The Commentariat -- June 18, 2020
Late Morning/Afternoon Update:
Facebook Has Principles! -- No Nazi Symbols, Donald! Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "Facebook on Thursday deactivated dozens of ads placed by President Trump's reelection campaign that included a symbol once used by the Nazis to designate political prisoners in concentration camps. The marking appeared as part of the campaign's online salvo against antifa and 'far-left groups.' A red inverted triangle was used in the 1930s to identify Communists, and was applied as well to Social Democrats, liberals, Freemasons and other members of opposition parties incarcerated by the Nazis. The badge forced on Jewish political prisoners ... featured a yellow triangle overlaid by a red triangle so as to resemble a Star of David. The red triangle appeared in paid [Trump] posts [and] ... was featured alongside text warning of 'Dangerous MOBS.'... Facebook removed the material following queries from The Washington Post, saying ads and organic posts with the inverted triangle violated its policy against organized hate."
** Adam Liptak & Michael Shear of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that the Trump administration may not immediately proceed with its plan to end a program protecting about 700,000 young immigrants known as Dreamers from deportation. Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. wrote the majority opinion, joined by the court's four more liberal members. The court's ruling was a blow to one of President Trump's central campaign promises -- that as president he would 'immediately terminate' an executive order by former President Barack Obama that Mr. Trump had called an illegal executive amnesty for hundreds of thousands of young immigrants." This is a breaking news story. ~~~
~~~ Robert Barnes of the Washington Post: "... as lower courts had found, Roberts said the administration did not follow procedures required by law, and did not properly weigh how ending the program would affect those who had come to rely on its protections against deportation, and the ability to work legally.... 'We address only whether the [Department of Homeland Security] complied with the procedural requirement that it provide a reasoned explanation for its action. Here the agency failed to consider the conspicuous issues of whether to retain forbearance and what if anything to do about the hardship to DACA recipients. That dual failure raises doubts about whether the agency appreciated the scope of its discretion or exercised that discretion in a reasonable manner,'" [Roberts wrote]. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: IOW, this is a "procedural" decision & not the big win for DACA beneficiaries that a proper act of Congress would grant. Not for the first time, Roberts has refused to accept the cavalier, ham-handed way Trump & his minions try to undo standing rules & laws. Trump can do it again, and if he does it right, DACA recipients could lose their right to stay in the country where they have lived most of their lives. We need a Congress who will fix this. ~~~
~~~ Politico's story, by Josh Gerstein, is here. ~~~
~~~ Harper Neidig of the Hill: "President Trump on Thursday lashed out at the Supreme Court after it issued a ruling against his move to rescind deportation protections for young undocumented immigrants.... In a pair of tweets, Trump [wrote,] 'These horrible & politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people that are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives,' Trump tweeted. 'We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd. Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!'... 'Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn't like me?'" Mrs. McC Translation: It is "horrible" to deny me the authority to ruin the lives of millions of innocent people on a whim.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Thursday is here. The Washington Post's live updates for Thursday are here.
Gaslighting the Foxbots. Josh Wingrove of Bloomberg, in Time: "The coronavirus pandemic will 'fade away' even without a vaccine, but researchers are close to developing one anyhow..., Donald Trump said. 'We're very close to a vaccine and we're very close to therapeutics, really good therapeutics,' Trump said Wednesday night in a television interview with Fox News. 'But even without that, I don't even like to talk about that, because it's fading away, it's going to fade away, but having a vaccine would be really nice and that's going to happen.' Trump's comments come as the U.S. continues to see 20,000 new daily cases from a pandemic that so far has killed 117,000 people in the country."
Conor Finnegan of ABC News: "... Donald Trump is not 'fit for office' and doesn't have 'the competence to carry out the job,' his former national security adviser John Bolton told ABC News...."
