The Commentariat -- October 20, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Katie Thomas & Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "The chief executive of Pfizer said on Friday that the company would not apply for emergency authorization of its coronavirus vaccine before the third week of November, ruling out President Trump's assertion that a vaccine would be ready before Election Day on Nov. 3. In a statement posted to the company website, the chief executive, Dr. Albert Bourla, said that although Pfizer could have preliminary numbers by the end of October about whether the vaccine works, it would still need to collect safety and manufacturing data that will stretch the timeline to at least the third week of November."

Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "It's a perverse paradox of the 2020 election. On one front after another, President Trump has been extraordinarily brazen about his efforts to corrupt the election on his own behalf. And it's precisely because of this shamelessness that his schemes keep imploding on him.... It's obvious that [Trump] equates his naked displays of corruption with shows of strength."

Kate Bennett of CNN: "Melania Trump is canceling her first campaign appearance in months because she is not feeling well as she continues to recover from Covid-19. She had been set to join ... Donald Trump's rally in Pennsylvania on Tuesday night, but she has decided not to go. 'Mrs. Trump continues to feel better every day following her recovery from Covid-19, but with a lingering cough, and out of an abundance of caution, she will not be traveling today,' said Stephanie Grisham, the first lady's chief of staff."

Florida. Amy Gardner of the Washington Post: "Slightly more registered Republicans than Democrats voted on the first day of early voting in Florida on Monday, according to statewide turnout numbers published Tuesday, bucking the trend so far in other battlegrounds where Democrats have logged a sizable early-voting advantage. Roughly 339,152 voted in person across the state, exceeding the vote count four years ago, when about 290,000 cast ballots on the first day of in-person voting, according to the Florida Department of State. About 43 percent of Monday's voters are registered Republicans, while 42 percent are Democrats and the rest are third-party or unaffiliated. As in other states, Democrats retain a distinct advantage among the 2.7 million Floridians who have mailed in their ballots so far; the breakdown among those voters is 49 percent Democratic and 30 percent Republican, according to the state figures."

Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "The Justice Department on Tuesday sued Google over allegations that its search and advertising empire violated federal antitrust laws, launching what is likely to be a lengthy, bruising legal war between Washington and Silicon Valley that could have vast implications for the entire tech industry. The federal government's landmark lawsuit caps off a roughly year-long investigation, which found Google wielded its digital dominance to the detriment of corporate rivals and consumers. The complaint contends that Google relied on a mix of special agreements and other problematic business practices to secure an insurmountable lead in online search, capturing the market for nearly 90 percent of all queries in the United States."

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Presidential Race, Etc.

Extraordinary Times. Zack Budryk of the Hill: "USA Today, the nation's highest-circulation newspaper, made its first presidential endorsement on Tuesday, announcing its support for Democratic nominee Joe Biden." ~~~

~~~ USA Today Editors: "In 2016, we broke tradition in urging you not to vote for Trump. Now we're making our first presidential endorsement. We hope it's our last.... This year, the Editorial Board unanimously supports the election of Joe Biden, who offers a shaken nation a harbor of calm and competence."

Felicia Sonmez & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "The Commission on Presidential Debates said Monday night that it will mute Trump's and Biden's microphones during parts of Thursday's presidential debate at Belmont University in Nashville. The 90-minute debate will be broken up into six 15-minute segments, each with a different topic. The commission said it will give Trump and Biden two minutes apiece to speak uninterrupted at the start of each segment. A period of 'open discussion' will follow until the next segment begins. Trump's campaign has repeatedly opposed the idea of granting the moderator the power to shut off a candidate's microphone -- an idea that has been floated in the aftermath of the first debate, during which Trump repeatedly interrupted and jeered at Biden." This is part of the WashPo's election updates Monday & is free to non-subscribers. Also from Monday's election updates: ~~~

~~~ Felicia Sonmez: "Trump's campaign urged the Commission on Presidential Debates on Monday to change the topics for this Thursday’s debate, arguing that 'only a few' of the ones selected by NBC News's Kristen Welker 'even touch on foreign policy.'... In a letter to members of the debate commission, Trump campaign manager Bill Stepien said the event 'was always billed as the "Foreign Policy Debate"'[*] and suggested, without evidence, that other topics were included because Biden is 'desperate to avoid conversations about his own foreign policy record.'... Stepien said in Monday's letter that such a move would be 'completely unacceptable' but did not detail what action the Trump campaign might take if the debate commission chooses to do so." ~~~

* According to Rachel Maddow, both campaigns agreed that during pre-debate negotiations that the moderator would choose the topics. ~~~

~~~ David Jackson of USA Today (Oct. 18): "... Donald Trump is already trying to pressure and intimidate the moderator, NBC News White House correspondent Kristen Welker. 'She's always been terrible & unfair, just like most of the Fake News reporters, but I'll still play the game,' Trump tweeted Saturday." ~~~

~~~ AND, as Haberman, et al., report in the story linked below, "Officials have said they're not planning the kind of structured preparation sessions that they held with Mr. Trump before the first debate, an encounter that left aides cringing...." Mrs. McC: So no prep. We'll see how that goes.

Colin Kalmbacher of Law & Crime: "... Donald Trump dazzled a rally audience in Arizona on Monday by describing a scenario in which he could -- if he really wanted to do so, that is -- shake down a company like ExxonMobil for millions of dollars in campaign cash.... Exxon even felt the need to respond.... 'We are aware of the President's statement regarding a hypothetical call with our CEO ... and just so we're all clear, it never happened,' the company said from its official Twitter account."

Aila Slisco of Newsweek: "... Donald Trump has called CNN 'dumb bastards' for focusing news coverage on the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump made the remarks during a campaign rally in Prescott, Arizona on Monday. The president's supporters cheered when he said that the public was tiring of the pandemic, while insulting the news network and claiming it is attempting to dissuade voters from participating in the election. 'Pandemic, they're getting tired of the pandemic, aren't they?' Trump said. 'You turn on CNN, that's all they cover. "Covid, covid, pandemic. Covid, covid, covid." You know why? They're trying to talk everybody out of voting. People aren't buying it, CNN, you dumb bastards. They aren't buying it. It's all they talk about.'" Links to more on Trump's attacks on media coverage & Anthony Fauci under the "Trumpidemic" heading below.

Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump's re-election campaign on Monday announced a $55 million advertising blitz for the final two weeks of the race in a string of battleground states, as the president spent the day unleashing attacks against Joseph R. Biden Jr., Dr. Anthony S. Fauci and the news media.... Once more, his slash-and-burn commentary swamped most news coverage, even as his advisers used conventional levers to try to pull him across the finish line on Election Day.... At a campaign rally on Monday in Arizona, where polls show that the president is trailing Mr. Biden, Mr. Trump attacked Mr. Biden as a 'criminal' and then attacked a reporter as a 'criminal' for not reporting on an unsubstantiated article by The New York Post about Mr. Biden's son. He also faulted the news media for what he called excessive coverage of the coronavirus."

