The Commentariat -- August 19, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Your GOP Today. Wendy Rhodes & Antonio Fins of the Palm Beach Post: "Laura Loomer ... won the U.S. House District 21 GOP primary. She'll meet incumbent, ex-West Palm mayor Lois Frankel [D] in November.... Among those gathering to watch returns with Loomer were political strategist Roger Stone, British writer Milo Yiannopoulos and Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes. Even ... Donald Trump weighed in on Loomer's victory via Twitter. 'Great going Laura,' he wrote. 'You have a great chance against a Pelosi puppet!'... Long critical and even threatening on social media, Loomer has called for the widespread firing of Muslims and for Muslim congressional members to be jailed... Loomer told her supporters, Ronna McDaniel, chair of the Republican National Committee, called just before Loomer's acceptance speech to tell her she was a 'political rock star.'... Despite the pandemic, Loomer hosted a blow-out election night watch party for several hundred people at the Hilton Hotel by the West Palm Beach Airport.... The self-described 'Most Banned Woman on the Planet' has been permanently barred from sites such as Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Uber, Lyft, Paypal and Venmo, accused of using hate speech and being non-compliant with site rules." ~~~

~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "In tweets Tuesday night and early Wednesday, Trump offered Loomer his congratulations and retweeted news articles about her victory. Loomer could have been seen as part of the Republican fringe who got lucky in a crowded primary field, but Trump made sure that she was seen in another way -- as part of the team at the heart of the Republican Party.... The reason the Republican Party can't effectively police its ranks to stymie people like Loomer, of course, is Trump himself. The GOP can't disavow Loomer when the head of the party is clearly sympathetic to her, to her style and to her views. The GOP can't draw firm lines on behavior when Trump is always willing to cross them and always willing to embrace those who join him. ~~~

~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "It should be a much bigger story that the president of the United States has now enthusiastically endorsed the congressional run of a virulently Islamophobic far-right conspiracy theorist.... It ... illuminates the stakes of the 2020 presidential race in a fresh way -- one that should help forestall the sort of terrible errors in media coverage of President Trump's hate-mongering that we saw in 2016.... Trump's championing of Loomer should compel a ... [clear] reckoning, one that faithfully conveys what we're really seeing here: reactionary illiberalism, naked bigotry and nativist incitement of anti-immigrant hate.... In Arizona [Tuesday], Trump [falsely] claimed Biden and Democrats ... want the 'complete elimination of America's borders. That they want to give every migrant 'a free ticket to invent an asylum claim.' That Biden would 'unleash a flood of illegal immigration like the world has never seen.' That Biden's campaign is a 'cult' for open border 'zealots.'... No one should refer to what Trump is doing as 'culture war politics' or 'stoking divisions' or even 'crazy Trump being crazy Trump.' It's extreme radicalization."

The New York Times' live updates for coronavirus developments Wednesday are here.

