The Commentariat -- July 24, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Friday are here: "The top U.S. public health agency issued a full-throated call to reopen schools in a package of new 'resources and tools' posted on its website Thursday night that opened with a statement that sounded more like a political speech than a scientific document, listing numerous benefits for children of being in school and downplaying the potential health risks. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published the new guidance two weeks after President Trump criticized its earlier recommendations on school reopenings as 'very tough and expensive,' ramping up what had already been an anguished national debate over the question of how soon children should return to classrooms. As the president was criticizing the initial C.D.C. recommendations, a document from the agency surfaced that detailed the risks of reopening and the steps that districts were taking to minimize those risks." Mrs. McC: This is a straight news report that rightly fingers the CDC for putting Trump before science. It's appalling. Here's hoping some CDC scientists will cry foul.

Bill Saporito of the New York Times: "... with the president trying to distance himself from responsibility for the coronavirus crisis, and Southern governors amplifying the damage with their flawed reopening strategies, the nation's retailers have become the first line of defense against the pandemic. From the headquarters of Walmart (which includes Sam's Club) and Starbucks came the directive that all customers must wear masks. The conservative Southeasterner and liberal Northwesterner were followed by other national retailers, including Kohl's, CVS, Walgreens, Publix and Target.... [A] vacuum of responsibility ... is compelling the businesses that are expert at selling coffee, underwear and groceries to manage the pandemic across their swath of the economy. That they are doing a better job than the Trump administration is beyond pathetic."

Paging Sarah Palin. Chacour Coop of the Fort Worth Star-Telegram: "The situation [in Starr County] was not always as dire in this rural South Texas county.... In April, its aggressive and successful approach to beating the coronavirus was spotlighted by NBC News.... But after Gov. Greg Abbott issued orders for the reopening of the state, overriding local control and decision-making, COVID-19 cases surged.... Now Starr County is at a dangerous 'tipping point,' reporting an alarming number of new cases each day, data show. Starr County Memorial Hospital -- the county's only hospital -- is overflowing with COVID-19 patients. The county has been forced to form what is being compared to a so-called 'death panel.'... A committee will deem which COVID-19 patients are likely to die and send them home with family[.]" --s

Peter Walker of the Guardian: "Boris Johnson has labelled people opposed to vaccinations 'nuts' as he urged the public to use an expanded flu jab programme to ease pressure on the NHS if there is a second wave of coronavirus this winter. Visiting a doctor's surgery in east London to promote the extension of free flu jabs to more people, Johnson told staff: 'There's all these anti-vaxxers now. They are nuts, they are nuts.' The prime minister's comments highlight the worries in government and among NHS leaders that a potential rise in Covid-19 infections in the coming months, coupled with a bad winter flu season, could overwhelm health services."

Rebecca Ellis of Oregon Public Broadcasting: "U.S. District Judge Michael H. Simon has temporarily curbed the use of force by federal officers deployed to Portland, restricting their interactions with legal observers and journalists observing nightly protests against police violence. On Thursday afternoon, Simon issued a temporary restraining order on officers from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and the U.S. Marshals Service sent to Portland to guard federal buildings. The restrictions will last for two weeks. The judge is still considering a longer-lasting injunction against federal law enforcement. The order comes as part of a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union in Oregon, alleging law enforcement has been targeting and attacking journalists at the protests."

Siobhán O'Grady of the Washington Post: "The United Nations human rights office called on U.S. security forces to limit their use of force against peaceful protesters and journalists Friday, as clashes between federal agents and demonstrators continue in Portland, Ore.... In June, the U.N. Human Rights Council decried violent police tactics and called for an inquiry into systemic racism in the United States. The resolution came after an unusual debate on 'systemic racism, police brutality and violence against peaceful protests' in the United States, requested by all 54 countries in Africa. It was adopted unanimously by the 47 countries that belong to the council.... The United States withdrew from the council in 2018." Mrs. McC: So in case you're one of those American "patriots" touting "American exceptionalism," the U.N. is here to remind you that you live in an exceptionally violent, racist nation.

Joseph Rich of Bloomberg: "On July 22, 27 distinguished District of Columbia attorneys, including former bar presidents and a former senior lawyer in the D.C. Bar disciplinary office, filed a comprehensive D.C. Bar complaint detailing the pattern of Attorney General William Barr's ethical violations over the last 16 months. The meticulously researched, 37-page complaint details how Barr has continuously violated the D.C. Bar Rules of Professional Conduct prohibiting deceitful and dishonest conduct, interference with the administration of justice, conflicts of interest and a failure to support the Constitution.... Over the last several months, up to 2,500 former Department of Justice attorneys have strenuously objected on three occasions to Barr's unethical actions and political interference in the DOJ's law enforcement decisions. Our democracy depends on a Department of Justice that acts as an independent arbiter of equal justice, not as an arm of the president's political apparatus." --s

Keith Bradsher & Steven Myers of the New York Times: "As the United States lashed out against the 'new tyranny' of China, Beijing on Friday ordered the closure of the American consulate in Chengdu, a retaliatory move that threatens to drive the two powers into an even deeper divide. Beijing blamed the Trump administration for the deterioration in relations, calling its own action justified after Washington told China this week to shutter its consulate in Houston and accused its diplomats of acting illegally. A Chinese official, in turn, denounced American diplomats in Chengdu, a southwestern city, for interfering in China's affairs."

Jeremy Stahl of Slate: "On Thursday, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez addressed retiring Republican Rep. Ted Yoho's nonapology for calling her a 'fucking bitch' earlier in the week. In 10 devastating minutes, Ocasio-Cortez shamed the Florida congressman as emblematic of a culture of misogyny and workplace harassment, tied the Republican Party to that abuse, and once again demonstrated that she is one of the most impactful voices in the House Democratic Caucus.... The speech linked her political opponents directly to crudely sexist language, attitudes, and culture, which has been turning a critical swing-voting bloc of college-educated white women away from the Republican Party in droves."

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The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Maggie Fox & Nick Valencia of CNN: "New US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines on education and child care come down hard in favor of opening schools, saying children don't suffer much from coronavirus, are less likely than adults to spread it and suffer from being out of school. But the new guidelines posted Thursday do recommend that local officials should consider closing schools, or keeping them closed, if there is substantial, uncontrolled transmission of the virus. The CDC has been promising new guidelines for more than a week, after demands from ... Donald Trump that the agency alter its recommendations for opening schools.... The guidelines recommend against screening all students for coronavirus." Mrs. McC: Okay, then. Trump gets Redfield to put Trump over children & families.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here: "The United States has reached a grim milestone of 4 million coronavirus cases, doubling the total number of infections in just six weeks as deaths and hospitalizations continue a sharp rise in many states. Despite the rosy picture painted by President Trump at his latest White House briefing, almost every metric shows America losing its fight against the virus. Positivity rates are at alarming levels in numerous states, hospitalizations are soaring, and for the third straight day on Thursday, more than 1,000 new coronavirus deaths were reported, according to Washington Post tracking. The rolling seven-day average of infections has doubled in less than a month, reaching more than 66,000 new cases per day Wednesday. The U.S. death toll now exceeds 141,000." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Senate Republicans killed President Trump’s payroll tax cut proposal on Thursday but failed to reach agreement with the White House on a broader coronavirus relief bill. This set off a frantic scramble with competing paths forward, as administration officials floated a piecemeal approach but encountered pushback from both parties, and the entire effort appeared to teeter chaotically on the brink of failure.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had planned to roll out a $1 trillion GOP bill Thursday morning but that was canceled in a head-spinning series of events. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows emerged from a meeting with McConnell to insist there was 'fundamental agreement' on the overall deal -- but simultaneously suggested breaking up the effort into smaller pieces of legislation and trying to move forward on an extension of enhanced unemployment benefits that are about to expire. Meanwhile, it appeared that many parts of the GOP package remained unresolved, and Republicans hadn't even begun negotiating with Democrats yet." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Déjà vu All Over Again. Katherine Wu of the New York Times: "As the number of known coronavirus cases in the United States fast approaches 4 million..., new shortages of pipette tips and other lab supplies are once again stymieing efforts to track and curb the spread of disease. Some people are waiting days or even weeks for results, and labs are vying for crucial materials.... 'It's like Groundhog Day,' said Scott Shone, director of the North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

A Fan, Not a Pitcher:

~~~ Howard Fendrich of the AP: "The Nationals and Yankees knelt in unison before the first game of the baseball season as part of an opening day ceremony Thursday night that featured references to the Black Lives Matter movement, the coronavirus pandemic -- including an off-the-mark first pitch by Dr. Anthony Fauci -- and the home team's 2019 championship. Players from both clubs wore T-shirts saying Black Lives Matter during batting practice, and the letters 'BLM' were stenciled into the back of the mound at the center of the diamond. In a poignant reference to the racial reckoning happening in the U.S., players and other members of both teams held a long black ribbon while standing spaced out along the two foul lines. After they placed the ribbon on the ground, everyone then got on their knees. They all then rose for a taped performance of the national anthem. That followed a series of videos: about Black Lives Matter, showing major league players such as New York's Aaron Judge and Washington's Howie Kendrick; about the Nationals' postseason run; about the COVID-19 outbreak."

AP: "Virginia's largest school system is removing the name of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee from one of its high schools in favor of the late U.S. Rep. John Lewis. The Fairfax County School Board approved the change during a meeting Thursday. A news release posted on the school district's website says the new name will be effective for the 2020-21 school year. The board had already voted unanimously last month to remove Lee's name. It adopted John R. Lewis as the new name Thursday one day after numerous people spoke in favor of the change at a public hearing."

The Trumpocalypse, Ctd.

Kevin Liptak & Caroline Kelly of CNN: "... Donald Trump said Thursday that he's willing to send as many as 75,000 federal agents into American cities to quell violent crime, a recent campaign theme for the President. Speaking in a telephone interview on Fox News, Trump began by saying he was ready to dispatch '50,000, 60,000 people' into American cities. But eventually he upped the figure to 75,000 -- but said it would require local authorities asking for help. 'We have to be invited in. At some point we'll have to do something much stronger than being invited in,' Trump said.... According to a 2019 report from the Bureau of Justice Statistics, there were approximately 100,000 federal law enforcement officers in the entire United States in 2016, the last year for which data was available.... Earlier on Thursday, Trump took to Twitter to address the 'The Suburban Housewives of America,' warning that 'Biden will destroy your neighborhood and your American Dream. I will preserve it, and make it even better!'" See related story, linked below, on Trump's "saving suburbia" for white people.

We Shall Fight in the Streets..., We Shall Never Surrender." Asawin Suebsaeng & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "In the week leading up to his announcement of a 'surge' of hundreds of FBI, Justice Department, and Homeland Security personnel to Chicago, Donald Trump wanted a bigger, more public, more violent fight on the streets of the Windy City. According to three people familiar with the president's private remarks, Trump previously envisioned an ostentatious, camera-ready show of force. He wanted to go after what he saw as violent gang leaders, flush them out of hiding in ways that would have them 'shaking in their boots' like they never had before, and have alleged perpetrators marched out in front of the news cameras.... Trump insisted that with the right leader, and the right muscle, crime there could be reduced 'very quickly.'... '... if it were up to him, we would return to the old days where it was eye-for-an-eye, tooth-for-a-tooth -- or we would forget about proportionality altogether. He would talk about lining up drug dealers and gang members in front of a firing squad...[, said a former administration official]." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump seems to think he is the commanding general of a "beautiful war," and the enemies are the American people led by Democrats of color.

Zolan Kanno-Youngs, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration, which has pledged to use the full force of the government to protect federal property, expanded that effort on Thursday by sending a team of tactical border officers to stand by for duty in Seattle. The Special Response Team being deployed is similar to the tactical teams currently operating in Portland, Ore., where local officials have vehemently objected to their efforts to subdue street protests. Seattle officials have also said they do not want federal agents sent to target protesters.... 'The C.B.P. team will be on standby in the area, should they be required,' the Federal Protective Service said in a statement about the Seattle effort."

Matt Zapotosky & Annie Gowen of the Washington Post: "Federal agents began descending in earnest on Kansas City, Mo., this week as part of an operation that will have them working with local detectives to interview suspects and witnesses and sift through evidence in an effort to quell violent crime, U.S. officials said. The operation, in any other administration, might have been largely seen as inoffensive for a city that has experienced a massive spike in homicides from the prior year. But the timing -- just after federal officers in military garb violently cracked down on racial justice demonstrators in Portland, Ore., and President Trump threatened to dispatch U.S. law enforcement to other cities -- could hardly be worse. In no small part because of Trump's politically charged rhetoric, local activists and officials have come to view with suspicion the more than 200 [federal] agents sent to Missouri...."

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "Two federal inspectors general announced Thursday they will investigate how Justice Department and Homeland Security agents used force, detained people and conducted themselves at high-profile clashes with protesters in Portland, Ore., and Washington, D.C. Justice Department Inspector General Michael Horowitz will investigate how U.S. marshals have used force in Portland, and how other parts of the Justice Department -- such as the FBI, Drug Enforcement Administration and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives -- were used to quell unrest in the nation's capital. The Department of Homeland Security inspector general, Joseph Cuffari, said in a letter to lawmakers that he opened an investigation into allegations that Customs and Border Protection agents 'improperly detained and transported protesters' in Portland, and that he would review the deployment there of DHS personnel in recent weeks." The AP's story is here.

Saving Suburbia for Healthy White People -- Trump Goes Back to His Roots. Brett Samuels of the Hill: "The Trump administration on Thursday repealed an Obama administration rule meant to combat housing discrimination that President Trump has cited as he portrays presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden as a threat to suburban voters.... Under the new rule, local officials have significantly more jurisdiction in determining what qualifies as fair housing and how to promote its accessibility.... The Obama rule previously required localities to draw up plans to address housing discrimination in order to receive certain federal funding. The Trump administration gutted it more than two years ago, making it largely toothless.... The action follows weeks of rhetoric from Trump warning about threats to the suburbs as he courts those voters ahead of November's election. He specifically cited the Obama-era housing rule, arguing that it took zoning decisions out of the hands of local officials." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Donald Trump got his start in the real estate business working for his father and turning away applicants for rental units whose only "disqualifying" characteristic was the color of their skin. Fittingly, he is ending his "professional" career (or so I hope) on that very note. ~~~

