The Washington Post offers tips on how to keep your EV battery running in frigid temperatures. The link at the end of this graf is supposed to be a "gift link" (from me, Marie Burns, the giftor!), meaning that non-subscribers can read the article. Hope it works: https://wapo.st/3u8Z705
Monday
Aug312020
The Commentariat -- September 1, 2020
Afternoon Update:
The Washington Post's live updates of coronavirus developments Tuesday are here: "White House testing czar Brett Giroir on Tuesday tamped down calls from many public health experts for the federal government to approve and fund more cheap antigen tests that can be taken regularly at home. But while in the past Giroir has suggested that kind of widespread coronavirus screening would be unhelpful, he now says it is simply unfeasible. 'I don't live in a utopian world. I live in the real world. And the real world had no test for this new disease when this first started,' Giroir, assistant secretary of health, told reporters on a late-morning conference call."
After Police Shot Her Dead in Her Own Home, the D.A. Tried to Frame Breonna Taylor. Marty Johnson of the Hill: "The lead attorney representing Breonna Taylor's family says Louisville prosecutors offered Jamarcus Glover -- her ex-boyfriend who is facing multiple drug-related charges -- a plea deal that listed Taylor, who was shot and killed by police in her own home in March, as a co-defendant in the case. Sam Aguiar posted a picture of the purported plea deal on Facebook Monday. '[Jefferson County] Commonwealth Attorney Tom Wine tried to give the Elliott Ave. defendants a plea deal on July 13 which would have identified Breonna Taylor as a "co-defendant" for actions related to the arrests on April 22, 2020,' Aguiar said in the post. '[W]hen was Breonna Taylor ever a co-defendant? And oh by the way, the cops killed her a month and a half before April 22 and four months to the day before the date of this effort to get a plea deal.'... In response to Aguiar's damning Facebook post, Wine released a statement later on Monday, stating that the document 'was a draft that was part of preindictment plea negotiations with Mr. Glover and his attorney.'"
~~~ Brett Samuels of the Hill: "President Trump on Tuesday denied that he made an emergency visit to the hospital last year after suffering 'a series of mini-strokes' after a new book claimed that Vice President Pence was on standby in the event Trump was incapacitated. The president's denial raised eyebrows, as the book from New York Times correspondent Michael Schmidt did not specifically state that Trump had suffered from a series of small strokes. 'It never ends! Now they are trying to say that your favorite President, me, went to Walter Reed Medical Center, having suffered a series of mini-strokes. Never happened to THIS candidate -- FAKE NEWS,' Trump tweeted, before insinuating that ... Joe Biden may have dealt with health issues." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I hope some pro-Biden group -- not the Biden campaign itself -- will start hounding Trump about his secretive hospital visit. It is a matter of public interest as to why a president* is rushed to the hospital & the veep is called to stand by. Voters deserve to have a full & truthful answer (not gonna happen, I know).
(2) What Is Trump Hiding? Benjamin Weiser & William Rashbaum of the New York Times: "President Trump on Tuesday won another delay in the long-running legal battle over whether he must turn over eight years of tax returns to the Manhattan district attorney's office, which subpoenaed them a year ago in a criminal investigation focused on Mr. Trump, his business and his associates. In a brief order, a federal appeals court in New York said it would temporarily block a grand jury subpoena issued by the district attorney, Cyrus R. Vance Jr., a Democrat, while it considers Mr. Trump's arguments that the request was 'wildly overbroad' and politically motivated. The ruling is the latest development in the president's aggressive effort to keep his tax returns and other financial records out of the hands of prosecutors, Congress and others -- a dispute that has reached the United States Supreme Court once and is almost certain to end up there again." A Hill story is here.
Mrs. McCrabbie: Remember back in June when we thought those Western militia were idiots for believing in crazy conspiracy theories about impending Antifa invasions? Well, guess what? Donald Trump is one of the idiotic conspiracy theorists. ~~~
~~~ Ben Collins of NBC News: "The conspiracy theory that ... Donald Trump pushed Monday that a plane 'almost completely loaded with thugs' had been set to disrupt the Republican National Convention was almost identical to a rumor that went viral on Facebook three months ago.... He ... claimed the matter was 'under investigation right now.' There is no evidence of any such flight.... [A] version of the rumor picked up enough steam in Idaho Facebook groups [in June] that the Payette County Sheriff's Office had to release a statement insisting that the viral rumor was 'false information.'... One of the most viral rumors on an Antifa invasion into the suburbs was taken down after Twitter said it was created by a troll account with ties to white nationalists. Some armed Americans took to town squares in several towns to fight off fictitious busloads of Antifa in June, spurred by false rumors on Facebook pages. Seven days after the original Idaho rumor went viral on Facebook, armed men stood guard over protests in Missoula, Montana, worried about the planeloads of Antifa supporters."
