The Commentariat -- October 22, 2020

Late Morning/Afternoon Update:

Jeremy Barr & Elahe Izadi of the Washington Post: "President Trump followed through on his threat, or promise, to release video of his interview with CBS News journalist Lesley Stahl before it is set to air on '60 Minutes' on Sunday night.... On Thursday morning, after he again teased a release of the video ('the vicious attempted "takeout" interview of me'), a 37-minute clip of the interview appeared on the president's Facebook page. In posting the interview, Trump and the White House violated an agreement with CBS News that the White House was taping the interview 'for archival purposes only,' said a network source with knowledge of the interview.... 'The White House's unprecedented decision to disregard their agreement with CBS News and release their footage will not deter "60 Minutes" from providing its full, fair and contextual reporting which presidents have participated in for decades,' the network said." Mrs. McC: Why, you might think Trump can't be trusted to honor even the simplest, clearest agreement. ~~~

Look at the bias, hatred and rudeness on behalf of 60 Minutes and CBS. Tonight's anchor, Kristen Welker, is far worse! -- Donald Trump, Thursday, in a tweet ~~~

     ~~~ Jill Colvin of the AP: "The footage shows Trump growing increasingly prickly as CBS anchor Lesley Stahl presses him on a host of topics, including his response to the coronavirus pandemic, his slipping support among suburban women, the lack of masks at his rallies, and the 'Obamacare' replacement plan he has long promised but failed to unveil.... And he again preemptively criticized the moderator of Thursday night's final presidential debate.... As Trump continued to throw unsubstantiated allegations at [Joe] Biden and former President Barack Obama, Stahl tried to explain: 'This is "60 Minutes" and we can't put on things we can't verify.'... 'Leslie [Lesley], you're discrediting yourself,' he said." ~~~

~~~ AP: "... Donald Trump says 'it will be so good' if the Supreme Court puts an end to the Obama-era health law when the justices hear challenges to the Affordable Care Act next month. Trump made the comment in an interview with CBS' '60 Minutes' that's set to air Sunday night. The president posted the full, unedited interview on Facebook on Thursday.... With [Amy] Barrett on the path to confirmation in the coming days, Trump is signaling that he's confident that court's expected swing to the right portends the demise of the health law. Trump says in the interview: 'I think it'll end' and 'I hope that they'll end it.'"

Wherein Trump Loyalist Mr. Rat Points Out Trump Is Trying to Undermine the Election. Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "The centerpiece of [DNI John] Ratcliffe's announcement [Wednesday] was that Iran -- and Russia, which was mysteriously downplayed -- has obtained voter data enabling Iran to send emails to voters that were faked to seem like right-wing efforts to menace them into voting for Trump. Ratcliff[e] noted that this was 'designed to intimidate voters, incite social unrest and damage President Trump.' The idea is that these emails are supposed to associate Trump with right-wing efforts to intimidate voters.... But the other thing Ratcliffe said about Iran is ...: 'Iran is distributing other content to include a video that implies that individuals could cast fraudulent ballots, even from overseas. This video, and any claims about such allegedly fraudulent ballots, are not true.'... Who else has been making such claims about fraudulent ballots? Why, Trump has, of course. And so has ... William P. Barr ... and ... Donald Trump Jr.... The Post viewed the video: 'The video ... shows Trump making disparaging comments about mail-in voting, followed by a logo with the name of the Proud Boys....' So, to be as clear as possible, this video circulated by Iran, which Ratcliffe has denounced for spreading false information about voter fraud, features Trump himself making such claims." Emphasis added. Thanks to Ken W. for the link.

Christopher Rugaber of the AP: "The number of laid-off Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell last week to 787,000, a sign that job losses may have eased slightly but are still running at historically high levels. Last week's figure was down from 842,000 the previous week, the Labor Department said Thursday. The government also revised down the number of people who sought aid in the two weeks before that. The revised total for the week that ended Oct. 3 was 767,000, the fewest since the viral pandemic erupted in March, though still more than three times the levels that preceded the pandemic. Economists welcomed the declines as evidence that the job market is still recovering from the pandemic recession. But some cautioned that the improvement could prove short-lived."

Mike Schneider of the AP: "For the second time in two months, a panel of federal judges on Thursday blocked ... Donald Trump's effort to exclude people in the U.S. illegally from being counted during the process of divvying up congressional seats by state. The decision from a panel of three district judges in California went further than last month's ruling by a panel of three federal judges in New York by saying that Trump's order in July not only was unlawful but also violated the constitution. The New York judges ignored the question of the order's constitutionality and just said it was unlawful.... The Trump administration has appealed the New York decision to the Supreme Court, and the nation's high court agreed to hear the case next month. Other challenges to Trump's order are pending in Maryland, Massachusetts and the District of Columbia."

Donald Trump Doesn't Know How to Pick a Password. Adam Gabbatt of the Guardian: "Donald Trump's Twitter account was allegedly hacked last week, after a Dutch researcher correctly guessed the president's password: 'maga2020!', Dutch media reported. Victor Gevers, a security expert, had access to Trump's direct messages, could post tweets in his name and change his profile, De Volkskrant newspaper reported. Gevers -- who previously managed to log into Trump's account in 2016 -- apparently gained access by guessing Trump's password. He tried 'maga2020!' on his fifth attempt and it worked.... Twitter, however, denied the report. However, Gevers told De Volkskrant the ease with which he accessed Trump's account suggested the president was not using basic security measures like two-step verification." Gevers said he warned the White House, CIA, FBI & Twitter of the easy hack. "A day later, Gevers noticed that two-step verification had been activated on Trump's account.... Two days later, the Secret Service got in touch. According to De Volkskrant, they thanked him for bringing the security problem to their attention. [In 2016,] Trump's password was 'yourefired.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Obviously, in choosing a password, you pick something you can remember but that would be so meaningless to others that couldn't just guess it. As for whether or the not the story is true, it's hard to say. When I change computers or locations, I get e-mail notifications from a few companies, like Google. I'm not sure if Twitter has sent me such notifications.

Jordain Carney of the Hill: "Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to advance Judge Amy Coney Barrett's Supreme Court nomination after Democrats boycotted the vote. The panel voted 12-0 to send Barrett's nomination to the full Senate, paving the way for President Trump's nominee to be confirmed to the Supreme Court early next week. Every Republican on the panel supported her nomination and no Democratic senator voted. Every GOP senator was present for the vote, meeting the committee's rule that 12 members of the panel must be present to report a nomination to the full Senate. But the committee also requires two members of the minority party to be present in order to conduct business. Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), however, made it clear that he would move forward regardless of the committee's rules. 'As you know, our Democratic colleagues informed the committee last night that they will not participate in the hearing. That was their choice. It will be my choice to vote the nominee out of committee. We're not going to allow them to take over the committee,' Graham said on Thursday." ~~~

~~~ Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "The Senate Judiciary Committee voted on Thursday to advance President Trump's nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, with majority Republicans skirting the panel's rules to recommend her confirmation as Democrats boycotted the session in protest." This is an update of a story linked below.

