The Commentariat -- Sept. 13, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Eric Fiegel, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump is expected to rally thousands of supporters indoors on Sunday for the first time in nearly three months. The campaign rally in Henderson, Nevada -- which will be held inside a facility of Xtreme Manufacturing -- is expected to violate the state of Nevada's restriction on gatherings of 50 people or more. ... The venue is not expected to enforce social distancing for the attendees who will be sitting in chairs lined up next to each other in rows, and few people attending any of the recent rallies have been wearing masks. Mrs. McC: Brian Stelter said on CNN Sunday, "Some, if not all, of the major TV networks have decided not to send their cameras inside." He said there would be a pool camera set up inside the facility. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump should be encouraging, rather than discouraging mail-in voting. Some of his supports will be dead or too sick to go to the polls on election day.

** "Trump Endorses Extrajudicial Executions." Daniel Politi of Slate: "... Donald Trump appeared to give a nod to law enforcement officers killing suspected criminals, describing the death of an alleged shooting suspect by U.S. Marshals as 'retribution.' Speaking in an interview with Fox News host Jeanine Pirro, Trump spoke of the incident in which a law enforcement officer killed a self-described anti-fascist activist earlier this month in Washington state as they sought to arrest him on suspicion that he fatally shot a right-wing protester in Portland. Trump seemed to endorse the killing. 'This guy was a violent criminal, and the US Marshals killed him,' Trump told Pirro. 'And I will tell you something, that's the way it has to be. There has to be retribution.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm not sure other news media are picking up on this remark, but every outlet should attach a big fat caveat to every instance in which they allow Trump to self-describe as a "law & order" advocate.

Trump Plans Unconstitutional Third Term. Daniel Politi: "Speaking to a packed, largely mask-less crowd in Nevada on Saturday night..., Donald Trump once again said he wanted to serve three terms in office. Trump said he is 'probably entitled' to an additional four years in the White House. 'Fifty-two days from now we're going to win Nevada, and we're going to win four more years in the White House,' Trump told a crowd of at least 5,000 people in Minden, Nevada that was standing shoulder-to-shoulder. 'And then after that, we'll negotiate, right? Because we're probably -- based on the way we were treated -- we are probably entitled to another four after that.'"

Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "CNN’s Jake Tapper abruptly ended his interview with White House adviser Peter Navarro after repeatedly confronting him and clashing with him on President Donald Trump's admission to Bob Woodward about downplaying the coronavirus." The articles includes video. Mrs. McC: This is Navarro's SOP in on-air interviews. I don't know why CNN books him unless producers think a liar shouting lies is good teevee.

Artemis Moshtaghian & Amir Vera of CNN: "The two Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department deputies who were shot and critically injured Saturday night are out of surgery, according to a LACSD spokesperson. The deputies, one male and one female, were 'ambushed as they sat in their vehicle, police said. Sheriff Alex Villanueva said at a press conference Saturday night that the shooting in Compton was done 'in a cowardly fashion' and that both deputies were being treated at St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood. Capt. Kent Wegener said the shooting happened at 7 p.m. Wegener said the suspect approached from behind the deputies' vehicle and walked along the passenger side. He acted as if he was going to walk past the car, raised a pistol and shot multiple times hitting both deputies, Wegener said."

Riding While Black. Bill Hutchinson of ABC News: "A white Georgia sheriff's deputy seen in a viral video repeatedly punching a Black man who was pinned to the ground has been fired after the man's family demanded he be released from jail immediately. Roderick Walker, 26, remained locked up at the Clayton County Jail on Sunday, two days after video surfaced showing him being held on the ground by two Clayton County sheriff's deputies and being pummeled by one as he cried out 'I can't breathe' and as his 5-year-old son sat in a car screaming, 'Daddy.'... An attorney for Walker said the incident quickly escalated after a ride-share vehicle Walker was a passenger in was pulled over for a routine traffic violation." Clayton County Sheriff Victor Hill says Walker remains in jail because of several outstanding warrants in other jurisdictions.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Sunday are here.

Lara Jakes & Pranshu Verma of the New York Times: "... as President Trump campaigns for re-election and the coronavirus has claimed more than 193,000 lives nationwide, the [U.S.A.I.D.] has been micromanaged by the White House and the State Department. That has prompted critics to say the intervention has slowed pandemic relief efforts to some places, weaponized aid in other areas to chastise Trump administration adversaries and disengaged the United States from the World Health Organization's coronavirus response."

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Presidential Race, Etc.

Ellen Berry of the New York Times how Kamala Harris's parents Shyamala Gopalan & Donald Harris met at Berkeley.

