The Commentariat -- November 1, 2020
Afternoon Update:
The Washington Post's live election updates Sunday are here. The page is free to non-subscribers.
Kate McGee, et al., of the Texas Tribune: &"The Federal Bureau of Investigation is looking into a Friday incident in which a group of Trump supporters, driving trucks and waving Trump flags, surrounded and followed a Biden campaign bus as it drove up I-35 in Hays County, a law enforcement official confirmed to The Texas Tribune Saturday. The confrontation, captured on video, featured at least one minor collision and led to Texas Democrats canceling three scheduled campaign events on Friday. The campaign officials cited 'safety concerns' for the cancellations.... On Saturday night, Trump tweeted a video of the Trump supporters following the Biden bus saying, 'I LOVE TEXAS!'" Mrs. McC: Again, it is beyond extraordinary that a POTUS* would encourage dangerous actions that the FBI is investigating as criminal activity.
Matthew Brown of USA Today: "A group of protesters gathered in front of Attorney General William Barr's McLean, Virginia home on Saturday evening where they called for Barr to 'lock up' ... Joe Biden. Photos of the event showed a crowd of about a dozen men, donned in clothing and messages supportive of ... Donald Trump, held signs with slogans such as 'Biden Lies Matter,' 'Equal Justice Is Coming' and 'They that forsake the law praise the wicked.' Others wore 'Trump 2020' flags and 'Crooked Hillary for Prison' T-shirts."
Peter Baker of the New York Times: "Born amid made-up crowd size claims and 'alternative facts,' the Trump presidency has been a factory of falsehood from the start, churning out distortions, conspiracy theories and brazen lies at an assembly-line pace that has challenged fact-checkers and defied historical analogy. But now..., the consequences of four years of fabulism are coming into focus as President Trump argues that the vote itself is inherently 'rigged,' tearing at the credibility of the system. Should the contest go into extra innings through legal challenges after Tuesday, it may leave a public with little faith in the outcome -- and in its own democracy. The nightmarish scenario of widespread doubt and denial of the legitimacy of the election would cap a period in American history when truth itself has seemed at stake.... Even if the election ends with a clear victory or defeat for Mr. Trump, scholars and players alike say the very concept of public trust in an established set of facts necessary for the operation of a democratic society has eroded during his tenure with potentially long-term ramifications."
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Sunday are here: "As Election Day nears and the United States reports its highest daily case totals yet, battleground Great Lakes states that could help decide the presidency are enduring some of the most alarming coronavirus surges. While the surge quickens and early voting draws to a close, President Trump has continued downplaying the virus and falsely saying the country is 'rounding the turn.' And on Thursday, Donald Trump Jr. tried to minimize the death toll, claiming it was 'almost nothing' in an appearance on Fox News. But deaths are beginning to rise across the country, averaging 818 a day over the last week, up nearly 15 percent since Oct. 1, according to a New York Times database. More than 84,000 new cases were announced Saturday in the United States, pushing the seven-day average for new cases above 80,000 for the first time, a rise of 86 percent over the same period."
John Amato of the Crooks & Liars: "As many of the networks ask Trump administration health officials to join their shows, Trump's new favorite propaganda toy, Dr. Scott Atlas, instead went on Russian TV to attack the media, Dr. Fauci, and all health officials over their policies to ensure the public's safety from COVID. Dr. Atlas, who is not an epidemiology specialist, has become Trump's go-to COVID influencer since he became Tucker Carlson's favorite doctor. His job is to attack CDC officials trying to do their jobs, to spread misinformation, and to ignore the severity of COVID-19, all in an effort to help Trump's reelection campaign.... Atlas claimed the lock downs are not sparing Americans from the virus: 'The lock downs will go down as an epic failure of public policy.' Then he went so far as to tell Russian TV that Dr. Fauci's measures are actually killing people: 'The public health leadership has failed egregiously and they are killing people with their fear-inducing shutdown policies.'" Mrs. McC: Since the White House must approve Task Force members' interviews, either Atlas went rogue or Kremlin TV is a favored Trump outlet.
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Presidential Race, Etc.
Bruce Springsteen narrates a closing ad for Joe Biden. The ad is set to air on ABC's televised game between Penn State & Ohio State Saturday night:
~~~ Mrs. McC Note: Trump has no big stars campaigning for him, unless you think Lil Wayne is a big star.