~~~ Toluse Olorunnipa & Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "President Trump moved Thursday to repeal a fair housing rule that he claimed would lead to 'destruction' of the country's suburbs, continuing an aggressive push that coincides with his campaign's attempt to paint Democrats as angry mobs on the brink of upturning peaceful, mostly white neighborhoods.... 'The Suburban Housewives of America must read this article,' Trump wrote Thursday on Twitter, linking to a New York Post op-ed by former New York lieutenant governor Betsy McCaughey that argued that Biden would ruin the country's bedroom communities. 'Biden will destroy your neighborhood and your American Dream. I will preserve it, and make it even better!' Trump said in his tweet.... Julián Castro, Obama's second HUD secretary, who oversaw the finalization of the fair housing regulation, said Trump was barely concealing his racial animus with 'code words,' stereotypes and old tropes." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump seems to think "suburban housewives" are home baking cookies and worrying that the chocolate chips in the cookies foretell a black family embedding itself in their neighborhood.

Trump & the Bounty Hunter. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Thursday, discussing the novel coronavirus, arms control negotiations and other matters. The call marked Trump's first phone conversation with Putin since last month, and comes days after the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada accused Moscow of attempting to hack coronavirus vaccine research. The phone call is also Trump's first with Putin since the explosive New York Times report about a U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia offered bounties to Taliban insurgents for launching attacks against U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The White House, which has disputed elements of the Times's account, made no mention of either issue coming up during the call." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

No, I never spoke to Woody Johnson about that, about Turnberry. Turnberry is a highly respected course, as you know, one of the best in the world. And I read a story about it today and I had never, I never spoke to Woody Johnson about doing that. No. -- Donald Trump, claiming Wednesday he had not asked the U.S. ambassador to the U.K. to steer the British Open toward Trump's Scottish golf course

~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC on Turnberrygate: "First, there's ample reason to believe Trump's denial is a lie [because several people, including Ambassador Johnson, have effectively confirmed the ask]. After all, there's no reason for Johnson, the president's financial supporter and handpicked ambassador, to make this up. Second, even the denial reeks of corruption. In response to a question about misusing his office to help his business, the president used the White House podium to praise and promote his business.... NBC News added yesterday than a [State Department] IG report 'was completed and marked classified as of May; an unclassified version has yet to be released.'... It also puts a new light on Trump's decision in May to fire the State Department's inspector general -- late on a Friday night...." Mrs. McC: Everything Trump says or does has a corrupt purpose. That's almost impressive.

Dan Mangan of CNBC: "A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release from prison of ... Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen by Friday afternoon. Judge Alvin Hellerstein found that Cohen was sent back to prison on July 10 in retaliation for failing to agree a day earlier to not to publish a book about Trump as one of multiple conditions for serving the remainder of his three-year prison term on home confinement.... 'I've never seen such a clause, in 21 years in being a judge, Hellerstein said at a Manhattan federal court hearing, where he questioned the condition that Cohen not publish a book while in home confinement. 'How can I take any other inference but that it was retaliatory?' the judge asked." See related story linked below. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Benjamin Weiser & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Judge Hellerstein's decision was a remarkable rebuke of prison and probation officials and, by extension, the Trump administration. It raised concerns that the authorities had used the penal system to squelch the free speech rights of one of Mr. Trump's enemies in an effort to protect the president."

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The House Judiciary Committee staff initially drew up 10 articles of impeachment against President Trump last year, alleging a wide range of high crimes and misdemeanors before the case was whittled down to his interactions with Ukraine, according to a book to be published next week. The staff members, working for Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the committee chairman, drafted a sweeping indictment of Mr. Trump charging him with, among other things, obstructing the Russia investigation, authorizing hush money for women to cover up sexual affairs, illegally diverting money to his border wall and profiting personally from his office.... new book by Norman L. Eisen, a former White House official and ambassador who served as a lawyer for Mr. Nadler, is the first inside account to emerge from only the third impeachment of a president in American history.... Mr. Eisen offers tantalizing details from the committee's own investigation of the president that did not make it into the final impeachment articles...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ed Shanahan & Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "Homeland Security officials made false statements in a bid to justify expelling New York residents from programs that let United States travelers speed through borders and airport lines, federal lawyers admitted on Thursday. The unusual admission, contained in a court filing, said the inaccuracies 'undermine a central argument' in the Trump administration's case for barring New Yorkers from the programs after the state passed a law enabling undocumented immigrants to get driver's licenses.... Against that backdrop, the filing said, 'The acting secretary of homeland security has decided to restore New York residents' access to' what is officially known as the Trusted Traveler Program 'effective immediately.' The filing on Thursday came in response to lawsuits filed by New York State and the New York Civil Liberties Union over the decision to kick New Yorkers out of the programs." Mrs. McC: Hmm, at least some of these false statements must have been made under oath. Seems as if perjury charges would be in order.

Seeing Themselves As Others See Them -- Not a Pretty Picture. Caitlin Dickerson of the New York Times: "In early 2017, as Immigration and Customs Enforcement prepared to carry out the hard-line agenda on which President Trump had campaigned, agency leaders jumped at the chance to let two filmmakers give a behind-the-scenes look at the process. But as the documentary neared completion in recent months, the administration fought mightily to keep it from being released until after the 2020 election. After granting rare access to parts of the country's powerful immigration enforcement machinery that are usually invisible to the public, administration officials threatened legal action and sought to block parts of it from seeing the light of day.... The filmmakers said they were told that the administration's anger over the project came from 'all the way to the top.'... Some of the contentious scenes include ICE officers lying to immigrants to gain access to their homes and mocking them after taking them into custody. One shows an officer illegally picking the lock to an apartment building during a raid."

Sylvan Lane & Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Thursday he will vote against President Trump's controversial nomination of Judy Shelton to the Federal Reserve Board, impeding her path to confirmation.... Romney is the first Republican senator to announce his opposition to Shelton, who will also likely be opposed by all 47 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, so the opposition of three more Republicans would effectively doom her nomination. Romney, like several GOP senators, had previously expressed concerns about Shelton's past support for linking the value of the dollar to gold, along with her inconsistent stances on the Fed interest rates." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Daniel Lippmann & Nahal Toosi of Politico have a long piece in the Magazine on what a buttinski Mike Pompeo's wife Susan is now & always has been. Pompeo responded to the reporters' questions for the article by writing, in part, "Politico's continued efforts to smear her are both sad and wrong. Instead of being slandered, she should be applauded and thanked." (Also linked yesterday.)

** Allan Smith of NBC News: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., excoriated Rep. Ted Yoho, R-Fla., on the House floor Thursday, a day after he denied having called her a 'f[uck]ing b[itch],' 'crazy' and 'disgusting' on the steps of the Capitol this week. 'I walked back out and there were reporters in the front of the Capitol, and in front of reporters Rep. Yoho called me, and I quote, a f[uck]ing b[itch] -- f[uck]ing b[itch],' she said of their encounter Monday. 'These are the words Rep. Yoho levied against a congresswoman.'... She said she was rising to speak after Yoho's speech from the House floor Wednesday, when he said that he apologized for the 'abrupt manner' of his discussion with Ocasio-Cortez but that he did not say the 'offensive name-calling words attributed' to him.... '... Having been married for 45 years with two daughters, I'm very cognizant of my language,' Yoho said, adding later that he cannot apologize for 'my passion or for loving my God, my family and my country.'... [Ocasio-Cortez] said [Thursday], 'I am two years younger than Mr. Yoho's youngest daughter. I am someone's daughter, too.'" ~~~

~~~ A Remarkable Speech. If you can't listen now, save it for later:

     ~~~ Monica Hesse of the Washington Post: "If you click on only one thing today, let it be Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Thursday morning speech, delivered from the House floor and directed to a fellow member of Congress, but really to us all." ~~~

~~~ The Gray Lady Goes There. Luke Broadwater & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "On Thursday, [Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.)] had her most norm-shattering moment yet when she took to the House floor to read into the Congressional Record a sexist vulgarity that Representative Ted Yoho, a Florida Republican, had used to refer to her. 'In front of reporters, Representative Yoho called me, and I quote: "A fucking bitch,"' she said, punching each syllable in the vulgarity. 'These are the words Representative Yoho levied against a congresswoman.' Then Ms. Ocasio-Cortez ... invited a group of Democratic women in the House to come forward to express solidarity with her. One by one, they shared their own stories of harassment and mistreatment by men, including in Congress. More even than the profanity uttered on the House floor, where language is carefully regulated, what unfolded over the next hour was a remarkable moment of cultural upheaval on Capitol Hill." ~~~

~~~ Yoho Can't Stop Lying. Alan Fram of the AP: "Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's outrage over a Republican lawmaker's verbal assault broadened into an extraordinary moment on the House floor Thursday as she and other Democrats assailed a sexist culture of 'accepting violence and violent language against women' whose adherents include ... Donald Trump.... [Ted] Yoho, one of Congress' most conservative lawmakers, said Ocasio-Cortez doesn't have the 'right to inflate, talk about my family, or give an account that did not happen for political gain. The fact still remains, I am not going to apologize for something I didn't say.'" Mrs. McC: Mike Lillis of the Hill, who first reported Yoho's remarks to and about AOC, said her floor remarks about the confrontation were "1,000 percent accurate."

Presidential Election

"A Socially Distanced Conversation": ~~~

It's really something that for me, I have to protect the American people. That's what I've always done. That's what I always will do. That's what I'm about. -- Donald Trump, American martyr, announcing he was cancelling the GOP's Jacksonville, Florida, convention for the good of the American people ~~~