Julian Borger of the Guardian: "US immigration officers allegedly tortured Cameroonian asylum seekers to force them to sign their own deportation orders, in what lawyers and activists describe as a brutal scramble to fly African migrants out of the country in the run-up to the elections. Many of the Cameroonian migrants in a Mississippi detention centre refused to sign, fearing death at the hands of Cameroonian government forces responsible for widespread civilian killings, and because they had asylum hearings pending. According to multiple accounts, detainees were threatened, choked, beaten, pepper-sprayed and threatened with more violence to make them sign.... Lawyers and human rights advocates said there had been a significant acceleration of deportations in recent weeks, a trend they see as linked to the looming elections and the possibility that Ice could soon be under new management." --s

Jonathan Watts of the Guardian: "For the first time since records began, the main nursery of Arctic sea ice in Siberia has yet to start freezing in late October. The delayed annual freeze in the Laptev Sea has been caused by freakishly protracted warmth in northern Russia and the intrusion of Atlantic waters, say climate scientists who warn of possible knock-on effects across the polar region.... The downward trend is likely to continue until the Arctic has its first ice-free summer, said Meier. The data and models suggest this will occur between 2030 and 2050." --s

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Presidential Race, Etc.

Adam Nagourney of the New York Times: "President Trump and Joseph R. Biden Jr. will meet on Thursday for their second and final presidential debate. Kristen Welker of NBC News will moderate the debate, which will take place in Nashville. It will begin at 9 p.m. Eastern and run for 90 minutes. The announced topics include fighting the coronavirus, American families, race in the United States, climate change, national security and leadership.... The debate will be televised on channels including ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, C-SPAN, Fox News and MSNBC. Many news outlets, including ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS, Fox News and C-SPAN, will stream the debate on YouTube." Here's Wired's how-to-watch guide.

Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico: "Former President Barack Obama unloaded on his successor Wednesday in Philadelphia as Democrats' biggest luminary hit the campaign trail in support of his vice president. Obama lambasted Trump's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.... 'Donald Trump isn't suddenly going to protect all of us,' Obama said at a drive-in rally in the city's stadium district. 'He can't even take the basic steps to protect himself.'... He also said that his administration left a 'pandemic playbook,' drafted after the Ebola outbreak, that was largely ignored by his successor. 'They probably used it to -- I don't know -- prop up a wobbly table somewhere,' Obama said. Obama contrasted his criticisms by praising the current Democratic torchbearers, Joe Biden and running mate Kamala Harris, as steady hands to shepherd the country through Covid-19 and its aftermath.... [Obama's] speech seemed tailor-made to provoke a response from Trump.... 'He hasn't shown any interest in doing the work or helping anybody but himself and his friends, or treating the presidency like a reality show he can use to get attention,' Obama said. 'And by the way, even then his TV ratings are down. So you know that upsets him.'" ~~~

     ~~~ The Washington Post's story, by David Nakamura, is here. ~~~

Joshua Partlow of the Washington Post: "In an election year clouded with anxieties about voter intimidation and the possibility of election-related violence, the first days of early voting have unfolded with dozens of accusations of inappropriate campaigning and possible voter intimidation in at least 14 states. The reports, though anecdotal, illustrate the tensions unfolding as more than 33 million Americans have already cast ballots two weeks before Election Day.... A wide array of complaints have been reported around the country, many involving Trump supporters, according to tips reviewed by ProPublica's Electionland project and shared with other news organizations.... Thea McDonald, a spokeswoman for President Trump's campaign, said the campaign had no objection to actions at the polls as long as they are legal. Trump has sometimes encouraged confrontational behavior among his supporters." Partlow cites a number of examples. ~~~

~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: A reader sent me this copy of an e-mail he received from a trusted person. I trust the reader, so I feel fairly confident this is a copy of an e-mail a registered Florida Democrat received. I blocked out the recipient's name in two places, & someone else redacted what also apparently is identifying information. Update: According to Rachel Maddow (who received copies of 16 of these e-mails), this previously redacted info was the voter's physical address. As you can tell, the e-mail is pretty creepy. (See updates below): ~~~

~~~ Update. Ellen Nakashima, et al., of the Washington Post: "The U.S. government has concluded that Iran is behind a series of threatening emails arriving this week in the inboxes of Democratic voters, according to two U.S. officials. Department of Homeland Security officials told state and local election administrators on a call Wednesday that a foreign government was responsible for the online barrage, according to the U.S. officials and state and local authorities who participated in the call, who all spoke on the condition of anonymity.... A DHS official also said authorities had detected holes in state and local election websites and instructed those participating to patch their online services. The emails claimed to be from the Proud Boys, a far-right group supportive of President Trump, but appeared instead to be a deceptive campaign making use of a vulnerability in the organization's online network." ~~~

