journalists, the purpose of which was to "screw" the "enemies" with tax audits & other means. But Nixon didn't kept his tactics secret. John Dean revealed it to the Senate Watergate Committee during hearings, & journalist Daniel Schorr -- who made the list -- obtained a copy of the original list "and read names from the list live on CBS television on this day." (Schorr didn't realize he was included until he read it on TV.)

Gangsta Rap. David Corn of Mother Jones: "On December 10, 2015, Donald Trump took time off from campaigning for the Republican presidential nomination to spend hours sitting for a videotaped deposition in a lawsuit alleging that he and Trump University had defrauded people who had plunked down thousands of dollars to learn the secrets of his financial success as a developer. During a break in the proceedings, the camera continued to roll. And Trump and his attorney, Daniel Petrocelli ... were captured discussing the case. In this 13-minute hot-mic video ... Trump boasted about how his company threatened the Better Business Bureau to change the D rating it had assigned Trump University to an A. He complained about the federal judge overseeing the suit, Gonzalo Curiel, elliptically talking about how to challenge him and referring to 'the Spanish thing.' Trump also griped that he had been sued personally in this case, and Petrocelli had to explain to Trump that he, not just Trump University itself, was in the legal crosshairs because Trump had been accused of making false statements to promote the venture. And Petrocelli pointed out that the case was not a lock for Trump because some of Trump's 'guys' had been 'sloppy.'"

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

     ~~~ As NiskyGuy writes in today's Comments, "Colbert got it right last night. Again."

Matt Flegenheimer & Katie Glueck of the New York Times: "The America that many speakers described on Wednesday at the Republican National Convention did not sound like a desirable place: fractious, violent, functionally lawless in some pockets. But their case that only President Trump could shield Americans from this fate was complicated by a nettlesome fact. He is in charge, at present.... The third night of the Republican convention steered into a bit of messaging jujitsu that has become a dominant theme of the week: Mr. Trump's ability to turn back Trump-era ills that have, in this telling, been largely out of his hands to date.... 'You won't be safe,' [Mike Pence] said, 'in Joe Biden's America.' Even as president, Mr. Trump has often appeared most comfortable in the role of back-seat driver, jeering his own government like a common bystander, insisting that someone really ought to do something about all this.... Through it all, the intended takeaway has seemed clear: Mr. Trump is in control of the good but not responsible for the bad, worthy of praise for America's successes and exoneration for its struggles." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I can tell you right now why Republicans, especially evangelicals, will buy this paradox: it is exactly what they believe of the Hebrew God. Their god is almighty, but bad things befall believers because they -- or someone -- has succumbed to Satan. Trump and his disciples are presenting him as an earthly god, while Joe Biden and "Democrat mayors" are Satan and his band of evil-doers. Trump is no theologian, but he has -- perhaps intuitively -- recognized & adopted the structural core of Christianity & Judaism.

Seung Min Kim, et al., of the Washington Post: "Republicans used the third day of their national convention to portray President Trump as a strong defender of conservative principles on law enforcement, defense and the economy -- emphasizing his law-and-order credentials as social unrest flared again after another police shooting of a Black man.... None of the speakers specifically addressed the police shooting of Jacob Blake Jr., a Black man, in Kenosha, Wis., on Sunday...."

Politico has a "highlights" report of Wednesday night's The New Trump Show, featuring women who said what a caring feminist Trump is. The fact-checking here is weak, though. For instance, one of Kayleigh McEnany's big points was that Trump would make sure people with pre-existing conditions were guaranteed coverage, even though Trump has fought throughout his presidency* to repeal the Affordable Care Act, the law that guarantees coverage for pre-existing conditions.

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: One likely outcome of the Republican National Convention: it will become a coronavirus super-spreader. Besides a number of maskless people sitting together for Melanie's speech Tuesday night, there were even more maskless people sitting close together for pence's speech at Fort McHenry Wednesday. Then Donald Trump showed up. According to CNN, a number of audience members Wednesday said they were not tested for coronavirus, and at Tuesday's event, only the people sitting closest to Trump were tested. After pence's speech, Trump & the Mrs. stood around chatting with guests.

