The Commentariat -- Sept. 17, 2020

Afternoon Update:

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

Gosh, Jim Clyburn Says Bill Barr Is a Tad Insensitive. Devan Cole of CNN: "House Majority Whip James Clyburn on Thursday slammed Attorney General William Barr for comparing coronavirus lockdowns in the US to slavery.... 'You know, I think that that statement by Mr. Barr was the most ridiculous, tone-deaf, God-awful thing I've ever heard,' Clyburn, the No. 3 Democrat in the House and its highest ranking Black member, told CNN's John Berman on 'New Day.' 'It is incredible that (the) chief law enforcement officer in this country would equate human bondage to expert advice to save lives. Slavery was not about saving lives, it was about devaluing lives.'"

Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "FBI Director Christopher A. Wray told Congress on Thursday that Russia is still working to influence the U.S. presidential election, and hoping to'denigrate' former vice president Joe Biden because it sees the Democratic nominee as part of an American policy establishment antagonistic to Moscow's interests. Election year politics were front and center at the House Homeland Security Committee hearing on threats to the country, as lawmakers pressed Wray to weigh in on a variety of issues where politics, extremism and violence overlap.... Unlike in 2016, when the most serious interference efforts involved hacking Democrats' emails and state election systems, Wray said Russian activity so far this year seems more limited to misinformation campaigns.... Trump's acting homeland security secretary, Chad Wolf, was a no-show Thursday, having broken his agreement to appear and prompting a showdown with the committee's chairman, who issued Wolf a subpoena." A Politico story is here.

Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "The Pennsylvania Supreme Court on Thursday blocked the Green Party presidential ticket from state ballots, allowing state and local election officials to resume preparations for Nov. 3 and begin mailing ballots to voters. The court ruled that presidential contender Howie Hawkins and his running mate, Angela Walker, did not qualify for the ballot because the party did not submit signed filing papers in person, as required by state rules. It's the second such ruling in a week. On Monday, the Wisconsin Supreme Court found deficiencies in the Green Party's ballot petition in that state, excluding the party from the ballot."

Lucy Osborne of the Guardian: "A former model has come forward to accuse Donald Trump of sexually assaulting her at the US Open tennis tournament more than two decades ago, in an alleged incident that left her feeling 'sick' and 'violated'. In an exclusive interview with the Guardian, Amy Dorris alleged that Trump accosted her outside the bathroom in his VIP box at the tournament in New York on 5 September 1997. Dorris, who was 24 at the time, accuses Trump of forcing his tongue down her throat, assaulting her all over her body and holding her in a grip she was unable to escape from.... Dorris ... provided the Guardian with evidence to support her account of her encounters with Trump, including her ticket to the US Open and six photos showing her with the real estate magnate over several days in New York. Trump was 51 at the time and married to his second wife, Marla Maples. Her account was also corroborated by several people she confided in about the incident. They include a friend in New York and Dorris's mother, both of whom she called immediately after the alleged incident, as well as a therapist and friends she spoke to in the years since. All said Dorris had shared with them details of the alleged incident that matched what she later told the Guardian.&"

Tony Romm & others of the Washington Post write a long piece, based on some 10,000 emails & other documents, about how the USPS was in crisis even before Louis DeJoy took over, partly because of consequences of the coronavirus & partly because of action & inaction by the Trump administration & pro-Trump advisors.

Dan Coats writes a both-siderism New York Times op-ed for the books: "I propose that Congress ... create a supremely high-level bipartisan and nonpartisan commission to oversee the election.... It would monitor [ballot collection & tabulation] mechanisms and confirm for the public that the laws and regulations governing them have been scrupulously and expeditiously followed -- or that violations have been exposed and dealt with -- without political prejudice and without regard to political interests of either party. Also, thiscommission would be responsible for monitoring those forces that seek to harm our electoral system through interference, fraud, disinformation or other distortions.... The most urgent task American leaders face is to ensure that the election's results are accepted as legitimate..., rejecting the vicious partisanship that has disabled and destabilized government for too long.... We must firmly, unambiguously reassure all Americans that their vote will be counted, that it will matter, that the people's will expressed through their votes will not be questioned and will be respected and accepted." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Gee, Dan, who do you think is sowing doubt (trump barr) about the legitimacy of the vote? And why haven't you got the guts to say so? There seems to be a Fear of Trump that transcends firing & belittling & throwing sand in a former aide's face. ~~~

     ~~~ Martin Longman in the Washington Monthly: "... Donald Trump, is just as responsible for sowing doubt about the legitimacy of the upcoming elections as any Russian intelligence officer. What's especially troubling is that Coats knows this better than citizens who haven't had access to our most sensitive intelligence or the experience of working closely with Donald Trump. Yet, we don't need high-level access to classified information to notice Attorney General William Barr is doing everything he can to sow doubt about the results of the election. For months he's been warning that mail voting is susceptible to foreign manipulation, and he's been saying the same about Americans. As Dahlia Lithwick reports for Slate, Trump and Barr are doing a tag-team to convince us that 'our voting systems are faulty or fraudulent.'... It may be a nice idea for Congress to establish a commission to protect our elections, but the Republican Party is committed to the opposite which is why they'd never go along with Coats's idea."