Tony Romm & Eric Yoder of the Washington Post: "The U.S. government will implement an across-the-board payroll tax deferral for about 1.3 million federal employees starting in mid-September, forcing some workers to take a temporary financial boost now that they likely will have to repay next year. The policy, confirmed Monday by a senior administration official, comes in response to a widely panned policy directive issued by President Trump earlier in August. Unions have sharply criticized the government's decision, fearing federal workers may not have a choice in whether to take the deferral -- resulting in them receiving smaller paychecks in 2021 until the past-due taxes are paid off."
~~~~~~~~~~
Massachusetts Democratic Primary Races Today. Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "The Democratic race between Representative Joseph P. Kennedy III and Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts was perhaps the marquee Senate primary of the year, as the young scion of one of the country's most storied political families challenged a 43-year fixture of Congress. But it was not the only closely watched primary election that will unfold on Tuesday in Massachusetts.... Here's what we're watching for, from the Senate battle on down the ballot."
Presidential Race
Biden Delivers Major Speech Rebutting Trump. Matt Viser & Ashley Parker of the Washington Post: "Joe Biden excoriated President Trump on Monday as a threat to the safety of all Americans, saying he has encouraged violence in the nation's streets even as he has faltered in handling the coronavirus pandemic. For his most extensive remarks since violent protests have escalated across the country in recent days, Biden traveled to Pittsburgh and struck a centrist note, condemning both the destruction in the streets and Trump for creating a culture that he said has exacerbated it.... He called the president a danger to those suffering from the coronavirus, to anyone in search of a job or struggling to pay rent, to voters worried about Russian interference in the upcoming election and to those worried about their own safety amid unrest." (Also linked yesterday.) The New York Times report, by Katie Glueck, is here. ~~~
No candidate for president has ever attacked a sitting president* the way Joe Biden did today. -- Lawrence O'Donnell, on MSNBC Monday ~~~
~~~ Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "Former Vice President Joe Biden on Monday squarely blamed Donald Trump for the violence that has accompanied mass protests for racial justice this summer, accusing the president of 'long ago' forfeiting 'any moral leadership in this country.' In remarks in Pittsburgh..., [Biden] portrayed Trump as having lost control of a country rocked by a series of converging crises and being guilty 'for years' of fomenting racial tensions that have led to clashes and episodes of violence, which he also denounced. 'Ask yourself: Do I look like a radical socialist with a soft spot for rioters? Really?' Biden said. 'I want a safe America, safe from Covid, safe from crime and looting, safe from racially motivated violence, safe from bad cops. And let me be crystal clear: safe from four more years of Donald Trump.'" Here's a slightly condensed video: (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
See also Donald Trump's defense of the alleged Kenosha vigilante killer under Black Lives Matter, linked below.
Leo Shane III of the Military Times: "The latest Military Times poll shows a continued decline in active-duty service members' views of President Donald Trump and a slight but significant preference for former Vice President Joe Biden in the upcoming November election among troops surveyed.... In the latest results -- based on 1,018 active-duty troops surveyed in late July and early August -- nearly half of respondents (49.9 percent) had an unfavorable view of the president, compared to about 38 percent who had a favorable view.... Among all survey participants, 42 percent said they 'strongly' disapprove of Trump's time in office." --s
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Monday are here: "Americans began their Sunday with the news that the staggering pandemic death toll, seemingly beyond dispute, was being questioned by their own president, and ended it as the country reached more than six million confirmed infections. Almost 183,000 people have died in the United States from the virus -- some analyses put the true toll well past 200,000 -- but President Trump lent his embrace to fringe groups peddling claims that the number is grossly exaggerated." (Also linked yesterday.)