Florida, Florida, Florida. Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "Former New York mayor Mike Bloomberg plans to spend at least $100 million in Florida to help elect Democrat Joe Biden, a massive late-stage infusion of cash that could reshape the presidential contest in a costly toss-up state central to President Trump's reelection hopes. Bloomberg made the decision to focus his final election spending on Florida last week, after news reports that Trump had considered spending as much as $100 million of his own money in the final weeks of the campaign, Bloomberg's advisers said. Presented with several options on how to make good on an earlier promise to help elect Biden, Bloomberg decided that a narrow focus on Florida was the best use of his money." Politico's story is here. Mrs. McC: Hey, it's only money.

Daniel Politi of Slate: "Twitter once again flagged a tweet from ... Donald Trump, this time for a message that sure made it seem like the commander in chief was encouraging some people to vote twice. The social media platform placed a warning label on one of the tweets Trump sent Saturday. Twitter placed a 'public interest notice' on the message and limited its circulation for violating its policies, 'specifically for encouraging people to potentially vote twice.' In his message, Trump called on North Carolinians to potentially vote twice by saying they could send in their mail-in ballot and the go to their polling station to see if it was counted and if they saw it wasn't they could cast another ballot. 'Don't let them illegally take your vote away from you!' Trump wrote."

Trump Headlines Another Super-spreader. Jonathan Lemire & Scott Sonner of the AP: "Kicking off a western swing..., Donald Trump barreled into Nevada on Saturday looking to expand his paths to victory while unleashing a torrent of unsubstantiated claims [Mrs. McC: that is, lies] that Democrats were trying to steal the election. Trump defied local authorities by holding a rally in tiny Minden after his initial plan to hold one in Reno was stopped out of concern it would have violated coronavirus health guidelines. Unleashing 90-plus minutes of grievances and attacks, Trump claimed the state's Democratic governor tried to block him and repeated his false claim that mail-in ballots would taint the election result. Addressing a mostly mask-less crowd tightly packed together, Trump spoke in front of mountains draped in haze, the scent of smoke in the air from wildfires raging a state away in California." ~~~

~~~ Now for the Racist Part: "Trump claimed that the Democrat's running mate, Sen. Kamala Harris, would be president 'in about a month' if Biden won, asserting that the former vice president would be but a figurehead and that Harris would hold power." Mrs. McC Translation: A vote for Biden is a vote for Scary Black Woman President.

Desperate Fear-mongering. Blake Montgomery of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump's campaign solicited donations Saturday with a fear-mongering text warning of impending violent attacks by anti-fascist activists under a Joe Biden presidency: 'ANTIFA ALERT: They'll attack your homes if Joe's elected. Pres Trump needs you to become a Diamond Club Member. Your name is MISSING. Donate.'"

Marshall Cohen of CNN: "While election officials across the country try to prepare Americans for the chance of a prolonged vote-counting process this year..., Donald Trump and his allies have drawn a line in the sand and say they want to see a winner declared on election night. As a result, Trump and his allies are setting unrealistic expectations, and undermining warnings from bipartisan state and local election officials and experts that a slower vote-count doesn't always indicate a problem.... White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said last Wednesday that the Trump administration wants to see a presidential winner projected on election night this November. 'What we want election night to look like is a system that's fair, a situation where we know who the President of the United States is on election night. That's how the system is supposed to work. And that's ultimately what we're looking for and what we're hoping for,' McEnany said in a Fox News interview, where she criticized Democrats for expanding access to mail-in voting." ~~~

~~~ Roger Stone Has Some Election Advice for Donald Trump. Timothy Johnson of Media Matters: "Roger Stone is making baseless accusations of widespread voter fraud in the 2020 presidential election and is urging Donald Trump to consider several draconian measures to stay in power, including having federal authorities seize ballots in Nevada, having FBI agents and Republican state officials 'physically' block voting under the pretext of preventing voter fraud, using martial law or the Insurrection Act to carry out widespread arrests, and nationalizing state police forces.... Stone ... urged Trump to ... [use] his powers to arrest Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Apple CEO Tim Cook, 'the Clintons' and 'anybody else who can be proven to be involved in illegal activity.'... Stone declared that the only legitimate outcome to the 2020 election would be a Trump victory.... Stone, a longtime confidant of the president, made the comments during a September 10 appearance on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones" Infowars network."~~~

     ~~~ Mary Papenfuss of the Huffington Post, republished in Yahoo! News: "Long-time Donald Trump confidant, and convicted felon, Roger Stone said that the president should declare 'martial law' to seize power if he loses what Stone characterized as an already corrupt election. The results will only be legitimate if the 'real winner' -- Trump -- takes office, regardless of what the votes say, Stone declared. A loss would apparently be justification for Trump to use force to take over the nation."