The New York Times' live election updates Sunday are here. The Times' election updates Saturday are here.
Brett Samuels of the Hill reports on where the presidential & vice-presidential candidates will campaign today (and tomorrow). ~~~
~~~ Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Former President Obama will head to Florida and Georgia on Monday to stump for Joe Biden and down-ballot Democrats on the eve of Election Day, the former vice president's campaign announced."
Maggie Haberman, et al., of the New York Times: "President Trump and former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. crisscrossed two key Northern battleground states on Saturday in a string of campaign stops with Election Day just three days away. Mr. Trump had four rallies planned across Pennsylvania, beginning with one in Bucks County and ending in Montoursville, while Mr. Biden appeared in Flint, Mich. [with President Obama], with plans to visit Detroit later.... Mr. Trump is continuing to hold crowded rallies as the pandemic rages, and Mr. Obama ridiculed him for his obsession with crowd sizes, asking: 'Did no one come to his birthday party when he was a kid? Was he traumatized?'... In Bucks County, Mr. Trump delivered a subdued speech, speaking from the teleprompter at first, to several hundred people seated in folding chairs arrayed in a field in front of a stage and a podium.... The small crowd sat close together, mostly unmasked.... Mr. Trump's teleprompter appeared to have problems at one point, but for the first 45 minutes of his appearance, the president tried to stick to a speech that appeared designed to present him in a more 'presidential' light.... But then he appeared to lose interest in the speech and began to riff about Mr. Biden's son Hunter, about his own news media coverage and how unfair he thinks the coverage has been of his administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic."
Max Greenwood of the Hill: "Former President Obama laid into President Trump on Saturday over his claim that doctors have tried to profit off of the coronavirus pandemic by intentionally inflating the number of COVID-19 cases. Speaking at a drive-in rally for former Vice President Joe Biden in Flint, Mich., Obama hammered Trump for complaining about the media coverage of his administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic.... 'His closing argument this week is that the press and people are too focused on COVID,' Obama said to cheers and honking cars. '"COVID, COVID, COVID," he's complaining. He's jealous of COVID's media coverage. And now he's accusing doctors of profiting off of this pandemic.... He does not understand the notion that somebody would risk their lives to save others without making a buck.'..." ~~~
~~~ The other thing Barack Obama did in Flint, Michigan, Saturday:
~~~ Mrs. McC Note: The only former Republican president is not campaigning for Trump.
~~~ ** Trump, with a Little Help from His Friends, Killed More Than 700 Americans. Jordain Carney of the Hill: "A new study from Stanford University found that 18 of President Trump's campaign rallies have led to over 30,000 confirmed coronavirus cases and likely led to over 700 deaths. Researchers examined rallies held between June 20 and Sept. 22, 2020, only three of which were held indoors. The researchers then compared spread of the virus in the counties that held the rallies to counties that were on similar case trajectories before the rallies occurred. The authors concluded that the rallies increased subsequent cases of COVID-19 by over 250 infections per 100,000 residents. They found that the events led to over 30,000 new cases in the country and likely resulted in over 700 deaths, but recognized that the deaths were 'not necessarily among attendees.' 'Our analysis strongly supports the warnings and recommendations of public health officials concerning the risk of COVID-19 transmission at large group gatherings, particularly when the degree of compliance with guidelines concerning the use of masks and social distancing is low,' the authors wrote in the paper. 'The communities in which Trump rallies took place paid a high price in terms of disease and death.'" Emphasis added. ~~~
~~~ Update. The New York Times story is here.
At least Dr. Strangelove managed to control the urge.
David Nakamura & Paul Sonne of the Washington Post: "For months, Trump has obliterated the lines between campaigning and governing, and he and his aides have accelerated their drive to leverage the power of the presidency to shore up his election chances with days left before Tuesday's vote. Trailing in the polls to Democratic nominee Joe Biden, Trump has employed an all-hands-on-deck approach to maintaining the office, dispatching aides to act as surrogates and using the government's machinery to bolster his campaign. The activities have drawn rebukes from government ethics watchdogs and Democrats who have charged that Trump's team is trampling over the Hatch Act, which prohibits most senior officials, outside of the president and vice president, from engaging in electioneering activities while on the job. A report released Thursday by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) ... said that 14 Trump administration officials had been found to have violated the law a total of 54 times. At least an additional 22 officials are under investigation for nearly 100 more violations, the report said." The report includes flagrant examples. ~~~
~~~ A similar story, by Brett Samuels & Morgan Chalfant of the Hill, is here.
