The Commentariat -- June 19, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Pete Williams & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "The Oklahoma Supreme Court on Friday denied a request to order a Tulsa arena to enforce federal recommendations for preventing the spread of the coronavirus at ... Donald Trump's campaign rally. The groups suing could not establish a clear legal right to the order they were seeking, the court said in a unanimous, one-page order."

Lara Seligman & Connor O'Brien of Politico: "The Navy has decided to uphold the firing of Capt. Brett Crozier, the former commanding officer of the aircraft carrier USS Theodore Roosevelt who was relieved of duty after raising the alarm about a Covid-19 outbreak on his ship in March, according to two people familiar with the investigation. 'The results of the investigation justified the relief,' said one person who has seen the investigation. 'He failed to take appropriate action, to do the things that the commanding officer of a ship is supposed to do, so he stays relieved.'"

Astead Herndon of the New York Times: “Hundreds gathered along Greenwood Avenue [in Tulsa, Oklahoma] — the site of one of America’s worst racist attacks — to celebrate Juneteenth, the holiday that commemorates when enslaved black Americans in Texas formally learned of emancipation. The end of a centuries-long massacre.... Organizers planned to cancel their annual Juneteenth celebration amid the national coronavirus pandemic. Then President Trump announced a campaign rally in the city, originally slated to be held on the Friday holiday but later moved to Saturday evening. With that event looming, and national protests raging about racial injustice and police brutality, what was typically a celebration of resilience had transformed into one of defiance. 'Black Lives Matter' was painted in bright yellow letters across Greenwood Avenue. Attendees said they were celebrating not only how black ancestors were freed from enslavement, but also the persistence of black Americans today — from a pandemic that has disproportionately affected black communities, police departments that disproportionately kill black people, and a president who has shown little willingness to acknowledge the reality of both.”

Ziva Branstetter, et al., of the Washington Post: “As thousands of Trump fans and protesters poured into [Tulsa] in advance of President Trump's first campaign rally in months, authorities imposed a curfew as fears of potential violence mingled with anxiety about a spike in new cases of coronavirus. Metal barricades went up around downtown and police cars began blocking off streets after Tulsa announced a last-minute curfew for the downtown area Thursday night that will continue Friday and Saturday.... The move came after Tulsa Mayor G.T. Bynum declared a 'civil emergency,' saying law enforcement informed him that 'individuals from organized groups who have been involved in destructive and violent behavior in other states are planning to travel to the City of Tulsa for purposes of causing unrest in and around the rally,' according to his executive order.... Trump ... [tweeted] Friday that 'any protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes who are going to Oklahoma, please understand, you will not be treated like you have been in New York, Seattle or Minneapolis. It will be a much different scene!'” An AP story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Notice how Trump threatens protesters exercising their First Amendment rights & lumps them in with "anarchists, agitators, looters [and] lowlifes." ~~~

~~~ Kevin Liptak of CNN: "... Donald Trump warned those protesting his planned rally in Oklahoma they could be treated roughly, an opening threat a day ahead of what he says is the new kickoff of his reelection campaign. Writing on Twitter, Trump lumped together 'protesters, anarchists, agitators, looters or lowlifes' and said they would not be afforded what he's decried as gentle treatment if they gather outside his Tulsa event. It came the morning after he used a blatantly false video of young children to decry media coverage of American race relations, a move that drew a rebuke from Twitter. The messages, which came as the nation marks the day in 1865 that the last enslaved Black people in the US learned they had been freed from bondage, made no attempt at striking a unifying or commemorative tone. Instead, Trump used his platform to heighten the drama surrounding his return to the campaign trail after a 110-day pandemic-forced absence and warn those who oppose him to stay away."

Rebecca Shabad of NBC News: "Senators on Friday announced legislation to make Juneteenth, a widely observed holiday that marks the federal order to free slaves in Texas on June 19, 1865, a national holiday.... The day, which began as a Texas holiday in 1980, is now recognized by 47 states and the District of Columbia as a state holiday or observance and is marking its 155th anniversary this year.... The bill was proposed by Sens. Ed Markey, D-Mass., [Corey] Booker, [D-N.J.,] Tina Smith, D-Minn., and Kamala Harris, D-Calif. Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, is a cosponsor.

Ray Sanchez & Elizabeth Joseph of CNN: "The city of Louisville, Kentucky, and its police department are taking the first steps toward firing an officer involved in the fatal shooting of Breonna Taylor last March. Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer has initiated termination proceedings against Louisville Metro Police Det. Brett Hankison, Fisher said in a statement without elaborating. The 26-year-old African American EMT was killed more than two months ago when police broke down the door to her apartment in an attempted drug sting and shot her eight times. Hankison and two other officers remain on administrative leave.... They have not been charged with any crimes." Mrs. McC: Oh, they're just thinking of firing the officer now? Every time I see a well-circulated photo of Taylor's smiling face, my heart breaks.

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

Not All of the Corruption of the Trump Administration is Up-front & Noisy. Katie Thomas of the New York Times: "When the coronavirus kills, it attacks the lungs.... But earlier this month, the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, or BARDA, a federal health agency, abruptly notified companies and researchers that it was halting funding for treatments for this severe form of Covid-19, the disease caused by the virus. The new policy highlights how staunchly the Trump administration has placed its bet on vaccines as the way to return American society and the economy to normal in a presidential election year. BARDA has pledged more than $2.2 billion in deals with five vaccine manufacturers for the coronavirus, compared with about $359 million toward potential Covid-19 treatments. But the shift in strategy also shows that the administration is backing away from the relatively modest funding it has provided so far for treatments that address the severe lung ailments, while continuing support for antiviral therapies that could treat people earlier in the course of the disease."

Rick Noack of the Washington Post: “As coronavirus cases surge in the U.S. South and West, health experts in countries with falling case numbers are watching with a growing sense of alarm and disbelief, with many wondering why virus-stricken U.S. states continue to reopen and why the advice of scientists is often ignored. 'It really does feel like the U.S. has given up,' said Siouxsie Wiles, an infectious-diseases specialist at the University of Auckland in New Zealand — a country that has confirmed only three new cases over the last three weeks and where citizens have now largely returned to their pre-coronavirus routines.... China’s actions over the past week stand in stark contrast to those of the United States. In the wake of a new cluster of more than 150 new cases that emerged in Beijing, authorities sealed off neighborhoods, launched a mass testing campaign and imposed travel restrictions.”

Tim Mak of NPR: "The Transportation Security Administration withheld N95 masks from staff and exhibited 'gross mismanagement' in its response to the coronavirus crisis – leaving employees and travelers vulnerable during the most urgent days of the pandemic, a senior TSA official alleges in a new whistleblower complaint. On Thursday evening, the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency that handles whistleblower complaints, said it had found 'substantial likelihood of wrongdoing' in the complaint and ordered the Department of Homeland Security to open an investigation. TSA Federal Security Director Jay Brainard is an official in charge of transportation security in the state of Kansas and has been with the agency for almost 20 years. He told NPR that the leadership of his agency failed to protect its staff from the pandemic, and as a result, allowed TSA employees to be 'a significant carrier' for the spread of the coronavirus to airport travelers.... His allegations include that personal protective equipment was withheld from TSA employees, that local supervisors were not permitted to mandate masks, that the TSA failed to adequately execute contact tracing, and the TSA declined to require that employees change or sanitize gloves between passengers."

David Nakamura & John Hudson of the Washington Post: "President Trump was in a White House event with governors Thursday when he took a moment to punch out a tweet from his cellphone – threatening to decouple the U.S. economy from China, the world’s second largest economy [Mrs. McC: a virtual impossibility]. The missive was another salvo in a long bilateral trade dispute but it also represented an effort by the president to reestablish himself as a hard-liner on China – a day after shocking revelations from his former national security adviser John Bolton painted him as obsequious to Chinese President Xi Jinping in private conversations. Trump’s urgency underscores how Bolton’s disclosures ... could complicate a key pillar of the president’s reelection strategy as his campaign has attacked former vice president Biden ... as soft on China."

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: “President Trump’s campaign is under fire for employing a symbol once used by Nazis in a new batch of Facebook ads — a red inverted triangle that appeared alongside a warning about the dire threat posed by 'antifa,' a loose motley group allied against neo-fascist activity. An internal Department of Homeland Security document — which I obtained from a congressional source — makes the Trump campaign’s use of this symbol, and its justification for it, look a whole lot worse, by undercutting the claim that antifa represents any kind of threat in the first place.... The document — which is an assessment of ongoing 'protest-related' threats to law enforcement dated June 17 — makes no mention at all of antifa in its cataloging of those threats.... The broader story here ... is that the continued fearmongering about antifa by Trump and many top officials seems designed to distort the true nature of these multiracial, largely peaceful and broadly representative national protests in a very fundamental way.”

Colby Itkowitz of the Washington Post: "Rep. Matt Gaetz created a social media frenzy Thursday when he revealed he had a teenage son named Nestor and later introduced the young man during an appearance on Fox News. Gaetz (R-Fla.) shared that he has a Cuban-born son to explain why he became so irate when Rep. Cedric L. Richmond (D-La.), who is black, said the white lawmakers in the room couldn’t understand what it was like to father a black child.... Gaetz told People Magazine in an interview that he never formally adopted 19-year-old Nestor but that Nestor has lived with him since immigrating from Cuba at age 12." Here's the committee-room exchange:

Joe Concha of the Hill: "ABC's Jimmy Kimmel on Thursday announced he will be taking the summer off after facing criticism over wearing blackface in a recurring skit he performed while working on 'The Man Show' on Comedy Central.... Kimmel, as a co-host of the 'The Man Show,' performed a recurring skit that included him dressed in blackface as then-NBA star Karl Malone. Videos and photos of the skits on the show, which ran from 1999-2004, have been circulating online recently with calls for Kimmel to apologize."

~~~~~~~~~~

... Which nobody ever heard of before Donald Trump made it famous. Just ask him.

~~~ Michael Ruane of the Washington Post: “The National Archives on Thursday located what appears to be the original handwritten 'Juneteenth' military order informing thousands of people held in bondage in Texas they were free. The decree, in the ornate handwriting of a general’s aide, was found in a formal order book stored in the Archives headquarters building in Washington. It is dated June 19, 1865, and signed by Maj. F.W. Emery, on behalf of Union Maj. Gen. Gordon Granger. 'The people of Texas are informed that, in accordance with a proclamation from the Executive of the United States, “all slaves are free,’” the order reads.... The order was located by Trevor Plante, director of an archives textual records division, who, because of current interest in the subject, was asked to search for it. Printed versions of the order have long existed, Plante said Thursday. 'But this is something that we haven’t tracked down before,' he said. The handwritten entry 'absolutely' predated the printed versions of the order, he said.” ~~~