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

Sydney Ember of the New York Times: "With deaths from the coronavirus nearing 200,000 in the United States, Joseph R. Biden Jr. on Wednesday assailed President Trump for playing politics with a potential coronavirus vaccine, saying he did not trust Mr. Trump to determine when a vaccine was ready for Americans.... In his speech, Mr. Biden thrust the issue of a coronavirus vaccine to center stage in the presidential race, expressing grave concern over the political pressure he said Mr. Trump was exerting over the government's approval process and accusing him of trying to rush out a vaccine for electoral gain.... Mr. Biden delivered his remarks after receiving a briefing on the coronavirus vaccine from top national health experts, including Dr. Vivek Murthy, a former surgeon general." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I listened to Biden's remarks. He took several questions after his brief remarks, and he showed a remarkable grasp of the difficulties of distributing the vaccine -- actually, vaccines; he was educating the reporters who asked the questions. The contrast between him and President* Know-Nothing was breathtaking. If you're concerned Biden has lost it -- he has not.

Jack Brewster of Forbes: "Twitter flagged President Trump for sharing a misleading video that made it appear Joe Biden had played the anti-police rap song 'F-- tha Police' by N.W.A. on his phone during an event in Florida on Tuesday -- when the Democratic nominee had actually played the song 'Despacito,' a song by Latin music star Luis Fonsi. The original clip showed Biden playing the song 'Despacito' on his phone during a Hispanic Heritage month event, in a tribute to Fonsi, who had introduced the Democratic nominee at the event.... After Twitter flagged the tweet, Trump shared the manipulated video again, this time saying 'China is drooling. They can't believe this!'" Mrs. McC: Twitter should just kick Trump off the platform.

Brian Stelter of CNN was able to reach three of the undecided voters who participated in ABC News' town hall Tuesday (related stories linked yesterday). One said Trump didn't answer his question, but by failing to do so he "essentially" answered the question. Another said, "He didn't answer anything. He was lying through his teeth." And the third said he had "reanimated" her to vote: "I'm going to vote for Biden." So good work, Donald. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Cristina Cabrera of TPM: "Besides somehow blaming ... Joe Biden for not enacting a national mask mandate, Trump spent the town hall claiming that a 'herd mentality' would stop COVID-19 (he was presumably referring to the herd immunity method, which health experts have largely rejected as a solution to the pandemic), falsely denying that he wasn't trying to kill preexisting conditions protections in the Affordable Care Act, and bragging about endorsements from the police when asked about systemic racism in the criminal justice system.... Throughout it all, both [host George] Stephanopoulos and the town hall participants pushed back against Trump's laundry list of falsehoods.... 'This was just a firehose of lying, again, from the President,' [CNN's fact-checker Daniel] Dale said.... '... that performance tonight by the President ... should send shudders and shockwaves through the Republican Party,' [the Washington Post's Philip] Rucker said during an appearance on MSNBC. 'The first debate is 14 days away..., and this is a president who's clearly not ready for that debate.'"

Lachlan Markay of the Daily Beast: "A new advocacy group [-- "Democrats Against Joe Biden' --] ostensibly comprised of Democrats opposed to the election of Joe Biden appears to have the backing of few, if any, actual Democrats. Those involved, however, do include a Republican operative whose group illicitly funneled millions into political contests, a longtime Trump fan whose son works for the president's campaign, and a self-described celebrity psychic who's taught best practices for exorcisms." Mrs. McC: I'm the CEO of Trumpbots Against Donald Trump, so I don't know what Markay is complaining about. (Also linked yesterday.)

Andrew Desiderio & Kyle Cheney of Politico: "The nation's top intelligence official is partially reversing course on his decision to scale back critical election-security briefings for lawmakers. John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, said in a statement Wednesday that he will continue to brief congressional leaders and the Senate and House intelligence committees on efforts to secure the 2020 vote from foreign interference -- though his office will no longer conduct briefings for all lawmakers, citing the need to protect intelligence sources and methods.... House Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) ... described Ratcliffe's reversal as the result of 'extensive public criticism' and said Ratcliffe must also ensure that 'all members and the American people' receive similar updates about foreign threats to the 2020 election. Last month, Ratcliffe told congressional leaders that he would no longer provide those critical in-person briefings on election security, prompting widespread backlash."