Trump Leaves Supporters Out in the Cold. Again. Sarah Rumpf of Mediaite: "... Donald Trump's rally in Butler, PA had a chilling ending -- literally -- with thousands of the president's supporters left stranded in the dark and cold, waiting for almost two hours for buses to take them back to their cars. And it wasn't the first time this had happened. A similar scene had unfolded Tuesday night at a Trump rally in Omaha, Nebraska, when Trump finished his speech and his supporters were left behind.... Trump had left on Marine One and once again the buses that brought people to the rally were nowhere in sight.... [CNN's Ryan] Nobles ... described the scene as a 'logistical nightmare,' with 'thousands of people shoulder to shoulder, nowhere to go, no buses in sight, no direction from anyone from the Trump campaign to tell them where to go or how to get back to their parking spots.'"
Trump's Encouragement of Violence Is Working Already. Tommy Christopher of Mediaite: "Texas Democrats canceled several campaign events after a group of Trump flag-festooned trucks and cars swarmed the Biden/Harris bus on a Texas highway. A campaign bus carrying congressional candidates Wendy Davis and Roland Gutierrez, and Rep. Lloyd Doggett was swarmed by supporters of ... Donald Trump, who have been following the Biden/Harris bus all over Texas. But things reportedly got so dangerous on I-35 Friday that the campaign decided to cancel several events[.]... A member of the MAGA vehicular armada posted several videos showing the so-called 'Trump Train' pursuing and surrounding the bus[.]... A Biden supporter ... also captured video of a MAGA truck bumping a white vehicle that had been drafting the Biden bus, trying to keep a safe distance between it and the pursuers[.]" Mrs. McC: The Biden campaign should have requested police escorts, although I'm not sure how much good this would do in Texas. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Jerry Lambe of Law & Crime: "Several videos have since circulated on the internet showing the Biden bus being surrounded by multiple large pickup trucks, almost all of which displayed pro-Trump flags and decals. One clip showed a vehicle flying a 'Thin Blue Line' flag side-swiping the car of a campaign volunteer.... Following the incident a Biden campaign spokesperson released a statement to Forbes saying that the pro-Trump trucks 'attempted to slow the bus down and run it off the road.'... On Wednesday Donald Trump Jr., called for members of the 'Trump Train' to show Democratic vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) how strong Texas supports the president." Mrs. McC: Was that "Thin Blue Line" driver a cop? Since there are videos, the Highway Patrol should investigate & make arrests. (Also linked yesterday.) See also North Carolina voting news, linked below. ~~~
~~~ ** Update. Trump Cheers Highway Violence. Matt Wilstein of the Daily Beast: "... Donald Trump tweeted his support late Saturday for the MAGA caravan that reportedly tried to run a Biden campaign bus off the road in Texas, causing the former vice president to cancel a planned event in Austin. 'I LOVE TEXAS!' Trump tweeted along with a video of the incident." Mrs. McC: In case I haven't mentioned it before, the POTUS* is One Berserk Fuck.
Danny Hakim & Susanne Craig of the New York Times: "As former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. and his surrogates make their closing arguments in battleground states stressed by economic hardship amid the pandemic, they often focus on one number: $750. That's the amount President Trump paid in federal income taxes in 2016 and again in 2017, a recent New York Times investigation found. And as Mr. Biden accuses Mr. Trump of not doing enough to help working families, he and his allies have held up the president's income tax bill as a potent symbol of the inequities they seek to remedy in the American tax system. 'Why should a firefighter, an educator, a nurse, a cop, pay at a higher tax rate, which you do, than a major multibillion-dollar corporation?' Mr. Biden asked in Iowa on Friday. 'Why should you pay more taxes than Donald Trump, who paid $750?'"