Michele Goldberg of the New York Times succinctly tells the story of how Donald Trump, through his personal lawyer & America's Mayor Rudy Giuliani, is colluding with Russians again to, once again, produce fake "dirt" on his opponent. "If there's an important story here, it's almost certainly about Giuliani's dirty tricks, not any wrongdoing by Joe Biden." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: One thing that distinguishes this year's Trumpy effort from 2016's is Trump's willingness to brazenly collude in plain sight. Most of the elements of the story were known to thousands of people when the New York Post produced its "scoop," a scoop so dicey that even the reporter who wrote the story wouldn't attach his byline to it. But perhaps what this story most reveals is that Trump is a one-trick pony. His 2020 campaign is the image of his 2016 campaign, even though outside circumstances are complete different. Trump has a horrible record to run on now, the public do not view his 2020 opponent as unfavorably as they did his 2016 opponent, third-party candidates have not gain much traction, no one so far has delivered a Jim-Comey-style October surprise, & the country is in a deep recession, thanks in large part to Trump's own mismanagement. Also, Trump's 2016 plan was not much of a "winner": he lost the popular vote by millions & he won the Electoral College by about 80,000 votes. The 2016 election clearly could have gone the other way. Trump could win another election on flukes & voting irregularities, but to count on luck again is not much of a strategy. ~~~

~~~ Kevin Liptak of CNN: "President Trump called Tuesday on his attorney general to 'appoint somebody' to investigate baseless claims about Democratic rival Joe Biden.... Trump made no attempt to veil the political necessity of his request. 'This is major corruption and this has to be known about before the election,' he said." This is an item in CNN's election updates for Tuesday. Mrs. McC: Of course the rule and practice were, until Comey & Trump came along, that although the DOJ might investigate matters involving candidates at any time, they would not reveal anything about the investigations -- including whether or not there even was an investigation into a candidate's activities -- close to an upcoming election in which the candidate was running. ~~~