Yasmeen Abutaleb & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "One of President Trump's top medical advisers [-- Scott Atlas of the right-wing Hoover Institution --] is urging the White House to embrace a controversial 'herd immunity' strategy to combat the pandemic, which would entail allowing the coronavirus to spread through most of the population to quickly build resistance to the virus, while taking steps to protect those in nursing homes and other vulnerable populations, according to five people familiar with the discussions. The administration has already begun to implement some policies along these lines, according to current and former officials as well as experts, particularly with regard to testing.... [Atlas] He has advocated that the United States adopt the model Sweden has used.... Sweden ... has among the highest infection and death rates in the world. It also hasn't escaped the deep economic problems resulting from the pandemic.... [The discussion] is drawing concern from experts inside and outside the government who note that a herd immunity strategy could lead to the country suffering hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of lost lives.... In the United States, with a population of 328 million, reaching a 65 percent threshold for herd immunity may require 2.13 million deaths, assuming the virus has a 1 percent fatality rate, according to an analysis by The Post." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Philip Bump of the Washington Post: After the GOP convention, CNN's Jim Acosta "asked a White House official why there was apparently no effort to implement social distancing measures for the audience at the speech. The official's response? 'Everybody is going to catch this thing eventually,' the official reportedly said. It's a staggering comment.... Everyone won't catch the novel coronavirus eventually, ideally; the point of developing a vaccine is to keep that from happening. What's more, even if there were no vaccine, there's a big difference between people catching it now and catching it in a year or two when there might be better therapeutic treatments or potentially a cure.... Trump understood the risks of letting the virus spread without containment back in April, when he was defending the administration's decision to endorse a shutdown of economic activity.... Trump said of Sweden's strategy, '... if we did follow that approach, I think we might have 2 million people dead.'" But now the tens of thousands of Covid-19 deaths are hurting him politically, so he wants to curb testing to bring the number of known cases down, at the same time greatly increasing the number of people who get sick or die from the virus. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Like, Say, Zombie Tweeter Herman Cain, a Covid Victim Who Has Returned from the Dead to Back the Trump Theory. Ed Mazza of the Huffington Post: "The Twitter account formerly used by the late Herman Cain fired off a head-scratching message on Sunday, insisting that the coronavirus 'isn't as deadly' as once thought. Cain died in July at the age of 74 after being hospitalized for more than a month with the COVID-19 infection. His Twitter account ― now run by his family and social media managers ― tweeted: 'It looks like the virus is not as deadly as the mainstream media first made it out to be.' Given Cain's own cause of death, the tweet ― which was eventually deleted ― drew a rather stunned response from critics on social media[.]" Mrs. McC: Remember that Cain contracted the virus after attending a Trump rally where he (1) didn't wear a mask and (2) sat packed in with other Trumpophiles. Maybe Trump will use Cain's tweet from the grave as a testimonial to his strategy. (Also linked yesterday.)
William Davis of the New York Times: "Forty states are now signed up to provide their residents with an extra $300 or $400 in unemployment, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The benefit was originally envisioned by President Trump as an extra $400 to unemployed workers, with the federal government providing $300 and the states providing $100. But states balked at the additional cost.... Most states won't be able to start paying the benefit until mid-September or even October. And the payments are expected to last only four or five weeks." This report is an item in the Times' business live updates. A more extensive NYT report is here.
Black Lives Matter
This. Is. Not. Normal. Matthew Choi of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Monday portrayed the gunman charged with murdering two protesters in Kenosha, Wis., as a victim, suggesting that the Illinois teenager was acting in self-defense.... The criminal complaint [against alleged killer Kyle Rittenhouse] said he killed a man, Joseph Rosenbaum, after Rosenbaum threw a plastic bag at Rittenhouse and tried to grab his gun. A group of protesters chased after Rittenhouse, yelling that he had shot someone. But speaking at a White House news conference on Monday, Trump suggested that the protesters were the instigators, out to get Rittenhouse, and that he was acting in self-defense. 'That was an interesting situation,' the president said. 'He was trying to get away from them, I guess it looks like, and he fell and then they very violently attacked him, and it was something that we are looking at right now and it's under investigation. But I guess he was in very big trouble. He probably would've been killed. It's under investigation.'... Trump's opting to give the benefit of the doubt to Rittenhouse comes in stark contrast to his condemnation of protesters against police violence who have demonstrated in cities across the country.... Addressing a CNN reporter, the president said those responsible for [the Portland, Oregon,] shooting were 'your supporters.'" ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Generally speaking, prominent public officials don't comment on active cases that have not been tried as their comments could influence a jury pool. Specifically, public officials, particularly a POTUS*, do not exonerate murder suspects. This is extraordinary. The conceit that Trump is a "law and order" president* -- which was never remotely believable -- just died in a last gasp of stunning commentary. ~~~
~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: During his news briefing Monday, "Trump found little fault with ... [his] supporters who converged on Portland, Ore., and apparently fired paintball guns and pepper spray at protesters... '... that was a peaceful protest,' he said. 'And paint is not -- and paint as a defensive mechanism, paint is not bullets. ... These people, they protested peacefully. They went in very peacefully.' Trump then pointed to a man who identifies as an anti-fascist and who is under investigation in the killing of a right-wing demonstrator after a Trump rally in Portland. Trump said the man 'shot a young gentleman and killed him.... And I think it's disgraceful.' The president offered no such condemnation, though, when it was noted that one of his supporters, [Kyle] Rittenhouse, has been charged with killing ... in Kenosha. Trump indicated he thought Rittenhouse's actions might have been warranted.... It's evident to whom Trump gives the benefit of the doubt, from Charlottesville through today. And in the course of a couple of minutes Monday night, that benefit of the doubt applied to a supporter who has been charged with a crime -- in a way it very much didn't apply to another person who hasn't." ~~~
