The Commentariat -- October 11, 2020

Presidential Race, Etc.

Bill Barrow of the AP: "With the backdrop of a union facility in a key battleground county of Pennsylvania, Joe Biden on Saturday blistered ... Donald Trump as only pretending to care about the working-class voters who helped flip the Rust Belt to the Republican column four years ago. 'Anyone who actually does an honest day's work sees him and his promises for what they are,' Biden told a masked, socially distanced crowd at a training facility for plumbers and other tradespeople.... He lamented 'the most unequal recovery in American history' since COVID-19 ground the economy to a halt in the spring. The investor class and top wage earners are fine, Biden said, 'but what did the bottom half get?' The former vice president and his aides believe it's critical for voters to connect the pandemic to the economy.... Nowhere could Biden's arguments prove more decisive than in Erie County. Long a Democratic bastion, it was among the most populous counties in the nation to flip from the Democratic column to Republicans in 2016.... Erie County rebounded strongly to Democrats in the 2018 midterms."

Just What You'd Expect from a Sickly Dictator. Annie Karni & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "... Mr. Trump, eager to prove he has fully recovered a week after being hospitalized for Covid-19, appeared briefly on Saturday afternoon in front of hundreds of chanting supporters gathered at the White House.... Mr. Trump ... re-enter[ed] the arena with his signature bluster and without any acknowledgment that he might still be contagious to those around him. His short speech, delivered from the Blue Room balcony overlooking the South Lawn, was the first time he has been seen in public since leaving the hospital on Monday. (A television interview with Fox News that aired Friday night had been pretaped.)... But the event ... was uncharacteristically brief.... The gathering ... was not a campaign event, White House officials said, although most attendees wore 'Make America Great Again' red caps, and the president's speech was filled with attacks against his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.... The White House physician has not released any update about President Trump's health since Thursday, nor has the White House made public the results of his latest coronavirus test, which he claims he took on Friday....

This was the plan. Really.~~~ "In several phone calls last weekend from the presidential suite at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Mr. Trump shared an idea he was considering: When he left the hospital, he wanted to appear frail at first when people saw him, according to people with knowledge of the conversations. But underneath his button-down dress shirt, he would wear a Superman T-shirt, which he would reveal as a symbol of strength when he ripped open the top layer. He ultimately did not go ahead with the stunt."

~~~ A Politico story is here. ~~~

~~~ Toluse Olorunnipa of the Washington Post: "President Trump held his first public event since contracting the novel coronavirus, gathering a crowd of hundreds of supporters at the White House on Saturday despite providing no evidence that he was no longer infectious.... Speaking from the balcony of the building where he is under isolation, Trump continued to downplay the coronavirus pandemic. 'It's going to disappear,' he said, repeating a line he first uttered in February, or more than 213,000 deaths ago. 'It is disappearing.'"

~~~ Update. Jonathan Lemire & Aamer Madhani of the AP: "The White House doctor said Saturday night that ... Donald Trump is no longer at risk of transmitting the coronavirus, a diagnosis that comes as the president prepares to resume campaign rallies and other activities. In a memo released by the White House, Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley said Trump meets the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for safely discontinuing isolation and that by 'currently recognized standards' he is no longer considered a transmission risk.... The memo followed Trump's first public appearance since returning to the White House after being treated for the coronavirus." ~~~

~~~ Maeve Reston of CNN: "The latest memo from ... Navy Cmdr. Dr. Sean Conley said that the President has met US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention criteria for 'the safe continuation of isolation.' But it does not say Trump has received a negative coronavirus test since first testing positive for the virus, although that is not a criteria for clearing isolation, according to the CDC.... But the memo's opacity, the inability for reporters to question the doctor and the fact that the White House still will not say when Trump last tested negative before his positive diagnosis only adds to the confusion over his case.... Trump leaned into his law-and-order message in a speech threaded with falsehoods on Saturday that was clearly a campaign rally disguised as a White House event. Trump claimed that if the left gains power, they'll launch a crusade against law enforcement. Echoing his highly inaccurate campaign ads that suggest that Democratic nominee Joe Biden would defund 911 operations and have a 'therapist' answer calls about crime, Trump falsely claimed that the left is focused on taking away firearms, funds and authority from police.... He made no mention of the growing power of right-wing hate and anti-government extremist groups...." See Akhilleus' comment below on the truthiness of Conley's memo. ~~~