~~~ Spencer Ackerman & Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "The FBI is investigating the purloined laptop materials from Joe Biden's son as part of a possible foreign disinformation operation, a congressional source told The Daily Beast -- an investigation at odds with a statement from President Trump's director of national intelligence. John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, told Fox Business on Monday that the dissemination of materials from Hunter Biden's alleged laptop was not part of a Russian disinformation campaign.... But that assessment gets out in front of the FBI, which took custody of the laptop and an external hard drive as early as in December, according to the New York Post. The bureau, according to the congressional source, is looking into the provenance of the material. And among the questions they're seeking to answer is whether the laptop dump is part of what the intelligence community's counterintelligence chief has already described as a Russian disinformation effort targeting the 2020 election." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Too Phony for Fox. Colby Hall of Mediaite: "Mediaite has learned that Fox News was first approached by Rudy Giuliani to report on a tranche of files alleged to have come from Hunter Biden's unclaimed laptop left at a Delaware computer repair shop, but that the news division chose not to run the story unless or until the sourcing and veracity of the emails could be properly vetted.... Giuliani ultimately brought the story to the New York Post, which shares the same owner, Rupert Murdoch. The tabloid has been exhaustively covering the contents of the laptop.... Some of Fox News' top news anchors and reporters have distanced themselves from the story. During an on-air report that largely focused on how social media platforms handled this story, Bret Baier said, 'Let's say, just not sugarcoat it. The whole thing is sketchy.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Natasha Bertrand of Politico: "More than 50 former senior intelligence officials have signed on to a letter outlining their belief that the recent disclosure of emails allegedly belonging to Joe Biden's son 'has all the classic earmarks of a Russian information operation.... While the letter's signatories presented no new evidence, they said their national security experience had made them 'deeply suspicious that the Russian government played a significant role in this case' and cited several elements of the story that suggested the Kremlin's hand at work.... Nick Shapiro, a former top aide under CIA director John Brennan..., noted that 'the IC leaders who have signed this letter worked for the past four presidents, including Trump. The real power here however is the number of former, working-level IC officers who want the American people to know that once again the Russians are interfering.'" ~~~

~~~ Will Sommer, et al., of the Daily Beast: "Some of Trump's staunchest allies conceded recently that they are reluctant to attack former Vice President Joe Biden and his son Hunter over the more salacious content purportedly found on the now infamous laptop. Raising concerns about Hunter Biden's overseas business ethics may be kosher, they argue. But going after his personal demons by attacking his drug use, suggesting the existence of lurid photos, and using it all as a means to question Joe Biden's judgment as a politician and parent -- all of which Giuliani has done -- are most decidedly not."

Michael Schmidt & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "The Justice Department on Monday announced indictments of six Russian military intelligence officers in connection with major hacks worldwide, including of the Winter Olympics and elections in France as well as an attack in 2017 aimed at destabilizing Ukraine that spread rapidly and was blamed for billions of dollars in damage. Prosecutors said the suspects were from the same Russian unit that conducted one of the Kremlin's major operations to interfere in the 2016 American election: the theft of Democratic emails.... The case was another effort by Trump administration officials to punish Russia for its meddling in other countries' affairs, even as President Trump has adopted a more accommodating stance toward Moscow. The charges did not address 2020 election interference; American intelligence agencies have assessed that Russia is trying to influence the vote in November." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Matthew Rosenberg of the New York Times: "Across the country..., longstanding [Republican] party members who could hardly be described as fringe radicals -- are embracing QAnon. The followers of this online phenomenon believe that the Democratic establishment and much of the Republican elite are deeply corrupt, and that Mr. Trump was delivered to save America from both.... In August, the president described followers of QAnon -- several of whom have been charged with murder, domestic terrorism and planned kidnapping -- as 'people that love our country.'... Urged on by the president, whose espousal of conspiracy theories has only intensified in the waning weeks of his campaign, QAnon adherents are pushing such ideas into the conservative mainstream alongside more traditional issues like low taxes and limited government.... Even people who explicitly dismissed QAnon as lunacy often volunteered similar conspiracy theories."

Florida. Amy Gardner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Thousands of voters flocked to the polls throughout Florida on the state's first day of in-person voting Monday despite heavy rains across the state, adding to evidence that Americans are unusually eager to cast ballots in this year's presidential election.... Meanwhile, statewide data from Friday showed a distinct advantage for Democrats among mail voters, with more than 1 million Democrats casting ballots by mail compared to about 620,000 Republicans, according to the Florida Democratic Party." ~~~

     ~~~ Matt Dixon of Politico: "Florida shattered its opening day record for in-person early voting Monday, with at least 350,000 people casting ballots and election officials continuing to count statewide late into the night. The trend continues a record-setting pace in the battleground state that is viewed as a must-win for ... Donald Trump. Voting by mail, which started earlier this month, racked up more than 2.5 million ballots headed into Monday, more than double the 1.2 million during the same timeframe in 2016."

** Pennsylvania. Oh, Yeah. Amy Will Make a BIG Difference. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court Monday night allowed Pennsylvania election officials to count mail-in ballots received up to three days after Election Day, refusing a Republican request to stop a pandemic-related procedure approved by the state's supreme court. The court was tied, but that means a request to put the state's court ruling on hold failed. The court's four most conservative justices -- Clarence Thomas, Samuel A. Alito Jr., Neil M. Gorsuch and Brett M. Kavanaugh -- said they would have granted the stay. But it takes five votes to issue a stay, and that means Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. sided with liberal Justices Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan."

Texas. Amateurs Will Decide if Your Vote Counts. Karen Harper of the Texas Tribune: "If they decide the signature on the ballot can't be verified, Texas election officials may continue rejecting mail-in ballots without notifying voters until after the election that their ballot wasn't counted, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday. The appeals court halted a lower court's injunction, which had not gone into effect, that would have required the Texas secretary of state to either advise local election officials that mail-in ballots may not be rejected using the existing signature-comparison process, or require them to set up a notification system giving voters a chance to challenge a rejection while their vote still counts.... Before mail-in ballots are counted, a committee of local election officials reviews them to ensure that a voter's endorsement on the flap of a ballot envelope matches the signature that voter used on their application to vote by mail. They can also compare it to signatures on file with the county clerk or voter registrar that were made within the last six years. The state election code does not establish any standards for signature review, which is conducted by local election officials who seldom have training in signature verification."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd. 

Lena Sun, et al., of the Washington Post: "The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday strongly recommended in newly issued guidelines that all passengers and workers on planes, trains, buses and other public transportation wear masks to control the spread of the novel coronavirus. The guidance was issued following pressure from the airline industry and amid surging cases of the coronavirus and strong evidence on the effectiveness of masks in curbing transmission, according to CDC officials. The recommendations fall short of what transportation industry leaders and unions had sought, and come long after evidence in favor of mask-wearing was well established. The CDC had previously drafted an order under the agency's quarantine powers that would have required all passengers and employees to wear masks on all forms of public transportation, according to a CDC official who spoke on the condition of anonymity.... Such orders typically carry penalties. The order was blocked by the White House...."

What should a leader do when he learns a beloved & highly-respected member of his team has received death threats & so have his family members? (a) Express great confidence in & support for his aide & outrage at the perps. (b) Call the aide a disgrace and an idiot whom people are sick of. Now -- no peeking -- guess which choice Donald Trump made Monday after Anthony Fauci said Sunday night on "60 Minutes" that he & his family required Secret Service protection because of death threats against him.

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump derided Anthony Fauci as a 'disaster' and claimed that Americans have tired of the novel coronavirus during a call with campaign staff on Monday. 'People are tired of COVID. Yup, there's going to be spikes, there's going to be no spikes, there's going to be vaccines. With or without vaccines, people are tired of COVID,' Trump said, according to audio of the call obtained by The Hill. 'I have the biggest rallies I have ever had and we have COVID. People are saying whatever, just leave us alone. They're tired of it.' Trump then accused Fauci ... of providing inconsistent advice about the coronavirus pandemic and claimed baselessly that if he had followed all of Fauci's advice the United States would have '700,000 to 800,000 deaths right now.'" Blah-blah. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Sherer & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "'People are tired of listening to Fauci and these idiots,' Trump said, baselessly suggesting that Fauci's advice on how best to respond to the outbreak was so bad it would have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands more people.... Trump also argued that the American people were no longer interested in taking precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, even as the number of confirmed cases has been rising in a majority of states.... The call, which some reporters were invited to listen in on, appeared to have been motivated by recent news stories about internal concerns about the president's reelection chances and division within the president's team.... 'I go to a rally I have 25,000 people,' Trump said, greatly exaggerating the size of his crowds while making a comparison with Democrat Joe Biden. 'He goes to a rally, he has four people.'... Trump, phoning in from Las Vegas, sounded angry and defiant on the call and made a range of startling accusations and comments, including that Biden should be 'in jail.' 'He&'s a criminal,' Trump said, without offering evidence what crime he had committed.... Trump made a number of dubious or false statements...." Blah-blah. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Rebecca Shabad & Monica Alba of NBC News: "... Donald Trump on Monday attacked Dr. Anthony Fauci during a phone call with campaign staff... saying every time he goes on television there is a 'bomb,' but there would be 'a bigger bomb if you fire him,' according to a recording of the call obtained by NBC News." Mrs. McC: Trump, BTW, does not have the authority to outright fire Fauci, but of course Trump could further sideline Fauci.

     ~~~ Jemima McEvoy of Forbes: Trump continued to attack Fauci throughout the day in tweets & in a campaign appearance in Arizona.

Dr. John Barry, in a New York Times op-ed, takes a balanced look at how herd immunity would work -- or not. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Iowa. Jason Clayworth of the Des Moines Register: "Iowa's government misallocated at least $21 million of federal assistance intended for COVID-19 relief and must correct the error by the end of the year or face having to repay the money, State Auditor Rob Sand [D] says. Iowa used the money from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security, or CARES, Act to help pay for a new accounting system. Sand and the U.S. Treasury Department's inspector general last week advised Gov. Kim Reynolds' [R] administration that the software is not an allowable use of the money, according to a review Sand released Monday."

New York. Dana Rubenstein & David Goodman of the New York Times: "... nearly three weeks into [New York City's] in-person school year, early data from the city's first effort at targeted testing has shown ... a surprisingly small number of positive cases [of Covid-19]. Out of 16,348 staff members and students tested randomly by the school system in the first week of its testing regimen, the city has gotten back results for 16,298. There were only 28 positives: 20 staff members and eight students. And when officials put mobile testing units at schools near Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods that have had new outbreaks, only four positive cases turned up -- out of more than 3,300 tests conducted since the last week of September.... The absence of early outbreaks, if it holds, suggests that the city's efforts for its 1.1 million public school students could serve as an influential model for school districts across the nation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Charles Kaiser, in the Guardian, reviews David Rothkopf's book Traitor, which is about Donald Trump. "'Trump is despicable,' he writes. 'But beyond his defective or perhaps even non-existent character, there are the near-term and lasting consequences of his actions. We must understand these to reverse them, and we must understand how easily Russia achieved its objectives in order to prevent such catastrophes in the future.'... Rothkopf provides an important roadmap through the massive evidence of collaboration between the Trump campaign and the Russian secret services -- including 272 contacts between 'Trump team members and Russian-linked individuals...'... Rothkopf is appropriately harsh about the shortcomings of Robert Mueller, including his failure as special counsel to secure an in-person interview with the president and his refusal to indict the president for any of the crimes his report describes, including as many as 10 counts of obstruction of justice." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Ann Miramow of the Washington Post: "President Trump's lawyers and the Justice Department will return to court Tuesday to try to stop House Democrats from enforcing their subpoena for the president's tax and financial records. The Supreme Court this summer said the president is not immune from congressional investigation, but the justices put the subpoena on hold. The case is now back before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit for a more detailed review of Congress's request to access Trump's personal financial records held by his longtime accounting firm."

Benjamin Weiser & Alan Feuer of the New York Times: "The Justice Department said on Monday that President Trump should not be sued personally for having denied a rape allegation because he made the statement while acting in his official capacity as president. Lawyers for the government made the argument as they defended Attorney General William P. Barr's decision to intervene in a defamation lawsuit filed in a New York court against President Trump by E. Jean Carroll, the writer.... Using a law designed to protect federal employees from defamation suits when they perform their duties, Mr. Barr sought to transfer the lawsuit from state court to Federal District Court in Manhattan and to substitute the federal government for Mr. Trump as the defendant. That maneuver, if approved by a judge, would have the practical effect of dismissing Ms. Carroll's lawsuit because government employees enjoy immunity from most defamation claims."

** Law professor & former Reagan Solicitor General Charles Fried, in a New York Times op-ed, lays the gauntlet at the feet of Johnny & the Dwarfs: "Joe Biden got it exactly right in expressing an ambivalent openness to pushing for legislation -- entirely constitutional -- enlarging the number of Supreme Court justices, if Democrats win the presidency and the Senate in November.... With the seemingly inevitable rise of Amy Coney Barrett to the court, this impending six- person majority is poised to take a constitutional wrecking ball to generations of Supreme Court doctrine...." Fried lists numerous "frankly reactionary decisions [which] are incurable by legislation because they were said to be based in the Constitution. And every one of them favors, and was favored by, partisan Republican interests and was decided 5 to 4 by Republican-appointed justices.... Let's see if the current Supreme Court majority overplays its hand. If it does, then Mr. Biden's nuclear option might not only be necessary but it will be seen to be necessary. But for now, let him not overplay his hand." Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Suspended Animation. Laura Wagner of Vice: "The New Yorker has suspended reporter Jeffrey Toobin. Sources tell VICE it's because he exposed himself during a Zoom call last week between members of the New Yorker and WNYC radio. Toobin said in a statement to Motherboard: 'I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers.... I believed I was not visible on Zoom. I thought no one on the Zoom call could see me. I thought I had muted the Zoom video,' he added.... Toobin's Conde Nast email has been disabled and he has not tweeted since October 13. He did, however, appear on CNN, where he is the network's chief legal analyst, on Saturday. 'Jeff Toobin has asked for some time off while he deals with a personal issue, which we have granted,' CNN said in a statement." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Toobin is a good reporter & analyst, but he is, well, a dickhead, so his "inappropriate behavior" is, after all, appropriate. See, Jeff, on Zoom you can tell when the video is off because there's a slash across the video symbol. Also, there's a little screen -- usually at the top of the page -- that shows just your name on a black screen & not a video of your dick. And, really, why would anybody flash his colleagues?

     ~~~ Mrs. McC Update. So I wrote the comment above before I came upon Vice's UPDATED LEDE or "How to End Your Career in Journalism": ~~~

     ~~~ "The New Yorker has suspended reporter Jeffrey Toobin for masturbating on a Zoom video chat between members of the New Yorker and WNYC radio last week. Toobin says he did not realize his video was on.... [Two participants on the call] said that they saw Toobin jerking off." Emphasis added, and why not? ~~~