~~~ Update 2. Julian Barnes & David Sanger of the New York Times: "Iran and Russia have both obtained American voter registration data, and Tehran used it to send threatening, faked emails to voters that were aimed at influencing the presidential election, top national security officials announced on Wednesday evening.... John Ratcliffe, the director of national intelligence..., said the effort was aimed at hurting President Trump, and intelligence officials have said Iran opposes the president's re-election. But if the emails had the effect of intimidating Democrats, they could also have hurt Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic nominee." An NBC News story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Uh, yeah. Sorry, Director Rat, but a letter threatening Democratic voters if they don't vote for Trump does not appear to be aimed at harming Trump. As Frank Figliuzzi pointed out on MSNBC, Ratcliffe kept secret what Russia was doing. My guess is that's because there was no way Mr. Rat could pretend that Russian actions were designed to hurt Trump. Sen. Chuck Schumer, also appearing on MSNBC, said that he attended a classified briefing on the foreign actions & that -- although he could not talk about what he learned in the briefing -- it was his observation, based on the briefing, that the foreign actions were not taken against Donald Trump but to undermine confidence in our elections. He also said that, to this end, Russia had done far more than Iran had. BTW, FBI Director Christopher Wray, who also spoke briefly at the hastily-called "press conference" (no one took questions), said essentially nothing, and did not back up Ratcliffe's odd assertion that Iranians had attempted to damage Trump. I thought Wray looked sorta like he was starring in a hostage video. ~~~

~~~ So Then. Devlin Barrett & Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post: "President Trump and his advisers have repeatedly discussed whether to fire FBI Director Christopher A. Wray after Election Day -- a scenario that also could imperil the tenure of Attorney General William P. Barr as the president grows increasingly frustrated that federal law enforcement has not delivered his campaign the kind of last-minute boost that the FBI provided in 2016, according to people familiar with the matter. The conversations among the president and senior aides stem in part from their disappointment that Wray in particular but Barr as well have not done what Trump had hoped -- indicate that Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden, his son Hunter Biden or other Biden associates are under investigation, these people say.... In the campaign's closing weeks, the president has intensified public calls for jailing his challenger...."

Trump's Planned Election Bribe to Seniors Is "Legally Dubious." Margot Sanger-Katz & Noah Weiland of the New York Times: "A month ago, President Trump surprised much of his own government when he announced in North Carolina that he would soon send $200 discount cards to more than 30 million older Americans to offset the cost of prescription drugs. The promise set off a scramble among health and budget officials unaware that such a policy was being considered.... When many questioned its prudence before an election, they then tried to hand off the president's $8 billion hot potato. Now, less than two weeks before the election, officials acknowledge that Medicare recipients will not be getting their $200 cards this month.... Many of the officials assigned to enact the policy view it as legally dubious. Generally, major changes in Medicare policy require Congress to pass legislation." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: So once again what we have for a president* is a rudderless jerk who blurts out (or tweets) a fantasy project that is probably illegal, but aides have to scramble to try to make it happen. And once again, it most likely won't happen.

Anita Kumar of Politico: "The Trump campaign's last-ditch effort to win back the suburban women fleeing the president in the polls has fallen to one person: Ivanka Trump. In the past six weeks, Trump has made personal appeals for her father at 17 campaign stops, engaging in intimate question-and-answer sessions where she tells stories about the president. She's made stops at local businesses to pose with children in Halloween costumes. She&'s bought cider and doughnuts. She's rolled out bread for baking." Mrs. McC: Sorry I voted early. I'm a suburban woman who might have voted for Trump if I'd seen Ivanka rolling out bread. P.S. I've baked a lot of bread, and you don't normally roll out the dough (although if you were making, say, dinner rolls, you could). Update: It appears Ivanka's electioneering is illegal; as a White House aide, any campaigning she does violates the Hatch Act.

Manu Raju & Paul LeBlanc of CNN: "Sen. Mitt Romney said Wednesday he did not vote for ... Donald Trump's reelection, the latest break between the GOP's 2012 presidential nominee and the leader of his party. The first-term Republican senator, who already voted in Utah, declined to say if he voted for Democratic nominee Joe Biden or wrote in another candidate. But he made clear that Trump did not get his vote."

Alabama. Jessica Gresko of the AP:"The Supreme Court on Wednesday put on hold a lower court order that would have permitted curbside voting in Alabama in November. The justices' vote was 5-3, with the court's three liberals dissenting. As is typical when the Supreme Court acts on an emergency basis, the justices in the majority did not explain their decision. It was not clear how many counties might have offered curbside voting, allowing people to vote from their car by handing their ballot to a poll worker. Justice Sonia Sotomayor, in a dissent joined by Justice Stephen Breyer and Justice Elena Kagan, described the lower court's order allowing curbside voting in November as 'modest,' and she said she would not have put it on hold."

Florida. WFLA Tampa: "A Trump campaign spokesperson says two men dressed as armed security guards who set up in a tent outside an early voting location in downtown St. Petersburg were not hired by the campaign.... Julie Marcus, the Pinellas County Supervision of Elections, [said in an interview,] 'The Sheriff [Bob Gualtieri] told me the persons that were dressed in these security uniforms had indicated to sheriff's deputies that they belonged to a licensed security company and they indicated -- and this has not been confirmed yet -- that they were hired by the Trump campaign.'... Marcus, a Republican, is running to keep her seat as supervisor after being appointed in May of this year by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis. Gualtieri, also a Republican, is running for re-election as well.... In the first presidential debate last month, President Trump encouraged his supporters to go to the polls to watch what happens there.... It is illegal in the state of Florida to bring a gun to a polling place, and Gualtieri says intimidation won't be allowed either."

Pennsylvania. Ryan Deto of the Pittsburgh City Paper republished in the Pennsylvania Capital-Star: "A roadside billboard in Fayette County repeating a Republican accusation that Democratic nominee presidential Joe Biden suffers from diminished mental capacity has a deficiency of its own:... 'Biden's dimensia is worsening, he is not fit,' the billboard reads, misspelling 'dementia.' The billboard also repeats two denigrating nicknames that ... Donald Trump has used to refer to the former vice president and his running-mate, U.S. Sen. Kamala Harris, D-Calif. As a matter of policy, the Capital-Star does not repeat those nicknames.... The billboard is owned by Penneco Outdoor Advertising, which is based in Delmont, Pa. in Westmoreland County. The company has a 1-star rating on Google Reviews.... Penneco has a history putting up right-wing billboards." Thanks to Akhilleus for the link. In his commentary below, Akhilleus picks on the spelling-challenged. So mean.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "Tabulating the ages of Americans known to have died of Covid-19, and tallying the number of years they might have lived had they reached a typical life expectancy, the report concluded that the virus had claimed more than 2.5 million years of potential life in the United States." ~~~

