The Commentariat -- August 17, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Postmaster General Louis DeJoy has agreed to House Democrats' request for him to testify next week about his controversial Postal Service changes that have raised hackles around the nation, according to two people familiar with the matter. On Sunday, Democrats moved up a request for DeJoy to testify to Monday, Aug. 24, calling it an 'urgent' matter.'... [House Oversight Committee Chair Carolyn] Maloney [D-NY] also has requested the testimony of Mike Duncan, chairman of the Postal Service's Board of Governors. Duncan also agreed to testify, according to a person familiar with the matter. Duncan is a former chairman of the Republican National Committee.... The House is also expected to vote as early as this Saturday on a proposal to block DeJoy's plans to overhaul the Postal Service." Mentioned on MSNBC: The Oversight Committee has also asked the USPS for production of documents.

Brad Plumer & Henry Fountain of the New York Times: "Overturning five decades of protections for the largest remaining stretch of wilderness in the United States, the Trump administration on Monday finalized its plan to open up part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil and gas development. The decision sets the stage for what is expected to be a fierce legal battle over the fate of this vast, remote Alaska habitat. The Interior Department said it had completed its required reviews and would start preparing to auction off leases to companies interested in drilling inside the refuge's coastal plain, which is believed to sit atop enough oil to fill billions of barrels but is prized by environmentalists for its pristine landscapes and wildlife. While the agency has not yet set a date for the first auction, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said on Monday, 'I do believe there could be a lease sale by the end of the year.'"

Digby in Salon: "One of the more tedious tasks in writing about politics is that every single election year it's necessary to discuss the latest cheating schemes cooked up by the Republican Party to suppress the votes of minorities, challenge the legality of perfectly legal votes and otherwise make all elections they do not win look suspect in the eyes of American voters. Needless to say, this year is worse than usual because Donald Trump makes everything worse than usual.... At some point, this country is going to have to come to terms with the fact that the Republican Party is fundamentally hostile to democracy and do something about it."

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

An Unconventional Convention. Astead Herndon & Reid Epstein of the New York Times: "... the stretch of downtown Milwaukee where Democrats were supposed to hold their nominating convention this week was quiet and sparsely populated -- another reminder of a summer lost.... And the Democratic Party, shamed for not adequately investing in Wisconsin during the 2016 election, was to showcase its commitment to an all-important Electoral College state [here].... Some realities have not changed: The convention, which begins Monday and ends with a speech from [Joe] Biden on Thursday evening, marks the beginning of the formal general election between Mr. Biden and President Trump. Mr. Biden's running mate, Senator Kamala Harris of California, will have her largest audience yet, in a speech on Wednesday evening. A who's who of Democratic Party politics will also deliver addresses to the nation -- including former President Barack Obama, former first lady Michelle Obama, Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and Hillary and Bill Clinton. Aside from the five major speeches from Mr. Biden, his wife, Jill Biden, Ms. Harris and the Obamas, the average length for remarks will be just two minutes, convention organizers said.... Mr. Sanders and Ms. Obama are the headline speakers for the opening night." ~~~

~~~ Michael Scherer of the Washington Post: "Faced with a complex problem, Democrats decided to go big, aiming for a solution that has more in common with Netflix, Facebook Live and the cheering fan screens courtside in Orlando's NBA bubble than the C-Span-style cattle call typical of past national party gatherings. Over four nights starting Monday, a behind-the-scenes crew of about 400 with operation centers in New York, Milwaukee, Los Angeles and Wilmington, Del., plans to broadcast to the nation hundreds of live video feeds from living rooms, national monuments and stages around the country.... That includes dozens of speakers who have been mailed video-production kits, with basic equipment such as microphones, lighting and advanced routers, so they can produce and transmit their own shots. Other homebound delegates will be dialed in to quick feeds of the live speeches, so their real-time reactions can be broadcast ... as if they were in the same room as the speakers.... For a typically antiquated and long-winded event, the remade unconventional convention could set a new standard for national political gatherings, which have evolved since the 1960s from their roots as actual smoke-filled rooms...." ~~~

~~~ Terri Rupar & Amber Phillips of the Washington Post: "The [DNC's] public events start at 9 p.m. Eastern time. Speakers on the first day include some big Democratic names, notably Michelle Obama and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and one prominent never-Trump Republican, former Ohio governor John Kasich. Democrats' plan on this first night seems to be to convey just how big their tent is for any voter who does not like President Trump: from the far left to the center of the Democratic establishment to Republicans.... Monday night will also feature governors whose star has risen in the party while fighting the coronavirus, such as Michigan's Gretchen Whitmer and New York's Andrew M. Cuomo." Mrs. McC: I've read elsewhere that the broadcast networks will carry only one hour; in the past that's been the 10-11 pm ET hour. I assume that CNN & MSNBC will carry the 9 pm hour, too. The Post says it will have live coverage beginning at 8 pm ET, so maybe that will include a video feed.

Jeffrey Gettleman & Suhasini Raj of the New York Times: "Although [Kamala] Harris has been more understated about her Indian heritage than her experience as a Black woman, her path to U.S. vice-presidential pick has also been guided by the values of her Indian-born mother, her Indian grandfather and her wider Indian family who have provided a lifelong support network that endures even from 8,000 miles away. Her grandfather [P.V. Gopalan], wearing Coke-bottle glasses and often a necktie during strolls, may have looked like many other upper-crust Indian gentlemen. But he defied the conservative stereotypes of his era, embodying a progressive outlook on public service and unswerving support for women, especially in terms of their education, that was years ahead of his time. He instilled great confidence in Ms. Harris's mother, Shyamala Gopalan, who came to America in the late 1950s young and alone and made a career as a breast cancer researcher before dying of cancer in 2009." Mrs. McC: The sepia-toned photo of Harris' maternal family is ridiculous; Harris is 55 years old, not 155.

Ali Vitali of NBC News: "Sen. Kamala Harris said she is 'very clear-eyed' about the kinds of attacks ... Donald Trump will lodge against her in the coming months, telling The Grio in an interview out Sunday that she expects the president and his allies to engage in 'lies' and 'deceptions.' The interview -- Harris' second publicly release since being announced as Joe Biden's running mate last week -- comes on the heels of Trump fanning false conspiracy theories about whether Harris is eligible to run as vice president." (Also linked yesterday.)

Richard Luscombe of the Guardian: "Bernie Sanders praised Kamala Harris as Joe Biden's pick for his running mate on Sunday, as the Democratic party attempted to project an image of unity ahead of this week's national convention, where Biden is set to be officially nominated as the party's presidential candidate. Sanders, the progressive Vermont senator who clashed with both Biden and Harris earlier this year when the three were vying for their party's presidential nomination, lauded Harris as 'an asset'. 'I believe that Kamala, as somebody who has known her for a number of years, is incredibly smart, tough, and I would not want to be Vice-President [Mike] Pence in a debate with her,' Sanders said in an appearance on ABC's This Week."

Robert McCartney of the Washington Post: "There's a plausible way that independent voting experts worry President Trump could try to steal the election: by blocking the counting of mail-in ballots. Democrats are much more supportive of voting by mail than Republicans, according to recent polls. That's partly because Trump has falsely smeared mail-in voting as subject to widespread fraud.... So, on election night, initial returns based on in-person voting could show Trump winning, even though large numbers of mailed ballots remain uncounted. At that point, the experts warn, Trump could declare himself the victor, saying the mailed ballots should be ignored.... In states where Republicans control the voting process, he might get away with it." Mrs. McC: Good to see that a major American newspaper is now putting on its front page the concerns of a former Republican-appointed FEC Chairman -- Trevor Potter -- that Trump could try to flat-out steal the election.

Yes, You Should Be Horrified. Jennifer Agiesta of CNN: "Joe Biden's lead over Donald Trump among registered voters has significantly narrowed since June, according to a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS, even as the former vice president maintains an advantage over the President on several top issues and his choice of California Sen. Kamala Harris as a running mate earns largely positive reviews.... Overall, 50% of registered voters back the Biden-Harris ticket, while 46% say they support Trump and Pence, right at the poll's margin of error of plus or minus 4 percentage points." ~~~

~~~ You Should Still Be Very, Very Worried. Mark Murray of NBC News: According to "the latest national NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll..., Biden leads Trump nationally by 9 points among registered voters, 50 percent to 41 percent, and the former vice president holds double-digit advantages over Trump on the coronavirus, immigration, health care, race relations and uniting the country.... Still, Trump maintains his lead over Biden on the economy -- which the poll finds is voters' top issue heading into the election -- and the president's overall numbers have improved from last month...." ~~~

~~~ Don't Stop Worrying. Dan Balz, et al., of the Washington Post: A new Washington Post/ABC News poll shows "Biden and his running mate, Sen. Kamala D. Harris (D-Calif.), leading Trump and Vice President Pence by 53 percent to 41 percent among registered voters."