North Carolina Senate Race. Senator for Sale. Cheap. Nick Ochsner of WBTV Charlotte: "Senator Thom Tillis [R-N.C.] accepting more than $20,000 in campaign contributions from political action committees tied to pharmaceutical companies within two weeks of sponsoring a bill related to drug prices in late 2019. Tillis was an original co-sponsor on the Lower Costs, More Cures act, which was introduced on December 19, 2019. It was similar to a competing bill that had been introduced earlier in the year by Republican Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, except that it omitted a key provision opposed by the pharmaceutical industry that would cap drug prices at inflation. Grassley's bill had bipartisan support but had stalled in the Senate before Tillis and a group of other Republican senators introduced their proposal on December 19. Campaign finance records shows Tills received $20,500 in campaign contributions from political action committees tied to pharmaceutical companies in the days before and after the bill was filed...."

Craziness, Corruption, Laziness & Lies

Fiddling While the Nation Smoldered. Ashley Parker, et al., of the Washington Post: "... a detailed review of the 10-day period from late January, when Trump was first warned about the scale of the threat [the coronavirus posed], and early February -- when he acknowledged to author Bob Woodward the extent of the danger the virus posed -- reveals a president who took relatively few serious measures to ready the nation for its arrival. Instead, enabled by top administration officials, Trump largely attempted to pretend the virus did not exist -- spending much of his time distracted by impeachment and exacting vengeance on his political enemies. He also carried on as usual with showy political gatherings and crowded White House events."

Wherein Bill Barr Goes Off the Deep End

It'll be a close vote. People will say the president just won Nevada. 'Oh, wait a minute! We just discovered 100,000 ballots! Every vote will be counted!' Yeah, but we don't know where these freaking votes came from. -- William Barr, sowing doubt about the November election, to John Kass of the Chicago Tribune ~~~

~~~ Josh Feldman of Mediaite: "Attorney General Bill Barr spoke recently with Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass and went off on Democrats over 'mob violence.'... Barr teed off on the 'so-called resistance' going after the Trump administration and said, 'There undoubtedly are many people in the government who surreptitiously work to thwart the administration.... I think we are getting into a position where we're going to find ourselves irrevocably committed to a so[c]ialist path. And I think if Trump loses this election, that will be the case. In other words, I think now there's a clear fork in the road for our country.'... The subject eventually turned to mail-in ballots and that's when Barr really went off:

Just think about why we vote the way we vote now, where you have a precinct, your name is on a list, you go in and say who you are, you go behind a curtain, no one's allowed to go in there to influence you, and no one can tell how you voted. All of that is gone with mail-in. There's no secret vote. You have to associate the envelope in the mailing, the name of who's sending it in, with the ballot. So there's no more secret vote with mail-in vote. A secret vote prevents selling and buying votes... So now we're back in the business of selling and buying votes. Capricious distribution of ballots means harvesting, undue influence, outright coercion, paying off a postman and saying, "Hey, here. Here's a few hundred dollars, give me some of your ballots."'"~~~

Norman Rockwell. "Election Day." 1944.

~~~ Dahlia Lithwick of Slate traces Barr's recent history of denouncing mail-in voting & his preference for"the way white people once voted -- mostly gathered from Norman Rockwell paintings, apparently": "... Barr's argument to Kass again has the desired effect of pitting voter against voter, American against American, in ways designed to foment doubt and mistrust in a system already stressed by U.S. Postal Service meddling and distortion and a steady drumbeat of presidential claims that -- as Trump suggested this week -- the only way he can possibly lose in Nevada is if its governor rigs the ballots. 'I'm winning that state easily, but the one thing we can't beat, if they cheat on the ballots,' Trump said, adding, 'Now he will cheat on the ballots -- I have no doubt about it.'... Just to recap, then: Your mail-in ballot is unsafe because foreigners want to forge it, Democratic governors want to steal it, antifa operatives plan to harvest it, oh, and Dot, your friendly neighborhood letter carrier will also gladly break the law in order to sell it. This narrative need not be provable or coherent; it's enough that it's rinsed and repeated on a near-daily basis in the media. What Barr is actually performing here is the time-honored, Bannon-christened, Putin-sanctioned electoral practice known formally as flooding the zone with shit."

Barr Makes the Case for Politicizing the DOJ. Devlin Barrett & Matt Zapotosky of the Washington Post: "Attorney General William P. Barr delivered a scathing critique of his own Justice Department on Wednesday night, insisting on his absolute authority to overrule career staffers, who he said too often injected themselves into politics and went 'headhunting' for high-profile targets. Speaking at an event hosted by Hillsdale College, a school with deep ties to conservative politics, Barr directly addressed the criticism that has been building for months inside the department toward his heavy hand in politically sensitive cases, particularly those involving associates of President Trump.... The attorney general said it was he, not career officials, who have the ultimate authority to decide how cases should be handled, and he derided less-experienced, less-senior bureaucrats who current and former prosecutors have long insisted should be left to handle their cases free from interference from political appointees.... Barr was notably critical of state coronavirus shutdown measures and of health-care professionals who advocate for them over all else. 'All this nonsense about how something is dictated by science is nonsense,' he said."