~~~ The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here. ~~~

~~~ The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Lena Sun of the Washington Post: "Federal health officials issued new guidance on Wednesday that greatly expands the pool of people considered at risk of contracting the novel coronavirus by changing the definition of who is a 'close contact' of an infected individual. The change by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is likely to have its biggest impact in schools, workplaces and other group settings where people are in contact with others for long periods of time. It also underscores the importance of mask-wearing to prevent spread of the virus, even as President Trump and his top coronavirus adviser continue to raise doubts about such guidance. The CDC had previously defined a 'close contact' as someone who spent at least 15 consecutive minutes within six feet of a confirmed coronavirus case. The updated guidance, which health departments rely on to conduct contact tracing, now defines a close contact as someone who was within six feet of an infected individual for a total of 15 minutes or more over a 24-hour period, according to a CDC statement Wednesday." The article is free to non-subscribers.

"The Art of the Deal." Christopher Miller of Buzzfeed News: "As the US was bracing for a major wave of seriously ill coronavirus patients in March, President Donald Trump asked President Vladimir Putin in a phone call for help. In response, Moscow sent 45 ventilators and other medical supplies in crates stamped 'From Russia, With Love.' They were part of a lopsided aid deal between the countries that would ultimately see Russia delivering a little more than $1 million worth of supplies to the US in April, followed by the US sending about $5.6 million to Russia over the following two months.... [T]here were problems with the Aventa-M ventilators from the moment they landed and they were never used.... First, the Aventa-M ventilators required an electrical voltage not compatible in the US, meaning they could not be used without an adapter that hospitals did not have. Weeks later, several of the same models caught fire in Russian hospitals, causing the deaths of six people and prompting the government to halt their manufacture. Moreover, they were made by a Russian company under US sanctions.... Now, according to FEMA, they have essentially been tossed in the trash." --s

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday downplayed chances of Congress passing a big new economic stimulus bill before the election, even as Democrats voted to block a slimmed-down GOP relief measure in the Senate. The vote in the Senate was 51-44, well short of the 60 votes that would have been needed to advance the approximately $500 billion measure. It was the same outcome as last month, when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tried to advance a nearly identical bill in the Senate. McConnell and Senate GOP leaders largely oppose a giant new spending bill in the range of $2 trillion which President Trump has been demanding and Pelosi has been negotiating with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Alabama. Tim Elfrink of the Washington Post: "When Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey (R) ordered a statewide mask mandate in July as coronavirus deaths surged to record levels, her second-in-command blasted the move. 'Wearing a face mask and maintaining social distancing are among the best ways to slow the spread of COVID-19,' tweeted Lt. Gov. Will Ainsworth (R) at the time. 'However, it's an overstep that infringes upon the property rights of business owners and the ability of individuals to make their own health decisions.' Now, as Alabama once again sees an alarming rise in covid-19, Ainsworth, 39, announced on Wednesday that he is among the newly confirmed cases." Mrs. McC: So Ainsworth, who is rabidly against abortion, thinks a woman has no right to make her own life-altering health decision about pregnancy even in cases of incest & rape, but people with a deathly illness do have a right to pass it on to others, possibly killing them. And that's why we spell it "freedumb."

Marianne Levine of Politico: "Senate Democrats plan to boycott Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett's Judiciary Committee vote Thursday in an act of protest, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Wednesday. 'We will not grant this process any further legitimacy by participating in a committee markup of this nomination just 12 days before the culmination of an election that is already underway,' the New York Democrat said. The Senate Judiciary Committee is set to vote at 1 p.m. to advance Barrett's nomination to the floor. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said this week that the Senate will hold a final vote on Barrett's nomination Monday. The boycott won't prevent Barrett's nomination from moving ahead, with Republicans on the committee vowing to confirm her." Mrs. McC: Under the Judiciary Committee's rules, the Democratic boycott will mean the committee will not have a quorum, but Republicans will probably go & ahead & change th rules, according to Schumer, who appeared on Rachel Maddow's show Wednesday. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Republicans on the Senate Judiciary Committee were prepared on Thursday to advance the nomination of Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, planning to skirt the panel's rules and vote to recommend her confirmation as Democrats boycott the session. Though the panel was not scheduled to convene until 9 a.m., all 12 Republicans had already signaled that Judge Barrett had their enthusiastic backing. Their action would set up a vote by the full Senate on Monday to confirm Judge Barrett.... Democrats planned to hold a news conference on the steps of the Capitol galvanizing opposition to the process. Left in their places in th hearing room will be large posters of Americans whose health care coverage they argue could evaporate if Judge Barrett were to side with conservative majority on the court to strike down the Affordable Care Act when it hears a Republican challenge to the law next month."

Stephanie Kirchgaessner of the Guardian, republished in Yahoo! News: "Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the supreme court has prompted former members of her secretive faith group, the People of Praise, to come forward and share stories about emotional trauma and -- in at least one case -- sexual abuse they claim to have suffered at the hands of members of the Christian group.... The historic sexual abuse allegations and claims of emotional trauma do not pertain specifically to Barrett, who has been a lifelong member of the charismatic group, or her family. But some former members who spoke to the Guardian said they were deeply concerned that too little was understood about the 'community' of People of Praise ahead of Barrett's expected confirmation by the Senate next week.... Barrett was not asked about her involvement in People of Praise during her confirmation hearings last week, and has never included her involvement with the group in Senate disclosure forms[.]" --s

Scott Stedman of Forensic News: "Corporate documents exclusively obtained by Forensic News show that the Trump Organization's formal legal advisor who was tapped as Trump's Representative for International Negotiations in the Middle East managed the Delaware LLC with a Chinese bank account recently revealed by the New York Times. The advisor, Jason Greenblatt, was just one of four Trump aides with access to the highly secretive Middle East peace plan, alongside Jared Kushner and two others." --s

Pay No Attention to Donald Trump. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a pair of tweets ... Donald Trump issued earlier this month that appeared to call for the declassification of all documents related to the probe of Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election won't trigger any further release of information to the public. U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton lamented the president's sweeping language, but said a clarification White House chief of staff Mark Meadows submitted to the court Tuesday amounted to a retraction of the tweets." (Also linked yesterday.)

** This Is Extraordinary. Nahal Toosi of Politico: "The Trump administration is considering declaring that several prominent international NGOs -- including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and Oxfam -- are anti-Semitic and that governments should not support them, two people familiar with the issue said. The proposed declaration could come from the State Department as soon as this week.... Critics of the possible move also worry it could lead other governments to further crack down on such groups. The groups named, meanwhile, deny any allegations that they are anti-Semitic. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is pushing for the declaration, according to a congressional aide with contacts inside the State Department. Pompeo is eyeing a future presidential run and has taken a number of steps to gain favor with pro-Israel and evangelical voters who make up a key part of Trump's electoral base. But the proposal is drawing opposition from career State Department employees."

American Oversight: "Last week, as the president dredged up his favorite accusations about Hillary Clinton, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo promised to release the former secretary's emails ahead of the November election. Pompeo scoffed at accusations that the move would be a violation of the Hatch Act, claiming the release would be 'for the sake of transparency.' But professed concerns about transparency have not led to the release of any of his own State Department emails.... American Oversight has submitted dozens of Freedom of Information Act requests for his emails. We've also sued multiple times after the department failed to comply with such requests, and have received not a single email sent from Pompeo's official State Department account. Our litigation has, however, recently produced nearly 400 pages of his personal emails from his time as the director of the Central Intelligence Agency. These records not only reveal a problematic amount of official business being conducted over private email -- a major issue of the 2016 presidential election that ... Donald Trump continues to bring up, despite his own administration's rampant disregard for the rules. They also show Pompeo fielding questionable investigation requests as well as the involvement of his wife, Susan Pompeo, in official government activities."

Another Stupid Trump Trick. Ken Vogel & Lara Jakes of the New York Times: "Richard Grenell, a close Trump ally who has served numerous roles in the administration, quietly embarked on a pre-election mission last month that was at least partly intended to persuade President Nicolás Maduro of Venezuela to give up power. Mr. Grenell, a vocal and combative supporter of President Trump's re-election campaign, met near Mexico City on Sept. 17 with Jorge Rodríguez, a former Venezuelan vice president and close ally of Mr. Maduro, to facilitate a peaceful transition of power, a White House official said. Had Mr. Maduro agreed to stand down, it could have been a major foreign policy victory for Mr. Trump in the weeks before the election. But there is no evidence that Mr. Grenell's trip had any effect, and it was not clear why Mr. Maduro, a socialist strongman who has maintained power despite international opposition, would suddenly consider stepping down. The trip, which was reported by Bloomberg News on Wednesday night, caught the State Department and even some White House officials off guard and created confusion about its purpose.... Mr. Grenell's trip to Mexico City surprised senior administration officials, including Secretary of State Mike Pompeo."

This Is Extraordinary, Too. Adam Goldman & Mark Mazzetti of the New York Times: "A British former spy recruited by Erik Prince, the security contractor close to the Trump administration, played a central role in a secretive effort to hire dozens of operatives for the conservative group Project Veritas, deposition testimony shows. Job applicants traveled to Wyoming in 2017 for interviews with the former intelligence officer, Richard Seddon, as Project Veritas sought to expand its operations early in the Trump administration, according to a lawsuit deposition.... The new details about Project Veritas show the extent of the group's ambitions to build an intelligence-gathering apparatus to infiltrate Democratic congressional campaigns, labor organizations, news media and other groups. Project Veritas is known for its sting operations aimed at such groups, which have prompted allegations that it has published deceptively edited videos.... Beginning in 2016, Mr. Prince contacted several former intelligence officials -- including Mr. Seddon -- and pitched them on teaching Project Veritas employees how to operate like spies.... Project Veritas claims that its employees are journalists who conduct stings in the long tradition of undercover, muckraking journalism. But court documents show how the group has turned to former soldiers and spies for their operations."

Mrs. McCrabbie: I thought I could get through my fake life as a fake person without linking to anything about Borat. Well, thanks to Rudy, that was a false assumption: ~~~

~~~ Catherine Shoard of the Guardian: "The reputation of Rudy Giuliani could be set for a further blow with the release of highly embarrassing footage in Sacha Baron Cohen's follow-up to Borat. In the film, released on Friday, the former New York mayor and current personal attorney to Donald Trump is seen reaching into his trousers and apparently touching his genitals while reclining on a bed in the presence of the actor playing Borat's daughter, who is posing as a TV journalist.... Even before he reaches into his trousers, Giuliani does not appear to acquit himself especially impressively during the encounter. Flattered and flirtatious, he drinks scotch, coughs, fails to socially distance and claims Trump's speedy actions in the spring saved a million Americans from dying of Covid. He also agrees -- in theory at least -- to eat a bat with his interviewer." There's more. Mrs. McC: This must be a bit of a relief for Jeff Toobin, if being on a par with Rudy can be a relief to anyone. ~~~

