The Commentariat -- July 7, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Oops, Forgot. New Jersey & Delaware hold primary elections today.

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

Collin Binkley of NBC New York: "... Donald Trump on Tuesday launched an all-out effort to reopen schools this fall.... 'We're very much gong to put pressure on governors and everybody else to open the schools.' Trump did not immediately explain how he would pressure governors, but he repeated an earlier claim that Democrats want to keep schools closed for political reasons and not health reasons. He made the same claim Monday on Twitter, saying, 'They think it will help them in November. Wrong, the people get it!'" Mrs. McC: Every governor knows that at least part of that pressure will be Trump's writing nasty tweets about them or, for any Republican governors up for re-election, withholding or withdrawing his endorsement. To hell with the health & safety of students, teachers & family members.

Jessie Hellmann of the Hill: "Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, warned Tuesday the U.S. should not fall into 'false complacency' because COVID-19 death rates have dropped, noting the virus can cause other severe health outcomes.... While the infections have surged in the South and West, with several states seeing single-day highs in recent days, death rates have not increased. That could be because younger adults are making up a higher percentage of new cases compared to the early days of the epidemic. Experts anticipate deaths, a lagging indicator in an outbreak, will rise as people generally don&'t die until weeks after they become sick."

Emily Rauhala, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Trump administration has sent a letter to the United Nations withdrawing the United States from the World Health Organization over its handling of the coronavirus pandemic, a dramatic move that could reshape public health diplomacy. The notice of withdrawal was delivered to United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres, said a senior administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... It is not clear whether the president can pull the United States out of the organization and withdraw funding without Congress." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I think a lot of people figured that no matter how crass Trump was, he would try to do the right thing in a crisis. Well, the joke's on them. The coronavirus crisis has exposed a landslide of purposeful errors, not the least of which has been having the unmitigated gall to to continue the prosecute the suit against the Affordable Care Act & withdrawing from the WHO instead of forcing reforms.

Ernesto Londoño of the New York Times: "President Jair Bolsonaro of Brazil, who has railed against social distancing measures and repeatedly downplayed the threat of the coronavirus as the epidemic in his country became the second-worst in the world, said Tuesday that he, too, has been infected. Critics at home and abroad have called Mr. Bolsonaro's handling of the pandemic cavalier and reckless, allowing the virus to surge across Brazil, Latin America's largest nation. At one point he dismissed it as 'a measly cold,' and when asked in late April about the rising death toll, he replied: 'So what? Sorry, but what do you want me to do?' As the caseload has skyrocketed, Mr. Bolsonaro has attended mass rallies in his support, shunned masks, insisted that the virus poses no threat to healthy people, championed unproven remedies and shuffled through health ministers who disagreed with him. Brazil now has more than 1.6 million confirmed cases and more than 65,000 deaths -- more than any country except the United States. Speaking to journalists outside the presidential palace in Brasília shortly after noon on Tuesday, Mr. Bolsonaro, said he had taken a test on Monday after experiencing fatigue, muscle pain and a fever. He said he was feeling 'very well,' which he credited to having taken hydroxychloroquine, an anti-malaria drug he has endorsed but which studies show does not ward off the virus." Includes a photo of Bolsonaro with his arm around U.S. Ambassador Todd Chapman at a July 4th shindig at the U.S. Embassy in Brazil. Sweet! ~~~

     ~~~ A CNN story is here.

Dan Merica, et al., of CNN: "Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, one of the top prospects to be ... Joe Biden's running mate, said Monday that she has tested positive for Covid-19. 'COVID-19 has literally hit home. I have had NO symptoms and have tested positive,' the mayor said on Twitter. She told CNN's Chris Cuomo that she received the news that both she and her husband were positive just before 6 p.m. ET on Monday. She said they decided to get tested because her husband had been sleeping more than normal since last Thursday."

Maggie Haberman & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "Mary L. Trump, President Trump's niece, plans to publish a tell-all family memoir next week, describing how a decades long history of darkness, dysfunction and brutality turned her uncle into a reckless leader who, according to her publisher, Simon & Schuster, 'now threatens the world's health, economic security and social fabric.' The book ... depicts a multigenerational saga of greed, betrayal and internecine tension and seeks to explain ... President Trump's ... 'twisted behaviors' -- attributes like seeing other people in 'monetary terms' and practicing 'cheating as a way of life.'... As a high school student in Queens, Ms. Trump writes, Donald Trump paid someone to take a precollegiate test, the SAT, on his behalf. The high score the proxy earned ... helped the young Mr. Trump to later gain admittance as an undergraduate to the University of Pennsylvania's prestigious Wharton business school." Mrs. McC: Mary Trump writes that Donald's sister Maryanne did his homework for him. ~~~

~~~ Shane Harris & Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: "A tell-all book by President Trump's niece describes a family riven by a series of traumas, exacerbated by a daunting patriarch who 'destroyed' Donald Trump by short-circuiting his 'ability to develop and experience the entire spectrum of human emotion,' according to a copy of the forthcoming memoir obtained by The Washington Post." ~~~

~~~ Lachlan Cartwright, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Mary Trump's book ... paints her uncle the president in a horrifying light and reveals explosive details about his character and disparaging comments made by his sister, retired federal judge Maryanne Trump Barry.... 'He's a clown,' Maryanne allegedly confided in her niece. 'This will never happen again.'... In one particularly disturbing scene from a trip to Mar-a-Lago, Mary recounts how when she was 29 and wearing a bathing suit and a pair of shorts to lunch at the resort, her uncle looked up at her and remarked, 'Holy shit, Mary. You're stacked.'... [At a White House dinner,] Mary recounts how Donald gestured towards Eric Trump's wife, his daughter-in-law. 'Lara, there,' he said. 'I barely even knew who the fuck she was, honestly, but then she gave a great speech during the campaign in Georgia supporting me.' The couple had been together for eight years." A CNN story is here.

Quint Forgey of Politico: "Former acting White House chief of staff Mick Mulvaney on Tuesday conceded that if November's general election becomes a 'referendum' on ... Donald Trump, the Republican incumbent will face 'real headwinds' in his race against former Vice President Joe Biden. 'If the president can go back to drawing those contrasts between him and Joe Biden -- that becomes a race between Trump and Biden -- I think the president does extraordinarily well,' Mulvaney told Fox Business' Maria Bartiromo.... But 'if it ends up being a popularity contest or, worse, a referendum on President Trump, I think he's got some real headwinds to face,' Mulvaney, who now serves as the U.S. special envoy to Northern Ireland, said."

Matthew Goldstein of the New York Times: "When Jeffrey Epstein moved his money, Deutsche Bank didn't ask many questions. In a $150 million settlement to be announced on Tuesday, the New York Department of Financial Services said that Mr. Epstein, a convicted sex offender, engaged in suspicious transactions for years, even though Deutsche Bank had deemed him a 'high risk' client from the moment he became a customer in summer 2013."

~~~~~~~~~~

A Few Words (But Far Too Many) from the Racist-in-Chief:

"Trump Defends Confederate Flag in Latest Race-Based Appeal to White Voters." Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump mounted an explicit defense of the Confederate flag on Monday, suggesting that NASCAR had made a mistake in banning it from its auto racing events, while falsely accusing a top Black driver, Darrell Wallace Jr., of perpetrating a hoax involving a noose found in his garage.... Mr. Trump has increasingly used racist language and references to portray himself as a protector of the history of the American South.... 'Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!' Mr. Trump posted on Twitter on Monday." Here's an AP story. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "After multiple attempts to explain why President Trump appeared to defend the Confederate flag while attacking the only top black driver in NASCAR on Monday, White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany settled on arguing that Trump was speaking only in the abstract. 'The president has made clear he was not taking a position one way or the other in that tweet,' McEnany said Monday when asked for an unequivocal stance on the Confederate flag.... [The] pro-Confederacy tweet ... became the latest example of his willingness to push to preserve Confederate symbols and the legacy of white domination as part of his reelection pitch." ~~~

They name teams out of STRENGTH, not weakness, but now the Washington Redskins & Cleveland Indians, two fabled sports franchises, look like they are going to be changing their names in order to be politically correct. Indians, like Elizabeth Warren, must be very angry right now! -- Donald Trump, in a second, purposely racist tweet Monday

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump wrote about half-a-dozen tweets Monday about the "China Virus," (or what we would call the coronavirus) including one in which he asserted that "China has caused great damage to the United States and the rest of the World!" ~~~

     ~~~ Trump also spit out a couple of tweets boasting about his ill-conceived, illegally-financed border wall. ~~~

~~~ But, Happily, Trump Is Protecting Brazilian Jesus! Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "In a round of new digital ads, the Trump re-elect[ion campaign] asks people to support the president as he stands up to the angry mobs trying to tear down iconic memorials. In one specific ad, the endangered statue that the campaign spotlights happens to be the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 'The President wants to know who stood with him against the Radical Left,' declared dozens of ads run over the weekend on pages for Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. The ads featured a graphic with an image of the Christ the Redeemer statue above the text, 'WE WILL PROTECT THIS.' The photo appears to have come from an online database of free stock images.... There's no indication that the 125-foot sculpture, which sits at the peak of Corcovado mountain overlooking Rio, is at risk of vandalism or removal. It's also not clear how Trump or Pence might go about protecting it if it were threatened...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This was my first thought, which Markay expresses half-way through his post: "It was not immediately clear whether the Trump campaign was aware that the image it chose for its Facebook ads ... showed a statue in another country." I would just assume Trump's campaign staff & ad people are as culturally-aware as is Trump himself & they had no idea other countries had big ole statues of Jesus, too, the famous Rio statue being among them. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump has decided to pivot heavily to culture-war bluster and hard-right posturing. A major part of that pivot appears to be turning his anger on people who don't like the same statues he does and comparing those enemies to Nazi 'fascists.' Shockingly, there are some in Trump's political orbit who aren't convinced this tactic will move voters as much as the president seems to think it will.... 'The question now is, Is the statue shit going to work?' said a senior Trump campaign adviser, adding that current polling was 'inconclusive' at best." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Although I doubt it, maybe Trump's sharing his racist sentiments many times a day would be a little more tolerable if he were not also weaving them into cruel, unnecessary, anti-American policies attacking young Latinos: ~~~

~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump is expected to refile paperwork this week to rescind the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program that offers protections for thousands of young immigrants, according to multiple people familiar with the planning.... If the Trump administration files this week, the new DACA policy will coincide with an official visit from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador of Mexico, the country of origin for a majority of DACA recipients. The decision to refile on DACA was widely expected after the Supreme Court ruled last month that the administration failed to give an adequate justification for terminating the program as required by federal law. But the court made clear Trump had the authority to rescind the program, essentially forcing the president to try again or risk the appearance of backing down. 'We have to refile,' Trump told Fox News days after the ruling."