     ~~~ Katie Benner of the New York Times: "... in his speech on Wednesday night, Mr. Barr said that it was well within his power as the attorney general to be the final arbiter in all cases before the Justice Department. While that assertion is technically true, past attorneys general have typically let the deputy attorney general run the day-to-day matters of the department and have even distanced themselves from politically fraught issues.... 'Letting the most junior members set the agenda might be a good philosophy for a Montessori preschool, but it is no way to run a federal agency,' he said." ~~~

~~~ Katelyn Polantz & Christina Carrega of CNN: "Attorney General William Barr suggested on Wednesday that the calls for a nationwide lockdown to prevent the spread of the coronavirus were the 'greatest intrusion on civil liberties' in history 'other than slavery.' The comments came minutes after he slammed the hundreds of Justice Department prosecutors working beneath him, equating them to preschoolers, in a defense of his own politically tuned decision making in the Trump administration.... In recent weeks, Barr has taken a much more aggressive stance defending Trump administration policies, including suggesting voting by mail is not safe, attacking the Mueller investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election and criticizing governors for their coronavirus response.... The speech comes after Barr has been escalating alarmist and politicized rhetoric in a series of interviews, and advocating against Democrats in the election." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: What Barr is saying here is that he has a legal right & duty to corrupt the Justice Department with overtly political actions, and he does not have to adhere to the apolitical discretion of career junior G-men. More on Boss Billy's remarks linked below.

Nathaniel Weixel of the Hill: Michael Caputo, "the top communications official at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), will be taking a medical 'leave of absence,' the agency announced Wednesday.... Caputo has been under fire for comments he made attacking career scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), accusing them of being anti-Trump. CDC Director Robert Redfield pushed back on Caputo's attack earlier Wednesday, telling a Senate panel that the allegation 'not only is it not true, it deeply saddened me when I read those comments.'" Mrs. McC: Notice that neither Caputo's boss Alex Azar or il capo dei capi Donald Trump has condemned Caputo's remarks. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: "HHS said in a statement released early afternoon that [Michael] Caputo would be on leave for the next 60 days to 'focus on his health and the well-being of his family.' That means he will be gone until after the Nov. 3 election. The agency also said that Paul Alexander, a top aide to Caputo, would be leaving the agency permanently. Alexander came under scrutiny in recent weeks for his efforts to exert control over the messages coming from scientists and top health officials, including the content of weekly science reports from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, to make them conform to the president's assertions that the virus is under control."

** Mitt Takes a Stand. Mary Jalonick of the AP: "Republican Sen. Mitt Romney is sharply criticizing an investigation by his own party into Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden's son, saying it's 'not the legitimate role of government' to try and damage political opponents. GOP Sen. Ron Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs, has said the committee will issue a report before the Nov. 3 election on Hunter Biden's activities in Ukraine. Johnson, a close ally of ... Donald Trump, is leading the investigation into Burisma, a gas company in Ukraine that paid Hunter Biden to serve as a board member while Joe Biden was vice president.... Senate Democrats have strongly objected to the inquiry and have charged that Johnson could be amplifying Russian propoganda to hurt Biden. After Wednesday's meeting, Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer of New York and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., offered a resolution calling for 'the cessation of any Senate investigation or activity that allows Congress to act as a conduit for Russian disinformation.' Johnson himself came to the floor to object, preventing the measure's passage."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Wednesday are here: "The Big Ten Conference said Wednesday that it would try to play football as soon as the weekend of Oct. 23, stepping back from its leadership's decision just more than a month ago not to compete this fall because of the coronavirus pandemic." The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ The New York Times' full report on the Big Ten's reversal is here.

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: In a supposed news briefing Wednesday, Donald Trump blamed Democrats for the high Covid-19 death toll: "'... If you take the blue states out, we're at a level that I don't think anybody in the world would be at. We're really at a very low level. But some of the states, they were blue states and blue state-managed.' It is true that the early surge in deaths was heavily weighted toward states that had voted for Hillary Clinton in 2016.... Over time, though, the percentage of total deaths that have occurred in blue states has dropped. The most recent data, through Tuesday, indicates that about 53 percent of deaths have occurred in blue states -- meaning that 47 percent have occurred in red ones.... Since mid-June, a majority of the new coronavirus deaths each day have occurred in red states. Since mid-July at least 70 percent have." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Not mentioned, but clearly a major factor: the federal government's failure to prepare for the pandemic, so that "blue states," which dominated the early surge, were poorly equipped with "tools" for fighting the virus: testing, ventilators, protective wear, including masks for the general public, etc. By the time the virus migrated in a big way to "red states," the federal government had at least partially mitigated some of its negligence (largely because of public outcries), giving "red states" an advantage, which many wasted by prematurely opening businesses & allowing close contacts among residents.

Brian Naylor & Alana Wise of NPR: "President Trump on Wednesday again said widespread distribution of a vaccine against the coronavirus would happen before the end of the year, directly contradicting Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Robert Redfield. The CDC chief testified earlier Wednesday that a vaccine would not be widely available until next spring or summer. Trump said he expects the government to be able to distribute a vaccine 'sometime in October,' though 'it may be a little later than that.'... Redfield ... testified it would take six to nine months after the Food and Drug Administration had authorized the vaccine before it could be distributed nationally.... When asked why his message on a vaccine timeline and the efficacy of masks differed so profoundly from the CDC director's, Trump said that Redfield had 'made a mistake' and 'misunderstood' the questions.... Trump in his Wednesday briefing also refuted Redfield's assertion to a Senate panel that wearing a mask remains 'the most important, powerful public health tool we have.' Trump instead downplayed the importance of masks compared to a vaccine while also mocking his Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden, for routinely wearing masks in public spaces per public health guidelines. 'The vaccine is going to have tremendous power. It's going to be extremely strong. It's going to be extremely successful. We're not going to have a problem,' Trump said." ~~~

~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times: "In a remarkable display even for him, Mr. Trump publicly slapped down Dr. Robert R. Redfield, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, as the president promised that a vaccine could be available in weeks and go 'immediately' to the general public while diminishing the usefulness of masks despite evidence to the contrary.... The public scolding of Dr. Redfield was only the latest but perhaps the starkest instance when the president has rejected not just the policy advice of his public health officials but the facts and information that they provided. ~~~