New Mexico. Andrew Hay of Reuters: "A New Mexico prosecutor on Wednesday dropped a shooting charge against an Albuquerque man suspected of shooting a protester and called for further investigations after allegations the protester was armed at the time he was shot. Bernalillo County District Attorney Raúl Torrez said he had serious concerns an initial police investigation into the Monday shooting did not identify who owned multiple weapons collected at the scene, including knives, nor interview key bystanders and police. Torrez dropped an initial aggravated battery with a deadly weapon charge against Steven Baca, 31, after images emerged online showing protester Scott Williams, 39, holding what was rumored to be a knife before he was allegedly shot by Baca. Torrez said he expected Baca to claim self defense in the case."
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The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of coronavirus developments Wednesday are here. The Washington Post's live updates for Wednesday are here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
AWOL. Sheryl Stolberg, et al., of the New York Times: "The federal government's leadership in the coronavirus crisis has so faded that state and local health officials have been left to figure out on their own how to handle rising infections and to navigate conflicting signals from the White House.... To public health experts, it is little mystery why Americans are confused. As the White House sends mixed messages, Washington's public health bully pulpit has largely fallen silent. [Former acting CDC director Dr. Richard Besser said,] 'without that daily reinforcement, you have what is happening around the country -- people not believing the pandemic is real, cases rising in some places and the possibility that some communities' health care systems will get overwhelmed.'" ~~~
~~~ Kevin Liptak, et al., of CNN: "... Donald Trump has largely tuned out the persistent coronavirus contagion -- which is causing spikes in new cases across 21 states and daily death tolls that reach into the hundreds -- to focus instead on reviving both the economy and his own political prospects.... 'They just don't want to deal with the reality of it. They're in denial,' one administration official close to the coronavirus task force said."
Robert O'Harrow, et al., of the Washington Post: "As it races to create a vaccine for the novel coronavirus, the Trump administration this month announced that one of its largest pandemic-related contracts would go to a little-known biodefense company named Emergent BioSolutions.... The $628 million deal to help manufacture an eventual vaccine cemented Emergent's status as the highest-paid and most important contractor to the HHS office responsible for preparing for public health threats and maintaining the government's stockpile of emergency medical supplies.... Now, Emergent is the only maker of multiple drugs the government deems crucial for the Strategic National Stockpile, and the government is the company's primary customer, accounting for most of its revenue.... But Emergent's dominance has fueled new risks for national health preparedness, according to documents and former government officials. The industry consolidation has created 'vulnerabilities in the supply chain,' while also raising the prospect of inflated costs because of a lack of competition, according to a confidential report [commissioned by HHS] obtained by The Post.... Emergent's advocacy for biodefense spending over more than a decade was aided by influential allies in Washington and tens of millions of dollars in lobbying campaigns, documents show."(Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Elizabeth Cohen & Wesley Bruer of CNN: "The federal government is stuck with 63 million doses of hydroxychloroquine now that the US Food and Drug Administration has revoked permission for the drug to be distributed to treat coronavirus patients. The government started stockpiling donated hydroxychloroquine in late March, after President Trump touted it as 'very encouraging' and 'very powerful' and a 'game-changer.' But Monday, the FDA revoked its emergency use authorization to use the drug to treat Covid-19, saying there was 'no reason to believe' the drug was effective against the virus, and that it increased the risk of side effects, including heart problems. That leaves the Strategic National Stockpile with 63 million doses of hydroxychloroquine, plus another 2 million doses of chloroquine, a related drug donated by Bayer, according to Carol Danko, a spokesperson for the US Department of Health and Human Services." Mrs. McC: Thanks, Trump!
