The Commentariat -- October 19, 2020

Afternoon Update:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Presidential Race, Etc.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beyond the Beltway

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

The Commentariat -- October 18, 2020

Presidential Race, Etc.

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

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

Res ipsa loquitur:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

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

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

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

The Commentariat -- October 17, 2020

Afternoon Update:

Res ipsa loquitur:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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Presidential Race, Etc.

"What the Hell Is Wrong with This Guy?' Tal Axelrod of the Hill: "Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden tore into President Trump on Friday over his response to a foiled plot to kidnap Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D), accusing him of stoking tensions across the country. Biden said the plot by a militia group to kidnap Whitmer, which the FBI foiled earlier this month, is 'the sort of behavior you might expect from ISIS [that] should shock the conscience of every American.... But all President Trump does is fan the flames of hatred and division of this country,' he said at a rally in Southfield, Mich. Biden, at another campaign event later that day in Detroit, also noted that Trump continued attacking Whitmer on the day the plot was revealed, with the president taking shots at the governor's handling of the coronavirus pandemic, saying she did a 'terrible job' and 'locked down her state for everyone.... What the hell is wrong with this guy?' Biden asked."

Michael Grynbaum & John Koblin of the New York Times: "Television ratings matter to President Trump. So these numbers may sting. In a victory that few in the TV and political arenas predicted, Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s town hall-style forum on ABC on Thursday night drew a larger audience than President Trump's competing event on NBC, according to Nielsen. Mr. Biden's town-hall meeting, which aired on a single network, was seen by an average of 15.1 million viewers, compared with 13.5 million for Mr. Trump even though the president monopolized three networks -- NBC, MSNBC and CNBC -- simultaneously.... The numbers were a bracing outcome for the president, whose aides had been promising a decisive ratings win over his Democratic rival. 'We're going to have a much bigger audience than Joe for next Thursday,' Jason Miller, a senior adviser to Mr. Trump's campaign, told Fox News last week." ~~~

~~~ Trump Whines about Town Hall. Nick Niedzwiadek of Politico: "... Donald Trump cranked up the sarcasm on Friday as he swiped at NBC's Savannah Guthrie during the prior night's town hall special in Miami. 'Another evening in paradise, I call it,' Trump said at an unrelated event in Fort Myers, Fla.... 'I had someone [NBC host Savannah Guthrie] going totally crazy last night.' Guthrie piqued Trump on multiple occasions during the town hall event, including pressing him on the baseless QAnon conspiracy theory ... which Trump refused to disavow even though it has been deemed a domestic terrorism threat by the FBI.... Guthrie also challenged Trump on retweeting a separate bizarre theory that Osama bin Laden is still alive and that Joe Biden secretly had members of SEAL Team Six killed after the president said it was intended as food for thought. 'That was an opinion of somebody and that was a retweet,' Trump said. [']I'll put it out there. People can decide for themselves[.]' 'You're the president. You're not like, someone's crazy uncle who can retweet whatever,' Guthrie shot back.... Trump also lashed out at George Stephanopoulos, who moderated a dueling town hall with Joe Biden... for not pressing the Democratic nominee about allegations against his son Hunter Biden's business dealings in Ukraine." ~~~

     ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: When you live in Crazyland, you just can't understand why fake stories made up by the Kremlin or right-wing Norwegian wackos (his Nobel Peace Prize nomination) don't get more respect. ~~~

~~~ Alexander Bolton of the Hill: "Sen. Mitt Romney (R-Utah) on Friday slammed President Trump for refusing to denounce QAnon.... 'The president's unwillingness to denounce an absurd and dangerous conspiracy theory last night continues an alarming pattern: politicians and parties refuse to forcefully and convincingly repudiate groups like antifa, white supremacists and conspiracy peddlers,' Romney said in a statement tweeted Friday afternoon. 'Similarly troubling is their silence regarding anti-vaxxers, militias and anarchists,' he added. 'Rather than expel the rabid fringes and the extremes, they have coddled or adopted them, eagerly trading their principles for the hope of electoral victories.'"