~~~ ** Colby Itkowitz & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump made a surprise announcement Thursday that he has canceled the Republican national convention scheduled for next month in Jacksonville, Fla., saying he wanted to keep his supporters safe from the coronavirus pandemic and protesters. Trump, who delivered the news at the beginning of a coronavirus news briefing, said he was presented with plans for the nominating convention in the afternoon, but told his staff it wasn't the right time to hold the event.... Trump said the formal nominating process scheduled to take place in Charlotte will proceed, but the large convention with all its pomp and circumstance planned for Jacksonville is canceled.... Trump said thousands of people 'desperately' wanted to attend and were already making travel arrangements. 'The pageantry, the signs, the excitement were really, really top of the line,' he said." A CNN story is here. Thanks to Bobby Lee for the heads-up. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Backfire. The Trump campaign wanted everyone raising eyebrows at the things Biden was saying. Trump, though, got every person -- every woman and man -- talking about himself, thanks to looking into that camera and appearing on TV. I get extra points for using the words in order. -- Philip Bump of the Washington Post on Trump's boast that he had the amazing ability to remember a sequence of words like "person, woman, man, camera, TV." Related story linked yesterday

Alex Isenstadt of Politico reports that Trump campaign staffers are dishing on Kimberly Guilfoyle, who heads a campaign fundraising unit. Mrs. McC: But the most shocking part of the story to me was the lede: "News that Kimberly Guilfoyle contracted the coronavirus had barely surfaced on July 3 before she hopped on a private flight from Mount Rushmore back to New York with her boyfriend, Donald Trump, Jr." Quite a few stories reported that "the couple plans to drive back from South Dakota to the East Coast." I was picturing that road trip: the arguments, the recriminations, the pitstops at dirty gas station bathrooms. Now it turns out I was imagining an imaginary road trip.

Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: "Troy Young, the global president of Hearst Magazines, resigned Thursday evening, a day after a New York Times report detailed inappropriately sexual comments he allegedly made to employees at titles such as Cosmopolitan and a 'toxic culture' at the company. Earlier in the day, Young had apologized in a memo to staffers while also disputing the story, which he said 'misrepresented the culture we have built.' He had pushed back even more vehemently in the Times report, responding in a statement that 'specific allegations raised by my detractors are either untrue, greatly exaggerated or taken out of context.' But by Thursday evening, the corporate calculation seemed to have changed. Young's resignation was announced by Hearst president and chief executive Steven R. Swartz in a terse email to staffers." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Oh, for instance, people became uncomfortable when Young told a young female staffer "she should have inserted her fingers into herself and asked her date if he liked her smell." (From the NYT story.)

The Commentariat -- July 23, 2020

Afternoon Update:

It's really something that for me, I have to protect the American people. That's what I’ve always done. That's what I always will do. That's what I'm about. -- Donald Trump, American martyr, announcing he was cancelling the GOP's Jacksonville, Florida, convention for the good of the American people ~~~

~~~ ** Colby Itkowitz & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump made a surprise announcement Thursday that he has canceled the Republican national convention scheduled for next month in Jacksonville, Fla., saying he wanted to keep his supporters safe from the coronavirus pandemic and protesters. Trump, who delivered the news at the beginning of a coronavirus news briefing, said he was presented with plans for the nominating convention in the afternoon, but told his staff it wasn't the right time to hold the event.... Trump said the formal nominating process scheduled to take place in Charlotte will proceed, but the large convention with all its pomp and circumstance planned for Jacksonville is canceled.... Trump said thousands of people 'desperately' wanted to attend and were already making travel arrangements. 'The pageantry, the signs, the excitement were really, really top of the line,' he said." A CNN story is here. Thanks to Bobby Lee for the heads-up.

Trump & the Bounty Hunter. Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin by phone on Thursday, discussing the novel coronavirus, arms control negotiations and other matters. The call marked Trump's first phone conversation with Putin since last month, and comes days after the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada accused Moscow of attempting to hack coronavirus vaccine research. The phone call is also Trump's first with Putin since the explosive New York Times report about a U.S. intelligence assessment that Russia offered bounties to Taliban insurgents for launching attacks against U.S. troops in Afghanistan. The White House, which has disputed elements of the Times's account, made no mention of either issue coming up during the call."

Sylvan Lane & Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Mitt Romney (R-Utah) said Thursday he will vote against President Trump's controversial nomination of Judy Shelton to the Federal Reserve Board, impeding her path to confirmation.... Romney is the first Republican senator to announce his opposition to Shelton, who will also likely be opposed by all 47 members of the Senate Democratic Caucus, so the opposition of three more Republicans would effectively doom her nomination. Romney, like several GOP senators, had previously expressed concerns about Shelton's past support for linking the value of the dollar to gold, along with her inconsistent stances on the Fed interest rates.

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

Erica Werner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Senate Republicans killed President Trump's payroll tax cut proposal on Thursday but failed to reach agreement with the White House on a broader coronavirus relief bill. This set off a frantic scramble with competing paths forward, as administration officials floated a piecemeal approach but encountered pushback from both parties, and the entire effort appeared to teeter chaotically on the brink of failure.Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) had planned to roll out a $1 trillion GOP bill Thursday morning but that was canceled in a head-spinning series of events. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows emerged from a meeting with McConnell to insist there was 'fundamental agreement' on the overall deal -- but simultaneously suggested breaking up the effort into smaller pieces of legislation and trying to move forward on an extension of enhanced unemployment benefits that are about to expire. Meanwhile, it appeared that many parts of the GOP package remained unresolved, and Republicans hadn't even begun negotiating with Democrats yet."

Déjà vu All Over Again. Katherine Wu of the New York Times: "As the number of known coronavirus cases in the United States fast approaches 4 million..., new shortages of pipette tips and other lab supplies are once again stymieing efforts to track and curb the spread of disease. Some people are waiting days or even weeks for results, and labs are vying for crucial materials.... 'It's like Groundhog Day,' said Scott Shone, director of the North Carolina State Laboratory of Public Health."

Dan Mangan of CNBC: "A federal judge on Thursday ordered the release from prison of ... Donald Trump's former lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen by Friday afternoon. Judge Alvin Hellerstein found that Cohen was sent back to prison on July 10 in retaliation for failing to agree a day earlier to not to publish a book about Trump as one of multiple conditions for serving the remainder of his three-year prison term on home confinement.... 'I've never seen such a clause, in 21 years in being a judge,' Hellerstein said at a Manhattan federal court hearing, where he questioned the condition that Cohen not publish a book while in home confinement. 'How can I take any other inference but that it was retaliatory?' the judge asked." See related story linked below.

Peter Baker of the New York Times: "The House Judiciary Committee staff initially drew up 10 articles of impeachment against President Trump last year, alleging a wide range of high crimes and misdemeanors before the case was whittled down to his interactions with Ukraine, according to a book to be published next week. The staff members, working for Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York and the committee chairman, drafted a sweeping indictment of Mr. Trump charging him with, among other things, obstructing the Russia investigation, authorizing hush money for women to cover up sexual affairs, illegally diverting money to his border wall and profiting personally from his office.... new book by Norman L. Eisen, a former White House official and ambassador who served as a lawyer for Mr. Nadler, is the first inside account to emerge from only the third impeachment of a president in American history.... Mr. Eisen offers tantalizing details from the committee's own investigation of the president that did not make it into the final impeachment articles...."

Ha Ha. The Trump campaign wanted everyone raising eyebrows at the things Biden was saying. Trump, though, got every person -- every woman and man -- talking about himself, thanks to looking into that camera and appearing on TV. I get extra points for using the words in order. -- Philip Bump of the Washington Post on Trump's boast that he had the amazing ability to remember a sequence of words like "person, woman, man, camera, TV." Related story linked below

Daniel Lippmann & Nahal Toosi of Politico have a long piece in the Magazine on what a buttinski Mike Pompeo's wife Susan is now & always has been. Pompeo responded to the reporters' questions for the article by writing, in part, "Politico's continued efforts to smear her are both sad and wrong. Instead of being slandered, she should be applauded and thanked."

~~~~~~~~~~

Trump's Stormtroopers, Ctd.

Trump Sending Law Enforcement Officers to Cities to Boost His Re-election Campaign. Morgan Chalfant & Brett Samuels of the Hill (updated): "President Trump said Wednesday his administration is sending federal law enforcement officers into Chicago and Albuquerque, expanding his controversial crackdown on what he claims is an unchecked surge of violence in Democratic-run cities.... Trump said ... the federal government would 'immediately surge' officers to Chicago and would 'soon' send federal law enforcement to Albuquerque and other cities under the program. Wednesday's announcement comes amid a sustained effort by Trump to elevate his 'law and order' rhetoric to the forefront of the presidential election.... He blamed Democratic city leaders for not taking an aggressive enough approach to confronting violence." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Washington Post's report is here.

Trump to Play War Games on Chicago Streets. Spencer Ackerman of the Daily Beast: "The surge has come home. Using language borrowed from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, President Trump on Wednesday unveiled an open-ended deployment of Justice Department, FBI, and Homeland Security officers to Chicago -- a place whites have often described in euphemistic and racist terms -- and, to a lesser extent, Albuquerque. Trump, joined by Attorney General Bill Barr, Acting Secretary of Homeland Security Chad Wolf and FBI Director Chris Wray, previewed a much-heralded 'surge of federal law enforcement into communities plagued by violent crime.'... Trump's language of struggle and resilience echoed George W. Bush's 2007 speech previewing his escalation in Iraq and Barack Obama's 2009 speech previewing his escalation in Afghanistan." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: There is a shift here, and it isn't subtle. Trump can see that having his stormtroopers teargas white middle-class moms singing lullabies in Portland is not a good look. So he's switching to poor black (and maybe Latino) teenagers who frighten Trump's white supporters. Those kids are going to get hurt, some of them badly hurt. Trump is betting white Americans won't care.