Capitalism is Awesome, Ctd., Deadly Edition. Kyle Bagenstone of USA Today: "As U.S. meat production plummeted in April following a rash of coronavirus outbreaks and closures at processing plants across the country, industry and political leaders sounded an alarm.... President Donald Trump ... invoked the Defense Production Act to declare it was crucial to keep meat plants open and operating.... But Americans were never at risk of a severe meat shortage, a USA Today investigation found.... [I]n a six-week period stretching from mid-March to the executive order, exports of hundreds of millions of pounds of meat continued.... [T]he industry also never drew down meat supplies sitting in 'cold storage' warehouses in the middle of the supply chain.... In fact, red meat and poultry products in cold storage grew by about 40 million pounds from March to April.... The Midwest Center for Investigative Reporting found that 10,000 meatpacking workers had fallen ill by May 5, with at least 45 deaths. Those numbers have since grown to more than 24,000 infections and at least 90 deaths." --s
Arizona. Perry Vandell of the Arizona Republic: "Pinal County Sheriff Mark Lamb announced on Wednesday afternoon that he tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by the new coronavirus. Lamb posted on the Pinal County Sheriff Office's Facebook page that he had been invited on Tuesday to join ... Donald Trump at the White House and was tested before the meeting as part of the protocol.... In early May, Lamb made waves when he said he wouldn't enforce Gov. Doug Ducey's stay-at-home order in part because he thought it was unconstitutional. At the time Lamb said he also thought, as a policy measure, the steps to slow the virus's spread had gone on long enough."
** Book Report. Peter Baker of the New York Times: "John R. Bolton, the former national security adviser, says in his new book that the House in its impeachment inquiry should have investigated President Trump not just for pressuring Ukraine to incriminate his domestic foes but for a variety of instances when he sought to intervene in law enforcement matters for political reasons. Mr. Bolton describes several episodes where the president expressed willingness to halt criminal investigations 'to, in effect, give personal favors to dictators he liked,' citing cases involving major firms in China and Turkey. 'The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life, which we couldn't accept,' Mr. Bolton writes, adding that he reported his concerns to Attorney General William P. Barr. Mr. Bolton also adds a striking new allegation by saying that Mr. Trump overtly linked trade negotiations to his own political fortunes by asking President Xi Jinping of China to buy a lot of American agricultural products to help him win farm states in this year’s election." Read on. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Baker outlines five takeaways from Bolton's book here. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: I guess we know now why "the Justice Department filed a last-minute lawsuit against Mr. Bolton this week seeking to stop publication." Barr is totally implicated. As for Bolton, he apparently spills quite a bit of ink over chastising the House for not investigating other Trump misdeeds at the same time Bolton himself was keeping those misdeeds secret from the House. Phony jackass. ~~~
~~~ Josh Dawsey of the Washington Post also read Bolton's book. "Bolton attributes a litany of shocking statements to the president. Trump said invading Venezuela would be 'cool' and that the South American nation was 'really part of the United States.' Bolton says Trump kept confusing the current and former presidents of Afghanistan, while asking Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to help him strike a deal with Iran. And Trump told Xi that Americans were clamoring for him to change the constitutional rules to serve more than two terms, according to the book. He also describes a summer 2019 meeting in New Jersey where Trump says journalists should be jailed so they have to divulge their sources: 'These people should be executed. They are scumbags,' Trump said, according to Bolton's account."
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The most important thing Bolton nails down is that Trump did not just passively accept foreign interference in U.S. elections; he soliticited foreign assistance -- more than once. And Bill Barr knew it. He knew it when he stood up there and mischaracterized the Mueller report. In a just world, Deputy Dawg would be in jail, too. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "According to an excerpt of the memoir, published in the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday..., Donald Trump asked President Xi Jinping of China for domestic political help to boost his electoral prospects in the midst of the two leaders' trade war last summer.... U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, who was in the Xi meeting, denied that the episode ever took place when asked multiple times about Bolton's allegation during a Senate hearing.... Trump had choice words for Bolton, telling The Wall Street Journal that Bolton was a 'liar' and that 'everybody in the White House hated John Bolton.' During an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Wednesday night, Trump added that Bolton 'broke the law' by revealing what the president called 'highly classified information.'" The WSJ excerpt is here. ~~~
~~~ A CNN report, by Nicole Gaouette, is here. ~~~
~~~ Peter Baker of the New York Times, in his "five takeaways" article, also linked above, writes, "Mr. Trump did not deny [asking Xi for help in boosting his re-election chances] when asked about the matter on Wednesday night by Sean Hannity on Fox News, but Robert Lighthizer, his trade representative, did on his behalf earlier in the day, saying it was not true."