"The Handmaidens of White Supremacy." Dana Milbank of the Washington Post queries 11 senators in competitive races this year to comment on some of Donald Trump's recent blatantly racist remarks. Most refused to respond, and a few evaded an answer. None criticized Trump, though Lindsey "Graham's campaign directed me to his radio interview Monday with Fox News's Brian Kilmeade, in which Graham disagreed with Trump's NASCAR tweet but said Trump isn't racist. 'You can be dark as coal or an albino.... He's an equal-opportunity basher and praiser.'" Mrs. McC: Lindsey's response sounds quite color-conscious.

Trump Finds a New Excuse to Deport Pesky Foreigners. Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "The government announced Monday that international students will not be allowed to stay in the country if the institution in which they're enrolled is holding online-only courses this fall, and those failing to comply with the rules will risk deportation. The news comes as some colleges and universities, including Harvard, have announced they plan to hold online-only courses this fall as the United States struggles to get the coronavirus pandemic under control." Mrs. McC: But what if the student is from Norway?

Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "A career CIA officer explained in rare public remarks on Monday what she's learned about adapting intelligence briefings to the unique style of a particular 'customer' -- in her case..., Donald Trump. Beth Sanner, a senior official at the Office of the Director of National Intelligence who also serves as Trump's primary intelligence briefer, never mentioned the president by name during an event hosted by the non-profit Intelligence & National Security Alliance on Monday. But the unusual core challenge of her job -- delivering intelligence to Donald J. Trump -- was unavoidable as she discussed her own briefing techniques in detail, explaining that while she strives to be competent and fearless, she also tries not to be off-putting and aims to tailor briefings to a customer's particular style." Mrs. McC: Worth reading both the print & between the lines.

** Mr. Trudeau Regrets. Rob Gillis of the AP: Canada's "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has turned down a White House invitation to celebrate the new regional free trade agreement in Washington with ... Donald Trump and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Trump and López Obrador are due to meet Wednesday [in] Washington, but Trudeau spokesperson Chantal Gagnon said Monday that while Canada wishes the U.S. and Mexico well, Trudeau won't be there.... A senior U.S. administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be quoted by name, said Trudeau had multiple conflicts related to the start of Parliament and coronavirus regulations which require Canadians who travel abroad to quarantine for 14 days on return. The official said Trudeau has asked to speak with Trump by phone." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Fox "News" Regrets. That it aired a posed photo of Jeffrey Epstein with Melania & Ghislane Maxwell, but cropped Donald Trump from the photo. Mrs. McC: Yeah, I'll bet they "mistakenly eliminated" Trump's image. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Book Report. Another Tome by an Awful Human Being about an Awful Human Being. Lachlan Cartwright & Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "According to people familiar with the project, Stephanie Winston Wolkoff -- who was previously seen by the first lady as a loyal confidante and helped plan ... Donald Trump's 2017 inauguration in Washington, D.C. -- will release a tell-all, Melania and Me, on Sept. 1. People with knowledge of the project say the content of the book is largely negative and that the manuscript heavily trashes the first lady.... After playing a vital role in plotting Trump's inaugural festivities, Wolkoff landed the gig of senior adviser to the first lady. However, shortly after the start of the Trump era, the noted New York socialite had a dramatic falling-out with Melania Trump, triggered by news that Wolkoff's own firm snagged a cool $26 million from the Trump inaugural committee to help plan the events."

Many Readers Suspended in Breathless Anticipation. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "The publisher of a tell-all book written by ... Donald Trump's niece Mary is planning to rush the book out next Tuesday despite ongoing litigation aimed at bottling up the insider account of life in the Trump family. Simon & Schuster announced Monday that 'due to high demand and extraordinary interest' the firm is moving up the book's publication date by two weeks, to July 14 from July 28."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Washington Post's live updates for Monday are here.

Joshua Partlow & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The pandemic map of the United States burned bright red Monday, with the number of new coronavirus infections during the first six days of July nearing 300,000 as more states and cities moved to reimpose shutdown orders. After an Independence Day weekend that attracted large crowds to fireworks displays and produced scenes of Americans drinking and partying without masks, health officials warned of hospitals running out of space and infection spreading rampantly. The United States is 'still knee deep in the first wave' of the pandemic, Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Monday[.] Fauci noted that while Europe managed to drive infections down -- and now is dealing with little blips as it reopens -- U.S. communities 'never came down to baseline and now are surging back up,' he said in an interview conducted on Twitter and Facebook with his boss, National Institutes of Health Director Francis Collins."

Sarah Mervosh & Manny Fernandez of the New York Times: "Lines for coronavirus tests have stretched around city blocks and tests ran out altogether in at least one site on Monday, new evidence that the country is still struggling to create a sufficient testing system months into its battle with Covid-19.... In the early months of the nation's outbreak, testing posed a significant problem, as supplies fell far short and officials raced to understand how to best handle the virus. Since then, the United States has vastly ramped up its testing capability.... But in recent weeks, as cases have surged in many states, the demand for testing has soared, surpassing capacity and creating a new testing crisis. In many cities, officials said a combination of factors was now fueling the problem: a shortage of certain supplies, backlogs at laboratories that process the tests, and skyrocketing growth of the virus as cases climb in almost 40 states and the nation approaches a grim new milestone of three million total cases. Fast, widely available testing is crucial to controlling the virus over the long term in the United States, experts say...."

Florida. Ryan McKinnon of the Sarasota Herald-Tribune, in the Tallahassee Democrat: "Florida Education Commissioner Richard Corcoran issued an emergency order Monday, requiring all schools to open in the fall and laying out the requirements districts must meet to offer any sort of non-traditional remote instruction in addition to their in-person option.... Local health officials can override the commissioner's directive if it is not safe to open schools, due to COVID-19, but Monday's announcement makes it clear that districts have to prepare to open their doors to all students in August. And while health officials could deem schools unsafe, as long as there are not widespread shutdowns, it could be a tough call to single out schools."

Renae Merle of the Washington Post: "A backlog of eviction cases is beginning to move through the court system as millions of Americans who had counted on federal aid and eviction moratoriums to stay in their homes now fear being thrown out. A crisis among renters is expected to deepen this month as the enhanced unemployment benefits that have kept many afloat run out at the end of July and the $1,200-per-adult stimulus payment that had supported households earlier in the crisis becomes a distant memory. Meanwhile, enforcement of federal moratoriums on some types of evictions is uneven, with experts warning that judges' efforts to limit access to courtrooms or hold hearings online because of covid-19 could increasingly leave elderly or poor renters at a disadvantage. Of the 110 million Americans living in rental households, 20 percent are at risk of eviction by Sept. 30, according to an analysis by the Covid-19 Eviction Defense Project, a Colorado-based community group. African American and Hispanic renters are expected to be hardest hit."

Katie Thomas of the New York Times: "The federal government will pay the vaccine maker Novavax $1.6 billion to expedite the development of 100 million doses of a coronavirus vaccine by the beginning of next year, the company said on Tuesday.... In doing so, the government has placed a significant bet on Novavax, a company based in Maryland that has never brought a product to market.... The U.S. investment comes after an international group, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, awarded up to $388 million to Novavax in May to make its coronavirus vaccine available globally."