~~~ Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times: “Who freed the slaves? The slaves freed the slaves. 'Slave resistance,' as the historian Manisha Sinha points out in 'The Slave’s Cause: A History of Abolition,' 'lay at the heart of the abolition movement.... Prominent slave revolts marked the turn toward immediate abolition,' Sinha writes, and 'fugitive slaves united all factions of the movement and led the abolitionists to justify revolutionary resistance to slavery.'” ~~~

~~~ John Parkinson of ABC News: "Late Thursday afternoon, the gold-framed portraits of four former Speakers of the House of Representatives who shared ties to the Confederacy were removed from the walls of the U.S. Capitol, as efforts to strike down symbols of racism around the country continue in the wake of George Floyd's killing last month. In a letter addressed Thursday to Cheryl Johnson, clerk of the House of Representatives, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called for the removal of the paintings in observance of Juneteenth on Friday. The portraits were taken down hours later. They had hung in the Capitol for decades, honoring Robert Hunter of Virginia, who served as speaker from 1839 to 1841, Howell Cobb of Georgia, 1849 to 1851, James Orr of South Carolina, 1857 to 1859, and Charles Crisp of Georgia, 1891 to 1895. 'There is no room in the hallowed halls of Congress or in any place of honor for memorializing men who embody the violent bigotry and grotesque racism of the Confederacy,' Pelosi, D-Calif., proclaimed." ~~~

Wherein John Roberts Tells Donald Trump He's a Sloppy Coward

** Adam Liptak & Michael Shear of the New York Times: “The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration may not immediately proceed with its plan to end a program protecting about 700,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers from deportation. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion, joined by the court’s four more liberal members. The court’s ruling was a blow to one of President Trump’s central campaign promises — that as president he would 'immediately terminate' an executive order by former President Barack Obama that Mr. Trump had called an illegal executive amnesty for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants.” This is a breaking news story. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: “... as lower courts had found, Roberts said the administration did not follow procedures required by law, and did not properly weigh how ending the program would affect those who had come to rely on its protections against deportation, and the ability to work legally.... 'We address only whether the [Department of Homeland Security] complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action. Here the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients. That dual failure raises doubts about whether the agency appreciated the scope of its discretion or exercised that discretion in a reasonable manner,'” [Roberts wrote]. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

      ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: In other words, this is a "procedural" decision & not the big win for DACA beneficiaries that a proper act of Congress would grant. Not for the first time, Roberts has refused to accept the cavalier, ham-handed way Trump & his minions try to undo standing rules & laws. Trump can do it again, and if he does it right, DACA recipients could lose their right to stay in the country where they have lived most of their lives. We need a Congress who will fix this. ~~~

~~~ Politico's story, by Josh Gerstein, is here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: According to several legal experts I heard on the teevee, Trump could "cure" the defects in the DHS's procedural mess by executing his own order to screw all the DACA kids. But DACA is popular even with Republicans (including, no doubt, evangelicals), so he didn't have the guts to do that. Instead, he ordered DHS to screw the kids administratively in hopes his own fingerprints wouldn't show up on the deportation orders. ~~~

~~~ Harper Neidig of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday lashed out at the Supreme Court after it issued a ruling against his move to rescind deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants.... In a pair of tweets, Trump [wrote,] 'These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives,' Trump tweeted. 'We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!'... 'Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn’t like me?'" Mrs. McC Translation: It is "horrible" to deny me the authority to ruin the lives of millions of innocent people on a whim. And I will use violent language to say so. (Also linked yesterday.)

Seung Min Kim of the Washington Post: “A senior State Department official who has served in the Trump administration since its first day is resigning over President Trump’s recent handling of racial tensions across the country — saying that the president’s actions 'cut sharply against my core values and convictions.' Mary Elizabeth Taylor, assistant secretary of state for legislative affairs, submitted her resignation Thursday. Taylor’s five-paragraph resignation letter, obtained by The Washington Post, serves as an indictment of Trump’s stewardship at a time of national unrest from one of the administration’s highest-ranking African Americans and an aide who was viewed as loyal and effective in serving his presidency.... Taylor’s decision to leave the administration amid the racial tensions flaring nationwide appears to be the first high-profile resignation made in protest of the president’s actions that has been made public.... Taylor was viewed as a loyal member of the administration and is a lifelong member of the Republican Party.” The Raw story has a summary report here.

Eric Schmitt & Thomas Gibbons-Neff of the New York Times: "The Air Force inspector general is investigating whether the military improperly used a little-known reconnaissance plane to monitor protests in Washington and Minneapolis this month, the Air Force said on Thursday.... The Air Force’s action comes days after the Pentagon’s top intelligence policy official told Congress that the nation’s military intelligence agencies did not spy on American protesters during the wave of nationwide demonstrations. In a letter last week to the House Intelligence Committee, Joseph D. Kernan, the under secretary of defense for intelligence and security, said he had received no orders from the Trump administration to conduct such surveillance, and he underscored citizens’ constitutional right to protest peacefully."

Brad Reed of the Raw Story: “... Donald Trump on Thursday gave an interview to the Wall Street Journal in which he made a number of outlandish claims.... Here are some of the highlights.... 1.) ... China may have deliberately allowed the novel coronavirus to spread to the United States in retaliation for his tariffs.... 2.) ... he hired John Bolton to make foreign leaders fearful that he’d go to war with them unless they gave him what he wanted.... 3.) ... he actually was threatening to have looters shot in his now-infamous tweet.... 4.) ... calls COVID-19 testing 'overrated' then brags about how many tests the United States has done.... 5.) ... brags that he made more people aware of Juneteenth by holding a rally on that date in a city known as the site of the worst anti-black pogrom in American history.... 6.) ... suggests some people are wearing face masks to damage him politically.” The Wall Street Journal's report of the interview is here. The transcript of the WSJ interview is here, & it may load for nonsubscribers. ~~~

~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: “After more than three years of the Trump presidency, it has become easy to forget at times just how out of the ordinary it really is. The normalization of Mr. Trump’s norm-busting, line-crossing, envelope-pushing administration has meant that what was once shocking now seems like just another day.... In 494 pages..., [John Bolton] becomes the first person with daily access to Mr. Trump’s Oval Office to catalog the various ways that he has seized the presidency to suit his own needs.... The portrait he draws in 'The Room Where It Happened,' due out Tuesday, is of a president who sees his office as an instrument to advance his own personal and political interests over those of the nation. That is what got Mr. Trump impeached in the first place, but the book asserts his Ukraine scheming was no one-off. The line between policy and politics, generally murky in any White House, has been all but erased in Mr. Bolton’s telling.... Wwhat Mr. Bolton argues is that Mr. Trump’s personal and political interests are the essential elements of this particular presidency....”

 

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

Gaslighting the Foxbots. Josh Wingrove of Bloomberg, in Time: “The coronavirus pandemic will 'fade away' even without a vaccine, but researchers are close to developing one anyhow..., Donald Trump said. 'We’re very close to a vaccine and we’re very close to therapeutics, really good therapeutics,' Trump said Wednesday night in a television interview with Fox News. 'But even without that, I don’t even like to talk about that, because it’s fading away, it’s going to fade away, but having a vaccine would be really nice and that’s going to happen.' Trump’s comments come as the U.S. continues to see 20,000 new daily cases from a pandemic that so far has killed 117,000 people in the country.” (Also linked yesterday.)

Conor Finnegan of ABC News: "... Donald Trump is not 'fit for office' and doesn't have 'the competence to carry out the job,' his former national security adviser John Bolton told ABC News...." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Edward Wong & Michael Crowley of the New York Times: “As national security officials and some trade advisers in the Trump administration tried crafting get-tough-on-China policies to address what they viewed as America’s greatest foreign policy challenge, they ran into opposition from ... President Trump himself[, who] was undermining their work. That has been the underlying tension of the last three and a half years, laid out in blunt language in the new memoir by John R. Bolton.... The book supports what administration officials have said in interviews and private discussions since 2017, and what, in many ways, had been out in the open in Mr. Trump’s fawning statements about China’s authoritarian leader, Xi Jinping, many made on Twitter. Taken together, the accounts reveal that there has been no coherent China policy, despite efforts early in the administration by senior aides to frame foreign policy around what they labeled 'great power competition,' outlined in their own national security strategy document.” ~~~

~~~ “Make Sure I Win.” -- Trump to Xi. Gabriel Sherman of Vanity Fair: “John Bolton’s account that Donald Trump asked Chinese President Xi Jinping last June to buy more American farm products to help Trump’s reelection is so explosive that White House officials prevented Bolton from directly quoting Trump in Bolton’s new tell-all memoir. 'I would print Trump’s exact words but the government’s prepublication review process has decided otherwise,' Bolton writes in The Room Where it Happened.... According to an unredacted passage shown to Vanity Fair by a source, Trump’s ask is even more crudely shocking when you read Trump’s specific language. 'Make sure I win,' Trump allegedly told Xi during a dinner at the G20 conference in Osaka, Japan last summer. 'I will probably win anyway, so don’t hurt my farms.… Buy a lot of soybeans and wheat and make sure we win.'...

** “Another passage shows Trump’s racist views on immigration. Bolton describes how Trump derailed a White House meeting about Iran strategy by bringing up a right wing conspiracy that Black South Africans were killing white South African farmers and stealing their land. According to Bolton, Trump blurted out that he wanted to grant the white South Africans 'asylum and citizenship.'”

Presidential Race

Marc Caputo & Matthew Choi of Politico: "Sen. Amy Klobuchar late Thursday said she personally called Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden to advise he pick a woman of color as his running mate, effectively announcing the end of her vice presidential aspirations. 'I truly believe, as I actually told the vice president last night when I called him, that I think this is a moment to put a woman of color on that ticket,' the Minnesota Democrat told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell. 'And there is so many incredibly qualified women.'... Klobuchar's credentials as a former prosecutor with a tough-on-crime record didn't sit well as her home state became a locus among protests and calls for structural change in law enforcement."

Jonathan Swan & Margaret Talev of Axios: "President Trump's campaign plans to turn this weekend's Tulsa rally into a massive pro-Trump festival complete with musical acts, and it's flying in high-profile backers and camera crews to show the world the fervency of his supporters.... Organizers are leasing a jet to fly in surrogates the night before and multiple film crews are being brought in to record the event.... The June 20 'Great American Comeback' event is partly a kickoff for a comeback tour amid the coronavirus pandemic. It's also a giant commercial for Trump's re-election campaign, an answer to protests outside the White House and a trial run for Republican National Convention events in Jacksonville this August.... Speakers, performers and surrogates will appear both inside and outside the arena, and Trump plans to speak at both the indoor and outdoor stages, according to a source with direct knowledge of the plans." ~~~

~~~ The “Great American Comeback” Is a Fiasco. Annie Karni, et al., of the New York Times: “... instead of offering Mr. Trump a glide path back into the campaign season, where he could sell a message about a country overcoming daunting challenges, Mr. Trump’s Tulsa rally has become yet another flash point for a candidate who has repeatedly displayed insensitivity about race in America.... Mr. Trump and his aides failed to grasp the significance of holding a rally on Juneteenth, a holiday celebrated annually on June 19 that honors the end of slavery in the United States. Nor did they appear to realize that Tulsa was the site of one of the country’s bloodiest outbreaks of racist violence.... Mr. Trump has responded to the protests by insisting that he has done more for African-Americans than any other president in history, save for Abraham Lincoln, and that his campaign 'loves the black people.' On Thursday. he tried to take credit for making Juneteenth 'very famous,’ saying 'nobody had ever heard of it’ until he scheduled his rally for that day. Adding to the anxiety in Tulsa are heightened fears about the risks of the coronavirus. Officials announced Wednesday that there were 96 new cases, the largest single-day increase since March.” ~~~

From the WSJ interview transcript:

Trump: I made Juneteenth very famous.... But nobody had heard of it. Very few people have heard of it. Actually, a young African-American Secret Service agent knew what it was. I had political people who had no idea. [To aide Alyssa Farah:] Did you ever hear of Juneteenth before?

Farah: I did from last year when the White House put out a statement.

Trump: Oh really? We put out a statement? The Trump White House put out a statement?

Farah: Yes.