A Change of Plans. Matthew Brown of the AP: "Vice President Mike Pence has canceled plans to attend a Trump campaign fundraiser in Montana following revelations that the event's hosts had expressed support for the QAnon conspiracy theory.... Donald Trump's reelection campaign told The Associated Press on Saturday that Pence's schedule had been changed, but the campaign did not provide a reason or say whether the fundraiser might be held at a later time. The change comes after the AP reported Wednesday that hosts Cayrn and Michael Borland in Bozeman, Montana, had shared QAnon memes and retweeted posts from QAnon accounts."

Jake Johnson of Common Dreams: "Colorado Secretary of State Jena Griswold on Saturday filed a federal lawsuit against Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and other top U.S. Postal Service officials for sending out mailers containing information that could mislead and disenfranchise voters. 'These false statements will confuse Colorado voters, likely causing otherwise-eligible voters to wrongly believe that they may not participate in the upcoming election,' reads the complaint (pdf), which was filed with the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado. 'This attempt at voter suppression violates the United States Constitution and federal statutes and must be stopped immediately.' Griswold said in a statement that she first learned just two days ago that the postcards would be sent to households across the U.S., and voters have already begun receiving them in the mail. While the postcard contains broad advice that could be applicable to voters in some states, Griswold noted that the mailer's specific recommendation that voters request a mail-in ballot 'at least 15 days before Election Day' could confuse Coloradans. 'In Colorado, every registered voter is sent a ballot without having to make a request and voters are urged to return ballots by mail sooner than seven days before the election. My office asked USPS officials to delay or not send the mailer in Colorado, but they refused to commit to that,' said Griswold. Voters in states with similar vote-by-mail, such as California and Washington, could also be misled by the postcard's recommendations." A New York Times story is here.

Maine Senate Race. Christina Cauterucci of Slate: "Donald Trump's shadow loomed over ... Friday night's Senate candidate debate in Maine. From the first question to the closing statements, Sen. Susan Collins was repeatedly asked to answer for the leader of her party, who currently trails Joe Biden by a double-digit margin in statewide polls. As soon as the debate began, a moderator from a Maine NBC station asked Collins how she felt about the fact that Trump lied to Americans about the novel coronavirus in February.... 'I believe the president should have been straightforward,' she said, calling the president's handling of the pandemic 'uneven.'... Trump's unpopularity in Maine ... has been the principal advantage enjoyed by Collins' Democratic challenger, Sara Gideon, who currently serves as the speaker of the Maine House of Representatives and is leading Collins by a slim margin in all major polls. Gideon played to that strength throughout the debate, pressing Collins on two separate occasions to reveal who she supports in the upcoming presidential election." Collins refused to answer.

Chutzpah, Corruption, Laziness & Lies

Annie Karni of the New York Times: "After weeks of public silence about the wildfires devastating the West Coast, President Trump scheduled a visit to California on Monday, where he will join local and federal fire and emergency officials for a briefing on the crisis. The announcement of the visit, which was added to a three-day campaign swing through Nevada and Arizona, came after Mr. Trump tweeted Friday night thanking the firefighters and emergency medical workers. It was the president's first acknowledgment in almost a month of a wildfire season that has claimed at least 20 lives and destroyed millions of acres of land in California, Oregon and Washington.... Mr. Trump's silence has been more noticeable because of his outspokenness over the past week on many other subjects that advisers believe could have a more direct effect on his standing in the polls against ... Joseph R. Biden Jr. On Labor Day, for instance, Mr. Trump held a news conference to herald the improvements in the economy and defend himself after The Atlantic published a report that said the president had made disparaging remarks about the military's service members. At two rallies in Michigan and North Carolina, Mr. Trump made inflated and inaccurate statements about his own accomplishments.... And on Twitter, he has attacked Democrats and protesters while promoting false claims about the dangers of mail-in voting.... In one of the last times he mentioned the fires, he blamed the state of California for its forest management." A Politico story is here.

Maureen Dowd reports some anecdotes about Trump's desire to impress the elite journalists he knocks as part of the "fake news," "failing" media elite. "Even though [Bob] Woodward keeps writing books about Trump with titles that sound like Hitchcock horror flicks -- first 'Fear' and now 'Rage' -- Trump somehow thought he could win over the pillar of the Washington establishment.... At least with Nixon, Woodward had to follow the money to expose the venality. With Donald Trump, he simply had to turn on a recorder." (Also linked yesterday.)