Jonathan O'Connell & Aaron Gregg of the Washington Post: "The Small Business Administration released information Monday about nearly 700,000 loans issued as part of the federal $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program since its launch in early April. The disclosure includes the names of 660,000 small businesses and nonprofit organizations that received at least $150,000 in funding, the most detailed yet on one of the largest economic stimulus packages created by the federal government. The data shows [show!] the government issued $521 billion in loans, with an average loan size of $107,000." A Politico story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been substantially updated. New Lede: "Data released Monday by the Small Business Administration shows that businesses owned by members of Congress and the law practice that represented President Trump were among the hundreds of thousands of firms that received aid from the agency. As part of its $660 billion small-business relief program, the SBA also handed out loans to private schools catering to elite clientele, firms owned by foreign companies and large chains backed by well-heeled Wall Street firms. Nearly 90,000 companies in the program took the aid without promising on their applications they would rehire workers or create jobs." ~~~

~~~ Update. Jeanna Smialek, et al., of the New York Times: "The Trump administration, under pressure to reveal which companies received loans from a $660 billion program intended to keep small businesses afloat, on Monday released data showing that restaurants, medical offices and car dealerships ranked high among the top loan recipients. The detailed information was confined to companies that received loans of more than $150,000. The administration said 86.5 percent of the loans were for less than that amount, so the snapshot captured only one sliver of businesses that tapped funds.... Sprinkled among the beneficiaries were businesses that are likely to attract scrutiny, including a fancy sushi restaurant at the Trump International Hotel in Washington; Kanye West's company, Yeezy; and President Trump's longtime personal lawyer [Marc Kasowitz]. Washington lobbying shops, high-priced law firms and special-interest groups also received big loans, according to the administration, the latest indication of how of the government's centerpiece effort to shore up mom-and-pop shops set off a race by organizations far afield from Main Street to secure federal money." ~~~

~~~ Lachlan Markay, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Among the entities cashing six to seven-figure checks from the federal government's Paycheck Protection Program in recent months were a fiscal responsibility advocacy organization run by anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, a high-powered consulting firm run by former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, the nonprofit headed by former Trump campaign official David Bossie, and a political strategy firm linked to two alumni of the Obama White House who've turned anti-Trump podcasting into a lucrative enterprise. Businesses tied to the president's son-in-law [Jared Kushner] as well as members of Congress got taxpayer funds. As did the elite D.C.-area schools where both ... Donald Trump and President Barack Obama enrolled their children...." An AP story is here.

Katherine Butler of the Guardian: "The coronavirus crisis has caused a dramatic deterioration in the European public perception of the US, extensive new polling reveals.... Negative attitudes of the US were most marked in Denmark (71%) Portugal (70%), France (68%), Germany (65%) and Spain (64%).... In an analysis of the data, the policy experts Susi Dennison and Pawel Zerka say that trust in the US is 'broken' as a result of its handling of the health crisis and that support for the transatlantic alliance has been 'hollowed out'." --s

Paul Krugman of the New York Times: "When did America start losing its war against the coronavirus?... I'd suggest that the turning point was way back on April 17, the day that Donald Trump tweeted 'LIBERATE MINNESOTA,' followed by 'LIBERATE MICHIGAN' and 'LIBERATE VIRGINIA.' In so doing, he effectively declared White House support for protesters demanding an end to the lockdowns governors had instituted to bring Covid-19 under control.... The rush to reopen in Sunbelt states was less a response to popular demand than a case of Republican governors following Trump's lead.... Trump's willingness to trade deaths for jobs and political gain has backfired.... We lost [the war against the coronavirus] because Trump and those around him decided that it was in their political interests to let the virus run wild."

Candace Buckner of the Washington Post: Christmas City Spirits of Bethlehem, Pa., in early March "suspended production of all drinkable alcohol and produced approximately 800 gallons of hand sanitizer for organizations, charities and workers risking their lives to combat the [corona]virus. According to the Distilled Spirits Council, 831 distilleries across the nation have made hand sanitizer for local communities. Only one distillery, however, has the distinction of producing it strictly for donation. Not a single one of the 4,000 four-ounce bottles of Christmas City Spirits' hand sanitizer, aptly named 'Corona Bullet,' was sold for profit." Definitely a feel-good story. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

BBC: "Zoonotic diseases - which jump from animals to humans - are increasing and will continue to do so without action to protect wildlife and preserve the environment, UN experts have warned. They blame the rise in diseases such as Covid-19 on high demand for animal protein, unsustainable agricultural practices and climate change.... But that jump is not automatic. It is driven, according to the report by the United Nations Environment Programme and the International Livestock Research Institute, by the degradation of our natural environment - for example through land degradation, wildlife exploitation, resource extraction and climate change. This alters the way animals and humans interact." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: That is, Trump's anti-environmental, anti-science policies may have contributed as much as China did to the transfer of the coronavirus from rodents to humans.

The Bubonic Plague Makes a Comeback! Gerry Shih of the Washington Post: "Chinese public health authorities are taking precautions to prevent a bubonic plague outbreak in a remote northern region after a herder contracted the disease, although the risk of large-scale infections is low with the availability of modern medicine."

Nothing to See Here, Folks. FCCED: "Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is in the final stages of resolving its biggest legal threat in a decade after tussling with the government on one critical issue: a potential guilty plea for the first time in Goldman's history. To avert such a penalty over its work for a Malaysian sovereign fund, Goldman has appealed to the Justice Department's highest ranks. Attorney General William Barr began overseeing the case after obtaining a waiver because his former law firm represents Goldman. The department's No. 2 official has also been directly involved.... John Marzulli, a spokesman for the U.S. attorney's office in Brooklyn, New York, that's handling the case, declined to comment." --s

Elections 2020

Yasmeen Abutaleb & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The Trump and Biden presidential campaigns now see the coronavirus response as the preeminent force shaping the results of November's election.... Advisers to ... Joe Biden see the covid-19 crisis as perhaps the clearest way yet to contrast the former vice president with President Trump, using the stumbling response and renewed surge in cases as ways to paint Trump as uninformed, incapable of empathy and concerned only about his own political standing.... Trump's advisers, by contrast, are seeking ways to reframe his response to the coronavirus -- even as the president himself largely seeks to avoid the topic because he views it as a political loser.... The goal is to convince Americans that they can live with the virus.... White House officials also hope Americans will grow numb to the escalating death toll and learn to accept tens of thousands of new cases a day...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: How uplifting a campaign message is this?: "Get out and get sick, people. It's 'totally harmless'!"

Senator Grassley Regrets. Stephen Gruber-Miller of the Des Moines Register: "Citing concerns about the coronavirus, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley [R-Cranky] said he will not attend this year's Republican National Convention, marking the first time he has sat out a convention since he was elected to the U.S. Senate 40 years ago. 'I'm not going to go. And I'm not going to go because of the virus situation,' Grassley[, who is 86,] said Monday morning on a conference call with reporters."

Utah Gubernatorial Race. Maggie Astor of the New York Times: "Lt. Gov. Spencer Cox of Utah won last week's Republican primary for governor, according to results released on Monday. He defeated Jon Huntsman Jr., who served as governor from 2005 to 2009 before stepping down to become President Barack Obama's ambassador to China. The Associated Press called the race on Monday evening, and Mr. Cox said on Twitter that Mr. Huntsman had called him to concede. Mr. Cox is expected to win the governorship in November over the Democratic nominee, Chris Peterson.... Mr. Huntsman's campaign was interrupted last month when he tested positive for the coronavirus. He has since recovered. To some extent, Mr. Huntsman's loss was surprising given his political history: He was one of the most popular governors in the country when he left office. But he is also a moderate Republican...." An AP story is here.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "States can require members of the Electoral College to cast their votes for the presidential candidates they had pledged to support, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Monday. In curbing the independence of electors, the court limited one potential source of uncertainty in the 2020 presidential election." An AP story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nicolas Stephanopoulos in Slate: "Powerhouse right-wing lawyers ... have ... opened a troubling new front in the voting wars. They now claim that it's unconstitutional for states to make it easier to vote while the pandemic rages. Relaxations of voting rules supposedly give rise to fraudulent votes that impermissibly dilute the ballots cast by law-abiding citizens. This novel argument should -- but probably won't -- be laughed out of court.... [P]laintiffs don't complain that it's too hard for them to vote. Instead, their grievance is that, while they can vote without hindrance, their ballots may be diluted by fraudulent votes cast by other people. The prevention of fraud thus becomes a sword in these cases, not a shield -- a reason to strike down a state policy, not to uphold it." --s

Rogue Nation. Stephanie Nebehay of Reuters: "The January U.S. drone strike in Iraq that killed top Iranian general Qassem Soleimani and nine other people represented a violation of international law, a U.N. human rights investigator said on Monday." --s

AP: "A federal appeals court on Monday blocked a key U.S. policy to deny asylum to anyone who passes through another country without first seeking protection there, dealing it a second blow in less than a week. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruling has no immediate impact because a judge appointed by President Donald Trump in Washington last week knocked down the policy on procedural grounds. The three-judge appeals panel in San Francisco found procedural errors as well as substantive reasons to block the policy while litigation continues. The panel said it does 'virtually nothing' to prevent asylum-seekers from being sent to unsafe countries, a violation of international treaty obligations."

Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "A federal judge ruled Monday that the Dakota Access Pipeline must be shut down by Aug. 5, saying federal officials failed to do a complete analysis of its environmental impacts. The decision marks the second setback for President Trump's infrastructure push in just two days, underscoring the extent to which long-standing environmental laws represent an obstacle to his quest to expand domestic oil and gas production. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg wrote that the federal government had not met all the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, a 50-year-old-law that the Trump administration is seeking to weaken.... The Dakota Access Pipeline, which opened in 2017, carries about half a million barrels of crude oil a day from North Dakota's Bakken shale basin to Illinois. The ruling means the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must conduct a more thorough analysis of how a leak in the Dakota pipeline could affect Lake Oahe, which collects water from the Missouri River and lies half a mile from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation." A Bismarck Tribune story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Jonathan Ellis of the Sioux Falls Argus Leader: "A Sioux Falls man who used his connections in the conservative movement to help his Russian girlfriend gain political access was sentenced Monday to serve seven years in federal prison. Paul Erickson was not charged with any wrongdoing involving his efforts to help Maria Butina make inroads with political contacts. Instead, he was accused of defrauding investors in various schemes over the last 20 years. Butina, a young woman who portrayed herself as a gun rights activist, was deported last fall after serving time for failing to register as a foreign agent. Her role in his downfall did not come up Monday."