~~~ Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "The most damning passage [in regard to Trump's disinterest in human rights] comes when Trump, in Bolton's telling, on two occasions actually encouraged Chinese President Xi Jinping to use concentration camps for Uighur Muslims in the Xinjiang province[.... After Trump spoke to Xi about the Uighurs at the Osaka G-20 meeting in June 2019]..., Trump in July 2019 met with victims of political persecution, including Uighurs, and declared of his devotion to religious freedom, 'I don’t think any president has taken it as seriously as me.' The White House announced shortly after the news [the Bolton was releasing his book] broke [on June 8, 2020,] that Trump had signed the 'Uighur Human Rights Policy Act of 2020.'" (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Ben Fox & Deb Riechmann of the AP: Trump's encouragement of imprisoning Uighurs in concentration camps "could take some punch out of the Trump campaign's efforts to portray former Vice President Joe Biden as soft on China.... It also contradicts the position of lawmakers who have taken hard-line positions against Beijing." ~~~
~~~ Max Benwell, et al., of the Guardian list "eight of the most shocking revelations" of Bolton's book. ~~~
~~~ Ha Ha. Here's an actual book review by Jennifer Szalai of the New York Times: "'The Room Where It Happened,' an account of [John Bolton's] 17 months as Trump's national security adviser, has been written with so little discernible attention to style and narrative form that he apparently presumes an audience that is hanging on his every word.... Bolton has filled this book's nearly 500 pages with minute and often extraneous details, including the time and length of routine meetings and even, at one point, a nap. Underneath it all courses a festering obsession with his enemies.... The book is bloated with self-importance, even though what it mostly recounts is Bolton not being able to accomplish very much. It toggles between two discordant registers: exceedingly tedious and slightly unhinged.... It's a strange experience reading a book that begins with repeated salvos about 'the intellectually lazy' by an author who refuses to think through anything very hard himself." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
~~~ David Graham of the Atlantic: "Trump's willingness to prioritize his political fortunes..., Bolton writes, was part of a pattern: 'Trump commingled the personal and the national not just on trade questions but across the whole field of national security. I am hard-pressed to identify any significant Trump decision during my White House tenure that wasn't driven by reelection calculations.'... 'The pattern looked like obstruction of justice as a way of life,' writes Bolton.... Bolton's account is notable for two reasons. The first is the messenger: Bolton had not only a front-row seat but a seat at the table for the events he recounts, and there is no question about his conservative bona fides. Second, it shows the scale and depth of Trump's depravity and corruption.... For Trump, everything revolves around his own interests, political or otherwise. He doesn't care who gets hurt in other countries, or even in his own country."
Dan Friedman of Mother Jones: "The Times calls [Bolton] a 'complicated, controversial figure.' Not really. He's a jerk promoting himself.... Last fall, patriotic civil servants -- including former Bolton subordinates Fiona Hill and Alexander Vindman ... risked their careers and endured slander to testify truthfully about Trump's efforts to corrupt US foreign policy. The witnesses appeared in the House Ways and Means hearing room. That was 'the room where it happened.' Bolton didn't show up." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Of course Bolton is a jerk promoting himself, but if Senate Republicans had permitted him to be subpoenaed, he would have testified in the impeachment trial. The failure of Bolton & other administration to testify is the result of a grand GOP conspiracy against the American people.