William Rashbaum & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "President Trump's lawyers on Friday accused a federal judge of 'stacking the deck' against Mr. Trump in his long-running fight to block the Manhattan district attorney from getting his tax returns. The assertion came in a legal filing in which Mr. Trump's lawyers asked a federal appeals court to scrap a lower court's decision that would allow the district attorney to obtain the returns and other financial records.... The appeal was the latest turn in a protracted legal battle that began in August 2019, when the office of the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a Democrat, issued the subpoena to Mr. Trump's accounting firm seeking eight years of the president's personal and corporate tax returns and other financial records as part of a criminal investigation." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "Political appointees at the Department of Health and Human Services have sought to change, delay and prevent the release of reports about the coronavirus by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention because they were viewed as undermining President Trump's message that the pandemic is under control. Michael Caputo, the top HHS spokesman, said in an interview Saturday that he and one of his advisers have been seeking greater scrutiny of the CDC's weekly scientific dispatches, known as the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, for the past 3½ months. The adviser, Paul Alexander, has sent repeated emails to the CDC seeking changes and demanding that the reports be halted until he could make edits. The emails, first reported late Friday by Politico [and linked here yesterday], describe the CDC documents ... as being 'hit pieces on the administration.' Caputo confirmed the authenticity of the emails." ~~~

     ~~~ Noah Weiland, et al., of the New York Times: "Current and former senior health officials with direct knowledge of phone calls, emails and other communication between the agencies said on Saturday that meddling from Washington was turning widely followed and otherwise apolitical guidance on infectious disease, the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Reports, into a political loyalty test, with career scientists framed as adversaries of the administration. They confirmed an article in Politico Friday night that the C.D.C.'s public morbidity reports, which one former top health official described on Saturday as the 'holiest of the holy' in agency literature, have been targeted for months by senior officials in the health department's communications office. It is unclear whether any of the reports were substantially altered, but important federal health studies have been delayed because of the pressure."

Jeff Stein & Eli Rosenberg of the Washington Post: "The emergency unemployment benefits approved by President Trump last month are already running out, leaving millions of Americans without extra support as prospects dim for a congressional deal to provide more relief for jobless Americans.... In recent days, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the agency funding the unemployment aid program, said the benefit was scheduled to last for a maximum of six weeks from the beginning of August. The benefit has been going to workers in 48 states, Guam and D.C. The agency has told states including Texas, Iowa, Montana, Tennessee and New Hampshire that the week ending Sept. 5 was the last covered by the additional benefit. Some states appear to have received even less. New Mexico, for example, told residents that they could expect only four weeks of payments -- assistance lasting only through Aug. 22."

Carolyn Johnson of the Washington Post: "A coronavirus vaccine trial resumed Saturday in the United Kingdom after the study was paused for a week because of an unexplained illness in a trial participant. The recommendation to resume human testing of the vaccine candidate being developed by the University of Oxford and pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca was made by an independent safety review committee and by the U.K. health regulator." Politico's story is here.

Michigan. Meredith Deliso of ABC News: "All local Michigan State University students have been asked to self-quarantine immediately for the next two weeks to contain the 'exponential growth' of COVID-19 cases, county health officials sad. At least 342 people affiliated with the East Lansing school have tested positive for the coronavirus since Aug. 24, according to the Ingham County Health Department. In the three weeks prior, there were only 23 such cases, officials said. Cases started to rise once thousands of students returned to the area for the fall semester, officials said. At least a third of the people who tested positive had recently attended parties or social gatherings -- and at least a third of those were associated with a fraternity or sorority, the health department said."

All the Best People, Ctd. Climate Science Denier Gets a Top Post at NOAA. Rebecca Hersher of NPR: "David Legates, a University of Delaware professor of climatology who has spent much of his career questioning basic tenets of climate science, has been hired for a top position at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Legates confirmed to NPR that he was recently hired as NOAA's deputy assistant secretary of commerce for observation and prediction. The position suggests that he reports directly to Neil Jacobs, the acting head of the agency that is in charge of the federal government's sprawling weather and climate prediction work."

Ava Wallace of the Washington Post: "The newly minted 2020 U.S. Open champion Naomi Osaka wore seven different masks for her seven matches this year in New York, each sporting the name of a victim of violence. Osaka, who was born to a Japanese mother and Haitian father, has fielded questions for two weeks about what she hopes to achieve by wearing names including Breonna Taylor, George Floyd and Tamir Rice in her televised on-court interviews. Almost every time, she answers that she simply wants to bring awareness about racial and social injustice in the United States and overseas. Osaka has unique reach in that regard -- inarguably a celebrity in the United States, where she spent most of her childhood and currently lives, she plays for Japan and captures an international audience as well."