~~~ “It's Just a Question of How Many Will Die.” Jonathan Partlow, et al., of the Washington Post: “The managers of the arena in Oklahoma where President Trump plans to hold a controversial campaign rally requested on Thursday that the Trump campaign provide a detailed written plan outlining 'health and safety' measures ahead of the event to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, according to a statement from the venue.... A number of Tulsa residents and business owners ... have sued the venue manager attempting to block the event unless it is held in accordance with social distancing guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A Tulsa County judge on Tuesday denied the request for a temporary injunction, but the decision was appealed to the Oklahoma Supreme Court.... The court [will] decide the issue Friday. During [a] hearing [Thursday], Paul DeMuro, one of the attorneys for the plaintiffs, said that ... 'This is not a question of whether additional people will be infected and die in Tulsa,' he said. 'It’s just a question of how many.'”

Andrew Solender of Forbes: “President Trump appeared on his son Donald Trump Jr.’s podcast ‘Triggered’ on Thursday, where he released an ad claiming Osama Bin Laden 'endorsed' Joe Biden, predicted Democrats would work with him if wins a second term, and said there would be 'tremendous bedlam' if Biden wins in November.... Trump Jr. then unveiled an ad as a 'Father’s Day present,' approved by Trump, which claimed Biden was 'endorsed' by Bin Laden and called Biden 'China’s candidate, Iran’s candidate and Osama’s candidate.' Trump called Biden 'unequipped' and 'in no condition' to be president, and described him as 'China’s dream,' just a day after former National Security Adviser John Bolton released an excerpt from his forthcoming book in which he claims Trump pleaded with Chinese President Xi Jinping to help Trump win reelection and praised Xi’s plan to build concentration camps for Uighur Muslims.”

Facebook Has Principles! -- No Nazi Symbols, Donald! Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: “Facebook on Thursday deactivated dozens of ads placed by President Trump’s reelection campaign that included a symbol once used by the Nazis to designate political prisoners in concentration camps. The marking appeared as part of the campaign’s online salvo against antifa and 'far-left groups.' A red inverted triangle was used in the 1930s to identify Communists, and was applied as well to Social Democrats, liberals, Freemasons and other members of opposition parties incarcerated by the Nazis. The badge forced on Jewish political prisoners ... featured a yellow triangle overlaid by a red triangle so as to resemble a Star of David. The red triangle appeared in paid [Trump] posts [and] ... was featured alongside text warning of 'Dangerous MOBS.'... Facebook removed the material following queries from The Washington Post, saying ads and organic posts with the inverted triangle violated its policy against organized hate.” (Also linked yesterday.) A CNN story is here. ~~~

~~~ Trump Cannot Stop. Taylor Hatmaker of Tech Crunch: “On Thursday night, Trump shared a crudely edited video of two children with a fake CNN chyron reading 'Terrified todler [sic] runs from racist baby.' Ironically, the video goes on to declare 'America is not the problem, fake news is.' The video, which had 7.9 million views at the time of writing, quickly earned Twitter’s 'manipulated media' warning label, indicating just under the tweet itself that the content is not what it seems. Clicking through the warning label leads to a page fact-checking the tweet, including links to the original CNN share of the video of the two kids with the framing 'These two toddlers are showing us what real-life besties look like.'” Includes Trump's tweet. ~~~

     ~~~ Cat Zakrzewski of the Washington Post: “The president tweeted a doctored version of a popular video that went viral in 2019, which showed two toddlers, one black and one white, hugging. In the version Trump shared, the video has been edited with ominous music and a fake CNN headline that says, 'Terrified toddler runs from racist baby.' 'Racist baby probably a Trump voter,' the headline then says in a subsequent screen.” Mrs. McC: I don't need to remind you that if a real president had sent out a video like this, it would create a huge scandal & the Congress would censure him. Trump is not a real president.

Alex isenstadt of Politico: “... Donald Trump called mail-in voting the biggest threat to his reelection and said his campaign's multimillion-dollar legal effort to block expanded ballot access could determine whether he wins a second term.... Trump and his campaign argue, despite a lack of evidence, that widespread mail-in voting will benefit Democrats and invite fraud. The Republican Party is spending tens of millions of dollars on a multi-front legal battle.... Trump was asked a two-part question during the interview: Would a substantial amount of mail-in voting — which is widely expected because of coronavirus — cause him to question the legitimacy of the election? And would he accept the results no matter what? 'Well, you can never answer the second question, right? Because Hillary kept talking about she’s going to accept, and they never accepted it. You know. She lost too. She lost good.' Clinton conceded the day after the 2016 election.”

Beyond the Beltway

New Mexico. Andrew Hay of Reuters: "A New Mexico prosecutor on Wednesday dropped a shooting charge against an Albuquerque man suspected of shooting a protester and called for further investigations after allegations the protester was armed at the time he was shot. Bernalillo County District Attorney Raúl Torrez said he had serious concerns an initial police investigation into the Monday shooting did not identify who owned multiple weapons collected at the scene, including knives, nor interview key bystanders and police. Torrez dropped an initial aggravated battery with a deadly weapon charge against Steven Baca, 31, after images emerged online showing protester Scott Williams, 39, holding what was rumored to be a knife before he was allegedly shot by Baca. Torrez said he expected Baca to claim self defense in the case." (Also linked yesterday.) 

The Commentariat -- June 18, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Facebook Has Principles! -- No Nazi Symbols, Donald! Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Facebook on Thursday deactivated dozens of ads placed by President Trump's reelection campaign that included a symbol once used by the Nazis to designate political prisoners in concentration camps. The marking appeared as part of the campaign's online salvo against antifa and 'far-left groups.' A red inverted triangle was used in the 1930s to identify Communists, and was applied as well to Social Democrats, liberals, Freemasons and other members of opposition parties incarcerated by the Nazis. The badge forced on Jewish political prisoners ... featured a yellow triangle overlaid by a red triangle so as to resemble a Star of David. The red triangle appeared in paid [Trump] posts [and] ... was featured alongside text warning of 'Dangerous MOBS.'... Facebook removed the material following queries from The Washington Post, saying ads and organic posts with the inverted triangle violated its policy against organized hate."

** Adam Liptak & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration may not immediately proceed with its plan to end a program protecting about 700,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers from deportation. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion, joined by the court's four more liberal members. The court's ruling was a blow to one of President Trump's central campaign promises -- that as president he would 'immediately terminate' an executive order by former President Barack Obama that Mr. Trump had called an illegal executive amnesty for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants." This is a breaking news story. ~~~

~~~ Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "... as lower courts had found, Roberts said the administration did not follow procedures required by law, and did not properly weigh how ending the program would affect those who had come to rely on its protections against deportation, and the ability to work legally.... 'We address only whether the [Department of Homeland Security] complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action. Here the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients. That dual failure raises doubts about whether the agency appreciated the scope of its discretion or exercised that discretion in a reasonable manner,'" [Roberts wrote]. ~~~

      ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: IOW, this is a "procedural" decision & not the big win for DACA beneficiaries that a proper act of Congress would grant. Not for the first time, Roberts has refused to accept the cavalier, ham-handed way Trump & his minions try to undo standing rules & laws. Trump can do it again, and if he does it right, DACA recipients could lose their right to stay in the country where they have lived most of their lives. We need a Congress who will fix this. ~~~

~~~ Politico's story, by Josh Gerstein, is here. ~~~

~~~ Harper Neidig of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday lashed out at the Supreme Court after it issued a ruling against his move to rescind deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants.... In a pair of tweets, Trump [wrote,] 'These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives,' Trump tweeted. 'We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!'... 'Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn't like me?'" Mrs. McC Translation: It is "horrible" to deny me the authority to ruin the lives of millions of innocent people on a whim.

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

Gaslighting the Foxbots. Josh Wingrove of Bloomberg, in Time: "The coronavirus pandemic will 'fade away' even without a vaccine, but researchers are close to developing one anyhow..., Donald Trump said. 'We're very close to a vaccine and we're very close to therapeutics, really good therapeutics,' Trump said Wednesday night in a television interview with Fox News. 'But even without that, I don't even like to talk about that, because it's fading away, it's going to fade away, but having a vaccine would be really nice and that's going to happen.' Trump's comments come as the U.S. continues to see 20,000 new daily cases from a pandemic that so far has killed 117,000 people in the country."

Conor Finnegan of ABC News: "... Donald Trump is not 'fit for office' and doesn't have 'the competence to carry out the job,' his former national security adviser John Bolton told ABC News...."

New Mexico. Andrew Hay of Reuters: "A New Mexico prosecutor on Wednesday dropped a shooting charge against an Albuquerque man suspected of shooting a protester and called for further investigations after allegations the protester was armed at the time he was shot. Bernalillo County District Attorney Raúl Torrez said he had serious concerns an initial police investigation into the Monday shooting did not identify who owned multiple weapons collected at the scene, including knives, nor interview key bystanders and police. Torrez dropped an initial aggravated battery with a deadly weapon charge against Steven Baca, 31, after images emerged online showing protester Scott Williams, 39, holding what was rumored to be a knife before he was allegedly shot by Baca. Torrez said he expected Baca to claim self defense in the case."

~~~~~~~~~~

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

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

AWOL. Sheryl Stolberg, et al., of the New York Times: "The federal government's leadership in the coronavirus crisis has so faded that state and local health officials have been left to figure out on their own how to handle rising infections and to navigate conflicting signals from the White House.... To public health experts, it is little mystery why Americans are confused. As the White House sends mixed messages, Washington's public health bully pulpit has largely fallen silent. [Former acting CDC director Dr. Richard Besser said,] 'without that daily reinforcement, you have what is happening around the country -- people not believing the pandemic is real, cases rising in some places and the possibility that some communities' health care systems will get overwhelmed.'" ~~~

~~~ Kevin Liptak, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump has largely tuned out the persistent coronavirus contagion -- which is causing spikes in new cases across 21 states and daily death tolls that reach into the hundreds -- to focus instead on reviving both the economy and his own political prospects.... 'They just don't want to deal with the reality of it. They're in denial,' one administration official close to the coronavirus task force said."

Robert O'Harrow, et al., of the Washington Post: "As it races to create a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, the Trump administration this month announced that one of its largest pandemic-related contracts would go to a little-known biodefense company named Emergent BioSolutions.... The $628 million deal to help manufacture an eventual vaccine cemented Emergent's status as the highest-paid and most important contractor to the HHS office responsible for preparing for public health threats and maintaining the government's stockpile of emergency medical supplies.... Now, Emergent is the only maker of multiple drugs the government deems crucial for the Strategic National Stockpile, and the government is the company's primary customer, accounting for most of its revenue.... But Emergent's dominance has fueled new risks for national health preparedness, according to documents and former government officials. The industry consolidation has created 'vulnerabilities in the supply chain,' while also raising the prospect of inflated costs because of a lack of competition, according to a confidential report [commissioned by HHS] obtained by The Post.... Emergent's advocacy for biodefense spending over more than a decade was aided by influential allies in Washington and tens of millions of dollars in lobbying campaigns, documents show."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Elizabeth Cohen & Wesley Bruer of CNN: "The federal government is stuck with 63 million doses of hydroxychloroquine now that the US Food and Drug Administration has revoked permission for the drug to be distributed to treat coronavirus patients. The government started stockpiling donated hydroxychloroquine in late March, after President Trump touted it as 'very encouraging' and 'very powerful' and a 'game-changer.' But Monday, the FDA revoked its emergency use authorization to use the drug to treat Covid-19, saying there was 'no reason to believe' the drug was effective against the virus, and that it increased the risk of side effects, including heart problems. That leaves the Strategic National Stockpile with 63 million doses of hydroxychloroquine, plus another 2 million doses of chloroquine, a related drug donated by Bayer, according to Carol Danko, a spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services." Mrs. McC: Thanks, Trump!

Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd., Deadly Edition. Kyle Bagenstone of USA Today: "As U.S. meat production plummeted in April following a rash of coronavirus outbreaks and closures at processing plants across the country, industry and political leaders sounded an alarm.... President Donald Trump ... invoked the Defense Production Act to declare it was crucial to keep meat plants open and operating.... But Americans were never at risk of a severe meat shortage, a USA Today investigation found.... [I]n a six-week period stretching from mid-March to the executive order, exports of hundreds of millions of pounds of meat continued.... [T]he industry also never drew down meat supplies sitting in 'cold storage' warehouses in the middle of the supply chain.... In fact, red meat and poultry products in cold storage grew by about 40 million pounds from March to April.... The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting found that 10,000 meatpacking workers had fallen ill by May 5, with at least 45 deaths. Those numbers have since grown to more than 24,000 infections and at least 90 deaths." --s

Arizona. Perry Vandell of the Arizona Republic: "Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb announced on Wednesday afternoon that he tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Lamb posted on the Pinal County Sheriff Office's Facebook page that he had been invited on Tuesday to join ... Donald Trump at the White House and was tested before the meeting as part of the protocol.... In early May, Lamb made waves when he said he wouldn't enforce Gov. Doug Ducey's stay-at-home order in part because he thought it was unconstitutional. At the time Lamb said he also thought, as a policy measure, the steps to slow the virus's spread had gone on long enough."

** Book Report. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser, says in his new book that the House in its impeachment inquiry should have investigated President Trump not just for pressuring Ukraine to incriminate his domestic foes but for a variety of instances when he sought to intervene in law enforcement matters for political reasons. Mr. Bolton describes several episodes where the president expressed willingness to halt criminal investigations 'to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked,' citing cases involving major firms in China and Turkey. 'The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn't accept,' Mr. Bolton writes, adding that he reported his concerns to Attorney General William P. Barr. Mr. Bolton also adds a striking new allegation by saying that Mr. Trump overtly linked trade negotiations to his own political fortunes by asking President Xi Jinping of China to buy a lot of American agricultural products to help him win farm states in this year’s election." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Baker outlines five takeaways from Bolton's book here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I guess we know now why "the Justice Department filed a last-minute lawsuit against Mr. Bolton this week seeking to stop publication." Barr is totally implicated. As for Bolton, he apparently spills quite a bit of ink over chastising the House for not investigating other Trump misdeeds at the same time Bolton himself was keeping those misdeeds secret from the House. Phony jackass. ~~~

~~~ Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post also read Bolton's book. "Bolton attributes a litany of shocking statements to the president. Trump said invading Venezuela would be 'cool' and that the South American nation was 'really part of the United States.' Bolton says Trump kept confusing the current and former presidents of Afghanistan, while asking Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to help him strike a deal with Iran. And Trump told Xi that Americans were clamoring for him to change the constitutional rules to serve more than two terms, according to the book. He also describes a summer 2019 meeting in New Jersey where Trump says journalists should be jailed so they have to divulge their sources: 'These people should be executed. They are scumbags,' Trump said, according to Bolton's account."

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The most important thing Bolton nails down is that Trump did not just passively accept foreign interference in U.S. elections; he soliticited foreign assistance -- more than once. And Bill Barr knew it. He knew it when he stood up there and mischaracterized the Mueller report. In a just world, Deputy Dawg would be in jail, too. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "According to an excerpt of the memoir, published in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday..., Donald Trump asked President Xi Jinping of China for domestic political help to boost his electoral prospects in the midst of the two leaders' trade war last summer.... U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who was in the Xi meeting, denied that the episode ever took place when asked multiple times about Bolton's allegation during a Senate hearing.... Trump had choice words for Bolton, telling The Wall Street Journal that Bolton was a 'liar' and that 'everybody in the White House hated John Bolton.' During an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Wednesday night, Trump added that Bolton 'broke the law' by revealing what the president called 'highly classified information.'" The WSJ excerpt is here. ~~~

~~~ A CNN report, by Nicole Gaouette, is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times, in his "five takeaways" article, also linked above, writes, "Mr. Trump did not deny [asking Xi for help in boosting his re-election chances] when asked about the matter on Wednesday night by Sean Hannity on Fox News, but Robert Lighthizer, his trade representative, did on his behalf earlier in the day, saying it was not true."

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The most damning passage [in regard to Trump's disinterest in human rights] comes when Trump, in Bolton's telling, on two occasions actually encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to use concentration camps for Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang province[.... After Trump spoke to Xi about the Uighurs at the Osaka G-20 meeting in June 2019]..., Trump in July 2019 met with victims of political persecution, including Uighurs, and declared of his devotion to religious freedom, 'I don’t think any president has taken it as seriously as me.' The White House announced shortly after the news [the Bolton was releasing his book] broke [on June 8, 2020,] that Trump had signed the 'Uighur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Ben Fox & Deb Riechmann of the AP: Trump's encouragement of imprisoning Uighurs in concentration camps "could take some punch out of the Trump campaign's efforts to portray former Vice President Joe Biden as soft on China.... It also contradicts the position of lawmakers who have taken hard-line positions against Beijing." ~~~

~~~ Max Benwell, et al., of the Guardian list "eight of the most shocking revelations" of Bolton's book. ~~~

~~~ Ha Ha. Here's an actual book review by Jennifer Szalai of the New York Times: "'The Room Where It Happened,' an account of [John Bolton's] 17 months as Trump's national security adviser, has been written with so little discernible attention to style and narrative form that he apparently presumes an audience that is hanging on his every word.... Bolton has filled this book's nearly 500 pages with minute and often extraneous details, including the time and length of routine meetings and even, at one point, a nap. Underneath it all courses a festering obsession with his enemies.... The book is bloated with self-importance, even though what it mostly recounts is Bolton not being able to accomplish very much. It toggles between two discordant registers: exceedingly tedious and slightly unhinged.... It's a strange experience reading a book that begins with repeated salvos about 'the intellectually lazy' by an author who refuses to think through anything very hard himself." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

~~~ David Graham of the Atlantic: "Trump's willingness to prioritize his political fortunes..., Bolton writes, was part of a pattern: 'Trump commingled the personal and the national not just on trade questions but across the whole field of national security. I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my White House tenure that wasn't driven by reelection calculations.'... 'The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life,' writes Bolton.... Bolton's account is notable for two reasons. The first is the messenger: Bolton had not only a front-row seat but a seat at the table for the events he recounts, and there is no question about his conservative bona fides. Second, it shows the scale and depth of Trump's depravity and corruption.... For Trump, everything revolves around his own interests, political or otherwise. He doesn't care who gets hurt in other countries, or even in his own country."

Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "The Times calls [Bolton] a 'complicated, controversial figure.' Not really. He's a jerk promoting himself.... Last fall, patriotic civil servants -- including former Bolton subordinates Fiona Hill and Alexander Vindman ... risked their careers and endured slander to testify truthfully about Trump's efforts to corrupt US foreign policy. The witnesses appeared in the House Ways and Means hearing room. That was 'the room where it happened.' Bolton didn't show up." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course Bolton is a jerk promoting himself, but if Senate Republicans had permitted him to be subpoenaed, he would have testified in the impeachment trial. The failure of Bolton & other administration to testify is the result of a grand GOP conspiracy against the American people.

Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "At the heart of the [Justice Department's] lawsuit ... seeking to halt the release next week of John Bolton's tell-all book ... is the idea that Bolton's book contains classified information.... As the Justice Department's own suit admits, there was indeed a point at which the White House official who had worked extensively with Bolton decided that the manuscript of the book was free of classified information. Shortly thereafter, though, she was overruled by officials with closer ties to Trump -- and, in one case, thanks to an official with a history of politically charged actions benefiting Trump.... The official was Michael Ellis, the senior director for intelligence on the National Security Council. Interestingly, the lawsuit says the additional review was conducted 'at the request of' Bolton's replacement as White House national security adviser, Robert O'Brien.... O'Brien has also proved to be one of Trump's most loyal aides, shifting the National Security Council from its traditional role of advising a president on policy to defending, implementing and enabling his preexisting policy ideas, according to a February New York Times analysis.... A former aide to the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), Ellis in 2017 was one of three White House officials involved in the handling of sensitive intelligence that was shared with Nunes to discredit the Russia investigation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Theodore Boutrous, Jr., in a Washington Post op-ed: "The Trump administration's lawsuit against John Bolton is a paper tiger, designed for a showy roar of outrage but with little prospect of any real bite.... The complaint on its face demonstrates that this is just the latest example of Trump flouting the First Amendment and manipulating and abusing the national security apparatus for personal and political purposes to hide information of great public concern.... The biggest problem is that the administration is seeking a prior restraint of speech before it occurs -- not just damages for injuries allegedly caused by speech after the fact. The Supreme Court has never upheld a prior restraint on speech about matters of public concern.... The complaint doesn't even name the publisher as a defendant, and the books have already been printed and shipped to warehouses. Advance copies have been distributed to journalists and others. So even if the Justice Department can persuade a judge to enjoin Bolton, the non-parties remain free to disseminate the book." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Update: Desperation Time. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Justice Department asked a judge on Wednesday to order President Trump's former national security adviser John R. Bolton to halt publication of his memoir, which has already been printed an distributed to booksellers, saying that it contained classified information even as details emerged from it. In a court filing, the Trump administration also urged the judge overseeing the lawsuit, Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, to declare that the potential restraining order it was seeking should also bind the book's publisher, Simon & Schuster, and stores from disseminating the book once they received notice of it.... The Justice Department's filing amounted to a sharp escalation of a lawsuit it filed a day earlier accusing Mr. Bolton of failing to complete the prepublication review process he agreed to undergo as a condition of receiving his security clearance.... Several legal specialists said the 11th-hour effort to block the book from reaching the public was unlikely to succeed for both practical and constitutional reasons." An Axios story is here; it includes a facsimile of the DOJ's plea. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The request for a restraining order is stupid. Reporters from every major news outlet have copies of the book. The important details of Bolton's screed are already out, and every dirty little secret will be published within days. ~~~

~~~ Josh Kovensky of TPM: "The Justice Department is considering filing criminal charges against former National Security Adviser John Bolton over his soon-to-be-released White House tell-all, the LA Times reported on Wednesday."

Matthew Lee of the AP: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with a top Chinese official in Hawaii on Wednesday as new revelations about ... Donald Trump and China rocked Washington. Pompeo and his deputy Stephen Biegun held closed-door talks with the Chinese Communist Party's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, according to a senior State Department official on the base. Discussions covered a wide range of contentious issues that have sent relations between the two countries plummeting, according to the two sides."

Shane Harris, et al., of the Washington Post: "An Army officer's promotion is in jeopardy over what some officials fear could be White House retaliation for his role in last year's impeachment inquiry, raising the possibility that President Trump might again intervene in military affairs, according to officials familiar with the matter. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who received a Purple Heart for his actions in Iraq and later served as a White House aide on European affairs, is among hundreds of officers selected to be promoted to full colonel this year. Such promotions are typically signed off on by Army and then Pentagon leaders before moving to the White House and the Senate for a confirmation vote. The list is now with a Pentagon personnel office. Multiple government officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to address personnel matters, have voiced concern, however, that the White House could strike Vindman's name once it is conveyed, effectively sanctioning him for testimony he gave under subpoena to House lawmakers."