Beyond the Beltway

New York. Jan Ransom of the New York Times: "When Amy Cooper, a white woman, called 911 from an isolated patch in Central Park where she was standing with her unleashed dog on Memorial Day, she said an 'African-American man' was threatening her life, emphasizing his race to the operator. Moments before Ms. Cooper made the call, the man, Christian Cooper, an avid bird-watcher, had asked her to leash her dog, and she had refused. On Monday, Ms. Cooper was charged with filing a false report, a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail, the latest fallout from an encounter that resonated across the country and provoked intense discussions about how Black people are harmed when sham reports to the police are made about them by white people.... The pending criminal charge against Ms. Cooper appears to be among the first that a white person in the United States has faced for wrongfully calling the police to make a complaint about a Black person." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Perhaps the weirdest thing was that Amy knew the "threatening African-American man" was calming standing there videotaping her making the false charge to the 911 operator. She was effectively giving evidence against herself.

Way Beyond

Panama. Sofia Menchu & Elida Moreno of Reuters: "U.S. prosecutors have charged two sons [Luis Enrique Martinelli, 38, and Ricardo Alberto Martinelli, 40] of former Panamanian President Ricardo Martinelli in connection with bribery and money laundering linked to Brazilian construction firm Odebrecht, according to a federal complaint unsealed on Monday.... Odebrecht has been at the center of a far-reaching Latin American corruption scandal uncovered in 2014, in which the company paid more than $700 million in bribes to government officials in various countries." --s

** U.K. Elizabeth Piper & Andy Bruce of Reuters: "Britain imposed sanctions on 25 Russians and 20 Saudis on Monday as part of post-Brexit measures foreign minister Dominic Raab said were aimed at stopping the laundering of 'blood money'. After leaving the European Union in January, Prime Minister Boris Johnson wants to forge a new independent role for Britain in foreign and trade affairs and this was the first time London could impose asset freezes and visa bans independently."

The Commentariat -- July 6, 2020

Afternoon Update:

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

** Mr. Trudeau Regrets. Rob Gillis of the AP: Canada's "Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has turned down a White House invitation to celebrate the new regional free trade agreement in Washington with ... Donald Trump and Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador. Trump and López Obrador are due to meet Wednesday [in] Washington, but Trudeau spokesperson Chantal Gagnon said Monday that while Canada wishes the U.S. and Mexico well, Trudeau won't be there.... A senior U.S. administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to be quoted by name, said Trudeau had multiple conflicts related to the start of Parliament and coronavirus regulations which require Canadians who travel abroad to quarantine for 14 days on return. The official said Trudeau has asked to speak with Trump by phone."

Fox "News" Regrets. That it aired a posed photo of Jeffrey Epstein with Melania & Ghislane Maxwell, but cropped Donald Trump from the photo. Mrs. McC: Yeah, I'll bet they "mistakenly eliminated" Trump's image.

Candace Buckner of the Washington Post: Christmas City Spirits of Bethlehem, Pa., in early March "suspended production of all drinkable alcohol and produced approximately 800 gallons of hand sanitizer for organizations, charities and workers risking their lives to combat the [corona]virus. According to the Distilled Spirits Council, 831 distilleries across the nation have made hand sanitizer for local communities. Only one distillery, however, has the distinction of producing it strictly for donation. Not a single one of the 4,000 four-ounce bottles of Christmas City Spirits' hand sanitizer, aptly named 'Corona Bullet,' was sold for profit." Definitely a feel-good story.

They name teams out of STRENGTH, not weakness, but now the Washington Redskins & Cleveland Indians, two fabled sports franchises, look like they are going to be changing their names in order to be politically correct. Indians, like Elizabeth Warren, must be very angry right now! -- Donald Trump, in his second racist tweet Monday.

"Trump Defends Confederate Flag in Latest Race-Based Appeal to White Voters." Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump mounted an explicit defense of the Confederate flag on Monday, suggesting that NASCAR had made a mistake in banning it from its auto racing events, while falsely accusing a top Black driver, Darrell Wallace Jr., of perpetrating a hoax involving a noose found in his garage.... Mr. Trump has increasingly used racist language and references to portray himself as a protector of the history of the American South.... 'Has @BubbaWallace apologized to all of those great NASCAR drivers & officials who came to his aid, stood by his side, & were willing to sacrifice everything for him, only to find out that the whole thing was just another HOAX? That & Flag decision has caused lowest ratings EVER!' Mr. Trump posted on Twitter on Monday." Here's an AP story.~~~

~~~ Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "In a round of new digital ads, the Trump re-elect[ion campaign] asks people to support the president as he stands up to the angry mobs trying to tear down iconic memorials. In one specific ad, the endangered statue that the campaign spotlights happens to be the famous Christ the Redeemer statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. 'The President wants to know who stood with him against the Radical Left,' declared dozens of ads run over the weekend on pages for Trump and Vice President Mike Pence. The ads featured a graphic with an image of the Christ the Redeemer statue above the text, 'WE WILL PROTECT THIS.' The photo appears to have come from an online database of free stock images.... There's no indication that the 125-foot sculpture, which sits at the peak of Corcovado mountain overlooking Rio, is at risk of vandalism or removal. It's also not clear how Trump or Pence might go about protecting it if it were threatened...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This was my first thought, which Markay expresses half-way through his post: "It was not immediately clear whether the Trump campaign was aware that the image it chose for its Facebook ads ... showed a statue in another country." I would just assume Trump's campaign staff & ad people are as culturally-aware as is Trump himself & they had no idea other countries had big ole statues of Jesus, too, the famous Rio statue being among them. ~~~

~~~ Asawin Suebsaeng of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump has decided to pivot heavily to culture-war bluster and hard-right posturing. A major part of that pivot appears to be turning his anger on people who don't like the same statues he does and comparing those enemies to Nazi 'fascists.' Shockingly, there are some in Trump's political orbit who aren't convinced this tactic will move voters as much as the president seems to think it will.... 'The question now is, Is the statue shit going to work?' said a senior Trump campaign adviser, adding that current polling was 'inconclusive' at best."

Jonathan O'Connell & Aaron Gregg of the Washington Post: "The Small Business Administration released information Monday about nearly 700,000 loans issued as part of the federal $660 billion Paycheck Protection Program since its launch in early April. The disclosure includes the names of 660,000 small businesses and nonprofit organizations that received at least $150,000 in funding, the most detailed yet on one of the largest economic stimulus packages created by the federal government. The data shows [show!] the government issued $521 billion in loans, with an average loan size of $107,000." A Politico story is here.

Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "States can require members of the Electoral College to cast their votes for the presidential candidates they had pledged to support, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled on Monday. In curbing the independence of electors, the court limited one potential source of uncertainty in the 2020 presidential election." An AP story is here.

Juliet Eilperin, et al., of the Washington Post: "A federal judge ruled Monday that the Dakota Access Pipeline must be shut down by Aug. 5, saying federal officials failed to do a complete analysis of its environmental impacts. The decision marks the second setback for President Trump's infrastructure push in just two days, underscoring the extent to which long-standing environmental laws represent an obstacle to his quest to expand domestic oil and gas production. U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg wrote that the federal government had not met all the requirements of the National Environmental Policy Act, a 50-year-old-law that the Trump administration is seeking to weaken.... The Dakota Access Pipeline, which opened in 2017, carries about half a million barrels of crude oil a day from North Dakota's Bakken shale basin to Illinois. The ruling means the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers must conduct a more thorough analysis of how a leak in the Dakota pipeline could affect Lake Oahe, which collects water from the Missouri River and lies half a mile from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation." A Bismarck Tribune story is here.

~~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Sunday are here. "New infections announced across the United States last week total more than 330,000, a record high that includes the five highest single-day totals of the pandemic." (Also linked yesterday.)