~~~ So it seems like a good day to chat up Anthony Weiner. NBC New York video.

Florida. Amy Gardner, et al., of the Washington Post: "Thousands of voters flocked to the polls throughout Florida on the state's first day of in-person voting Monday despite heavy rains across the state, adding to evidence that Americans are unusually eager to cast ballots in this year's presidential election.... Meanwhile, statewide data from Friday showed a distinct advantage for Democrats among mail voters, with more than 1 million Democrats casting ballots by mail compared to about 620,000 Republicans, according to the Florida Democratic Party."

Beyond the Beltway

Virginia. Ian Shapira of the Washington Post: "Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam (D) ordered an investigation into the culture at the Virginia Military Institute on Monday after Black cadets and alumni described relentless racism at the nation's oldest state-supported military college. The governor, who graduated in VMI's Class of 1981, co-wrote a letter to the college's Board of Visitors informing it that the state will fund an independent probe into the school's treatment of its Black students. His action followed a Washington Post story detailing a lynching threat, Klan reminiscences and Confederacy veneration at the Lexington school, whose cadets fought and died for the slaveholding South during the Civil War. The letter -- signed by Northam, Lt. Gov. Justin Fairfax (D), Attorney General Mark R. Herring (D), and several House and Senate leaders, including Del. Lamont Bagby (D-Henrico), the chair of the Virginia Legislative Black Caucus -- said the state is directing an 'independent, third-party review' of what officials called 'the clear and appalling culture of ongoing structural racism at the Virginia Military Institute.'... Northam has made racial equity in Virginia a cause since he was caught up in a blackface scandal over his 1984 Eastern Virginia Medical School yearbook."

The Commentariat -- October 19, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Michael Schmidt & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "The Justice Department on Monday announced indictments of six Russian military intelligence officers in connection with major hacks worldwide, including of the Winter Olympics and elections in France as well as an attack in 2017 aimed at destabilizing Ukraine that spread rapidly and was blamed for billions of dollars in damage. Prosecutors said the suspects were from the same Russian unit that conducted one of the Kremlin's major operations to interfere in the 2016 American election: the theft of Democratic emails.... The case was another effort by Trump administration officials to punish Russia for its meddling in other countries' affairs, even as President Trump has adopted a more accommodating stance toward Moscow. The charges did not address 2020 election interference; American intelligence agencies have assessed that Russia is trying to influence the vote in November."