~~~ AND. This. Is. Not. Normal. Rather, It's Really Weird. Katie Shepherd of the Washington Post: "... President Trump on Monday night claimed in a Fox News interview that 'people that are in the dark shadows' are 'controlling the streets' and manipulating his Democratic opponent Joe Biden to sow chaos. When host Laura Ingraham suggested the claim 'sounds like conspiracy theory,' Trump doubled down, launching into a tale of a plane that allegedly flew from an unnamed city to Washington, D.C., this weekend loaded with 'thugs wearing these dark uniforms, black uniforms, with gear.'... The president declined to elaborate to Ingraham, saying the case was 'under investigation,' and the White House didn't immediately respond to a request for comment late on Monday.... Debunked rumors of a plane filled with black-clad rabble-rousers setting out to harass right-leaning towns and suburbs have appeared on social media in the past. This weekend, Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) similarly suggested on Fox News that the protesters who surrounded and heckled him as he left the Republican National Convention last week had been paid to come to D.C. as part of alleged 'interstate criminal traffic being paid for across state lines.'" Thanks to Ken W. for the link. ~~~
~~~ AND. This. Is. Not. Normal. Trump Plays Whack-a-Black. Reed Richardson of Mediaite: "Fox News" Laura Ingraham quickly jumped in during her interview with ... Donald Trump in an attempt to head off a highly inappropriate analogy, where he compared police officers who 'choke' by shooting Jacob Blake in the back or kneeling on George Floyd's neck until he dies to missing a three-foot golf putt. During the Fox host's hour-long interview, Ingraham ... framed her question around the dangers that police face.... 'It's more dangerous to be a police officer today, do you not think than it has been a long time?' Ingraham said. 'The police are under siege,' Trump then claimed. 'They can do 10,000 great acts, which is what they do, and one bad apple or a choker -- a joker -- they choke.' 'You mean, they, they panic,' Ingraham helpfully clarified. 'Shooting the guy in the back many times. I mean, "Couldn't you have done >something different? Couldn't you have wrestled him?'" Trump then said, alluding to Blake.... 'You know, I mean, in the meantime, he might've been going for a weapon.... But they choke, just like in a golf tournament, they miss a 3-foot putt...' 'You're not comparing it to golf,' Ingraham quickly jumped in, as Trump actually did compare police shootings and killings to missing a gimme putt. 'Because of course that's what the media would say ... people make, people panic,' she then added, steering Trump away from the golf analogy while nodding her head. I'm saying people choke,' Trump insisted, without disavowing his comparison." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. Also see his commentary below.
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Ingraham is right. The media are going to call Trump out for suggesting the use of lethal force against black men is like missing a three-foot putt. In fairness to Trump, a highly-offensive golf analogy is the only way he can relate & excuse inexcusable deadly force against Americans. To Trump, Black people are objects, like golf balls you're trying to control and "putt in their place." ~~~
~~~ MEANWHILE. Courtney Subramanian & David Jackson of USA Today: "... Donald Trump is not planning to meet with the family of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot multiple times in the back by a police officer in Kenosha, Wisconsin, when he travels there Tuesday, the White House said. The president told reporters at a press conference Monday evening that he was not planning to meet with the family because they wanted to involve lawyers. 'I thought it would be better not to do anything where there are lawyers involved,' Mr Trump said. "... I thought that was inappropriate so I didn't do that.'... Blake's father and family's attorney, Benjamin Crump, confirmed to CNN that the family wanted their legal team involved in the call with the president. Crump also said he sat in on the call when the Blake family spoke to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris.... [White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany said,] 'We are efforting outreach, have not been able to connect yet. So tomorrow the plan is so far to go and to meet with law enforcement and to look at the damage from the riots, but we are holding his family close to our hearts.'..." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Funny how Biden & Harris aren't afraid of lawyers and the (alleged) criminal Trump is. The second-most egregious bit in this story is MacInaney's awkward attempt to turn the noun "effort" into a verb. "Efforting outreach?" Please.
Mitchell Schmidt of the Kenosha News: "Gov. Tony Evers (D) on Sunday sent a letter to ... Donald Trump asking the president to reconsider his plan to visit Kenosha on Tuesday. A spokesman for Trump said the president plans to meet with local law enforcement and survey damage from recent demonstrations.... 'It is our job as elected officials to lead by example and to be a calming presence for the people we know are hurting, mourning, and trying to cope with trauma,' Evers said in the letter. 'Now is not the time for divisiveness. Now is not the time for elected officials to ignore armed militants and out-of-state instigators who want to contribute to our anguish.' Evers also raised concern that an in-person visit from the president would require a large-scale redirection of resources to support the visit."
Peter Baker & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump has been throwing accelerant on the fire of the nation's social unrest rather than trying to put it out, seeking confrontation rather than calm at a volatile moment his advisers hope will help salvage his campaign for a second term. Other presidents in times of tumult tried to settle down communities convulsed by racial and cultural divisions, but Mr. Trump has encouraged one side against another. He has threatened to deploy federal forces, condoned freelance actions by his own armed supporters, conflated peaceful protesters with violent rioters and used the strife to undercut his political opponents.... The strategy is consistent with the president's lifetime of provocation. From his time as a celebrity real estate developer, Mr. Trump has never been a conciliator, and he has long gravitated toward conflict and sought to escalate it. As president, he often plays to and amplifies racial divisions in the country."
Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Marc Tracy of the New York Times: "A journalist resigned on Saturday from his job at The Kenosha News after objecting to the headline of an article that chronicled a rally in support of Jacob Blake, a Black man who was shot seven times in the back by a white Kenosha police officer. The journalist, Daniel J. Thompson, a digital editor who said he was the only full-time Black staff member at the paper..., said the headline did not accurately sum up the article and gave a false impression of the rally itself, which he attended. The rally for Mr. Blake ... included calls for unity from his father, Jacob Blake Sr., and Wisconsin's lieutenant governor, Mandela Barnes, the article said. The headline, which appeared on the Kenosha News website on Saturday, highlighted a remark from one rally participant: '... If you kill one of us, it's time for us to kill one of yours.' The online version of the article included a 59-second video showing the person who spoke those words, a Black man who was not identified by name. Mr. Thompson ... said he found the headline off-base. 'The story is about the entire reaction of all the speakers and people in attendance, and that quote is one outlier falling within a flood of positive ones.'..." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Apparently the Kenosha News headline writer & the story's editor follow the local teevee news dictum, "If it bleeds, it leads."
Portland, Oregon. Guardian: "Portland police declared a protest in the north-eastern part of the Oregon city an 'unlawful gathering' late on Sunday, ordering crowds to disperse or risk arrest.... Twenty-nine arrests were made, police said, adding that two of those held had handguns, others had knives and at least one had an expandable baton. Many in the group of protesters wore helmets, gas masks, goggles and armour. Police said some carried shields and reflective squares used to reflect police lights back at officers. Some threw rocks, eggs, and other items at officers and police vehicles."
"Sometimes You Have to Use Violence to Preserve Order." Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: “A Portland activist who had traveled to Washington, D.C., to protest the Republican convention says he was punched in the head by one of ... Donald Trump's most ardent evangelical Christian allies. Video of the attack appears to support his claim.... Footage ... shows anti-Trump protester Anthony Harrington biking past a group of Trump supporters [leaving the RNC convention], yelling 'Fuck Trump, fuck you!' As Harrington passed by, a man Harrington identified to The Daily Beast as [pro-Trump talk radio host Eric] Metaxas punched him in the side or back of the head.... Even his allies believe he threw the punch, supporting Metaxas by name while defending his action on grounds that Harrington 'had it coming.' 'Sometimes you have to use violence to preserve order,' Christian writer and Metaxas' friend Rod Dreher wrote in a blog post."
Keith Griffith of The Daily Mail (U.K.) (Aug. 28): "A high-ranking U.S. intelligence official who died in June killed himself in his own front yard in front of his terrified new wife, it has been revealed. Anthony Ming Schinella, 52, died on June 14 in Arlington, Virginia, but his death had not been widely reported until this week, when The Intercept revealed a medical examiner's report listed his cause of death as suicide from a gunshot wound to the head...[A] large collection of bondage and S&M gear ... had been hidden in his house.... Schinella was the highest-ranking military affairs analyst in the U.S. intelligence community, and was also a member of the powerful National Intelligence Council. He was an expert on the Taliban's military capabilities, and his death came shortly before the New York Times reported on June 26 that Russia paid bounties to the Taliban to kill American soldiers in Afghanistan. Following the report, the NIC drafted a memo, which quickly leaked, claiming that the intelligence about the bounties was inconclusive. The memo did not mention that the NIC's top analyst on military affairs and Taliban expert had killed himself days earlier." --s ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Both the Daily Mail & Intercept stories contain quite a bit of innuendo, and maybe where there's smoke, there's fire. But both stories also include elements that suggest Schinella may have killed himself for personal reasons having nothing to do with his job. From the Intercept: "His wife, who had just married him weeks earlier, told The Intercept that she was in her car in the driveway, trying to get away from Schinella when she witnessed his suicide.... After his death, Schinella's wife discovered a large collection of bondage and S&M gear that had been hidden in his house, along with 24 guns and thousands of rounds of ammunition."