Aaron Blake of the Washington Post: "At the heart of the [Justice Department's] lawsuit ... seeking to halt the release next week of John Bolton's tell-all book ... is the idea that Bolton's book contains classified information.... As the Justice Department's own suit admits, there was indeed a point at which the White House official who had worked extensively with Bolton decided that the manuscript of the book was free of classified information. Shortly thereafter, though, she was overruled by officials with closer ties to Trump -- and, in one case, thanks to an official with a history of politically charged actions benefiting Trump.... The official was Michael Ellis, the senior director for intelligence on the National Security Council. Interestingly, the lawsuit says the additional review was conducted 'at the request of' Bolton's replacement as White House national security adviser, Robert O'Brien.... O'Brien has also proved to be one of Trump's most loyal aides, shifting the National Security Council from its traditional role of advising a president on policy to defending, implementing and enabling his preexisting policy ideas, according to a February New York Times analysis.... A former aide to the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, Rep. Devin Nunes (Calif.), Ellis in 2017 was one of three White House officials involved in the handling of sensitive intelligence that was shared with Nunes to discredit the Russia investigation." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Theodore Boutrous, Jr., in a Washington Post op-ed: "The Trump administration's lawsuit against John Bolton is a paper tiger, designed for a showy roar of outrage but with little prospect of any real bite.... The complaint on its face demonstrates that this is just the latest example of Trump flouting the First Amendment and manipulating and abusing the national security apparatus for personal and political purposes to hide information of great public concern.... The biggest problem is that the administration is seeking a prior restraint of speech before it occurs -- not just damages for injuries allegedly caused by speech after the fact. The Supreme Court has never upheld a prior restraint on speech about matters of public concern.... The complaint doesn't even name the publisher as a defendant, and the books have already been printed and shipped to warehouses. Advance copies have been distributed to journalists and others. So even if the Justice Department can persuade a judge to enjoin Bolton, the non-parties remain free to disseminate the book." (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update: Desperation Time. Charlie Savage of the New York Times: "The Justice Department asked a judge on Wednesday to order President Trump's former national security adviser John R. Bolton to halt publication of his memoir, which has already been printed an distributed to booksellers, saying that it contained classified information even as details emerged from it. In a court filing, the Trump administration also urged the judge overseeing the lawsuit, Judge Royce C. Lamberth of the Federal District Court for the District of Columbia, to declare that the potential restraining order it was seeking should also bind the book's publisher, Simon & Schuster, and stores from disseminating the book once they received notice of it.... The Justice Department's filing amounted to a sharp escalation of a lawsuit it filed a day earlier accusing Mr. Bolton of failing to complete the prepublication review process he agreed to undergo as a condition of receiving his security clearance.... Several legal specialists said the 11th-hour effort to block the book from reaching the public was unlikely to succeed for both practical and constitutional reasons." An Axios story is here; it includes a facsimile of the DOJ's plea. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: The request for a restraining order is stupid. Reporters from every major news outlet have copies of the book. The important details of Bolton's screed are already out, and every dirty little secret will be published within days. ~~~
~~~ Josh Kovensky of TPM: "The Justice Department is considering filing criminal charges against former National Security Adviser John Bolton over his soon-to-be-released White House tell-all, the LA Times reported on Wednesday."
Matthew Lee of the AP: "Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with a top Chinese official in Hawaii on Wednesday as new revelations about ... Donald Trump and China rocked Washington. Pompeo and his deputy Stephen Biegun held closed-door talks with the Chinese Communist Party's top diplomat, Yang Jiechi, at Hickam Air Force Base in Honolulu, according to a senior State Department official on the base. Discussions covered a wide range of contentious issues that have sent relations between the two countries plummeting, according to the two sides."