~~~ "Israeli Health Ministry officials watching an Arab-Israeli ceremony this week at the White House on television grew angry at the lack of masks and social distancing, and they ordered Israeli reporters returning from Washington to quarantine. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo was spotted at the event without a mask, coughing while talking with the head of Israel's Mossad spy agency."

Trump: There are a lot of people think that masks are not good....
Stephanopoulos: Who are those people?
Trump: I'll tell you who those people are -- waiters. They come over and they serve you, and they have a mask. And I saw it the other day where they were serving me, and they're playing with the mask...I'm not blaming them...I'm just saying what happens. They're playing with the mask, so the mask is over, and they're touching it, and then they're touching the plate. That can't be good.... The concept of a mask is good, but it also does ... you're constantly touching it, you're touching your face, you're touching plates. There are people that don't think masks are good. -- ABC News Town Hall, Tuesday ~~~

~~~ ** CDC Director Contradicts Trump Club Waiters' Medical Advice. Peter Sullivan of the Hill: "Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Robert Redfield said Wednesday that wearing a mask is more guaranteed to protect someone from the coronavirus than taking a vaccine. Redfield, speaking at a Senate hearing, emphasized the importance of wearing masks, noting that an eventual vaccine is not expected to work in 100 percent of people, and might only work in, say, 70 percent. But a mask is guaranteed to offer at least some protection for all wearers, he added, though it is far from total protection. 'We have clear scientific evidence they work, I might even go so far as to say that this face mask is more guaranteed to protect me against COVID than when I take a COVID vaccine, because the immunogenicity may be 70 percent and if I don't get an immune response, the vaccine's not going to protect me, this face mask will,' Redfield said." Mrs. McC: But can Redfield present a well-done steak slathered in ketchup? (Also linked yesterday.)

CBS Philly News: "The White House says a staff member has tested positive for COVID-19 less than 24 hours after ... Donald Trump visited Philadelphia. However, officials say the person was 'not associated with' and did not affect the president's trip. When asked about a report that staff members tested positive earlier Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said, 'I'm not here to give people's personal identities' and that 'close contacts' with a person who has since tested positive would be notified, according to Bloomberg.... President Trump was in Philadelphia Tuesday for a town hall at the National Constitution Center with undecided voters.... President Trump's trip to Center City and the National Constitution Center had all the characteristics of a presidential visit.... It also included what's now often the norm when Trump travels -- protests and counter-protests."

Erica Werner & Rachel Bade of the Washington Post: "President Trump on Wednesday called on congressional Republicans to support a massive economic relief bill with 'much higher numbers' and stimulus payments for Americans, abruptly proposing an entirely different plan from what the Senate GOP sought to advance in recent days. His Twitter post and subsequent comments at a news conference could reframe talks that have stalled for more than a month, and put new pressure on leaders in both parties.... Speaking at the White House on Wednesday evening, Trump expressed support -- but not an explicit endorsement -; for a $1.5 trillion plan unveiled Tuesday by the bipartisan Problem Solvers Caucus in the House.: Mrs. McC: Could be another Lucy & the Football moment.

Think We Don't Live in a Police State?

Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Attorney General William P. Barr told federal prosecutors in a call last week that they should consider charging rioters and others who had committed violent crimes at protests in recent months with sedition, according to two people familiar with the call. The highly unusual suggestion to charge people with insurrection against lawful authority alarmed some on the call, which included U.S. attorneys around the country, said the people.... The attorney general has also asked prosecutors in the Justice Department's civil rights division to explore whether they could bring criminal charges against Mayor Jenny Durkan of Seattle for allowing some residents to establish a police-free protest zone near the city's downtown.... In suggesting possible prosecution of Ms. Durkan, a Democrat, Mr. Barr also took aim at an elected official whom President Trump has repeatedly attacked.... During a speech on Wednesday night, Mr. Barr noted that the Supreme Court had determined that the executive branch had 'virtually unchecked discretion; in deciding whether to prosecute cases." A Guardian story is here.