Virginia. Statue of Very Fine Confederate Soldier Removed. Derrick Taylor of the New York Times: "... a Confederate statue in Charlottesville, Va., the site of a violent white supremacist rally in 2017, was removed on Saturday morning from its pedestal at the Albemarle County courthouse after 111 years. The removal of the monument, 'At Ready,' which depicts a Confederate soldier holding a rifle in his hands, along with two cannons and several cannonballs on either side of it, was live-streamed on the Albemarle County's official Facebook account. At the start of the removal process at 6:30 a.m., Ned Gallaway, chairman of the county board of supervisors, read a brief history of how the statue was erected in 1909 using taxpayer money and how supervisors voted last month to remove it.... On Tuesday, the board of supervisors voted to send the Confederate monument -- including the statue, cannons and cannonballs -- to the Shenandoah Valley Battlefields Foundation." The Guardian's story is here.

Rosie Gray & Ryan Mack of BuzzFeed News: "Four years ago, billionaire venture capitalist and Facebook board member Peter Thiel made one of his biggest bets: He went all in on Donald Trump ... tying his reputation as one of the most successful figures in modern tech to a presidential candidate despised throughout Silicon Valley.... Even as Thiel staked his reputation on the candidate in public, he met in private with the racist fringe that felt emboldened by Trump&'s rise to power.... [D]uring the summer of 2016, Thiel hosted a dinner with one of the most influential and vocal white nationalists in modern-day America [Kevin DeAnna] -- a man who has called for the creation of a white ethnostate and played a key role in an effort to mainstream white nationalism as the 'alt-right.'... Thiel emailed the next day to say how much he'd enjoyed his company.... The people he met or had had plans with ... were for a time key figures pushing racist ideology and white nationalism toward a place of greater acceptability within the hard-right world of Trumpism.... Newly uncovered emails seen by BuzzFeed News show white nationalist leaders were chattering about plans with Thiel in the summer of 2016.... Thiel's dinner coincided with the apex of the alt-right movement's influence in mainstream political discourse." Very informative reporting. --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Jessica Corbett of Common Dreams: "Conservation groups on Friday raised alarm about the Trump administration's push to lift protections for gray wolves across the country after an analysis revealed how a record-breaking 570 wolves, including dozens of pups, were brutally killed in Idaho over a recent one-year period.... Wolves no longer have Endangered Species Act (ESA) protections in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, and parts of Oregon, Utah, and Washington state but are still protected elsewhere. However, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Director Aurelia Skipwith told the Associated Press last week that her agency is 'working hard' to delist wolves nationwide by the end of the year, calling the policy change 'very imminent.'" --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Bob Brigham of RawStory: "The FBI on Friday denounced numerous false claims that 'extremists' are intentionally setting fires in Oregon, saying the misinformation is hampering efforts to bring devastating wildfires under control.... One of the false claims about Antifa arsonists appears to have originated with Paul Romero Jr, who unsuccessfully ran as a Republican to be one of Oregon's US senators." --s (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Meerah Powell, et al., of Oregon Public Radio: "A Clackamas County sheriff’s deputy was placed on administrative leave Saturday after a video was posted online of the deputy claiming anti-fascist activists had been starting fires in the area. The patrol deputy’s statements in the video are in direct conflict with efforts by law enforcement to dispel false rumors that antifa is responsible for wildfires burning in Clackamas County. The deputy, whose face and name badge are not fully shown in the video, is recorded saying: 'Antifa motherfuckers are out causing hell, and there's a lot of lives at stake. And there's a lot of people's property at stake because these guys got some vendetta.' The sheriff's office said in a statement Saturday that the on-duty patrol deputy was tasked with ensuring residents knew of wildfire hazards in the area.... The deputy has not been publicly identified."

Lois Beckett & Maanvi Singh of the Guardian: "Most news coverage of the wildfires raging in California, Washington and Oregon on American TV channels made no mention of the connection between the historic fires and climate crisis, according to a new analysis from Media Matters. Reviewing coverage aired over the 5-8 September holiday weekend, the progressive media watchdog group found that only 15% of corporate TV news segments on the fires ;mentioned the climate crisis. A separate analysis found that during the entire month of August only 4% of broadcast news wildfire coverage mentioned climate crisis.... A consensus of research has made clear that extreme heat and drought fueled by global heating has left the American west tinder-dry and especially vulnerable to runaway fires." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Peter Gleick in the Guardian: "My own work on climate and water 35 years ago found that rising temperatures would alter California's snowpack, water availability, and soil moisture in ways we’re now seeing in our mountains and rivers.... Projections have turned to reality. The future has arrived. What we're seeing now, with massive wildfires, worsening storms, unprecedented heat, and record droughts and floods is just the beginning of the climate changes to come. On top of rising oceans, the accelerating destruction of the Arctic ice cap, expanding water crises, and new health disasters, these climate impacts are something no human society has ever experienced and for which we remain woefully unprepared." --s (Also linked yesterday.)