Emily Cochrane & Catie Edmondson of the New York Times: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California announced on Sunday that she would call the House back from its annual summer recess for a vote this week on legislation to block changes at the Postal Service that voting advocates warn could disenfranchise Americans casting ballots by mail during the pandemic. The announcement came after the White House chief of staff on Sunday signaled openness to providing emergency funding to help the agency handle a surge in mail-in ballots, and as Democratic state attorneys general said that they were exploring legal action against cutbacks and changes at the Postal Service.... Senator Chuck Schumer ... demanded on Sunday that Senator Mitch McConnell bring senators back to Capitol Hill to take up the House measure...." An AP story is here.

Jacob Bogage & Joseph Marks of the Washington Post: "The House Oversight Committee will hold an emergency hearing on mail delays and concerns about potential White House interference in the U.S. Postal Service, inviting Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Postal Service board of governors Chairman Robert M. Duncan to testify Aug. 24, top Democrats announced on Sunday. Democrats have alleged that DeJoy, a former Republican National Committee chairman, is taking steps that are causing dysfunction in the mail system and could wreak havoc in the presidential election. The House had earlier not planned a hearing until September.... On Thursday and Friday, [the USPS] began removing public collection boxes in parts of California, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Montana. The agency said Friday that it would stop mailbox removals, which it said were routine, until after the election.... The Postal Service is in the process of removing 671 high-speed mail-sorting machines nationwide.... White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on CNN’s 'State of the Union' on Sunday that it would also halt sorting-machine removals. Meadows also said the White House is open to Congress passing a stand-alone measure to ensure the U.S. Postal Service is adequately funded to manage a surge in mail voting in November...." (Also linked yesterday.) Mediaite has a story here. ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: My, my. It does sound as if there's panic in the White House following the public uproar over Trump/DeJoy's cavalier moves to "kneecap" the postal service. ~~~

~~~ Justine Coleman of the Hill: "White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Sunday denied reports that several U.S. Postal Service (USPS) letter sorting machines were decommissioned after orders from the postmaster general. Meadows told CNN's 'State of the Union' that reports about hundreds of postal service sorting machines being taken out of service are a 'political narrative' and 'not based on fact.' NBC News reported on Friday that an internal document showed that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is decommissioning 671 of USPS's letter sorting machines across the U.S." Read on for Meadows' exchange with Jake Tapper. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

     ~~~ Kevin Bohn & Sarah Westwood of CNN: "Chris Bentley, president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union Local 297, which covers Kansas and part of Missouri, previously told CNN that postal management had already taken out four machines in Kansas City, two machines in Springfield, Missouri, and one machine in Wichita, Kansas. [Mark] Meadows told CNN that was not part of a new initiative but was part of a pre-planned reallocation. Documents obtained by CNN last week indicated 671 machines used to organize letters or other pieces of mail are slated for 'reduction' in dozens of cities this year. The USPS's own document calls the move a 'reduction' of equipment. A letter sent Wednesday from the National Postal Mail Handlers Union to the Postal Service headquarters asked, 'Why are these machines being removed?'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~

~~~ Zeeshan Aleem of Vox tries to figure out WTF Mark Meadows was claiming: After citing news reports about downed sorting machines and recounting the exchange between Meadows & Jake Tapper of CNN, Aleem asks, "If Meadows is claiming that a new machine removal initiative doesn't exist when in fact it does, then his promise that new ones won't be taken offline is, at best, questionable. How can the White House reverse a policy it claims doesn't exist?" Mrs. McC: Oh, and if you want to know how a former member of the Freedumb Caucus "reasons," there's this: ";When CNN's Tapper pointed out to Meadows on Sunday that there's 'no evidence of widespread voter fraud,' Meadows retorted: 'There's no evidence that there&rsquos not either. That's the definition of fraud, Jake.'" IOW, if you can't prove a negative, then the positive is true, or "Absence of evidence is evidence of absence." Yeesh! This is sometimes called an argumentum ad ignorantiam or argumentum ex silentio. But whatever you want to call it, it's a logical fallacy, and one that should be inherently obvious even to someone who hasn't taken Logic 101. Unless he's a Republican, I guess.

~~~ New York. Matthew Rink of the Erie Daily Times-Morning News: "The U.S. Postal Service in recent weeks unplugged two of its six delivery bar code sorters from its East 38th Street processing facility in Erie. The machines read addresses, apply bar codes where there are none and sort mail -- 36,000 pieces per hour with 99 percent accuracy -- by the locations to where they will be delivered. The loss of the equipment in Erie is part of a larger purge of hundreds of sorting machines at Postal Service processing facilities across the country.... During the June 2 primary, 29,559 ballots -- half of all votes cast in Erie County — were by mail. Democrats outvoted Republicans nearly 3-to-1 in mail-in voting, while more Republicans cast their ballot at their polling places on Election Day." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Generally speaking, reports from smaller newspapers are not as well-written as those from big-city papers like the NYT & WashPo. Rink's story is one of the best I've read covering the background of the USPS's problems. A pleasant surprise.

Adm. William McRaven, in a Washington Post op-ed, compares Trump to General Bethlehem in the 1997 Kevin Costner film "The Postman." "... Costner plays a drifter trying to restore order to the United States by providing one essential service, mail delivery. In the story, hate crimes, racially motivated attacks and a plague have caused the breakdown of society as we know it.... But Costner's character is opposed by the evil General Bethlehem, who is fighting to suppress the postal carriers so he can establish a totalitarian government. Fortunately, our hero ... fights on against Bethlehem and saves the country.... The movie was panned by critics [largely because the plot seemed so unrealistic. But now!]... President Trump is actively working to undermine every major institution in this country. He has planted the seeds of doubt in the minds of many Americans that our institutions aren't functioning properly."

North Carolina. Fernando Alfonso of CNN: "Given the crisis facing the United States Postal Service before a presidential election, the last thing John Herter expected to receive in the mail Saturday was an absentee ballot request form with ... Donald Trump's face on it.... Herter ... is among a group of voters in North Carolina to receive the mailer over the past few days after Trump said that he opposed crucial USPS funding because he doesn't want to see it used for mail-in voting this November.... The mailer was sent out by the North Carolina Republican Party, press secretary Tim Wigginton told CNN." N.C. voter Chandler Carranza is so confused. ~~~

Got my mail in absentee ballot request form from @realDonaldTrump that will allow me to mail in my vote if I need to... but I can’t remember if this is a good thing or bad thing. Mail in is bad but absentee is good??? 🙄🙄🙄 pic.twitter.com/fbdgiq4hwc

— Chandler Carranza (@ChandlerC226) August 13, 2020

Puerto Rico. AP: "Puerto Rican Gov. Wanda Vázquez on Sunday acknowledged losing the primary of her pro-statehood party to Pedro Pierluisi, who briefly served as the U.S. territory's governor last year amid political turmoil. With more than 66% of electoral colleges reporting, Pierluisi received more than 58% of the vote compared with nearly 42% for Vázquez.... Meanwhile, Carlos Delgado, mayor of the northwest town of Isabela for 20 years, was poised to win by a landslide the nomination of the main opposition Popular Democratic Party. Conceding defeat was Puerto Rico Sen. Eduardo Bhatia and San Juan Mayor Carmen Yulín Cruz, known for her public spats with ... Donald Trump."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The Washington Post's live coronavirus updates Monday are here. The New York Times' live updates for Monday are here: "Amid alarm over the inadequacy of coronavirus testing across the nation, Los Angeles schools on Monday will begin a sweeping program to test hundreds of thousands of students and teachers, as the nation's second-largest school district goes back to school -- online. The program, which will be rolled out over the next few months by the Los Angeles Unified School District, will test nearly 700,000 students and 75,000 employees as the district awaits permission from public health authorities to resume in-person instruction, said Austin Beutner, the district's superintendent."

Dave Lawler of Axios: "Over the past several weeks, the coronavirus has killed Americans at six times the average rate in other rich countries. And we're recording about eight times more infections.... The virus burned through the rich world like wildfire in the spring, but this new data confirms that the U.S. is one of very few wealthy countries that have failed to suppress it since then."

Jonathan Swan of Axios: "To the alarm of some government health officials, President Trump has expressed enthusiasm for the Food and Drug Administration to permit an extract from the oleander plant to be marketed as a dietary supplement or, alternatively, approved as a drug to cure COVID-19, despite lack of proof that it works.... The experimental botanical extract, oleandrin, was promoted to Trump during an Oval Office meeting in July. It's embraced by Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson and MyPillow founder and CEO Mike Lindell, a big Trump backer, who recently took a financial stake in the company that develops the product. Lindell told Axios that in the meeting, Trump 'basically said: ...'The FDA should be approving it."' ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Seems like a good idea: "The oleander, or Nerium oleander, is considered by many to be the most poisonous plant in the world. All parts of the beautiful oleander contain poison -- several types of poison. Two of the most potent are oleandrin and neriine, known for their powerful effect on the heart. An oleander's poison is so strong, in fact, that it can poison a person who simply eats the honey made by bees that have digested oleander nectar.... A single ingested oleander leaf can kill a child. Ingestion of oleander results in diarrhea, vomiting, intense stomach pain, drowsiness, dizziness, an irregular heartbeat, and often, death."

Jill Colvin of AP: "Trump last week announced that Dr. Scott Atlas, a frequent guest on Fox News Channel, has joined the White House as a pandemic adviser. Atlas, the former chief of neuroradiology at Stanford University Medical Center and a fellow at Stanford's conservative Hoover Institution, has no expertise in public health or infectious diseases. But he has long been a critic of coronavirus lockdowns and has campaigned for kids to return to the classroom and for the return of college sports, just like Trump.... Atlas, the sole doctor to share the stage at Trump's pandemic briefings this past week..., has called it a 'good thing' for younger, healthy people to be exposed to the virus.... In an April op-ed in The Hill newspaper, Atlas bemoaned that lockdowns may have prevented the development of 'natural herd immunity.'" --s ~~~

     ~~~ ** Mrs. McCrabbie: Although it's impossible to know with any certainty, scientists estimate that nearly 3 million Americans would have to die for the country to have developed herd immunity. So thanks to Dr. Atlas for his brilliant suggestions. Shutting out Fauci & bringing in Atlas is like rejecting a neurosurgeon & asking your dentist to perform brain surgery.

Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Saturday that he would consider pardoning Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who faced criminal charges after leaking classified documents about vast government surveillance. 'There are many, many people -- it seems to be a split decision -- many people think that he should be somehow be treated differently and other people think he did very bad things,' Mr. Trump said during a news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. 'I'm going to take a very good look at it.' The remarks signal a shift for the president, who repeatedly denigrated Mr. Snowden as a 'traitor' and a 'spy who should be executed' in the years before his election. The disclosures by Mr. Snowden, who sought asylum in Russia in 2013, set off a broad debate about surveillance and privacy." Mrs. McC: This is weird for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Trump goes batshit when someone in his own administration leaks something fairly inconsequential. (Also linked yesterday.)

Caitlin Dickerson of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has been using major hotel chains to detain children and families taken into custody at the border, creating a largely unregulated shadow system of detention and swift expulsions without the safeguards that are intended to protect the most vulnerable migrants. Government data obtained by The New York Times, along with court documents, show that hotel detentions overseen by a private security company have ballooned in recent months under an aggressive border closure policy related to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 100,000 migrants, including children and families, have been summarily expelled from the country under the measure. But rather than deterring additional migration, the policy appears to have caused border crossings to surge.... The increase in hotel detentions is likely to intensify scrutiny of the policy, which legal advocacy groups have already challenged in court, saying it places children in an opaque system with few protections and violates U.S. asylum laws by returning them to life-threatening situations in their home countries."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Belarus. Ivan Nechepurenko< & Andrew Higgins of the New York Times: “Minutes after President Aleksandr G. Lukashenko of Belarus vowed to stand firm against protesters he reviled as 'rats,' 'trash' and 'bandits,' antigovernment demonstrators staged their biggest protest yet on Sunday to oppose a fraud-tainted presidential election a week earlier. Tens of thousands of protesters -- some estimates put their number at well over 200,000 -- turned out in the center of Minsk, the capital, dwarfing a rally of Mr. Lukashenko's supporters earlier in the day. It appeared to be the largest protest in the history of Belarus, a former Soviet republic that Mr. Lukashenko has led since 1994.... The protest had a festive air, in stark contrast to the tense moods of far smaller rallies last week that were violently suppressed by security forces, leaving at least two people dead, many injured and more than 6,000 under arrest." A Guardian story is here. ~~~