** Ammo & Heat-Ray Guns. Marissa Lang of the Washington Post: "Hours before law enforcement forcibly cleared protesters from Lafayette Square in early June amid protests over the police killing of George Floyd, federal officials began to stockpile ammunition and seek devices that could emit deafening sounds and make anyone within range feel like their skin is on fire, according to an Army National Guard major who was there. D.C. National Guard Maj. Adam D. DeMarco told lawmakers that defense officials were searching for crowd control technology deemed too unpredictable to use in war zones and had authorized the transfer of about 7,000 rounds of ammunition to the D.C. Armory as protests against police use of force and racial injustice roiled Washington. In sworn testimony, shared this week with The Washington Post, DeMarco provided his account as part of an ongoing investigation into law enforcement and military officers' use of force against D.C. protesters.... DeMarco, who provided his account as a whistleblower, was the senior-most D.C. National Guard officer on the ground that day and served as a liaison between the National Guard and U.S. Park Police." The New York Times' story is here.

Aimee Ortiz of the New York Times: "Official misconduct played a role in the criminal convictions of more than half of innocent people who were later exonerated, according to a new report by a registry that tracks wrongful convictions. According to the report, by the National Registry of Exonerations, official misconduct contributed to false convictions in 54 percent of exonerations, usually with more than one type of misconduct. Over all, men and Black exonerees 'were modestly more likely to experience misconduct,' although there were larger differences by race when it came to drug crimes and murder." (Also linked yesterday.)

Trump Still Doesn't Think American Jews Are Americans. Ron Kampeas of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency: "... Donald Trump spent much of his 20-minute call with American Jewish leaders making the case for more American Jews to vote for him. He closed by repeating a line that has raised their eyebrows before. 'We really appreciate you,' Trump said as he signed off the call, an annual pre-Rosh Hashanah presidential tradition. 'We love your country also.' Earlier, introducing his Jewish son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who brokered the historic deals with the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain that were signed Tuesday at the White House, Trump called him 'an unbelievable leader for Israel.'"

News Ledes

The New York Times' live updates of West Coast fire developments are here.

Weather Channel: "Rivers and inland waterways in many areas were expected to continue to rise throughout the day as rainfall from Sally's remnants continues to fall over the Southeast. At least two deaths are being blamed on the storm, which made landfall as a hurricane near Gulf Shores, Alabama, on Wednesday and moved inland. One person was killed Wednesday when a tree fell on a home in Atlanta, where heavy rain continued to cause flooding Thursday morning. Officials in Cobb County, just north of the city, said they were dealing with dozens of downed trees and flooded roads. About 30,000 people were without power statewide, according to poweroutage.us. In Alabama, Ken Grimes, city administrator in Orange Beach, confirmed the death of an unidentified man in the town on Wednesday. A female was missing who knew the Alabama man, but it was unclear if the two were together at the time. First responders in boats and high water vehicles aided hundreds of people stranded in flooding and storm surge as Sally made landfall Wednesday morning and moved inland across Alabama and Florida as a tropical storm. Mandatory evacuation orders weren't issued ahead of the storm in the hardest-hit areas, although residents in many vulnerable locations were advised to leave voluntarily."

Comments

[Jeanne]

Well, it is Wednesday night and I stayed up to see Colbert. Have not seen him in real time in about five-six months, just from imbedded links. He was not funny. I did not appreciate the 23-skiddoo-style ageist jokes about Biden. They were not helpful. I did not appreciate the joke about the ACA computer glitch that messed things up when it was first rolled out. None of this is helpful when Joe is doing a good job against a sunami of lies and insinuations by a third of the populace who seem to be members of a mean Confederate cult. I could take jokes that demean Fathead, of course. Also in today's paper, a big ole letter listing all the marvelous things Fatboy has done for veterans, signed by various veteran luminaries in town who are all trumpets, of course. How dare the Atlantic accuse Fatface of deliberately skipping the French ceremony-- at the time they said it was weather... Yeah. All the other country leaders made it, of course. The luminaries didn't mention his hair...or the fact that it wasn't even raining...

Going to bed. Who can take this stuff 24/7-- I just saw a commenter on HuffPo who touted the new "doctor" who says only 6000 people have died, and herd immunity will take care of the whole thing. I give up. People are too damn dumb to cross the street by themselves.

[Ken Winkes]

Think the Republicans are deliberately tearing down the country economically, medically, environmentally and legally in an effort to make what remains after their possible November loss ungovernable?

Tonight I am.

There's just too much destruction coming out the Republican-Pretender world for me to think otherwise.

Instead of masks to slow the spread of Covid, herd immunity that will cost millions of lives.

Massive deficit spending with a deliberatly shrunken income stream.