Say What? Quint Forgey of Politico: "... Donald Trump on Friday vowed to shield America's senior citizens from the coronavirus and directed them to stay home amid the pandemic, addressing a crowd of elderly supporters at an indoor event where mask-wearing was sporadic and not mandated. 'Stay. If you feel good, if you feel safe -- because it's going to be gone -- stay where you are,' Trump said in his speech in Fort Myers, Fla. 'Don't leave. Don't say, "Oh gee, I have to get out. The president said, let's get out." Stay where you are.'... The more cautious remarks from the president contradicted the tone Trump has struck at campaign rallies and other official events, where he regularly downplays the threat of the pandemic and urges Americans to restart their daily lives with little regard for the highly contagious disease."

** The New York Times is featuring an extraordinary Sunday Review making "The Case Against Donald Trump." The Editors' cover essay begins, "Donald Trump's re-election campaign poses the greatest threat to American democracy since World War II. Mr. Trump's ruinous tenure already has gravely damaged the United States at home and around the world. He has abused the power of his office and denied the legitimacy of his political opponents, shattering the norms that have bound the nation together for generations. He has subsumed the public interest to the profitability of his business and political interests. He has shown a breathtaking disregard for the lives and liberties of Americans. He is a man unworthy of the office he holds." The linked page has links to "a series of essays focused on the Trump administration's rampant corruption, celebrations of violence, gross negligence with the public's health and incompetent statecraft. A selection of iconic images highlights the president's record on issues like climate, immigration, women's rights and race." It appears there will be more to the section than the articles & essays linked here Friday. Mrs. McC: I don't have to tell you this is a unique journalistic response to any president's tenure. What a shame Trump can't read. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

~~~ Jake Tapper of CNN: "Former White House chief of staff, retired Marine Gen. John Kelly, has told friends that ... Donald Trump 'is the most flawed person' he's ever known. 'The depths of his dishonesty is just astounding to me. The dishonesty, the transactional nature of every relationship, though it's more pathetic than anything else...,' the retired Marine general has told friends.... The reporting comes from a new CNN special scheduled to air Sunday night, 'The Insiders: A Warning from Former Trump Officials,' in which former senior administration officials -- including former national security adviser John Bolton, former Health and Human Services scientist Rick Bright and former Department of Homeland Security general counsel John Mitnick -- explain why they think the President is unfit for office. Kelly's sentiments about the President's transactional nature and dishonesty have been shared by other former members of the Trump administration who also appear in the special." Mrs. McC: That's saying something, because Kelly himself is pretty "flawed."

Mrs. McCrabbie: Turns out Donald Trump has far closer ties to QAnon that I surmised. Knows nothing about it? Hell, he's funding it, & QAnon nuts share attorneys with Trump's family: ~~~

~~~ Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "Senior lawyers for the Trump campaign set up a small law firm last year that is working for Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Republican House candidate in Georgia with a history of promoting QAnon, a pro-Trump conspiracy theory. While federal filings show that the firm, Elections L.L.C., principally collects fees from the president's campaign and the Republican National Committee, it also does work for a number of congressional candidates, and none more so than Ms. Greene, underscoring the connections between QAnon and Mr. Trump and his inner circle. The latest example came Thursday night, when President Trump repeatedly declined to disavow QAnon at a televised town hall." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Backfire! Trump Has a Rudy Problem. Eric Tucker of the AP: "A New York tabloid's puzzling account about how it acquired emails purportedly from Joe Biden's son has raised some red flags. One of the biggest involves the source of the emails: Rudy Giuliani. Giuliani has traveled abroad looking for dirt on the Bidens, developing relationships with shadowy figures, including a Ukrainian lawmaker who U.S. officials have described as a Russian agent and part of a broader Russian effort to denigrate the Democratic presidential nominee.... The FBI [is] investigating whether the emails are part of a foreign influence operation. The emails have surfaced as U.S. officials have been warning that Russia, which backed Trump's 2016 campaign through hacking of Democratic emails and a covert social media campaign, is interfering again this year. The latest episode with Giuliani underscores the risk he poses to a White House that spent years confronted by a federal investigation into whether Trump associates had coordinated with Russia."