The New York Times' live updates of Wednesday's episode of Trump TV programming are here. The Washington Post's live updates are here. The Guardian's live updates are here. ~~~

~~~ Here's New York Times reporters' live snark chat about the convention's Wednesday session. Politico reporters' live analysis is here.

Gene Robinson of the Washington Post: "What country does Vice President Pence live in? During his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention on Wednesday, Pence sounded as though he lived in some kind of fantasyland that perhaps had encountered a few tiny little bumps in the road. His party has spent the week claiming to represent 'the common man,' but Pence spoke as though he knew next to nothing about the daunting challenges that Americans are having to deal with every day. The most he could muster was an acknowledgement that 'we're passing through a time of testing,' as though he were consoling a motorist after a fender bender. He did offer 'our prayers' for victims of Hurricane Laura, and he acknowledged there had been deaths from the coronavirus pandemic, though not how many. But his only pointed and specific words were his attacks against the Democratic nominee -- 'You won't be safe in Joe Biden's America' -- and his full-throated endorsement of President Trump's 'law and order' rhetoric."

Abraham Lincoln once famously said, 'America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.' -- Lara Trump, Wednesday at Republican convention, citing a right-wing meme which both PolitiFact and Snopes have debunked

At what point then is the approach of danger to be expected? I answer, if it ever reach us, it must spring up amongst us. It cannot come from abroad. If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. As a nation of freemen, we must live through all time, or die by suicide. -- @Real Abraham Lincoln, January 1838

What would make anyone think Lara's "quote" reads anything like something Lincoln would have said? And yeah, if we Americans re-elect Lara's father-in-law we will ourselves be the authors & finishers of our own destruction. -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie

** Rebecca Beitsch of the Hill: "The National Park Service (NPS) is in hot water with ethics watchdogs for a slickly produced video promoting President Trump along with its plans to host a fireworks spectacle after his acceptance speech at the Republican National Convention. Trump is slated to give his convention speech on Thursday from the White House South Lawn, followed by fireworks at the nearby Washington Monument on Park Service property. Those plans come on the heels of an NPS video publicly praising the president for his involvement in legislation providing more funding to parks. The two instances are leading to allegations that federal employees are engaging in political activity while at work -- a violation of the Hatch Act." --s

Yes, Donald Trump Can Go Lower. Tax Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump is calling for drug tests to be administered before the first presidential debate between him and Democratic nominee Joe Biden next month. Trump made the demand in an Oval Office interview with The Washington Examiner Wednesday, saying he noted a sudden improvement in Biden's primary debate performance against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in March. He offered no evidence to support his suggestion that the improvement could have been the result of a drug.... The president said he was going solely based off of his own observations and not any inside knowledge into Biden's campaign. 'All I can tell you is that I'm pretty good at this stuff,' he said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Mrs. McCrabbie: Remember the Taco Bowl! When considering Trump's "message" in pardoning a Black felon and in attending a naturalization ceremony for people of color at the White House yesterday, then playing back video of these events at the convention last night, we should bear in mind Trump's infamous May 2016 tweet in which he is pictured sticking a fork in a Trump Tower Grill taco bowl and declaring "I love Hispanics!" These White House events are not efforts to "soften" his image, as most in the media have asserted. Trump is a cruel person, and all of these "gestures" are, to put it as delicately as possible, mind-fucking exercises. He knows you know he is a racist xenophobe, and his intention is to mess with you.

Jonathan Easley of the Hill: "One of the GOP founders of the anti-Trump group The Lincoln Project said Wednesday that polls undercount the level of support that exists for President Trump. 'It is historically difficult to defeat an incumbent president, No. 1,' Steve Schmidt, a former adviser to Sen.& John McCain (R-Ariz.), told Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC. 'I suspect there is at least a point or two of undercount for Trump voters.'... [Joe] Biden has smaller leads in most of the six core battleground states, although recent surveys have found the race is tightening." --s

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "Mail-in voting for the November presidential election is safe from foreign intervention, intelligence and election security officials said on Wednesday, saying that standard security measures and decentralization make the United States' election system extremely difficult for a foreign power to penetrate and change the results. The assessment contradicts President Trump's attacks on mail-in voting and comments by Attorney General William P. Barr that have also sowed doubt about its security.... 'You guys like to talk about Russia and China and other places,' Mr. Trump said in July. 'They'll be able to forge ballots. They'll forge them. They'll do whatever they have to do.'... Mr. Barr ... told NPR News in June that he did not think an election conducted by mail-in vote could be secure. Mr. Barr told lawmakers in July that ... mail-in voting increased the risk of fraud. And he defended Mr. Trump's claim that foreign governments could print fake mail-in ballots, saying that 'it is not disinformation.' The United States ... has no intelligence that any nation-state is making a coordinated attempt to undermine absentee voting or create fake mail-in ballots, a senior official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence said."

Black Lives Matter, Ctd.

Here are the New York Times live updates of the police shooting of Jacob Blake and of the Trump supporter's killing of two protesters in Kenosha, Wisconsin: "Wisconsin's attorney general Josh Kaul on Wednesday identified the white police officer who shot Jacob Blake, a Black man, multiple times in Kenosha, Wis., as Rusten Sheskey, a seven-year veteran of the city's police force."

Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "An Illinois resident has been arrested in connection to a shooting that left two people dead and another person wounded during a chaotic night of demonstrations over the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., officials said on Wednesday. A court document from Lake County, Ill., shows that Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, was arrested in Antioch, Ill., on Wednesday morning after being charged with first degree intentional homicide in the fatal shooting that took place only hours earlier. Antioch is about 30 minutes southwest of Kenosha, just over the Illinois line." This is an update of a story linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Ellie Hall, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "The law enforcement-obsessed 17-year-old who was charged with shooting and killing two people and injuring another in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during protests for Jacob Blake appeared in the front row at a Donald Trump rally in January. Kyle Howard Rittenhouse's social media presence is filled with him posing with weapons, posting 'Blue Lives Matter,' and supporting Trump for president. Footage from the Des Moines, Iowa, rally on Jan. 30 shows Rittenhouse feet away from the president, in the front row, to the left of the podium. He posted a TikTok video from the event." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you wove this detail into a work of fiction, you (or your editor) would take it out as too trite.

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story, citing a tweet by Shannon Watts: "'Cell phone footage shows Kenosha police telling armed insurrectionists, 'We appreciate you guys. We really do,' and giving them bottles of water. Shortly after this video was taken, one of these men shot and killed two protesters and wounded another.' Another video shows Rittenhouse open fire with a rifle after he fell to the ground and then calmly walk toward police vehicles with his hands raised in surrender. Other people can be heard yelling that he had shot someone. However, no officers are seen getting out of the vehicles, which continue advancing toward protesters, to apprehend Rittenhouse -- who then fled the state and was considered a fugitive." Mrs. McC: An eyewitness told Anderson Cooper on CNN Wednesday that he saw the shooter talking to police, who were in their vehicle, and he heard a cop tell the shooter to clear away from the area. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Time to Fire the Kenosha Police Chief. Jeremy Stahl of Slate: "During the Kenosha Police Department's first press conference in response to the Blake shooting and subsequent protests, Chief Daniel Miskinis blamed the unidentified victims in Tuesday night';s shooting for their own deaths, saying the violence was the result of the 'persons; involved violating curfew[.]... 'It is the persons who were involved after the legal time, involved in illegal activity, that brought violence to this community,' Miskinis [said].... In describing the shooting of two protesters, Miskinis also declined to call it a homicide and instead referred to it by various euphemisms often used to describe killings by a police officer, which [Kyle] Rittenhouse is not. He said that the shooter 'was involved in the use of firearms to resolve whatever conflict was in place' and that there was a 'disturbance that led to the use of deadly force.' Additionally, Miskinis refused to comment on the video of [Jacob] Blake's shooting, but offered that there may have been a reasonable explanation for the man being shot seven times.... When asked about the vigilante groups, Miskinis defended them as civilians out to protect property and 'exercise their constitutional right.'"

Marc Stein of the New York Times: "The Milwaukee Bucks responded to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man in Wisconsin, by refusing to take the court Wednesday afternoon for their N.B.A. playoff game against the Orlando Magic. An hour later, the N.B.A. postponed two other playoff games scheduled for Wednesday night, thrusting its ambitious restart at Walt Disney World during the coronavirus pandemic into sudden chaos and doubt. The postponed games were first-round playoff matchups pitting the Houston Rockets against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Los Angeles Lakers against the Portland Trail Blazers. All three games will be rescheduled. Players from the N.B.A. and the W.N.B.A. have long been at the forefront of protests against racism and police brutality but especially this year, after the police killings of George Floyd, a Black man in Minnesota, and Breonna Taylor, a Black woman in Kentucky. Still, the boycott was an extraordinary escalation in the athletes' demonstrations, a move that had virtually no precedent in the league's history." A Deadline story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Carla Russo of the Huffington Post: "Several Major League Baseball teams postponed their games on Wednesday in an apparent show of protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Brewers and the Cincinnati Reds were the first MLB teams to postpone their game, multiple sources reported. They made their decision not long after the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks staged a walkout during a playoff game against the Orlando Magic, also on Wednesday. Later Wednesday, the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres decided to postpone their Wednesday game as well, according to multiple reports." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Critically, the Reds decided to join the strike rather than undermine it by accepting a forfeit. This is a big deal.... I dunno, making a lifelong champion of arbitrary violence against Black people president of the United States seems like a bad idea in retrospect." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Russell Brandom of the Verge: "In the wake of an apparent double murder Tuesday night in Kenosha, Facebook has faced a wave of scrutiny over posts by a self-proclaimed militia group called Kenosha Guard, which issued a 'call to arms' to in advance of the protest. Facebook took down Kenosha Guard's Facebook page Wednesday morning, identifying the posts as violating community standards. But while the accounts were ultimately removed, new evidence suggests the platform had ample warning about the account before the shooting brought the group to prominence. At least two separate Facebook users reported the account for inciting violence prior to the shooting.... In each case, the group and its counter-protest event were examined by Facebook moderators and found not to be in violation of the platform's policies."

Minnesota. Michael Levenson of the New York Times: "A Black man who was wanted in a homicide fatally shot himself as the police closed in on a downtown Minneapolis street on Wednesday evening, prompting a fresh round of protests and looting, the authorities said, three months after the killing of George Floyd in the city set off global demonstrations against police violence. Gov. Tim Walz of Minnesota said the State Patrol was headed to the city to help restore order, and that he had deployed the National Guard. Mayor Jacob Frey of Minneapolis said he had ordered an immediate curfew.... Wednesday evening, the police released video of the man shooting himself, saying it was important to quell rumors that he had been killed by the police."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Fred Imbert of CNBC: "The number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits for the first time came in above 1 million for a second consecutive week as the economy tries to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, the Labor Department said Thursday.... Last week marked the 22nd time in 23 weeks that initial claims were above 1 million."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here: "Over the past six months, about 1.5 billion children around the world have been told to stay home from school to help minimize transmission of the coronavirus. More than 30 percent of these students -- around 463 million -- were unable to gain access to remote learning opportunities when their schools closed, according to a report on Wednesday by Unicef, the United Nations agency for children.... Henrietta Fore, the executive director of Unicef, said in a statement. 'The repercussions could be felt in economies and societies for decades to come.'"

The Washington Post's live updates of coronavirus developments Wednesday are here. The New York Times live updates Wednesday are here: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was instructed by higher-ups in the Trump administration to modify its coronavirus testing guidelines this week to exclude people who do not have symptoms of Covid-19 -- even if they have been recently exposed to the virus, according to two federal health officials. One official said ... the guidelines were not written by the C.D.C. but were imposed." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Nick Valencia, et al., of CNN: "A sudden change in federal guidelines on coronavirus testing came this week as a result of pressure from the upper ranks of the Trump administration, a federal health official close to the process tells CNN. 'It's coming from the top down,' the official said of the new directive from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new guidelines raise the bar on who should get tested, advising that some people without symptoms probably don't need it -- even if they've been in close contact with an infected person. Previously, the CDC said viral testing was appropriate for people with recent or suspected exposure, even if they were asymptomatic.... A CDC spokesperson referred all questions to the Department of Health and Human Services.... The new directive also lines up with a trend in policy and rhetoric from the White House.... Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested the US should do less testing." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Amy Goldstein & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "An abrupt shift this week in government testing guidelines for Americans exposed to the novel coronavirus was directed by the White House's coronavirus task force, alarming outside public health experts who warn the change could hasten the disease's spread. The new guidance, introduced this week without any announcement on the website of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, replaces advice that everyone who has been in close contact with an infected person should get tested to find out whether they had caught the virus. Instead, it says that those without symptoms 'do not necessarily need a test.' Several leading infectious-disease experts predicted that, after months of public health exhortations encouraging people to get tested, the turnaround could heighten public confusion, impede contact tracing and lead to more cases. The CDC estimates that 40 percent of those who test positive for the coronavirus have no symptoms but may be highly infectious and spread it to other people.... On Wednesday, Brett Giroir, an assistant HHS secretary who oversees testing, denied the impetus for the shift came from the White House. He said the idea of altering the testing guidance originated with him and CDC Director Robert Redfield, based on concerns that people can have negative results if the test is given too early." ~~~

     ~~~ Then, this: "On a conference call with reporters, Giroir said they discussed the idea with all the physicians on the White House's coronavirus task force, including Anthony S. Fauci ... and Scott Atlas, a new member influential with Trump from his appearances on Fox News who is a fellow at Stanford University's conservative Hoover Institution. Atlas has said fewer people need tests for the virus, which has led to more than 5.7 million cases in the United States and at least 175,000 deaths. He is not an infectious-disease specialist. 'All the docs signed off on this ... before it got to a place where the political leadership would have ever seen it,' Giroir said." Emphasis added.