     ~~~ Drs. Ezekiel Emanuel & Vin Gupta, in a USA Today op-ed, speculate on Trump's prognosis, based on woefully incomplete information the White House has released.

A Bad Omen for Trump. Tamara Lush of thHouse e AP: "The Villages, [a huge Florida retirement community] where the median age is 66, is built on the American dream of a golden retirement.... Politically, it long has been considered a conservative redoubt, so entrenched that it's a must-stop for any national or statewide Republican running for office. One clear measure of its importance: Vice President Mike Pence's scheduled visit Saturday.... But on Wednesday..., an armada of as many as 500 golf carts gathered at the Sea Breeze Recreation Center to caravan to the nearby elections office, so folks could drop off ballots for [Joe] Biden.... Not only has Florida been slammed by the virus, but also no other demographic has been affected more than older people. About 93% of Florida's 15,100 deaths from the virus have been people 55 and older, and many are scared -- and enraged." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

BUT Trump Has Expanded His Base! Sami Yousafzai of CBS News: "Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told CBS News in a phone interview, 'We hope he will win the election and wind up U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.' The militant group expressed some concern about Mr. Trump's bout with the coronavirus. 'When we heard about Trump being COVID-19 positive, we got worried for his health, but seems he is getting better,' another Taliban senior leader told CBS News."

Just What You'd Expect from a Tinpot Dictator. David Sanger of the New York Times: "President Trump's order to his secretary of state to declassify thousands of Hillary Clinton's emails, along with his insistence that his attorney general issue indictments against Barack Obama and Joseph R. Biden Jr., takes his presidency into new territory -- until now, occupied by leaders with names like Putin, Xi and Erdogan. Mr. Trump has long demanded -- quite publicly, often on Twitter -- that his most senior cabinet members use the power of their office to pursue political enemies. But his appeals this week ... were so blatant that one had to look to authoritarian nations to make comparisons. He took a step even Richard M. Nixon avoided in his most desperate days: openly ordering direct, immediate government action against specific opponents, timed to serve his re-election campaign. 'There is essentially no precedent,' said Jack Goldsmith, who led the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel under President George W. Bush... 'but it's no different from what he has been saying since the beginning of his presidency. The only thing new is that he has moved from talking about it to seeming to order it.'"

** Perfect! Blake Montgomery of the Daily Beast: "As Mike Pence spoke to retirees [at the Villages] in Florida on Saturday, a banner towed by a plane flew over his head: 'Pence is why you can't see your grandkids.'" Thanks to Bobby Lee for the lead.

Let's See What GOP Senators Are Saying

Rats ... Sinking Ship. John Harris & Melanie Zanona of Politico: "For Republicans, fearful of a possible electoral disaster just weeks away, it has become safe at last to diss Donald Trump -- or at least to distance themselves from him in unmistakably purposeful ways. A barrage of barbed comments in recent days shows how markedly the calculus of fear has shifted in the GOP. For much of the past four years, Republican politicians were scared above all about incurring the wrath of the president and his supporters with any stray gesture or remark that he might regard as not sufficiently deferential. Now, several of them are evidently more scared of not being viewed by voters as sufficiently independent.... And so far, there's little evidence the strategy is working." The reporters cite how well a number of senators do the backstroke. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