Gina Harkins of Military.com: "The American public should not be confused about the difference between uniformed military personnel and police officers. That's the belief of Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who is concerned about personnel from across the country wearing camouflage uniforms, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters Tuesday. He made the comments after federal agents in Portland, Oregon, were photographed rounding up protesters and escorting them to unmarked vehicles -- all while in uniforms similar to those worn by U.S. troops. 'We want a system where people can tell the difference,' Hoffman said, adding, 'I can say unequivocally there are no Department of Defense assets that have been deployed to, pending deployment to, or we're looking to deploy to Portland.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** The Future Is Here. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf spun his unidentified federal agents' random detainment of nonviolent anti-police brutality protesters in Portland, Oregon as some kind of pre-crime measure on Tuesday night. 'Because we don't have that local support, that local law enforcement support, we are having to go out and proactively arrest individuals,' Wolf said during an interview on Fox News. 'And we need to do that because we need to hold them accountable.'" Mrs. McC: This is the film & short story "Minority Report" come to life before its time (the story is set in 2054). Needless to say, it's against the law to arrest or detain people because you think they might commit crimes in the future. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Feds Tear-gas Mayor, Other Protesters. Gillian Flaccus of the AP: "The mayor of Portland, Oregon, was tear gassed by the U.S. government late Wednesday as he stood at a fence guarding a federal courthouse during another night of protest against the presence of federal agents sent by ... Donald Trump to quell unrest in the city. Mayor Ted Wheeler, a Democrat, said it was the first time he'd been tear gassed and appeared slightly dazed and coughed as he put on a pair of goggles someone handed him and drank water. He didn't leave his spot at the front, however, and continued to take gas. Around Wheeler, the protest raged, with demonstrators lighting a large fire in the space between the fence and the Mark O. Hatfield Federal Courthouse and the pop-pop-pop of federal agents deploying tear gas and stun grenades into the crowd.... Earlier in the night, Wheeler was mostly jeered as he tried to rally demonstrators who have clashed nightly with federal agents but was briefly applauded when he shouted 'Black Lives Matter' and pumped his fist in the air. The mayor has opposed federal agents' presence in Oregon's largest city, but he has faced harsh criticism from many sides and his presence wasn't welcomed by many, who yelled and swore at him." Thanks to PD Pepe for linking the video: ~~~

Heavy: "Jennifer Kristiansen is a 37-year-old Portland mother and attorney who was arrested while protesting with the 'Wall of Moms,' a group of women who have joined protests outside of the federal courthouse in the Oregon city. Kristiansen told Heavy she was ripped away from a line of fellow moms by federal officers who did not have any insignias or identifyin information on their black and camouflage uniforms. Kristiansen also told Heavy she was groped and assaulted by the officer who arrested her. She later learned he was part of the U.S. Marshals Service." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

Jesus feds just came directly for the Portland moms using batons and tear gas while carrying assault rifles.

pic.twitter.com/3BwfniKDVU

— Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) July 22, 2020

Matt Shuham of TPM: "Philadelphia's district attorney [Larry Krasner] on Wednesday decried ... Donald Trump's threats to send federal agents into his city, saying that Trump's 'fluffy' rhetoric about occupying cities 'comes out of the fascist playbook.'... The D.A. said Monday that he wouldn't hesitate to charge 'anyone, including federal law enforcement, who unlawfully assaults and kidnaps people.'... Philadelphia is one of a number of cities on which Trump has threatened to sic federal agents, arguing that local Democratic leaders aren't responding to protesters forcefully enough.... 'What's unusual is the politicization of a normal relationship between federal law enforcement and local law enforcement. And what is really unusual is the apparently illegal Stormtrooper tactics that have been used by federal law enforcement in Portland.... This is politics. This has nothing to do with actual law enforcement. It is a diversion of tax funds to try to bolster a campaign that is close to defunct.'"

Steve M.: "The president is enjoying watching his stormtroopers on TV so much that he's decided to expand the stormtrooper program.... This ['surge' of federal officers] is being described as having a focus on crime rather than unrest, but it's obviously meant to be the same kind of hairy-chested entertainment that Trump voters have been enjoying in Fox News reports from Oregon. But a new Quinnipiac poll suggests it's not working as intended."

Anna Spoerre, et al. of The Kansas City Star: "Attorney General William Barr& said Wednesday that 200 arrests had been made in a new federal operation launched in Kansas City. 'Just to give you an idea of what's possible, the FBI went in very strong into Kansas City and within two weeks we've had 200 arrests,' Barr said of the operation, which is sending more than 200 federal agents into the metro area.... The announcement came just two days after the first charge was announced in connection with Operation Legend, billed as a federal law enforcement effort against violent crime. And officials in Kansas City said they had no knowledge of any number arrests close to Barr's figure.... Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said Wednesday that he was not aware of 200 arrests. He said that, as far as he knew, the U.S. Attorney's Office had only announced a single arrest." --s ~~~

~~~ ** UPDATE. Michael Wilner, et al. of The Kansas City Star: "A senior Department of Justice official on Wednesday corrected comments by Attorney General William Barr who minutes earlier had said 200 arrests had been made within two weeks in Kansas City as part of Operation Legend.... Speaking with McClatchy after the Wednesday event, the senior Justice Department official clarified that the 200 figure included arrests dating back to December 2019. It also included, the official said, both state and FBI arrests in joint operations.... The official said Barr was referring to the number of arrests made in the city since the launch of Operation Relentless Pursuit, a precursor effort to Operation Legend[.]" --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Maybe Barr should take that cognitive test Trump says he aced. Bill does seem a bit confused.

A Better Class of Federales (that handsome young federale looks a helluva lot like Townes Van Zandt, who wrote "Pancho & Lefty":

Felicia Sonmez & Donna Cassata of the Washington Post: "The House voted Wednesday to remove statues of Confederate leaders from the Capitol and replace the bust of Roger B. Taney, the U.S. chief justice who wrote the Supreme Court decision that said people of African descent are not U.S. citizens. The vote was 305 to 113 for the bill that would replace the bust of Taney, which sits outside the old Supreme Court chamber on the first floor of the Capitol, with one of Thurgood Marshall, the first black member of the Supreme Court. The legislation also would direct the Architect of the Capitol 'to remove all statues of individuals who voluntarily served the Confederate States of America.' It specifically mentioned three men who backed slavery -- Charles B. Aycock, John C. Calhoun and James P. Clarke. Democrats were unified in backing the measure; all the no votes came from Republicans, who were divided with 72 GOP lawmakers voting for the bill and 113 opposed.... The legislation faces opposition in the Republican-controlled Senate, where several lawmakers, including Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), have said the decision should be left to the states." ~~~

~~~ BUT. Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The Senate will stand its ground on ordering the Pentagon to rename bases honoring Confederate generals, despite the White House's threat to veto parallel legislation in the House. The directive, which is part of both the Senate and House versions of a $740 billion military spending bill, topped a list of objections the White House made to the House's legislation Tuesday, arguing it was an 'effort to erase from the history of the Nation those who do not meet an ever-shifting standard of conduct.' A few hours later, the House passed its version of the defense bill anyway, by a veto-proof majority.... On Wednesday, [the Senate] voted to end the debate period for amendments without accommodating a measure from Sen. Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) that sought to strip the legislation's requirement to rename the bases and replace it with a pledge to study the matter instead.... Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman James M. Inhofe (R-Okla.), who has voiced support for preserving the base names, did not try to force the issue."

Tara Bahrampour of the Washington Post: "Democratic lawmakers on Wednesday announced legislation and an emergency hearing in response to President Trump's Tuesday directive that his administration would seek to block undocumented immigrants from being counted in congressional apportionment.... Trump's directive contradicts previous statements from administration officials that they were never seeking to exclude immigrants from the census or from congressional apportionment, a statement from [Rep. Carolyn] Maloney's [D-N.Y.] office said.... The American Civil Liberties Union is preparing a lawsuit to challenge the directive and may ask for an emergency stay, said Dale Ho, an ACLU attorney who successfully argued in the Supreme Court last year against the administration's attempt to add a citizenship question to the census."

U.S Is No Country for Asylum-Seekers. Dan Bilefsky of the New York Times: "A Canadian court has ruled that a treaty with the United States that allows Canada to turn away asylum-seekers coming from the United States if they originally entered there from a third country violates Canada's constitution.... In a more than 60-page ruling, Justice Ann Marie McDonald cited the conditions asylum-seekers said they had faced while in detention in the United States, including lack of access to adequate health care or legal counsel.... The Canadian government has six months to respond to the ruling and can appeal to the Federal Court of Appeal." A Hill story is here.

Robert McFadden of the New York Times: "Charles Evers, who gave up life as a petty racketeer to succeed his assassinated brother Medgar Evers as a Mississippi civil rights leader in 1963, becoming the state's first Black mayor since Reconstruction and a candidate for governor and United States senator, died on Wednesday at his daughter's home in Brandon, Miss. He was 97."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Fred Imbert of CNBC: "The number of Americans who filed for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week as the coronavirus pandemic continues to batter the U.S. economy. The Labor Department said Thursday initial jobless claims increased by 1.416 million for the week ending July 18. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected initial claims to rise by 1.3 million. That marks the 18th straight week in which initial claims rose by more than 1 million. Thursday's data also reverses 15 straight weeks of declining initial claims."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here: "California passed New York in total confirmed coronavirus cases Wednesday, according to data tracked by The Washington Post, as the pandemic once concentrated in the tri-state area shifts to the South and West. New York reported 705 new cases Wednesday to bring its total to 408,886 since the start of the pandemic. California reached 413,576 confirmed infections Wednesday, setting a record for most reported in one state." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