Aiden Pink of the Forward: "More than half of all American states have passed laws designed to combat the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel. No advocacy group was more important to this push than the Israel Allies Foundation, an American non-profit that supports a network of pro-Israel legislators across the globe.... Now the group is backing another bill ... which would change civil-rights codes to define antisemitism to include anti-Zionism. Public records obtained by The Forward show that the Israeli government approved a grant of more than $100,000 to the Israel Allies Foundation in 2019. The IAF has not disclosed this or any previous Israeli grants to the United States government.... [IAF] is one of 11 American groups that received Israeli government funds, according to the documents.... [D]ocuments ... suggest that some ... trips [to Israel] included instructions for pro-Israel advocacy back home -- in statehouses and on college campuses -- which legal experts say may expose not just the recipient groups but also anyone who went on their trips to fines and even prosecution for violating disclosure rules." --s
Mueller Investigation
Harper Neidig of the Hill: "A federal appeals court rejected Michael Flynn's effort to force a judge to immediately dismiss the charges against him, overturning an earlier decision that would have allowed the Department of Justice to drop its case against the former national security adviser. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 8-2 against Flynn's petition for it to step in and force a district judge to grant the Justice Department's motion to drop charges without holding a hearing on the issue." This is a developing story. ~~~
~~~ Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "A Federal District Court judge may go forward with his plans to scrutinize the Justice Department's request to drop the prosecution of President Trump's former national security adviser Michael T. Flynn, a full appeals court ruled on Monday. A three-judge panel on the court had earlier ordered the judge to end the case immediately. Separately, a panel on that same court ruled for a second time that the House cannot sue Donald F. McGahn II, the president's former White House counsel, for defying a subpoena. The full court already reversed one such ruling by that same panel on different grounds, and Speaker Nancy Pelosi said the House would 'immediately' ask the full body for another do-over." ~~~
~~~ Jan Wolfe of Reuters: "A U.S. appeals court on Monday ordered the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by a Democratic-led House of Representatives panel seeking to enforce a subpoena issued to former White House Counsel Donald McGahn. The ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, which will likely be appealed, marked a victory for the Trump administration in its effort to block congressional investigations into the president. In a 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel said the House Judiciary Committee's lawsuit had to be dismissed because Congress had never passed a law authorizing such litigation."
Suspicious White House Statement Turns Out to Be the Lie You Thought It Was. Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Vice President Mike Pence was put on standby to temporarily assume the powers of the presidency during ... Donald Trump's unannounced visit to Walter Reed hospital in November 2019, according to a copy of New York Times reporter Michael Schmidt's forthcoming book obtained by CNN. Trump had undergone a 'quick exam and labs' as part of his annual physical out of anticipation of a 'very busy 2020,' the White House had said of the trip at the time. Schmidt writes, however, that he learned 'in the hours leading up to Trump's trip to the hospital, word went out in the West Wing for the vice president to be on standby to take over the powers of the presidency temporarily if Trump had to undergo a procedure that would have required him to be anesthetized.'... The visit did not follow the protocol of a routine presidential medical exam, a person familiar with the matter told CNN at the time." Mrs. McC: Also, the White House doctor accompanied Trump to Walter Reed. It sounds as if Trump had symptoms of some illness that could require surgery or painful probes. A normal presidential physical does not involve an unscheduled rush to the hospital nor does it feature procedures requiring anesthesia & a sudden call to the veep that he might have to be President for a Day. ~~~
~~~ Mike Allen of Axios: "One of the crazy nuggets in a deeply reported book by the N.Y. Times' Michael Schmidt -- 'Donald Trump v. the United States,' out tomorrow -- is that President Trump mulled the idea of 'settling' with special counsel Robert Mueller.... 'At one point, as the investigation seemed to be intensifying,' Schmidt writes, Trump told White House counsel Don McGahn 'that there was nothing to worry about because if it was zeroing in on him, he would simply settle with Mueller. He would settle the case, as if he were negotiating terms in a lawsuit.'" Mrs. McC: I wonder what "settlement" Trump had in mind. A $500 fine? A promise not to speak to Roger Stone for six months? (Also linked yesterday.)
Scott Stedman, et al. of Forensic News (Jan. 21): "A Russian government-controlled bank deposited at least half a billion dollars into the American subsidiary of Deutsche Bank around the time that the bank lent Trump his most scrutinized loans, according to exclusively obtained confidential bank records. As Trump received loans from the subsidiary, DBTCA, totaling over $360 million, Gazprombank sent $511 million in cash to DBTCA to be dispersed however the Russian bank directed. Additionally, DBTCA had deep liabilities to the Russian government in 2013, according to the documents acquired by Forensic News. The documents show that financial entities in Russia were owed nearly $3 billion by the subsidiary in October 2013." --safari: A reminder that this was never investigated by the FBI. Thanks, Rod.
Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian, Picks the Fake Christian of the Week:
Way Beyond the Beltway
Australia. Anthony Galloway of The Sydney Morning Herald: "Australian security agencies are on alert for extremists who could have been inspired by the Christchurch mosque killer and other massacres overseas, as small far-right cells across the country are becoming more organised and sophisticated than ever before. The concern is being heightened by extreme right-wing groups increasingly attracting people from a military background who know how to use weapons, as well as a younger membership who aren't displaying obvious signs of their extremism - making them harder to detect.... The problem is being fuelled by online forums allowing people on the far-right to make quick and easy connections with like-minded individuals around the world, which ASIO believes has created a toxic peer environment in which acts of violence based on extreme right-wing ideologies are 'encouraged, glorified and promoted'." --s
Rwanda. Abdi Dahir of the New York Times: "Paul Rusesabagina, whose bravery in saving more than 1,200 fellow Rwandans from genocide inspired the film 'Hotel Rwanda,' has been arrested by the authorities in Rwanda who are holding him there on charges that include terrorism, arson and murder. During the Rwandan genocide in 1994, Mr. Rusesabagina, a Hutu who was working as a manager at a hotel in the capital, Kigali, helped shelter people fleeing the violence that eventually killed as many as one million ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus. But in recent years, Mr. Rusesabagina, 66, has become an opponent of the government of Rwanda's long-serving president, Paul Kagame, who has kept the country politically and economically stable but is accused by human rights groups of brutally silencing his critics. Mr. Kagame's government has alleged for years that Mr. Rusesabagina is supporting Rwandan rebels attacking the country from abroad."