Mississippi. Army of the Confederacy. Ashton Pittman of the Mississippi Free Press: "The day before ... Donald Trump announced Amy Coney Barrett as his U.S. Supreme Court pick, U.S. Sen. Cindy Hyde-Smith [R-Miss.] said Republican senators would come with'guns loaded' and 'packed' to ensure the president's nominee is confirmed. 'You can expect anything possible in the tactics that (Democrats) can come up with' to delay the vote, the senator from Mississippi told American Family Radio Host Tony Perkins on his Washington Watch radio program on Sept. 25. AFR, a branch of the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association, later uploaded the interview to SoundCloud. The senator told Perkins, whose organization the Southern Poverty Law Center calls a hate group, that 'it wouldn't surprise (her) at all' if Democrats try to stop Republicans from confirming Barrett before the election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

South Carolina. Whistling Dixie. Jessica Glenza of the Guardian: "In a televised campaign event US senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said African Americans and immigrants can 'go anywhere' in his home state but they 'just need to be conservative'. Graham made the comment in a televised 'conversation' with his political rival, former South Carolina Democratic party chair Jaime Harrison, the first African American to serve in the role.... '... To young people out there, young people of color, young immigrants, this is a great state, but one thing I can say without any doubt, you can be an African American and go to the Senate but you just have to share our values.... If you're a young, African American or an immigrant, you can go anywhere in this state, you just need to be conservative, not liberal'." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link.

Ohio. Appeals Court Orders Voter Suppression in Populous Counties. Andrew Tobias of Cleveland.com: "A federal appeals court has agreed to reinstate Ohio's limit on ballot drop boxes at least temporarily while it considers whether to make a more permanent ruling on the case. U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals Judges Richard Griffin and Amul Thapar in an order Friday night sharply criticized a Thursday decision from a federal judge in Cleveland who struck down the drop box limit as unconstitutional after early voting had already begun. Griffin and Thapar said Secretary of State Frank LaRose's decision to limit ballot drop boxes, used to store completed absentee ballots, to one site per county was reasonable, and sided with LaRose's arguments that making a change during an election would pose a security risk. They also said legal precedent weighs against making late-stage changes to election procedures through the courts.... Judge Helene White dissented.... Griffin and White are appointees of President George W. Bush, while Thapar is an appointee of ... Donald Trump." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Pennsylvania. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania seeking to block the use of drop boxes as receptacles for mail ballots, require ballot signatures to match voter registration records and allow nonresident poll watchers at polling places, ruling that the president's claims of potential fraud were 'speculative.' In a sharply worded opinion issued Saturday morning, U.S. District Judge J. Nicholas Ranjan of the Western District of Pennsylvania ruled that the Trump campaign has no standing because of the lack of evidence of actual fraud." A CNN report is here.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live Covid-9 updates for Sunday are here.

The New York Times' live Covid-9 updates for Saturday are here.

Minyvonne Burke of NBC News: "The daily rise in coronavirus cases set new records in six U.S. states and worldwide. Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma and West Virginia all had record single-day increases in cases on Friday, according to NBC News' tally. The World Health Organization meanwhile announced that 350,766 new infections were reported Friday, surpassing by nearly 12,000 a record set earlier in the week. The new cases include more than 109,000 from Europe alone.... Coronavirus cases have nearly doubled over a two-week period in New Mexico, New Hampshire, and Vermont." Mrs. McC: And Donald Trump won't talk about it because Covid-19 is so yesterday. He's cured.

Burgess Everett & Jake Sherman of Politico: "Senate Republicans lashed out at a potential framework for a new coronavirus deal between the Trump administration and Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a conference call Saturday, warning that there was little support for a big spending bill right before the election.... 'There's no appetite right now to spend the White House number or the House number,' said Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), according to two sources briefed on the call. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) said that giving into Pelosi on anything seen as expansion of Obamacare in the next recovery bill will be seen as 'an enormous betrayal by our supporters,' according to people familiar with the call." Mrs. McC: Yes, boys, what with your humungous tax cut for the rich, there just isn't enough in the piggy bank to come to the aid of ordinary Americans. Funny how it always works out that way.