     ~~~ "I Was Tucking in My Shirt!" -- Rudy. Matt Wilstein of the Daily Beast: "Rudy Giuliani issued his first public defense after details emerged from his big cameo appearance in Borat Subsequent Moviefilm. While it may look like he was touching himself inappropriately with his hands down his pants in a hotel room alongside an actress posing as a reporter, he swore that he was actually just tucking in his shirt. 'I had to take off the electronic equipment,' Giuliani said in a radio interview on Wednesday. 'And when the electronic equipment came off, some of it was in the back and my shirt came a little out, although my clothes were entirely on. I leaned back, and I tucked my shirt in, and at that point, at that point, they have this picture they take which looks doctored, but in any event, I'm tucking my shirt in. I assure you that's all I was doing." Mrs. McC: This beats "the dog ate my homework." Kudos to Rudy! ~~~

     ~~~ Update: A New York Times story is here. ~~~

~~~ Simon Shuster of Time: At the same time Rudy Giuliani was tooling around Ukraine last year searching for dirt on Joe Biden, "explicit photos and emails purportedly belonging to Hunter Biden were circulating in" the country. The probably-fake proferred documents may (or may not) have been the same ones Rudy claims he got from a Delaware computer repairman & passed on to the New York Post & other right-wing outlets. Mrs. McC: Fortunately for Rudy, as we learned yesterday, it doesn't matter if the docs are real or fake.

Jan Hoffman & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and face penalties of roughly $8.3 billion, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday, a move that could pave the way for a settlement of thousands of lawsuits brought against the company for its role in the opioids epidemic. The company's owners, members of the wealthy Sackler family, will pay $225 million in civil penalties. Federal prosecutors said the settlement did not preclude criminal charges against Purdue executives or individual Sacklers. Wednesday's announcement does not conclude the extensive litigation against Purdue, but it does represent a significant advance in the long legal march by states, cities and counties to compel the most prominent defendant in the opioid epidemic to help pay for the public health crisis that has resulted in the deaths of more than 450,000 Americans since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

It's a Miracle! Pretty Much. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Pope Francis expressed support for same-sex civil unions in remarks made in a documentary that premiered on Wednesday, a significant break from his predecessors that staked out new ground for the church in its recognition of gay people. The remarks, coming from the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, had the potential to shift debates about the legal status of same-sex couples in nations around the globe and unsettle bishops worried that the unions threaten traditional marriage. 'What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered,' Francis said, reiterating his view that gay people are children of God. 'I stood up for that.' Many gay Catholics and their allies outside the church vigorously welcomed the pope's remarks, even as they said they understood Francis's opposition to gay marriage within the church remained absolute." The Washington Post's story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I realize that many people will see this as half- or less-than-half measure, but I'm sure many more are asking, "Is the Pope Catholic?" I think it's a big step toward marriage equality worldwide. Meanwhile, Ken W. is wondering, "What will Amy think?" Good question. Her crummy little church club or sect or whatever it is must be whirling like dervishes.

Way Beyond the Beltway

Greece. Helena Smith of the Guardian: "Behind the bench, before her mostly male audience, as the marathon trial of Golden Dawn entered its last act, supreme court justice Maria Lepenioti ... kept the peace.... [She] has had to pull off an extraordinary balancing act presiding over a case that has put more Nazi leaders and sympathisers in the dock than at any time since Nuremberg.... When historians look back they will see a nation whose political class was slow in dealing with the rightwing menace and a society whose silence was deafening. A police force whose complicity enabled the extremists to act with impunity.... Officers who sympathised with the group, covering up attacks on leftists, migrants and refugees and the LGBTQ community, were among the hearing's 68 defendants. Instead..., 'Justice stepped in where others should have stepped before,' [Maria] Stratigaki [professor of gender studies at Panteion University] told the Guardian. 'And our justice system is full of female judges because it is they who do better at exams and rise to the top.' --safari: Another reason why it's so dangerous McConnell is filling our judgeships with unqualified, right wing ideologues.

The Commentariat -- October 21, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: A reader sent me this copy of an e-mail he received from a trusted person. I trust the reader, so I feel fairly confident this is a copy of an e-mail a registered Florida Democrat received. I blocked out the recipient's name in two places, & someone else redacted what also apparently is identifying information. As you can tell, the e-mail is pretty creepy: ~~~

It's a Miracle! Pretty Much. Jason Horowitz of the New York Times: "Pope Francis expressed support for same-sex civil unions in remarks made in a documentary that premiered on Wednesday, a significant break from his predecessors that staked out new ground for the church in its recognition of gay people. The remarks, coming from the leader of the Roman Catholic Church, had the potential to shift debates about the legal status of same-sex couples in nations around the globe and unsettle bishops worried that the unions threaten traditional marriage. 'What we have to create is a civil union law. That way they are legally covered,' Francis said, reiterating his view that gay people are children of God. 'I stood up for that.' Many gay Catholics and their allies outside the church vigorously welcomed the pope's remarks, even as they said they understood Francis's opposition to gay marriage within the church remained absolute." The Washington Post's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I realize that many people will see this as half- or less-than-half measure, but I'm sure many more are asking, "Is the Pope Catholic?" I think it's a big step toward marriage equality worldwide. Meanwhile, Ken W. is wondering, "What will Amy think?" Good question. Her crummy little church club or sect or whatever it is must be whirling like dervishes.

Jan Hoffman & Katie Benner of the New York Times: "Purdue Pharma, the maker of OxyContin, has agreed to plead guilty to criminal charges and face penalties of roughly $8.3 billion, the Justice Department announced on Wednesday, a move that could pave the way for a settlement of thousands of lawsuits brought against the company for its role in the opioids epidemic. The company's owners, members of the wealthy Sackler family, will pay $225 million in civil penalties. Federal prosecutors said the settlement did not preclude criminal charges against Purdue executives or individual Sacklers. Wednesday's announcement does not conclude the extensive litigation against Purdue, but it does represent a significant advance in the long legal march by states, cities and counties to compel the most prominent defendant in the opioid epidemic to help pay for the public health crisis that has resulted in the deaths of more than 450,000 Americans since 1999, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention."

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

Erica Werner of the Washington Post: "House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday downplayed chances of Congress passing a big new economic stimulus bill before the election, even as Democrats voted to block a slimmed-down GOP relief measure in the Senate. The vote in the Senate was 51-44, well short of the 60 votes that would have been needed to advance the approximately $500 billion measure. It was the same outcome as last month, when Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) tried to advance a nearly identical bill in the Senate. McConnell and Senate GOP leaders largely oppose a giant new spending bill in the range of $2 trillion which President Trump has been demanding and Pelosi has been negotiating with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin."

Pay No Attention to Donald Trump. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge ruled Wednesday that a pair of tweets ... Donald Trump issued earlier this month that appeared to call for the declassification of all documents related to the probe of Russian influence on the 2016 presidential election won't trigger any further release of information to the public. U.S. District Court Judge Reggie Walton lamented the president's sweeping language, but said a clarification White House chief of staff Mark Meadows submitted to the court Tuesday amounted to a retraction of the tweets."

Mrs. McCrabbie: I thought I could get through my fake life as a fake person without linking to anything about Borat. Well, thanks to Rudy, that was a false assumption: ~~~

~~~ Catherine Shoard of the Guardian: "The reputation of Rudy Giuliani could be set for a further blow with the release of highly embarrassing footage in Sacha Baron Cohen's follow-up to Borat. In the film, released on Friday, the former New York mayor and current personal attorney to Donald Trump is seen reaching into his trousers and apparently touching his genitals while reclining on a bed in the presence of the actor playing Borat's daughter, who is posing as a TV journalist.... Even before he reaches into his trousers, Giuliani does not appear to acquit himself especially impressively during the encounter. Flattered and flirtatious, he drinks scotch, coughs, fails to socially distance and claims Trump's speedy actions in the spring saved a million Americans from dying of Covid. He also agrees -- in theory at least - to eat a bat with his interviewer." There's more. Mrs. McC: This must be a bit of a relief for Jeff Toobin, if being on a par with Rudy can be a relief to anyone.

