The Commentariat -- July 23, 2020

Afternoon Update:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Trump's Stormtroopers, Ctd.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

pic.twitter.com/3BwfniKDVU

— Joshua Potash (@JoshuaPotash) July 22, 2020

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Presidential Election

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Comments

[Akhilleus]

A Pentagon spokesman says the military wants a system in which Americans can tell the difference between police and military personnel who drag them into unmarked vehicles and spirit them away.

Here’s the problem. Vicious, scheming chicken hawks like Trump
And Barr don’t.

[Akhilleus]

In addition to busting the heads of protesters, oops, I mean “dangerous and violent criminals”, the divider in chief has announced another sop to his fearful, hate-filled supporters in the form of an illegal, unconstitutional, unilateral change in how the census is handled, by ordering good ol’ boy Wilbur (another obsequious grifter) to not count any undocumented persons. That’ll show those racist haters that he’s got their whitey-white backs.

What’s next? An egg-zecutive order reducing all blacks to half a person as far as census enumeration is concerned (3/5 is too generous, he, the Donald, will get it right)?

He’s announced that Joe Biden is planning to “abolish our beautiful and very successful suburbs”. Please explain what constitutes a successful suburb? One with only well off white people? Of course! And please tell me how many of those suburban types will buy that Joe Biden will “abolish” their neighborhoods if elected. On second thought, don’t. I may vomit.

He’s also back to his usual scare-mongering about Antifa. “They come in with the black uniforms and helmets, beating people up!” Gee...sounds exactly like his stormtrooper goons. Also, if he really wants to scare people, he should point out, as a reporter on NPR did yesterday, that the only people who murder innocent citizens, are all far-right thugs. Right-wing killers last year were responsible for 38 murders. Antifa? Zero.

Things are only going to get worse. Now that he and Himmler, I mean, Barr, have the taste for brutalizing Americans they hate by sending in their brownshirts, they’re going to be like addicts: too much is never enough.

The real question here is, will enough voters love these vengeful, violent, racist, brutal tactics to want a repeat of the Republican Reich with Orange Schiklgruber and fatso Himmler in charge.

The truly scary thing? I don’t know the answer to that.

[Akhilleus]

Geraldo (Capone safe scam) Rivera calls Adulterer-in-Chief Fatty “brave” for standing up to the “mob” and commiserating with sex trafficker Ghislaine Maxwell. “All I can say is Ghislaine and her boyfriend Jeffrey got me some ripe little girls plenty of times. I wish her well.” Okay, I (sort of) made up that first part, but...

So it’s one thing for a well known spier on young girls in the altogether, a creep who ogles his own daughter and talks about grabbing women by the pussy whenever he feels like it, to feel bad for a horrible person whose job was to seek out young girls and get them to have sex with older rich guys, but what’s Gersldo’s thinking in this mess?

“Well, all that happened a long time ago.” Oh. Okay. I’m sure those girls (now women) forced into sexual slavery think the same thing. “No biggie, water under the bridge, Ghisie was a good pal...”

Is there nothing Fox assholes won’t try to blame on the media in support of treason, crooks, sex trafficking, etc. in order to bolster their cred with the droolers by “standing up to the mob”?

Sure, she deserves a fair trial. And is there a chance she’s innocent? Ummm...not a very big one, based on multiple documented stories of the girls she went after. It’s not like she was just sling for the ride, like Carmela Soprano living large off Tony’s mafia money. It’s more like if Carmela whacked a few guys for Tony and the boys now and then.

Oh, but that was long ago, so give her a break.

Horrible fucking people.

[Bobby Lee]

Governor DeSantis says that Florida schools will "find a way to make do" in reopening.

Like Trump saying he won't mind his children or grandchildren going to school this fall, You can bet Barron and the grandkids won't be going to any public schools.

[Ken Winkes]

Akhilleus,

Let me take a shot.

A "successful suburb" is first if all one that made a lot of money for the developer.

And, yes, up to now they are mostly white.

[PD Pepe]

Here's the video that shows Portland mayor standing up with the protestors and getting gassed along with those protestors.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMKTkWScc9M

We are in completely different territory now––Trump has sunk so low that those who do not object to this outrage will perhaps pay the ultimate price but then being in that totally different territory, maybe not.

Madeline Albright was on MSNBC last night telling us once again of all this smelling like fascism. She reminded us again of her not being born in this country and her past pride of feeling so fortunate to become a U.S. citizen. What is happening to this country is truly frightening and she added if it continues what will be lost might never be regained.