Derek Hawkins, et al., of the Washington Post: "Officials in states with surging coronavirus cases issued dire warnings and blamed outbreaks on early reopenings Sunday as the seven-day average for daily new cases in the United States reached a record high for the 27th straight day.... Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Stephen Hahn said it was 'too early to tell' whether the Republican National Convention could be held safely in Jacksonville, Fla., next month." The article is free to nonsubscribers. ~~~

~~~ Robert Barnes & Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "The Independence Day weekend concluded with dire predictions about the surge of coronavirus cases around the country and with national and local officials saying a rush to reopen fueled the spread of the novel coronavirus and outpaced efforts to care for its victims. 'We're right back where we were at the peak of the epidemic during the New York outbreak,' former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Scott Gottlieb said on 'Face the Nation' on CBS. 'The difference now is that we really had one epicenter of spread when New York was going through its hardship, now we really have four major epicenters of spread: Los Angeles, cities in Texas, cities in Florida, and Arizona. And Florida looks to be in the worst shape.'... FDA Commissioner Stephen Hahn was pressed to analyze President Trump's comments Saturday that a vaccine would be ready 'long before the end of the year' and that 99 percent of the cases have been 'totally harmless.' Hahn dodged both in appearances on the Sunday talk shows.... Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego (D) attributed soaring case numbers in Arizona to the state's decision to resume business as usual before the virus was under control.... Gallego said federal officials had dismissed her requests to conduct community-based testing ... after people reported waiting in line for six hours at some testing sites."

Richard Oppel, et al., of the New York Times: "Early numbers had shown that Black and Latino people were being harmed by the [corona]virus at higher rates. But the new federal data -- made available after The New York Times sued the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- reveals a clearer and more complete picture: Black and Latino people have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus in a widespread manner that spans the country, throughout hundreds of counties in urban, suburban and rural areas, and across all age groups. Latino and African-American residents of the United States have been three times as likely to become infected as their white neighbors.... And Black and Latino people have been nearly twice as likely to die from the virus as white people...." Mrs. McC: How disgusting is it that a legitimate news organization had to sue the CDC -- paid for with taxpayer dollars -- to get information critical to public health? (Also linked yesterday.)

Yoo Who! Wake Up & Smell the Teensy Particles. Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "The coronavirus is finding new victims worldwide, in bars and restaurants, offices, markets and casinos, giving rise to frightening clusters of infection that increasingly confirm what many scientists have been saying for months: The virus lingers in the air indoors, infecting those nearby.... The World Health Organization has long held that the coronavirus is spread primarily by large respiratory droplets that, once expelled by infected people in coughs and sneezes, fall quickly to the floor. But in an open letter to the W.H.O., 239 scientists in 32 countries have outlined the evidence showing that smaller particles can infect people, and are calling for the agency to revise its recommendations. The researchers plan to publish their letter in a scientific journal next week." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sarah Knapton of The Telegraph, via Yahoo!: "Coronavirus may have lain dormant across the world and emerged when environmental conditions were right for it to thrive - rather than starting in China, an Oxford University expert believes. Dr Tom Jefferson, senior associate tutor at the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (CEBM), at Oxford..., argues that there is growing evidence that the virus was elsewhere before it emerged in Asia.... Dr Jefferson believes that many viruses lie dormant throughout the globe and emerge when conditions are favourable. It also means they can vanish as quickly as they arrive.... Dr Jefferson believes that the virus may be transmitted through the sewage system or shared toilet facilities, not just through droplets expelled by talking, coughing and sneezing." --s

Maeve Reston of CNN was flummoxed by Donald Trump's "mystifying -- and dangerously misleading claim -- that 99% of coronavirus cases in America are 'totally harmless.'... There have now been at least 2.8 million cases of coronavirus in the United States, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. While the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 35% of cases are asymptomatic, those patients can still spread the virus. As of Saturday, Johns Hopkins estimated that the fatality rate for the US was 4.6%." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Reston's figures are a bit misleading. Researchers admit they don't know the long-term effects of the virus are, even among the apparently asymptomatic. But if 35% of today's victims are currently asymptomatic, then 65% felt symptoms. We know that among them, many had symptoms so severe they had to be hospitalized or seek other medical support. Extrapolating from a CDC summary, it appears that about 330,000 Americans have been hospitalized for Covid-19. That's about 11% of Covid victims who have been hospitalized, a figure that of course doesn't include the vast numbers of victims who were turned away from hospitals, sought other treatment or got no professional treatment at all. To claim that Covid is "totally harmless" to all but one percent of those who contract it is not just fuzzy math; it's a big honking lie. (There is one quasi-justification I can see for Trump's claim: the CDC has said that the number of Americans infected is ten times as high as reports indicate. That would bring the percentage of hospitalized patients down to 1.1%. That doesn't mean the virus was "totally harmless" to the other 98.9% of Covid victims, but it could explain away Trump's wild assertion.)

When Is 2 Greater than 130,000? When Joni Ernst Is Counting. Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA), when confronted with her previous criticisms of then-President Barack Obama's handling of the Ebola outbreak in 2014, claimed on Sunday morning that ... Donald Trump is 'stepping forward' in his response to the coronavirus pandemic that's now killed 130,000 Americans.... Despite Obama deploying 3,000 service members to Africa to contain the virus, and only 11 confirmed cases and two deaths recorded in the United States, Ernst at the time accused the president of 'failed leadership' on the disease.... The Republican lawmaker, however, took the opportunity to heap praise on the Trump administration for its response to the public health crisis while seemingly placing the blame on Democrats for any shortfalls.... Ernst's home state of Iowa, meanwhile, hit its all-time high in new coronavirus cases on Saturday, reporting 568 new COVID-19 infections."

Trumpsylvania, where all the people are white, all the women are hot, all the men are armed, and all the children go to above-average private schools:

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "President Trump, with two speeches in two days, has turned the Fourth of July from a joyful and unifying patriotic celebration of America's founding values into a partisan political event. The damage could outlast his presidency.... Never in our lifetimes has the Independence Day holiday been used for such divisive and personal ends.... A portion of the country hears Trump's rhetoric as an uplifting message extolling the rich history of American success and greatness. The rest of the country recoils at a message seen as racist and divisive. As with all things Trump-related, there can be no middle ground. That's the inheritance this president is leaving to the country." Mrs. McC: Just love it when Sleepy Dan, the Both-Sides Man, gets slightly woke. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "... in [Trump's] view, schools are teaching kids to 'hate our country' with a 'far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance.'... 'If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished,' he said.... Trump is pushing a view of public education in the country that has long been espoused by many Republicans: that public K-12 schools and institutions of higher education are cauldrons of subversion where teachers mold children into being politically correct leftists." Mrs. McC: To be fair to Trump, many a child -- if she knew the word "fascist" -- would so describe her teacher or some other school employee -- like the Cafeteria Nazi! (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Benjamin Fearnow of Newsweek: "About 1,000 heavily armed militia, all of whom were Black, marched through Georgia's Stone Mountain Park on Independence Day, challenging white nationalist groups in the area to either come out and fight or join them in demonstrating against the government. Stone Mountain State Park officials said the Black militia group was peaceful, orderly and escorted by police Saturday as they called for the removal of the country's largest Confederate monument near Atlanta.... [T]he 'Not F**king Around Coalition' (NFAC) ... Founder Grand Master Jay told Newsweek via phone Sunday that the militia members at Stone Mountain on Saturday were '100 percent black' and they are not affiliated with Black Lives Matter. 'We are a black militia. We aren't protesters, we aren't demonstrators. We don't come to sing, we don't come to chant. That's not what we do,' he said." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McC: Now will Trump be singing the praises of this Second Amendment group?

Crazy People News. Shawn Boberg & Dalton Bennett of the Washington Post: "For weeks, a mysterious figure on social media talked up plans for antifa protesters to converge ... [at Gettysburg National Park] on Independence Day to burn American flags, an event that seemed at times to border on the farcical.... As word spread, self-proclaimed militias, bikers, skinheads and far-right groups from outside the state issued a call to action, pledging in online videos and posts to come to Gettysburg to protect the Civil War monuments and the nation's flag from desecration. Some said they would bring firearms and use force if necessary. On Saturday afternoon, in the hours before the flag burning was to start, they flooded in by the hundreds -- heavily armed and unaware, it seemed, that the mysterious Internet poster was [a fake]...." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

New York. Gary Craig & Ryan Miller of the Rochester Democrat & Chronicle: "On the same weekend in which famed abolitionist Frederick Douglass 168 years ago delivered one of his most historically resonant speeches, a statue of Douglass was toppled from its base and left near the Genesee River gorge.... The Maplewood Park location includes Kelsey's Landing, where Douglass, Harriet Tubman, and others helped shuttle slaves to safety along the Underground Railroad. Across the United States, Douglass' July 5, 1852 speech, 'What to the Slave is the Fourth of July,' has been shared widely on social media and elsewhere as a reminder of the country's legacy of slavery and racism.... Douglass, a former slave, delivered the speech to the Ladies' Anti-Slavery Society at Corinthian Hall in downtown Rochester."

Paul Sonne of the Washington Post: "Russia is once again threatening to become a major factor in a U.S. presidential election as long-standing fears about President Trump's deference to Russian President Vladimir Putin crystallize in a scandal over alleged Russian bounty payments targeting U.S. forces in Afghanistan.... In the days since the reports [of Russian bounty payments] became public, Trump has declined to criticize Putin or Russia, and senior administration officials say the White House isn't planning a response. Instead, Trump told Fox News on Wednesday that the entire affair is a 'hoax by the newspapers and the Democrats' and insisted he wasn't briefed on the intelligence in the first place because it was inconclusive." ~~~

~~~ Nic Robertson of CNN: "This past week, on ... Donald Trump's watch Russia and China have effectively re-aligned the coming world order. They didn't do it together, but both took advantage of uncertainty and unpredictability that Trump has helped create. It's far from clear that the next US President will be able to roll back the consequences of this week, which leave both Presidents Vladimir Putin in Moscow and Xi Jinping in Beijing more decisively in control of their own countries and more able to act assertively.... The question historians may well debate in the future is not whether Trump's presidency affected Putin's and Xi's decisions but by how much his delusions changed the world in their favor."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "Santae A. Tribble, whose wrongful conviction for a 1978 murder in Southeast Washington exposed decades of exaggerated claims about the reliability of FBI forensic hair matches, has died, his family said.... Tribble was exonerated in 2012 after serving 28 years in prison for the killing of a D.C. taxi driver, who died when Tribble was 17. DNA testing revealed that Tribble could not have contributed hairs found in what police said was a stocking mask worn by the attacker and left near the crime scene -- even though at trial, the FBI declared the hairs microscopically matched Tribble's, and prosecutors suggested the odds of a mismatch were 'one ... in 10 million.' Tribble's case and others ... helped trigger a federal review that in 2015 disclosed FBI examiners systematically overstated testimony in almost all trials in which they offered hair evidence against criminal defendants for two decades before 2000. The findings led the Justice Department to offer new DNA testing in cases with errors and launch a partnership with independent scientists to raise forensic science standards. The findings also led to a review of other forensic disciplines for similar 'testimonial overstatement,' although the Trump administration suspended the latter efforts." Emphasis added. ~~~

     ~~~ Rule of Thumb Trump. If it's possible to do the wrong thing, the Trumpies will do it.