Hiroko Tabuchi of the New York Times: "Last summer, oil and gas-industry groups were lobbying to overturn federal rules on leaks of natural gas, a major contributor to climate change. Their message: The companies had emissions under control. In private, the lobbyists were saying something very different. At a discussion convened last year by the Independent Petroleum Association of America, a group that represents energy companies, participants worried that producers were intentionally flaring, or burning off, far too much natural gas, threatening the industry's image, according to a recording of the meeting reviewed by The New York Times.... A[n oil] well can produce both oil and natural gas, but oil commands far higher prices. Flaring it is an inexpensive way of getting rid of the gas. Yet the practice of burning it off, producing dramatic flares and attracting criticism, represented a 'huge, huge threat' to the industry's efforts to portray natural gas as a cleaner and more climate-friendly energy source, [Ron Ness, president of the North Dakota Petroleum Council,] said."

News Ledes

The New York Times' live updates of Western wildfire developments Sunday are here.

Washington Post: "Oregon authorities and experts described the wildfires as unprecedented, leaving a painful trail of destruction across a wide swath of the state. Officials had linked the fires to at least nine deaths Saturday, a toll that could rise. In California, more than 3 million acres have burned in historic blazes now connected to at least 22 deaths. In Washington state, Gov. Jay Inslee (D) on Saturday urged residents to keep their doors and windows closed as smoke clogged the air."

AP: "Tropical Storm Sally slowed down Sunday as it churned northward toward the U.S. Gulf Coast, increasing the risk of heavy rain and dangerous storm surge before an expected strike as a Category 2 hurricane in southern Louisiana.... Forecasters from the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sally is expected to become a hurricane on Monday and reach shore by early Tuesday, bringing dangerous weather conditions, including risk of flooding, to a region stretching from Morgan City, Louisiana, to Ocean Springs, Mississippi."

Hill: "Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards (D) declared a state of emergency on Saturday as the state prepares for Tropical Storm Sally. Edwards said in a statement Saturday that Sally is expected to strengthen into a hurricane that could make land fall in Louisiana Monday morning. 'While we ultimately don't know where Sally will make landfall, much of Southeast Louisiana is in the storm's cone and the risk of tropical storm force or hurricane strength winds continues to increase,' Edwards said."

Comments

[Ken Winkes]

Saturday Night (the Seventh Day) Sermon:

We do live in a “cancellation culture.” We always have.

Things change. Out with the old, in with the new. History rolls on.

The Civil War was a bloody cancellation of slavery. The succeeding Constitutional amendments that extended rights to former slaves and women cancelled centuries of their bondage.

Today, protest marches and the effort to remove building names and monuments that celebrate the darker aspects of our past are the latest fronts in the centuries-long American war against injustice.

But it’s the uncivil war waged by a president who loves to complain about the" cancellation culture" that should grab our attention, for Trump himself is the Cancellation King.

Since 2017, the president has been on a cancellation spree too lengthy to recount in a short letter, each showcasing Trump’s disdain for honesty and fact.

This week provided taped proof he deliberately “cancelled” Covid-19’s virulence by lying about it (washingtonpost.com). We also learned the White House buried a national security report warning of continuing Russian interference in our elections and the rise of white supremacist violence (nytimes.com).

That was only this week. Since 2017, Trump has cancelled one international agreement after another. He recently pulled away from the World Health Organization, which he falsely blamed for his inept and deceitful response to the pandemic, and he attacked the International Criminal Court for doing its job (hrw.org), just as he did the many inspectors general he’s fired.

Anything that does not serve Mr. Trump’s personal or political needs is on the block: Clean air and water, the Affordable Care Act, the public service mission of the Centers for Disease Control, the Census (cnn.com) and the Voice of America (npr.com), all are targets of Trump’s giant eraser.

And the essential services provided by the United States Postal Service?

Stamped “cancelled,” too.

[NiskyGuy]

@Bea: I don’t know how you manage to process and post these links to so many articles documenting the corruption, racism, and greed of this administration*. Their words and actions show a clear hatred of many of the American people, and we are in that hated group.