This Is Horrible. Anatoly Kurmanaev, et al., of the New York Times: "Venezuelan officials are denouncing people who may have come into contact with the coronavirus as 'bioterrorists' and urging their neighbors to report them. The government is detaining and intimidating doctors and experts who question the president's policies on the virus. And it is corralling thousands of Venezuelans who are streaming home after losing jobs abroad, holding them in makeshift containment centers out of fear that they may be infected. President Nicolás Maduro has tackled the coronavirus much as he has any internal threat to his rule: by deploying his repressive security apparatus against it." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McC: The good news: Trump's response to the coronavirus U.S. is not as bad as Maduro's. The bad news: Trump probably would not do anything as bad as Maduro has done re: Covid-19, but a president* who would call for a boycott of a large American corporation because it didn't allow employes to wear political advocacy paraphernalia to work would pull quite a few stunts limiting Americans' Constitutional freedoms during a second term. ~~~

~~~ Betsy Klein of CNN: "... Donald Trump is calling on his followers to not buy Goodyear tires, despite previously railing against 'cancel culture,' after an employee posted a viral photo of a company policy banning 'Make America Great Again' and other political attire in the workplace. 'Don't buy GOODYEAR TIRES - They announced a BAN ON MAGA HATS. Get better tires for far less! (This is what the Radical Left Democrats do. Two can play the same game, and we have to start playing it now!),' he tweeted Wednesday morning. The tweet came in response to an employee who posted a photo, obtained by CNN affiliate WIBW, from a Topeka, Kansas, Goodyear plant that showed a slide during a training that 'Black Lives Matter' and LBGT pride apparel were 'acceptable' and 'Blue Lives Matter,' 'All Lives Matter,' 'MAGA Attire,' and other political material were 'unacceptable.' Goodyear issued a statement following the President's tweet stating 'the visual in question was not created or distributed by Goodyear corporate,' but that it asks its associates to 'refrain from workplace expressions in support of political campaigning for any candidate or political party, as well as similar forms of advocacy that fall outside the scope of racial justice and equity issues.' The company also stated that it has 'always wholeheartedly supported both equality and law enforcement and will continue to do so.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: This seems amazingly stupid. Goodyear was established in Akron, Ohio, and their HQ is still there. Ohio is a state Trump needs to win. Texas, another close state, has four Goodyear plants, and there are plants in Arizona, Georgia & North Carolina -- all states where the presidential polls show tight races.

Leia Idliby of Mediaite: "Former senior Trump administration official Miles Taylor, who now endorses Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, told MSNBC anchor Hallie Jackson that President Donald Trump wanted to trade 'dirty; Puerto Rico for Greenland.... "... before we went down [to Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria], he told us not only did he want to purchase Greenland, he actually said he wanted to see if we could sell Puerto Rico, could we swap Puerto Rico for Greenland because, in his words, Puerto Rico was dirty and the people were poor.'... Jackson asked Taylor if the comment could have been a joke but Taylor insisted it was not.... 'And I'll go even further about Puerto Rico, the president expressed deep animus towards the Puerto Rican people behind the scenes. These are people who are recovering from the worst disaster of their lifetimes. He is their president. He should be standing by them.'"

Tony Romm & Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Postal Service blocked congressional lawmakers from interrogating the firm that helped select Louis DeJoy as the nation's postmaster general, prompting a sharp rebuke from Senate Democratic Leader Charles E. Schumer, who called on the organization Wednesday to be more transparent as a federal investigation unfolds. The spat over access has hindered lawmakers as they investigate DeJoy's recent, controversial changes to mail delivery and, in the process, potentially concealed key details about the involvement of President Trump and his top aides in those decisions, Schumer (N.Y.) warned in a letter to the agency. The missive threatens to add to the already sky-high tensions between the administration and the Senate as DeJoy prepares to testify at a Senate hearing Friday, then a House hearing on Monday." ~~~

~~~ Michigan. Stephen Henderson of WDET Detroit: "Ten mail sorting machines have been removed from United States Postal Service (USPS) centers in Detroit, Pontiac, and Grand Rapids, according to Chad Livengood of Crain's Detroit Business. Livengood reports that the machines can process 300,000 letters per hour, and the move significantly reduces the centers' capacity for processing first-class mail." The Crain article is firewalled.

~~~ Oregon. Olivia Rubin of ABC News: "... new images obtained by ABC News appear to show mail sorting machines -- critical pieces of equipment used to speed up the mail delivery process -- sitting in parts in a postal facility in Portland, Ore. The machines are wrapped in yellow caution tape after having recently been decommissioned and broken down into parts within the last month, according to the postal employee who took the photos, who requested anonymity.... At least six sorting machines at the Portland facility alone have already been taken offline in the past month, according to Joe Cogan, the head of Portland's postal union. Their fate remains unclear. Cogan, an employee with the postal service for 30 years, said these changes interfere with employees' ability to carry out their work."

~~~~~~~~~~

Day 2 of the Democratic National Convention was held Tuesday between 9 pm & 11 pm ET. The New York Times' live updates of the convention events Tuesday are here.

Alexander Burns & Jonathan Martin of the New York Times, in a fairly chilly report: "Democrats formally nominated Joseph R. Biden Jr. for the presidency on Tuesday night, anointing him as their standard-bearer against President Trump with an extraordinary virtual roll call vote that showcased the cultural diversity of their coalition and exposed a generational gulf that is increasingly defining the party. Denied the chance to assemble in Milwaukee because of the coronavirus pandemic, Democratic activists and dignitaries cast their votes from locations across all 50 states, the American territories and the District of Columbia.... The second night of the Democratic National Convention straddled themes of national security, presidential accountability and continuity between the past and future leaders of the party.... Tracee Ellis Ross, the program skipped between recorded tributes from political luminaries, personal testimonials from activists and voters, and various forms of music and entertainment."