Jennifer Hansler & Brian Stelter of CNN: "The heads of four organizations overseen by the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) were all dismissed Wednesday night -- a move likely to heighten concerns that new Trump-appointed CEO Michael Pack means to turn the agency into a political arm of the administration. In what a former official described as a 'Wednesday night massacre,' the heads of Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Open Technology Fund were all ousted, multiple sources told CNN.... Jeffrey Shapiro, an ally the ultra-conservative former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, is expected to be named to lead the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. The rash of firings came just hours after Pack, another Bannon ally, introduced himself to employees, nearly two weeks after being confirmed for the job." --s The New York Times story is here. ~~~

The wholesale firing of the agency's network heads, and disbanding of corporate boards to install President Trump's political allies, is an egregious breach of this organization's history and mission from which it may never recover. This latest attack is sadly the latest -- but not the last -- in the Trump administration;s efforts to transform U.S. institutions rooted in the principles of democracy into tools for the president's own personal agenda. -- Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), in a statement, Wednesday ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: One might think, given the Bolton revelations, that Trump would have ordered Pack to back off the plan to reorganize the well-regarded independent news agencies as arms of the Trump campaign. But no. Trump's urge to turn VOA into Voice of Trump is too strong to allow for even temporary restraint. Besides, Trump sees nothing wrong with abusing his office.

Josh Kovensky of TPM: "The Justice Department responded to a blistering critique of its conduct in the Michael Flynn case on Wednesday, calling its decision to drop charges against the former national security adviser an 'unreviewable exercise of prosecutorial discretion.'... Prosecutors submitted the filing to U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan in Washington, who appointed former U.S. District Judge John Gleeson to examine the Justice Department's conduct in the case.... The DOJ held back in the filing from arguing that Gleeson's appointment itself was unconstitutional, and instead argued that the Constitution forbids Sullivan from doing anything other than granting the motion to dismiss the charges. The Justice Department argued in the filing that its reasoning for dropping the charges was beyond judicial review." --s ~~~

~~~ Tierney Sneed of TPM: "In response to the allegations made by a former federal judge about the Justice Department's dropping of his case..., Michael Flynn went on an indignant tear against the decision [of U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan] to appoint the former judge to oppose the dismissal.... He said that the arguments made by retired U.S. District Judge John Gleeson were 'an affront to the Rule of Law and a raging insult to the citizens of this country who see the abject corruption in this assassination by political prosecution of General Flynn.'... Flynn argued that Sullivan had no choice but to immediately dismiss Flynn's case. He said that delaying the dismissal so that Gleeson could argue against it was a 'clear impermissible violation of the separation of powers,' while describing Sullivan's choice of Gleeson in particular as 'appalling.'" --s

Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "At a time when President Trump and other top U.S. officials have claimed -- with little evidence -- that leftist groups were fomenting violence, federal prosecutors have charged various supporters of a right-wing movement called the 'boogaloo bois,' with crimes related to plotting to firebomb a U.S. Forest Service facility, preparing to use explosives at a peaceful demonstration and killing a security officer at a federal courthouse.... A far-right extremist movement born on social media and fueled by anti-government rhetoric has emerged as a real-world threat in recent weeks, with federal authorities accusing some of its adherents of working to spark violence at largely peaceful protests roiling the nation.... 'The numbers are overwhelming: Most of the violence is coming from the extreme right wing,' said Clint Watts, a former FBI agent who studies extremist political activity for the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Philadelphia."

Sean Collins of Vox: "The current protests -- and the anger that fuels them -- ... are a cry of pain from a raw nerve that has always afflicted the United States, one that was all too often ignored." --safari: A long researched piece with many stats on racial inequalities and their effects.

Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "Aunt Jemima, a syrup and pancake mix brand, will get a new name and image after Quaker Oats, its parent company, acknowledged that its origins were 'based on a racial stereotype.'" Thanks to Ken W. for the link. The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Racist? Whaddaya mean, racist? ~~~

     ~~~ Thanks to the Jim Crow Museum. Terry Nguyen of Vox has more on the history of the brand. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Update: Uncle Ben & Mrs. Butterworth. Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "Within hours of the announcement that Aunt Jemima was being retired from store shelves, at least three more food companies rushed to respond to complaints about other brands that have been criticized for using racial stereotypes. Mars Food, the owner of the brand Uncle Ben's rice, which features an older black man smiling on the box, said on Wednesday afternoon that it would 'evolve' the brand.... ConAgra Brands, the maker of Mrs. Butterwort's pancake syrup, released a statement saying the company had begun a 'complete brand and package review.'... And later on Wednesday, the parent company of Cream of Wheat announced that it was conducting a similar review.... The image on a box of Cream of Wheat, a beaming black man in a white chef's uniform, has not been altered much since its debut in the late 19th century. The character was named 'Rastus,' a pejorative term for black men, and he was depicted as a barely literate cook who did not know what vitamins were." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It never dawned on me Mrs. Butterworth was black, but I guess she is when she's a bottle of syrup.

Theresa Vargas of the Washington Post explains the significance of racist symbols to dummies: "We can pretend that the debate over Confederate symbols is about preserving or erasing history, but really, it's about our values. It's about whether we care more about statues standing than people falling."

Georgia. Kate Brumback of the AP: “Prosecutors brought murder charges Wednesday against the white Atlanta police officer [Garrett Rolfe] who shot Rayshard Brooks in the back, saying that the black man posed no threat when he was gunned down and that the officer kicked him and offered no medical treatment as he lay dying on the ground.... The felony murder charge against Rolfe carries life in prison without parole or the death penalty. He was also charged with 10 other offenses punishable by decades behind bars. 'Mr. Brooks never presented himself as a threat,' [District Attorney Paul] Howard said. A second officer with Rolfe, Devin Brosnan, stood on a wounded Brooks' shoulder as he struggled for his life, according to Howard. Brosnan was charged with aggravated assault and other offenses but is cooperating with prosecutors and will testify, according to the district attorney, who said it was the first time in 40 such cases in which an officer has come forward to do this." The Washington Post's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Washington Post's story is here.

Mississippi. A "Noble Cause." Emily Pettus of the AP: "After rejecting a proposal to move a Confederate monument, [Harry Sanders,] a white elected [county supervisor] in Mississippi said this week that African Americans 'became dependent' during slavery and as a result, have had a harder time 'assimilating' into American life than other mistreated groups.... In northeastern Mississippi's Lowndes County, supervisors voted along racial lines Monday against moving a Confederate monument that has stood outside the county courthouse in Columbus since 1912. The monument depicts a Confederate soldier and says the South fought for a 'noble cause.'... After the meeting, Sanders, a Republican, was quoted by the Commercial Dispatch as saying that other groups of people who had also been mistreated in the past -- he cited Irish, Italian, Polish and Japanese immigrants -- were able to successfully 'assimilate' afterward. 'The only ones that are having the problems: Guess who? The African Americans,' Sanders said. 'You know why? In my opinion, they were slaves. And because of that, they didn't have to go out and earn any money, they didn't have to do anything. Whoever owned them took care of them, fed them, clothed them, worked them. They became dependent, and that dependency is still there....'" Mrs. McC: I'm shocked to learn a Mississippi cotton-country GOP candidate is a racist. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Virginia. Sandra Garcia of the New York Times: “A monument to the black tennis legend Arthur Ashe in Richmond, Va., was vandalized with spray paint that read 'WLM' and 'White Lives Matter' on Wednesday. Mr. Ashe, a Richmond native, became the first black man to win Wimbledon, the Australian Open and the U.S. Open. His statue is on the city's Monument Avenue, a residential street that extends for five miles into Henrico County and is dotted with a number of prominent Confederate monuments."

Elections 2020

Maggie Haberman & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "... the president's customary defiance has been suffused with a heightened sense of agitation as he confronts a series of external crises he has failed to contain, or has exacerbated, according to people close to him. They say his repeated acts of political self-sabotage -- a widely denounced photo-op at a church for which peaceful protesters were forcibly removed, a threat to use the American military to quell protests -- have significantly damaged his re-election prospects, and yet he appears mostly unable, or unwilling, to curtail them.... The president is acting trapped and defensive, and his self-destructive behavior has been so out of step for an incumbent in an election year that many advisers wonder if he is truly interested in serving a second term. Rather than focus on plans and goals for another four years in office, Mr. Trump has been wallowing in self-pity about news coverage of him since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, people who have spoken with him said."

Ally Mutnick & Melanie Zanona of Politico: "The House's highest-ranking Republicans are racing to distance themselves from a leading GOP congressional candidate in Georgia after Politico uncovered hours of Facebook videos in which she expresses racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic views. The candidate, Marjorie Taylor Greene, suggested that Muslims do not belong in government; thinks black people' are held slaves to the Democratic Party'; called George Soros, a Jewish Democratic megadonor, a Nazi; and said she would feel 'proud' to see a Confederate monument if she were black because it symbolizes progress made since the Civil War. Greene finished first in a primary for a deep-red, northwest Georgia seat last week by a nearly two-to-one margin over the second-place candidate. She is entering an August runoff as the heavy favorite to secure the Republican nomination for a district where that is tantamount to winning the general election in November." Mrs. McC: I'm shocked to learn a red-clay Georgia GOP candidate is a racist. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Nina Jankowicz & Cindy Otis of Wired: "For the past several years, Facebook users have been seeing more content from 'friends and family' and less from brands and media outlets. As part of the platform's 'pivot to privacy' after the 2016 election, groups have been promoted as trusted spaces that create communities around shared interests.... But as our research shows, those same features -- privacy and community -- are often exploited by bad actors, foreign and domestic, to spread false information and conspiracies.... If you were to join the 'Alternative Health Science News' group, for example, Facebook would then recommend ... that you join a group called 'Sheep No More,' which uses Pepe the Frog, a white supremacist symbol, in its header; as well as 'Q-Anon Patriots,' a forum for believers in the crackpot QAnon conspiracy theory." --s

Ouch! Stings Like a Bumble Bee. AP: "A former CEO of Bumble Bee Foods has been sentenced to more than three years in jail for his role in a canned tuna price-fixing conspiracy involving three major companies, the U.S. Justice Department said. Christopher Lischewski was also ordered Tuesday to pay a $100,000 fine in addition to serving a 40-month term."

News Lede

New York Times: "Vera Lynn, who sang the songs that touched the hearts and lifted the spirits of Britons from the bomb-blitzed streets of London and Coventry to the sands of North Africa and the jungles of Burma during World War II, died on Thursday at her home in Sussex, England. She was 103."

The Commentariat -- June 17, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Kate Brumback of the AP: "Prosecutors brought murder charges Wednesday against the white Atlanta police officer [Garrett Rolfe] who shot Rayshard Brooks in the back, saying that the black man posed no threat when he was gunned down and that the officer kicked him and offered no medical treatment as he lay dying on the ground.... The felony murder charge against Rolfe carries life in prison without parole or the death penalty. He was also charged with 10 other offenses punishable by decades behind bars. 'Mr. Brooks never presented himself as a threat,' [District Attorney Paul] Howard said. A second officer with Rolfe, Devin Brosnan, stood on a wounded Brooks' shoulder as he struggled for his life, according to Howard. Brosnan was charged with aggravated assault and other offenses but is cooperating with prosecutors and will testify, according to the district attorney, who said it was the first time in 40 such cases in which an officer has come forward to do this." The Washington Post's report is here.

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

Robert O'Harrow, et al., of the Washington Post: "As it races to create a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, the Trump administration this month announced that one of its largest pandemic-related contracts would go to a little-known biodefense company named Emergent BioSolutions.... The $628 million deal to help manufacture an eventual vaccine cemented Emergent's status as the highest-paid and most important contractor to the HHS office responsible for preparing for public health threats and maintaining the government's stockpile of emergency medical supplies.... Now, Emergent is the only maker of multiple drugs the government deems crucial for the Strategic National Stockpile, and the government is the company's primary customer, accounting for most of its revenue.... But Emergent's dominance has fueled new risks for national health preparedness, according to documents and former government officials. The industry consolidation has created 'vulnerabilities in the supply chain,' while also raising the prospect of inflated costs because of a lack of competition, according to a confidential report [commissioned by HHS] obtained by The Post.... Emergent's advocacy for biodefense spending over more than a decade was aided by influential allies in Washington and tens of millions of dollars in lobbying campaigns, documents show."

** Book Report. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser, says in his new book that the House in its impeachment inquiry should have investigated President Trump not just for pressuring Ukraine to incriminate his domestic foes but for a variety of instances when he sought to intervene in law enforcement matters for political reasons. Mr. Bolton describes several episodes where the president expressed willingness to halt criminal investigations 'to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked,' citing cases involving major firms in China and Turkey. 'The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn't accept,' Mr. Bolton writes, adding that he reported his concerns to Attorney General William P. Barr. Mr. Bolton also adds a striking new allegation by saying that Mr. Trump overtly linked trade negotiations to his own political fortunes by asking President Xi Jinping of China to buy a lot of American agricultural products to help him win farm states in this year's election." Read on. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I guess we know now why "the Justice Department filed a last-minute lawsuit against Mr. Bolton this week seeking to stop publication." Barr is totally implicated. As for Bolton, he apparently spills quite a bit of ink over chastising the House for not investigating other Trump misdeeds at the same time Bolton himself was keeping those misdeeds secret from the House. Phony jackass. ~~~