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Reader Comments (17)
More from one of Stanford's crazy uncles, Doc Atlas.
https://www.politico.com/states/florida/story/2020/08/31/atlas-makes-florida-swing-backing-desantis-on-schools-and-sports-1314047
A reminder from my post yesterday: This herd immunity thing will cost only 1.5-2.0 million American lives.
I'm guessing the uncaring has two main sources.
Gotta keep that stock market healthy. (Who cares about people?)
And secondly, most of the deaths will occur in populations Republicans don't much care about anyway. Those vulnerable because of their age, their race or their class.
Wrote something to Stanford the other day when I saw a campus map of where and how they will limit traffic to and in their inner academic circle.
Oddly, the Hoover Institution, which produces propaganda, not trustworthy research, was in that sacred circle.
I told them to re-draw their lines.
Ken,
I read somewhere that in order for herd immunity to have any chance of slowing the Trump Virus, without the prescribed and necessary precautions (masks, social distancing, etc.), something like 40 million Americans would need to be infected. That’s about 13% of the population. But hey, some Trumpist moron sed the other day that we’re all gonna get it sooner or later, so what’s the big deal?
Sociopath: Noun (1) A mental health disorder characterized by a disregard for other people. (2) Donald Trump.
So, how would you describe a situation like, say, a police officer shooting an unarmed man in the back, seven times, while his children look on in horror.
Here’s how Trump describes it. The guy (the cop) just choked. It’s like missing a three foot putt.
Holy mother of god!
Missing...a...putt. He actually said this. And he was serious. He said this to Fox idiot Laura Ingraham who, realizing how incredibly fucking evil this sounds, immediately tried to save this fat fuck from comparing the shooting of an unarmed man to nothing more important than blowing an easy putt.
“You’re not comparing it [the shooting] to golf...” Ingraham said, trying to steer president* sociopath away from such a horrific analogy, but, oops! Too late! Yes. He DID compare the Jacob Blake shooting to choking on an easy putt.
Oh, wait. To Trump, blowing a gimme putt is far more important than a black man lying paralyzed on the street in front of his horrified kids with seven bullets in his back. What am I thinking?
As one commenter on the Mediaite site put it: when you’re too much of a sociopath even for Laura Ingraham.
https://www.mediaite.com/tv/watch-laura-ingraham-jump-in-as-trump-starts-comparing-police-who-choke-and-shoot-someone-to-missing-a-three-foot-golf-putt/
Akhilleua,
Seems the inveterate liar sometimes forgets to. He does occasionally tell the truth.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2020/09/01/trump-laura-ingraham-conspiracy-theory/?
Who spoons this stuff into the Pretender's head?
Or does he manufacture it all by his lonesome?
@Ken Winkes: Thanks. As Dubya would say, "That was some weird shit."
When someone compares the shooting of a person in the back seven times to experiencing a "choke" sensation in a golf game then we can conclude that person is void of what are considered "normal" responses. If he had compared this to an encounter with a bear suddenly appearing on the green then perhaps he could be forgiven for being just insensitive, or lacking imagination, but here we have a person who happens to be the president of a country that has been overtaken with a virus that is killing thousands of people which should have produced a "choke" ten times over and yet–––and yet it's a golf analogy that pops into what's left of a mind that might very well be mush.
As AK said: "Holy mother of god!" and we gots two Mary's in his family that are indeed expressing their outrage.
As Marie said yesterday we would hear more about the Schmidt book's "outings" today and she was correct; also last night Rachel took this up and actually interviewed him. Let's hope this is just the beginning and a deep probe will follow≠= she says with fingers crossed.
The story of Anthony Ming Schinella sounds like a script for a dynamite series on Netflix. This particular tale along with Jerry Fall-well––how deep can he go?–– illustrates once again the precariousness of the human condition–––and that old adage:
One must think like a hero to behave like a merely decent human being.
Bea,
Middle of the night thought:
The Pretender seems increasingly at home, home on de-range.
PD,
Missing from the otherwise "perfect" Pretender analogy is that it applies only to black golf balls.
If Ingraham has wished to be helpful, she should have pointed that out.