~~~ Isabelle Khurshudyan of the Washington Post: "With mass protests calling for his ouster and workers at major factories, enterprises and state television on strike, embattled Belarusan President Alexander Lukashenko issued a plea for help over the weekend, saying he urgently needed to speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin. That request was granted with phone calls between the two leaders on Saturday and Sunday. Lukashenko then claimed that Moscow is willing to dispatch 'full assistance' at 'first request' -- a veiled threat directed at an opposition movement that has accused Lukashenko of rigging last week's election results to say he garnered more than 80 percent of the votes. But Russia's promise of intervention appears to be limited to an external military threat, and after months of Lukashenko turning down closer ties with Russia, Putin's backing isn't a certainty.... Cracks in the typically close relations between Belarus and Russia started late last year, after Lukashenko resisted the Kremlin's push for the two countries to form a unified state -- something they agreed to in 1999." The Guardian's story is here.

New Zealand. Emanuel Stoakes of the Washington Post: "Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Monday postponed New Zealand's general election, scheduled for Sept. 19, for four weeks as authorities grapple with a new wave of coronavirus cases that has set back the country's pandemic recovery. The decision follows confirmation last Tuesday that several members of a family in Auckland had tested positive for the virus, ending the Ardern government's record of more than 100 days without a known case of community transmission. Ardern's move followed calls from leaders of other parties, including Winston Peters, deputy leader of her ruling coalition, to postpone the vote.... Judith Collins, leader of the main opposition National party and Ardern's rival for the top job, welcomed the move...."

Thailand. Shibani Mahtani of the Washington Post: "Student-led protests gained momentum in Thailand on Sunday, as thousands gathered in Bangkok in the biggest anti-government political rally in years to demand the prime minister's resignation and changes to the constitution. The protests, which have been going on almost daily for the past month, are for some demonstrators also now morphing into a repudiation of a long-untouchable institution -- the monarchy, and its constitutional role in politics in Thailand. On Sunday, thousands rallied at Bangkok's Democracy Monument..., periodically bursting into chants of 'Prayuth, get out!', a reference to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha who, after taking power in a 2014 coup, won disputed elections last year." Mrs. McC: No news of what's happening in Thighland.

Larry Elliott of the Guardian: "Developing nation debt has more than doubled in the past decade and left more than 50 countries facing a repayment crisis, according to a campaign group. Data from the Jubilee Debt Campaign shows that even without taking full account of the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, there has been a sharp jump in the number of poor countries in debt distress since 2018. Debt relief was provided for poor countries at the end of the 1990s and in the mid-2000s, but the JDC said external debt payments as a share of government revenue had more than doubled from 6.7% to 14.3% since 2010 and were at their highest level since 2001." --s

The Commentariat -- August 16, 2020

Late Morning Update:

Ali Vitali of NBC News: "Sen. Kamala Harris said she is 'very clear-eyed' about the kinds of attacks ... Donald Trump will lodge against her in the coming months, telling The Grio in an interview out Sunday that she expects the president and his allies to engage in 'lies' and 'deceptions.' The interview -- Harris' second publicly release since being announced as Joe Biden's running mate last week -- comes on the heels of Trump fanning false conspiracy theories about whether Harris is eligible to run as vice president."