Thank you for making this available so I can take it in small doses. I’m not sure what you do to cleanse after slogging through the crap, but I imagine you have enough firewood split and stored to last a decade.

[Marie Burns]

@Nisky Guy: Thanks for mentioning the psychological effects of living through this stinkpile of corruption. I'll admit that it does sometimes get me down, but I think what makes it possible for me to keep on keepin' on is my naive sense of wonderment. With all we know about Trump, with all we can almost predict he will say & do, I somehow manage to react to almost every new horror with, "OMG, he didn't!" (Or, occasionally, "Hah! I knew it!")

I'm not a person who slows down to gawk at car wrecks (tho I do slow down to take care I'm not impeding rescue teams or endangering anyone at the scene), but I sometimes feel I'm making up for my sensitivity in that regard with my willingness to slow down & watch every flicker of the Trump dumpster fire.

What's awful, of course, is that the hilarious buffoonery of the early days of Trump's insisting he had a bigger inauguration crowd than Obama's or claiming he had the biggest Electoral College win since Reagan, or noting that Frederick Douglass has been doing some wonderful things lately, is that the stunts he has pulled since have greater & greater dire consequences & come more & more frequently.

I was born into one of the world's great democracies, and it got better as I grew up. I may die in a withering democracy-in-name-only. The forces of stupidity, tribalism (or parochialism) & greed are stronger than I once reckoned. And they, not surprisingly, are fatal to governance of a large, diverse country.

[PD Pepe]

@Ken: You mentioned the International Criminal Court. Trump issued an executive order in June that authorizes severe sanctions on ICC employees, as well as the court itself. Never before has an administration authorized sanctions against judges and prosecutors to stop an investigation (in this case torture/ war crimes by the U.S.) and by the way, almost two thirds of the world's countries belong to the ICC, including every NATO member except the US and Turkey.

I found this nugget interesting from a review of Mary Trump's book: Friedrich, Trump's grandfather who emigrated from Germany, made a substantial fortune in running hotels for minors along with providing prostitutes to ease those minors aching backs. He returned to Germany, married, but was deported because he shirked his military service. Back in the U.S. he stepped up the class order later by opening hotels in N.Y. and got deeper into real estate. In 1918, when Fred, the middle child, (Donald's father) was 12, Friedrich died from the Spanish influenza.

Trump's mother, called "Gam" in Mary's book, appears to have been emotionally distant, especially toward her younger sons, and the children would come upon her "painting walls in the middle of the night or sleeping in unexpected places in the morning.

Family ties–––within the lies, there lies the truth.

[Jeanne]

Adding my thanks to those of Nisky Guy: you are a marvel, Mrs. Bea. Without you every morning, I would have to sit on the couch slurping the thousandth vodka tonic on my oatmeal. I believe you save my sanity, along with Charlie Pierce. I recently signed up on Huffpost, to comment if I want to, and the few comments I have made have swamped my gmail with "likes" and replies that have not been altogether polite, if you get my drift... I am super happy to not be on Twitter, cramming my mind full of dead leaves and muck.

Deepest thanks, Bea, for sifting through the whirlwind and appropriate remarks. And thanks to the loyalists/commenters at CR. I am hopeful that the coming election will actually not be "too bad..." Is that silly? Probably... For today, the sun is out and I will have oatmeal sans booze... (No, I haven't really done booze cereal--) Enjoy the day.

[Marie Burns]

@PD Pepe: I think that was "miners," not "minors." I haven't read Mary Trump's book, but from other readings I know gramps ran a brothel in the Yukon & before that had a restaurant & hotel in Snohomish County, Washington, to accommodate miners who poured into a small boom town there.

[Ken Winkes]

Monte Cristo, Bea, one of the two reasons for Everett, Washington's, existence. Rockefeller money poured into Snohomish County in the 1890's, and a decade later left just as quickly when the Monte Cristo strike played out. (I believe the city's name memorializes one of the Rockefeller partners and one of its main avenues carries the Rockefeller name.)

Know the area well. The ghost town (now accessible only by walking into it along an abandoned road) was the site of my first long hike in the Cascade Mountains--the first of dozens there and elsewhere--just east and a little south of the little town I grew up in.

The glaciers were more prominent in those days. The trees greener and the town's history, evident in the detritus of the abandoned buildings and crushing mills, still close enough to touch.

Thanks for the memories.

I'd like to think that in one of my visits I trampled on a Trump.