Trump's Judges Do Trump's Bidding. And Suppress Your Vote. Ann Marimow of the Washington Post: "Federal judges nominated by President Trump have largely ruled against efforts to loosen voting rules in the 2020 campaign amid the coronavirus pandemic and sided with Republicans seeking to enforce restrictions, underscoring Trump's impact in reshaping the judiciary. An analysis by The Washington Post found that nearly three out of four opinions issued in federal voting-related cases by judges picked by the president were in favor of maintaining limits. That is a sharp contrast with judges nominated by President Barack Obama, whose decisions backed such limits 17 percent of the time. The impact of Trump's court picks could be seen most starkly at the appellate level, where 21 out of the 25 opinions issued by the president's nominees were against loosening voting rules. The pattern shows how Trump's success installing a record number of judges in his four years in office has played a critical role in determining how people can vote this year and which ballots will be counted." (Also linked yesterday.)
Michelle Lee, et al., of the Washington Post: "More than 91 million Americans have already cast their ballots for the general election with three days left until Election Day, a historic early turnout that underscores voters' intense desire to be heard in a divisive election despite the voting challenges caused by the coronavirus pandemic.... Democrats have had an edge in early voting, but that gap has narrowed in some key battleground states in recent days, including in Florida, North Carolina and Georgia, according to data maintained by the U.S. Elections Project.... Some voters have taken extraordinary measures to make sure they can cast their ballots early.... One of those voters who raced to get their ballots in before Tuesday was Joe LaMuraglia, 52, who drove more than 800 miles to Georgia from Massachusetts to vote in person because his absentee ballot never arrived."
Jesselyn Cook of the Huffington Post: "Under mounting pressure to quell the flood of partisan misinformation coursing through its platform, Facebook announced a new policy in September: It would stop accepting all new political ads during the week preceding the presidential election.... [I]t has been a disaster. The ban went into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Tuesday. Chaos ensued almost immediately: Thousands of previously approved ads from ... Joe Biden's campaign and multiple progressive groups were wrongly blocked due to a 'technical flaw,' potentially costing hundreds of thousands of dollars in donations. President Donald Trump's campaign managed to launch new ads post-ban. And in violation of its own rules, Facebook approved ads from the presiden's campaign prematurely declaring victory, as well as hundreds of ads bearing the misleading text 'ELECTION DAY IS TODAY' or 'Vote Today.'... The company's stunning failure to properly enforce its own high-profile policy at such a critical time has raised alarm about its preparedness for the fallout of the election[.]" --s (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
** When is the last time you read about a Facebook 'error' that did not benefit Trump and the Confederates? -- RAS, in yesterday's Comments
~~~ Isaac Stanley-Becker & Elizabeth Dwoskin of the Washington Post: "In the final months of the presidential campaign, prominent associates of President Trump and conservative groups with vast online followings have flirted with, and frequently crossed, the boundaries set forth by Facebook about the repeated sharing of misinformation. From a pro-Trump super PAC to the president's eldest son, however, these users have received few penalties, according to an examination of several months of posts and ad spending, as well as internal company documents. In certain cases, their accounts have been protected against more severe enforcement because of concern about the perception of anti-conservative bias, said current and former Facebook employees.... The kid-glove treatment contradicts claims of anti-conservative bias leveled by Trump and his children, as well as by Republican leaders in Congress. It also renews questions about whether Facebook is prepared to act against the systematic spread of falsehoods that could intensify as vote tallies are reported this week."
Florida. Matt Dixon & Josh Gerstein of Politico: "State and federal authorities are investigating a pileup of mail at a Miami post office that included a handful of completed ballots after Florida House Minority Leader Kionne McGhee posted a video Friday. McGhee tweeted the video around 12:30 p.m. Friday afternoon indicating it came from a 'source' he did not identify. He tweeted a separate video roughly four hours later showing what he said were postal service investigators on the scene.... The USPS confirmed Saturday morning six completed ballots and 42 blank ones were found after investigators were sent to the Miami location Friday afternoon. 'The Office of Inspector General special agents confirmed the presence of delayed mail and subsequently located approximately 48 pieces of election mail,' Special Agent in Charge Scott Pierce in a statement. 'The U.S. Postal Service immediately arranged for the deliver of the election mail.'" ~~~
~~~ Dell Cameron of Gizmodo: "Login credentials belonging to several Martin County, Florida, election officials were inadvertently exposed by what an election security researcher says was an unsecured backup database that had likely been publicly accessible since 2017.... The data included email address, hashed passwords, and timestamps indicating each users' creation date and last login. Chris Vickery, UpGuard's director of risk research, said he discovered the database while hunting for potentially sensitive election materials online. He notified Martin County officials of the exposure on September 18 and the database was secured shortly after. Only those with control of the database can confirm whether anyone else gained access, he said." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
North Carolina. Cops Pepper-spray Voters. AP: "A get-out-the vote rally that ended with North Carolina police pepper spraying and arresting attendants was the result of participants blocking the roadway without authorization, authorities said Saturday. [City of] Graham police said they issued several warnings to the crowd at Alamance County's courthouse to move from the roadway before releasing pepper spraying and later arresting eight people.... Police ... asked the crowd to disperse, giving them a five-minute warning to leave the roadway. After the time passed, police said they released the spray toward the ground not 'directly' toward any participant. The 'I Am Change' march to the polls was organized by activist [Greg] Drumwright, and began as a march from a local church to the courthouse. Drumwright said the group was permitted to stand in the courthouse square and was escorted through the streets by the police. He also said that the group had 'no intention' of having the rally in the street.... Lindsay Ayling, a graduate student and anti-racism activist who participated in the rally, told The Associated Press police used tear gas indiscriminately and without reason on the crowd, including on children." Mrs. McC: Seems a bit Jim Crowish, doesn't it?