Jerry Dunleavy of the Washington Examiner: "During the evening of July 4, retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn shared a video of himself leading five other people in a recitation of the oath of office traditionally given to federal elected officeholders, ending the oath with a slogan associated with the QAnon conspiracy theory. Flynn ... posted the Independence Day video of himself ... [and the others] in front of a bonfire. Flynn and the others ended the short video by quoting a popular QAnon slogan -- 'Where we go one, we go all!' -- after which they said, 'God bless America.'... The former national security adviser had added '#TakeTheOath' to his Twitter profile in recent days.... Flynn is popular among many QAnon supporters. Sidney Powell..., who took over Flynn's defense last year, denied that her client's video had anything to do with QAnon."

Elections 2020

Justine Coleman of the Hill: "President Trump will hold an outdoor rally in New Hampshire this coming weekend, his campaign announced Sunday. The president's next ... rally will gather supporters at Portsmouth International Airport on Saturday, July 11.... Health experts are still warning against large gatherings of people, saying they could intensify the current surge of cases in the U.S.... New Hampshire is one of two states where cases are considered to be decreasing, according to The New York Times." Mrs. McC: Now, Trump plans to kill some of my neighbors -- and maybe me -- to stroke his ego.

Ken Vogel, et al., of the New York Times: "The mutually beneficial relationships between the president and ... lobbyists is the latest evidence of the hollowness of Mr. Trump's 2016 campaign pledge to 'drain the swamp' by taking on the special interests, lobbyists and donors who had 'rigged the system against everyday Americans.' Mr. Trump's political kitchen cabinet is stocked with people who are thriving in that swamp." For example: When the CEO of Raytheon wanted a meeting with Mike Pompeo to facilitate a huge arms sale that Congress had nixed, he couldn't get one until he hired lobbyist David Urban to grease the wheels. After the meeting, Pompeo issued an emergency waiver -- "now the subject of congressional and inspector general investigations" -- that allowed Raytheon to sell missiles & bombs to Saudi Arabia & the U.A.E. "The story behind Mr. Pompeo's meeting with Raytheon, which has not been previously reported, is emblematic of the outsize influence wielded in Washington by Mr. Urban and a small group of other lobbyists and operatives who backed Mr. Trump when most of the K Street establishment was keeping its distance.... With Mr. Trump lagging in the polls, the lobbyists are seeking to protect that mutually beneficial relationship by working to re-elect him, underscoring the mix of politics and policy that has served them -- and their clients -- so well over the last three and a half years."

Allan Smith of NBC News: The anti-Trump Republican Lincoln Project "has become ubiquitous on social media in recent weeks as the president is bogged down by the COVID-19 pandemic and social unrest. Its members include George Conway, husband of top White House official Kellyanne Conway, and prominent Republican operatives like John Weaver, Reed Galen, Steve Schmidt, Rick Wilson and Stuart Stevens, who have worked on the George W. Bush, John McCain, Mitt Romney and John Kasich presidential campaigns. Founded in December, the group's stated mission is to 'defeat Trump and Trumpism' in 2020. Weaver said the Lincoln Project seeks to provoke a Trump response with its ads and social media ventures while targeting white voters who may traditionally vote Republican but are uneasy about the president." The group also sought to rile Trump; that was the easy part.

Alabama Senate Race. Surprise! Trump Preferred Candidate Is a Crook. Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "President Trump's favored Senate candidate in Alabama, Tommy Tuberville, is known for his career as a college football coach. But he also had a brief stint as co-owner of a hedge fund. It did not go well. A little more than a decade ago, after departing from Auburn University where he was head coach, Mr. Tuberville entered into a 50-50 partnership with a former Lehman Brothers broker named John David Stroud. Their ventures, which included TS Capital Management and TS Capital Partners -- T for Tuberville and S for Stroud -- turned out to be a financial fraud. Mr. Stroud was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and Mr. Tuberville was sued by investors, who accused him of fraud and violating his fiduciary duty to take care of their investments; he reached a private settlement in 2013. The episode has been seldom discussed in Mr. Tuberville's Republican primary campaign for the Senate, in which his opponent in the July 14 runoff is Jeff Sessions, the former senator and attorney general who became an object of Mr. Trump's ire.... The winner will face Doug Jones, considered perhaps the most vulnerable Democrat in the battle for control of the Senate." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Montana Gubernatorial Race. Bradley Warren in Montana Right Now: "Congressman Greg Gianforte and Lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Kristen Juras are suspending public events after a potential exposure to COVID-19. On Tuesday, Gianforte's wife, Susan, and Juras attended a fundraising event with Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend Kimblery Guilfoyle in the Big Sky area according to a spokesperson for the Gianforte campaign.... The Trump Campaign chief of staff for the Trump Victory Finance committee confirmed to The New York Times that Guilfoyle tested positive for COVID-19 in South Dakota." Gianforte is running for governor. Mrs. McC: Sadly, this means Gianforte will not have an opportunity in the near future to beat up any bespeckled reporters. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Carole Cadwalladr of the Guardian: "There is no power on this earth that is capable of holding Facebook to account. No legislature, no law enforcement agency, no regulator. Congress has failed. The EU has failed. When the Federal Trade Commission fined it a record $5bn for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal, its stock price actually went up.... [T]his is a company that facilitated an attack on a US election by a foreign power, that live-streamed a massacre then broadcast it to millions around the world, and helped incite a genocide [in Myanmar].... If Facebook was a country, it would be a rogue state. It would be North Korea.... It's a nuclear weapon.... [I]t has continued to pump out relentless, unbelievable, increasingly preposterous propaganda even as it controls the main news distribution channels.... Facebook's harms are global. Its threat to democracy is existential.... It may turn out that Facebook isn't just bigger than China. It's bigger than capitalism." --s

WSAZ: "Dominion Energy and Duke Energy announced Sunday the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline due to ongoing delays and increasing cost uncertainty which threaten the economic viability of the project. According to a news release, despite last month's 7-2 victory at the United States Supreme Court, recent developments created a layer of uncertainty and anticipated delays for ACP.... The news release goes on to say, a series of legal challenges to the project's federal and state permits caused significant project cost increases and timing delays.... As a result, recent public guidance of project cost has increased to $8 billion from the original estimate of $4.5 to $5.0 billion. In addition, the most recent public estimate of commercial in-service in early 2022 represents a nearly three-and- a-half-year delay with uncertainty remaining." --s A Washington Post story is here.

Beyond the Beltway

Texas. Alex Horton of the Washington Post: "Army investigators have positively identified the remains of Spc. Vanessa Guillén, her family told The Washington Post on Sunday, more than two months after she vanished from Fort Hood. Remains discovered Tuesday in a shallow grave east of the Texas installation triggered a manhunt that ended when one suspect -- Spc. Aaron Robinson -- killed himself as officers closed in, the Army said. Robinson's girlfriend was charged with evidence tampering and said she helped dispose of the body, court records show. Guillén's disappearance, and her family's allegations that she was sexually harassed, drew attention from activists, lawmakers, celebrities and other soldiers. The family has also complained that the Army's search for the 20-year-old soldier lacked urgency and care at the highest levels."

Way Beyond

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "The news media has largely moved on, but foreign government officials remain fixated on John Bolton's memoir, 'The Room Where It Happened.'... Bolton's detailed inside-the-Oval revelations have raised the blood pressure of allies who were already stressed about President Trump's unreliability.... [For instance,] European officials, who have spent three and a half years fretting that Trump would withdraw the U.S. from NATO, are treated to a hair-raising account of just how close Trump came to announcing he would do just that. The behind-the-scenes maneuverings from Trump's team to stop that from happening suggest it's still a real possibility."

Hong Kong. Gathering Kindling for the Bonfire. BBC: "Books by pro-democracy figures have been removed from public libraries in Hong Kong in the wake of a controversial new security law. The works will be reviewed to see if they violate the new law, the authority which runs the libraries said. The legislation targets secession, subversion and terrorism with punishments of up to life in prison."

News Lede

New York Times: "Charlie Daniels, the singer, songwriter and bandleader known for his brash down-home persona and his blazing fiddle work on hits like 'The Devil Went Down to Georgia,' died on Monday in Nashville. He was 83."

The Commentariat -- July 5, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Richard Oppel, et al., of the New York Times: "Early numbers had shown that Black and Latino people were being harmed by the [corona]virus at higher rates. But the new federal data -- made available after The New York Times sued the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- reveals a clearer and more complete picture: Black and Latino people have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus in a widespread manner that spans the country, throughout hundreds of counties in urban, suburban and rural areas, and across all age groups. Latino and African-American residents of the United States have been three times as likely to become infected as their white neighbors.... And Black and Latino people have been nearly twice as likely to die from the virus as white people...." Mrs. McC: How disgusting is it that a legitimate news organization had to sue the CDC -- paid for with taxpayer dollars -- to get information critical to public health?