~~~ Really, Brett? Jeremy Diamond, et al., of CNN: "White House Coronavirus Task Force member Dr. Anthony Fauci said he was undergoing surgery and not in the August 20 task force meeting for the discussion on updated US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines that suggest asymptomatic people may not need to be tested for Covid-19, even if they've been in close contact with an infected person. 'I was under general anesthesia in the operating room and was not part of any discussion or deliberation regarding the new testing recommendations' at that meeting, Fauci told ... Dr. Sanjay Gupta. 'I am concerned about the interpretation of these recommendations and worried it will give people the incorrect assumption that asymptomatic spread is not of great concern. In fact it is,' said Fauci.... Fauci's comments undercut claims by Adm. Brett Giroir.... Asked whether Fauci signed off on the guidelines, Giroir said, 'Yes, all the docs signed off on this before it even got to the task force level.' 'We worked on this all together to make sure that there was absolute consensus that reflected the best possible evidence, and the best public health for the American people,' Giroir also said earlier in the call...." ~~~

     ~~~ Conspiracy Theory Alert. Mrs. McCrabbie: The change in the guidelines sounds like it was organized by a conspiracy of task members to sabotage the guidelines in response to Trump's "asks" to reduce testing in order to keep the number of cases down. On August 20, Bill Chappell of NPR reported, "Dr. Anthony Fauci underwent surgery to remove a polyp from one of his vocal cords Thursday, according to the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, the agency Fauci has led for decades." This wasn't a scoop; Fauci's surgery was widely reported. Moreover, it's the type of surgery for which a patient makes an appointment. In one story I read, Fauci said he had been trying for a while to find a time to schedule the surgery. So you can bet people on the task force were forewarned Fauci would be unavailable on August 20, the day of their task force meeting. Scott Atlas, called the "anti-Fauci" in this headline, had joined the task force just ten days earlier. I know it seems unlikely that Trump could plan anything ten days in advance, but mike pence runs the task force, and mikey can plan. ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: By the way, Admiral Giroir isn't a "real" admiral who might have commanded a ship sailing the high seas or at least held a Pentagon post. Rather, Trump appointed him as a direct-commission officer with the rank of admiral in the U.S. Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, which has no enlisted ranks & reports to the Department of Health & Human Services.

Quoctrung Bui, et al., of the New York Times: "On March 15, as the novel coronavirus was beginning to surge in the United States, Dr. Anthony S. Fauci accomplished a rare Washington feat: He appeared on all five major Sunday talk shows. But the White House worried that Dr. Fauci might upstage (and sometimes contradict) President Trump, and soon his media handlers were no longer approving his high-profile interview requests. So Dr. Fauci found another way to get his message out: He said yes to pretty much every small offer that came his way: academic webinars, Instagram feeds and niche science podcasts, as well as a few celebrity interviews. That's how Dr. Fauci, the country's leading infectious disease scientist, found himself talking to the American Urological Association in June; the Economic Club of Chicago in July; and the 'Brazda Breakfast' briefing this month." Mrs. McC: I once heard a rabbi say, "Absent evil, there are no heroes." Covid-19 has given us many heroes, most of them unsung. There's a good chance you're one yourself.

Caitlin O'Kane of CBS News: "The annual Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota drew hundreds of thousands of bikers to the small town earlier this month -- despite coronavirus concerns. Now, about three weeks after the rally kicked off, the repercussions are starting to become clear. More than 100 cases of COVID-19 connected to the rally have been reported in at least eight states, the Associated Press reports."

Another Gross Failure of Leadership. Tessa Stuart of Rolling Stone: "The National Hurricane Center has warned [Hurricane Laura] could bring with it an 'unsurvivable' surge -- waves up to 20 feet high that may cause 'catastrophic' damage up to 30 miles inland.... If those predictions bear out, Laura could be one of the most destructive Gulf hurricanes on record. It's particularly bad timing considering that, less than three weeks ago, instead of working with Congress to craft comprehensive legislation to address the ongoing crisis and deliver desperately-needed aid, President Trump looted FEMA's Disaster Relief Fund to the tune of $44 billion -- authorizing the agency to pay for a $300 per week supplement to regular unemployment benefits.... [In other words] because the Senate won't sign off on the House bill and Trump didn't work with lawmakers to reach a compromise, the unemployment supplement isn't coming from money appropriated by Congress. It's coming from the government account meant to cover natural disasters like the one presently bearing down on Mississippi, Louisiana and Texas." --s ~~~

~~~ Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "Just before the election in 2012, Donald Trump scolded President Barack Obama for campaigning while victims of Hurricane Sandy were still reeling. 'Yesterday Obama campaigned with JayZ & Springsteen while Hurricane Sandy victims across NY & NJ are still decimated by Sandy. Wrong!' Trump tweeted eight days after the storm struck. Actually..., both Obama and Mitt Romney had suspended their campaigns for a while -- and now his old criticism of Obama makes Trump look ridiculous. On Wednesday, Hurricane Laura approached the Gulf Coast of Louisiana and Texas with a storm surge that the National Hurricane Center called 'unsurvivable' and 'catastrophic.' But Trump decreed that the show would go on.... Just two weeks earlier he signed an executive order stripping the Federal Emergency Management Agency of up to $44 billion from its Disaster Relief Fund. Before that, he did everything in his power to dismantle efforts to ameliorate climate change, which is fueling higher-intensity storms. It's another timely reminder that Trump is a man without a plan."

CPB Suggested Microwaving Asylum-Seekers. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Fifteen days before the 2018 midterm elections, as President Trump sought to motivate Republicans with dark warnings about caravans heading to the U.S. border, he gathered his Homeland Security secretary and White House staff to deliver a message: 'extreme action' was needed to stop the migrants.... At a meeting with top leaders of the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection officials suggested deploying a microwave weapon -- a 'heat-ray' designed by the military to make people's skin feel like it is burning when they get within range of its invisible beams. Developed by the military as a crowd dispersal tool two decades ago, the Active Denial System had been largely abandoned amid doubts over its effectiveness and morality. Two former officials who attended the afternoon meeting ..., said the suggestion that the device be installed at the border shocked attendees, even if it would have satisfied the president. Kirstjen Nielsen, then the secretary of Homeland Security told an aide after the meeting that she would not authorize the use of such a device, and it should never be brought up again in her presence, the officials said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Beyond the Beltway

Missouri. Morgan Gstalter of the Hill: "The GOP-controlled Missouri House on Tuesday advanced a bill that would make it legal to give guns to children without their parents' permission. The bill comes after Gov. Mike Parson (R) called lawmakers back for a special summer session on crime and asked the legislature to penalize criminals who unlawfully use firearms, then pass them off on children to avoid detection. The legislation is the exact opposite of what Parson called for, according to The Associated Press." --s

News Ledes

New York Times: “Hurricane Laura pounded the Louisiana and Texas coasts as it made landfall near Cameron, La., as a Category 4 storm early Thursday, delivering a barrage of 150-mile-an-hour winds and a surge of water that was predicted to reach as high as 20 feet. The National Hurricane Center called the expected storm surge 'unsurvivable,' and said that it could push as far as 40 miles inland. Officials also said that low-lying areas facing the brunt of the storm, like Cameron Parish in Louisiana, would essentially be annexed by the Gulf of Mexico until floods receded. Landfall came after officials in both states issued the gravest of warnings, sounding the alarm about a storm that could be one of the worst to hit the region in decades." This is a live-update report. Access to the WashPo's live updates is free. ~~~

~~~ The AP's live updates of Hurricane Laura news are here. The Weather Channel's main report is here.