Slash and burn environmental policies and the environment along with them.

Decimated bureaucracies in all Cabinet departments snd providers of government services , stripping them of their ability to function.

Social, sectional and political divisions deliberately goosed to the highest level in memory.

A policitisized Justice Department interested in anything but supportiong and serving justice, consciously creating a government of a man or two, not of laws.

Even if Democrats take the presidency and the senate, they will have a mess on their hands as great as Andrew Johnson did following the Civil War and Lincoln's assassination.

And we know how that worked out.

If they won't let you play, steal the ball; and if you can't steal it, blow it up. That'll teach 'em.

How about that for a conspiracy theory?

[PD Pepe]

Last October, Attorney General William Barr appeared at Notre Dame Law School to make a case for ideological warfare. Before an assembly of students and faculty, Barr claimed that the “organized destruction” of religion was under way in the United States.

“Secularists, and their allies among the ‘progressives,’ have marshalled all the force of mass communications, popular culture, the entertainment industry, and academia in an unremitting assault on religion and traditional values.” Barr, a conservative Catholic, blamed the spread of “secularism and moral relativism” for a rise in “virtually every measure of social pathology”—from the “wreckage of the family” to “record levels of depression and mental illness, dispirited young people, soaring suicide rates, increasing numbers of angry and alienated young males, an increase in senseless violence, and a deadly drug epidemic.”

This was reported in the New Yorker back then. Two days after Barr's speech our favorite Fatty had to pump all this rhetoric up at the conservative Values Voter Summit. Obviously this was written by someone else since it contained some big words.

"Extreme left-wing radicals, both inside and outside, government are determined to shed our Constitution and eradicate the beliefs we all cherish. They are trying to hound you [and will kill your puppy] from the work place, expel you from the public square and weaken the American family and indoctrinate our children."

As we can see from this catalogue of grievances the playbook that Barr and the Baby set out to set the stage for their take-over. Fear––the main factor in this farrago––the great divide that foments "us against them."

In contrast Bob Woodward cites FDR's handling of "the day that will live in infamy": He told "his people" how bad things were, but told them they had the courage and fortitude to carry on–-that he knew how brave Americans were and together "we will persevere." He let the people know he was with them ––trusting them and in turn they trusted him.

I grieve at what we have become.

[Ken Winkes]

PD,

Barr blasting "moral relativism" is rich beyond words.

[Marie Burns]

@PD Pepe: Once in the 1970s (probably 1973), when I was living in the L.A. area, I had to go downtown to the courthouse during business hours for a reason related to my job at a radio station. I must have driven to the neighborhood of the courthouse, but to get into the building, I had to walk through a Vietnam War protest. I was opposed to the war myself, but I was not an activist.

What shocked me about the protesters were the looks of hatred on their faces. They looked as vicious to me as an enemy in battle might. I was certainly aware that our country was in trouble, but that brush with the people on "my side" was an eye-opener. It seemed to me that not only was the government unhinged, so were the people I theoretically presumed to be on "the right side." For the first time, I feared a real revolution, not just a righteous disagreement.

(When I got inside the building, the main lobby was virtually empty except for one man who was pacing the marble floor. I recognized him, and it almost seemed as if he happened to be there to punctuate my anxiety. He was Daniel Ellsberg.)

What frightened me most at that time were the protesters. But it's quite different today, for it is not the protesters who are the most to be feared: it is the government itself. Donald Trump and Bill Barr and the minions they commission or encourage to put down the protesters: soldiers bearing arms & heat guns, vigilantes with AK-15s.

Those angry, unarmed, war protesters of another era don't seem nearly as frightening as what we're all facing today.

[Akhilleus]

Fatty promotes the lie that Joe Biden plays “F... tha Police” on his phone. What’s Fatty play on his phone? “Deutschland über alles“? Or maybe “Orchi Chonya“.

[Victoria]

six million dead... six million dead...
such a number predicted by the math of "herd mentality"...
that number reminds me of something.
oh yes: "Lost: Six Among the Six Million," by Danny Mendelsohn.
And from what Rachel documented last night, the Orange Hitler has already put this plan into effect.
It is time to start saying, "The horror, oh the horror."

[Marie Burns]

@Akhilleus: Surely this one is on Trump's Spotify playlist. Visions of goosestepping soldiers dance in his head.

[Akhilleus]