~~~ Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post also read Bolton's book. Mrs. McC: The most important thing Bolton nails down is that Trump did not just passively accept foreign interference in U.S. elections; he solicited foreign assistance -- more than once. And Bill Barr knew it. He knew it when he stood up there and mischaracterized the Mueller report. In a just world, Deputy Dawg would be in jail, too. ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "At the heart of the [Justice Department's] lawsuit ... seeking to halt the release next week of John Bolton's tell-all book ... is the idea that Bolton's book contains classified information.... As the Justice Department's own suit admits, there was indeed a point at which the White House official who had worked extensively with Bolton decided that the manuscript of the book was free of classified information. Shortly thereafter, though, she was overruled by officials with closer ties to Trump -- and, in one case, thanks to an official with a history of politically charged actions benefiting Trump.... The official was Michael Ellis, the senior director for intelligence on the National Security Council.... The lawsuit says the additional review was conducted 'at the request of' Bolton's replacement as White House national security adviser, Robert O'Brien.... O'Brien has also proved to be one of Trump's most loyal aides, shifting the National Security Council from its traditional role of advising a president on policy to defending, implementing and enabling his preexisting policy ideas, according to a February New York Times analysis.... A former aide to the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), Ellis in 2017 was one of three White House officials involved in the handling of sensitive intelligence that was shared with Nunes to discredit the Russia investigation." ~~~

~~~ Theodore Boutrous, Jr., in a Washington Post op-ed: "The Trump administration's lawsuit against John Bolton is a paper tiger, designed for a showy roar of outrage but with little prospect of any real bite.... The complaint on its face demonstrates that this is just the latest example of Trump flouting the First Amendment and manipulating and abusing the national security apparatus for personal and political purposes to hide information of great public concern.... The biggest problem is that the administration is seeking a prior restraint of speech before it occurs -- not just damages for injuries allegedly caused by speech after the fact. The Supreme Court has never upheld a prior restraint on speech about matters of public concern.... The complaint doesn't even name the publisher as a defendant, and the books have already been printed and shipped to warehouses. Advance copies have been distributed to journalists and others. So even if the Justice Department can persuade a judge to enjoin Bolton, the non-parties remain free to disseminate the book." ~~~

~~~ Aaron Blake: "The most damning passage [in regard to Trump's disinterest in human rights] comes when Trump, in Bolton's telling, on two occasions actually encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to use concentration camps for Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang province[.... After Trump spoke to Xi about the Uighurs at the Osaka G-20 meeting in June 2019]..., Trump in July 2019 met with victims of political persecution, including Uighurs, and declared of his devotion to religious freedom, 'I don't think any president has taken it as seriously as me.' The White House announced shortly after the news [the Bolton was releasing his book] broke [on June 8, 2020,] that Trump had signed the 'Uighur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020.'"

~~~ Ha Ha. Here's an actual book review by Jennifer Szalai of the New York Times: "'The Room Where It Happened,' an account of [John Bolton's] 17 months as Trump's national security adviser, has been written with so little discernible attention to style and narrative form that he apparently presumes an audience that is hanging on his every word.... Bolton has filled this book's nearly 500 pages with minute and often extraneous details, including the time and length of routine meetings and even, at one point, a nap. Underneath it all courses a festering obsession with his enemies.... The book is bloated with self-importance, even though what it mostly recounts is Bolton not being able to accomplish very much. It toggles between two discordant registers: exceedingly tedious and slightly unhinged.... It's a strange experience reading a book that begins with repeated salvos about 'the intellectually lazy' by an author who refuses to think through anything very hard himself."

Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "Aunt Jemima, a syrup and pancake mix brand, will get a new name and image after Quaker Oats, its parent company, acknowledged that its origins were 'based on a racial stereotype.'" Thanks to Ken W. for the link. The NBC News story is here. ~~~

~~~ Racist? Whaddaya mean, racist? ~~~

     ~~~ Thanks to the Jim Crow Museum. Terry Nguyen of Vox has more on the history of the brand.

Ally Mutnick & Melanie Zanona of Politico: "The House's highest-ranking Republicans are racing to distance themselves from a leading GOP congressional candidate in Georgia after Politico uncovered hours of Facebook videos in which she expresses racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic views. The candidate, Marjorie Taylor Greene, suggested that Muslims do not belong in government; thinks black people' are held slaves to the Democratic Party'; called George Soros, a Jewish Democratic megadonor, a Nazi; and said she would feel 'proud' to see a Confederate monument if she were black because it symbolizes progress made since the Civil War. Greene finished first in a primary for a deep-red, northwest Georgia seat last week by a nearly two-to-one margin over the second-place candidate. She is entering an August runoff as the heavy favorite to secure the Republican nomination for a district where that is tantamount to winning the general election in November." Mrs. McC: I'm shocked to learn a red-clay Georgia GOP candidate is a racist.

A "Noble Cause." Emily Pettus of the AP: "After rejecting a proposal to move a Confederate monument, [Harry Sanders,] a white elected [county supervisor] in Mississippi said this week that African Americans 'became dependent' during slavery and as a result, have had a harder time 'assimilating' into American life than other mistreated groups.... In northeastern Mississippi's Lowndes County, supervisors voted along racial lines Monday against moving a Confederate monument that has stood outside the county courthouse in Columbus since 1912. The monument depicts a Confederate soldier and says the South fought for a 'noble cause.'... After the meeting, Sanders, a Republican, was quoted by the Commercial Dispatch as saying that other groups of people who had also been mistreated in the past -- he cited Irish, Italian, Polish and Japanese immigrants -- were able to successfully 'assimilate' afterward. 'The only ones that are having the problems: Guess who? The African Americans,' Sanders said. 'You know why? In my opinion, they were slaves. And because of that, they didn't have to go out and earn any money, they didn't have to do anything. Whoever owned them took care of them, fed them, clothed them, worked them. They became dependent, and that dependency is still there....'" Mrs. McC: I'm shocked to learn a Mississippi cotton-country GOP candidate is a racist.

~~~~~~~~~~~

Americans want law and order. They demand law and order. They may not say it, they may not be talking about it, but that's what they want. -- Donald Trump, Tuesday, at what was supposed to be a speech about reducing police misconduct ~~~

~~~ David Nakamura, et al., of the Washington Post: "President Trump announced executive action on police reforms Tuesday, but his plan was swiftly panned by Democrats and liberal groups as falling far short of the sweeping changes needed to address what they have called a culture of systemic racism and brutality that sparked nationwide protests. In a Rose Garden ceremony, Trump formally unveiled steps to offer new federal incentives for local police to bolster training and create a national database to track misconduct.... The event was heavy on symbolism as the president surrounded himself with uniformed officers and police union officials [Mrs. McC: almost all of them whitey-white], a show of solidarity that signaled he was unwilling to risk angering law enforcement communities that he considers a key part of his conservative political base.... Kate Bedingfield, Biden's deputy campaign manager, responded to Trump's false contention that the Obama administration had not tried to address police brutality by citing consent decrees with local police departments and an Obama executive order to limit the flow of military weapons to municipal police. She said Trump 'has spent the past three years tearing down the very reforms' the previous administration had pursued." ~~~

President Obama and Vice President Biden never even tried to fix this during their eight-year period. The reason they didn't try is they had no idea how to do it. -- Donald Trump, telling another whopper Tuesday

     ~~~ Jane Timm of NBC News: "... Donald Trump claimed Tuesday that his predecessor did not take action on reforming police.... But [President] Obama..., who confronted and addressed race and racism frequently, did take action to reform police and try to reduce bias in law enforcement. The Trump administration is well aware of that, too: It unraveled those changes.... In August 2017, Trump reversed an Obama policy that banned the military from selling surplus equipment to police, a measure that had been put in place amid criticism over the armored vehicles, tear gas and assault rifles used to control protests after the police killing of Michael Brown, 18, in Ferguson, Missouri, in 2014. In addition, in September 2017, the Justice Department said it would stop the Obama-era practice of investigating police departments and issuing public reports about their failings. Those reports were used to demand change and negotiate consent decrees, legal agreements between local police and the Justice Department mandating reforms enforceable by courts.... Shortly before the president fired him..., [then-AG Jeff] Sessions issued a memo dramatically limiting the Justice Department's practice of using consent decrees." ~~~

~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Last night, Brian Williams interviewed David Litt, a one-time Obama speechwriter. Litt said that he could not have written a speech in which Obama knocked a political rival because, as a White House employee, he was not permitted by law to write political speeches. That is, any time Trump reads from a script in which he maligns another politician (and that's pretty often) -- unless Trump himself has altered the script -- his speechwriter has broken the law. Update: Jonathan Lemire of the AP, appearing on MSNBC this morning, seemed to indicate that Trump's dissing of Obama & Biden in yesterday's Rose Garden remarks was ad-libbed. ~~~

~~~ Jill Colvin, et al., of the AP: At the signing ceremony, "Donald Trump ... made no mention of the roiling national debate over racism spawned by police killings of black people. Trump met privately with the families of several black Americans killed in interactions with police before his Rose Garden signing ceremony and said he grieved for the lives lost and families devastated. But he quickly shifted his tone and devoted most of his public remarks to a need to respect and support 'the brave men and women in blue who police our streets and keep us safe.' He characterized the officers who've used excessive force as a 'tiny' number of outliers among 'trustworthy' police ranks.... At the signing event, he railed against those who committed violence during the largely peaceful protests while hailing the vast majority of officers as selfless public servants."

Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "... a key committee in the chamber, the Senate Judiciary Committee, held its first big hearing on policing reform Tuesday. It came hours after President Trump announced an executive order on policing that focused on training." Phillips covers five takeaways from the hearing. Here's one: "In his opening remarks, Senate Judiciary Chairman Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) became the most high-profile Senate Republican yet to signal he's open to changing the legal protections for police officers, known as qualified immunity.... The White House has said it won't consider any changes to legal protections for officers from lawsuits." ~~~

~~~ Andrew Desiderio & Burgess Everett of Politico: "The Senate is unlikely to take up a police reform bill until after the Independence Day recess, Republican leaders said on Monday, raising the prospect that it could be a month or longer before a measure heads to ... Donald Trump's desk. A group of GOP senators, led by Sen. Tim Scott (R-S.C.), is expected to file legislation this week that would address policing practices in the aftermath of the May 25 killing of George Floyd. But according to GOP leaders, any floor votes would likely have to wait until at least the week of July 20, after senators return from a two-week recess." (Also linked yesterday.)