The Commentariat -- August 26, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Yes, Donald Trump Can Go Lower. Tax Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump is calling for drug tests to be administered before the first presidential debate between him and Democratic nominee Joe Biden next month. Trump made the demand in an Oval Office interview with The Washington Examiner Wednesday, saying he noted a sudden improvement in Biden's primary debate performance against Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) in March. He offered no evidence to support his suggestion that the improvement could have been the result of a drug.... The president said he was going solely based off of his own observations and not any inside knowledge into Biden's campaign. 'All I can tell you is that I'm pretty good at this stuff,' he said."

** Ellie Hall, et al., of BuzzFeed News: "The law enforcement obsessed 17-year-old who was charged with shooting and killing two people and injuring another in Kenosha, Wisconsin, during protests for Jacob Blake appeared in the front row at a Donald Trump rally in January. Kyle Howard Rittenhouse's social media presence is filled with him posing with weapons, posting 'Blue Lives Matter,' and supporting Trump for president. Footage from the Des Moines, Iowa, rally on Jan. 30 shows Rittenhouse feet away from the president, in the front row, to the left of the podium. He posted a TikTok video from the event." Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you wove this detail into a work of fiction, you (or your editor) would take it out as too trite.

Travis Gettys of the Raw Story, citing a tweet by Shannon Watts: "Cell phone footage shows Kenosha police telling armed insurrectionists, 'We appreciate you guys. We really do,' and giving them bottles of water. Shortly after this video was taken, one of these men shot and killed two protesters and wounded another.' Another video shows Rittenhouse open fire with a rifle after he fell to the ground and then calmly walk toward police vehicles with his hands raised in surrender. Other people can be heard yelling that he had shot someone. However, no officers are seen getting out of the vehicles, which continue advancing toward protesters, to apprehend Rittenhouse -- who then fled the state and was considered a fugitive." Mrs. McC: An eyewitness told Anderson Cooper on CNN Wednesday that he saw the shooter talking to police, who were in their vehicle, and he heard a cop tell the shooter to clear away from the area.

Marc Stein of the New York Times: "The Milwaukee Bucks responded to the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man in Wisconsin, by refusing to take the court Wednesday afternoon for their N.B.A. playoff game against the Orlando Magic. An hour later, the N.B.A. postponed two other playoff games scheduled for Wednesday night, thrusting its ambitious restart at Walt Disney World during the coronavirus pandemic into sudden chaos and doubt. The postponed games were first-round playoff matchups pitting the Houston Rockets against the Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Los Angeles Lakers against the Portland Trail Blazers. All three games will be rescheduled. Players from the N.B.A. and the W.N.B.A. have long been at the forefront of protests against racism and police brutality but especially this year, after the police killings of George Floyd, a Black man in Minnesota, and Breonna Taylor, a Black woman in Kentucky. Still, the boycott was an extraordinary escalation in the athletes' demonstrations, a move that had virtually no precedent in the league's history." A Deadline story is here. ~~~

~~~ Carla Russo of the Huffington Post: "Several Major League Baseball teams postponed their games on Wednesday in an apparent show of protest against the police shooting of Jacob Blake, a Black man, in Kenosha, Wisconsin. The Milwaukee Brewers and the Cincinnati Reds were the first MLB teams to postpone their game, multiple sources reported. They made their decision not long after the NBA's Milwaukee Bucks staged a walkout during a playoff game against the Orlando Magic, also on Wednesday. Later Wednesday, the Seattle Mariners and San Diego Padres decided to postpone their Wednesday game as well, according to multiple reports."

     ~~~ Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "Critically, the Reds decided to join the strike rather than undermine it by accepting a forfeit. This is a big deal.... I dunno, making a lifelong champion of arbitrary violence against Black people president of the United States seems like a bad idea in retrospect."

The Washington Post's live updates of coronavirus developments Wednesday are here: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention revised its guidance for coronavirus testing this week. It now says that many people who have been exposed to the virus through close contact with someone who later tested positive 'do not necessarily need a test' if they are not experiencing symptoms. Experts are expressing concern about the change, noting that people without symptoms are responsible for a large share of transmissions." ~~~

~~~ The New York Times live updates Wednesday are here: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention was instructed by higher-ups in the Trump administration to modify its coronavirus testing guidelines this week to exclude people who do not have symptoms of Covid-19 -- even if they have been recently exposed to the virus, according to two federal health officials. One official said ... the guidelines were not written by the C.D.C. but were imposed."

~~~ Nick Valencia, et al., of CNN: "A sudden change in federal guidelines on coronavirus testing came this week as a result of pressure from the upper ranks of the Trump administration, a federal health official close to the process tells CNN. 'It's coming from the top down,' the official said of the new directive from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The new guidelines raise the bar on who should get tested, advising that some people without symptoms probably don't need it -- even if they've been in close contact with an infected person. Previously, the CDC said viral testing was appropriate for people with recent or suspected exposure, even if they were asymptomatic.... A CDC spokesperson referred all questions to the Department of Health and Human Services.... The new directive also lines up with a trend in policy and rhetoric from the White House.... Donald Trump has repeatedly suggested the US should do less testing."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Remember the Taco Bowl! When considering Trump's "message" in pardoning a Black felon and in attending a naturalization ceremony for people of color at the White House yesterday, then playing back video of these events at the convention last night, we should bear in mind Trump's infamous May 2016 tweet in which he is pictured sticking a fork in a Trump Tower Grill taco bowl and declaring "I love Hispanics!" These White House events are not efforts to "soften" his image, as most in the media have asserted. Trump is a cruel person, and all of these "gestures" are, to put it as delicately as possible, mind-fucking exercises. He knows you know he is a racist xenophobe, and his intention is to mess with you.

Julie Bosman of the New York Times: "An Illinois resident has been arrested in connection to a shooting that left two people dead and another person wounded during a chaotic night of demonstrations over the shooting of Jacob Blake in Kenosha, Wis., officials said on Wednesday. A court document from Lake County, Ill., shows that Kyle Rittenhouse, 17, was arrested in Antioch, Ill., on Wednesday morning after being charged with first degree intentional homicide in the fatal shooting that took place only hours earlier. Antioch is about 30 minutes southwest of Kenosha, just over the Illinois line." This is an update of a story linked below.

CPB Suggested Microwaving Asylum-Seekers. Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Fifteen days before the 2018 midterm elections, as President Trump sought to motivate Republicans with dark warnings about caravans heading to the U.S. border, he gathered his Homeland Security secretary and White House staff to deliver a message: 'extreme action' was needed to stop the migrants.... At a meeting with top leaders of the Department of Homeland Security, Customs and Border Protection officials suggested deploying a microwave weapon -- a 'heat-ray' designed by the military to make people's skin feel like it is burning when they get within range of its invisible beams. Developed by the military as a crowd dispersal tool two decades ago, the Active Denial System had been largely abandoned amid doubts over its effectiveness and morality. Two former officials who attended the afternoon meeting ..., said the suggestion that the device be installed at the border shocked attendees, even if it would have satisfied the president. Kirstjen Nielsen, then the secretary of Homeland Security told an aide after the meeting that she would not authorize the use of such a device, and it should never be brought up again in her presence, the officials said."

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

Reality Chek. Matthew Choi of Politico: "Hillary Clinton is predicting Donald Trump's reelection effort will be a messy affair, and the former Democratic candidate has some advice for Joe Biden: If the race is close, don't concede. Speaking with Jennifer Palmieri for Showtime's 'The Circus,' Clinton said Trump would likely try to take the election by going after absentee voting.... Democrats, she said, should be ready to fight if the results come back too close to call."

New York Times reporters' snark analysis of Tuesday night's Trumpalooza is here. It includes a live video feed of the convention, which is best left on mute. Speaking of snark:

The New York Times' live updates of the Republican National Convention's Tuesday show are here. The Washington Post's live updates of the convention are here. Includes a video livefeed. The Guardian live updates are here, and it's admirably unforgiving.

** Donald Trump, Friend of Immigrants and People of Color. Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "President Trump made a bid to sand down his divisive political image by appropriating the resources of his office and the powers of the presidency at the Republican convention on Tuesday, breaching the traditional boundaries between campaigning and governing in an effort to broaden his appeal beyond his conservative base. In an abrupt swerve from the dire tone of the convention's first night, Mr. Trump staged a grab-bag of gauzy events and personal testimonials aimed in particular at female and minority voters. In videos recorded at the White House, Mr. Trump pardoned a Nevada man convicted of bank robbery and swore in five new American citizens, all of them people of color, in a miniature naturalization ceremony." Quite a good summary.

Quint Forgey, et al., of Politico: "... Donald Trump staged a norm-busting show on the second night of the Republican National Convention, pardoning a convicted bank robber, hosting a naturalization ceremony, and providing a primetime platform to Americans with a history of incendiary social media posts. Trump also blurred the line between the presidency and electoral politics.... Melania Trump delivered her speech from the Rose Garden, while Secretary of State Mike Pompeo offered a taped message from Jerusalem, an unusually partisan move for the nation's top diplomat." ~~~