[Marie Burns]

@Akhilleus: My guess is that Ghislaine has "something on" Trump, and his repeated good wishes are (1) an attempt to persuade her not to spill the beans, and (2) a hint she could get a pardon if she keeps mum. If I said this about any real president, people could confidently accuse me of being a wacko conspiracy theorist. But when Trump is the subject, it's a plausible theory.

[Ken Winkes]

Bea,

On Ghislaine, I'm a wacko conspiracy theory fellow traveler. The same occurred to me.

If the phrase had not already been better applied, I'd be saying "Me, too."

[unwashed]

Others are thinking the same way about MOOM's mobspeak.

[Akhilleus]

Marie and Ken,

I don’t believe it’s whacko conspiracy-think to assume that the Orange Menace was a, shall we say, repeat customer of the Epstein-Maxwell underage sex ring, and that she can pinpoint the times and the girls with whom Fat Fuck “partied”.

Let’s consider what is known about Trump. He is a self-confessed sexual predator who seems to believe that his fame and money and fabulous good looks give him the right to dispose of female company, even underage female company, as he sees fit.

As a regular denizen of the same “party circuit” in which the Epstein-Maxwell underage sex ring offered its services, it seems highly (as in extremely, as in next to non-existent) unlikely that a narcissistic, sexual predator and serial adulterer would not have taken advantage of such services.

A pardon may indeed be a way out for Trump. But if I were Maxwell, I would be concerned that the other way, the one visited upon her late partner, might be considered a much more secure way by those with a lot to lose by being exposed as repeat customers.

If indeed a Trumpy Pardon of Criminal Pals ©, is his “way out”, it would be a mighty test of the effectiveness of confederate Kool-Aid for the droolers to see the Dear Leader excuse the crimes of someone who ran an actual underage sex slave ring, after they all blew multiple holes in their diapers swallowing a bullshit tale about Hillary Clinton and Pizzagate.

All that aside, it’s just another brick of criminality, treason, and self-love in the gigantic wall that surrounds this pathetic prick separating him from realty, decency, and basic humanity, a wall ignored by everyone who voted for this monster.

[Ken Winkes]

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/22/opinion/federal-reserve-judy-shelton.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Why would the Pretender nominate to the Federal Reserve Board someone whose monetary policy is antithetical to his own behavior and practices? How can it make any sense for someone who has shown no concern whatsoever for our mounting debt to wish a gold bug (there ain't even enough gold this side of the asteroid belt to back today's world economy) on the nation's bank?

There's only one explanation--and it has nothing to do with monetary policy.

No surprise because racism and deliberate environmental destruction aside, the Pretender administration has been almost entirely devoid of policy. A lot of huffing and puffing about trade (where's that big China deal?) and infrastructure (remember that?) but not much else.

Every other Pretender move can be seen as sops aimed at a loose collection of minority groups--many of them vicious or simply nuts-- whose votes the Pretender needs and wants and is therefore willing to do one of his famous deals with.

The good of the nation, reason, consistency, none of these have anything to do with the Pretender's actions.

The Pretender, along with the nation, is in a desperate state, but since the Pretender's desperation and the nation's are not identical, we can't expect anything he does between now and November to make the kind of sense the nation needs.

Instead we'll see from him a only instances of an increasingly furious flurry of random flailing.

The Shelton nomination is only one.

[Marie Burns]

@Akhilleus: You just blew my mind. Almost every horrible thing Trump falsely claims about his opponents is actually true of him. But I would have said Pizzagate -- which Trump himself has not directly embraced (to the best of my knowledge) -- was a phony claim too far, even for Trump.

You just disproved that. Trump absolutely is connected, however tangentially, to a child sex ring. And his well-wishes for Maxwell brought that connection right into the White House. Unpresidented.

[unwashed]

What are the changes of Maxwell's trial concluding before Jan. 20? She may realize that MOOM won't have any pardon power and decide that, if she's going down, she might as well take the others down with her. We can only hope.

[Marie Burns]

@Ken Winkes: Do you think Trump knows what the gold standard is? Do you think he knows Shelton has -- at least in the past -- espoused it? I couldn't figure out why Trump had chosen her till I read this year-old column by the WashPo's Catherine Rampell (republished in the linked article by the Minneapolis Star Tribune): "... Shelton has demonstrated her personal loyalty with effusive praise of the president. She has also pointedly mentioned, multiple times, that Trump’s Mar-a-Lago Club would be a lovely place for a major international monetary conference, a Bretton Woods for the 21st century."

Okay, gold standard, abolish the Fed, fixed exchange rates, whatevah. Let all the world's top economists jet-ski to Mar-a-Lago!