Dan Diamond of Politico: "The health department's top lawyer is warning in an internal memo that ... Donald Trump's plan to give seniors $200 discount cards to buy prescription drugs could violate election law, according to three officials with knowledge of those legal concerns. The lawyer's objection, coupled with his advice to seek approval from the Department of Justice, is a significant blow to Trump's hope to promote the hastily devised plan before Election Day. Robert Charrow, a political appointee who serves as the Health and Human Services department's general counsel, warned in the memo that the plan's timing and design could invite legal challenges.... 'This plan is quickly becoming radioactive,' said one official briefed on the proposal.... Congressional Democrats this week requested that a watchdog, the Government Accountability Office, begin an immediate review of the drug-discount card plan."

This Country Is Teeming with Armed Nuts. Neil MacFarquhar of the New York Times: "With the approaching election ratcheting up tensions in recent months, armed groups that assembled via a few clicks on the keyboard have become both more visible and more widespread. Some especially violent groups were rooted in longstanding anti-government extremism, like the 14 men charged with various crimes in Michigan this month.... Starting in April, demonstrations against coronavirus lockdowns prompted makeshift vigilante groups to move offline and into the real world. That trickle become a torrent amid the nationwide protests after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis -- with some armed groups claiming to protect the protesters while others sought to check them." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)

Georgia Senate Race. "Otherizing" a Woman of Color. Matthew Choi of Politico: "Republican Sen. David Perdue mocked Sen. Kamala Harris on Friday, derisively mispronouncing the Democratic vice presidential candidate's name during a campaign rally in Georgia. 'Kamala? Kamala? Kamala-mala-mala? I don't know. Whatever,' Perdue (R-Ga.) said at a rally in Macon, just before ... Donald Trump was set to take the stage. Mispronouncing Harris' first name has become a common attack within the Trump camp. The president routinely does so in a mocking way during his political rallies, even though he has correctly said it in less rowdy settings. Perdue and Harris (D-Calif.) have served together in the Senate since 2017. Harris, who is the daughter of immigrants from India and Jamaica, is the first woman of color nominated to a major political party ticket." ~~~

     ~~~ Mary Kornfield of the Washington Post: "'This kind of vile, race-baiting trash talk is what President Trump has unleashed from sitting Republican members in the Senate,' ... Jon Ossoff[, who is the Democratic nominee for Perdue's seat,] said in an interview with Joy Reid on MSNBC.... 'Sen. David Perdue has served in the Senate alongside vice-presidential nominee and Senator Kamala Harris since 2017. He knows her name and he knows how to say it, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee spokesperson Helen Kalla wrote in a statement. 'His disgusting performance today is nothing more than a desperate dog whistle from a losing politician who was already caught running anti-Semitic ads against Jon Ossoff,' Kalla wrote, alluding to a previous Perdue ad that depicted Democratic opponent Jon Ossoff with a longer and thinner nose, which the Jewish candidate alleged played on anti-Semitic tropes."

Iowa Senate Race. Joni Doesn't Know Beans about Beans. Donna Provencher of the American Independent: "In her third and last debate with the Democratic challenger for her Senate seat, Theresa Greenfield, on Thursday night, Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) bungled a softball question on the break-even price of soybeans, a major Iowa crop. Moderator Ron Steele first asked Greenfield about the break-even price of corn, which she correctly answered as approximately $3.68 a bushel. He then turned to Ernst, a self-styled agricultural expert who grew up on a farm raising soybeans, and asked her about the break-even price of soybeans. Ernst changed the subject to the U.S.-Mexico-Canada trade deal, but Steele [asked her again].... Ernst hesitated, then told him he had asked about the break-even price for corn.... Ignoring the question, Ernst told him the break-even price of corn was 'about $5.50.' When pressed by Steele, she continued talking about corn, criticizing Greenfield's answer to the question. She never did answer the question about the break-even price of soybeans. Ernst sits on the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, which authorizes most farming and conservation programs.... It was an odd gaffe for a senator who has frequently leveraged the fact that she grew up on a farm raising soybeans."