As damning as the Schmidt book sounds (and it sounds pretty damn damning), I doubt it will make much of a difference. At this point, I doubt anything will. If it came out that Trump had been selling aborted fetuses to baby parts stores, it wouldn’t make a dent. He’d deny it, his enslaved zombie droolers would scream “fake news” and he’d continue merrily on his way to stealing another election, with a quick stop at the baby parts store to pick up his latest check.
Not a one of his MAGA morons will blink. The stuff in the Schmidt book sounds too complicated for them to grasp its significance. And besides, with the Orange Menace in charge, they get to hate their enemies in the most public ways, beat them up, threaten to murder them, and get a medal from the president* for inciting chaos.
The only people these latest revelations should bother are those chimerical undecideds. But there have been SO MANY revelations, 100%, undeniable proof of wrongdoing, sleaze, lawlessness, and even outright treason. If they’re still undecided now, not even a TV interview with the baby parts store owner in which he shows footage of Fatty carting in the fetuses would matter.
The only thing that matters now is that every registered voter not mainlining the Trump Kool-Aid (my auto correct wanted that to be Kook-Aid. Sometimes it knows what it’s doing...) show up to vote. If they have to wait seventeen hours to vote because local R traitors have closed every polling place in Democratic strongholds, so be it.
No one can sit this out. Those mystified undecideds, if they’re still on the fence, can all fuck off. Baby parts store hours, M-F 9-9, Sat. 9-5. Sunday...OMG! They’re closed! Even the Donald knows you don’t sell baby parts on the Lord’s Day (of course, he thinks that refers to him).
Ken,
Re: black golf balls. Well, naturally, that would explain the missed gimme. It was the ball’s fault. Trump would never miss a three foot putt if he’d been using a trusty ol’ whitey-white ball.
It recently came out that shadow POS, oops, I mean COS (chief of Staff), Sean Hannity (he’s a POS too, but shadows aren’t involved), has described Trump as “bat shit crazy” after one of their thrice daily tête-à-têtes.
So I’m wondering...what, really, went through Laura Ingraham’s warped brain when the Trump Ogre compared shooting an unarmed man, seven times, in the back, to choking on an easy golf putt? Did she think “Geez, he’s right, that’s exactly what it’s like”? Or did she think “Holy shit! This guy is crazier than a shithouse rat?”
Clearly she knew, instantly, that this was not within the distance of six times around the equator to anything a sane person (ie, not a Trump) would consider an appropriate analogy. But rather than being repulsed, she mother-henned the situation and jumped in to save his very fat bacon.
These people know what a fucking psycho Trump is, but they don’t care. They all deserve perdition. And I don’t mean the Dante kind, I mean the kind thought up by devil worshipping sadists. You know, Trump voters.
Maybe this has been mentioned before, but when I was looking at, of course not listening to, the president*s acceptance speech, I noticed that the camera angle was repeatedly from slightly below the speaker. This caused the blurry presidential seal behind him to look like a halo. I'm sure this is intentional, because the awkward view was repeated many times. St. Donald of Dump, I guess, with photos to be widely distributed to the crowds.
Another point about the herd immunity debate is all the people who don't die, but get really sick. A new Gallup poll shows half of people are worried about bankruptcy from medical debt. Most of the vulnerable Americans are more worried about paying for their health care, even young people. We don't hear much about how people are doing financially after they leave the hospital. And with all the unemployment and losing their extra benefits. People are already struggling without adding unnecessary medical bills to tens of millions. I'm also reminded that Trump refused to help people with any funeral costs when some Democrats were calling for him to do that early on in the pandemic when their were far fewer deaths from covid-19.
@Akhilleus: Philip Bump has a post in today's WashPo speculating that one of the jobs of the Fox "News" hosts is to cover for Trump when he says stupid or downright insane stuff. He points out that Ingraham did that twice in their interview last night, but she couldn't pull it off when he got to the "antifa in the dark shadows" stuff .
I can't comprehend how WAPO comes up with its numbers. The butchers bill is posted daily. Rounding down, 6,000,000 cases, 180,000 dead. Easy Peasy. 3% observed case fatality rate. Even John Hopkins agrees, Mayo clinic requires 75% infected for natural immunity. Present US population of 331,000,000.
At even 70% infected is 231,700,00 cases. Without considering how overwhelmed the health services would be that results in over 7 million dead
@Cowichan: The WashPo spells it out: "In the United States, with a population of 328 million, reaching a 65 percent threshold for herd immunity may require 2.13 million deaths, assuming the virus has a 1 percent fatality rate, according to an analysis by The Post.” That is, you are calculating the number of Americans as greater than the WashPo does, you are calculating the percentage who are needed to achieve "herd immunity" as higher than the WashPo does, and you are calculating the the fatality rate from Covid at three times the rate the WashPo does. I didn't actually do the arithmetic, but it looks to me as if their numbers, based on their assumptions, are correct.