Sheryl Stolberg of the New York Times: "Pressure is mounting on the leaders of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention -- from inside and outside the agency -- to speak publicly against the White House's manhandling of C.D.C. research and public health decisions, with career scientists so demoralized they are talking of quitting if President Trump wins re-election. The situation came to a boiling point this week when William H. Foege, a giant in public health who led the C.D.C. under Democratic and Republican presidents, called for its current director, Dr. Robert R. Redfield, to 'stand up to a bully' — he meant Mr. Trump -- even at the risk of being fired. 'Silence becomes complicity,' he said in an interview, after a private letter he wrote to Dr. Redfield leaked to the news media." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sheila Kaplan of the New York Times: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention drafted a sweeping order last month requiring all passengers and employees to wear masks on all forms of public and commercial transportation in the United States, but it was blocked by the White House, according to two federal health officials. The order would have been the toughest federal mandate to date aimed at curbing the spread of the coronavirus, which continues to infect more than 40,000 Americans a day. The officials said that it was drafted under the agency's 'quarantine powers' and that it had the support of the secretary of health and human services, Alex M. Azar II, but the White House Coronavirus Task Force, led by Vice President Mike Pence, declined to even discuss it." Mrs. McC: So mike pence also doesn't care if you get sick & die. Better take your family sleigh over the river and through the woods to grandmother's house this Thanksgiving. Public transportation is a bad bet. (Sorry, forgot to link this earlier.) (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Veronica Stracqualursi of CNN: "Former New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie said he was released from the hospital Saturday morning following treatment for the coronavirus. '... I will have more to say about all of this next week,' the former Republican governor tweeted Saturday.... Christie, who is overweight and asthmatic, checked himself into Morristown Medical Center as a precautionary measure. He remained under doctors' observations for the week and was prescribed the anti-viral drug remdesivir. He had helped Trump prepare for the first presidential debate; no one wore masks during the debate preparation sessions. He had also attended a Supreme Court nomination ceremony for Judge Amy Coney Barrett on September 26, now believed to have been a superspreader event." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"The Swamp That Trump Built." Nicholas Confessore, et al., of the New York Times: "Campaigning for president as a Washington outsider, Mr. Trump electrified rallies with his vows to 'drain the swamp.' But Mr. Trump ... reinvented [the swamp], turning his own hotels and resorts into the Beltway's new back rooms, where public and private business mix and special interests reign.... As president, he built a system of direct presidential influence-peddling unrivaled in modern American politics.... An investigation by The Times found over 200 companies, special-interest groups and foreign governments that patronized Mr. Trump's properties while reaping benefits from him and his administration.... Just 60 customers with interests at stake before the Trump administration brought his family business nearly $12 million during the first two years of his presidency, The Times found. Almost all saw their interests advanced, in some fashion, by Mr. Trump or his government.... Some of Mr. Trump's patrons lost out to better-favored interests, to the chaos of his White House or to the president's own fleeting attention span.... But whether they won or lost, Mr. Trump benefited financially." The reporters provide many examples. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D-Michigan) in a Washington Post op-ed: "When I addressed the people of Michigan on Thursday to comment on the unprecedented terrorism, conspiracy and weapons charges against 13 men, some of whom were preparing to kidnap and possibly kill me, I said, 'Hatred, bigotry and violence have no place in the great state of Michigan.' I meant it. But just moments later, President Trump's campaign adviser, Jason Miller, appeared on national television accusing me of fostering hatred. I'm not going to waste my time arguing with the president. But I will always hold him accountable. Because when our leaders speak, their words carry weight." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

"Justice" in the Age of Trump/Barr. Katie Benner of the New York Times: "The Justice Department suspended all diversity and inclusion training for its employees and managers this week, complying with President Trump's recent executive order to eliminate any training that suggests that implicit racial and gender biases exist in the workplace, according to a memo distributed to the department's executive officers. The guidance, sent on Thursday to Justice Department leaders, seemingly goes further than the president's executive order -- which pertains only to diversity training -- to include work-related programs, activities and events that touch on diversity."