[PD Pepe]

@Jeanne: I agree with the marvelness (not a real word) of Marie; notice how she even corrects my horrible spelling––it's her " naive sense of wonderment" that keeps her motor running. It's hard for all of us to deal with this destruction but when I want to put the blanket over my head––and I do more often than not–– I emerge determined to slog it out and remind myself how lucky I am to not have caught the virus, to not have lost everything in a wild fire, to be able to live the way I do without financial worry, and without going hungry or homeless. I think we all here on R.C. are concerned citizens and being that we CARE about what the hell is going on that, too, keeps our motor running. Your mention of some of the snarky replies you got on Huff-Po ––another reason we are lucky duckies here––that doesn't happen and we can thank Marie for that, too.

[Jeanne]

I think the virgin oatmeal with berries I had clouded my brain-- or I am becoming dyslexic...that should have been RC, not CR... Sorry, Bea!
PD: I agree with your assessment of your own luck and share it. We ARE lucky. Except in the political arena...we have been super unlucky in that we have watched the "other party" grow in stature and ability to destroy and been only intermittantly able to plateau the danger level. I used to think Shrub was the first beast who blew into my brain, but since before Reagan, I have supported "losers," so I guess it is longer ago than that when I became aware of politics. I was secure in my belief that I was a liberal forever, thanks to liberal parents, but I didn't grow up with television, and not much contact with popular culture, so it was all sort of vague. I did support Nixon's removal, but apart from that, didn't worry about it. So different now.

Always enjoy the posts of PD and all of you. Thanks! Now must go wash a very furry dog who is sort of gray after a week at the kennel while we widened our "bubble" with a trip to see the little grands. Thorvald is blissfully sleeping, unaware of his fate...

[Anonymous]

I have no clue why this is happening, other than perhaps it's age related? I have received several campaign donation solicitations from Trump / Melania/ RNC. I just received one from the NRCC (National Republican Congressional Committee) with a fake check for $40, requesting I "match" that donation for a legal defense fund. Of course there were amounts up to thousands of $ to select from. Not only is it desperation but it looks like the that GOP and Trump are amassing a war chest to challenge the election. What I do notice from all these solicitations in the high quality of the paper and envelopes that are used. "Proclamation" grade. Although, they do tear up nicely into small bits.

[Patrick]

The "high quality of the paper and envelopes" often is compensation for the weakness of the resume' or the communication.

Not always. But in DiJiT's case, sure, use classy bond and that ink that looks like engraving. Just like they did for Trump U.

[periscope]

How screwed are we? Which is to ask: I wonder who is leading Biden's presidential debate prep? How do you debate a deranged mad man who will likely resort to lies and juvenile name-calling as a defense? Can we really expect Chris Wallace to keep Trump on point? I'll consult Kurt Vonnegut and Albert Camus for what to expect.

From the MSM Sunday shows, primarily from Jason Miller's filtered reality, the form-primordia of the GOP's October surprise 'one-two punch' is becoming recognizable. Misinformation about Ukrainian money "paid" to the Bidens (for which their might not be enough time to get to the real "truth", and expose the sources); and the portrayal of Harris as the weak link for possibly stepping in as commander in chief. Neither issue has much rational merit - it's all about perception and swaying pubic opinion.

My high admiration goes to those in Biden's inner circle who are, in the next three plus weeks, preparing Joe and Kamala for the absurd and unexpected, as well as the expected right wing tropes. The future lies in the stamina of the aged and their supporters - behind the scenes.

[Ken Winkes]

Not a recommendation to read the Douthat, but just in case Covid or the smoke induced stay inside orders (here yesterday) left you with nothing else to do, as as it did me, here's the link if you're so inclined...

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/09/12/opinion/sunday/trump-coronavirus.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

Douthat does interest me when he offers other than religious excuses for being a Republican. Here he tries it again, so with time on my hands, I responded thusl:

"Still singing the same song, Mr. Douthat?

You're right. Trump is not the only problem; he's just the worst of them.

But you can't help yourself, can you? You reference "folk-libertarianism," and say it is part of the problem with our Covid response. I'm glad you did.

Let's examine folk libertarianism and its thoughtless reliance on individualism, independence and its deep distrust of government, ala Reagan's government is the problem mantra.

Republicans have encouraged this silly approach to living forever. They shout it. They teach it. They attack public institutions. Instead of improving government, they sabotage it and boast of private sector efficiency that frequently doesn't exist.

In short, Republicans have been selling this anti-government patent medicine as long as I can remember just as if it were an answer to any of our real problems, most of which they prefer to blithely ignore and allow to grow unchecked.

You reap what you sow, Mr. Douthat.

Unfortunately, everyone and their children and grandchildren will be left to live on the meagre fruits of the poisoned land and social order that anti-government Republicanism has left behind.

Republicans have far more deaths on their hands than Mr. Trump has managed to kill."