The most civilized roll call in anyone's memory. You probably won't have time to watch it all, but the states & territories, as usual, report in alphabetical order, so you might want to dip in at about where your state would fall. The end is especially moving, beginning with Vermont, where Bernie & Jane Sanders stand by while the Democrats' gubernatorial candidate David Zuckerman reads the count:

~~~ Here's a highlights reel, courtesy of the New York Times:

The Washington Post's live updates of convention events Tuesday are here: Toluse Olorunnipa, et al.: "Former second lady Jill Biden headlined the two-hour event from an empty classroom. Classrooms like the ones she stood in, empty now because of the pandemic, 'will ring out with laughter and possibility' if her husband is elected, she said. She was one of a mix of speakers from across the country who extolled the nominee as a man of character and virtue while making an aggressive and unsubtle case that Trump's presidency has been a failure.... Democrats also used the night to elevate the issue of health care, both as an asset to Biden's candidacy because of his current and previous commitment to the Affordable Care Act and as an indictment against Trump, who has tried to gut the ACA."

Annie Linskey of the Washington Post: "She was last seen blurting 'I love you' to Joe Biden as she escorted him in an elevator to an editorial board meeting at the New York Times last December, part of an exchange that went viral as the Biden campaign cast her adulation as a bigger deal than the news organization's endorsement, which he lost. On Tuesday night, Jacquelyn Brittany, a 31-year-old African American security guard, did something else for Biden: she became the firs person to put his name into nomination for president." This video includes a portion of the viral video as well as her nominating speech. (It looks as if it won't play, but despite that, it did play this morning.)

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Chuck Schumer did a better job than I did last week in rewriting Lincoln's Gettysburg Address in Trump's image: ~~~

... we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. -- Abraham Lincoln, November 1863

It is what it is. -- Donald Trump, August 2020, for the dead

Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's a pretty good graf from a Fox "News" report on the convention: "'When this president goes overseas, it isn't a goodwill mission it's a blooper real,' [former Secretary of State John] Kerry said Tuesday night. 'He breaks up with our allies and writes love letters to dictators. America deserves a president who looked up to, not laughed at.'" I would not have noticed it, but "blooper real" was also once featured in the story's headline. Somebody fixed it there, but not in the body of the report.

Michael Kranish of the Washington Post: "Doug Emhoff, whose wife, Kamala D. Harris, is to set to become the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, is taking a leave of absence from his law firm, where he has worked for an array of powerful clients, including those his boss described as 'some of the biggest names in Hollywood.' Emhoff, 55, is an attorney at the Los Angeles office of DLA Piper, one of the world's largest law firms. Emhoff represented 'large domestic and international corporations and some of today's highest profile individuals and influencers in complex business, real estate and intellectual property litigation disputes,' the firm said on its website.... If Emhoff returns to his job, that description would raise questions about whether any of his work would conflict with federal policy that could be influenced by Harris if she is elected vice president. Emhoff's leave was announced by the firm."

Devan Cole of CNN: "A former senior Trump administration official who is endorsing Joe Biden's presidential campaign said Tuesday that if ... Donald Trump wins a second term he will 'align with dictators around the world. "There are people serving very close to the President that have told me verbatim we should expect, quote, 'shock and awe' if the President wins a second term. You will see a flurry of executive orders. You will see the President pull out of foreign alliances. You will see the President align with dictators around the world,' said Miles Taylor, [a political appointee] who served as chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen, in an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper...." A clip from Tapper's interview accompanies the story, but the full interview is here in this YouTube video, and it's worth watching. ~~~

     (~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It's always jarring to hear how much more articulate some of Trump's more minor appointees are than he is. If you watch video of the full interview, you'll see that Taylor clips right along, answering Tapper's questions quickly and in detail. No matter how often Taylor may or may not have spoken to the press off-camera, he hasn't the years of on-camera interview experience Trump has. Yet here's Trump, also yesterday, responding to a reporter's question about the protests in Belarus: "I like seeing democracy. It doesn't seem like it's too much democracy there in Belarus.")

Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday complained that former first lady Michelle Obama's speech a night earlier at the Democratic National Convention was 'extremely divisive,' hitting back after she said he's 'in over his head.' 'She was over her head, and frankly she should've made the speech live, which she didn't do,' Trump said during a White House event commemorating the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage. 'She taped it. It was taped a long time ago& because she had the wrong deaths. She didn't even mention the vice presidential candidate in the speech. She gets these fawning reviews. If you gave a real review it wouldn't be so fawning,' Trump added. 'I thought it was a very divisive speech. Extremely divisive.'" Mrs. McC: Trump forgot to call Mrs. Obama "nasty." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Here are the New York Times' election updates Tuesday. The Washington Post's live updates for Tuesday are here: A10:16 am ET: "Trump on Tuesday raised the prospect of having to redo the presidential election if states widely embrace universal mail-in balloting, a voting method he has relentlessly attacked in recent weeks, often making claims that are not backed up by any evidence. 'Universal is going to be a disaster, the likes of which our country has never seen,' Trump said at a White House event. 'It will end up being a rigged election or they will never come out with an outcome. They'll have to do it again, and nobody wants that, and I don't want that.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

** Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The U.S. Postal Service will halt its controversial cost-cutting initiatives until after the election -- canceling service reductions, reinstating overtime hours and ceasing the removal of mail-sorting machines and public collection boxes, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy announced in a statement Tuesday. The declaration comes as lawmakers prepared to question DeJoy and USPS board of governors Chairman Robert M. Duncan in a Friday hearing in the Senate and at a Monday hearing in the House on those policy changes, which have caused mail slowdowns and threatened to jeopardize ballot collection during the November election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Guardian's story is here. ~~~