Dana Rubenstein & David Goodman of the New York Times: "... nearly three weeks into [New York City's] in-person school year, early data from the city's first effort at targeted testing has shown ... a surprisingly small number of positive cases [of Covid-19]. Out of 16,348 staff members and students tested randomly by the school system in the first week of its testing regimen, the city has gotten back results for 16,298. There were only 28 positives: 20 staff members and eight students. And when officials put mobile testing units at schools near Brooklyn and Queens neighborhoods that have had new outbreaks, only four positive cases turned up -- out of more than 3,300 tests conducted since the last week of September.... The absence of early outbreaks, if it holds, suggests that the city's efforts for its 1.1 million public school students could serve as an influential model for school districts across the nation."

Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump derided Anthony Fauci as a 'disaster' and claimed that Americans have tired of the novel coronavirus during a call with campaign staff on Monday. 'People are tired of COVID. Yup, there's going to be spikes, there's going to be no spikes, there's going to be vaccines. With or without vaccines, people are tired of COVID,' Trump said, according to audio of the call obtained by The Hill. 'I have the biggest rallies I have ever had and we have COVID. People are saying whatever, just leave us alone. They're tired of it.' Trump then accused Fauci ... of providing inconsistent advice about the coronavirus pandemic and claimed baselessly that if he had followed all of Fauci's advice the United States would have '700,000 to 800,000 deaths right now.'" Blah-blah. ~~~

     ~~~ Michael Sherer & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post:"'People are tired of listening to Fauci and these idiots,' Trump said, baselessly suggesting that Fauci's advice on how best to respond to the outbreak was so bad it would have led to the deaths of hundreds of thousands more people.... Trump also argued that the American people were no longer interested in taking precautions to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, even as the number of confirmed cases has been rising in a majority of states.... The call, which some reporters were invited to listen in on, appeared to have been motivated by recent news stories about internal concerns about the president's reelection chances and division within the president's team.... 'I go to a rally I have 25,000 people,' Trump said, greatly exaggerating the size of his crowds while making a comparison with Democrat Joe Biden. 'He goes to a rally, he has four people.'... Trump, phoning in from Las Vegas, sounded angry and defiant on the call and made a range of startling accusations and comments, including that Biden should be 'in jail.' 'He's a criminal,' Trump said, without offering evidence what crime he had committed.... Trump made a number of dubious or false statements...." Blah-blah.

Dr. John Barry, in a New York Times op-ed, takes a balanced look at how herd immunity would work -- or not.

Charles Kaiser, in the Guardian, reviews David Rothkopf's book Traitor, which is about Donald Trump. "'Trump is despicable,' he writes. 'But beyond his defective or perhaps even non-existent character, there are the near-term and lasting consequences of his actions. We must understand these to reverse them, and we must understand how easily Russia achieved its objectives in order to prevent such catastrophes in the future.'... Rothkopf provides an important roadmap through the massive evidence of collaboration between the Trump campaign and the Russian secret services -- including 272 contacts between 'Trump team members and Russian-linked individuals...'... Rothkopf is appropriately harsh about the shortcomings of Robert Mueller, including his failure as special counsel to secure an in-person interview with the president and his refusal to indict the president for any of the crimes his report describes, including as many as 10 counts of obstruction of justice."

Spencer Ackerman & Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "The FBI is investigating the purloined laptop materials from Joe Biden's son as part of a possible foreign disinformation operation, a congressional source told The Daily Beast -- an investigation at odds with a statement from President Trump's director of national intelligence. John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence, told Fox Business on Monday that the dissemination of materials from Hunter Biden's alleged laptop was not part of a Russian disinformation campaign.... But that assessment gets out in front of the FBI, which took custody of the laptop and an external hard drive as early as in December, according to the New York Post. The bureau, according to the congressional source, is looking into the provenance of the material. And among the questions they're seeking to answer is whether the laptop dump is part of what the intelligence community's counterintelligence chief has already described as a Russian disinformation effort targeting the 2020 election."

Annals of Journalism, Ctd. Too Phony for Fox. Colby Hall of Mediaite: "... Fox News was first approached by Rudy Giuliani to report on a tranche of files alleged to have come from Hunter Biden's unclaimed laptop left at a Delaware computer repair shop, but that the news division chose not to run the story unless or until the sourcing and veracity of the emails could be properly vetted.... Giuliani ultimately brought the story to the New York Post, which shares the same owner, Rupert Murdoch. The tabloid has been exhaustively covering the contents of the laptop.... Some of Fox News' top news anchors and reporters have distanced themselves from the story. During an on-air report that largely focused on how social media platforms handled this story, Bret Baier said, 'Let's say, just not sugarcoat it. The whole thing is sketchy.'"

Suspended Animation. Laura Wagner of Vice: "The New Yorker has suspended reporter Jeffrey Toobin. Sources tell VICE it's because he exposed himself during a Zoom call last week between members of the New Yorker and WNYC radio. Toobin said in a statement to Motherboard: 'I made an embarrassingly stupid mistake, believing I was off-camera. I apologize to my wife, family, friends and co-workers.... I believed I was not visible on Zoom. I thought no one on the Zoom call could see me. I thought I had muted the Zoom video,' he added.... Toobin's Conde Nast email has been disabled and he has not tweeted since October 13. He did, however, appear on CNN, where he is the network’s chief legal analyst, on Saturday. 'Jeff Toobin has asked for some time off while he deals with a personal issue, which we have granted,' CNN said in a statement." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Toobin is a good reporter & analyst, but he is, well, a dickhead, so his "inappropriate behavior" is, after all, appropriate. See, Jeff, on Zoom you can tell when the video is off because there's a slash across the video symbol. Also, there's a little screen -- usually at the top of the page -- that shows just your name on a black screen & not a video of your dick. So good work. And, really, why would anybody flash his colleagues?

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

The Washington Post's live updates of election developments Sunday are here. The page is free to non-subscribers: "... Joe Biden is campaigning Sunday in North Carolina, where he held an afternoon event encouraging supporters to vote early and a virtual meeting with African American faith leaders.

A Campaign Dedicated to Distracting the Candidate. Maggie Haberman & Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "Among some of Mr. Trump's lieutenants, there is an attitude of grit mixed with resignation: a sense that the best they can do for the final stretch is to keep the president occupied, happy and off Twitter as much as possible, rather than producing a major shift in strategy. Often, their biggest obstacle is Mr. Trump himself. Instead of delivering a focused closing message aimed at changing people's perceptions about his handling of the coronavirus, or making a case for why he can revive the economy better than Mr. Biden can, Mr. Trump is spending the remaining days on a familiar mix of personal grievances, attacks on his opponents and obfuscations."