Jacob Bogage & Joseph Marks of the Washington Post: "The House Oversight Committee will hold an emergency hearing on mail delays and concerns about potential White House interference in the U.S. Postal Service, inviting Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and Postal Service board of governors Chairman Robert M. Duncan to testify Aug. 24, top Democrats announced on Sunday. Democrats have alleged that DeJoy, a former Republican National Committee chairman, is taking steps that are causing dysfunction in the mail system and could wreak havoc in the presidential election. The House had earlier not planned a hearing until September.... On Thursday and Friday, [the USPS] began removing public collection boxes in parts of California, New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Montana. The agency said Friday that it would stop mailbox removals, which it said were routine, until after the election.... The Postal Service is in the process of removing 671 high-speed mail-sorting machines nationwide.... White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows said on CNN's 'State of the Union' on Sunday that it would also halt sorting-machine removals. Meadows also said the White House is open to Congress passing a stand-alone measure to ensure the U.S. Postal Service is adequately funded to manage a surge in mail voting in November...." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: My, my. It does sound as if there's panic in the White House following the public uproar over Trump/DeJoy's cavalier moves to "kneecap" the postal service. ~~~

~~~ Justine Coleman of the Hill: "White House chief of staff Mark Meadows on Sunday denied reports that several U.S. Postal Service (USPS) letter sorting machines were decommissioned after orders from the postmaster general. Meadows told CNN's 'State of the Union' that reports about hundreds of postal service sorting machines being taken out of service are a 'political narrative' and 'not based on fact.' NBC News reported on Friday that an internal document showed that Postmaster General Louis DeJoy is decommissioning 671 of USPS's letter sorting machines across the U.S." Read on for Meadows' exchange with Jake Tapper. ~~~

     ~~~ Kevin Bohn & Sarah Westwood of CNN: "Chris Bentley, president of the National Postal Mail Handlers Union Local 297, which covers Kansas and part of Missouri, previously told CNN that postal management had already taken out four machines in Kansas City, two machines in Springfield, Missouri, and one machine in Wichita, Kansas. [Mark] Meadows told CNN that was not part of a new initiative but was part of a pre-planned reallocation. Documents obtained by CNN last week indicated 671 machines used to organize letters or other pieces of mail are slated for 'reduction' in dozens of cities this year. The USPS's own document calls the move a 'reduction' of equipment. A letter sent Wednesday from the National Postal Mail Handlers Union to the Postal Service headquarters asked, 'Why are these machines being removed?'"

Aishvarya Kavi of the New York Times: "President Trump said on Saturday that he would consider pardoning Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who faced criminal charges after leaking classified documents about vast government surveillance. 'There are many, many people -- it seems to be a split decision -- many people think that he should be somehow be treated differently and other people think he did very bad things,' Mr. Trump said during a news conference at his golf club in Bedminster, N.J. 'I'm going to take a very good look at it.' The remarks signal a shift for the president, who repeatedly denigrated Mr. Snowden as a 'traitor' and a 'spy who should be executed' in the years before his election. The disclosures by Mr. Snowden, who sought asylum in Russia in 2013, set off a broad debate about surveillance and privacy." Mrs. McC: This is weird for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that Trump goes batshit when someone in his own administration leaks something fairly inconsequential.

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

** Jennifer Senior of the New York Times reads about Joe Biden in "'What It Takes,' Richard Ben Cramer's gonzo classic about the 1988 presidential primary.... His youthful energy never came from his ideas or any particularly revolutionary philosophy. Rather, it came from his hustle, his sociability, the way he locked in with people and related to them -- 'the connect,' as Cramer called it. 'You were more likely to hear from Biden what Jill said the other day about teaching ... what his mother used to say ... or a wonderfully embroidered story about a nun in Scranton ... than you were about his five-point education plan,' Cramer wrote.... What was the one bedrock of his conviction? His decency. His identification with ordinary, bone-weary, underappreciated Americans. His commitment to them, his compassion for them. The connect.... You could argue that the biggest Biden/Trump contrast, the mother of all remedies, is his capacity for compassion, identification -- the ability to make the connect, the very thing he's been peddling from the start."

Christopher Cadelago & Natasha Korecki of Politico: "In less than a week as [Joe Biden's] running mate, Kamala Harris is showing signs she can act as an accelerant to his bid -- and give the campaign a new dimension to excite voters heading into the Democratic convention this week. In the few days since Harris joined the ticket, Biden has seen surging fundraising, promising polls and the rare sight of a hometown crowd -- despite not being able to hold a rally.... When Biden spoke on a campus [in Wilmington, Delaware] earlier this summer, the parking lot was near-empty, and the only activity was a few reporters waiting to have their temperature taken. But a day after Harris was announced, the same high school parking lot was jammed with cars. Supporters with custom signs and Biden and Harris t-shirts ringed the sidewalk with iPhone cameras to catch their first glances of the tandem that will take on Donald Trump."

This is the Biden campaign's first ad featuring Kamala Harris:

From the New York Times' election updates Saturday. Michael Levenson: "President Trump on Saturday falsely accused Democrats of refusing to fund the United States Postal Service.... Speaking at a news conference [Mrs. McC: or whatever it is] at his golf resort in Bedminster, N.J., Mr. Trump also continued to rail against mail-in voting, calling it 'a catastrophe.' But he did not directly say whether he supported the removal of mail-sorting machines and other changes made under the leadership of his postmaster general, Louis DeJoy. 'I don't know what he's doing,' Mr. Trump said.... Democrats have pushed for a total of $10 billion for the Postal Service in talks with Republicans on the COVID-19 response bill. That figure, which would include money to help with election mail, was down from a $25 billion plan in a House-passed coronavirus measure. [Mrs. McC: The House passed the bill three months ago. The Republican-controlled Senate has been MIA.] ~~~

“Mr. Trump on Saturday also refused to say that Kamala Harris ... is eligible for the vice presidency, but insisted he was not stoking a racist conspiracy theory that has taken hold among some of his followers. 'I have not gotten into it in great detail,' Mr. Trump said, when asked if Ms. Harris is eligible for the vice presidency. 'If she's got a problem, you would have thought that she would have been vetted ... by Sleepy Joe.'... He also praised John C. Eastman, a conservative lawyer who wrote a widely discredited op-ed article written in Newsweek that sought to raise questions about Ms. Harris's eligibility. Mr. Trump called Mr. Eastman 'a brilliant lawyer.' Newsweek apologized on Saturday for publishing the op-ed, saying it was 'being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia.'"

Maureen Dowd of the New York Times: "President Trump represents the last primal shriek of retrograde white men afraid to lose their power. He's a dinosaur who evokes a world of beauty pageants, "suburban housewives,"' molestation, cheating on your wife when she's pregnant, paying off porn stars, preferring women to be seen and not heard, dismissing women who challenge you as nasty, angry and crazy."

Heather Caygle, et al., of Politico: "Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Democratic leaders are considering cutting short the August recess and bringing the chamber back into session to deal with the unfolding crisis at the U.S. Postal Service, according to Democratic sources. The House could return to vote with the next two weeks, the Democratic sources suggested. The chamber is currently in recess, with no votes scheduled until the week of Sept. 14.... On Friday, Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) issued a scathing statement accusing ... Donald Trump and Republicans of waging an 'all-out assault on the Postal Service and its role in ensuring the integrity of the 2020 election.' Their statement came after Trump said he opposes a federal infusion of funds to save the flailing postal service because he doesn't support mail-in voting." Mrs. McC: I don't know what good it would do to bring the House back unless Mitch agrees to bring the Senate back, too -- and both Houses have similar bills to vote on.

Luke Broadwater, et al., of the New York Times: "... accounts of slowdowns and curtailed service are emerging across the country as [Postmaster General Louis] DeJoy pushes cost-cutting measures he says are intended to overhaul an agency suffering billion-dollar losses. But as President Trump rails almost daily against the service and delays clog the mail, voters and postal workers warn a crisis is building that could disenfranchise record numbers of Americans who will be casting ballots by mail in November because of the coronavirus.... At risk are not just the ballots -- and medical prescriptions and paychecks -- of residents around the country, but also the reputation of the Postal Service as the most popular and perhaps the least politicized part of the federal government.... Mr. DeJoy has said he is trying to reform an organization with a 'broken business model' facing a litany of billion-dollar losses and declines in mail volumes. But voters and postal workers said the Postal Service was more than a business."

Philip Rucker, et al., of the Washington Post: "The breathtaking moves by the Trump administration this summer to disrupt a government service during the coronavirus pandemic -- under the argument that it will boost operational efficiencies -- represent the culmination of Trump's grievance-fueled crusade against the Postal Service that dates to the start of his presidency. Many of his complaints have centered on the post office's chronic financial problems, which have worsened during the pandemic.... Trump's fury with the Postal Service and mail-in balloting has become something of an obsession in recent weeks."

Eric Holder Weighs in. Daniel Politi of Slate: "On Saturday morning, law professor and legal analyst Barb McQuade pointed out [in a tweet] that obstructing mail is a federal offense and wondered who would prosecute Postmaster General Louis DeJoy in the Department of Justice headed by William Barr. 'The next, real, Justice Department,' [former Attorney General Eric] Holder replied [in a tweet]. Earlier, Holder posted a tweet that simply stated the law regarding the fines and imprisonment of up to six months that anyone who 'willfully obstructs or retards the passage of the mail' can face. Holder has been posting quite a bit on the Postal Service lately...."