~~~ Inae Oh of Mother Jones: "According to DeJoy, the suspensions will apply to maintaining consistent retail hours, keeping mail processing equipment and blue collection boxes where they currently are, and preventing the future closures of mail processing facilities. But critics questioned its failure to address other agency changes that have likely contributed to the widespread mail delivery delays. Those include the directive for workers to leave late-arriving mail for the following day and the move to end the Postal Service's longstanding practice of treating election mail with priority, no matter the postage rate -- two changes election advocates warn could significantly disrupt mail-in voting.... In his statement, DeJoy addressed the sudden prohibition on overtime pay but was curiously vague. 'We reassert that overtime has, and will continue to be, approved as needed,' he said while declining to outline the criteria for such approval." ~~~

~~~ Reuters: "'This is not a business,' [Speaker Nancy] Pelosi said at a news conference in San Francisco, California. 'It is called the Postal Service.'... Pelosi called DeJoy's announcement inadequate and said she would push ahead with legislation later this week to aid the Postal Service.... The legislation is expected to contain provisions to prevent the post office from reducing service levels below what they were in January." ~~~

~~~ Matt Shuham of TPM: "Around 90 minutes after the postmaster general sought to assure Americans that he was pausing certain new initiatives 'to avoid even the appearance of any impact on election mail,' the former deputy postmaster general appeared via webcam before an assembly of reporters, unimpressed. 'It's important to be candid here,' said Ronald Stroman, the former deputy postmaster general and now a senior fellow at Democracy Fund. '... as far as we can tell, this is more than just the appearance of a problem.... There is delayed mail across the system.'... For one thing, Stroman said, [Louis] DeJoy didn't actually define what policies he was talking about. For example, DeJoy's statement referenced 'longstanding operational initiatives -- efforts that predate my arrival at the Postal Service.' But Stroman said the postmaster general had that wrong. 'Unless these were implemented in the two weeks between the time when I left and the time that the new PMG arrived, certainly these were not implemented,' he said.... Stroman resigned his position in mid-May, a few days after news broke that Republican megadonor Louis DeJoy would be the Postal Service's next leader." ~~~

~~~ Amy Gardner & Erin Cox of the Washington Post: "At least 21 states planned to file lawsuits this week against the U.S. Postal Service and its new postmaster, Louis DeJoy, seeking to block service changes that have prompted widespread reports of delays and accusations of an intentional effort to thwart voters from mailing their ballots this fall. The suits, including one filed Tuesday afternoon in federal court in Washington state, will argue that the Postal Service broke the law by making operational changes without first seeking approval from the Postal Regulatory Commission. They will also argue that the changes will impede states' ability to run free and fair elections, officials from several state attorney general's offices told The Washington Post. The Constitution gives states and Congress, not the executive branch, the power to regulate elections." TPM has a summary story here. ~~~