~~~ As Ben Rhodes said on MSNBC after the second episode of the Trump Unreality Show, Trump knows he's violating the law, but he just doesn't think he has to obey U.S. law. ~~~

~~~ Michelle Lee & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The decision by the Republican National Convention to feature President Trump conducting official business inside the White House underscores how he is leveraging the powers of his office for political gain, raising questions about whether an event featured Tuesday night violated federal law. In a remarkable pretaped scene packaged as part of the convention's prime time programming, Trump took part in a naturalization ceremony for five new citizens as acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf administered the Oath of Allegiance.... Kathleen Clark, a legal and government ethics professor at Washington University School of Law in St. Louis, said that the event appeared to be designed as part of the convention, an action that would violate a criminal provision of the Hatch Act, which bars executive branch employees from participating in politics in their official capacity.... She ... [called] Trump and Wolf 'breathtaking in their contempt for the law.'... Jordan Libowitz, spokesman for ... Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, [said,] 'This is so obviously, blatantly, insultingly a Hatch Act violation that it's starting to seem like the Trump administration is going out of its way to find new ways to violate the law. We'll be filing a complaint.'"

Matthew Choi of Politico: "Melania Trump pushed for racial unity during her keynote on the second night of the Republican National Convention, offering a far more conciliatory address than other speakers who used their lecterns to bombastically promote the president.... Closing out the evening, the first lady reflected on a number of her own experiences in the White House, thanked front-line workers combating the coronavirus, and ... made a call for civility and peace both at home and abroad, evoking her childhood dreams of America in communist Yugoslav Slovenia.... Her consoling comments [about Covid-19 deaths], however, appeared out of sync with her surroundings, as she delivered them to a packed Rose Garden with little room for social distancing.... It wasn't until deep into her speech that Melania Trump spoke about her husband.... 'In my husband, you have a president who will not stop fighting for you and your family,' Melania Trump said. 'I see how hard he works each day and night and despite the unprecedented attacks from the media, he will not give up.' She also touched on her husband's penchant for blasting out his thoughts on Twitter or at his news briefings. Though those messages frequently include falsehoods or exaggerations, Melania Trump cast his unfiltered nature as unvarnished honesty." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sorry, Melanie, we know "how hard" Donnie works for us & how "honest" he is. Apparently, you new Rose Garden comes equipped with rose-colored glasses.

Michael Shear of the New York Times: "President Trump sought Tuesday to wrap himself in pro-immigrant sentiment -- even though his administration has waged a yearslong assault on the nation's immigration system -- by presiding over a naturalization ceremony at the White House during the second night of the Republican National Convention. Using the majesty of the White House for blatantly political purposes, Mr. Trump appeared during the convention's second hour as 'Hail to the Chief' played and strode to a lectern where five immigrants were waiting to take the oath to become citizens. 'Today, America rejoices as we welcome five absolutely incredible new members into our great American family,' he told them in a 10-minute ceremony that had been taped in the afternoon.... And Mr. Trump's explicit claim that he loves and appreciates immigrants stands in stark contrast to his record over the past four years, during which he has repeatedly pursued anti-immigrant policies, often fueled by xenophobic language." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Offensive on every level, the entire charade was an extended, living, breathing 10-minute lie. Of all of the lies, slander, hypocrisy, denialism, abuses, & absurdities of the Big Dog-and-Pony Show, this would be my pick for the worst. The only thing they could have done to make it worse would have been to have Stephen Miller instead of Chad Wolf officiating. But Wolf, who is holding his "acting" position illegally, is bad enough. As Maggie Haberman asks in the NYT snark chat, "... can a Cabinet appointee violate the Hatch Act if he's serving illegally in that capacity anyway?!?" ~~~

     ~~~ Clara Chan & Ross Lincoln of the Wrap: "Tuesday's Republican National Convention sparked uproar on social media from some politicians and commentators for including a naturalization ceremony in the White House, featuring a government official [-- Chad Wolf --] who may be illegally occupying his position, at a political campaign event -- and also at a time when U.S. immigration has been delayed by the Trump administration amid the pandemic.... [After swearing the new citizens,] Afterward, Wolf effusively praised Trump and the newly inducted citizens were encouraged to do the same." ~~~

Mr. President, I want to again commend you for your dedication to the rule of law, and for restoring integrity to our immigration system. Thank you for hosting such a patriotic celebration here at the White House today. -- Chad Wolf, at a naturalization ceremony Tuesday ~~~

     ~~~ Trump Embraces Immigrant from "Shithole Country." Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "The event was cynical and dubious in an avalanche of ways. The appearance of Wolf, for example, who earlier in the day had earned an honor of his own: Twitter-nominated to officially serve in the position he's now held in an acting capacity for almost a year.... [Wolf has] been reliable in putting into effect policies introduced by Trump aide Stephen Miller, a notorious advocate for broadly limiting immigration.... The words that struck closest to Wolf's heart weren't his praise for the patriotic celebration but, instead, for Trump's 'dedication to the rule of law' -- despite the irony of Wolf making that assertion while serving without legal authorization. And while also apparently violating federal prohibitions against using government resources for campaign purposes.... Here, convention viewers were asked to set aside years of Trump antagonism toward immigrants entering the country both legally and illegally and, instead, to believe that he offers warm embraces to new Americans.Trump had the audacity to tell the life story of and pose for a photograph with an immigrant from Ghana[, one of the 'shithole countries' Trump complained were sending immigrants to the U.S]."

Jennifer Hansler of CNN: "Rep. Joaquin Castro, the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee..., has opened an investigation into Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's controversial decision to address the Republican National Convention.... The decision to speak to the political convention in prerecorded remarks from Jerusalem breaks with longstanding precedent of sitting secretaries of state avoiding partisan politics, particularly while abroad, and appears to violate guidance on political activities that Pompeo himself emphasized in a cable to diplomats just last month." ~~~

     ~~~ Dan Spinelli of Mother Jones: "The Hatch Act bars federal officials from engaging in political activity while on duty, yet Pompeo recorded his speech during an official diplomatic visit to Israel.... 'It is also a complete abdication of leadership (and flouting of Pompeo's own much-ballyhooed "ethos") for the rank and file to abide by the rules while the boss does whatever the heck he pleases,' Laura Kennedy, an ambassador to Turkmenistan under George W. Bush, told me." ~~~