William Wan & Jacqueline Dupree of the Washington Post: "President Trump painted a wishful view Wednesday of the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, in which existing treatments can almost cure patients flooding hospitals, all schools will safely reopen this fall, and the country's soaring cases are confined to a handful of states. But the rosy assessment he issued at a White House news briefing -- alone at the lectern without any top public health experts -- was undermined by the alarming reality that on Wednesday, almost every metric showed just how badly America is losing its fight against the virus. The number of daily deaths on Wednesday surpassed 1,100, the first time that mark had been reached since May 29. And total deaths in the United States since the start of the pandemic increased to more than 140,000." ~~~

~~~ Daniel Dale, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump made another series of false, dubious and misleading claims at a Wednesday coronavirus briefing in which he continued to paint an overly rosy picture of how the pandemic is affecting the United States. Despite the sharp uptick in cases he acknowledged and a US death toll that now exceeds 142,000, Trump declared that 'it's all going to work out. And it is working out.' He suggested children do not transmit the coronavirus, though early evidence suggests children can and do. He attributed the recent rise in cases in part to racial justice protests, though early evidence suggests the protests did not cause a spike, and in part to migration from Mexico, though there is no evidence for this either. Trump also claimed that he has done more for Black Americans than anyone else with the 'possible exception' of President Abraham Lincoln. That is transparently ridiculous." There's more. Mrs. McC: It is so wrong to call that thing that took place Wednesday afternoon a "coronavirus briefing."

Neil Vigdor & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "Two cafeterias used by White House staff members were closed and contact tracing was conducted after an employee tested positive for the coronavirus, a Trump administration official said on Wednesday night. The cafeterias are in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building and the New Executive Office Building, which are part of the White House complex and are next to the West Wing." A CNN story is here.

Noah Weiland, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a nearly $2 billion contract with Pfizer and a smaller German biotechnology company for as many as 600 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine, one of the largest investments yet in the global race to lock up vaccines even before they are ready. The contract is part of what the White House calls the 'Warp Speed' project, an effort to drastically shorten the time it would take to manufacture and distribute a working vaccine. So far the U.S. has put money into more than a half-dozen efforts, hoping to build a manufacturing capability for an eventual breakthrough. Europe has a parallel effort underway." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Fenit Nirappil & Julie Zauzmer of the Washington Post: "The president's maskless appearance at Trump International Hotel this week -- in apparent defiance of D.C. coronavirus regulations -- has caught the attention of local authorities, who say they plan to investigate the hotel's compliance with city rules. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) this spring ordered people to cover their faces while in the lobbies and common areas of hotels and to maintain six feet of distance from others, in an effort to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. But President Trump did not wear a mask while greeting a congressional candidate holding a Monday fundraiser at his downtown Washington hotel, according to video of the event. Nor did multiple guests while they were standing near one another in the lobby, the video shows.... ABC News reported Tuesday that guests at Trump properties have repeatedly flouted face-covering mandates. A Facebook invitation for a birthday party scheduled Saturday at the D.C. hotel featured a 'NO MASKS ALLOWED' disclaimer, the network reported." Mrs. McC: Best corrective measure: shut down the hotel. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Max Cohen of Politico: "The Republican governors of Indiana and Ohio on Wednesday announced statewide mask mandates a day after ... Donald Trump threw his support behind facial coverings as a tactic to stop the spread of coronavirus. More than half of U.S. states now have mask mandates in place, as top health officials plead for universal mask wearing amid a rise in coronavirus cases and deaths. The order from Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio requires masks to be worn in all indoor public spaces, as well as when social distancing is not possible outdoors. The mandate goes into effect on Thursday.... In Indiana, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced he would sign an executive order on Thursday that would require masks inside and outside when individuals could not social-distance. Three weeks ago, Holcomb said he did not need to put a mask mandate in place because he trusted Hoosiers to do the right thing. Indiana's mask mandate starts on Monday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Thomas Frieden & Cyrus Shahpar in a New York Times op-ed (July 21): "Public health doctors fighting epidemics ... track the most important indicators of the spread of a disease and attempts to control it.... The White House is not guiding our response to Covid-19, and neither the C.D.C. nor any other part of the government has been empowered to play this role.... That's one big reason the United States is losing the battle against Covid-19. We have a per capita death rate five times the global average, cases are increasing, and our economy and educational systems will not recover until we get the virus under control.... Researchers in our initiative, Resolve to Save Lives, searched all the data they could find on publicly available websites from all 50 states. They found it to be shockingly inconsistent, incomplete and inaccessible.... Our group -- along with a coalition of national, state and academic partners including the American Public Health Association and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security -- has developed a list of 15 indicators. Every state and county should be able to collect and publish nine of these immediately and the other six within a few weeks." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Washington, D.C. Edward Moreno of the Hill: "Washington, D.C., Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) issued an executive order Wednesday requiring residents to wear masks outside of the home as the city battles rising coronavirus cases. 'Basically what it says is, if you leave home, you should wear a mask,' Bowser said at a press conference. 'This means, if you're waiting for a bus, you must have on a mask. If you are ordering food at a restaurant, you must have on a mask. If you're sitting in a cubicle in an open office, you must have on a mask.' The order, which allows for fines of up $1,000 per violation, won't be enforced on children under the age of 3 and people who are actively eating or drinking."

"I'm Cognitively There." Katie Rogers of the New York Times: Trump went back on Fox "News" yesterday to compare his cognitive skills to those of Joe Biden's whom he assumes could not pass a simple cognitive test like the one Trump claims he aced. Mrs. McC: During yesterday's interview with Marc Siegel, a medical analyst for Fox, Trump demonstrated he suffered from memory loss. As Rogers points out, Trump could not pinpoint when he took the test. He said he had taken it 'a little less than a year ago' & that Dr. Ronny Jackson had administered it. But Jackson "has not been his physician since 2018." Counting backwards from 2020 to 2018 equals two years, Donnie, not "less than a year." Then Trump said there were 30 or 35 questions. Yet the MoCA test, the one he seems to have taken, has fewer questions than that: 12, by my count. He said Jackson asked him the memory question "10 minutes, 15, 20 minutes later." Moments later, he said the memory question was asked "about 20, 25 minutes later." The entire test takes only 10 to 12 minutes, and the instructions to the administrator are to ask the subject to repeat a list of 5 words 5 minutes later. He also describes the memory question as "that first question -- not the first -- but the 10th question." It's the 4th. He also claims Jackson didn't tell him he would be asked to repeat the list later. But I've taken the test several times, and each time the doctor -- not the same doctor each time -- said I would be asked to repeat the list later. So Trump proved, on air, that his memory and cognition of time were pretty poor.

Another Trump Lie. No, I never spoke to Woody Johnson about that, about Turnberry. Turnberry's a highly respected course, as you know, one of the best in the world. I read a story about it today, and I never spoke to Woody Johnson about doing that, no. -- Donald Trump, Wednesday, denying he asked the U.S. ambassador to the U.K. to hold the British Open at his own golf course in Scotland ~~~

What is a "highly respected" golf course? -- Mrs. Bea McCrabbie ~~~

~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Wednesday that he never spoke with his ambassador to Britain about asking the British government if it could help steer the world-famous British Open golf tournament to the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland..., although he managed to promote his Scotland golf course at the same time.... In a Twitter posting on Wednesday, [Ambassador 'Woody'] Johnson did not deny the episode but said only that he did not violate any regulations.... The ambassador's deputy, Lewis A. Lukens..., confirmed on Wednesday that Mr. Johnson had informed him about Mr. Trump's request."

All the Best People, Ctd. Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "The Trump administration announced this week the nomination [link fixed] of a former conservative commentator with a history of inflammatory and conspiratorial tweets to be the head of the Office of Personnel Management. John Gibbs, the nominee, is currently the acting assistant secretary for community planning and development at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.... A CNN KFile review in 2018 of archived versions of Gibbs' Twitter feed showed he had spread a false conspiracy theory that claimed Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign chairman took part in a satanic ritual. Gibbs also defended an anti-Semitic Twitter user who had been banned from the platform.... Gibbs' Twitter feed has been set to private since 2017 and the few tweets archived and accessible to public view offer only a small glimpse of his activity on social media.... In a February 2016 tweet, Gibbs said the Democratic Party had become the party of 'Islam, gender-bending, anti-police, "u racist!"' Gibbs' nomination comes as the White House aggressively moves to install loyalists across the government in key positions." (Also linked yesterday.)

James Griffiths of CNN: "Tensions between the United States and China have continued to ratchet up following the forced closure by Washington of Beijing's consulate in Houston, amid revelations that federal prosecutors are seeking a Chinese scientist accused of visa fraud who they say is hiding out in China's consulate in San Francisco. Prosecutors allege Tang Juan, a researcher focusing on biology, lied about her connection to the Chinese military in order to obtain entry into the US and has since avoided arrest by taking refuge in the West Coast diplomatic mission. According to court filings, Tang was charged on June 26 with one count of visa fraud." --s

Be Nice to Your Probation Officer. Or Else. Clare Hymes of CBS News: "The probation officer who would have been responsible for Michael Cohen's supervision while on home confinement said in a court filing Wednesday that Cohen was 'combative' during the July 9 meeting that landed the president's former personal attorney back in prison.... Attorneys for the government said Wednesday that Cohen's resistance to the terms of home confinement was the reason he was sent back to Otisville Federal Correctional Institution.... The officer who drafted Cohen's home confinement agreement, Adam Pakula, said he based the agreement on a sample agreement for another high-profile inmate, and that he wasn't aware Cohen was writing a book.... '... I drafted the FLM Agreement without input from the BOP or anyone in the executive branch,' Pakula said in an accompanying declaration.... The court filing also said that Cohen is 'free to work on his book while incarcerated.'" A Washington Post story is here.

“Not an Apology.” Luke Broadwater of the New York Times: "Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez forcefully rejected a Republican colleague's words of contrition on Wednesday after he declined to apologize for referring to her with a vulgar and sexist expletive, denying he had uttered the words. Representative Ted Yoho, Republican of Florida, appeared on the House floor on Wednesday to express regret for injecting 'strife' into Congress and being 'abrupt' in a confrontation this week with Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, Democrat of New York. 'I rise today to apologize for the abrupt manner of the conversation I had with my colleague from New York,' Mr. Yoho said.... But a short time later, he added, 'The offensive name-calling words attributed to me by the press were never spoken to my colleagues, and if they were construed that way, I apologize for their misunderstanding.'... Ms. Ocasio-Cortez wrote. She said Mr. Yoho was lying when he described their interaction as a 'conversation.' 'It was verbal assault,' she wrote. 'This is not an apology.'" The Hill's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: "Words of contrition"? Lying about what you said is not expressing contrition. Immediately after Yoho accosted Ocasio-Cortez, he walked away and said, "Fucking bitch." I'm going to guess he was not talking about his pet dog.

Presidential Election

Another Biden Gaffe. Will Weissert of the AP: "Joe Biden said Wednesday that ... Donald Trump was the country's 'first' racist president.... [Biden's] comments came during a virtual town hall organized by the Service Employees International Union. When a questioner complained of racism surrounding the coronavirus outbreak and mentioned the president referring to it as the 'China virus,' Biden responded by blasting Trump and 'his spread of racism.'... Many presidents -- including the nation's first, George Washington -- owned slaves. President Woodrow Wilson, the country's 28th president, is having his name removed from Princeton University's public policy school.... Wilson, who served in the early 20th century, supported segregation and imposed it on several federal agencies."

~~~ Trolling Trump. Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: An "unusual video -- a teaser for a longer taped conversation between [President Obama and Vice President Biden] set to be released via social media Thursday -- serves both to troll the current president and send a signal that Obama will start playing a much more active role in the campaign.... The teaser makes clear that Biden and Obama are following health guidelines about meeting in person -- each wears a mask at various points -- an implicit contrast to President Trump, who has not embraced social distancing guidance and has largely resisted wearing a mask.... The meeting between Obama and Biden took place earlier this month at the former president's offices in Washington, D.C., according to a person familiar with the conversation...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Summer Concepcion of TPM: "A new Trump campaign ad released amid the Trump administration's deployment of federal troops to quell protests in Portland, Oregon misleadingly featured an image of pro-democracy protests in Ukraine taken in 2014. Alongside a photo of the President appearing next to law enforcement officers, the Facebook ad also features a photo of a group of protesters appearing to attack a police officer on the ground. 'Public safety vs chaos & violence,' the text below the photo reads. The photo in the ad, however, was from civil unrest in Ukraine in 2014 that ultimately resulted in the ousting of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Its file on Wikimedia Commons shows the image with the caption: 'A police officer attacked by protesters during clashes in Ukraine, Kyiv. Events of February 18, 2014.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ A Mere Screw-up or an Ironic Prophecy? Jonathan Last of the conservative Bulwark: "The 'evil hippie scum' [in the photo] are actually pro-democracy protesters. And the policeman getting beat up is a member of the riot police who had been brought in to try to protect the authoritarian president, Viktor Yanukovych, who was attempting to turn Ukraine into a one-party state by extralegal means.... One of the extralegal means Yanukovych employed was a specialized federal internal police force, the Berkut, which answered directly to him and was used to assault his political opponents and tamper with elections. Another of the extralegal means he used was jailing former Prime Minister Yulia V. Tymoshenko after beating her in the 2010 election. He actually 'locked her up.... And on February 25, 2014 Yanukovych turned up in ... Moscow. Where he enjoyed asylum. Because he was Vladimir Putin's puppet.... [Ukraine later tried him in absentia for high treason.] Before Yanukovych had ascended to the throne and tried to destroy his country's democracy, he hired this really interesting American political operative to help his party. The guy's name was Paul Manafort." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: If you think Trump is taking all of his cues from Yanukovych, you might be right.

Mrs. McCrabbie: Never thought of it before, but maybe Jason Alexander should play the anti-hero in the comic "Trump: the Movie":

Mark Stern of Slate: Two federal appeals court judges -- Barbara Lagoa & Robert Luck, whom Donald Trump appointed to the 11th circuit -- and who ruled in favor of blocking Florida felons from voting violated the federal judicial code of conduct by hearing & ruling on the case. Both served on Florida's supreme court when they heard oral arguments on a closely-related case. "Lagoa and Luck energetically participated. Lagoa was particularly combative: Sounding more like an advocate than a jurist, she repeatedly argued that voters understood the amendment to encompass court fines and fees.... Judges who have participated in a case are required by the judicial code of ethics to recuse themselves from hearing related matters.... All 10 Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee ... sent both judges sharp letters ... demanding an explanation for their non-recusal."