~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

Holly Otterbein of Politico: "On Wednesday, [President] Obama will hold a drive-in rally in Philadelphia, and he will talk directly to Black voters -- and Black men specifically -- according to the Biden campaign. The former president is also expected to discuss the importance of making a plan to vote early.... In a presidential election that has seen both candidates lavish attention onto [Pennsylvania], making nonstop visits and pouring tens of millions of dollars into advertising here, the rally serves an important purpose beyond ginning up enthusiasm for the Democratic ticket. It's an implicit reminder that, of the three Rust Belt states that flipped to Donald Trump in 2016 -- the other two being Michigan and Wisconsin --- Pennsylvania remains the biggest and most critical to Biden's chances of victory."

Another Trumpertantrum. Michael Grynbaum & Maggie Haberman of the New York Times: "President Trump abruptly cut off an interview with the '60 Minutes' star Lesley Stahl at the White House on Tuesday and then taunted her on Twitter, posting a short behind-the-scenes video of her at the taping and noting that she had not been wearing a mask in the clip. Mr. Trump then threatened to post his interview with Ms. Stahl ahead of its intended broadcast time on Sunday evening, calling it 'FAKE and BIASED.' The spectacle of a president, two weeks from Election Day, picking a fight with the nation's most popular television news program began on Tuesday after Mr. Trump grew irritated with Ms. Stahl's questions, according to two people familiar with the circumstances of the taping.... [Apparently, the taping ran long.] So Mr. Trump cut the interview short and then declined to participate in a 'walk and talk' segment with Ms. Stahl and Vice President Mike Pence, the people said." Politico's story is here. CNN's story is here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: Once again, Trump couldn't hack a woman's questioning him. He already has complained about Thursday's debate moderator Kristen Welker. Let's see if the Little King can make it through the debate without insulting her or walking out. ~~~

~~~ Amy Wang, et al., of the Washington Post: "Two days before their final televised faceoff, President Trump on Tuesday attacked the upcoming debate as yet another campaign event that would be 'a stacked deck' against him, while Joe Biden's camp hunkered down and strategized over Trump's expected attacks on his family.... Biden held no public appearances for a second straight day, while Trump tried out lines of attack and in essence held his debate prep in public. In a phone interview broadcast on 'Fox & Friends,' Trump lashed out at the moderator of Thursday's event, NBC's Kristen Welker, as 'totally partisan' and sought to portray the debate topics and rules as unfair."

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Trump's Closing Argument: Fauci Is Auditioning for CNN! Asawin Suebsaeng & Erin Banco of the Daily Beast: "In the final two weeks of his re-election campaign..., Donald Trump has turned much of his attention to venting his anger and insecurities at one of his administration’s top public-health officials and coronavirus task force members, Dr. Anthony Fauci. In recent months, Trump has routinely gossiped with close associates and advisers that Fauci is behaving like a member of anti-MAGA 'resistance' commentators. In the past few weeks, the president has told multiple people that he believes Fauci is angling to earn the media's adulation and that it at times appears to him that the famous infectious disease expert is 'audition[ing]' or 'trying to get a job at CNN,' according to two sources...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Trump's attacks on Fauci are deeply weird, particularly during the last days of a political campaign. Trump is supposed to be selling voters on why he deserves a second term. (Never mind that he has not even developed a second-term agenda.) Instead, he's whining & griping about all the people who are mean to him: Fauci, Bill Barr, Kirsten Welker, Lesley Stahl, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, etc. As one teevee pundit pointed out: in 2016, Trump ran on white people's grievances; in 2020, he's running on his own grievances.

Tech Companies v. Trump & Russians. David Sanger & Nicole Perlroth of the New York Times: "Over the past two weeks, United States Cyber Command and a group of companies led by Microsoft have engaged in an aggressive campaign against a suspected Russian network that they feared could hold election systems hostage come November. Then, on Monday, the Justice Department indicted members of the same elite Russian military unit that hacked the 2016 election for hacking the French elections, cutting power to Ukraine and sabotaging the opening ceremony at the 2018 Olympics. And in Silicon Valley, tech giants including Facebook, Twitter and Google have been sending out statements every few days advertising how many foreign influence operations they have blocked, all while banning forms of disinformation in ways they never imagined even a year ago. It is all intended to send a clear message that whatever Russia is up to in the last weeks before Election Day, it is no hoax.... But behind the scenes is a careful dance by members of the Trump administration to counter the president's own disinformation campaign.... So while President Trump continues to dismiss the idea of Russian intervention, a combination of administration and industry officials are pushing a different narrative...."

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Chris Wray Won't Pull a Comey October Surprise. Devlin Barrett of the Washington Post: "The FBI notified Congress late Tuesday that it has 'nothing to add at this time' to a statement made by President Trump's director of national intelligence [John Ratcliffe] disputing the idea that Russia orchestrated the discovery of a computer that may have belonged to Joe Biden's son. FBI Assistant Director Jill C. Tyson sent the letter to Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.), a Trump ally and chairman of the Senate Homeland Security Committee, in response to his demand for more information about the computer following a series of reports by the New York Post detailing its purported contents.... The letter notes that the FBI faced a severe backlash for its handling of the 2016 investigations surrounding then-Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and makes clear it is seeking to avoid the kind of criticism heaped upon it by the Justice Department's inspector general, among others, for the FBI's decision to notify Congress less than two weeks before Election Day that it had reopened an investigation into Clinton's use of a private email server. The letter notes that, in keeping with long-standing Justice Department policy, 'the FBI can neither confirm nor deny the existence of any ongoing investigation of persons or entities under investigation, including to Members of Congress.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: There's no way to know at this point who benefits from the FBI's restraint. If Ratcliffe is right (zero guarantee of that), then Biden benefits. But if the FBI is finding that "Hunter"'s hard drive has Russian fingerprints all over it, then Trump benefits. ~~~

~~~ Rudy Says Facts Don't Matter. Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: "Appearing on AM1100 The Flag, a North Dakota radio show..., [Rudy Giuliani] grumbled about social media companies initially restricting access to the Post stories, saying it 'reminds me of the communist[s] and the Nazis.' From there, he said the story should be spread regardless of its accuracy. 'They've set up an Iron Curtain so you can't get out the New York Post story which I happened to know is 100 percent accurate,' Giuliani declared. 'But even if it isn't accurate, the American people are entitled to know it.'" Mrs. McC: I suppose it would be useless to try to explain to Rudy that Nazis & communists ran their governments while social media companies are private entities not required to guarantee the right to spread false stories.