Mitch's Man at the USPS. David Sirota & Matthew Cunningham-Cook of Too Much Information: In the lead-up to the current crisis, "Trump nominee Mike Duncan was appointed to the USPS's board of governors in 2018, and he was unanimously confirmed by the Senate in December 2019 to a full seven-year term. Duncan currently chairs the board. In 2018 federal disclosure filings during his confirmation, Duncan listed himself as the current chairman of the Senate Leadership Fund -- a $100 million Senate-focused Republican super PAC whose 2020 electoral goals could hinge on vote-by-mail systems.... Duncan was listed as a director of the Senate Leadership Fund in an annual report the super PAC filed in Virginia in August 2019. CNN reported in January 2020 that the Republican effort to retain the Senate includes '[Mitch] McConnell's super PAC, the Senate Leadership Fund, which is helmed by Mike Duncan, the former RNC chairman and a Kentuckian.'" --s

Khalida Volou & Kolbie Satterfield of WUSA Washington, D.C.: "A group of protesters staged a 'noise demonstration' Saturday morning outside of United States Postal Service Postmaster General Louis DeJoy's home in Northwest D.C. amid allegations of limiting mail-in voting ahead of the 2020 Presidential election. The demonstration was organized by the direct action group Shut Down D.C.... The organization believes DeJoy is 'dismantling' the U.S. Postal Service in favor of ... Donald Trump's re-election. They said his actions contribute to voter suppression.... Protesters chanted, sang, and banged on pots and pans outside of DeJoy's District resident for about an hour Saturday morning. Some neighbors, who seemed confused at first, joined the protest which had a portion of Connecticut Ave. closed to traffic. Some protesters stuffed fake absentee ballots and letters into the Postmaster General's apartment lobby door." Mrs. McC: Interesting that neighbors joined the protest. This is one of the ritziest neighborhoods in D.C. I wonder if the neighbors who joined the protest were Barack Obama & Jeff Bezos.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

Spit Take. Zach Lowe of ESPN: "The U.S. Food and Drug Administration issued an emergency authorization on Saturday allowing public use of a saliva-based test for the coronavirus developed at Yale University and funded by the NBA and the National Basketball Players Association. The test, known as SalivaDirect, is designed for widespread public screening. The cost per sample could be as low as about $4, though the cost to consumers will likely be higher than that -- perhaps around $15 or $20 in some cases, according to expert sources. Yale administered the saliva test to a group that included NBA players and staff in the lead-up to the league's return to play and compared results to the nasal swab tests the same group took. The results almost universally matched, according to published research that has not yet been peer-reviewed. The leading coronavirus saliva test, developed at a Rutgers University lab and given the same permission by the FDA in mid-April, costs individual consumers up to $150 -- though that can be reduced to $60 or $70 in some circumstances...."

Georgia. Scott Trubey & Greg Bluestein of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution: "President Trump's coronavirus task force warns that Georgia continues to see 'widespread and expanding community viral spread' and that the state's current policies aren't enough to curtail COVID-19. The task force 'strongly recommends' Georgia adopt a statewide mandate that citizens wear masks, joining a chorus of public health officials, Democrats and others who have warned that Gov. Brian Kemp's refusal to order face coverings has plunged the state into deeper crisis and will prolong recovery. 'Current mitigation efforts are not having a sufficient impact,' the report said. Businesses, such as nightclubs, bars and gyms, currently open with some restrictions in Georgia, should be closed in the highest risk counties, the report said.... Georgia also needs to ramp up testing and contact tracing statewide, the report said, and testing and infection control measures need to be expanded in nursing homes and other long-term care facilities."

South Dakota. Tony Romm of the Washington Post: "An order signed by President Trump to boost unemployed workers' weekly benefits will not deliver any new aid to South Dakota, where Republican Gov. Kristi L. Noem [R] appeared to become the first state leader to decline the heightened federal support. Noem, one of Trump's most vocal allies, said South Dakota did not need to accept the additional federal jobless aid because workers in the state are being rehired, and its economy is on the mend...." Mrs. McC: In case you might think Noem is just fiscally conservative and not mean, there's this: "Roughly 20,000 people in the state are currently collecting jobless benefits.... Michele Evermore ... [of] the National Employment Law Center, said...: 'If you're an unemployed person in South Dakota, it's not going to matter to you there aren't a lot of unemployed people.'..."

Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar. Sean Colarossi of Politics USA: "In a bipartisan letter to the Justice Department, the Senate Intelligence Committee raised concerns about testimony given by some of Donald Trump's family members during the Russia investigation. According to the Los Angeles Times, '[The letter] raised concerns about testimony provided by family members and confidants of President Trump that appeared to contradict information provided by a former deputy campaign chairman [Rick Gates] to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III.' Among those family members and allies who may have given conflicting testimony were Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Hope Hicks. The committee also sought an investigation into former Trump adviser Steve Bannon for 'potentially lying to lawmakers during its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The letter is dated July 19, 2019. What with more than a year's having passed since the senators sent the letter to the DOJ, you'd almost think maybe our fine Justice Department wasn't getting right on it. ~~~

     ~~~ Update. Karoun Demirjian & others of the Washington Post now have a story on this: "The Republican and Democratic chairmen of the Senate Intelligence Committee notified federal prosecutors last year of their suspicion that several individuals, including President Trump's family members and confidants, might have presented misleading testimony in the panel's investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 election, people familiar with the matter said. The list of individuals included ... Donald Trump Jr., and Jared Kushner, whose accounts of their pre-election meeting with a Russian lawyer were contradicted by the president's former deputy campaign chairman Rick Gates in interviews that were part of the criminal investigation led by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III, these people said.... But the intelligence committee, one person said, reserved its harshest allegations for the president's former chief strategist, Stephen K. Bannon, former campaign co-chair Sam Clovis and private security contractor Erik Prince, saying it had reason to believe all three had lied to congressional investigators -- a potential felony.... It is unclear whether the Justice Department took action on the referrals."

Gene Johnson of the AP: "... Donald Trump intends to withdraw the nomination of William Perry Pendley to head the Bureau of Land Management, a senior administration official said Saturday -- much to the relief of environmentalists who insisted the longtime advocate of selling federal lands should not be overseeing them. Pendley, a former oil industry and property rights attorney from Wyoming, has been leading the agency for more than a year under a series of temporary orders from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. Democrats alleged the temporary orders were an attempt to skirt the nomination process, and Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) and conservation groups have filed lawsuits to have Pendley removed from office."

AP: A riot was declared in Oregon's biggest city as protesters demonstrated outside a law enforcement building early Sunday, continuing a nightly ritual in Portland. Officers used crowd control munitions to disperse the gathering outside the Penumbra Kelly building, news outlets reported. Protesters had thrown 'softball size' rocks, glass bottles and other objects at officers, police said on Twitter. The department also said security cameras had been spray painted and other vandalism occurred. The actions came after what started as a peaceful protest.... Saturday afternoon, a rally by a small group of alt-right demonstrators quickly devolved as they traded paint balls and pepper spray with counter-protesters. About 30 people were participating in the Patriot Prayer rally in front of the Multnomah County Justice Center. Several were armed with automatic weapons, KOIN-TV reported."

News Ledes

Washington Post: "A series of fire tornadoes -- genuine twisters made of smoke and flame -- struck Lassen County, Calif., on Saturday, churning around as the Loyalton Fire rapidly expanded to more than 20,000 acres. Extreme fire behavior and pinpoint lightning strikes accompanied the massive blaze, which was 5 percent contained Sunday morning after burning for two days. The powerful fire and potent rotation inside the wildfire even prompted the National Weather Service in Reno, Nev., to issue what is believed to be the first weather alert of its kind: a 'fire tornado warning.'" The accompanying photo (which currently also appears near the bottom of the WashPo's front page) is stunning.

New York Times: "Robert S. Trump, the younger brother of President Trump, died on Saturday night in Manhattan. He was 71. The White House, which announced his death, at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital, did not give a cause.... Simply being a close family member did not shield him from his brother's rages when Donald Trump needed someone to blame.... In one meeting, [Jack] O'Donnell [-- a former Trump Organization executive --] recalled, Donald Trump screamed at his brother, putting the blame for [a] slot machine debacle [at Trump's Atlantic City casino] entirely on him. 'Robert calmly got up, walked out of the room, and that's the last time I ever saw him,' Mr. O'Donnell said.... The rift [took] years to heal.... The relationship between the brothers ... was illustrated by Donald Trump in his book 'The Art of the Deal.' In it, he recalled stealing his younger brother's blocks when they were children and gluing them together so that Robert couldn't reclaim them." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McC: I cited those two anecdotes about Donald's relationship with Robert to help you adjust your sympathies in case your good nature has caused you to feel a pang of sorrow for Donald.

New York Times: "James R. Thompson, a Republican known as Big Jim who used his enthusiasm for campaigning and his canny understanding of state politics to become the longest-serving governor of Illinois, died on Friday. He was 84."

The Commentariat -- August 15, 2020

Late Morning Update:

Just saw this ad on run on CNN. Pretty good:

Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar, Liar. Sean Colarossi of Politics USA: "In a bipartisan letter to the Justice Department, the Senate Intelligence Committee raised concerns about testimony given by some of Donald Trump's family members during the Russia investigation. According to the Los Angeles Times, '[The letter] raised concerns about testimony provided by family members and confidants of President Trump that appeared to contradict information provided by a former deputy campaign chairman [Rick Gates] to Special Counsel Robert S. Mueller III.' Among those family members and allies who may have given conflicting testimony were Donald Trump Jr., Jared Kushner, Paul Manafort and Hope Hicks. The committee also sought an investigation into ... Steve Bannon for 'potentially lying to lawmakers during its investigation of Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.'" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The letter is dated July 19, 2019. What with more than a year's having passed since the senators sent the letter to the DOJ, you'd almost think maybe our fine Justice Department wasn't getting right on it.