Jonathan Martin of the New York Times: "In the week since he restarted in-person campaigning, Mr. Trump has continued to prove he is his own biggest impediment by drawing more attention to himself each day than to Mr. Biden. The president is blurting out snippets of his inner monologue by musing about how embarrassing it would be to lose to Mr. Biden -- and how he'd never return to whatever state he happens to be in if its voters don't help re-elect him. He's highlighting his difficulties with key constituencies, like women and older voters, by wondering out loud why they've forsaken him, rather than offering a message to bring more of them back into his camp. And perhaps most damaging, to him and other Republicans on the ballot, he is further alienating these voters and others by continuing to minimize the pandemic and attacking women in positions of power. A new low point came on Saturday, when Mr. Trump held a rally in Muskegon, Mich., where he demanded that Gov. Gretchen Whitmer reopen the state and then said 'lock them all up' after his supporters chanted 'lock her up!' It was a stunningly reckless comment from a president whose own F.B.I. this month arrested 14 men who it said had been plotting to kidnap Ms. Whitmer, a Democrat, and were captured on video with an array of weapons allegedly planning the crime." ~~~

     ~~~ Ben Kamisar of NBC News: "Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Sunday accused ... Donald Trump of inciting 'domestic terrorism' against public officials working on containing the coronavirus, pointing to comments he made just days after law enforcement foiled a plot to kidnap her. Whitmer has been a frequent target for Trump during the pandemic -- he's previously criticized her state's coronavirus-related restrictions as too strict and called on people to 'Liberate Michigan.' The day after Trump encouraged his supporters at a rally in the state who were chanting 'lock her up' as an attack on Whitmer, the Democrat governor responded with a plea to lower the political volume." ~~~

     ~~~ Dean Obeidallah in a CNN opinion piece: "Joe Biden's exasperated comment summed up what so many of us feel. 'What the hell's the matter with this guy?' said Biden Friday of Donald Trump's continuing attacks on Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, even after the recent announcement of an alleged right-wing terrorist plot to kidnap and possibly kill her. 'It's despicable,' said Biden.... The charges [against the 14 rightwingers] paint a jaw-dropping plan that included tactical training at a home adorned with a Confederate flag, surveillance of Whitmer's house -- a mother of two daughters and three step-sons -- and plans to use explosive devices. And the defendants' words about Whitmer, per the authorities, should make your hair stand on end. Examples: 'Have one person go to her house. Knock on the door and when she answers it just cap her ... at this point. F**k it.' Another stated, 'Snatch and grab, man. Grab the f**kin' Governor. Just grab the bitch. Because at that point, we do that, dude -- it's over.'... [At his Moskegon rally,] Trump ... downplayed the terror plot against Whitmer, saying, 'I guess they say she was threatened.' 'I guess' she was threatened?! The defendants were charged by federal and state officials. Trump went on to slam Whitmer -- who said he'd encouraged domestic terrorists -- for blaming him for the plot, leading to his followers again chanting, 'Lock her up.'" ~~~

     (~~~ Reality Interlude. Lois Beckett of the Guardian interviews gun-control activist Josh Horowitz: "Horowitz spoke to the Guardian about how mainstream the idea of insurrection has become in American politics, and why lawmakers have failed to challenge it for decades." Horowitz: "There's a belief among some American gun owners that the second amendment is highly individualized and was placed in the constitution as an individual right to fight government tyranny.... When the NRA says, 'Vote Freedom First', it's not 'Vote self-defense first'. They mean you get to decide when the government becomes tyrannical.... There is a big racial element to this. White men, especially, are feeling that the political reins of power are pulling away from them, and their grip on power is falling away. Guns are a way to exercise power.... Power over policy. Power over people.... The biggest problem is Republican elected officials, and the Republican who consistently use the insurrectionary idea and cheer on this type of behavior." ~~~)

     ~~~ Quint Forgey of Politico: "Lara Trump, a senior adviser to ... Donald Trump’s reelection campaign, on Sunday defended her father-in-law&'s suggestion that Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer should be imprisoned alongside his other political rivals. In an interview on CNN's 'State of the Union,' Lara Trump insisted the president was merely 'having fun at a Trump rally' when he criticized Whitmer, a Democrat, at a campaign event this weekend.... At the president's rally Saturday in Muskegon, Mich., after he demanded that Whitmer loosen her state's coronavirus-related restrictions, attendees erupted into chants of 'lock her up.' The president did not attempt to dissuade the crowd, instead saying: 'Lock them all up.'" Mrs. McC: Of course Trump was just "having fun." Because Trump, who lacks a sense of humor, thinks threatening women is hilarious. ~~~

     ~~~ Speaking of Hilarious. Alayna Treene of Axios: "President Trump's team is telling him ahead of Thursday's final debate: Stop interrupting Joe Biden. And try to be more likable.... Trump will tell more jokes and try, if he can stay on message, to strike a softer tone. At the same time, aides expect Trump to keep going after Biden's son Hunter." Mrs. McC: LOL, I'm sure.

David Mikkelson of Snopes: "On Oct. 17, 2020, Eric Trump ... tweeted a picture of a palatial-looking home valued at approximately $1.6M, asserting that it was the current residence of ... Joe Biden and questioning how Biden could have legitimately purchased such a property on his former salary of $174,000 per year[.]... Eric Trump was wrong on all counts: the pictured home was not currently owned by Joe Biden, it was not his current residence, and the property was -- at one time -- not outrageously outside Biden's price range. The pictured estate was a 5-bedroom, 10,000-square-foot former DuPont mansion..., which was formerly owned by Biden. Way back in 1974, Biden (then a freshman U.S. Senator and a recent widower) was able to purchase the property for a mere $185,000 because the abandoned home was badly run-down and in need of major repairs. After fixing up the home and living in it for two decades, Biden sold it in 1996 for $1.2 million...."