Pennsylvania. Teresa Boeckel of the York Daily Record: "At least five counties in Pennsylvania will not be counting absentee and mail-in ballots on election night and will wait until the next day to do so.... State officials and counties wanted to start pre-canvassing the mail-in and absentee ballots at least a few days before the Nov. 3 election, but the General Assembly did not pass legislation that would have allowed that. As a result, counties cannot start to process the ballots until 7 a.m. on Election Day." --s
** Texas. Mark Stern of Slate: "Texas Republicans have asked a federal judge to throw out at least 117,000 ballots cast in Harris County, a heavily Democratic area that has experienced an unprecedented surge in early voting this month. The brazen effort to undo legally cast ballots in a diverse, populous county is an eleventh-hour attempt to diminish Joe Biden's chances of carrying the swing state on Nov. 3. Republicans claim that Harris County's use of drive-thru voting violates the U.S. Constitution, requiring the judge to throw out every ballot cast this way -- more than 117,000 as of Friday. This argument is outrageous and absurd. But the case landed in front of U.S. District Judge Andrew Hanen, one of the most notoriously partisan conservatives in the federal judiciary. Democrats have good reason to fear that Hanen will order the mass nullification of ballots as early as Nov. 2, when he has scheduled a hearing."
Scott Anderson, et al., in LawFare: "If the New York Times's story about the Justice Department's handling of the case of [a] Turkish bank -- and President Trump's interference in that case -- had broken any other week, it would be a very big deal.... Recall that back in June, the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York, Geoffrey Berman, was abruptly dismissed under somewhat confusing circumstances.... The strange chain of events, including why the attorney general [Bill Barr] was so eager to be rid of the U.S. attorney, has never been fully explained. Now ... the Times indicates that Berman's bizarre firing may have been related to a pressure campaign by Barr and the White House to frustrate a high-profile investigation by Berman's office. The story of Trump and Barr's efforts to hamstring the investigation into the Turkish bank, Halkbank, says a great deal about Trump's abuses of law enforcement, his financial entanglements abroad and his susceptibility to foreign influence." --s ~~~
~~~ Steve Benen of MSNBC: "[T]he [Turkish bank] scandal need not be seen as some labyrinthian tale requiring a flow chart to understand. On the contrary, the controversy should probably be seen as painfully simple: a foreign dictator asked Donald Trump to corrupt his own country's justice system..., and the Republican president, along with top members of his team, gladly said yes." --s
Brett McGurk in an MSNBC opinion piece: "When President Donald Trump said 'these people are sick' during remarks to donors before his final debate with former Vice President Joe Biden last week, he wasn't talking about the nearly 9 million people in the United States inflicted with Covid-19 [but rather it] appeared to be the civil service professionals who devote their careers to serving our country. 'You have a lot of people from past administrations,' he complained, 'and they're civil service. I fired some.' The comments spoke to Trump's unprecedented assault on professionalism in the ranks of our federal government, which he now promises to accelerate should he win a second term.... Specifically, they expanded on a sweeping executive order he had signed the day before[.]" --s
Maureen Dowd of the New York Times has some thoughts & gets some quotes from popular historians about what a threat and disaster Donald Trump is.