This doctored video evilly promoted by a criminal con man is being spread across the media landscape in terms that make Trump sound like a smart guy and Biden a hapless fool. Once again, the media help Fatty by portraying him as, maybe a bit of a bad boy, but ultimately much stronger than Biden. Headlines like “Trump trolls Biden with ‘F... tha Police’ video” and “Trump mocks Biden” are the order of the day. Even headlines that mention a doctored video lead with “Joe Biden” and “F... tha Police”, which is all many readers take away.

The media try so hard to be nice to Trump and to not flat out call him a disgusting liar. It all plays into his game plan to sow hatred, confusion, and mistrust. Readers glancing quickly at headlines can totally miss the fact that Trump is retweeting something entirely untrue in order to score points. And the media help. Likewise when they run headlines saying “Trump says vaccine due any day!” and “President says masks spread the virus!”. Even if the body of the text explains things in greater detail, Trump knows that the stenographers who write the headlines will dutifully repeat his lies in all caps before getting into more detail. And that’s all he needs.

The media failed us miserably in 2016 by treating this fat crook as another respectable, if a little unorthodox, candidate. For almost four years they’ve been treating him as other presidents have been treated, which is just what he wants. But Trump is not like all other presidents. He is to all other presidents as a serial killer is to jay walkers.

Yeah, Trump killed tens of thousands of Americans, but Kamala Harris referred to the “Harris administration” in a meeting with BLACK people! Holy shit! Stop the presses.

Then we have the both siders, like so many on major outlets like the Times. Every time they report on yet another criminal outrage by this treasonous bastard, they have to add a “But on the other hand, Joe Biden, blah, blah, blah.”

I have no faith in polls. Trump and Barr are going to the mattresses. This is all out war but the media are treating it as just another normal election. They are helping in the destruction of democracy.

[Akhilleus]

Marie,

You just know that images of big, strong, army men goosestepping by his podium, all heavily armed, saluting his greatness, must give that weird little mushroom weenie a shiver. I’m surprised he hasn’t ordered the Mall remade into his very own Red Square so that 200 ft tall images of his stern, manly, in-charge face can be plastered across all surrounding buildings, where they can look down on weekly military parades in his honor.

Isn’t that what being president is all about? That’s what he signed on for, not this pandemic crap and having to worry about sick losers not important enough to get instant test results on a daily basis.

[Jeanne]

Sounds like you all are dreading the next 40+ days as much as I am. I started Mary Trump's book yesterday-- the entire family going back to Dumpie's grandfather is a sick, toxic mess. I don't know which relatives imparted her information, but it is truly no wonder that he has turned out to be the damaged pile of garbage he is today. He started out a liar and an incompetent, dishonest pile of quivering muck, and was born corrupt. He was horrible as a child. He is more than horrible as an adult/toddler, and the consequences of allowing a mass of blubber with poison in his soul to take over our country will be with us for a long time. Given Barr's eager acceleration of the authoritarian impulses Dump was born into, I seriously do not expect anything going forward but disaster. They ruin everything they touch, and they are very proud of themselves for causing such destruction.

[Akhilleus]

PD,

Glad you mentioned FDR and his handling of the attack on Pearl Harbor. If it had been Fatty, he'd have tried to say that it was a minor boating accident. Nothing to worry about. Just some Deep State types trying to make something out of nothing to make him look bad. And to take that idea further, just imagine how long it would take Trump to get on board with doing something, anything. The war would have been over. Trump would be in charge of a Nazi client state. But what am I saying? That's his goal now! Him and Attorney General Himmler.

[Akhilleus]

Jeanne,

I don't think it's hyperbole to suggest that Trump is, in fact, proud of the cluster fuck he's made of this country. Chaos has always been his best friend (along with mendacity). If you're worried about making it through the next day, you can't be paying too much attention to his latest schemes, scams, and screw ups. Reminds me of those Charles Addams cartoons in the New Yorker, wherein his eponymous family considers dark, stormy days to be heavenly.

[Akhilleus]

And speaking of chaos, lost in the Orange Menace's quotidian quest for complete and total suck-a-rama, is the news that yet another woman has come forward with a charge that president* pussy-grabber did just that to her.

Amy Dorris, a former model, is at least the 26th woman to come forward with complaints about sexual assault by this molesting creep beloved of Bible reading Evangelicals.

Another group of rank hypocrites.

And another woman in what must be a group numbering in the dozens by now, all of whom, to hear Fatty and his obsequious enablers tell it, are liars "out to get Trump".

Here's my question. What the hell is wrong with that? He needs to get got. He deserves to get got.

[Patrick]

Marie, loved the parade in the Kreml. Not like the bad old days, but still...

If those guys could figure out how to put wheels on an aircraft carrier they would include it as a "float" (horoshaya shutka, nyet?).