Senate Races. Money, Money, Money, Money! Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: Democratic Senate candidates' "dominance in third-quarter fundraising is virtually unprecedented. It was led by South Carolina's Jaime Harrison ($57 million), Maine's Sara Gideon ($39.4 million) and Arizona's Mark Kelly ($38.7 million).... But even setting aside those record hauls, every Democratic Senate candidate running in the 15 races considered competitive outraised his or her Republican opponent. Combined, they raised more than $370 million, compared with about $150 million for the GOP candidates: an average of $25 million for the Democratic candidates and $10 million for the Republicans." ~~~

~~~ Georgia Senate Race. Greg Bluestein & Maya Prabhu of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "Republican U.S. Sen. David Perdue inadvertently sparked a movement that benefited his rival’s campaign when he mocked the pronunciation of Democratic vice presidential nominee Kamala Harris' name. Perdue delighted the crowd Friday at ... Donald Trump's rally in Macon when he butchered the California senator's name multiple times, saying: 'Kamala? Kamala? Kamala-mala-mala? I don't know. Whatever.' But the repeated mispronunciation, which his campaign claimed was not purposeful, competed for media attention with Trump's remarks in Georgia and led to searing criticism on the airwaves and the campaign trail. By Sunday evening, Democrat Jon Ossoff said he raised more than $1.8 million from at least 42,000 donors from Perdue's viral moment. And the #MyNameIs hashtag trended on Saturday as social media users shared the meaning of their names — along with criticism of Perdue."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here.

Extraordinary. Allan Smith of NBC News: "Twitter on Sunday removed a tweet from one of ... Donald Trump's top Covid-19 advisers, [Dr. Scott Atlas,] which falsely claimed that masks don't work to prevent the spread of coronavirus.... Later Sunday, the coordinator of the Trump administration's testing response, Dr. Brett Giroir, the assistant secretary for health at the Department of Health and Human Services, tweeted: "#Masks work? YES!... Last month, an NBC News reporter overheard Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, telling a colleague in a phone call that Atlas is arming Trump with misleading data. 'Everything he says is false,' Redfield said during a phone call made in public on a commercial airline.... Trump has leaned on Atlas in recent months, preferring his advice over that of other advisers, like Dr. Anthony Fauci.... Trump ... attended a crowded church service in Nevada on Sunday. He and his aides didn't wear masks at the ceremony, which was held indoors with over 200 people in attendance, many of whom also forwent face coverings."

Americans Die; Atlas Shrugs. Yasmeen Abutaleb, et al., of the Washington Post: "As summer faded into autumn and the novel coronavirus continued to ravage the nation unabated, Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist whose commentary on Fox News led President Trump to recruit him to the White House, consolidated his power over the government's pandemic response.... Discord on the coronavirus task force has worsened since the arrival in late summer of Atlas, whom colleagues said they regard as ill-informed, manipulative and at times dishonest.... The result has been a U.S. response increasingly plagued by distrust, infighting and lethargy, just as experts predict coronavirus cases could surge this winter and deaths could reach 400,000 by year's end." Mrs. McC: I'll bet most Trumpbots would swear they would never vote for a mass-murderer. Well, they did & they will again. And mike pence is as much to blame as Trump is.

Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Dr. Anthony Fauci said he is 'absolutely not' surprised ... Donald Trump contracted Covid-19 after seeing him surrounded by people not wearing face masks and flouting best public health practices. Fauci ... said during an interview on CBS' '60 Minutes' that aired Sunday, 'I was worried that he was going to get sick when I saw him in a completely precarious situation of crowded -- no separation between people, and almost nobody wearing a mask.... When I saw that on TV, I said, "Oh my goodness. Nothing good can come out of that, that's got to be a problem,'" he continued. 'And then sure enough, it turned out to be a superspreader event.'"

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi D-Calif.) said Sunday that an economic stimulus deal must be struck within 48 hours in order for Congress to pass legislation before Election Day, but she noted that significant differences still divide her and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.... Pelosi and Mnuchin spoke for 75 minutes on Saturday and agreed to speak again on Monday.... The White House and Pelosi appeared to be at odds more over the substance of the package and not the dollar amount.... 'Nancy Pelosi doesn't want to approve anything because she wants to bail out poorly run Democrat states,' Trump said in [an] interview. 'And we don't want to do that.' Pelosi has called for more money for states and cities, but Republican local leaders are among those who have asked for more aid, not just Democrats."

"Arbitrary and Capricious." Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge on Sunday formally struck down a Trump administration attempt to end food stamp benefits for nearly 700,000 unemployed people, blocking as 'arbitrary and capricious' the first of three such planned measures to restrict the federal food safety net. In a scathing 67-page opinion, Chief U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell of D.C. condemned the Agriculture Department for failing to justify or even address the impact of the sweeping change on states, saying its shortcomings had been placed in stark relief amid the coronavirus pandemic, during which unemployment has quadrupled and rosters of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program have grown by more than 17 percent with more than 6 million new enrollees.' A CNN story is here.

Trump Blocks Refugees Who Helped the U.S., Even Those at Risk. Zolan Kanno-Youngs of the New York Times: "The Trump administration had reserved 4,000 slots for Iraqi refugees who had helped American troops, contractors or news media or who are members of a persecuted minority group in the fiscal year that ended Sept. 30. It ultimately admitted only 161 Iraqis -- or 4 percent -- to the United States, the lowest percentage of the four categories of refugees the administration authorized for resettlement last year. While the coronavirus pandemic caused refugee flights to be canceled for months, immigration lawyers also cited the lasting effects of President Trump's initial refugee bans and expanded vetting of those fleeing persecution. Of the 5,000 slots reserved for victims of religious persecution, 4,859 were filled -- a reflection, perhaps, of the administration's political priorities."

Beyond the Beltway

Virginia. Ian Shapira of the Washington Post (Oct. 17): "More than a half century after the Virginia Military Institute integrated its ranks, Black cadets still endure relentless racism at the nation's oldest state-supported military college. The atmosphere of hostility and cultural insensitivity makes VMI -- whose cadets fought and died for the slaveholding South during the Civil War and whose leaders still celebrate that history -- especially difficult for non-White students to attend, according to more than a dozen current and former students of color.... Now the school is under pressure from some alumni and students to remove or relocate its Confederate statues -- including one of [Confederate Gen. Stonewall] Jackson -- and reconsider its long-held reverence for the Confederacy. Until a few years ago, freshmen were required to salute the Jackson statue, which sits in front of the student barracks." Mrs. McC: This is a horrifying story from start to finish. If you have a WashPo subscription, I recommend you read it -- and weep. retired Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III, the school's superintendent, a thoroughly confederate guy who has to be older than I am, should be fired at once.

The Commentariat -- October 18, 2020

Presidential Race, Etc.

From Saturday's New York Times election updates: Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s campaign is urgently warning against complacency in the final stretch of the race despite national and some state polling showing a wide Democratic lead over President Trump. In a memo that was to be sent to supporters on Saturday, Jennifer O'Malley Dillon, Mr. Biden's campaign manager, stressed that polls can be faulty or imprecise -- as they were in 2016 -- and warned of only narrow advantages in a number of key states. It is a message that appears designed to keep Democratic supporters focused and engaged in the last days of the race despite national attention on Mr. Trump's challenges, and to motivate Biden backers to turn out and continue donating." ~~~

~~~ MEANWHILE, at a Michigan rally, dangerous white supremacist, conspiracy-theorist leader Donald Trump "joined in a crowd chant of 'lock her up,' referencing ... Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer," whom some of Trump's followers plotted to kidnap & "try" & dispose of. "'This is exactly the rhetoric that has put me, my family, and other government official' lives in danger,' Ms. Whitmer, responded on Twitter while the rally was still in progress."