Beyond the Beltway

Colorado. Bryan Pietsch & Concepción de León of the New York Times: "One person was fatally shot in Denver on Saturday against the backdrop of opposing rallies between far-right and far-left activists, though the police did not immediately connect the shooting to the dueling demonstrations. The shooting happened at 3:37 p.m. local time near the courtyard of the Denver Art Museum as the protests were winding down, officials said. A video shows a single shot being fired and several police officers rushing to the scene, shouting, 'Drop the gun!' A man can be seen lying down on the sidewalk as officers surround him. The victim was taken to a hospital, where he later died...." ~~~

     ~~~ AP Update: "A private security guard working for a TV station was in custody Saturday after a person died from a shooting that took place during dueling protests in downtown Denver.... The KUSA TV station said on its website that it had contracted the private security guard who was arrested in connection with the shooting." A KUSA story is here.

Way Beyond

Brad Lendon of CNN: "North Korea unveiled what analysts believe to be one of the world's largest ballistic missiles at a military parade celebrating the 75th anniversary of the Workers' Party broadcast on state-run television on Saturday. The massive weapon was carried by an 11-axle truck at the climax of the almost two-hour ceremony and military parade in the capital of Pyongyang. Analysts said the new missile is not known to have been tested, but a bigger weapon would allow North Korea to put multiple warheads on it, increasing the threat it would pose to any targeted foe. 'Largest *road-mobile* liquid-fueled missile anywhere, to be clear," tweeted Ankit Panda..., of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace." Mrs. McC: Just can't figure out why Trump didn't win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Comments

[Akhilleus]

Covid Man’s “doctor” sez he is no longer Typhoid Manny, in other words, no longer able to infect anyone else (in addition to the dozens he’s already infected) cuz he’s met the CDC guidelines for isolation blah, blah, blah.

First, this doctor is a military sawbones, therefore, required to obey his fat boss, the infector-in-chief, so his word is less trustworthy than a jailhouse snitch looking for early parole. Second, Trump threw out the real CDC guidelines and wrote his own. Finally, if he’s completely cured, show us the evidence. Let’s see the test result.

In the NFL, to play a GAME, an individual testing positive can only take the field if he gets two negative results 24 hours apart. We still have no idea if the Orange Menace, who was frantically Marine One’d to Walter Reed because he couldn’t breathe, has had a single negative test result. Yesterday, Typhoid Manny sed he had taken a test but didn’t know the results. Bullshit.

At the White House, they all get insta-tests and know the results in minutes. So either he’s lying, his natural state, and he didn’t take a test, or he did and they didn’t tell him the results, if still positive, because they were afraid of being demoted and sent to work as candy stripers at the Falls Church Community Hospital for Indigent Lepers. Because if this walking disease bomb took a test that came back negative, he’d flash it around like a kid who bought a pack of baseball cards and got a mint condition Mickey Mantle rookie card by accident.

It’s all a scam. Dr. Sean is the most recent in the long gray line of Liars 4 Fatty.

[Akhilleus]

Inside the Trump Swamp:

https://youtu.be/fDJe3o9BD_s

[Bobby Lee]

See ar The Villages while Pence was there: a light plane pulling a banner that read "Pence is why you can't see your grandkids".

[PD Pepe]

Here's the ditty about Mary but eerily similar to the potty mouth punk Covid spreader ala Deluxe––just change the name; although Fatty isn't a cook what he has cooked up in his caldron is enough to choke the lot of us:

Typhoid Mary

She was the most dangerous woman in the land,
A disease ridden soul who did not understand
That she could carry the fever and appear well.
Three of her victims passed to heaven or hell;
Forty-seven others with delirium and sweats
Survived her bacteria laden lunch roulette.
She was a simple cook and sometimes a laundress;
Surely she was not responsible for this mess.