Shane Harris, et al., of the Washington Post: "An Army officer's promotion is in jeopardy over what some officials fear could be White House retaliation for his role in last year's impeachment inquiry, raising the possibility that President Trump might again intervene in military affairs, according to officials familiar with the matter. Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, who received a Purple Heart for his actions in Iraq and later served as a White House aide on European affairs, is among hundreds of officers selected to be promoted to full colonel this year. Such promotions are typically signed off on by Army and then Pentagon leaders before moving to the White House and the Senate for a confirmation vote. The list is now with a Pentagon personnel office. Multiple government officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to address personnel matters, have voiced concern, however, that the White House could strike Vindman's name once it is conveyed, effectively sanctioning him for testimony he gave under subpoena to House lawmakers."
Jennifer Hansler & Brian Stelter of CNN: "The heads of four organizations overseen by the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM) were all dismissed Wednesday night -- a move likely to heighten concerns that new Trump-appointed CEO Michael Pack means to turn the agency into a political arm of the administration. In what a former official described as a 'Wednesday night massacre,' the heads of Middle East Broadcasting, Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, and the Open Technology Fund were all ousted, multiple sources told CNN.... Jeffrey Shapiro, an ally the ultra-conservative former Trump White House chief strategist Steve Bannon, is expected to be named to lead the Office of Cuba Broadcasting. The rash of firings came just hours after Pack, another Bannon ally, introduced himself to employees, nearly two weeks after being confirmed for the job." --s The New York Times story is here. ~~~
The wholesale firing of the agency's network heads, and disbanding of corporate boards to install President Trump's political allies, is an egregious breach of this organization's history and mission from which it may never recover. This latest attack is sadly the latest -- but not the last -- in the Trump administration;s efforts to transform U.S. institutions rooted in the principles of democracy into tools for the president's own personal agenda. -- Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), in a statement, Wednesday ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: One might think, given the Bolton revelations, that Trump would have ordered Pack to back off the plan to reorganize the well-regarded independent news agencies as arms of the Trump campaign. But no. Trump's urge to turn VOA into Voice of Trump is too strong to allow for even temporary restraint. Besides, Trump sees nothing wrong with abusing his office.
Josh Kovensky of TPM: "The Justice Department responded to a blistering critique of its conduct in the Michael Flynn case on Wednesday, calling its decision to drop charges against the former national security adviser an 'unreviewable exercise of prosecutorial discretion.'... Prosecutors submitted the filing to U.S. District Judge Emmett Sullivan in Washington, who appointed former U.S. District Judge John Gleeson to examine the Justice Department's conduct in the case.... The DOJ held back in the filing from arguing that Gleeson's appointment itself was unconstitutional, and instead argued that the Constitution forbids Sullivan from doing anything other than granting the motion to dismiss the charges. The Justice Department argued in the filing that its reasoning for dropping the charges was beyond judicial review." --s ~~~
~~~ Tierney Sneed of TPM: "In response to the allegations made by a former federal judge about the Justice Department's dropping of his case..., Michael Flynn went on an indignant tear against the decision [of U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan] to appoint the former judge to oppose the dismissal.... He said that the arguments made by retired U.S. District Judge John Gleeson were 'an affront to the Rule of Law and a raging insult to the citizens of this country who see the abject corruption in this assassination by political prosecution of General Flynn.'... Flynn argued that Sullivan had no choice but to immediately dismiss Flynn's case. He said that delaying the dismissal so that Gleeson could argue against it was a 'clear impermissible violation of the separation of powers,' while describing Sullivan's choice of Gleeson in particular as 'appalling.'" --s
Craig Timberg of the Washington Post: "At a time when President Trump and other top U.S. officials have claimed -- with little evidence -- that leftist groups were fomenting violence, federal prosecutors have charged various supporters of a right-wing movement called the 'boogaloo bois,' with crimes related to plotting to firebomb a U.S. Forest Service facility, preparing to use explosives at a peaceful demonstration and killing a security officer at a federal courthouse.... A far-right extremist movement born on social media and fueled by anti-government rhetoric has emerged as a real-world threat in recent weeks, with federal authorities accusing some of its adherents of working to spark violence at largely peaceful protests roiling the nation.... 'The numbers are overwhelming: Most of the violence is coming from the extreme right wing,' said Clint Watts, a former FBI agent who studies extremist political activity for the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a think tank in Philadelphia."