** About That Trump Tax "Cut." Joseph Stiglitz in a New York Times op-ed: "The Trump administration has a dirty little secret: It's not just planning to increase taxes on most Americans. The increase has already been signed, sealed and delivered, buried in the pages of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.... The law they passed initially lowered taxes for most Americans, but it built in automatic, stepped tax increases every two years that begin in 2021 and that by 2027 would affect nearly everyone but people at the top of the economic hierarchy.... For most, in fact, it's a delayed tax increase dressed up as a tax cut.... Trump and his allies ... surmised -- correctly, so far -- that if they waited to add the tax increases until after the 2020 election, few of the people most affected were likely to remember who was responsible."
** Scott Anderson & Benjamin Wittes of Lawfare: "This morning, we received more than 30 pages of material from the FBI illustrating a remarkable disparity in its treatment of its employees: Five employees, the documents show, have been disciplined for private communications using government devices in which they have criticized President Trump. But none, at least not since 2011, has been disciplined for similar conduct with respect to presidential candidates Hillary Clinton or Mitt Romney, or President Barack Obama -- or for praising Trump.... Yet the only cases in which people are known to have been disciplined for such conduct involved political criticism of President Trump." --s
Ken Dilanian & Tom Winter of NBC News, in a sort of meta-report, relate what happened when NBC News tried to verify Rudy Giuliani's "bombshell" Hunter/Joe Biden story: "Leaving aside the many questions about their provenance, the materials offered no evidence that Joe Biden played any role in his son's dealings in China, let alone profited from them, both news organizations concluded." Besides Rudy's refusal to turn over the purloined laptop, there was not much new in the emails' "revelations." Hunter Biden's dodgy international influence-peddling was well-reported months ago. (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Speaking of meta-stories, David Fahrenthold of the Washington Post reports on the State Department's extraordinary stonewalling of requests to release records of payments to Donald Trump. After State refused to provide records of taxpayer expenditures, the Post sued for the records. State provided only two pages of documentation. Finally, Fahrenthold made a public appeal on Twitter, and that's how the Post got records that showed how your taxpayer dollars were spent on an event that took place two-and-a-half years ago: "In April 2018, President Trump's Mar-a-Lago Club charged taxpayers $3 so that Trump could drink water.... In this case, Trump's club sold the water. Trump drank the water. Then Trump's club billed the taxpayers. But, although that purchase happened 2½ years ago, taxpayers didn't know until Tuesday." (Also linked yesterday.)
Julia Ainsely of NBC News: "They fled political imprisonment, torture, rape and the threat of death in Cameroon, made their way to South America then up to the U.S. border to make what they thought would be a clear case for asylum. Now they are awaiting imminent deportation on what their lawyers refer to as 'death planes' because of the high likelihood they will be killed by their government upon return. NBC News reviewed documents submitted in the cases of three Cameroonians who are now facing deportation after their asylum cases proved unsuccessful. They are among more than 1,500 Cameroonians who applied for asylum in the U.S. this year[.]" --s
Katie Bo Williams of Defense One: "Two D.C. National Guard helicopters that flew low over protesters in Washington, D.C., on the night of June 1 were not properly authorized to be there -- and were directed by a lieutenant colonel who was far from the scene, driving home in his car, according to an initial investigation by the D.C. National Guard. The superior officer who authorized the deployment claimed he didn't know that the regulations required him to have higher-level approval to use the helicopters at all, and that in any case, he in no way told the lieutenant colonel that the helicopters should be used for crowd dispersal. Now the D.C. National Guard and the Defense Department Inspector General's office appear to be at odds over who should take responsibility for the incident, which became one of the most high-profile examples of ... Donald Trump's militarized response to protests over the killing of George Floyd, a Black man, by police officers in Minneapolis in May." (Also linked yesterday.)