~~~ OMG! Susan Collins Is a Hypocrite! Eric Cortellessa in the Washington Monthly: "... the vast majority of Congressional Republicans have responded to the Trump administration's gutting of the U.S. Postal Service with near silence.... The only GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill to speak out are those facing competitive re-elections this fall, such as Montana Senator Steve Daines and Maine Senator Susan Collins.... Collins is actually one of the members of Congress most responsible for the Postal Service's devastation. Long before DeJoy started manipulating the USPS, Collins was at the forefront of a bill that crippled the agency's finances. In 2005, she sponsored and introduced legislation, the Postal Accountability and Enhancement Act (PAEA), that required the USPS to pre-pay the next 50 years worth of health and retirement benefits for all of its employees -- a rule that no other federal agency must follow. As chair of the Senate oversight panel at the time, she shepherded the bill's passage, along with her House GOP counterpart Tom Davis, during a lame-duck session of Congress. It passed by a voice vote without any objections -- a maneuver that gave members little time to consider what they were doing." ~~~

~~~ Sam Brodey of the Daily Beast: "... before the Trump administration’s COVID-era designs on the USPS took shape..., Capitol Hill was content to let the Postal Service twist in the wind for 15 years as it sank into the red and piled up tens of billions of dollars in long-term debt. A sweeping postal reform bill that was unanimously approved in 2006 was hailed as a major achievement in that moment, when concerns over the fiscal viability of the USPS were high.... It seemed like sound fiscal housekeeping until the Great Recession hit, decimating Postal Service revenues that were already being eroded by the growth of email and the decline of first-class mail.... The authors of that 2006 bill, Sens. Susan Collins (R-ME) and Tom Carper (D-DE), have stuck by the law but have floated proposals in recent years to shore it up. But year after year, the only thing surer than a sea of red ink at the Postal Service was Congress' inability to do anything about it."

~~~ Megan Botel in the Guardian introduces six American women who are still fighting for the right to vote in fair elections.

Florida Congressional Races. Susan Cornwell of Reuters: "Freshman U.S. Representative Ross Spano was ousted by a challenger in the Florida Republican primary Tuesday amid a federal investigation into campaign finance violations from two years ago. Spano conceded defeat to Scott Franklin, a businessman and commissioner from the city of Lakeland. Spano has acknowledged mistakes with respect to campaign loans in 2018 but says they were unintentional.... The mayor of Miami-Dade County, Carlos Gimenez, won the Republican primary in Florida's 26th Congressional District, which Republicans hope to snatch back from Democrats in November. Democratic Representative Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, an immigrant from Ecuador, flipped the seat two years ago.... In Florida's 21st Congressional District, home to Trump's Mar-a-Lago club, far-right activist Laura Loomer won the Republican primary. But whoever wins is likely to face an uphill fight against Democratic Representative Lois Frankel in November.... Florida, Wyoming and Alaska all held primaries on Tuesday for seats in Congress."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live updates of coronavirus developments Wednesday are here: "The University of Notre Dame is halting face-to-face instruction for undergraduates for at least two weeks after a spike in confirmed novel coronavirus cases. Michigan State University also announced a pivot to virtual learning on Tuesday, joining the growing number of colleges that have reversed course on reopening for in-person instruction."

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

Alan Fram of the AP: "Senate Republican leaders are preparing a slimmed-down coronavirus relief package of roughly $500 billion that will include extended payments for unemployed people and smaller businesses, a GOP senator said Tuesday. The measure will also include $10 billion for the embattled Postal Service, said one top GOP aide. The agency has become the focus of a campaign-season battle over whether it will have enough resources to handle an expected flood of mail-in ballots for this November's presidential and congressional elections."

Another Toothless Executive Order. Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "Auto part suppliers, clothing sellers, retailers, restaurants and a torrent of top businesses signaled Tuesday they are unlikely to implement President Trump's order deferring payment of workers' payroll taxes, threatening an early blow to a policy the White House has touted as a major form of economic stimulus. Roughly 30 industry groups, led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, described Trump's executive action as potentially 'unworkable,' stressing in a letter to the administration and top congressional leaders that technical and logistical challenges are likely to prevent them from passing any extra income back to their employees as the president intended."