Sean Collins of Vox: "The current protests -- and the anger that fuels them -- ... are a cry of pain from a raw nerve that has always afflicted the United States, one that was all too often ignored." --safari: A long researched piece with many stats on racial inequalities and their effects.
Tiffany Hsu of the New York Times: "Aunt Jemima, a syrup and pancake mix brand, will get a new name and image after Quaker Oats, its parent company, acknowledged that its origins were 'based on a racial stereotype.'" Thanks to Ken W. for the link. The NBC News story is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Racist? Whaddaya mean, racist? ~~~
~~~ Thanks to the Jim Crow Museum. Terry Nguyen of Vox has more on the history of the brand. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) ~~~
~~~ Update: Uncle Ben & Mrs. Butterworth. Maria Cramer of the New York Times: "Within hours of the announcement that Aunt Jemima was being retired from store shelves, at least three more food companies rushed to respond to complaints about other brands that have been criticized for using racial stereotypes. Mars Food, the owner of the brand Uncle Ben's rice, which features an older black man smiling on the box, said on Wednesday afternoon that it would 'evolve' the brand.... ConAgra Brands, the maker of Mrs. Butterwort's pancake syrup, released a statement saying the company had begun a 'complete brand and package review.'... And later on Wednesday, the parent company of Cream of Wheat announced that it was conducting a similar review.... The image on a box of Cream of Wheat, a beaming black man in a white chef's uniform, has not been altered much since its debut in the late 19th century. The character was named 'Rastus,' a pejorative term for black men, and he was depicted as a barely literate cook who did not know what vitamins were." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: It never dawned on me Mrs. Butterworth was black, but I guess she is when she's a bottle of syrup.
Theresa Vargas of the Washington Post explains the significance of racist symbols to dummies: "We can pretend that the debate over Confederate symbols is about preserving or erasing history, but really, it's about our values. It's about whether we care more about statues standing than people falling."
Georgia. Kate Brumback of the AP: “Prosecutors brought murder charges Wednesday against the white Atlanta police officer [Garrett Rolfe] who shot Rayshard Brooks in the back, saying that the black man posed no threat when he was gunned down and that the officer kicked him and offered no medical treatment as he lay dying on the ground.... The felony murder charge against Rolfe carries life in prison without parole or the death penalty. He was also charged with 10 other offenses punishable by decades behind bars. 'Mr. Brooks never presented himself as a threat,' [District Attorney Paul] Howard said. A second officer with Rolfe, Devin Brosnan, stood on a wounded Brooks' shoulder as he struggled for his life, according to Howard. Brosnan was charged with aggravated assault and other offenses but is cooperating with prosecutors and will testify, according to the district attorney, who said it was the first time in 40 such cases in which an officer has come forward to do this." The Washington Post's report is here. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.) The Washington Post's story is here.