~~~ Fred Kaplan of Slate: "... what Pompeo said was only slightly less objectionable than where and how he was saying it. For instance, he boasted that Trump 'has ended the ridiculous unfair trade arrangements with China' -- when, in fact, only the first phase of a trade deal has been completed, with no additional phases on the horizon. The jobs lost to China over the decades, he added, 'are coming back home.' In fact, not so much. On North Korea, he said Trump 'lowered the temperature and, against all odds, got the North Koreans to the table.' Yes, but once at the table, the North Koreans did nothing and, in fact, continued to build ballistic missiles and enrich uranium.... 'Because of President Trump,' Pompeo claimed, 'NATO is stronger' -- when, in fact, he has done more to foster doubt about the U.S. commitment to NATO than any president since the treaty's signing after World War II. He said Trump gave Ukraine 'defensive weapons systems' -- referring to the anti-tank missiles that Trump tried to withhold if Volodymyr Zelensky did not help him smear ... Joe Biden. But Pompeo failed to note that, even after Trump let the missiles go, the Department of Defense insisted that the weapons be stored in western Ukraine, far from the battlefield in the east."

~~~ "Diplomats Aghast." Josh Lederman, et al., of NBC News: "Diplomats who are barred by law from mixing work and politics say they're appalled by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's decision to address the Republican National Convention on Tuesday, breaking with long-standing traditions aimed at isolating American's foreign policy from partisan battles at home. It would be problematic enough, current and former U.S. diplomats said, if Pompeo were simply showing up at the convention to speak. But Pompeo's decision to use a stop in Jerusalem during an official overseas trip as the site for his recorded speech to fellow Republicans raises even more troubling questions about the message it sends to other countries and whether U.S. taxpayers are footing the bill, they said.... Pompeo's speech in service of ... Donald Trump's re-election appears to violate the spirit, if not the letter, of three legal memos issued by the State Department's legal adviser. One of the legal memos, intended to guide political appointees, says explicitly in bold letters that 'Senate-confirmed Presidential appointees may not even attend a political party convention.'" Mrs. McC: But will Mike speak from the Temple Mount? (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Pranshu Verma & Stephanie Saul of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday pardoned a man convicted of robbing a bank in Nevada who now runs a nonprofit for prisoners, shortly before the Republican National Convention entered its second night. The White House announced the pardon of the man, Jon Ponder, in a seven-minute video in which the president called Mr. Ponder's life 'a beautiful testament to the power of redemption.'... Mr. Ponder met the president in 2018, when he was invited to a Rose Garden ceremony for a National Day of Prayer.... Since he took office, Mr. Trump has pardoned or granted clemency to people he personally knows or whose cases strike a chord with him.... As Mr. Trump's bid for re-election enters its last stretch, the announcement appears to be an attempt by the president to draw voters' attention to criminal justice, a subject that he has promoted as a signature initiative of his time in office." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That's a generous interpretation. Trump is appealing here to two constituencies: (1) evangelicals, and (2) Black people. Ponder is Black, and Trump likely thinks Ponder's pardon will resonate with Black voters because most Blacks are criminals. ~~~

     ~~~ UPDATE: Oh, surprise! The video showed up as the first segment of the Trump Variety Show Tuesday.

Edwin Rios of Mother Jones: "Long before racist birther Melania Trump made a plea for unity, the undercard of the RNC's second night featured what can only be described as a parade of Good Ones. These were the good kinds of immigrants, the good kinds of Black and Brown folks, people living or at least aspiring to live clean, capitalist lives on the bright side of the American Dream. Donald Trump delivered a stunt pardon of a bank robber turned Christian prison reformer. He presided over an unspeakably cynical stunt naturalization ceremony. The message of all these various gimmicks was that 'hard work and determination' plus chance opportunities plus the beneficence of beaming white saviors can shape and shift the lives of the lower orders for the better. We don't have to enumerate all the ways the administration has in fact worked to block the various pathways to success that speakers were touting all night.... [Also at the convention,] the Good Prosecutor, Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron, peddling tired attacks about Democrats' 'all-out assault on Western civilization' and decrying the notion that one's skin tone dictates one's political leanings.... Cameron, the state's first top Black prosecutor, is ... the guy overseeing the investigation into the cops who killed Breonna Taylor." Mrs. McC: Five months after Taylor's murder by cop, Cameron still has not brought charges.

All the Best People, Ctd. Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "One of the speakers for the second night of the Republican National Convention was pulled from the program after The Daily Beast surfaced a tweet from her, earlier in the day, urging her followers to investigate a supposed Jewish plot to enslave the world.... [Mary Ann] Mendoza, an 'angel mom,' was scheduled to speak Tuesday about her son's 2014 death at the hands of a drunk driver who was in the country illegally. But a Republican source familiar with the programming said the speech had been cancelled amid uproar over her tweet.... Mendoza had linked to a lengthy thread from a QAnon conspiracy theorist that laid out a fevered, anti-Semitic view of the world. In its telling, the Rothschilds -- a famous Jewish banking family from Germany -- created a plot to terrorize non-Jewish 'goyim,' with purported details of their scheme that included plans to 'make the goyim destroy each other' and 'rob the goyim of their landed properties.'" ~~~

~~~ Amanda Becker of The 19th: "Anti-abortion activist Abby Johnson, who will speak on Tuesday during the second night of the Republican National Convention, has advocated in recent months for a head-of-household voting system that has historically barred women and people of color from casting ballots.... Johnson's prime time RNC remarks come on the eve of the 100th anniversary of the adoption of the 19th Amendment, which extended voting rights to women. (In practice, many women of color were excluded for many years thereafter.)... Head-of-household voting would permit only the head of a household -- and not all household members who are citizens over 18 years of age -- to cast a ballot. Johnson believes the male member of the household would be the de facto decision maker."

Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "Former Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, a registered lobbyist for a foreign government that Donald Trump's Justice Department has implicated in a corruption scandal, used her speech at the Republican convention on Tuesday to criticize former Vice President Joe Biden for alleged self-dealing abroad.... Bondi was hired by the White House to assist with impeachment messaging late last year. When she took the White House job, Bondi wound down her work on behalf of the government of Qatar, which U.S. authorities recently implicated in a corruption scandal involving their hosting of the 2022 World Cup. In March, Bondi left the White House and restarted her work for Qatar. An executive order imposed by Trump in the early days of his presidency ostensibly bars former administration officials from lobbying for foreign governments, but Bondi appears to have benefited from a loophole in the rule. Bondi's relationship with Trump goes back years and has itself been the target of corruption allegations. In 2013, Trump's since-dissolved foundation made an illegal $25,000 contribution to a political group affiliated with Bondi as the then-attorney general was weighing whether to pursue a fraud investigation against the notorious Trump University. Bondi subsequently passed on the investigation." ~~~

     ~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "Bondi began by trying to re-litigate claims that [Joe] Biden had improperly intervened in Ukraine to protect his son Hunter.... Notice that we can't discuss [Bondi's] claims ... without repeatedly mentioning that Donald Trump was ... impeached after the House found that he abused his power in an effort to do precisely what Bondi was doing: using Hunter Biden's work in Ukraine as a campaign gambit against his father."