Massachusetts Senate Primary Race. AP: "U.S. Rep. Joe Kennedy III's campaign improperly spent $1.5 million earmarked for the general election during the Massachusetts congressman's failed bid to capture the Democratic nomination for a U.S. Senate seat, he said Friday. Kennedy said in a statement to The Boston Globe that he did not know about the improper spending before the Sept. 1 primary election, and has since reimbursed the campaign with ... $1.5 million of his own money. He and his campaign self-reported the violation to the Federal Election Commission last week, he said."

Dan Alexander of Forbes: "Lots of people believe the president owes $400 million, especially after Trump seemed to agree with that figure on national television Thursday night. In reality, however, he owes more than $1 billion. The loans are spread out over more than a dozen different assets -- ;hotels, buildings, mansions and golf courses. Most are listed on the financial disclosure report Trump files annually with the federal government. Two, which add up to an estimated $447 million, are not. It is important to note, as Trump did Thursday night, that he also has significant assets. Forbes values them at $3.66 billion, enough to make his net worth an estimated $2.5 billion. He is not broke, despite what many critics claim."

This Was Friday at Noonish ET. Thomas Fuller & Derrick Taylor of the New York Times: "The Trump administration has rejected California's request for disaster relief aid for six major wildfires that scorched more than 1.8 million acres in land, destroyed thousands of structures and caused at least three deaths last month. The rejection of aid late Thursday, a rare move in cases of disasters on the scale of California's fires, escalated a long-running feud between the Trump administration and California on the issues of climate change and forest management.... 'Billions of dollars are sent to the State of California for Forest fires that, with proper Forest Management, would never happen,' Mr. Trump tweeted in January 2019. 'Unless they get their act together, which is unlikely, I have ordered FEMA to send no more money.' Mr. Trump's threat at the time alarmed both Republicans and Democrats in the state. And wildfire experts say Mr. Trump's analysis is problematic because most of California's forests are on land owned by the federal government and their maintenance largely falls under the responsibility of his administration." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~

     ~~~ Gee, This Story Has Been Updated. New Lede: "President Trump reversed himself on Friday, approving a package of wildfire disaster relief for California hours after officials from his administration had explained why the state should not receive the aid. The abrupt turnaround came after the president spoke with Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, and Representative Kevin McCarthy, a Republican and the House minority leader, with the White House saying the men 'presented a convincing case' for the state receiving the aid. The disaster relief aid covers six major wildfires that scorched more than 1.8 million acres, destroyed thousands of structures and caused at least three deaths last month." An AP story is here. Mrs. McC: Apparently somebody convinced the Meanest Man Alive that less than three weeks before an election is not the best time to deny a standard federal disaster relief package.

Eric Lipton of the New York Times: "Facing the prospect that President Trump could lose his re-election bid, his cabinet is scrambling to enact regulatory changes affecting millions of Americans in a blitz so rushed it may leave some changes vulnerable to court challenges. The effort is evident in a broad range of federal agencies and encompasses proposals like easing limits on how many hours some truckers can spend behind the wheel, giving the government more freedom to collect biometric data and setting federal standards for when workers can be classified as independent contractors rather than employees. In the bid to lock in new rules before Jan. 20, Mr. Trump's team is limiting or sidestepping requirements for public comment on some of the changes and swatting aside critics who say the administration has failed to carry out sufficiently rigorous analysis. Some cases, like a new rule to allow railroads to move highly flammable liquefied natural gas on freight trains, have led to warnings of public safety threats."

Well, Of Course It Will. Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "The Supreme Court announced Friday that it will review President Trump's attempt to exclude undocumented immigrants when calculating how congressional seats are apportioned among the states. The unprecedented proposal could have the effect of shifting both political power and billions of dollars in federal funds away from urban states with large immigrant populations and toward rural and more Republican interests. A three-judge panel in New York said Trump's July 21 memorandum on the matter was 'an unlawful exercise of the authority granted to' him by Congress. It blocked the Commerce Department and the Census Bureau from including information about the number of undocumented immigrants -- it is unclear how those numbers would be generated -- in their reports to the president after this year's census is completed."