[Marie Burns]

@unwashed: Trump could "pre-pardon" Maxwell -- the way Gerald Ford did Nixon -- before her trial begins. Assuming Trump loses, I expect a flurry of presidential* pardons (Manafort, for instance) & pre-pardons (Ivanka, Jared, etc.) between early November and January 20.

[Ken Winkes]

Thanks, Bea, for the Shelton background. As i suspected, nothing to do with policy.

And more non-policy flummoxing.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/07/23/congress-stimulus-coronavirus-trump/?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-high_virushill-9am%3Ahomepage%2Fstory-ans

So, no payroll tax cut in the Senate. We knew the House would never have agreed to it anyway, which all leaves me wondering (again) why the WH proposed it in the first place.

More flailing, more theatrics, a empty rhetorical apeasement offered to the right-wingers who reflexively hate all successful government programs and whose votes the desperate Pretender also needs?

[citizen625]

Does it surprise anyone that the political party that can't give up racist fear-mongering can't give up on the gold standard? With a world-wide gold standard, a deficit financed solution to the Pandemic wouldn't be possible. Wall street is never going to allow a deflationary/devaluation situation. Tesla has a market cap of $300,000,000,000; Amazon has a market cap of ~$1,000,000,000,000; Facebook has a market cap of $500,000,000,000. The vector of success on Wall Street has to be up; the gold standard can't abide, dude.

Shelton is a shell-game/float-test for the Rand Paul base of the Orange incompetent one.

[Akhilleus]

Marie,

Quite right about the constant transference in play in Trump’s tiny, fetid brain pan.

Pick an insult he directs at others:

Cognitive impairment
Liar
Corrupt
Too old
Unqualified
Stupid
Low energy
Violent
Hater of America
Cheater
Election rigging
Fraud
Spreader of fake news
(Too many to count, really...)

And they all describe him to a T.

[Akhilleus]

Hey, aside from the rightness of the comment, Citizen625 just reminded me that it’s been over a week since Sen. Whataboutmeeee? has said something ignorant/ridiculous/insulting/farcical.

His inner pressure gauge for being in the headlines must be close to redlining. Any day now, look for the littlest narcissist to scream about something cuckoo. Maybe this gold standard mishegas will get him off the dime. Either that or more “medical advice” from the self-certified eye poker will be, egregiously, forthcoming. We might hear why wearing masks can cause blindness. Like jerking off. Something at which he’s a master.

[Patrick]

I just caught a bit of Mrs. Greenspan's MSNBC show, in which she used a clip of DiJiT explaining the cognitive test to somebody, and about how DiJiT was saying "they never saw anything like it" that he could recollect the 5 words twenty five minutes after the initial exposure. And the words were in order! And he had already done the 5-minute recall, but without notice they asked him again 25 minutes later.

This is of course utter bull.

The words he kept recalling in the clip (several times, rote) were "person, woman, man, camera, tv". There is NO way any of those tests would use three initial words which are cognitively linked, followed by two words which are separately cognitively linked (but to DiJiT, could be -- think three idiots on a couch, morning show).

Also there is NO way the test giver would slip an ad hoc question to any president, even this dolt.

Thirdly, if he's talking he's lying.

[unwashed]

@Bea, dubious thanks for the reminder about the pre-pardon. My last hope then is a serious cardiac event. Soon.

[Jeanne]

Just skimmed the article about Susan Pompeo. Now I must run and vomit. She is not just the SOSS(pouse), she thinks she IS the SOS. And HER spouse, Mr. Pudgy Ugly Arrogance himself, says she is way out of our collective league. I say, HOORAY-- I would like to never have to see her ever. Go back to Kansas, Susan...

[Cowichan's Opinion]

@Akhilleus: There was a way to tell troops from policemen but folks complained about fixed bayonets.
Some people just can't be satisfied.

[Bobby Lee]

He canceled it! All his mumbles about everyone wanted it were BS. The sheriff had said they had insufficient funds to guarantee safety, the locals didn't want it due to the C-19, and the city council was fixing to get involved in turning it away. He jumped before he was asked to leave.

[TheKrone]

Why can't President Trump call a ZOOM Virtual Conference Online like Iranian Resistance did w/ #FreeIran2020 pulled off w/ Rudy Guiliani as one of many Special Guests?

If Trump can pull that off half as well as Iranian Resistance did, he can Win November 3rd 2020 by a Landslide!

[TheKrone]

Canceled in Florida!

Not canceled as RNC Convention must steal Go Through Electing Trump as their Candidate for Reelection!

You HATERS all lose anyway! Since Pfizer will have 100 Million mRNA Vaccines produced by September w/o Gates Tracing/Tracking CRAP!

So Why Are You All Insisting on Schools Closed, Masks Worn... when 'The Cure' will be here in September? Before Election!