Yoo Who! Wake Up & Smell the Teensy Particles. Apoorva Mandavilli of the New York Times: "The coronavirus is finding new victims worldwide, in bars and restaurants, offices, markets and casinos, giving rise to frightening clusters of infection that increasingly confirm what many scientists have been saying for months: The virus lingers in the air indoors, infecting those nearby.... The World Health Organization has long held that the coronavirus is spread primarily by large respiratory droplets that, once expelled by infected people in coughs and sneezes, fall quickly to the floor. But in an open letter to the W.H.O., 239 scientists in 32 countries have outlined the evidence showing that smaller particles can infect people, and are calling for the agency to revise its recommendations. The researchers plan to publish their letter in a scientific journal next week."

Dan Balz of the Washington Post: "President Trump, with two speeches in two days, has turned the Fourth of July from a joyful and unifying patriotic celebration of America's founding values into a partisan political event. The damage could outlast his presidency.... Never in our lifetimes has the Independence Day holiday been used for such divisive and personal ends.... A portion of the country hears Trump's rhetoric as an uplifting message extolling the rich history of American success and greatness. The rest of the country recoils at a message seen as racist and divisive. As with all things Trump-related, there can be no middle ground. That's the inheritance this president is leaving to the country."

Alabama Senate Race. Surprise! Trump Preferred Candidate Is a Crook. Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "President Trump's favored Senate candidate in Alabama, Tommy Tuberville, is known for his career as a college football coach. But he also had a brief stint as co-owner of a hedge fund. It did not go well. A little more than a decade ago, after departing from Auburn University where he was head coach, Mr. Tuberville entered into a 50-50 partnership with a former Lehman Brothers broker named John David Stroud. Their ventures, which included TS Capital Management and TS Capital Partners -- T for Tuberville and S for Stroud -- turned out to be a financial fraud. Mr. Stroud was sentenced to 10 years in prison, and Mr. Tuberville was sued by investors, who accused him of fraud and violating his fiduciary duty to take care of their investments; he reached a private settlement in 2013. The episode has been seldom discussed in Mr. Tuberville's Republican primary campaign for the Senate, in which his opponent in the July 14 runoff is Jeff Sessions, the former senator and attorney general who became an object of Mr. Trump's ire.... The winner will face Doug Jones, considered perhaps the most vulnerable Democrat in the battle for control of the Senate."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Sunday are here. "New infections announced across the United States last week total more than 330,000, a record high that includes the five highest single-day totals of the pandemic."

Maeve Reston of CNN was flummoxed by Donald Trump's "mystifying -- and dangerously misleading claim -- that 99% of coronavirus cases in America are 'totally harmless.'... There have now been at least 2.8 million cases of coronavirus in the United States, according to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University. While the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 35% of cases are asymptomatic, those patients can still spread the virus. As of Saturday, Johns Hopkins estimated that the fatality rate for the US was 4.6%." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Reston's figures are a bit misleading. Researchers admit they don't know the long-term effects of the virus are, even among the apparently asymptomatic. But if 35% of today's victims are currently asymptomatic, then 65% felt symptoms. We know that among them, many had symptoms so severe they had to be hospitalized or seek other medical support. Extrapolating from a CDC summary, it appears that about 330,000 Americans have been hospitalized for Covid-19. That's about 11% of Covid victims who have been hospitalized, a figure that of course doesn't include the vast numbers of victims who were turned away from hospitals, sought other treatment or got no professional treatment at all. To claim that Covid is "totally harmless" to all but one percent of those who contract it is not just fuzzy math; it's a big honking lie. (There is one quasi-justification I can see for Trump's claim: the CDC has said that the number of Americans infected is ten times as high as reports indicate. That would bring the percentage of hospitalized patients down to 1.1%. That doesn't mean the virus was "totally harmless" to the other 98.9% of Covid victims, but it could explain away Trump's wild assertion.)

Valerie Strauss of the Washington Post: "... in [Trump's] view, schools are teaching kids to 'hate our country' with a 'far-left fascism that demands absolute allegiance.'... 'If you do not speak its language, perform its rituals, recite its mantras and follow its commandments, then you will be censored, banished, blacklisted, persecuted and punished,' he said.... Trump is pushing a view of public education in the country that has long been espoused by many Republicans: that public K-12 schools and institutions of higher education are cauldrons of subversion where teachers mold children into being politically correct leftists." Mrs. McC: To be fair to Trump, many a child -- if she knew the word "fascist" -- would so describe her teacher or some other school employee -- like the Cafeteria Nazi!

Crazy People News. Shawn Boberg & Dalton Bennett of the Washington Post: "For weeks, a mysterious figure on social media talked up plans for antifa protesters to converge ... [at Gettysburg National Park] on Independence Day to burn American flags, an event that seemed at times to border on the farcical.... As word spread, self-proclaimed militias, bikers, skinheads and far-right groups from outside the state issued a call to action, pledging in online videos and posts to come to Gettysburg to protect the Civil War monuments and the nation's flag from desecration. Some said they would bring firearms and use force if necessary. On Saturday afternoon, in the hours before the flag burning was to start, they flooded in by the hundreds -- heavily armed and unaware, it seemed, that the mysterious Internet poster was [a fake]...."

Bradley Warren in Montana Right Now: "Congressman Greg Gianforte and Lieutenant gubernatorial candidate Kristen Juras are suspending public events after a potential exposure to COVID-19. On Tuesday, Gianforte’s wife, Susan, and Juras attended a fundraising event with Donald Trump Jr. and his girlfriend Kimblery Guilfoyle in the Big Sky area according to a spokesperson for the Gianforte campaign.... The Trump Campaign chief of staff for the Trump Victory Finance committee confirmed to The New York Times that Guilfoyle tested positive for COVID-19 in South Dakota." Gianforte is running for governor. Mrs. McC: Sadly, this means Gianforte will not have an opportunity in the near future to beat up any bespeckled reporters.

~~~~~~~~~~

Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: "Joe Biden on Saturday offered a counterpoint to the dark and defiant Fourth of July message President Trump delivered at Mount Rushmore, striking notes of unity in a video and op-ed released on the nation's 244th birthday.... It was a stark contrast with Trump, who focused Friday on the men who built the country, saying they are heroes and that those skeptical of the country's founders are part of a 'radical ideology' and a 'left-wing cultural revolution.' The dueling Independence Day messages highlight the vastly different ways Biden and Trump have responded to the country's racial reckoning in the wake of George Floyd's killing in Minneapolis police custody." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Joe Biden, in an NBC News essay: "... pursuit of a more perfect union has been thrown off course in recent years -- and no one bears more responsibility than President Donald Trump. Every day, he finds new ways to tarnish and dismantle our democracy -- from baseless attacks on our voting rights to the use of military force against Americans protesting peacefully for racial justice. He has systematically gone after the guardrails of our democracy: the free press, the courts, and our fundamental belief that no one in America -- not even the president -- is above the law. He has made it clear time and again that he won't hesitate to tear apart our most cherished democratic structures for an ounce of personal gain. And that corruption of our founding principles threatens everything this nation has worked so hard to build, blighting our ability not only to elevate our values, but also to lead the world.... To ensure that our democratic values are able to rise to new heights, I will take decisive steps to strengthen our foundation. That means immediately reversing Trump's cruel and counterproductive asylum, travel ban, and family separation policies -- and reaffirming our innate identity, reflected in our Constitution and emblazoned in the Statue of Liberty, as a nation of immigrants. It means fighting for -- not conspiring against -- the independence of our judiciary and the freedom of our press. It means rooting out systemic racism from every area of society it infects -- from unfairly administered COVID-19 recovery funds, to laws that perpetuate racial wealth gaps, to health disparities, to housing policy, to policing, to our justice system and everywhere in between." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Doctor Trump: "Coronavirus 99 Percent Totally Harmless." David Smith of the Guardian: "Donald Trump has celebrated independence day with a string of false and misleading claims attempting to play down the coronavirus pandemic and warning that China will be 'held accountable'. The US president staged a 'Salute to America' jamboree on the south lawn of the White House with flyovers by military jets, parachute jumps and patriotic songs, but little effort among guests to physical distance or wear face masks.... 'We got hit by the virus that came from China,' the president said.... 'We've made a lot of progress. Our strategy is moving along well. It goes out in one area, it rears back its ugly face in another area. But we've learned a lot. We've learned how to put out the flame.... Now we have tested almost 40m people. By so doing, we show cases, 99% of which are totally harmless.'... And contradicting ... public health experts, the president offered a wildly optimistic prediction: 'We'll likely have a therapeutic and/or vaccine solution long before the end of the year.'"

In the fields and jungles of Vietnam, they delivered a swift and swiffian, It was swift and it was sweeping like nobody's ever seen happen. -- Historian-in-Chief Donald Trump, Saturday, reading from a transcript, makes up another, undefined word while claiming that the U.S.'s Vietnam War -- which slogged on for two decades, was "swift and swiffian" ~~~

~~~ Jordan Muller of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Saturday railed against protesters, China and the media in an address marking America's Independence Day -- typically a non-partisan celebration of national unity. Trump, whose address largely mimicked the tone of his stump speeches, continued his attacks on protesters he said are 'lying' about American history by calling for the removal of statues and memorials celebrating slaveholders and colonial and Confederate figures. And similar to his speech at Mount Rushmore on Friday, Trump pledged to defend American monuments and the country's 'rich heritage.'"