Spencer Hsu of the Washington Post: "A federal judge rebuked the Justice Department and the White House Counsel's Office on Friday for dismissing without explanation President Trump's 'emphatic and unambiguous' tweets ordering the declassification of all documents in the government's probe of Russia's interference in the 2016 U.S. election. 'I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax,' the president tweeted Oct. 6. 'Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!' Trump's blanket statement came the day after he returned to the White House from three days of treatment for the novel coronavirus at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center.... The tweet has since created a headache for government lawyers in pending open-records lawsuits filed by news organizations seeking fuller disclosure of special counsel Robert S. Mueller III's report and investigative materials. Associate Deputy Attorney General Bradley Weinsheimer maintained in a court filing Tuesday that the White House Counsel's Office informed the Justice Department that notwithstanding the president's statement, 'there is no order requiring wholesale declassification or disclosure of documents at issue.' At Friday's hearing, however, Judge Reggie B. Walton of the U.S. District Court in D.C. expressed bafflement at the claim that President Trump's words were not to be believed." ~~~

     ~~~ Josh Gerstein of Politico: "A federal judge demanded on Friday that the White House counsel's office confirm directly with ... Donald Trump whether he stands by a series public statements he made declaring that he'd declassified all information related to the probe of alleged Russian interference in the 2016 presidential election.... 'I think the American public has a right to rely upon what the president says about what his intent is,' said [Judge Reggie] Walton, an appointee of President George W. Bush. 'It seems to me that when a president makes an unambiguous statement of what his intent is, I can't rely upon White House counsel saying, "Well, that was not his intent." Maybe White House counsel talked to the president. Maybe they didn't, but I can't tell.' The 25-minute telephone hearing include the kinds of exchanges between judges and government lawyers that would have been considered stunning under any other president, but have become commonplace under Trump. Walton said, in essence, that he did not trust that the White House counsel's office was accurately relaying the president's view."

The Trumpidemic, Ctd.

The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Friday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Friday are here: "For the first time since late July, the tally of newly reported coronavirus cases in the United States surpassed 64,000 on Thursday and Friday. In 44 states and the District of Columbia, caseloads are higher than they were one month ago, and many of the new infections are being reported in rural areas with limited hospital capacity. More than 8,000,000 cases have been reported nationwide since February, and at least 216,000 people in the United States have died of covid-19...."

"A Self-Inflicted Defeat." Sarah Owermohle of Politico: "There won't be a coronavirus vaccine ready before Election Day, despite ... Donald Trump's repeated promises and vaccine makers' breakneck speed. The president's last best hope for meeting that deadline fizzled Friday as Pfizer announced that it would not seek emergency authorization from the Food and Drug Administration before the third week of November. The company is the only frontrunner in the vaccine race that has said it could have proof its vaccine works by Nov. 3. For Trump, the failure to meet that deadline is a self-inflicted defeat. The Election Day target was always an artificial one, created by a president who for months has touted it on the campaign trail and press briefing stage. When his administration's top scientists disputed the timeline, Trump accused them of slowing down progress for political reasons."

Way Beyond the Beltway

Nick Perry of the AP: "New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern won a second term in office Saturday in an election landslide of historic proportions. With most votes counted, Ardern's liberal Labour Party was winning 49% of the vote compared to 27% for its main challenger, the conservative National Party. Labour was on target to win an outright majority of the seats in Parliament, something that hasn't happened since New Zealand implemented a proportional voting system 24 years ago. Typically, parties must form alliances to govern, but this time Ardern and Labour can go it alone. In a victory speech in front of hundreds of cheering supporters in Auckland, Ardern said her party had gotten more support from New Zealanders that at any time in at least 50 years.... Her popularity soared earlier this year after she led a successful effort to stamp out the coronavirus. There is currently no community spread of the virus in the nation of 5 million and people are no longer required to wear masks or social distance."

News Ledes

NPR: "Bernard Cohen, who as a young lawyer successfully argued the Supreme Court case that struck down Virginia's ban on interracial marriages, has died at age 86.... Cohen was an attorney in Alexandria, Va., just a few years out of law school when the American Civil Liberties Union, where he was a volunteer, asked if he would take on the case of Richard and Mildred Loving."

New York Times: "Rhonda Fleming, the red-haired actress and sex symbol in Hollywood westerns, film noir and adventure movies of the 1940s and '50s, died on Wednesday at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, Calif. She was 97."