~~~~~~~~~~

Presidential Race, Etc.

Davey Alba of the New York Times: "... false and misleading information about [Kamala] Harris has spiked online and on TV.... Here are three false rumors about Ms. Harris that continue circulating widely online.... The falsehood that Ms. Harris is connected to a child-trafficking conspiracy known as PizzaGate was published on the conspiracy-mongering website Infowars, which set off a round of sharing on social media.... One of the most convoluted lies that has spread on social media involves the actor Jussie Smollett and the baseless allegation that Ms. Harris is his aunt and knew in advance that Mr. Smollett was planning to stage an assault against himself early last year.... Falsehoods about Ms. Harris's heritage -- in particular that she is 'not Black' -- were among the most widely spread misinformation that Zignal Labs tracked." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: While the first two rumors are just plain nuts, I think the last may be simply misunderstanding, even though in many cases that misunderstanding is embedded in purposeful racism. Jamelle Bouie of the New York Times does a fine job of explaining what it means to be African-American or Black in the U.S.

Annals of "Journalism," Ctd. Lloyd Grove of the Daily Beast: "Newsweek Editor-in-Chief Nancy Cooper and the magazine's recently hired opinion editor, Trump-backing conservative activist and attorney Josh Hammer, apologized on Friday after nearly a week of defending a right-wing law professor's op-ed questioning Sen. Kamala Harris' U.S. citizenship and her eligibility to be Joe Biden's running mate. 'This op-ed is being used by some as a tool to perpetuate racism and xenophobia. We apologize,' read the editor's note that replaced their earlier detailed defense of the op-ed.... Hammer -- a former Ted Cruz aide and member of the Federalist Society and the right-leaning Claremont Institute, who joined Newsweek in May after writing for Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire -- declined to comment, telling The Daily Beast in a brief phone conversation, 'I'm not interested in speaking. Thank you.' And then hung up the phone." ~~~

~~~ Mark Stern of Slate: "... the conservative legal movement continues to entertain their lie [that children born in the U.S. do not automatically receive American citizenship], lending it a patina of legitimacy. In turn, media outlets give these charlatans a megaphone through which to launder their racist falsehoods. And that, in short, is why ... Donald Trump is floating the fictitious claim that [Kamala] Harris may not qualify to serve as vice president.... Why ... do outlets like Newsweek and the Washington Post keep publishing articles that promote this lie? A coterie of racists based at the Claremont Institute hope that if they repeat it enough, they can leave the door open for a mass expatriation of second-generation Americans, most of them minorities. Indeed, there are few if any supporters of this falsehood who lack connections to the Claremont Institute.... The Claremont Institute masquerades as an intellectual salon of the right, but it is really just a racist fever swamp with deep connections to the conspiratorial alt-right."

Edward Moreno of the Hill: "Marge Simpson says she's 'pissed off' after Trump campaign adviser Jenna Ellis tweeted this week that Sen. Kamala Harris (Calif.) ... 'sounds like' her." ~~~

Marge Simpson has something to say. pic.twitter.com/viux96bAPf

— TheSimpsons (@TheSimpsons) August 14, 2020

Janelle Griffith of NBC News: "A Virginia mayor is facing calls for his resignation over a Facebook post in which he said that Joe Biden 'just announced Aunt Jemima' as his running mate. Luray Mayor Barry Presgraves posted the comment about two weeks ago on his Facebook page.... 'I thought it was humorous,' he said. 'I had no idea people would react the way they did. I think people have gone overboard on this ... It's an election year.' [Presgraves is not running for re-election.] The comment was condemned by members of the Luray Town Council and other residents before he took it down.... Presgraves apologized at a town council meeting on Monday night.... The town council voted 5-1 to censure Presgraves for what they described in a statement as 'his choice of harmful words posted on social media.'"

MEANWHILE, in Australia. Sonali Paul & Joseph Ax of Reuters: "A cartoon in Australia's biggest national newspaper was denounced as racist by some top government figures on Friday for a portrayal of U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and his running mate Kamala Harris.... The cartoon by Johannes Leak in The Australian newspaper, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp and is known for its conservative views, depicted a beaming Biden saying, 'It's time to heal a nation divided by racism.' The drawing then showed him pointing to Harris, the first Black woman on a major-party U.S. presidential ticket, and saying, 'So I'll hand you over to this little brown girl while I go for a lie-down.'"

A FactCheck Backtrack. "Trump Proves Biden Right." Eugene Keily of FactCheck.org: "In late June, Joe Biden claimed ... Donald Trump 'wants to cut off money for the post office so they cannot deliver mail-in ballots.' At the time, we wrote that ... [Biden] had no evidence of Trump's ulterior motive -- but now he does. In an Aug. 13 interview, Trump admitted that he opposes a coronavirus pandemic relief bill crafted by the House Democrats because it includes funding the U.S. Postal Service and state election officials -- funding that Trump said is needed to allow the Postal Service to handle an expected surge in mail-in voting.... Hours after his interview with Bartiromo, Trump said he wouldn't veto the bill if it includes money for the Postal Service and state election planning -- but he repeated his statement about the agency being unable to handle mail-in ballots without it.... Trump provided Biden with the evidence that he earlier had lacked."

Ha! Sahil Kapur of NBC News: "Joe Biden gained the presidential endorsement of the National Association of Letter Carriers on Friday, a union that boasts nearly 300,000 active and retired postal workers.... The endorsement comes ... a day after ... Donald Trump said he opposes Postal Service funding pushed by Democrats.... Congressional Democrats, backed by Biden, have sought $3.6 billion to help equip states for an expected surge of mail-in votes, as well as $25 billion to shore up the Postal Service. Trump opposes it.... [Union president Fredric] Rolando said the postal worker union's decision to endorse Biden is 'partly informed by what we have seen from the current administration with regards to the Postal Service.... In 2018, legislative recommendations from the White House Postal Task Force report called for the revocation of collective bargaining rights by America's postal unions, massive cuts to services and the potential privatization of the agency,' he said. 'Since that time, we have continued to see the administration take steps outside of the public eye to undermine the Postal Service and letter carriers.'"

Amanda Marcotte of Salon: "Ads, speeches, campaign strategy — all the usual detritus of a normal political cycle -- are minor concerns in the face of the only story that really matters right now: Donald Trump is trying to destroying the U.S. Postal Service in order to keep votes by mail from being delivered on time and counted. This election, at the end of the day, is coming down to one single question: Will Trump be able to steal it?... Trump's efforts to undermine the Postal Service, so Americans can't reliably or effectively vote by mail, are working.... The president is trying to steal the election, he has the means to do it, and he very well may succeed unless he's met with massive, organized resistance.... The good news is that there's a real opportunity for voters to rally and take real action to make sure their vote is counted.... Postal slowdowns are the sort of thing even low-information voters tend to notice."

Louie DeLuxe.Marshall Cohen & Kristen Holmes of CNN: "The internal watchdog at the United States Postal Service is reviewing controversial policy changes recently imposed under Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, and is also examining DeJoy's compliance with federal ethics rules, according to a spokeswoman for the USPS inspector general and an aide to Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who requested the review. Lawmakers from both parties and postal union leaders have sounded alarms over disruptive changes instituted by DeJoy this summer, including eliminating overtime and slowing some mail delivery. Democrats claim he is intentionally undermining postal service operations to sabotage mail-in voting in the November election -- a charge he denies.... A spokeswoman for the USPS watchdog told CNN in an email, 'We have initiated a body of work to address the concerns raised, but cannot comment on the details.'" ~~~

~~~ Trump Held Secret Meeting with DeJoy, Lied about It. Abby Phillip, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump met with United States Postmaster General Louis DeJoy at the White House last week amid his ongoing attacks on mail-in voting and ahead of DeJoy's meeting with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer.... The meeting took place on August 3, Deere said. DeJoy met with Pelosi and Schumer on August 5. Asked days later, August 9, in New Jersey about the Post Office's issues, Trump said he 'didn't speak' to DeJoy.... 'It was a congratulatory meeting,' White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere told CNN. DeJoy, a longtime ally and prolific Trump fundraiser, took the post office's top role on June 15.... News of the meeting comes ... as the President has explicitly admitted he is blocking postal service funding to stop mail-in votes and spreading lies about mail-in voting." As Rachel Maddow said, on the same day DeJoy met with Pelosi & Schumer, August 7, DeJoy pulled off his "Friday Night Massacre," reassigning or removing 23 top USPS executives. Mrs. McC: Funny time for a "congratulatory meeting": nearly two months after DeJoy took office. Or was Trump congratulating DeJoy for something else? ~~~

     ~~~ In an update of a story also linked yesterday, the Washington Post reported that "DeJoy ... is in frequent contact with top Republican Party officials...." Mrs. McC: Now, what would be the purpose of those "frequent contacts"?