"Obvious Lie After Obvious Lie." Sahil Kapur of NBC News: Joe Biden's campaign "shared media fact checks on Tuesday about the GOP convention on health care, crime and COVID-19. 'Last night's incoherent charade was sad, underwhelming, and devoid of vision to the point that it bordered on self parody,' Joe Biden's campaign said in a statement that pointed to myriad fact-checks by news organizations debunking claims regarding health care, crime and the coronavirus pandemic.... Biden's campaign said the speeches amounted to 'obvious lie after obvious lie.'" ~~~

~~~ Reverse Reality. Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "Faced with a pandemic that has killed more than 175,000 Americans, President Trump used glitzy video and misleading testimonials to spin a tale of heroism and resolve far removed from the grim reality of a country in the throes of an uncontrolled public health crisis. At the Republican National Convention on Monday, Trump was hailed as a bold and lifesaving leader who 'was right' on the coronavirus while Democrats, doctors and pundits were wrong from the beginning. One campaign-style video that aired during the convention hailed Trump as the 'one leader' who stood up to the virus while quoting Democratic figures who played down the severity of the virus in its early stages. It's a revisionist version of recent history belied by hours of videotape in which the president minimized the threat of the virus for months, falsely predicted that it would 'disappear' with warmer weather, promoted several unproven miracle cures, pushed states to reopen before meeting federal government benchmarks, equivocated on mask-wearing, defied social distancing guidelines and repeatedly told Americans that everything was under control." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The problem, of course, is that millions of dimwits & low-information voters may believe these head-spinning lies. Covid is the Democrats' fault! ~~~

~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC asks the obvious: "If the case for Trump is strong, why isn't the truth good enough? To hear Republicans tell it, the 2020 presidential election is effectively a no-brainer: Donald Trump has been a great success, the argument goes, and Joe Biden is a failure pushing ideas that would take the country backward. The choice, from a GOP perspective, couldn't be clearer. Of course, if this were accurate, all Republicans would need to do is tell the public the truth. There'd be no need to mislead anyone, since the facts would serve as a boon to the incumbent president and his party, and prove devastating to his Democratic rivals. And yet, on the first night of the Republican National Convention, the party made one thing painfully clear: the truth would not be good enough." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: "Donald Trump screwed up everything he touched, he's as crooked as a dog's hind leg, he doesn't give a flying fuck about the job or about you, but, you know, 'Four More Years!'", while true, is not an excellent campaign pitch.

Bob Brigham of the Raw Story: The mean people on Twitter are suggesting that Donnie Junior was coked up when he gave his convention speech. Brigham cites many opinionators. I like that "scientific analysis," where a Tweeter tested the color of Junior's eyes against a color chart & finds that the "whitest" spot in the whites of his eyes was actually a deep rosy pink. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Shadow Chief of State & Secretary of Everything Hannity Gets His Own Convention Platform(s). Brian Stelter of CNN: "When representatives from all the major TV networks visited the White House's South Lawn on Monday ... to prepare for President Trump's Thursday night speech there, there was a surprise: A mystery anchor platform.... the network executives discovered that the platform was built for one of the president's biggest supporters: Sean Hannity.... It's the latest in a long line of examples of Trump favoring the Fox News personalities who promote him the most. Hannity said on his Monday night program that he will be live from the White House Rose Garden on Tuesday ahead of First Lady Melania Trump's speech; live on Wednesday from Fort McHenry in Baltimore, where Vice President Mike Pence will be speaking; and live from the South Lawn on Thursday."

Florida Congressional Race. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Tuesday, the South Florida Sun Sentinel reported that Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) joked about sex with 15-year-old girls on Facebook with a friend. 'One of the comments involves a Feb. 23, 2009, photo of a bar outing posted by Rocco LeDonni, who is now Mast's campaign manager. The photo was taken during LeDonni's vacation to South Africa,' reported Skyler Swisher. 'Mast commented, 'im so proud of you... i hope you hook up with at least fifteen 15 year olds over there.... its legel there right."; Mast also joked with leDonni that he should turn a planned rape into a murder. Mast says he's sorry and is trying to be a better example to his children. Mast's Democratic opponent, former Navy JAG officer Pam Keith, was not amused. The Sun Sentinal report, which is firewalled, is here.

Kansas Legislature. Jenny Gross of the New York Times: "The 19-year-old candidate for the Kansas Legislature who admitted to sending revenge porn and bullying girls online when he was in middle school said Tuesday that he was breaking his pledge to withdraw as the Democratic nominee. The candidate, Aaron Coleman, a dishwasher and community college student, defeated a seven-term incumbent, Stan Frownfelter, earlier this month by 14 votes in the Democratic primary for the 37th District seat in the Kansas House of Representatives.... Writing in The Intercept, Glenn Greenwald criticized Democratic leaders for their contempt for Mr. Coleman, who said he had reached out to his middle school victims in attempts to make amends." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That just brilliant, Glenn, because ... Ryan Grim of the Intercept (you know, your own damned news org, Glenn): According to Coleman's ex-girlfriend Taylor Passow, during a disagreement about three-way sex "on December 27, 2019..., 'He sat there for a few seconds, then he jumped on top of me, put his hands around my throat and started squeezing, and slapped me three times, and said "I don't know where the fuck you think you're going."..."' A few days later,"in text messages with Passow, Coleman disputed her recollection."

Oklahoma. The New York Times has state primary results here. Looks as if the only federal race is between Republican candidates for the Oklahoma City-based House district, which is too close to call at 10:00 pm ET.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

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

Hahn Apologizes. Laurie McGinley, et al., of the Washington Post: At a White House briefing Sunday, with a maskless Donald Trump breathing down his neck, FDA Commissioner Dr. Stephen Hahn claimed that 35 percent of coronavirus patients "were saved by the injection of antibody-rich plasma from people who had survived the disease.... But the 35-out-of-100 claim wasn't accurate, scientists said Monday.... [Experts were horrified by what was a false claim.] On Monday night, Hahn in a tweet acknowledged he had misspoken during the news briefing about the findings of the convalescent plasma study. 'I have been criticized for remarks I made Sunday night about the benefits of convalescent plasma. The criticism is entirely justified,' Hahn wrote. 'What I should have said better is that the data show a relative risk reduction not an absolute risk reduction.'... Essentially, the Trump administration figures had compared one group of patients who got a certain kind of plasma with a group who got a different concentration at a different point in the disease, thus showing the relative difference between those groups. It was not a measure of what happens when some patients get plasma and some don't -- the kind of research necessary to send a signal of whether a treatment is truly helping." The AP's story is here. Related story linked yesterday. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

More FDA Corruption. Brad Reed of RawStory: "The Twitter account for the Food and Drug Administration has started promoting propagandistic announcements lauding the Trump administration's 'achievements' in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic -- shortly after President Donald Trump appointed a gun-loving former reporter for One America News [Emily Miller] as the agency's spokeswoman.... Miller's work as a right-wing journalist over the years [includes] fabricated quotes from former Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, while also pushing conspiracy theories about the Obama administration trying to 'track law-abiding citizens' with its promotion of 'smart gun' technology that would allow guns to be fired only by authorized users. Miller is also the author of a book titled, 'Emily Gets Her Gun... But Obama Wants to Take Yours.'" --s

Capitalism Is Awesome, Ctd. David Lieb of AP: "As South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster prepared to announce the end of a coronavirus stay-at-home order, his top staff received an email from the state health department. The message ... was clear: Wait longer before allowing customers back inside restaurants, hair salons and other businesses where people will be in close contact. Instead, McMaster pressed ahead with a plan written by the state restaurant association to resume inside dining on May 11.... South Carolina later experienced a surge in infections that forced McMaster to dial back his reopening plan. He was hardly alone. Thousands of pages of emails provided to The Associated Press under open-records laws show that governors across the U.S. were inundated with reopening advice from a wide range of industries.... Some governors put economic interests ahead of public health guidance, and certain businesses were allowed to write the rules that would govern their own operations." --s

Texas. CBS Dallas Forth-Worth: "Following 46 cases of bleach ingestions in the North Texas Poison Center region since the start of August, experts are again warning people that drinking the chemical won't prevent COVID-19. The organization pointed to 'misleading and inaccurate information circulating online about how to prevent the spread of COVID-19,' for an uptick in poisonings." --s

Ben Gittleson, et al., of ABC News: "... Donald Trump said on Tuesday he will nominate Chad Wolf to be the permanent Secretary of Homeland Security. Wolf has been acting secretary since November and his tenure has been controversial, most recently in his role carrying out Trump's orders to use federal agents to respond to violent protests in Portland, Oregon.... Two weeks ago, a government watchdog agency found that Wolf and his acting deputy, Ken Cuccinelli, were named to their current roles illegally, in violation of the Vacancies Reform Act, in part because they had not faced Senate confirmation. In response to a letter from DHS which called the ruling 'baseless and baffling,' the Government Accountability Office reaffirmed its decision that the two top DHS officials were serving illegally. Democrats had demanded they resign, and on a call with reporters Tuesday, Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer blasted the decision to nominate Wolf." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A Washington Post story is here.

Ridin' the Trump Gravy Train. Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "Hope Hicks, a longtime confidant of President Donald Trump's, landed high-paying gigs, including a Wall Street speaking engagement, between White House stints, according to her latest financial disclosure report.... When she [first] departed the administration, she listed a bank account valued up to $15,000 as her sole asset, the ethics watchdog Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington notes. Her latest disclosure lists a bank account that is valued at up to $1 million.... Shortly after leaving the White House, Hicks created her own limited liability company called Cavender Consultants.... While in use, the LLC was used as a way for Hicks to collect fees for what she described on her form as communications consulting at Glover Park Group, a public relations firm that includes her father, Paul Hicks, as managing director.... [Hope] Hicks is not listed as a lobbyist.... Hicks also lists a speaking engagement she had at Veritas Capital, a New York-based private equity firm.... She moderated a discussion with former Trump economic advisor and Goldman Sachs president Gary Cohn." --s

... Heather Schwedel of Slate confirms the theory Adam Silverman of Balloon Juice expressed about the reason Kellyanne & George Conway are quitting their high-profile day jobs (also linked here a couple of days ago). Schwedel offers more details on Conway daughter Claudia's social media musings.

Asha Rangappa & Ryan Goodman of Just Security: "After three years of insisting that unvetted information should never form the basis for an investigation into an active presidential candidate, Republican members of the Senate would never attempt to do such a thing themselves, right? Wrong. That is exactly what some are attempting to do in the home stretch of the 2020 election.... But Ukrainegate 2.0, like the original, has a dual purpose. The goal isn't just to smear [Joe] Biden, but also to shift blame for 2016 election interference to Ukraine. An architect of that false narrative about Ukraine is Paul Manafort, and the probe has accordingly served the former Trump campaign chairman's interests along numerous fronts in Ukraine politics and at home.... What's not received sufficient attention is how [Sen. Ron] Johnson's efforts have worked in tandem with Manafort's.... Undermining Manafort's prosecution offers a basis for President Trump to tie up the last loose end from the charges brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller's investigation into Russian collusion with the Trump campaign and finally give the pardon he had dangled to Manafort over a year and a half ago." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The flaw in this suggestion? That Ron Johnson is smart enough to be part of a conspiracy. We'll have to assume some little bird has duped him into conducting this "investigation."

Here's a story I missed: Melanie Zanona of Politico (August 21): "The House Ethics Committee formally admonished Rep. Matt Gaetz for a threatening tweet about ... Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer -- the lightest form of punishment that the panel can take. While the 10-member panel determined that the Florida Republican's 'actions did not reflect creditably upon the House of Representatives,' the committee also concluded in its report that he 'did not violate witness tampering and obstruction of Congress laws' and declined to issue more severe sanctions against the Florida Republican.... The case stems from an incident on February 2019, when on the eve of Michael Cohen's testimony before Congress, Gaetz vowed to release embarrassing information about allegations of Cohen's infidelity. The tweet sparked immediate backlash on Capitol Hill, with Democrats accusing Gaetz of witness tampering. 'Do your wife & father-in-law know about your girlfriends? Maybe tonight would be a good time for that chat,' Gaetz wrote. 'I wonder if she'll remain faithful to you in prison. She's about to learn a lot.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Julie Bosman of the New York Times: In Kenosha, Wisconsin, "three people were shot early Wednesday, two fatally, law enforcement officials said, during a chaotic night of demonstrations over the shooting of Jacob Blake.... A third night of protests over the shooting of Mr. Blake stretched into the early morning hours of Wednesday, after demonstrators clashed with law enforcement officials near the county courthouse downtown.... [After police, using tear gas & rubber bullets, forced the crowd to disperse, some walked] to a gas station several blocks away. There, a group of men with guns stood outside, promising to protect the property and verbally sparring with the arriving protesters. As the night stretched on, the gas station became a tense gathering spot.... After midnight, shots were fired outside the gas station. Three people were struck... Sheriff [David] Beth said that the investigation was focused on the group of men with guns outside the gas station, and that investigators were scouring video taken just before the shooting. 'I've had people saying, "Why don't you deputize citizens?"' he said. 'This is why you don't deputize citizens with guns to protect Kenosha.'" Whatever the Supremes' intended purpose, a consequence of their ruling was to cheapen human life. An NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Let's call these Second Amendment Murders. If the confederate Supremes had not allowed and effectively encouraged open-carry laws in their 2008 Heller v. D.C. decision, these senseless deaths probably would not have happened because those gun-toting bozos would not have been "protecting" that gas station.* ~~~

     ~~~ * "On April 20, 2009 the Wisconsin Attorney General's office released a memorandum to all law enforcement agencies stating that mere open carry of a firearm was not disorderly conduct, and instructed both law enforcement and the district attorneys to cease this practice [of arresting people for disorderly conduct if they were merely openly carrying guns]."