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
Fauci Lets It Rip. Josh Dawsey & Yasmeen Abutaleb of the Washington Post: "President Trump's repeated assertions the United States is 'rounding the turn' on the novel coronavirus have increasingly alarmed the government's top health experts, who say the country is heading into a long and potentially deadly winter with an unprepared government unwilling to make tough choices. 'We're in for a whole lot of hurt. It's not a good situation,' Anthony S. Fauci ... said in a wide-ranging interview late Friday.... Fauci ... said the United States needed to make an 'abrupt change' in public health practices and behaviors.... Fauci said former vice president Joe Biden's campaign 'is taking it seriously from a public health perspective.' Trump, Fauci said, is 'looking at it from a different perspective.' He said that perspective was 'the economy and reopening the country.'... He also lamented that Scott Atlas, a neuroradiologist ... who advocates letting the virus spread among young healthy people and reopening the country without restrictions, is the only medical adviser the president regularly meets with. 'I have real problems with that guy,' Fauci said of Atlas. '... He keeps talking about things that when you dissect it out and parse it out, it doesn't make any sense.'" The article is free to non-subscribers. ~~~
~~~ Kelly Mena of CNN: "The White House on Saturday unleashed on Dr. Anthony Fauci ... following his comments to the Washington Post that criticized the Trump administration's response to the pandemic, including Dr. Scott Atlas.... 'It's unacceptable and breaking with all norms for Dr. Fauci, a senior member of the President's Coronavirus Taskforce and someone who has praised ... (Donald) Trump's actions throughout this pandemic, to choose three days before an election to play politics,' White House deputy press secretary Judd Deere said in a statement to CNN on Saturday evening. Deere took issue with Fauci's comments where the doctor seemingly praises Democratic nominee Joe Biden's campaign.... During the Post interview, Fauci noted he needed to be careful with his answers or he might be blocked from doing further appearances."
Christopher Rowland, et al., of the Washington Post: "The White House decision to set aside the mandatory safety controls [for the off-label use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine] put in place by the Food and Drug Administration fueled one of the most disputed initiatives in the administration's response to the pandemic: the distribution of millions of ineffective, potentially dangerous pills from a federally controlled cache of drugs called the Strategic National Stockpile. Over a span of four days in early April, the White House ordered the distribution of 23 million hydroxychloroquine tablets from the stockpile to a dozen states, enough pills for 1.4 million covid-19 patients, according to public records obtained by The Post in response to a Freedom of Information Act request. The Post review found that the process was marked by haphazard planning, little or no communication to local authorities about the flow of pills into their communities, and a lack of public accounting about where they ended up.... The FDA withdrew its emergency authorization in June, after it found hundreds of adverse events linked to the drug's use in covid-19 patients, including dozens of deaths." Mrs. McC: The driving force behind this was Peter Navarro, who is a doctor of ... economics. (Also linked yesterday.)
James Meek, et al., of ABC News: "An American citizen abducted last week in Niger has been rescued during a high-risk U.S. military raid in neighboring Nigeria, officials told ABC News early Saturday. The mission was undertaken by elite commandos as part of a major effort to free the U.S. citizen, Philip Walton, 27, before his abductors could get far after taking him captive in Niger on Oct. 26, counterterrorism officials told ABC News. The operation involved the governments of the U.S., Niger and Nigeria working together to rescue Walton quickly, sources said. The CIA provided intelligence leading to Walton's whereabouts and Marine Special Operations elements in Africa helped locate him, a former U.S. official said. Then the elite SEAL Team Six carried out a 'precision' hostage rescue mission and killed all but one of the seven captors, according to officials with direct knowledge about the operation." (Also linked yesterday.)
Beyond the Beltway
Vermont. VTDigger: "In the remote hills of southwestern Vermont, a group of locals gathered last week to talk with a reporter about chilling experiences they've had with a nearby property owner. The property owner, Daniel Banyai, and groups of men armed with large guns, have had confrontational exchanges with local residents many times over the past four years. Sometimes, neighbors say, they have been followed or confronted by the armed men. On weekends, they hear rapid gunshots, and sometimes explosions.... Banyai runs Slate Ridge, a center for military-style training and 'professional gunfighting''... In the past two weeks, men from Slate Ridge have surrounded individual neighbors in attempts to intimidate them. Banyai also threatened to kill bow hunters who had been near his property.... Social media profiles of people who have trained at Slate Ridge say they are members of local militia and anti-government groups." --s
Way Beyond
U.K. Luke McGee, et al., of CNN: "England will enter a second national lockdown in the coming days, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has announced. The decision came hours after the UK passed the grim milestone of one million coronavirus cases. The month-long shutdown will come into effect from Thursday after a parliamentary vote early next week, Johnson said during a news conference on Saturday evening. 'We must act now to contain the autumn surge,' he said. Johnson was forced to make the announcement on Saturday after the government's plans were leaked to numerous national newspapers the previous evening. The plan had been initially to announce the measures on Monday."
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