Mississippi. A "Noble Cause." Emily Pettus of the AP: "After rejecting a proposal to move a Confederate monument, [Harry Sanders,] a white elected [county supervisor] in Mississippi said this week that African Americans 'became dependent' during slavery and as a result, have had a harder time 'assimilating' into American life than other mistreated groups.... In northeastern Mississippi's Lowndes County, supervisors voted along racial lines Monday against moving a Confederate monument that has stood outside the county courthouse in Columbus since 1912. The monument depicts a Confederate soldier and says the South fought for a 'noble cause.'... After the meeting, Sanders, a Republican, was quoted by the Commercial Dispatch as saying that other groups of people who had also been mistreated in the past -- he cited Irish, Italian, Polish and Japanese immigrants -- were able to successfully 'assimilate' afterward. 'The only ones that are having the problems: Guess who? The African Americans,' Sanders said. 'You know why? In my opinion, they were slaves. And because of that, they didn't have to go out and earn any money, they didn't have to do anything. Whoever owned them took care of them, fed them, clothed them, worked them. They became dependent, and that dependency is still there....'" Mrs. McC: I'm shocked to learn a Mississippi cotton-country GOP candidate is a racist. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Virginia. Sandra Garcia of the New York Times: “A monument to the black tennis legend Arthur Ashe in Richmond, Va., was vandalized with spray paint that read 'WLM' and 'White Lives Matter' on Wednesday. Mr. Ashe, a Richmond native, became the first black man to win Wimbledon, the Australian Open and the U.S. Open. His statue is on the city's Monument Avenue, a residential street that extends for five miles into Henrico County and is dotted with a number of prominent Confederate monuments."
Elections 2020
Maggie Haberman & Annie Karni of the New York Times: "... the president's customary defiance has been suffused with a heightened sense of agitation as he confronts a series of external crises he has failed to contain, or has exacerbated, according to people close to him. They say his repeated acts of political self-sabotage -- a widely denounced photo-op at a church for which peaceful protesters were forcibly removed, a threat to use the American military to quell protests -- have significantly damaged his re-election prospects, and yet he appears mostly unable, or unwilling, to curtail them.... The president is acting trapped and defensive, and his self-destructive behavior has been so out of step for an incumbent in an election year that many advisers wonder if he is truly interested in serving a second term. Rather than focus on plans and goals for another four years in office, Mr. Trump has been wallowing in self-pity about news coverage of him since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, people who have spoken with him said."
Ally Mutnick & Melanie Zanona of Politico: "The House's highest-ranking Republicans are racing to distance themselves from a leading GOP congressional candidate in Georgia after Politico uncovered hours of Facebook videos in which she expresses racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic views. The candidate, Marjorie Taylor Greene, suggested that Muslims do not belong in government; thinks black people' are held slaves to the Democratic Party'; called George Soros, a Jewish Democratic megadonor, a Nazi; and said she would feel 'proud' to see a Confederate monument if she were black because it symbolizes progress made since the Civil War. Greene finished first in a primary for a deep-red, northwest Georgia seat last week by a nearly two-to-one margin over the second-place candidate. She is entering an August runoff as the heavy favorite to secure the Republican nomination for a district where that is tantamount to winning the general election in November." Mrs. McC: I'm shocked to learn a red-clay Georgia GOP candidate is a racist. (Also linked yesterday afternoon.)
Nina Jankowicz & Cindy Otis of Wired: "For the past several years, Facebook users have been seeing more content from 'friends and family' and less from brands and media outlets. As part of the platform's 'pivot to privacy' after the 2016 election, groups have been promoted as trusted spaces that create communities around shared interests.... But as our research shows, those same features -- privacy and community -- are often exploited by bad actors, foreign and domestic, to spread false information and conspiracies.... If you were to join the 'Alternative Health Science News' group, for example, Facebook would then recommend ... that you join a group called 'Sheep No More,' which uses Pepe the Frog, a white supremacist symbol, in its header; as well as 'Q-Anon Patriots,' a forum for believers in the crackpot QAnon conspiracy theory." --s
Ouch! Stings Like a Bumble Bee. AP: "A former CEO of Bumble Bee Foods has been sentenced to more than three years in jail for his role in a canned tuna price-fixing conspiracy involving three major companies, the U.S. Justice Department said. Christopher Lischewski was also ordered Tuesday to pay a $100,000 fine in addition to serving a 40-month term."
News Lede
New York Times: "Vera Lynn, who sang the songs that touched the hearts and lifted the spirits of Britons from the bomb-blitzed streets of London and Coventry to the sands of North Africa and the jungles of Burma during World War II, died on Thursday at her home in Sussex, England. She was 103."
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