The Commentariat -- July 22, 2020

Afternoon Update:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Trump's Stormtroopers, Ctd.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Presidential Race

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

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

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

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

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

Beyond the Beltway

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

Way Beyond

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

Comments

[Ken Winkes]

Maybe it's just my morning mood, which I'll grant is not a cheery as that of the two noisy grandchildren who slept here last night and are now up making it hard for me to drink coffee and type, but I was already tired of what strikes me as the easy, cheap virtue of whig history that so many of my political fellow travelers are taking such joy in practicing.

Then this morning greets me with the rediscovery that Margaret Sanger was a eugenicist, as were many of her generation, and this morning a red banner at the top of my online WAPO display with the shocking, old news that the Sierra Club is embarrassed to find that its founder John Muir was a racist.

There's a difference between recognizing past behaviors that would not meet approval in the in a more enlightened present and condeming the whole of the person who practiced them. Is it impossible to make such distinctions? Can we not be grateful for birth control and conservation of our planet even if the whole of their early champions would not pass muster in the present.

Fundamentally, the whole idea of progress demands that we do. After all, progress assumes change for the better, and you can't have better without a worse to measure it against.

When I eat a sweet cherry, I pop the whole thing in my mouth, bite it gently and savor the fruit.

Early in life my tongue learned to separate the fruit from the pit, which allows me to spit out the pit, an act that while it has its own pleasure I have never confused with the sweetness of the fruit.

[Jeanne]

All great points, Ken! After all, the MSM breaks their necks to give the Presidunce all sorts of props for not being a "total" whackadoo at his new 5pm crazefest. I say not "total" because I am sure he lied his way through it (I won't watch--)as usual, and the same people early in this Presiduncy* were always breathlessly reporting how Presiduncial* the jerk was after some of his forays into "statesmanlike" behavior... We are supposed to think people can redeem themselves with no problem and just saying so. How evangelical. People are flawed. We have to balance the pros and cons with regard to how their lives are viewed-- Sanger, yay birth control, Muir, yay conservation. Other stuff: creatures of their time. I suppose that means we shouldn't get rid of Confederate statues and base names cuz presumably they had other attributes... I dunno about that!

I called Yoho's office yesterday to inform him that he is a piece of crap, and just now I saw him on the floor of the House apologizing, barely, to AOC, at the same time he and his companions are denying they said what they said. I reminds me always that just because a person is an elected official does not mean he or she is NOT a piece of crap...

Stay cool, everyone. The east will stay hot hot hot this week and next... Husband waters everything every day. Planted too many flowers again this year.

[PD Pepe]

THE LONG BLUE LINE

Jill Lepore, always giving us the historical skinny on all things present has much background on that law and order group called the police. She begins with the word "police," a word that derives from "polis"–-the Greek for "city" or "polity"–-by way of "politico", the Latin for "citizenship," and it entered English from the Middle French "police" which meant not constables but government. Lepore tells us that "the police," as a civil force charged with deferring crime, came to the U.S. from England and is generally associated with monarchy–-"keeping the King's peace"–– and she adds, "which makes it surprising that, in the anti-monarchical United States, it got so big, so fast. The reason, mainly, slavery."

The onslaught of Trump's para-military thugs makes him tingle in his bone spurs, at last he can command something besides his imaginary enemies. These men in camouflage –--donned for jungle canvassing–-roam the streets sniffing out the rabble rousers, tossing them into unmarked cars and taken to places unknown. But Trump is not, as he thinks he is, a King–-the law is king. The police–-if we can call these jack-boots "the police"––are not the king's men; they are public servants! Or should be.

"And no matter how desperately Trump would like to make it so, policing really isn't a partisan issue. Out of the stillness of the shutdown, the voices of protest have roared like summer thunder."

In 2016, the Fraternal Order of Police endorsed Trump, saying, "our members believe he will make America safe again." Obviously, they still think so since police unions are singing the same tune.

When Fatty was at Mt. Rushmore, envisioning his stature in sync with the famous ones above, he said this:

"We will never abolish our police or our GREAT second amendment; we will not be intimidated by BAD, EVIL people.'"

The rebellion begins.

P.S. Marie's ". Teargas the Portland moms, by all means, but let none of them expose a breast. Nonetheless, ~~~ " is pure poetry!

[citizen625]

Sounds like a nice morning Ken; sometimes the simple things are best.

Having read Muir and his history from Wisconsin onwards, I can say the Wapo article is the first I've heard of it. We're never done developing as humans and we're always constrained as the creatures of our time and place in history. We all have work to do. Perhaps that is one thing that chaps us most about the Orange Turd: he says too loudly that all his personal developmental work is and has long been complete. We know that he is just a guy who poisons each well he comes to just to inconvenience and gain a modicum of power over each and every thirsty person thereafter.

[PD Pepe]

And Ken––your "When I eat a sweet cherry, I pop the whole thing in my mouth, bite it gently and savor the fruit...

Early in life my tongue learned to separate the fruit from the pit, which allows me to spit out the pit, an act that while it has its own pleasure I have never confused with the sweetness of the fruit."

is one of the best and juiciest ever metaphors for separating the good from the bad. Jeanne's concern about taking that many steps further re: the take down of statues and the like I think is valid but in those cases the pit is key, not the fruit.

[NJC]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUiDLcp_hIw
The one, the only RR...Happy Wednesday!

[PD Pepe]

@NJC's link––one of Randy's best. Thanks!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lUiDLcp_hIw

[Ken Winkes]

Yes, PD, those statues erected as the South rewrote its history to add a glow to slavery that was never there are--the pits.

[Ken Winkes]

Not the kind of column I'm uised to seeing in the "Chicago Tribune."

https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/dahleen-glanton/ct-trump-feds-chicago-20200722-oayhovi3frbldlsohxyaaprzim-story.html

Its sanity kinda made me miss Studs Terkel again.

[Ken Winkes]

I have discovered some sympathy for the notion of preemptive strikes on potential lawbreakers.

Pioneered by the lunatic war gamers of the early Cold War, the doctrine used to scare the pants off of me, but I might have changed my mind now that we're in Pretender land.

The problem with the idea's current application is that it's pointed at the wrong past, present and, we can be assured, fiuture lawbreakers.

If only the brown shirts would surround the White House, rush in, arrest the whole bunch and cart them away in unmarked cars to, let's say Guantanamo, I'd be OK with that.

[Marie Burns]

@Ken Winkes: The trouble with your reverie is that if you led a masked troop of Winkes Warriors into the White House to round up the usual suspects, you would find that all of them already had committed crimes & misdemeanors while in office (and many before they got there). You can't "pre-arrest" someone who's already done the deed.

[Bobby Lee]

Just another poo flinging day in the jungle. With so many major cities having Democratic leadership, will Trump run out of knuchledraggers before he can strike them all?

It would be great if he'd get distracted from all these distractions.

[safari]

Okay, my tinfoil hat has emerged again. Maybe the White House press corps has been somehow threatened with total banishment from the White House grounds if they dare ask about the Russian bounties? How else to explain that no one has dared ask? Though you think such a threat would become a huge story to report on itself. But there's no reasonable answer. Maybe the White House press corps should become the central actors in this story itself.