** "This Is What Collusion Looks Like." Mark Mazzetti & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "A sprawling report released Tuesday by a Republican-controlled Senate panel that spent three years investigating Russia's 2016 election interference laid out an extensive web of contacts between Trump campaign advisers and Russian government officials and other Russians, including some with ties to the country's intelligence services. The report by the Senate Intelligence Committee, totaling nearly 1,000 pages, provided a bipartisan Senate imprimatur for an extraordinary set of facts: The Russian government undertook an extensive campaign to try to sabotage the 2016 American election to help Mr. Trump become president, and some members of Mr. Trump's circle of advisers were open to the help from an American adversary.... The report showed extensive evidence of contacts between Trump campaign advisers and people tied to the Kremlin -- including a longstanding associate of the onetime Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort, Konstantin V. Kilimnik, whom the report identifies as a 'Russian intelligence officer.'... [In an appendix,] Democrats also laid out a potentially explosive detail: that investigators had uncovered information possibly tying Mr. Kilimnik to Russia's major election interference operations conducted by the intelligence service known as the G.R.U." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Karoun Demirjian & Ellen Nakashima of the Washington Post: "President Trump's 2016 campaign chairman posed a 'grave counterintelligence threat' due to his interaction with people close to the Kremlin, according to a bipartisan Senate report released Tuesday that found extensive contacts between key campaign advisers and officials affiliated with Moscow's government and intelligence services. In its report, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee states that Trump's then-campaign chair Paul Manafort worked with a Russian intelligence officer 'on narratives that sought to undermine evidence that Russia interfered in the 2016 U.S. election,' including the idea that purported Ukrainian election interference was of greater concern." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) A Politico report is here. ~~~

~~~ A Guardian report, by Luke Harding & Julian Borger, is here. ~~~

~~~ Where There's Trump, There's Sleaze. Mr. Trump & Miss Moscow, Etc. Michael Schmidt of the New York Times: "Two decades before he ran for president, Donald J. Trump traveled to Russia, where he scouted properties, was wined and dined and, of greatest significance to Senate intelligence investigators, met a woman who was a former Miss Moscow. A Trump associate, Robert Curran, who was interviewed by the Senate investigators, said he believed Mr. Trump may have had a romantic relationship with the woman. On the same trip, another Trump associate, Leon D. Black, told investigators that he and Mr. Trump 'might have been in a strip club together.' Another witness said that Mr. Trump may have been with other women in Moscow and later brought them along to a meeting with the mayor. Mr. Trump was married to Marla Maples at the time.... The allegations about Mr. Trump were included in the fifth and final volume of a bipartisan report released on Tuesday by the Senate Intelligence Committee...." ~~~

~~~ Where's There's Trump, There Are Lies. Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "Trump says he didn't discuss hacked emails with Roger Stone. A bipartisan Senate report says he did.... The report portrayed Stone as the campaign's go-between with WikiLeaks, which was receiving the hacked emails from Russian intelligence officers. Trump, in written responses [Mrs. McC: under penalty of perjury] to the special counsel, said he didn't remember having discussed WikiLeaks with Stone, 'nor do I recall being aware of Mr. Stone having discussed WikiLeaks with individuals associated with my campaign.' The report said, 'Despite Trump's recollection, the committee assesses that Trump did, in fact, speak with Stone about WikiLeaks and with members of his campaign about Stone's access to WikiLeaks on multiple occasions.'" ~~~