Mike McIntire, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump and his allies have tried to paint the Democratic nominee, Joseph R. Biden Jr., as soft on China, in part by pointing to his son's business dealings there. Senate Republicans produced a report asserting, among other things, that Mr. Biden's son Hunter 'opened a bank account' with a Chinese businessman... But Mr. Trump's own business history is filled with overseas financial deals, and some have involved the Chinese state. He spent a decade unsuccessfully pursuing projects in China, operating an office there during his first run for president and forging a partnership with a major government-controlled company. And it turns out that China is one of only three foreign nations -- the others are Britain and Ireland -- where Mr. Trump maintains a bank account, according to an analysis of the president's tax records, which were obtained by The New York Times. The foreign accounts do not show up on Mr. Trump's public financial disclosures, where he must list personal assets, because they are held under corporate names.... The Chinese account is controlled by Trump International Hotels Management L.L.C., which the tax records show paid $188,561 in taxes in China while pursuing licensing deals there from 2013 to 2015.... In 2017, the company reported an unusually large spike in revenue -- some $17.5 million, more than the previous five years' combined. It was accompanied by a $15.1 million withdrawal by Mr. Trump from the company's capital account." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Once again Donald the Perverse is falsely accusing an opponent of doing something he actually has done. That 2017 influx of cash & $15MM withdrawal in the first year of Trump's presidency* looks mighty suspicious. ~~~

~~~ Besides, Dean Obeiedallah of the Daily Beast points out "There's already a corrupt presidential kid. It's Ivanka.... As documented by the non-partisan watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics (CREW), Ivanka's unethical conduct dates back to early 2017 and ranges from her receiving trademarks from the Chinese government while her father was in talks with the Chinese president to a complaint filed by CREW in January 2019 with the Department of Justice to assess if Ivanka and husband Jared Kushner violated federal law by profiting from a tax program they had championed.... [And] 'just last month CREW flagged that Ivanka -- who purportedly closed her business in 2018 to avoid further conflicts of interest -- was somehow still reporting income ... of as much as a million dollars a year ... from her company in 2019." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I doubt anybody knows how much Kushner has benefited from his White House job, whatever it is, since he may have been pulling in favors from an array of foreign governments.

Jacob Bogage & Christopher Ingraham of the Washington Post: "Key swing states that may well decide the presidential race are recording some of the nation's most erratic mail service as record numbers of Americans are relying on the U.S. Postal Service to deliver their ballots, agency data shows.... The slowdowns, which have raised alarms and suspicions among voters, postal workers and voting experts, have particular implications for states with strict voter deadlines. Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia, for example, do not accept ballots that arrive after Election Day, even if postmarked before. Of the states that do, there is generally a short qualifying window: In North Carolina, where polls have President Trump and Democratic nominee Joe Biden in a dead heat, postmarked ballots must arrive within three days of the election.... In Detroit, where Democrats are relying on heavy turnout to carry the rest of Michigan, only 70.9 percent of first-class mail was on time the week that ended Oct. 9, compared with 92.2 percent at the start of the year."

Florida & Alaska. Curt Devine, et al., of CNN: "Elections officials in Florida and Alaska contacted law enforcement Tuesday after registered voters reported receiving threatening emails that said, 'Vote for Trump or else!' The emails came from an address that appeared to be affiliated with a far-right group, though an analyst who reviewed one email obtained by CNN said it had been sent using foreign internet infrastructure. The identity of the person or group behind the messages was unknown, said TJ Pyche, a spokesperson for the Alachua County Supervisor of Elections in Florida. Pyche said his office 'got flooded with phone calls and emails' from dozens of voters about the messages Tuesday and immediately reached out to local, state and federal law enforcement, including the FBI.... A spokesperson for the Alaska Division of Elections, Tiffany Montemayor said the state is aware of Alaskans receiving similar emails and said, "We've forwarded that information to the appropriate federal agencies for their review." ~~~

     ~~~ Florida. Ana Ceballos & Carli Teproff of the Miami Herald: "A string of voter intimidation emails that were purportedly sent by the Proud Boys, a self-described militia group, were reported to state and federal law enforcement officials on Tuesday morning, according to Alachua Supervisor of Elections Kim Barton. Alachua County officials were made aware of the emails on Tuesday morning. In one of the emails, the sender told a voter to 'vote for Trump on Election Day or we will come after you,' according to a copy obtained by the Miami Herald.... The email shows a sender with the address, info@officialproudboys.com. But officials have not pointed to any evidence that the email came from the far-right group." --s ~~~