** Erin Cox, et al., of the Washington Post: "Anticipating an avalanche of absentee ballots, the U.S. Postal Service recently sent detailed letters to 46 states and D.C. warning that it cannot guarantee all ballots cast by mail for the November election will arrive in time to be counted -- adding another layer of uncertainty ahead of the high-stakes presidential contest. The letters sketch a grim possibility for the tens of millions of Americans eligible for a mail-in ballot this fall: Even if people follow all of their state's election rules, the pace of Postal Service delivery may disqualify their votes. The ballot warnings, issued at the end of July from Thomas J. Marshall, general counsel and executive vice president of the Postal Service, and obtained through a records request by The Washington Post, were planned before the appointment of Louis DeJoy, a former logistics executive and ally of President Trump, as postmaster general in early summer. They go beyond the traditional coordination between the Postal Service and election officials, drafted as fears surrounding the coronavirus pandemic triggered an unprecedented and sudden shift to mail-in voting." An AP story is here. ~~~

~~~ Steve M.: "The Postal Service is practically boasting that it won't deliver your mail-in ballot on time.... We might be tempted to believe that the bad guy here is not President Trump's hatchetman, Louis DeJoy, the recently appointed postmaster general [since, according to the WashPo, the letters were planned "in early summer"].... Except that according to a Vice/Motherboard story ... [linked below], the plans coincide with DeJoy's appointment rather precisely.... To me it seems obvious that DeJoy was in on the planning of this as his appointment was being finalized. The Postal Service is clearly trying to steal the election for Trump.... Of the six largest reductions in sorting capacity, two are in obvious swing states: Michigan and Pennsylvania. Two are in states that weren't expected to be swing states but now appear to be: Texas and Ohio. But why the sorting reductions in New York and California?... [Trump] doesn't just want to steal an Electoral College win. He wants to steal a popular vote win." ~~~

~~~ "A Most Desperate Ratfucking." Scott Lemieux in LG&$: "You can see a major part of the strategy here: to use uncertainty about the outcome to declare victory on Election Night. (Relatedly, the Trump administration is pretending Bush v. Gore was constitutional law to try to get the courts to suppress the vote in Nevada.)" ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: I see these letters as part of the effort to suppress the Democratic vote, too. Since millions more Democrats than Republicans are expected to vote by mail, and since voting by mail is a bit of a hassle -- request a ballot, look for the ballot in the mail, fill out the ballot, make sure you properly complete all the bells & whistles, mail the ballot -- Trump & DeJoy want Democratic voters to think, "Why am I going through all this effort when the Post Office will just turn my ballot into paper pulp?" See also the Postal Employees union president on this, too, reported by Zoë Richards of TPM & linked below. ~~~

~~~ Pam Fessler & Miles Parks of NPR: "... a bipartisan group of secretaries of state, who are responsible for running elections, requested to meet this week with postmaster general, Louis DeJoy, who was appointed to the job in May. But that meeting has yet to be scheduled.... It was not clear why the invitation has yet to be accepted, but ... the delay is unusual, considering that election officials will begin sending out absentee ballots as soon as September.... In his first public statement last week, DeJoy ... reaffirmed the Postal Service's commitment to delivering election mail and said the organization has 'ample capacity to deliver all election mail securely and on time.' President Trump has contradicted that claim, saying repeatedly that the Postal Service will not be able to handle the expected flood of absentee ballots without a large infusion of funds, which he opposes." ~~~

~~~ ** Aaron Gordon of Vice: "The United States Postal Service proposed removing 20 percent of letter sorting machines it uses around the country before revising the plan weeks later to closer to 15 percent of all machines, meaning 502 will be taken out of service, according to documents obtained by Motherboard.... USPS workers told Motherboard this will slow their ability to sort mail. One of the documents also suggests these changes were in the works before Louis DeJoy ... became postmaster general, because it is dated May 15, a month before DeJoy assumed office and only nine days after the Board of Governors announced his selection. The title of the presentation, as well as language used in the notice to union officials, undermines the Postal Service's narrative that the organization is simply 'mov[ing] equipment around its network' to optimize processing.... The May document clearly calls the initiative an 'equipment reduction.' It makes no mention of the machines being moved to other facilities.... Multiple sources within the postal service told Motherboard they have personally witnessed the machines, which cost millions of dollars, being destroyed or thrown in the dumpster." ~~~

Jacob Bogage of the Washington Post: "The removal of dozens of mailboxes in a handful of states set off a social media panic and some high-profile attention this week, but the U.S. Postal Service said the iconic blue boxes are just being moved to higher-volume areas.... Mailboxes have reportedly been removed in parts of New York, Pennsylvania, Oregon and Montana. Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.) wrote to DeJoy on Thursday requesting more information about the Postal Service's plans for its mailboxes. 'These actions set my hair on fire and they have real life implications for folks in rural America and their ability to access critical postal services like paying their bills and voting in upcoming elections,' Tester said in a Friday statement. 'Postmaster General DeJoy must immediately provide Montanans with an explanation for the actions of the USPS, or he can do it under oath before a Senate committee.'... Tester said in a later statement Friday that the Postal Service had paused mailbox removal in his home state, but ... demanded the postmaster general replace the collection boxes that were already removed." ~~~

     ~~~ Maritsa Georgiou of MBC Montana: "NBC Montana confirmed with the Montana State Association of the National Association of Letter Carriers the orders to remove 13 boxes in Missoula, 9 in Bozeman, 3 in Lewistown and 30 in Billings. A source that wishes to remain anonymous sent us the directive for Missoula, which lists addresses in front of the Target store, and several downtown Missoula." The story has been updated: "At 3:10 Friday afternoon, NBC Montana confirmed that the removal of USPS collection boxes has been put on hold statewide. A union leader says the decision came after Friday's pressure." That pressure came from Sen. Tester and later even from Sen. Steve Daines (R) & Rep. Greg Gianforte (R).

~~~ Closed for Lunch. Paul Murphy of CNN: "The US Postal Service will stop taking letter collection boxes off streets in Western states following accusations the removals would further limit some voters ability to send back mail-in ballots. The change came after CNN and others reported on Friday that the US Postal Service has started reducing post office operating hours across several states and removing letter collection boxes, according to union officials.... In a statement Friday night..., a USPS spokesperson for the service's the Western region told CNN that the service will stop the removal of letter collection boxes in 16 states and parts of two others until after the election.... It's not clear if the removal freeze would go into effect across the nation.... In the St. Louis area, some post offices that had been open until 6:30 p.m. -- specifically to serve people getting off-work -- would start to close at 5:00 p.m.... Union officials in West Virginia, Florida and Missouri also said workers are being told that post offices must close an hour for lunch...." ~~~

~~~ Adam Edelman of NBC News: "Former President Barack Obama, in an interview released Friday, slammed ... Donald Trump for trying to 'actively kneecap the Postal Service' to affect mail-in voting in the 2020 election and urged lawmakers and citizens to take actions to 'protect the integrity' of the election.... Obama ... accused Republicans of having tried for years 'to discourage people's votes from counting in all kinds of ways,' like voter identification laws and gerrymandering, but said Trump's threats were 'unique to modern history.'" ~~~

~~~ Zoë Richards of TPM: "President of the American Postal Workers Union Mark Dimondstein on Thursday called it 'truly shameful' that ... Donald Trump would 'hold the post office hostage,' amid the coronavirus pandemic in an attempt to suppress and discourage Americans from voting. 'The cat's out of the bag,' Dimondstein told MSNBC's Lawrence O'Donnell, referring to revelations earlier this week that -- by his own admission -- Trump said blocking a Democratic proposal for $25 billion of much-needed additional funding to the U.S. Postal Service would prevent widespread mail-in voting.... Dimondstein ... accused the President of what he called attempts to 'keep people from voting,' since ongoing health concerns have made it increasingly difficult for many people to vote safely in-person during the upcoming November election. Dimondstein also criticized the President for perpetuating the 'dangerous' and false claim that voting by mail wouldn't work as a way to discourage people from voting at all."

Philip Bump of the Washington Post: "During a news conference Friday, the Associated Press's Jill Colvin asked Trump specifically about QAnon. 'You congratulated Marjorie Taylor Greene in a tweet. You called her a future Republican star,' Colvin said. 'Greene has been a proponent of the QAnon conspiracy theory. She said it's something that should be -- would be worth listening to. Do you agree with her on that?' 'Well, she did very well in the election,' Trump replied. 'She won by a lot. She was very popular. She comes from a great state, and she had a tremendous victory. So absolutely I did congratulate her.' This, in a nutshell, seems to summarize Trump's view of the situation: she's popular and can get votes, so who's he to object to what she does?... 'Specifically on QAnon and her appearance to embrace that conspiracy theory,' Colvin pressed. 'Do you agree with her on that?' Trump ignored the follow-up..., calling on another reporter.... By not specifically denying or rejecting the theory, he gave it oxygen...." A CNN story is here. ~~~

~~~ Margaret Sullivan of the Washington Post: "Anything that threatens the integrity of the vote needs to be treated as one of the biggest stories out there -- even if it's not the sexiest.... All news organizations need to turn up the heat.... Democracy itself depends on it."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Here's what the Constitution says about postal services: "The Congress shall have Power ... To establish Post Offices and post Roads[.]" Although one of the reasons for establishing a national postal service seems to have been to raise revenues, there's nothing in that Constitutional clause that suggests the USPS must be a profit center. And surely one good purpose -- very much in the national interest -- of maintaining the Post Office is to make sure it is able to facilitate the franchise, that right most fundamental to democracy.