~~~ Where There's Trump, There Are Criminals. Ken Dilanian of NBC News: "The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee made criminal referrals of Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Steve Bannon, Erik Prince and Sam Clovis to federal prosecutors in 2019, passing along their suspicions that the men may have misled the committee during their testimony, an official familiar with the matter told NBC News. The official confirmed reports in the Los Angeles Times and The Washington Post, which reported on the matter last week." ~~~

~~~ Anne Gearan & Karoun Demirjian of the Washington Post: "The investigation from the [Republican-led] Senate Intelligence Committee portrays Trump's 2016 campaign as eager to accept help from a foreign power and the then-candidate as a direct participant. Its arrival also underscores how little the evidence of Russia's desire to wreak havoc on U.S. elections ... has chastened the president and his allies.... Trump has dismissed ... warnings [that Russia, China & other countries are interfering in the 2020 election] while advocating theories the report and the intelligence community say are being propagated by Russian intelligence services. Trump has pushed the debunked theories that Ukraine, not Russia, interfered in the 2016 election and that it did so on behalf of ... Hillary Clinton. The report found that Russian intelligence operations manufactured that theory, which Trump has never disavowed and which played a role in his impeachment when he pressed the issue in a 2019 phone call with Ukraine's president. 'I don't know about Russia, I don't know about Ukraine,' he told reporters Tuesday in response to the report's findings."

Tara Bahrampour of the Washington Post: "A coalition of civil rights groups, cities, counties and other entities has sued the Trump administration over its shifting of the deadline for the 2020 Census, saying the change was politically motivated and will harm the accuracy of the count. The lawsuit, filed Tuesday in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, says the administration's decision this month to stop collecting data on Sept. 30 rather than Oct. 31 is connected to the president's recent directive to exclude undocumented immigrants from being counted for apportionment of House seats -- an order that sparked its own flurry of lawsuits."

Mrs. McCrabbie: For your own peace of mind, don't watch the whole video (it's only part of the interview) of Anderson's Cooper's interview of Trump's friend and coronavirus cure guru, the My Pillow guy, who is now pushing an oleander oils elixir in which he has a financial interest. But the crosstalk was wild, and gives you a better grasp of Trumpworld, the fake POTUS* and his fake coronavirus briefings: "

~~~ Jeremy Barr of the Washington Post: "Even by the somewhat raucous standards of cable news, CNN anchor Anderson Cooper's interview with pillow company executive Mike Lindell on Tuesday afternoon was particularly tense, During the segment, which launched an avalanche of commentary on social media, Cooper challenged the MyPillow founder on his support of a plant extract, oleandrin, which he has been lobbying the Trump administration to approve as a possible therapeutic for the novel coronavirus. Cooper likened Lindell to a 'snake oil salesman' and asked, 'How do you sleep at night?'... Lindell met with President Trump in July to discuss the potential use of oleandrin and arranged for a biopharmaceuticals executive whose company makes it to get a White House meeting, The Washington Post reported last week; Lindell later joined the company's board. When asked about the extract on Monday, Trump said, 'We'll look at it.' (Lindell serves as the Minnesota chairman for the president's reelection campaign.)"

Way Beyond the Beltway

Danielle Paquette of the Washington Post: "The president of Mali announced his resignation on state television early Wednesday, speaking only hours after mutinous soldiers stormed the capital, forced him into their custody and set off global outrage. The somber address marked the end of Ibrahim Boubacar Keïta's seven-year reign over the West African country, which is straining under the pressure of an Islamist insurgency, an economic crisis and the coronavirus pandemic. 'I do not wish for blood to be shed anymore so I can maintain power,' said Keita, speaking just after midnight local time through a surgical mask. 'I have decided to quit my duties.'"

Comments

[PD Pepe]

This morning trying hard to feel positive I resort to music–-one of the joys in my life that can pull me out of the doldrums –-those dark clouds that keep creeping in day after day. The promise of a new administration on the horizon makes one hope but the fear that it will be stymied in some nefarious way is not far fetched.

Here is that young, innovative, extremely talented Jacob Collier whose "Here Comes the Sun" gives me that sense of a begging rather than an ending.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dXf1nUVdVuM

[Rockygirl]

I watched the entire roll call video and encourage everyone to do the same. It brought tears to my eyes - not just the incredible scenic beauty showcased in each video, but the beauty in the diverse representatives of the various states and territories, each proud to be an American in their own way. There isn't any better counterpoint to the parade of bland blonds who will be doing the roll call on the other side.

[Marie Burns]

@Rockygirl: My sentiments exactly. Let's hope millions & millions of Americans agree with us.

Next week, Trump can have a "Reprobate from Every State" parade to announce the vote count at his white-on-white-bread convention, like that lovely St. Louis couple who stepped outside of their mansion to brandish guns at protesters walking by.

[Ken Winkes]

In his typical plodding way, Edsalll tells some hard truths about the state of contemporary American and its politics.

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/19/opinion/trump-biden-race-2020-election.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

In 2020 the racial divide reigns supreme.

My comment:

"Among the many silly rejoinders our foolish president offered to Michelle Obama's fine keynote speech (he made sure everyone knew 20,000 more had been killed by Covid than she reported), he did get something right.

He said he was elected because of her husband.

Since a relatively few votes in the right states did elect him (along with more than a little help from our antiquated Electoral College), no doubt a backlash against a suave, intelligent, cool, black president had something to do with it.