~~~ Julie Bosman & Richard Oppel of the New York Times: "Jacob Blake is conscious after being shot by a police officer this week, partially paralyzed from a bullet that severed his spinal cord and unaware of the protests that have spread across the country in his name, his family and lawyers said on Tuesday. Standing in front of a heavily fortified courthouse in Kenosha, Wis., where demonstrations and destruction have rocked the city of 100,000, Mr. Blake's parents and siblings denounced the police and pleaded for justice. It was a 'senseless attempted murder,' said Mr. Blake's father, Jacob Blake Sr., as he broke down and wept. 'They shot my son seven times, like he didn't matter.' He said he had no confidence that the shooting of a Black man by a white officer would be fairly investigated.... The [Kenosha Police Department] is now facing intense public scrutiny.... Kenosha was under a curfew again on Tuesday night." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Several of Jacob's relatives made moving remarks at the press conference, but his sister Letetra Wideman's comments particularly struck me, perhaps because -- as much as a white person can "get it" -- I share her feelings: ~~~

~~~ Mark Guarino, et al., of the Washington Post: "Anger-fueled protests radiated across the nation Tuesday as the family of a 29-year-old Black man shot in the back by police in [Kenosha, Wisconsin,] demanded swift action to bring officers to justice. In a highly emotional appearance two days after the shooting, Jacob Blake Jr.'s parents and siblings called for healing and peace following consecutive nights of violence. Julia Jackson, Blake's mother, asked for Americans to show 'how humans are supposed to treat each other.' But the family also pinned responsibility for Blake's grievous injuries on what they called a racist law enforcement system that brutalizes Black people, and expressed dismay that his shooter had not yet been fired or charged."

Falwell Flipflops. Again. Sarah Bailey, et al., of the Washington Post: "Jerry Falwell, Jr. confirmed Tuesday that he has resigned as president of Liberty University, after agreeing to step down Monday in the wake of scandals involving personal conduct, and then reversing course." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Ruth Graham of the New York Times: "On Tuesday, after a chaotic 48 hours in which a sex scandal emerged and Mr. Falwell resigned, changed his mind and then changed it back again, he was officially out as president and chancellor of Liberty University.... Mr. Falwell's departure was the culmination of a remarkable sequence of events beginning Sunday night, when Mr. Falwell issued a statement claiming that his wife, Becki, had a sexual relationship with a man who later tried to extort the couple in exchange for silence. The statement appeared to anticipate an interview with Reuters that appeared the next day, in which the man, Giancarlo Granda, claimed he met Ms. Falwell regularly for sexual liaisons, with Mr. Falwell looking on. In the interview, Mr. Granda denied the claim of extortion.... On Monday afternoon, [Mr. Falwell] told the board and reporters that he was resigning but then abruptly reversed course, before eventually sending a resignation letter late in the evening. The board's executive committee met on Tuesday morning and voted to accept Mr. Falwell's resignation immediately. The full board then convened an emergency conference call and unanimously confirmed Mr. Falwell's departure. He will receive severance as dictated by his employment agreement, according to the board's statement, which did not specify the amount. He also resigned from his seat on the board."

Beyond the Beltway

Alaska. Kyle Hopkins of the Anchorage Daily News in ProPublica: "Alaska Attorney General Kevin Clarkson [R] resigned Tuesday following the publication of an Anchorage Daily News and ProPublica investigation showing he sent hundreds of text messages to a younger state employee that Clarkson acknowledged had made her uncomfortable. Records obtained by the newsrooms found Clarkson sent at least 558 text messages between March 5 and March 31 to a woman whose job required she sometimes interact with the attorney general. In at least 18 messages he invited the woman to come to his home. Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Republican, said in an email Tuesday that he had accepted Clarkson's resignation.... While Clarkson's resignation came within hours of the story's publication, it came more than two months after the news organizations began asking questions and requesting records about his text messages." Mrs. McC: I guess they don't get news about #MeToo way up in Alaska.

Way Beyond

Russia, Germany. Michael Nienaber & Joseph Nasr of Reuters: "German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Monday called on Russia to investigate the suspected poisoning of Russian opposition figure Alexei Navalny and hold the perpetrators accountable after doctors found indications of a toxic substance in his body.... 'In light of the prominent role played by Mr. Navalny in the political opposition in Russia, the authorities there are now urgently called upon to investigate this crime to the last detail - and do so in full transparency,' Merkel said in a joint statement with Foreign Minister Heiko Maas." Mrs. McC: Gee, no word from Donald Trump. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

News Ledes

Washington Post: Weather Channel: "Hurricane Laura has rapidly intensified over the Gulf of Mexico as it heads for landfall on the upper Texas or southwest Louisiana coasts as a major hurricane by early Thursday morning. A potentially catastrophic storm surge and destructive winds will batter the region and a threat of flooding rain and strong winds will extend well inland.... The hurricane is now a strong Category 2 and is expected to continue strengthening. Laura could briefly become a Category 4 hurricane later today." ~~~

     ~~~ Update. New York Times live updates: "Hurricane Laura, now a major Category 4 storm, hurtled toward the coasts of Louisiana and Texas on Wednesday morning, prompting state leaders to make dire warnings about life-threatening conditions as the storm gained further strength."