Res ipsa loquitur:

So Trump drops a big (approx 40x60 feet) expensive political sign in my largely Hispanic neighborhood in Houston TX about a week ago which upset me .... I wake up this morning and this is what the sign looks like now hahahahah 😆😆😆 pic.twitter.com/4mBBg83RpN

— Rogelio Garcia Lawyer (@LawyerRogelio) October 14, 2020

Samantha Schmidt, et al., of the Washington Post: "Wearing costumes and carrying signs, thousands of people gathered for the Women’s March in downtown Washington and cities across the country Saturday to protest the Supreme Court nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett and to build momentum to vote President Trump out of the White House." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Anita Snow of the AP: "Thousands of mostly young women in masks rallied Saturday in the nation's capital and other U.S. cities, exhorting voters to oppose ... Donald Trump and his fellow Republican candidates in the Nov. 3 elections. The latest of rallies that began with a massive women's march the day after Trump's January 2017 inauguration was playing out during the coronavirus pandemic, and demonstrators were asked to wear face coverings and practice social distancing." Mrs. McC: But are they "suburban women?" ~~~

~~~ Petula Dvorak of the Washington Post: "Women of the 'burbs -- like those enclaves they inhabit -- are not who Trump thinks they are. He needs them in his bid for reelection. But by clinging to the notion that suburban women are White housewives who need to be saved from scary threats such as (gasp!) low-income neighbors and protesters for social justice, his wooing isn't working. Across America, the suburbs are becoming more racially and ethnically diverse and dynamic. They're not the little boxes and fenced yards of Levittown, but a mix of homeowners and renters, apartments and condos, cottages and McMansions.... Houston[, Texas,] and its suburbs are so diverse, the man running for the 22nd Congressional District there -- former Foreign Service officer Sri Preston Kulkarni -- has campaign literature in 21 different languages.... 'Donald Trump is right to think that suburban women will be voting for safety, but he's wrong to think that means they'll be voting for him,' said Shannon Watts, a suburban woman and mother of five who has become a force in American politics with her group, Moms Demand Action."

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Jason Campbell & Pam Vogel of Media Matters: "In the final weeks before Election Day, CBS is validating a likely foreign intelligence operation against Democratic nominee Joe Biden. In its own reporting, CBS has pointed to the suspicious smear campaign as similar to mainstream media's obsession with the nefarious leaking of Hillary Clinton's emails in 2016 -- yet its reporter still fell for the same trap years later and elevated the pseudo-scandal anyway. During an impromptu press gaggle on October 16, CBS reporter Bo Erickson asked Biden for a response to unverified claims from a series of suspicious articles from the New York Post related to his son Hunter and business dealings in Ukraine. Biden reacted by calling the story a 'smear campaign' and said he had no further response.... MSNBC's Joy Reid praised Biden for refusing to engage with a 'Russian hatchet-job' pushed by [Rudy] Giuliani. Meanwhile, some of Erickson's colleagues at CBS have joined right-wing media figures like Laura Ingraham and Steve Cortes in defending the reporter's question."

Patrick Marley & Molly Beck of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: "Thousands of Donald Trump's fans, many without masks, prepared to welcome the president on an airport tarmac Saturday evening as Wisconsin continued to struggle with a soaring number of COVID-19 cases. 'This entire pandemic is a hoax,' Brandon Rice of Eau Claire said as he waited in line at the Southern Wisconsin Regional Airport. 'I think it was done to make him look bad. It's fake news.'" Mrs. McC: Thanks for your expert opinion, Brandon. ~~~

     ~~~ Updated Lede: "... Donald Trump packed thousands together for a re-election rally Saturday, arguing that his own recovery proved the response to COVID-19 was working and claiming the pandemic was 'rounding the corner' in a state setting records daily for new cases. The president didn't mention that Wisconsin is grappling with one of the worst coronavirus outbreaks in the country, with nearly 4,000 new cases reported just on Friday and a surge of infections that has pushed state officials to open a field hospital to give relief to hospitals in the northeastern part of the state." Mrs. McC: Excuse me? You guys already forgot this entire pandemic is a hoax?

Helaine Olen of the Washington Post outlines Trump's long con, & comes up with what she thinks is the explanation for the popularity of "outlandish conspiracies such as QAnon.... As crazy as it is, it's less embarrassing than admitting you are just another patsy in Trump's lifelong con." Mrs. McC: Maybe she's right: delusion begets more delusion. IOW, Trump is bad for everybody's mental health, not just normally-sensible people's. (Also linked yesterday.)

Nebraska Senate Race. Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "President Trump berated Sen. >Ben Sasse (R) after audio leaked this week of the Nebraska lawmaker leveling harsh criticism against the president in a town hall with constituents. ['Blah-blah.'...] Given Nebraska’s solid red tint, Sasse is not expected to be punished at the ballot box this year over his criticism." (Also linked yesterday.)

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Christina Maxouris & Jason Hanna of CNN: "Ten states reported their highest single-day tallies of new Covid-19 infections Friday, and the country reported its highest one-day total since July, as experts say a dangerous fall surge of coronavirus infections is well underway." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Brittany Shamas & Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "Within weeks of the [Sturgis Motorcycle Rally in South Dakota], the Dakotas, along with Wyoming, Minnesota and Montana, were leading the nation in new coronavirus infections per capita. The surge was especially pronounced in North and South Dakota, where cases and hospitalization rates continued their juggernaut rise into October. Experts say they will never be able to determine how many of those cases originated at the 10-day rally, given the failure of state and local health officials to identify and monitor attendees returning home, or to trace chains of transmission after people got sick. Some, however, believe the nearly 500,000-person gathering played a role in the outbreak now consuming the Upper Midwest.... In many ways, Sturgis is an object lesson in the patchwork U.S. response to a virus that has proved remarkably adept at exploiting such gaps to become resurgent."

Elizabeth Ireland of the Times of San Diego (Oct. 16): Former Rep. "Duncan Hunter's attorney announced Friday the ex-congressman will serve his federal prison sentence at Federal Correctional Institute La Tuna in Anthony, Texas.... The California Republican will report to the federal prison's adjacent minimum-security satellite camp on Jan. 4, 2021. Hunter, 43, who pleaded guilty last year to a federal conspiracy charge for misusing campaign funds, was sentenced in March to 11 months in federal prison." Mrs. McC: The facade of the main prison looks like a beautiful Spanish mission-style resort, so here's hoping the satellite camp isn't so nice.