A racist himself, Trump ran a conscious racist build a wall and ban Muslims campaign, and while not all of his 2016 supporters were racists, they were at least comfortable enough with those elements of his appeal to go along, maybe for that better, cheaper healthcare for everyone or those jobs that would magically flood back to Ohio....Who knows?

Since then, Trump's racism has become so evident and his other accomplishments so few it will be very difficult for anyone who votes for him in November to pretend to themselves they are not actively supporting that toxic social evil, too.

For a guy who lies every time he opens his mouth, he does, as I said, get some things right, and for all his inarticulateness, he does make some things very clear.

He thinks this campaign is all about race (and voter suppression, and continued environmental rapine and more easy personal corruption and, of course, a chance stay out of jail for another four years)--and there he is right and he is acting accordingly.

Race is undoubtedly at the heart of this race."

A clarifying moment in this country's two and a half century civil war just two months away, this one bloodless I would hope.

[Marie Burns]

@Ken Winkes: Excellent commentary, but your math confuses me. Two-and-a-half centuries before October 2020 is October 1770. According to the History Place, one thing happened in October 1770, which doesn't seem to me to be an inflection point: " ... trial begins for the British soldiers arrested after the Boston Massacre. Colonial lawyers John Adams and Josiah Quincy successfully defend Captain Preston and six of his men, who are acquitted. Two other soldiers are found guilty of manslaughter, branded, then released."

I'm thinking you mean ... something else.

[PD Pepe]

@Ken: Here's Ed Young from the Atlantic who adds to your diatribe.

"No one should be shocked that a liar who has made almost 20,000 false or misleading claims during his presidency would lie about whether the U.S. had the pandemic under control; that a racist who gave birth to birtherism would do little to stop a virus that was disproportionately killing Black people; that a xenophobe who presided over the creation of new immigrant-detention centers would order meatpacking plants with a substantial immigrant workforce to remain open; that a cruel man devoid of empathy would fail to calm fearful citizens; that a narcissist who cannot stand to be upstaged would refuse to tap the deep well of experts at his disposal; that a scion of nepotism would hand control of a shadow coronavirus task force to his unqualified son-in-law; that an armchair polymath would claim to have a “natural ability” at medicine and display it by wondering out loud about the curative potential of injecting disinfectant; that an egotist incapable of admitting failure would try to distract from his greatest one by blaming China, defunding the WHO, and promoting miracle drugs; or that a president who has been shielded by his party from any shred of accountability would say, when asked about the lack of testing, “I don’t take any responsibility at all."

@Rocky: Thanks for giving me some of that sunshine I'm looking for. Interesting my spelling error of "begging" instead of "beginning" shows how desperate I'm feeling. But since the fight for women's suffrage has been celebrated in its hundred year anniversary I should take heart and sing some more songs, shouldn't I?

[Ken Winkes]

Bea,

Sloppy me. Didn't mean to refer to anything beyond the racial and ethnic divides (black-white-Native American) that have been with us since our beginnings. I attached an uncapitalized "civil war" to identify that conflict.

250 years was just a lazy approximation. General Amherst's racist attitude toward the Indian tribes that prompted the Pontiac's bloody uprising preceded that by a few decades....and as Kurt Vonnegut said, "so it goes.."

[citizen625]

Thanks for the link, PD. I've never heard that version. I woke my son with that song for years. I sent him the link.

AK: I'm still chewing on visual of Kushner EVER being above tree line. Instead of the sublime esthetics of the high country, his whole clan strikes me as the embodiment of the kitsch esthetic writ large.

Finally, the WAPO article about "a 'grave counterintelligence threat' " reports on the cheapest, most cost-effective destablization of an enemy in history, in my view. Americans should be awestruck by how cheaply Moscow Mitch, Orangey, and their KKK/GOP allies sold-out. Cheaply, that is unless you factor in the cost of human lives during the pandemic. Whether you like her or not, Hillary is a pretty bright light and here is something of hers, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/hillary-clinton-mueller-documented-a-serious-crime-against-all-americans-heres-how-to-respond/2019/04/24/1e8f7e16-66b7-11e9-82ba-fcfeff232e8f_story.html?noredirect=on. Remember, the KKK/GOP has been throwing shade on her for OVER 25 YEARS!