~~~ Beth Reinhard & Laurie Rozsa of the Washington Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's [R] administration delivered last-minute guidance to local election officials recommending measures that voting rights advocates say could intimidate or confuse voters, the latest salvo in a pitched battle over who is able to cast ballots in a state crucial to President Trump's reelection. In a notice sent to local election officials last week, Division of Elections Director Maria Matthews urged them to remove from the voter rolls people with felony convictions who still owe court fines and fees, a move that local officials said is impossible to accomplish before Election Day. A second memo from Secretary of State Laurel M. Lee's general counsel recommended that election staff or law enforcement guard all mail ballot drop boxes, a step that local election officials say is not required under the law.... There is no simple, streamlined process for formerly incarcerated people to figure out if they still owe fines. Some may be fearful to vote, unsure if they are breaking the law, advocates said." ~~~

~~~ 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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

North Carolina. Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A bitterly divided federal appeals court has denied an attempt by Republicans to block an agreement by North Carolina state officials allowing absentee ballots in next month's election to be counted if they are postmarked by Election Day and received up to nine days later. The Tar Heel State typically counts absentee ballots that arrive up to three days after the election, but last month the State Board of Elections agreed to extend that window to nine days due to the increased ballot requests related to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, as well concerns about mail delays due to recent Postal Service changes. In a ruling released Tuesday night, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals voted 12-3 to deny an emergency stay that GOP legislative leaders sought to reimpose the ordinary, three-days-after-Election-Day rule. The Richmond-based appeals court issued no majority opinion explaining its decision, but backers and opponents of the ruling filed 45 pages of opinions jousting and wrangling over the legal issues, often in a vitriolic tone not commonly seen in such courts."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Sarah Mervosh & Lucy Tompkins of the New York Times: "After weeks of warnings that cases were again on the rise, a third surge of coronavirus infection has firmly taken hold in the United States. The nation is averaging 59,000 new cases a day, the most since the beginning of August, and the country is on pace to record the most new daily cases of the entire pandemic in the coming days. But if earlier surges were defined by acute and concentrated outbreaks -- in the Northeast this spring, and in the South during the summer -- the virus is now simmering at a worrisome level across nearly the entire country.... The latest wave threatens to be the worst of the pandemic yet, coming as cooler weather is forcing people indoors and as many Americans report feeling exhausted by months of restrictions.... The rising case count has so far not translated to increased deaths: About 700 people are dying on average each day, a high but steady rate."

Lenny Bernstein of the Washington Post: "The coronavirus pandemic has left about 299,000 more people dead in the United States than would be expected in a typical year, two-thirds of them from covid-19 and the rest from other causes, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported Tuesday. The CDC said the novel coronavirus, which causes covid-19, has taken a disproportionate toll on Latinos and Blacks, as previous analyses have noted. But the CDC also found, surprisingly, that it has struck 25- to 44-year-olds very hard: Their 'excess death' rate is up 26.5 percent over previous years, the largest change for any age group." The article is free to non-subscribers.

Sarah Paynter of Yahoo! News: "A third of hotels in the U.S. could go under due to the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new study. Some 33% of hotel owners expect to hand the keys back to their lender or enter a forced sale situation, according to a September 7 survey of 103 hotels by the Hospitality Asset Managers Association (HAMA)." --s

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Sheila Kaplan, et al., of the New York Times: "... close enough to the election to make his firing unlikely, [Commissioner] Dr. [Stephen] Hahn seems to be trying to save the F.D.A. from the fate of its sister agency, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, whose scientists have been stripped of much of their authority and independence in responding to the pandemic." This is after having made a series of missteps at the White House's behest, including authorizing "hydroxychloroquine for hospitalized Covid-19 patients despite a lack of evidence, only to reverse the decision once the drug was tied to severe side effects.... In late August, on the eve of the Republican convention, Dr. Hahn ... greatly exaggerated the benefits of [plasma] treatment, angering the scientific community. He publicly corrected the record.... The plasma debacle seems to have been a turning point for Dr. Hahn...."

Emily Cochcrane & Nicholas Fandos of the New York Times: "Senator Mitch McConnell, the majority leader, privately told Republican senators on Tuesday that he had warned the White House not to strike a pre-election deal with Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a new round of stimulus, moving to head off an agreement that President Trump has demanded but most in his party oppose. Mr. McConnell's remarks, confirmed by four Republicans familiar with them, threw cold water on Mr. Trump's increasingly urgent push to enact a new round of pandemic aid before Election Day. They came just as Ms. Pelosi offered an upbeat assessment of her negotiations with Steven Mnuchin, the Treasury secretary, telling Democrats that their latest conversation had yielded 'common ground as we move closer to an agreement.'... The developments on Capitol Hill amounted to an extraordinary scene two weeks before the election, in which a badly weakened president -- once the object of unwavering loyalty from congressional Republicans, who rarely broke with him on any major policy issue -- was throwing concessions at Democrats to cement a deal that his own party was resisting." A New York Times item is here. A related Politico story is here.

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." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Julia Ainsley & Jacob Soboroff of NBC News: "Lawyers appointed by a federal judge to identify migrant families who were separated by the Trump administration say that they have yet to track down the parents of 545 children and that about two-thirds of those parents were deported to Central America without their children, according to a filing Tuesday from the American Civil Liberties Union.... Many of the more than 1,000 parents separated from their children under the pilot ['zero tolerance'] program had already been deported before a federal judge in California ordered that they be found." Mrs. McC: Anyone could have predicted this would happen. Many of the children probably are preliterate; their parents may be illiterate and/or in hiding since they left their homes because they were in some danger.

Jake Tapper of CNN: "Senior officials throughout various departments and agencies of the Trump administration tell CNN they are alarmed at White House pressure to grant what would essentially be a no-bid contract to lease the Department of Defense's mid-band spectrum -- premium real estate for the booming and lucrative 5G market -- to Rivada Networks, a company in which prominent Republicans and supporters of ... Donald Trump have investments. The pressure campaign to fast track Rivada's 'Request for Proposal' (RFP) by using authorities that would preclude a competitive bidding process intensified in September, and has been led by White House chief of staff Mark Meadows, who was acting at Trump's behest, sources with knowledge tell CNN."

Cash for Trump Voters. Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "At a campaign rally in Wisconsin last week, President Trump ... said -- not for the first time -- [China] is 'paying us billions and billions of dollars a year. I charge them billions, they never paid 10 cents. I gave $28 billion to the farmers, many of them right here, $28 billion, $12 billion and $16 billion, two years.' The first part of this isn't true. Trump imposed tariffs on products coming from China, a tax paid largely by American consumers. The second part, though, is true: This tax was then redistributed to farmers who had been targeted by reciprocal tariffs from China.... New data indicates that 91 percent of the money disbursed through the program went to places that supported Trump four years ago. Only 9 percent went to places that had voted for Hillary Clinton. What's more, counties that flipped from blue to red in 2016 received an average of nearly $3 million more than ones that backed the Republican presidential candidate in both 2012 and 2016." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'm not sure how many votes Trump is buying. Though I'm sure plenty of small farmers received subsidies, surely the biggest haul went to big agribusiness. Yes, some of that money would "trickle down" to hired hands, but they wouldn't necessarily grasp they had found work because of a Trump tariff.

Schumer Gives Feinstein a Talking-to. Paul Kane of the Washington Post: "Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) said Tuesday that he has had a 'serious talk' with Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) after some liberal groups criticized her handling of last week's Supreme Court confirmation hearings and requested she step aside as the top Democrat on the Judiciary Committee. Schumer, who has also faced doubts about his strategic moves from the most liberal activists, declined to say what steps he would take but acknowledged the problem had prompted a discussion about Feinstein holding such an important post.... As the hearings [for Judge Amy Barrett] ended Thursday, Feinstein credited Republicans for holding a hearing with decorum and even hugged Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.), the chair who had previously pledged to never consider a Supreme Court nominee in an election year." ~~~

~~~ Michelle Smith & Michael Biesecker of the AP: "Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett served for nearly three years on the board of private Christian schools that effectively barred admission to children of same-sex parents and made it plain that openly gay and lesbian teachers weren't welcome in the classroom. The policies that discriminated against LGBTQ people and their children were in place for years at Trinity Schools Inc., both before Barrett joined the board in 2015 and during the time she served. The three schools, in Indiana, Minnesota and Virginia, are affiliated with People of Praise, an insular community rooted in its own interpretation of the Bible, of which Barrett and her husband have been longtime members. At least three of the couple's seven children have attended the Trinity School at Greenlawn, in South Bend, Indiana." --s

Will Wright of the New York Times: "A Kentucky judge on Tuesday granted grand jurors in the Breonna Taylor case permission to speak publicly, a rare move that immediately led one juror to assert that prosecutors had not given the panel the opportunity to bring homicide charges in the case.... 'The grand jury did not have homicide offenses explained to them,' the anonymous juror said. 'The grand jury never heard about those laws. Self-defense or justification was never explained either. Questions were asked about additional charges and the grand jury was told there would be none because the prosecutors didn't feel they could make them stick.'"

** Fiona Harvey of the Guardian: "Air pollution last year caused the premature death of nearly half a million babies in their first month of life, with most of the infants being in the developing world, data shows. Exposure to airborne pollutants is harmful also for babies in the womb. It can cause a premature birth or& low birth weight. Both of these factors are associated with higher infant mortality." --s ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'd like to hear from anti-abortion people about this since they are apt to be climate change deniers. If they're against abortion, why are they okay with pollution?

the new game is to replace every new yorker cartoon caption with "Jeffrey Toobin took his dick out on a Zoom call." pic.twitter.com/NkuxsTJtxs

— Ryan 'Follow @SecretBase' Simmons (@rysimmons) October 19, 2020

     ~~~ There are some winners on Ryan's Twitter page.

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."

~~~~~~~~~~

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."