Fomenting His Own Revolution. Asawin Suebsaeng & Allison Quinn of the Daily Beast: "'This left-wing cultural revolution is designed to overthrow the American Revolution,' [Donald Trump claimed during his South Dakota speech Friday night]..., before repeatedly going on to compare himself and his supporters to Patriots during the American Revolution -- and protesters to members of the British Army. Speaking as if preparing his political supporters for battle, he said, 'Just as patriots did in centuries past, the American people will stand in their way, and we will win, and win quickly.... We will not be tyrannized, we will not be demeaned, we will not be intimidated by bad, evil people,' he said." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ I Am the Enemy Within. David Nakamura of the Washington Post: "In his inaugural address, President Trump sketched the picture of 'American carnage' -- a nation ransacked by marauders from abroad who breached U.S. borders in pursuit of jobs and crime, lured its companies offshore and bogged down its military in faraway conflicts. Nearly 3½ years later, in the president's telling, the carnage is still underway but this time the enemy is ... other Americans whose racial identity and cultural beliefs are toppling the nation's heritage and founding ideals.... If his 2016 campaign ... was focused on building a wall to keep out immigrants and shedding alliances with nations he believed were exploiting the United States, the president is now aiming his rhetorical blasts at groups of liberal Americans who, he believes, constitute a direct threat to the standing of his conservative base. At Mount Rushmore, under the granite gaze of four U.S. presidents, Trump railed against 'angry mobs' pursuing 'far-left fascism' and a 'left-wing cultural revolution' that has manifested in the assault on statues and monuments celebrating Confederate leaders and other U.S. historica figures, including some former presidents, amid the mass racial justice protests of recent weeks." ~~~

~~~ ** William Wan of the Washington Post: "Amid the combative and unusual ways President Trump chose to celebrate Independence Day, some historians were particularly puzzled Saturday by his announcement for a new monument called the 'National Garden of American Heroes' populated by a grab bag of historical figures chosen by his administration. The garden, Trump explained in a Friday night speech at Mount Rushmore, was part of his response to the movement to remove Confederate statues and racially charged iconography across the country.... 'The choices vary from odd to probably inappropriate to provocative,' said James Grossman, executive director of the American Historical Association. 'It's just so random. It's like they threw a bunch of stuff on the wall and just went with whatever stuck,' said Karen Cox, a history professor at University of North Carolina at Charlotte.... [Grossman] noted Trump's executive order establishes a task force and gives it 60 days to submit a report detailing locations and options for building the new garden monument. 'There's no rush here. The only real emergency is that there's an election coming up,' Grossman said."

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Well-worth reading if you have a WashPo subscription. I'm sure you can come up with your own reasons for why Trump's executive order is profoundly stupid. ~~~

~~~ Here's the list, via Law & Crime: "John Adams, Susan B. Anthony, Clara Barton, Daniel Boone, Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, Henry Clay, Davy Crockett, Frederick Douglass, Amelia Earhart, Benjamin Franklin, Billy Graham, Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Martin Luther King, Jr., Abraham Lincoln, Douglas MacArthur, Dolley Madison, James Madison, Christa McAuliffe, Audie Murphy, George S. Patton, Jr., Ronald Reagan, Jackie Robinson, Betsy Ross, [Antonin Scalia,] Harriet Beecher Stowe, Harriet Tubman, Booker T. Washington, George Washington, and Orville and Wilbur Wright." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: In addition, if I've read Trump's executive order correctly, he'll be able to throw in statues of infamous Confederates & other riffraff. The statuary task force is to "consider the availability of authority to encourage and accept the donation or loan of statues by States, localities, civic organizations, businesses, religious organizations, and individuals, for display at the National Garden." Does your town have an old statue of some miscreant hidden away in storage? A robber baron, maybe? A pirate? A Ku Klux Klan founder? Send it to Washington!

GOP "Unnerved" by Their Trumpenstein Monster. Robert Costa & Philip Rucker of the Washington Post: "President Trump's unyielding push to preserve Confederate symbols and the legacy of white domination, crystallized by his harsh denunciation of the racial justice movement Friday night at Mount Rushmore, has unnerved Republicans who have long enabled him but now fear losing power and forever associating their party with his racial animus. Although amplifying racism and stoking culture wars have been mainstays of Trump's public identity for decades, they have been particularly pronounced this summer as the president has reacted to the national reckoning over systemic discrimination by seeking to weaponize the anger and resentment of some white Americans for his own political gain. Trump has left little doubt through his utterances the past few weeks that he sees himself not only as the Republican standard-bearer, but as leader of a modern grievance movement animated by civic strife and marked by calls for 'white power,' the phrase chanted by one of his supporters in a video the president shared last weekend on Twitter. He later deleted the video but did not disavow its message." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Bryan Pietsch of the New York Times: "With Independence Day celebrations canceled around the country, one distinctly American tradition continued on Saturday despite the pandemic: the annual pilgrimage of competitive eaters to Coney Island for the Nathan's Famous Hot Dog Eating Contest.... Held without fail every Fourth of July since 1942, the event ordinarily draws thousands to the original Nathan's location in Brooklyn.... But there was no crowd this year to cheer raucously, and the competitive eaters, who usually hover over their piles of hot dogs shoulder to shoulder, were spaced apart from one another. The contest was limited to five women and six men to allow for adequate social distancing. One woman was unable to attend because of restrictions on travel to New York from Arizona, where coronavirus cases are surging."

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Saturday are here: "Cases are trending upward in 39 states, and at least five -- Alabama, Alaska, Kansas, North Carolina and South Carolina -- set single-day case records on Friday, the start of a holiday weekend governed by patchwork restrictions and planning after local leaders shifted policies to try to keep pace with the surge.... For this weekend, as many as 80 percent of community fireworks displays in large cities and small towns have been canceled over fears that the gathered crowds would become hot spots for new outbreaks." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Derek Hawkins of the Washington Post: "The United States entered the Fourth of July weekend against a backdrop of surging coronavirus cases and hospitalizations, with officials and health experts nervously watching to see if the public would heed warnings to limit the size of their gatherings and take other steps to curb the virus. Florida on Saturday set another daily record for new infections, reporting 11,458 confirmed cases.... Intensive care unit capacity at Texas Medical Center, the world's largest hospital complex, exceeded 100 percent.... Cincinnati, Cleveland and Wichita became the latest major U.S. cities to pass mask ordinances.... Beaches were closed in Los Angeles, South Florida and in other states, but Myrtle Beach, S.C., remained open to the public, even as cases in the city and state continued to rise sharply. The tourist hub passed a last-minute mask ordinance as thousands of vacationers flocked in for the holiday. 'We are doing all that we can,' Mayor Brenda Bethune told CNN. 'I believe that people spread this virus -- that's been proven -- not places.'" Access is free to nonsubscribers. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sounds as if Mayor Brenda earned her philosophy degree at the same school of public policy that teaches "Guns don't kill people; people kill people." Idiot. ~~~

     ~~~ The story has been updated. New Lede: "President Trump said Saturday that his administration had 'made a lot of progress' on controlling the novel coronavirus pandemic, even as the seven-day average of cases in the United States set a record for the 26th straight day."

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump on Saturday signed legislation that extends the deadline for businesses to apply for aid under the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The bill extends the deadline for businesses to apply for PPP loans until Aug. 8. The program, set up to assist businesses impacted by closures related to the coronavirus pandemic, had expired on Tuesday night with roughly $130 billion left unused."

Thanks to Hattie for the lead on this one:

Colorado. Dennis Romero of NBC News: "Three Aurora, Colorado, police officers were fired Friday for taking part in a disrespectful selfie-photo session near the memorial site for Elijah McClain, who died after being in a police chokehold, the interim chief said. The officers involved in the photos, which show three of them smiling as one is in a mock chokehold, were identified by interim Chief Vanessa Wilson of the Aurora Police Department as Jason Rosenblatt, Erica Marrero and Kyle Dittrich. A fourth officer, Jaron Jones, resigned Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Maryland. Christina Maxouris of CNN: "While much of the country celebrated Independence Day Saturday, protesters in Baltimore toppled a statue of Christopher Columbus and threw it into the Inner Harbor, CNN affiliate WBAL reported. Louis Krauss, who shared video of the toppling, said there were at least 300 people gathered at the scene. 'After it toppled over the statue broke into several pieces, which were then dragged across the plaza and dumped into the Inner Harbor,' Krauss told CNN."

Washington State. Edward Helmore of the Guardian & agencies: "A woman has been killed and another seriously injured by a car whose driver sped through a protest-related closure on a freeway in Seattle, authorities have said. Summer Taylor, 24 and from Seattle, died in the evening at Harborview Medical Center, spokesperson Susan Gregg said. Diaz Love, 32 and from Bellingham, remained in critical condition with multiple injuries. Video taken at the scene by protesters showed people shouting 'Car! Car!' before fleeing the road. The driver, Dawit Kelete, a 27-year-old man from Seattle, was in custody. A state patrol spokesman, Ron Mead, said Kelete was suspected to have driven the wrong way on a ramp. Mead said troopers did not know whether it was a targeted attack. Police said impairment was not considered a factor.... Mark Taylor-Canfield, a journalist, said the car had plenty of time to slow down before smashing into protesters. 'It sped up and went right into the middle of the crowd, so most of us assumed it was a purposeful attempt at vehicular homicide,' he said...."