Belarus May Be Our Future. Julia Ioffe in GQ describes the horrific conditions in Belarus, where 6,000 people were rounded up and jailed for protesting a rigged presidential election "in which Aleksander Lukashenko, who has ruled Belarus for 26 years, claimed to win over 80 precent of the vote.... After hundreds of protestors and journalists were released, they described being severely beaten and humiliated, handcuffed and packed in jail cells and forced to lie face down on the concrete, 'like a living carpet,' in pools of their own blood. Others described being in a cell with 65 other people and being given one loaf of bread for everyone to share. People fainted from hunger, thirst, and a lack of fresh air.... In the meantime, liberal, pro-Western Russians and Belarussians are asking: where are the Americans?... Once upon a time, we cared about people like this.... But when the same authoritarianism came home, how did we respond? When a man who didn't hide his authoritarian fantasies won an election, when he openly admired the dictators who crush their dissenters, what did we do? People like [Lindsey] Graham turned into Trump's biggest enablers.... The institutions didn't anticipate such cynical party loyalty, even to a man who has repeatedly said that he may not accept the election results if he loses, a man who would likely be all too happy to make the presidential election of November 2016 our last."

Connecticut Congressional Race. Daniela Altimari of the Hartford Courant: "The arrest of Connecticut Congressional candidate Thomas Gilmer on the eve of this week's Republican primary threw the race into disarray. But details of his alleged violent domestic assault were known in Republican circles for more than two months before anyone contacted authorities. Gilmer's primary opponent, Justin Anderson, spent weeks showing a graphic video of the alleged attack to his fellow Republicans as he worked to defeat the party-backed Gilmer. The state party chairman, J.R. Romano, acknowledged he knew about the allegations as early as May.... Anderson did not report the matter to the police until whispers of Gilmer's past behavior spilled onto social media in late July -- two months after the party's nominating convention. Other Republicans who were shown the video or informed of the allegations also did not contact the police, nor did party leaders alert rank and file Republicans, who selected Gilmer as the nominee." According to the New York Times, the race still has not been called & Anderson leads Gilmer by only 15 votes. The numbers have not changed since I last looked a few days ago.

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

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

Sarah Mervosh, et al., of the New York Times: "... for the first time, the number of known tests [for coronavirus] conducted each day has fallen. Reported daily tests trended downward for much of the last two weeks, essentially stalling the nation's testing response.... The troubling trend ... may in part reflect that fewer people are seeking out tests as known cases have leveled off at more than 50,000 per day, after surging even higher this summer. But the plateau in testing may also reflect people's frustration at the prospect of long lines and delays in getting results -- as well as another fundamental problem: The nation has yet to build a robust system to test vast portions of the population, not just those seeking tests. Six months into the pandemic, testing remains a major obstacle in America's efforts to stop the coronavirus.... 'We are doing the appropriate amount of testing now to reduce the spread, flatten the curve, save lives,' [Adm. Brett Giroir, Trump's virus testing czar,] said this week." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I'll bet one reason some people choose not to get tested is that they believe Trump that "There are those that say you can test too much" and his repeated nonsensical claim that testing increases cases. They think either that the testing itself makes people sick, as Trump implies, or that they're helping Trump reduce the number of cases.

Joseph Guzman of the Hill: "The nation's leading infectious disease expert and White House coronavirus task force adviser said on Thursday he is not pleased with the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic in the U.S. as the nation continues to lead the rest of the world in the number of cases and deaths. 'Bottom line is, I'm not pleased with how things are going,' Anthony Fauci ... said during an exclusive conversation with National Geographic"

Florida. Lori Rozsa, et al., of the Washington Post: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis this week forced one of the country's largest school districts to reopen campuses by the end of August, threatening to withhold up to $200 million in state aid. The Republican's administration told Hillsborough County -- the eighth-largest system in the country -- that it would lose state aid if it did not drop plans to reopen schools remotely for the first month of the 2020-2021 school year. So the county revised its plan and will start with just one week of remote learning. Then parents will choose whether to send their children into school buildings.... DeSantis's administration is playing hardball with other school districts, too, in a state that is one of the nation's coronavirus hot spots, forcing them to reopen buildings now or earlier than they want. Other governors had linked reopening schools to state funding, but none as explicitly as DeSantis."

Lee Moran of the Huffington Post: "Donald Trump drew stinging backlash on Friday with his boast on Twitter that he'd 'done more for WOMEN than just about any President in HISTORY!' Trump also proposed in his post -- which came ahead of the 100th anniversary of the 19th Amendment passing, which granted women the right to vote -- building 'a BEAUTIFUL STATUE in Washington D.C. to honor the many brave women who made this possible for our GREAT COUNTRY.'" Thanks to PD Pepe for the link. Mrs. McC: And thanks to Donald Trump for all he's done for me.

Pete Williams of NBC News: "The top two officials at the Department of Homeland Security, acting Secretary Chad Wolf and Ken Cuccinelli, the senior official performing the duties of deputy secretary, are not legally qualified to hold those positions, a government watchdog concluded Friday. The Government Accountability Office said Wolf and Cuccinelli assumed those jobs under an order of succession that was issued by an acting secretary who himself had no authority to hold his job. That former acting head was Kevin McAleenan, who took over after the last Homeland secretary to be confirmed by the Senate, Kirstjen Nielsen, resigned. GAO's conclusion has no force of law, but the agency said it is referring its conclusion to the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general. Friday's findings could, however, be cited in lawsuits challenging DHS policies, including stricter immigration controls." A Washington Post story is here.

Adam Goldman of the New York Times: "A former F.B.I. lawyer intends to plead guilty after he was charged with falsifying a document as part of a deal with prosecutors conducting their own criminal inquiry of the Russia investigation, according his lawyer and court documents made public on Friday. The lawyer, Kevin Clinesmith, 38, who was assigned to the Russia investigation, plans to admit that he altered an email from the C.I.A. that investigators relied on to seek renewed court permission in 2017 for a secret wiretap on the former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page, who had at times provided information to the spy agency. Mr. Clinesmith's lawyer said he made a mistake while trying to clarify facts for a colleague." The Daily Beast's story is here.

Carol Leonnig & Nick Miroff of the Washington Post: "The Secret Service sought to bolster its protection of the White House with surveillance aircraft and a Black Hawk helicopter carrying a 'fast rope' commando team after crowds protesting the police killing of George Floyd knocked down temporary barricades and one man got onto the complex grounds in late May, according to newly obtained government correspondence. That breach -- combined with the throngs of protesters that converged outside the White House the night of May 29 -- prompted agents to rush President Trump to a reinforced bunker and spurred a deeper concern about the White House's vulnerability. In a letter a week later, the Secret Service asked U.S. Customs and Border Protection to provide aircraft that could be used in a rapid-response helicopter operation, the records show.... The Secret Service also asked CBP to help the agency gather information on protesters by flying a surveillance plane equipped with infrared imaging over the city starting that weekend."

Lomi Kriel of ProPublica: "Guards in an immigrant detention center in El Paso sexually assaulted and harassed inmates in a 'pattern and practice' of abuse, according to a complaint filed by a Texas advocacy group urging the local district attorney and federal prosecutors to conduct a criminal investigation. The allegations ... maintain that guards systematically assaulted at least three people in a facility overseen by Immigration and Customs Enforcement -- often in areas of the detention center not visible to security cameras.... According to the complaint filed with the Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General and shared with prosecutors, several guards 'forcibly' kissed and touched the intimate parts of at least one woman. She faces deportation next week -- meaning investigators could lose a key witness."

Jesse Byrnes of the Hill: "President Trump on Friday issued an order calling on Chinese company ByteDance, which owns the popular video app TikTok, to divest from the social media platform's U.S. operations, citing national security. 'There is credible evidence that leads me to believe that ByteDance Ltd. ... might take action that threatens to impair the national security of the United States,' Trump said in the order released Friday night. The order cites ByteDance's 2017 acquisition of the social media app Musical.ly, which merged into TikTok...."

Your Second-Amendment Rights Are Amazing. David Li of NBC News: "A federal appeals court on Friday ruled against the state of California and its ban on high-capacity magazines, calling it 'well-intentioned' but unconstitutional. A split ruling from the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the state's ban on magazines holding more than 10 rounds of ammunition would infringe on the Second Amendment right to own firearms.... In dissent, Judge Barbara Lynn said the California law didn't trample on anyone's core Second Amendment freedoms."

But the Emails! Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal appeals court panel has unanimously overturned a lower-court order requiring Hillary Clinton to provide a sworn deposition about her use of a private email account and server during her four years as secretary of State. The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled, 3-0, that the conservative group Judicial Watch was not entitled to depose Clinton in connection with an 8-year-old Freedom of Information Act lawsuit seeking records of details about information national security adviser Susan Rice discussed during interviews in 2012 about the deadly attack on U.S. facilities in Benghazi, Libya.... Clinton answered written questions under penalty of perjury about her email practices. However, in March of this year, U.S. District Court Judge Royce Lamberth ordered the former first lady, Cabinet official and two-time Democratic presidential candidate to sit for a deposition. Lamberth, an appointee of President Ronald Reagan who has tangled with Clinton administration aides in a series of cases for decades, called Hillary Clinton's earlier answers 'incomplete, unhelpful, or cursory, at best.'"