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday rejected calls to remove statues of Confederate figures from the Capitol, reiterating that he thinks the decision should be made by states. 'What I do think is clearly a bridge too far is this nonsense that we need to airbrush the Capitol and scrub out everybody from years ago who had any connection to slavery,' McConnell told reporters.... Democrats, including House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.), are calling for the statues' removal.... 'Every state is allowed two statues. They can trade them out at any time.... A number of states are trading them out now. But I think that's the appropriate way to deal with the statue issue. The states make that decision,' McConnell told reporters last week.... However, on Tuesday, McConnell did signal an openness to renaming military installations named after Confederate figures, something President Trump has indicated he would oppose.... '... If it's appropriate to take another look at these names, I'm personally OK with that.... Whatever is ultimately decided, I don't have a problem with,' McConnell said." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Not surprisingly, McConnell's argument on the statues is disingenuous. He claims proponents of removing the aim "to airbrush the Capitol and scrub out everybody ... who had any connection to slavery," then pointed out that "there were eight presidents who owned slaves. Washington did. Jefferson did. Madison did. Monroe did." But members of Congress who want to remove statues of Confederate leaders & military men are not proposing to remove statues of slaveholders per se. They're asking to remove statues of men who took up arms against the United States in the cause of slavery. They're asking to remove homages to traitors. Washington, et al., kept slaves (more or less) in compliance with the laws & did not commit acts to treason to do so.

Alabama. Brad Harper of the Montgomery Advertiser: "Jackson Hospital pulmonologist William Saliski ... described the dire situation created by the coronavirus pandemic in Montgomery to its City Council before they voted on a mandatory mask ordinance.... 'The units are full with critically-ill COVID patients,' Saliski said. About 90% of them are Black.... 'This mask slows that down, 95% protection from something as easy as cloth.... If this continues the way it's going, we will be overrun.' More doctors followed him to the microphone, describing the dead being carried out within 30 minutes of each other, and doctors being disturbed when people on the street ask them if the media is lying about the pandemic as part of a political ploy.... The council killed the ordinance after it failed to pass in a 4-4 tie, mostly along racial lines.... Councilman Clay McInnis voted with three Black council members.... 'The question on the table is whether Black lives matter,' [resident William] Boyd said before the vote." Mrs. McC: Clearly, black lives do not matter to Montgomery's white councilmembers. But hey, what do a bunch of elitist doctors know? MAGA!

California. Andrew Blankstein & Ben Collins of NBC News: "An Air Force sergeant who was arrested in the fatal ambush of a Santa Cruz County deputy was charged Tuesday in connection with the killing of a federal security officer during George Floyd protests in Oakland last month, authorities said. Staff Sgt. Steven Carrillo, 32, was charged with murder and attempted murder in the killing of federal officer Dave Patrick Underwood, 53. Underwood was one of two officers who were shot May 29 while guarding the Ronald V. Dellums Federal Building. The other officer was critically wounded in the drive-by attack. Both were members of Homeland Security's Federal Protective Service. Authorities said Carrillo and a second man traveled to Oakland with the intent to kill police and believed the large demonstrations spurred by the death of Floyd in Minneapolis -- which they were not a part of -- would help them get away it.... Carrillo's alleged accomplice, Robert Justus, was also charged with murder and attempted murder.... Investigators found inside Carrillo's vehicle a ballistic vest with a patch on it that featured an igloo and a Hawaiian-style print -- symbols associated with the far-right extremist 'Boogaloo' movement, according to his federal complaint."

Minnesota. Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "A Minnesota man was charged in connection with the burning down of a Minneapolis police station after a protest over the death of George Floyd turned violent. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) announced Tuesday that Dylan Shakespeare Robinson, 22, was charged with aiding and abetting arson at the Minneapolis Police Department's Third Precinct. Robinson, who was arrested Sunday in Breckenridge, Colo., made his first appearance earlier today in front of a federal judge in Denver. According to a criminal complaint filed against him, Robinson is suspected of lighting a Molotov cocktail that another person threw at the police precinct on May 28. He later allegedly threw an incendiary device into the building himself.... Branden Michael Wolfe, 23, of St. Paul was also charged last week with aiding and abetting arson in connection with the blaze."

New Mexico. Simon Romero of the New York Times: "Gunfire broke out during a protest Monday night in Albuquerque to demand the removal of a statue of Juan de Oñate, the despotic conquistador of New Mexico whose image has become the latest target in demonstrations across the country aimed at righting a history of racial injustice. As dozens of people gathered around a statue of Oñate, New Mexico's 16th-century colonial governor, shouting matches erupted over proposals to take it down and a man was shot, prompting police officers in riot gear to rush in. The man, who was not identified, was taken away in an ambulance, and the police took into custody several members of a right-wing militia who were dressed in camouflage and carrying military-style rifles. It was not clear whether any of them had fired the shot; witnesses said the gunman was a white man in a blue shirt." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "... a group of militia men sporting militarylike garb and carrying semiautomatic rifles formed a protective circle around the gunman [who shot four rounds]. The gunshots, which left one man in critical but stable condition, have setoff a cascade of public outcry denouncing the unregulated militia's presence and the shooting. On Tuesday morning, the Albuquerque Police Department announced that detectives had arrested Stephen Ray Baca, 31,in connection with the shooting.... 'The heavily armed individuals who flaunted themselves at the protest, calling themselves a "civil guard," were there for one reason: To menace protesters, to present an unsanctioned show of unregulated force,' New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) said in a statement. 'To menace the people of New Mexico with weaponry -- with an implicit threat of violence -- is on its face unacceptable; that violence did indeed occur is unspeakable.'... Police have not released any information about the suspected shooter or said whether they believe he has any connection to the armed militia." (Also linked yesterday.)

New York. Jacqueline Rose & Eric Levenson of CNN: "Martin Gugino, the 75-year-old protester who was pushed by two Buffalo, New York, police officers earlier this month, has a fractured skull and is not able to walk, his lawyer said in a statement provided to CNN on Monday."

North Carolina. Jim Morrill of the Charlotte Observer: "... a North Carolina lawmaker has lashed out at what he calls 'gutless wonders in public office who are bowing down to Black Lives Matter.' Republican Rep. Larry Pittman of Cabarrus County called protesters 'ignorant thugs,' 'criminals,' 'domestic terrorists' and 'vermin.' If they resist and attack police, he said they should 'shoot them.' 'This is war,' he wrote on Facebook Monday. 'Our people have a right to expect our leaders to be on our side, not surrender to the lawless, godless mob.' Pittman, 65, is running for his fifth term. He faces Democrat Gail Young in November. His Facebook post came in response to the protests for racial justice that have swept the country following the police killing of George Floyd of Minneapolis. 'These vermin don't care about George Floyd or any other individual, except maybe their financial sponsor, George Soros,' Pittman wrote." Pittman is a "pastor." Mrs. McC: Yeah. Right back atcha, Rev. Larry.

Oklahoma. Alan Blinder of the New York Times: "Mike Gundy, the winningest football coach in Oklahoma State's history, apologized on Tuesday after he stirred outrage by wearing a T-shirt with the logo of a right-wing cable channel that aired commentary calling the Black Lives Matter movement 'a farce.... Gundy's apology and his public distancing from the One America News Network came after current and former Oklahoma State athletes condemned his decision to wear the shirt. The open outrage, a reflection of the growing power of players across college athletics, included criticism from Chuba Hubbard, Oklahoma State's premier tailback, who issued a public warning on Monday that he was prepared to boycott the university."

John Bowden of the Hill: "NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell said Monday that he would 'support' and 'encourage' an NFL team to sign former 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick after facing criticism for not addressing Kaepernick's situation during a recent statement on racial issues and the league. During an interview with ESPN anchor Mike Greenberg, Goodell said that the league should have 'listened to our players earlier' on issues of race and the protests against police brutality during the national anthem's performance before games, a practice Kaepernick is credited with starting." (Also linked yesterday.)

Honduras. Frances Robles of the New York Times: "The president of Honduras has announced that he tested positive for the coronavirus, joining a small group of world leaders infected in the pandemic.... In a televised statement late Tuesday, President Juan Orlando Hernández said his wife and two of his two aides had also become infected. He said that he began feeling unwell over the weekend, and that the diagnosis was confirmed later Tuesday."

The Trumpidemic

If we stop testing right now we'd have very few cases. -- Donald Trump, Monday ~~~

~~~ Aamer Madhani & Mike Stobbe of the AP: "Trump's comment Monday was part of a broader administration effort to play down the pandemic, a push that public health experts and Democratic officials worry is sending a dangerous message to the American public as some parts of the country have seen a surge in cases in recent weeks.... Last week, the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation ... said rising rates of infections, hospitalizations and death 'are now occurring in the wake of eased or ended distancing policies.' Trump offered more rosy talk Tuesday, predicting that a vaccine would be available by year's end and adding that 'even without it, it goes away.'... Vice President Mike Pence, for his part, pushed back in a Wall Street Journal op-ed that the potential for a second wave of the virus was 'overblown.'... But public health experts say Trump and Pence's ebullience papers over concerning data that suggests that the virus remains a serious threat to Americans' health and the economy and that the slowing of social distancing and mitigation efforts risks a second wave of the coronavirus in the fall.... In the past week, hospitalization rates have increased in 11 states in the South and West." ~~~

~~~ Ryan Lizza & Renuka Rayasam of Politico: "... Mike Pence, the chair of the president's coronavirus task force, often played the role of bridge between [Trump & Anthony Fauci].... Pence abruptly reinvented himself as a coronavirus skeptic this week, with comments and an op-ed article that stray into pandemic denialism. In a conference call with governors, Pence incorrectly argued Monday that the spike in cases that almost half of the states are experiencing is simply a function of more testing. In a Wall Street Journal piece published [Tuesday] and headlined 'There Isn't a Coronavirus "Second Wave,"' Pence ... cherry-picked a handful of positive statistics.... By [Tuesday] afternoon, the news pages of the Journal contradicted much of what Pence had to say. In an interview with the paper, Fauci reiterated that the jump in cases 'cannot be explained by increased testing.' He warned that relaxed approaches to social distancing, such as congregating close to lots of people in large venues, and an aversion to mask-wearing would cause the disease to spread." Mrs. McC: Is this what Jesus would do, mikey? ~~~

But look, the freedom of speech, the right to peacefully assemble, is enshrined in the First Amendment of the Constitution. And the president and I are very confident that we're going to be able to restart these rallies. -- Mike Pence, Tuesday, defending Trump's First Amendment right to spread a deadly virus ~~~

~~~ Donald Trump, Super Spreader. Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "Officials in Tulsa, Okla., are warning that President Trump's planned campaign rally on Saturday -- his first in over three months -- is likely to worsen an already troubling spike in coronavirus infections and could become a disastrous 'super spreader.' They are pleading with the Trump campaign to cancel the event, slated for a 20,000-person indoor arena -- or at least move it outdoors. 'It's the perfect storm of potential over-the-top disease transmission,' said Bruce Dart, the executive director of the Tulsa health department. 'It's a perfect storm that we can't afford to have.' Tulsa County, which includes the city of Tulsa, tallied 89 new coronavirus cases on Monday, its one-day high since the virus's outbreak.... The number of active coronavirus cases climbed to 532 from 188 in a one-week period, a 182 percent increase; hospitalizations with Covid-19 almost doubled.... Mr. Trump said on Monday that criticism of the rally was the result of the news media 'trying to Covid Shame us on our big Rallies.'" ~~~

~~~ Erin Banco & Olivia Messer of the Daily Beast: "There's no need to talk about avoiding a second wave of the pandemic, Dr. Anthony Fauci ... said on Tuesday, because the country is still in the first one.... Fauci also said he did not believe that cities would have to go back into lockdown (after having started the process of reopening) because of the virus' spread.... Asked if he would personally attend [Trump's Tulsa rally], Fauci said 'No.' 'I'm in a high risk category. Personally, I would not. Of course not,' he said, adding that when it came to Trump's rallies 'outside is better than inside, no crowd is better than crowd' and 'crowd is better than big crowd.'"