Mary refused to give up her occupation
And spent her remaining life in isolation.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Background - In the late 19th century, typhoid fever mortality rate in Chicago averaged 65 per 100,000 people a year. The worst year was 1891, when the typhoid death rate was 174 per 100,000 persons[ The most notorious carrier of typhoid fever—but by no means the most destructive—was Mary Mallon, also known as Typhoid Mary. In 1907, she became the first American carrier to be identified and traced. She was a cook in New York; some believe she was the source of infection for several hundred people. She is closely associated with forty-seven cases and three death. Public health authorities told Mary to give up working as a cook or have her gall bladder removed. Mary quit her job but returned later under a false name. She was detained and quarantined after another typhoid outbreak. She died of pneumonia after 26 years in quarantine. - Wkipedia.com

[PD Pepe]

Nick Confessore's sterling report in the Times (see above) takes your breath away––not that we didn't know some of these weasel ways but the extent of it is mind-blowing. Our conclusion some time ago that Trump was using the presidency as a "get richer" maneuver is now in living color (love the graphics in this piece).

"... once Mr. Trump was in the White House, his family business discovered a lucrative new revenue stream: people who wanted something from the president. An investigation by The Times found over 200 companies, special-interest groups and foreign governments that patronized Mr. Trump’s properties while reaping benefits from him and his administration. Nearly a quarter of those patrons have not been previously reported."

Decades from now will this era become notorious––"Mommy, was there really such an evil president named Trump?" or will it just blend in with a system that never changed–-much.

[Ken Winkes]

Not my Sunday sermon, but says what I/we know to be true about the Pretender quite well.

https://londondaily.com/british-writer-pens-the-best-description-of-trump-i-ve-read?fbclid=IwAR2A7hIZXJ6LjlV6V5Sfws7gCHfRkWf6QuhJrCxDgZMNKrnca0Is8tNr_kE

[PD Pepe]

@Ken: not to ever downplay your Sunday Sermons, which are always insightful and pungent, this nugget from the Brits is golden. I especially liked this paragraph:

"God knows there have always been stupid people in the world, and plenty of nasty people, too. But rarely has stupidity been so nasty or nastiness been so stupid. He [Trump] makes Nixon look trustworthy. and George W look smart. In fact, if Frankenstein decided to make a monster assembled entirely from human flaws––he would make Trump."
https://londondaily.com/british-writer-pens-the-best-description-of-trump-i-ve-read?fbclid=IwAR2A7hIZXJ6LjlV6V5Sfws7gCHfRkWf6QuhJrCxDgZMNKrnc

P/S. Our friends from that little island deplore what is happening in this country even though they, too, have had their troubles–-yet they never thought their move from here to there would result in "Thank heavens we ain't in the U S of A. today.

[Bobby Lee]

GOP types have their panties in a knot over Biden not answering what his plans are for the Supreme Court. Yet, when Trump is asked a very general question about his agenda for the second term you get nothing. He has no answer.

No problem with that though. Trump is their program.

[Akhilleus]

So Fatty wanted to jump out of a phone booth dressed like Superman, eh? I’m sure he thinks he’s Superman. Well, that makes sense. Superman was an alien too, but he didn’t exactly stand for Lies, Injustice, and the un-American Way. like Trump.

[Akhilleus]

Ken,

Excellent link. The piece kept getting better and better.

And the writer makes a good point. How is it that so many Americans miss the gigantic immorality, incompetence, and rank stupidity that define Trump? My only answer is what I’ve been saying for the last four years. Their hate is overwhelming, and he hates who and what they hate, but over and above that, he can act on their collective hatred and directly attack the objects of their contempt. He could be a serial killer. They don’t care. As long as he goes after those they hate.

Oh, wait. He IS a serial killer.