** Darryl Fears & Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "As Confederate statues fall across the country, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in an early morning post on the group]s website, 'it]s time to take down some of our own monuments, starting with some truth-telling about the Sierra Club's early history.' [John] Muir, who [founded the Sierra Club and] fought to preserve Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Forest, once referred to African Americans as lazy 'Sambos,' a racist pejorative that many black people consider to be even more offensive than the n-word. While recounting a legendary walk from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico, Muir described Native Americans he encountered as 'dirty.'... [Other] early Sierra Club members and leaders such as Joseph LeConte and David Starr Jordan 'were vocal advocates for white supremacy and its pseudoscientific arm, eugenics.' Jordan supported forced-sterilization laws and 'programs that deprived tens of thousands of women of their right to bear children.'... The roots of American environmentalism are grounded in a reverence for nature and racism." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jonathan Deinst, et al., of NBC News: "The FBI's Newark, New Jersey, office, which is investigating the shootings of federal Judge Esther Salas' son and husband at their New Jersey home, said Wednesday it now has evidence linking the suspect to the slaying of a prominent 'men's rights' figure in California, NBC New York reported. 'We are now engaged with the San Bernardino California Sheriff's Office and have evidence linking the murder of Marc Angelucci to FBI Newark subject Roy Den Hollander,' the FBI's latest statement said. 'This investigation is ongoing.'"

The Commentariat -- July 22, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Trump Sending Law Enforcement Officers to Cities to Boost His Re-election Campaign. Morgan Chalfant & Brett Samuels of the Hill (updated): "President Trump said Wednesday his administration is sending federal law enforcement officers into Chicago and Albuquerque, expanding his controversial crackdown on what he claims is an unchecked surge of violence in Democratic-run cities.... Trump said ... the federal government would 'immediately surge' officers to Chicago and would 'soon' send federal law enforcement to Albuquerque and other cities under the program. Wednesday's announcement comes amid a sustained effort by Trump to elevate his 'law and order' rhetoric to the forefront of the presidential election.... He blamed Democratic city leaders for not taking an aggressive enough approach to confronting violence."

Gina Harkins of Military.com: "The American public should not be confused about the difference between uniformed military personnel and police officers. That's the belief of Defense Secretary Mark Esper, who is concerned about personnel from across the country wearing camouflage uniforms, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman told reporters Tuesday. He made the comments after federal agents in Portland, Oregon, were photographed rounding up protesters and escorting them to unmarked vehicles -- all while in uniforms similar to those worn by U.S. troops. 'We want a system where people can tell the difference,' Hoffman said, adding, 'I can say unequivocally there are no Department of Defense assets that have been deployed to, pending deployment to, or we're looking to deploy to Portland.'"

** The Future Is Here. Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "Acting Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security Chad Wolf spun his unidentified federal agents' random detainment of nonviolent anti-police brutality protesters in Portland, Oregon as some kind of pre-crime measure on Tuesday night. 'Because we don't have that local support, that local law enforcement support, we are having to go out and proactively arrest individuals,' Wolf said during an interview on Fox News. 'And we need to do that because we need to hold them accountable.'" Mrs. McC: This is the film & short story "Minority Report" come to life before its time (the story is set in 2054). Needless to say, it's against the law to arrest or detain people because you think they might commit crimes in the future.

Heavy: "Jennifer Kristiansen is a 37-year-old Portland mother and attorney who was arrested while protesting with the 'Wall of Moms,' a group of women who have joined protests outside of the federal courthouse in the Oregon city. Kristiansen told Heavy she was ripped away from a line of fellow moms by federal officers who did not have any insignias or identifying information on their black and camouflage uniforms. Kristiansen also told Heavy she was groped and assaulted by the officer who arrested her. She later learned he was part of the U.S. Marshals Service."

A Better Class of Federales (that handsome young federale looks a helluva lot like Townes Van Zandt, who wrote "Pancho & Lefty":

Summer Concepcion of TPM: “A new Trump campaign ad released amid the Trump administration's deployment of federal troops to quell protests in Portland, Oregon misleadingly featured an image of pro-democracy protests in Ukraine taken in 2014. Alongside a photo of the President appearing next to law enforcement officers, the Facebook ad also features a photo of a group of protesters appearing to attack a police officer on the ground. 'Public safety vs chaos & violence,' the text below the photo reads. The photo in the ad, however, was from civil unrest in Ukraine in 2014 that ultimately resulted in the ousting of then-Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych. Its file on Wikimedia Commons shows the image with the caption: 'A police officer attacked by protesters during clashes in Ukraine, Kyiv. Events of February 18, 2014.'"

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here: "California passed New York in total confirmed coronavirus cases Wednesday, according to data tracked by The Washington Post, as the pandemic once concentrated in the tri-state area shifts to the South and West. New York reported 705 new cases Wednesday to bring its total to 408,886 since the start of the pandemic. California reached 413,576 confirmed infections Wednesday, setting a record for most reported in one state."

Noah Weiland, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration on Wednesday announced a nearly $2 billion contract with Pfizer and a smaller German biotechnology company for as many as 600 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine, one of the largest investments yet in the global race to lock up vaccines even before they are ready. The contract is part of what the White House calls the 'Warp Speed' project, an effort to drastically shorten the time it would take to manufacture and distribute a working vaccine. So far the U.S. has put money into more than a half-dozen efforts, hoping to build a manufacturing capability for an eventual breakthrough. Europe has a parallel effort underway."

Fenit Nirappil & Julie Zauzmer of the Washington Post: "The president's maskless appearance at Trump International Hotel this week -- in apparent defiance of D.C. coronavirus regulations -- has caught the attention of local authorities, who say they plan to investigate the hotel's compliance with city rules. D.C. Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) this spring ordered people to cover their faces while in the lobbies and common areas of hotels and to maintain six feet of distance from others, in an effort to limit the spread of the novel coronavirus. But President Trump did not wear a mask while greeting a congressional candidate holding a Monday fundraiser at his downtown Washington hotel, according to video of the event. Nor did multiple guests while they were standing near one another in the lobby, the video shows.... ABC News reported Tuesday that guests at Trump properties have repeatedly flouted face-covering mandates. A Facebook invitation for a birthday party scheduled Saturday at the D.C. hotel featured a 'NO MASKS ALLOWED' disclaimer, the network reported." Mrs. McC: Best corrective measure: shut down the hotel.

Max Cohen of Politico: "The Republican governors of Indiana and Ohio on Wednesday announced statewide mask mandates a day after ... Donald Trump threw his support behind facial coverings as a tactic to stop the spread of coronavirus. More than half of U.S. states now have mask mandates in place, as top health officials plead for universal mask wearing amid a rise in coronavirus cases and deaths. The order from Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio requires masks to be worn in all indoor public spaces, as well as when social distancing is not possible outdoors. The mandate goes into effect on Thursday.... In Indiana, Gov. Eric Holcomb announced he would sign an executive order on Thursday that would require masks inside and outside when individuals could not social-distance. Three weeks ago, Holcomb said he did not need to put a mask mandate in place because he trusted Hoosiers to do the right thing. Indiana's mask mandate starts on Monday."

Thomas Frieden & Cyrus Shahpar in a New York Times op-ed (July 21): "Public health doctors fighting epidemics ... track the most important indicators of the spread of a disease and attempts to control it.... The White House is not guiding our response to Covid-19, and neither the C.D.C. nor any other part of the government has been empowered to play this role.... That's one big reason the United States is losing the battle against Covid-19. We have a per capita death rate five times the global average, cases are increasing, and our economy and educational systems will not recover until we get the virus under control.... Researchers in our initiative, Resolve to Save Lives, searched all the data they could find on publicly available websites from all 50 states. They found it to be shockingly inconsistent, incomplete and inaccessible.... Our group -- along with a coalition of national, state and academic partners including the American Public Health Association and the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security -- has developed a list of 15 indicators. Every state and county should be able to collect and publish nine of these immediately and the other six within a few weeks."

~~~ Trolling Trump. Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: An "unusual video -- a teaser for a longer taped conversation between [President Obama and Vice President Biden] set to be released via social media Thursday -- serves both to troll the current president and send a signal that Obama will start playing a much more active role in the campaign.... The teaser makes clear that Biden and Obama are following health guidelines about meeting in person -- each wears a mask at various points -- an implicit contrast to President Trump, who has not embraced social distancing guidance and has largely resisted wearing a mask.... The meeting between Obama and Biden took place earlier this month at the former president's offices in Washington, D.C., according to a person familiar with the conversation...."

All the Best People, Ctd. Andrew Kaczynski of CNN: "The Trump administration announced this week [link fixed] the nomination of a former conservative commentator with a history of inflammatory and conspiratorial tweets to be the head of the Office of Personnel Management. John Gibbs, the nominee, is currently the acting assistant secretary for community planning and development at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.... A CNN KFile review in 2018 of archived versions of Gibbs' Twitter feed showed he had spread a false conspiracy theory that claimed Hillary Clinton's 2016 presidential campaign chairman took part in a satanic ritual. Gibbs also defended an anti-Semitic Twitter user who had been banned from the platform.... Gibbs' Twitter feed has been set to private since 2017 and the few tweets archived and accessible to public view offer only a small glimpse of his activity on social media.... In a February 2016 tweet, Gibbs said the Democratic Party had become the party of 'Islam, gender-bending, anti-police, "u racist!"' Gibbs' nomination comes as the White House aggressively moves to install loyalists across the government in key positions."

** Darryl Fears & Steven Mufson of the Washington Post: "As Confederate statues fall across the country, Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune said in an early morning post on the group's website, 'it's time to take down some of our own monuments, starting with some truth-telling about the Sierra Club's early history.' [John] Muir, who [founded the Sierra Club and] fought to preserve Yosemite Valley and Sequoia National Forest, once referred to African Americans as lazy 'Sambos,' a racist pejorative that many black people consider to be even more offensive than the n-word. While recounting a legendary walk from the Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico, Muir described Native Americans he encountered as 'dirty.'... [Other] early Sierra Club members and leaders such as Joseph LeConte and David Starr Jordan 'were vocal advocates for white supremacy and its pseudoscientific arm, eugenics.' Jordan supported forced-sterilization laws and 'programs that deprived tens of thousands of women of their right to bear children.'... The roots of American environmentalism are grounded in a reverence for nature and racism."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here: "The number of people infected with the coronavirus in different parts of the United States was anywhere from two to 13 times higher than the reported rates for those regions, according to data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings suggest that large numbers of people who did not have symptoms or did not seek medical care may have kept the virus circulating in their communities. The study is the largest of its kind to date, although some early data was released last month." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "Six months after the first coronavirus case appeared in the United States, most states are failing to report critical information needed to track and control the resurgence of covid-19, the disease caused by the virus, according to an analysis released Tuesday by a former top Obama administration health official[: former CDC Director Tom Frieden].... In the absence of a national strategy to fight the pandemic, states have had to develop their own metrics for tracking and controlling covid-19. But with few common standards, the data are inconsistent an incomplete...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here. (Also linked yesterday.)

Christina Maxouris of CNN: "At least 1,000 American deaths linked to the coronavirus were reported Tuesday, and the spread shows no sign of slowing down. The harrowing death toll comes as states across the country report record-breaking numbers of new cases."

News Flash! Half-a-Year Late, Liar-in-Chief Able to Read Facts in Public. Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "President Trump walked to the lectern in the White House briefing room alone Tuesday, attempting to single-handedly hit the reset button on the public blame he is facing for failing to control the novel coronavirus pandemic. Three months after he abandoned the daily virus briefings and attempted to turn the country's attention to what he described as the 'great American comeback,' Trump's low-key reappearance before reporters seemed to be a tacit admission that his previous strategy had not worked. Six months after the first coronavirus case was confirmed in the United States -- and with almost 4 million confirmed infections -- Trump's attempt to re-engage with the crisis and embrace public health guidelines marked a notable departure from his recent approach to the pandemic. 'We are in the process of developing a strategy that's going to be very, very powerful,' Trump said Tuesday, reading from prepared remarks that did not include details of what the strategy would entail.... Trump used part of his time in the briefing room to push a public health message that many lawmakers and medical experts have been requesting for months. He praised health-care workers for saving lives, largely avoided attacks on Democrats, and urged Americans to wear masks and stay away from crowded bars." ~~~

     ~~~ An ABC News story, by Ben Gittleson & others, which documents a number of lies Trump told during the briefing, is here. ~~~

~~~ Liars Lie (and We Don't Know Which One Is Lying Here). Quint Forgey of Politico: "As Americans still struggle to access coronavirus testing and receive prompt results..., Donald Trump is being screened for the disease as many as 'multiple times a day,' his top spokesperson acknowledged Tuesday. 'As I’ve made clear from this podium, the president is the most tested man in America,' White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters. 'He's tested more than anyone, multiple times a day, and we believe that he's acting appropriately.'... Speaking during a White House news briefing later Tuesday, Trump himself said that he is tested on average once every two or three days. He denied ever having been tested multiple times in a single day but said, 'I could see that happening.'"

Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "President Trump formally threatened to veto a $740 billion military spending bill Tuesday hours before the House passed the legislation by a veto-proof majority, heralding a potential showdown between the White House and Congress over a bipartisan effort to rename several Army posts that commemorate Confederate generals. The president's threat -- and House lawmakers' response-- is a moment of reckoning for Senate Republican leaders, who must decide whether to allow votes on key bipartisan modifications to their version of the annual defense bill that might incur a similar veto warning, or attempt to tailor their legislation to stay closer in line with Trump's wishes. In a statement, the White House listed several provisions of the House's legislation that the president considers objectionable, chief among them a directive to the Pentagon to rename the 10 bases within a year.... Senators are expected to vote on their bill next week."

Excellent Return on Investment! S.V. Date of the Huffington Post: "As the coronavirus ravaged America..., 15 business leaders gave ... Donald Trump and the Republican Party $1.4 million in big checks while their businesses collected at least $41 million in federal assistance.... The campaign of ... Joe Biden said Trump is now practicing the same pay-to-play scheme that he described as a candidate. 'Trump's economic "relief" efforts have simply continued to shovel taxpayer money to the wealthy and well-connected instead of middle class families and small businesses in need,' spokesman Michael Gwin said. 'It should come as no surprise that big donors to Donald Trump's campaign are reaping a windfall of taxpayer support because this is the exact sort of cronyism that Trump has practiced since his first day in the White House.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Date's report and the Biden campaign's complaint would be far more valuable if knew how much big Biden/Democratic donors received in PPP funds. As the report stands, it implies wrongdoing but does not provide evidence.

Julian Barnes of the New York Times: "The Justice Department accused a pair of Chinese hackers on Tuesday of targeting vaccine development on behalf of the country's intelligence service as part of a broader yearslong campaign of global cybertheft aimed at industries such as defense contractors, high-end manufacturing and solar energy companies. Justice Department officials labeled the suspects, Li Xiaoyu and Dong Jiazhi, as a blended threat who sometimes worked on behalf of China's spy services and sometimes to enrich themselves. The officials said that an indictment secured against them this month and unsealed on Tuesday was the first to target such a threat. United States government officials said that the suspects had previously stolen information about other Chinese intelligence targets like human rights activists and, at the behest of the Ministry of State Security spy service, shifted focus this year to trying to acquire coronavirus vaccine research."

** The Most Corrupt President* in U.S. History. Mark Landler, et al., of the New York Times: "The American ambassador to Britain, Robert Wood ["Woody"] Johnson IV, told multiple colleagues in February 2018 that President Trump had asked him to see if the British government could help steer the world-famous and lucrative British Open golf tournament to the Trump Turnberry resort in Scotland, according to three people with knowledge of the episode. The ambassador's deputy, Lewis A. Lukens, advised him not to do it, warning that it would be an unethical use of the presidency for private gain, these people said. But Mr. Johnson ... raised the idea of Turnberry playing host to the Open with the secretary of state for Scotland, David Mundell.... Mr. Lukens, who served as the acting ambassador before Mr. Johnson arrived in November 2017, emailed officials at the State Department to tell them what had happened, colleagues said. A few months later, Mr. Johnson forced out Mr. Lukens, a career diplomat who had earlier served as ambassador to Senegal..., after hearing [Mr. Lukens] gave a speech ... in which he told a positive anecdote about a visit Mr. Obama had made to Senegal in 2013...." ~~~

~~~ A Willing Bagman. Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "The thing is that Woody has a net worth north of $4 billion, earned through the hard sweat of being born into the Johnson & Johnson fortune and using it to buy into a taxpayer-subsidized monopoly [New York Jets NFL team], and this gig will very unlikely still be there next year. It's not like Trump has any real leverage over him. He decided to act as a bagman for one of Trump's unsubtle grifts because he wanted to."

Brett Samuels & Rafeal Bernal of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday issued an executive order that blocks undocumented immigrants from being counted in the 2020 census for the purpose of allocating congressional representation. The order, which will almost certainly face legal challenges, amounts to something of a workaround for Trump after the Supreme Court last year blocked the administration from adding a citizenship question to the decennial survey.... It's unclear how the Trump administration would discern each respondent's citizenship as there is no citizenship question included in the 2020 census. The order is sure to alarm lawmakers and advocacy groups who, amid the coronavirus pandemic, were already concerned about minority groups being undercounted in the census and consequently affecting the apportionment of representation and resources for years to come." (Also linked yesterday.) Update: the Washington Post's story is here.

Trump's Stormtroopers, Ctd.

Soon Coming to a City Near You. Betsy Swan, et al., of Politico: "Portland may just be the beginning. Federal law enforcement agencies are gearing up to expand their footprint nationwide in the coming weeks, despite concerns about the recent scenes of violence and chaos in Oregon. Department of Homeland Security officials have considered deploying mobile field forces to protect federal property in cities around the country that experience unrest, two people familiar with the discussions told Politico. And the Department of Justice is planning to expand 'Operation Legend,' a law enforcement initiative launched by Attorney General Bill Barr earlier this month to fight 'the sudden surge of violent crime' in Kansas City, Mo. DOJ plans to announce this week that the operation, which involves agents from the FBI and the Drug Enforcement Administration, will expand into more cities, a DOJ official told Politico.... 'Portland was totally out of control,' the president said on Monday, blaming 'liberal Democrats' for incidents of vandalism and clashes between protesters and law enforcement. 'They were ripping down -- for 51 days, ripping down that city, destroying the city, looting it.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Do bear in mind that this growing deployment and unconstitutional infringement of First-Amendment rights has little to do with spot-solving local safety problems. Local authorities have not been consulted, at least for the most part, or even advised of the federal incursions. Rather, it has everything to do with Trump's re-election campaign. You and I are paying for Trump's campaign to ramp up unrest & violate protesters' rights in Portland. Why, there are even ads to promote the taxpayer-funded onslaught. ~~~

~~~ Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "As President Trump deploys federal agents to Portland, Ore., and threatens to dispatch more to other cities, his re-election campaign is spending millions of dollars on several ominous television ads that promote fear and dovetail with his political message of 'law and order.' The influx of agents in Portland has led to scenes of confrontations and chaos that Mr. Trump and his White House aides have pointed to as they try to burnish a false narrative about Democratic elected officials allowing dangerous protesters to create widespread bedlam. The Trump campaign is driving home that message with a new ad that tries to tie its dark portrayal of Democratic-led cities to Mr. Trump's main rival, Joseph R. Biden Jr. -- with exaggerated images intended to persuade viewers that lawless anarchy would prevail if Mr. Biden won the presidency. The ad simulates a break-in at the home of an older woman and ends with her being attacked while she waits on hold for a 911 call, as shadowy, dark intruders flicker in the background." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: These ads are so over-the-top dystopian that even some Trumpenlumpen may not buy them.

Hamed Aleaziz of BuzzFeed News: "The Department of Homeland Security's response to anti-police brutality protests in Portland, Oregon, has disturbed and angered many employees, who called the deployment of the federal force an unusual maneuver that could do long-term damage to the agency's reputation." Mrs. McC: Right. Because DHS has always had an excellent reputation. Because kids in cages, separating families, losing children, deportations, raids in Hispanic neighborhoods, "papers, please," Muslim ban, etc.

Rebecca Kheel of the Hill: "The Democratic-controlled House voted Monday to add limits to the Insurrection Act after President Trump threatened to invoke it to deploy active-duty troops against recent protests over racial injustice. In a 215-190 vote, the House approved the Insurrection Act changes as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act. The vote fell largely along party-lines, though 14 Democrats voted with Republicans against the amendment. One Republican, Rep. Jaime Herrera Beutler (Wash.), voted for the amendment." (Also linked yesterday.)

"Defend Black Lives, Defend Human Rights, Defend Our City!" Marissa Lang of the Washington Post: "Protests that began in response to the police killing of George Floyd have grown in recent weeks to incorporate a sustained rebuke of the Trump administration's attempts to clamp down on demonstrations and restore order to this liberal Northwest city. Demonstrators have been tear-gassed, pepper-sprayed and shot with rubber bullets and exploding pepper balls. Some were scooped up off city streets by roving federal agents and brought in for questioning in unmarked minivans. More than two dozen have been arrested in the vicinity of the federal courthouse since July 4.... [Federal forces'] presence has lit a spark among Portlanders, drawing bigger crowds night after night."

John Micek of the Pennsylvania Capital-Star: "The nation's first secretary of the Department of Homeland Security had sharp words for his former agency Tuesday, condemning the Trump administration's decision to send federal officers into the streets of Portland, Ore. to quell protests, saying it was 'counterproductive,' and that it was not the agency's mission to act as domestic law enforcement. 'The department was established to protect America from the ever-present threat of global terrorism. It was not established to be the president's personal militia,' ex-Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said during an interview with Sirius XM host Michael Smerconish. Ridge, the former two-term Republican Pennsylvania governor, who was tapped by President George W. Bush to lead the domestic security agency two decades ago, said 'it would be a cold day in hell before I would consent to an uninvited, unilateral intervention into one of my cities.'... Ridge prefaced his remarks by saying that 'had I been governor, even now, I would welcome the opportunity to work with any federal agency to reduce crime or lawlessness in the cities,' but believed the White House was wrong to do it unilaterally."

Former FBI Director Jim Comey, in a Washington Post op-ed: "... it is not clear that federal officers in Portland are acting unlawfully [in Portland].... What is clear is that they are acting stupidly, a mistake they may be about to repeat in other places, with lasting consequences for federal law enforcement.... Federal officials are giving a small group of violent people what they want. And they are giving the citizens of Portland -- and the rest of us, no matter our politics -- what we don&'t want: the specter of unconstrained and anonymous force from a central government authority. It has been the stuff of American nightmares since 1776." Comey suspects Trump has ordered the deployment because "televised conflict is his goal" -- he thinks it will help his re-election. Mrs. McC: Comey's suggestion is pretty obvious, but it's significant that a former FBI director would posit the accusation.

Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: "A secretive, nationwide police force -- created without congressional input or authorization, formed from highly politicized agencies, tasked with rooting out vague threats and answerable only to the president -- is a nightmare out of the fever dreams of the founding generation, federalists and antifederalists alike.... In addition to its rapid deployment teams, the Department of Homeland Security has also authorized domestic surveillance of Americans on the basis of the president's June executive order on the protection of statues and monuments. Writing for the Lawfare blog, the legal scholars Steve Vladeck and Benjamin Wittes explain that the'animating premise' of the new rules 'is that the threat to monuments and statues is a homeland security threat warranting intelligence analysis and collection by federal officials.' The administration, they continue, is using the 'cover of minor property damage' to 'justify intelligence gathering against ordinary Americans' for 'peacefully protesting their government.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As reporters have documented over the past few days, in stories linked here, far-right authoritarian lawyers Bill Barr and John Yoo have provided the "legal" framework for these extra-Constitutional forays into U.S. cities. Chad Wolf, who apparently is running the Portland ops and perhaps the planning for others, has no expertise whatsoever in such enterprises. Ken Cuccinelli, Chad's helper, at least has a law degree and a deep antipathy to the depiction of a woman's breast, even when the "woman" is a stylized, historic rendering of the Roman goddess Virtus. Teargas the Portland moms, by all means, but let none of them expose a breast. Nonetheless, ~~~

~~~ Steve M.: "... it's fitting that border agents are doing this work, because Trump regards Democratic-leaning cities as a foreign country -- as do most Republican voters. For years, the GOP base has believed that the 'real' America consists solely of Republican enclaves -- everywhere else is a hostile nation. It's certainly not America. As far as Trump and his voters are concerned, the border agents in Portland are fighting a border war. Republicans don't want all that leftism to come across the border of their country. Trump seldom hires smartly, but if he wants thugs for this particular war, he's employing exactly the right people."

Trump Has Encouraging Words for Accused Child Sex Trafficker. Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "... Donald Trump said Tuesday he wished alleged sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell 'well' after he was asked about her case during a news briefing at the White House largely focused on the coronavirus. 'I haven't really been following it too much. I just wish her well, frankly,' Trump said when asked for his thoughts on whether she could turn on powerful men such as Britain's Prince Andrew, who prosecutors have been seeking to question in connection with her case. Maxwell is currently being held without bail in federal lockup while awaiting trial for allegedly helping transport minors for sexual activity in the 1990s and then lying about it under oath. Prosecutors said she 'played a critical role'" in helping multimillionaire sex offender Jeffrey Epstein identify, "befriend and groom minor victims for abuse.... Trump ... was photographed with Maxwell and Epstein numerous times before Epstein was first charged in the mid-2000s...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I wonder if Trump had his secretary send Ghislaine a best-wishes card & flowers. Do federal pens accept florists' deliveries? So many questions. As Lawrence O'Donnell & Gene Robinson agreed on MSNBC, Trump's well-wishes for an alleged child sex-trafficker was the only news coming out of the press briefing.

BBC News: "The US has ordered China to close its consulate in Houston, Texas, by Friday - a move described as 'political provocation' by Beijing. The US State Department said the decision was taken 'in order to protect American intellectual property'. But China's foreign ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said it was 'outrageous and unjustified'. The statements came after unidentified individuals were filmed burning paper in bins in the building's courtyard.... Emergency services were called to the building on Tuesday evening. However, the Houston police force said on Twitter officers "were not granted access to enter the building', but did see smoke.... In the midst of a presidential re-election campaign and with the US economy and society battered by the Covid-19 pandemic, Mr Trump has determined that there is political advantage in playing the China card."

Rachel Siegel of the Washington Post: "The Senate Banking Committee voted 13 to 12 to approve Judy Shelton's nomination to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors on Tuesday, sending the controversial, conservative economist to be considered before the full Senate. Shelton, who advised Donald Trump's 2016 presidential bid, has drawn scrutiny for her views related to the long-abandoned gold standard, along with her calls for closer ties between the White House and the Fed. Earlier this year, her nomination appeared in jeopardy. But all Republicans on the banking panel supported her, ensuring her nomination will be considered by the full Senate." ~~~

     ~~~ Sylvan Lane of the Hill: Shelton "has drawn criticism for her past support of linking the U.S. dollar to the gold standard...." Mrs. McC: Shelton had previously favored an international barter system in which a bushel basket of barley and a three-year-old lactating Nubian goat doe were core measurements, but when fellow economist & Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Arthur Laffer inadvertently referred to the doe as the "gold standard" of Shelton's system, she experienced a miraculous macroeconomic epiphany.

Paul Kane & Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: "Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) came under fire Tuesday from the far-right flank of the House Republican caucus, who accused her of disloyalty to President Trump and later called on her to step down from her leadership post. Members of the House Freedom Caucus chided Cheney, the chair of the House Republican Conference, for supporting Anthony S. Fauci and breaking with the president on recent foreign policy issues. Cheney stood her ground in the closed-door meeting.... The unusually sharp internal clash -- which took place at the first in-person meeting of the GOP conference in four months due to the coronavirus pandemic -- highlights the transformation of the House Republican Conference in the age of Trump: Few House Republicans are comfortable challenging a man popular with their base, and those who do are attacked by their colleagues." ~~~

~~~ Haley Byrd & Manu Raju of CNN: "Members including Reps. Jim Jordan of Ohio, Matt Gaetz of Florida, Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Chip Roy of Texas, Andy Biggs of Arizona, Scott Perry of Pennsylvania and Ralph Norman of South Carolina all chimed in to air grievances against Cheney." Mrs. McC: Gaetz himself voted against Trump in at least one significant matter (and Trump punished him for it), and I imagine all of Cheney's critics here have voted against Trump's wishes on some matter or the other. But one thing they are not guilty of: being women. That's Cheney's worst mistake. Sorry, Liz, you've hitched your wagon to the Party of Misogynists. Giddyup. ~~~

~~~ Then There's This. Jake Sherman & John Bresnahan of Politico: "Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz has privately engaged in several spending practices in his nearly four years in office that appear to be in conflict with the House's ethics rules, a Politico investigation has found. Gaetz ... improperly sent tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars to a limited liability company linked to a speech-writing consultant who was ousted from the Trump administration, in direct conflict with House rules. In another possible violation, a private company installed a television studio in his father's home in Niceville, Fla., which Gaetz uses when he appears on television. Taxpayers foot the bill to rent the television camera, and the private company that built the studio -- which Gaetz refuses to identify -- takes a fee each time he appears on air, his office said."

Mike Yoho Is Not as Funny as His Name. Mike Lillis of the Hill: "Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.) was coming down the steps on the east side of the Capitol on Monday ... when he approached [Rep. Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), who was ascending into the building to cast a vote of her own. In a brief but heated exchange, which was overheard by a reporter, Yoho told Ocasio-Cortez she was 'disgusting' for recently suggesting that poverty and unemployment are driving a spike in crime in New York City during the coronavirus pandemic. 'You are out of your freaking mind,' Yoho told her. Ocasio-Cortez shot back, telling Yoho he was being 'rude.'... [Moments later, after they had parted, Yoho said of Ocasio-Cortez,] 'Fucking bitch.'" (Also linked yesterday.)

Presidential Race

Heidi Przybyla of NBC News: "Joe Biden's presidential campaign on Tuesday launched a highly personal broadside at Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, for pushing forward a committee inquiry into ... [Biden]'s past dealings with Ukraine while he was vice president. Among other things, the Biden campaign is accusing Johnson of being opaque about whether he is, in effect, 'party to a foreign influence operation against the United States' by receiving materials from pro-Russian foreigners as part of the committee's probe. The memo ... accuses Johnson of 'diverting' his committee's resources away from oversight of the worsening coronavirus pandemic to promote 'a long debunked, hardcore rightwing conspiracy theory' about Biden in an attempt to assist President Trump's re-election campaign.... In recent media reports, pro-Russian Ukrainians said they've passed materials to the committee."

Maine. Michael Shepherd of the Bangor Daily News: "The campaign of ... Donald Trump moved a Wednesday event to be headlined by the president's daughter-in-law after a Freeport brewery canceled and its owners said they were misled over the scope of the event.... The owners of Stars and Stripes Brewing ... said on Tuesday they had initially been told that some members of the campaign were going to come in for a beer while getting pizza from an adjacent restaurant. Brad Nadeau said he was told late Monday that Lara Trump, the Republican president's daughter-in-law, would be there and reporters may come as well, but he did not know it would be a formal event. Then, the Nadeaus said they were surprised to see their brewery in online Trump event listings and deluged by negative comments.... Brad Nadeau said he called the campaign to cancel the event on Tuesday morning."

Ben Collins & Brandy Zadrozny of NBC News: "Twitter announced Tuesday that it has begun taking sweeping actions to limit the reach of QAnon content, banning many of the conspiracy theory's followers because of problems with harassment and misinformation. Twitter will stop recommending accounts and content related to QAnon, including material in email and follow recommendations, and it will take steps to limit circulation of content in features like trends and search. The action will affect about 150,000 accounts, said a spokesperson, who asked to remain unnamed because of concerns about the targeted harassment of social media employees. The spokesperson said that as part of its new policy, the company had taken down more than 7,000 QAnon accounts in the last few weeks for breaking its rules on targeted harassment." A New York Times story is here.

Nikita Stewart of the New York Times: "Planned Parenthood of Greater New York will remove the name of Margaret Sanger, a founder of the national organization, from its Manhattan health clinic because of her 'harmful connections to the eugenics movement,' the group said on Tuesday. Ms. Sanger, a public health nurse who opened the first birth control clinic in the United States in Brooklyn in 1916, has long been lauded as a feminist icon and reproductive-rights pioneer. But her legacy also includes supporting eugenics, a discredited belief in improving the human race through selective breeding, often targeted at poor people, those with disabilities, immigrants and people of color." Mrs. McC: "He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone

Thomas Edsall of the New York Times has a long piece on academic studies & views of the differences between conservatives & liberals. If you want some affirmation that you're smarter than a confederate, Edsall provides some. Near the end of the piece, Edsall cites "behavioral economist" Karen Stenner on the difference between conservatives & authoritarians: "Conservatives are by nature opposed to change and novelty, whereas authoritarians are averse to diversity and complexity.... The whole of liberal democracy is in grave danger at this moment. But the fault lies with authoritarians on both the right and the left, and the solution is in the hands of non-authoritarians on both sides."

Beyond the Beltway

Ohio. Sharon Coolidge, et al., of the Cincinnati Enquirer: "Federal officials arrested Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder [R] and four others on Tuesday morning in connection with a $60 million bribery case.... Also arrested, according to the source: Neil Clark from Grant Street Consultants and once called by USA Today 'one of the best connected lobbyists in Columbus"; former Ohio Republican Party chair and consultant Matthew Borges; Juan Cespedes, co-founder of The Oxley Group in Columbus; and Jeffrey Longstreth, adviser to Householder. The scope of the federal investigation, the dollars involved and the arrests Tuesday make this one of the largest public corruption cases in Ohio in years.... A spokeswoman for [U.S. Attorney David] DeVillers said an Ohio official and associates were charged in the case, which she described as a 'public corruption racketeering conspiracy involving $60 million.' DeVillers has scheduled a 2:30 p.m. ET press conference to discuss the case. (Also linked yesterday.)

Way Beyond

Dan Sabbagh & Luke Harding of the Guardian: "The British government and intelligence agencies failed to prepare or conduct any proper assessment of Kremlin attempts to interfere with the 2016 Brexit referendum, according to the long-delayed Russia report. The damning conclusion is contained within the 50-page document from parliamen's intelligence and security committee, which said ministers in effect turned a blind eye to allegations of Russian disruption. It said the government 'had not seen or sought evidence of successful interference in UK democratic processes' at the time, and it made clear that no serious effort was made to do so." The New York Times report, which makes successive U.K. governments look even worse than the Guardian's report, is here. Mrs. McC: The Brits could hire Donald Trump as a consultant. He would fit right in. (Also linked yesterday.)