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

Some Good News. Sarah Owermohle of Politico: "The inexpensive steroid dexamethasone is the first drug known to reduce risk of death in Covid-19 patients, British researchers announced Tuesday. The medicine cut deaths by up to a third in coronavirus patients on ventilators and cut deaths by one-fifth in patients on oxygen, according to data from a trial run by scientists at Oxford University. The trial randomly assigned 2,104 patients to receive dexamethasone and compared their outcomes to those of 4,321 patients who received standard care." (Also linked yesterday.)

More Magical Thinking. Rebecca Klar of the Hill: During his Rose Garden address on policing, "President Trump touted the development of an 'AIDS vaccine' on Tuesday as he predicted that scientists will create a vaccine for the coronavirus by the end of the year. An AIDS vaccine does not yet exist.... 'And they've come up with the AIDS vaccine. They've come up with -- or the AIDS. And they -- as you know, there's various things, and now various companies are involved. But the therapeutic for AIDS -- AIDS was a death sentence, and now people live a life with a pill. It's an incredible thing,' Trump added." Mrs. McC: Well said, Donald.

Phil Helsel of NBC News: "Rep. Tom Rice, R-S.C., said Monday that he, his wife and their son have ... COVID-19. In a statement, Rice called the illness the 'Wuhan Flu,' a term that has been criticized as inaccurate and even racist." (Also linked yesterday.) Mrs. McC: Rice is one of the Republicans who has refused to wear a mask to House sessions.

Matthew Choi of Politico: "Rep. Ilhan Omar's father died due to the coronavirus, the Minnesota congresswoman [D] announced Monday night." (Also linked yesterday.)

Tom Hamburger & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department filed a suit Tuesday seeking to block the release of a book by former White House national security adviser John Bolton, asserting that his much-anticipated memoir contains classified material. The moves sets up legal showdown between President Trump and the longtime conservative foreign policy hand, who alleges in his book that the president committed 'Ukraine-like transgressions' in a number of foreign policy decisions, according his publisher. 'The Room Where It Happened: A White House Memoir,' is due to go on sale June 23, and has already been shipped to distribution centers across the country.... Legal experts said the White House will face an uphill battle, given long-standing precedents showing courts are averse to preemptively blocking publication of books on political topics." The New York Times report is here. There's an ABC News story here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Somebody should tell Trump that he could avoid all these loser lawsuits if he would quit being such an asshole & giving people embarrassing secrets to tell. ~~~

~~~ Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The head of the Justice Department's civil division told staff members on Tuesday that he planned to resign after nearly two years in the post, according to an email obtained by The New York Times, making him the third top official at the department to step down in the past week. The official, Joseph H. Hunt, who previously was chief of staff to Jeff Sessions when he was the attorney general, did not say why he was leaving, and a Justice Department spokeswoman declined to comment on his departure. It came hours after the department filed a lawsuit signed by Mr. Hunt against ... John R. Bolton.... Besides Mr. Hunt, Brian A. Benczkowski, the head of the Justice Department's criminal division, said last week that he was leaving in July, and Noel J. Francisco, the solicitor general, told officials at the department that he planned to leave when the Supreme Court wrapped up its session this month. Mr. Hunt, a 20-year Justice Department veteran, led the division that defends presidential administrations in court -- and that has faced formidable pressure under Mr. Trump as it undertook deeply polarizing cases that career lawyers often refused to sign. So many lawyers in the division left or asked to be temporarily reassigned to other parts of the department that at one point it froze reassignment requests."

~~~ Mattathias Schwartz & Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "Two Justice Department officials have agreed to testify under subpoena before the House Judiciary Committee next week about politicization under Attorney General William P. Barr, setting up a likely fight with the department about what they will be permitted to say. House Democrats issued subpoenas on Tuesday to the two officials, including Aaron S.J. Zelinsky, one of the career prosecutors who quit a case against President Trump's friend Roger J. Stone Jr. after Mr. Barr and other senior officials decided to intervene to reverse their recommendation that Mr. Stone be sentenced in accord with standard guidelines and instead requested leniency. The other official who agreed to serve as a witness is John W. Elias, a career official in the Justice Department's antitrust division. The division opened an inquiry into a fuel efficiency deal between major automakers and the state of California; congressional Democrats have called the scrutiny politically motivated. Democrats are calling the officials whistle-blowers. The chairman of the Judiciary Committee, Representative Jerrold Nadler, Democrat of New York, said in a statement that Mr. Barr has refused to testify himself, so the committee was moving forward with oversight of his actions without him." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE. Asawin Suebsaeng & Lachlan Cartwright of the Daily Beast: "This past Sunday, news broke that the president's niece, Mary Trump, was on track to publish a 'harrowing and salacious' book this summer about her world-famous uncle. By Sunday night, the president had been privately briefed on what he could expect from the upcoming book. By Tuesday, he had begun discussing siccing his lawyers on his niece. According to two people familiar with the situation, Donald Trump has told people close to him that he's getting his lawyers to look into the Mary Trump matter, to explore what could be done in the way of legal retribution -- or at least a threat -- likely in the form of a cease and desist letter. One of the sources ... said that in the past couple of days, the president appeared irked by news of her book and at one point mentioned that Mary had signed an NDA years ago."

Scott Stedman & Robert DeNault of Forensic News: "Walter Soriano, a target of the U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee's investigation into foreign election interference in 2016, appears to be a key middle-man connecting a network of Israeli hacking and surveillance firms to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska and former Trump National Security Adviser, Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn. Under the umbrella of technology conglomerate NSO Group, two business entities appear critical to understanding the relationship between Soriano, Russian oligarchs, and Flynn. OSY Technologies and Circles [the OSY subsidiary hacking firm].... Flynn advised OSY Technologies from mid-2016 to January 2017.... Circles' direct parent company, OSY Technologies ... is actively contracted to work for ... Deripaska..., an associate of Paul Manafort.... Sources tell Forensic News that [the Israeli spy firm] Psy Group was also contracted to work for Deripaska and another Russian oligarch, Dmitry Rybolovlev. Soriano has also reportedly worked for both men. These connections emerge as U.S. investigators have focused on whether these Israeli intelligence companies operated as intermediaries for alleged coordination between the Trump Campaign and Russia." --s

Marianne Levine of Politico: "The Senate Ethics Committee has ended its investigation into Sen. Kelly Loeffler's stock trades, according to a letter sent Tuesday to the Georgia Republican. The news comes three weeks after Loeffler's office said the Justice Department had also dropped its probe into her stock trades.... 'Based on all the information before it, the Committee did not find evidence that your actions violated federal law, Senate Rules or standards of conduct,' [Deborah] Mayer[, the Ethics Committee's chief counsel,] said. 'Accordingly, consistent with its precedent, the Committee has dismissed the matter.'"

Elections 2020

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "Vice President Pence said Tuesday that President Trump' campaign is considering 'outside activities' for his upcoming Tulsa rally as well as potentially moving the event to a different venue. 'It's all a work in progress. We have had such an overwhelming response that we're also looking at another venue, we're also looking at outside activities and I know the campaign team will keep the public informed as that goes forward,' Pence said on 'Fox & Friends' when asked whether the campaign had considered holding the event outside because of the coronavirus pandemic. Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt (R) told reporters on Monday that he had asked the campaign to consider moving Saturday's rally to another venue outside to accommodate more guests." Mrs. McC: "Outside activities"? Like summer-camp crafts? Woven MAGA bracelets? (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ See more on Trump's planned Tulsa rally linked above under "The Trumpidemic."

Trolling Trump. Matthew Chapman of the Raw Story: "On Tuesday, Fox News reported that the Lincoln Project, a political group run by anti-Trump conservatives, [was] set to air a new ad highlighting ... Donald Trump's apparent physical frailty walking down a ramp after giving the address at West Point last week.... The ad [was] slated to run in the Washington, D.C. area -- all but guaranteeing the president will see it on his own TV." ~~~

Bloomberg: "In Beijing..., officials have come around to support four more years of Trump.... The chief reason? A belief that the benefit of the erosion of America's postwar alliance network would outweigh any damage to China from continued trade disputes and geopolitical instability.... 'If Biden is elected, I think this could be more dangerous for China, because he will work with allies to target China, whereas Trump is destroying U.S. alliances,' said Zhou Xiaoming, a former Chinese trade negotiator and former deputy representative in Geneva. Four current officials echoed that sentiment, saying many in the Chinese government believed a Trump victory could help Beijing by weakening what they saw as Washington's greatest asset for checking China's widening influence." --s (Firewalled.) (Also linked yesterday.)

Iowa. Trip Gabriel of the New York Times: "Gov. Kim Reynolds of Iowa said Tuesday that she would issue an executive order to restore voting rights to paroled felons, ending Iowa's distinction as the last state in the country to strip all former felons of voting rights for life. As protests over police violence erupted across Iowa in recent weeks, as they have around the country, activists pressured the governor on the issue at the State Capitol. Supporters of Des Moines Black Lives Matter chanted 'let them vote' outside the Capitol on Monday, and along with other rights groups and state lawmakers, they met privately with the governor twice. Ms. Reynolds, a Republican, indicated on Tuesday that she would sign the executive order before the November presidential election, automatically restoring the voting rights of felons who have completed their sentences.... The details of Ms. Reynolds's executive order remain unclear. This month, she signed a Republican-backed bill that excludes former felons who committed certain crimes ... from automatically regaining voting rights, and that requires released felons to pay restitution before they can vote." ~~~

      ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Reynolds' order has the potential to make a difference. The most recent polls have Biden & Trump in a statistical tie in Iowa, and Democrat Theresa Greenfield is currently a few polling points ahead of Sen. Joni Ernst (R-Hog Torturer), once considered a safe seat.

Nebraska. Mrs. McCrabbie: You know how I always say to vote for the Democratic candidate no matter how bad he is? Well, make that, "Unless you live in Nebraska, vote for the Democrat no matter how bad he is." ~~~

~~~ Grant Schulte of the AP: "The Nebraska Democratic Party called on its U.S. Senate nominee to drop out of the race Tuesday after he made sexually repugnant comments about a campaign staffer in a group text with her and other staffers. The party said its state executive committee voted unanimously on Monday evening to withdraw all of its resources from Chris Janicek's campaign. Janicek ... is challenging Republican Sen. Ben Sasse, who is seeking a second term.... The text messages, which were obtained by The Associated Press, were from a group chat involving Janicek and five other people, including the female staffer. At one point, he wrote that he had argued with her and then asked whether the campaign should spend money on 'getting her laid.' 'It will probably take three guys,' he wrote, before describing in graphic detail an imagined group sex scene involving the female staffer." ~~~

~~~ Maggie Astor of the New York Times: The Nebraska party's withdrawal of support "means that Mr. Janicek will not have access to any party resources, including money and voter file data. He will not be included in any Democratic campaign literature or on the party's website, and cannot hold events with county parties or other Democratic candidates.But there is no legal process to remove him from the ballot unless he files paperwork to withdraw."