The Commentariat -- October 29, 2020
Afternoon Update:
** Trump's Plan to Steal the Election. Nick Corasaniti & Danny Hakim of the New York Times: "President Trump's campaign in the crucial battleground of Pennsylvania is pursuing a three-pronged strategy that would effectively suppress mail-in votes in the state, moving to stop the processing of absentee votes before Election Day, pushing to limit how late mail-in ballots can be accepted and intimidating Pennsylvanians trying to vote early.... The campaign's strategy is backed up by public statements from the president, who barnstormed the state on Monday and repeatedly made false claims about the security of voting in Pennsylvania along with ominous warnings. 'A lot of strange things happening in Philadelphia,' he said during a stop in Allentown. 'We're watching you, Philadelphia. We're watching at the highest level.'" Mrs. McC: Worth reading. Back in the heyday of city bosses, I thought Democrats' handing out "walking-around money" to buy votes was mighty dicey, but stopping voters from voting is even worse. ~~~
~~~ Greg Sargent of the Washington Post: "Pennsylvania state officials are in the extraordinary position of actively taking defensive steps to preempt a situation in which the Supreme Court helps Trump suppress untold numbers of lawfully cast ballots -- as Trump has openly declared he expects it to do.... Trump's open effort to conscript the Supreme Court is only the latest in a long line of efforts to bend the government and the machinery of justice toward his reelection. The scale of the corruption is unprecedented. But, with a massive enough effort, it can be defeated." Sargent outlines a few scenarios where the confederate Supremes easily could rationalize throwing out some or all Florida. Andrew Pantazi of the Florida Times-Union: "A local judge and head of Duval County's [Jacksonville] vote-counting board has donated repeatedly to President Trump's re-election campaign and other Republican efforts, and his home is covered in signs supporting Trump, despite rules requiring judges like him refrain from donations or public support. Duval County senior Judge Brent Shore has served as chairman of the canvassing board because of his role as a county judge. Yet judicial rules bar judges from political donations of any kind. And canvassing board rules bar members from 'displaying a candidate's campaign signs.'" The article includes a photo of Shore. His appearance is exactly what you would expect. ~~~ ~~~ Update. Andrew Pantazi of the Florida Times-Union: "Duval County Canvassing Board Chair Brent Shore has resigned from the board. Chief Judge Mark Mahon said that although Shore resigned, 'he indicated he has always conducted himself fairly and impartially.'" Scott Bauer of the AP: "Hackers have stolen $2.3 million from the Wisconsin Republican Party's account that was being used to help reelect ... Donald Trump in the key battleground state, the party's chairman told The Associated Press on Thursday. The party noticed the suspicious activity on Oct. 22 and contacted the FBI on Friday, said Republican Party Chairman Andrew Hitt." It Once Was Lost & Now It's Found. Will Sommer of the Daily Beast: "A spokesman for UPS told The Daily Beast on Thursday that they had located a mysterious packaged that Fox News host Tucker Carlson suggested had been deliberately misplaced or intercepted because it contained 'damning' materials on the Biden family. 'After an extensive search, we have found the contents of the package and are arranging for its return,' the spokesman said." Trump Is Corrupt. Trump Is a Corrupt Traitor. Eric Lipton & Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times on how Donald Trump and some of his henchmen -- like Rudy Giuliani & Michael Flynn -- backed President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey when Geoffrey Berman, the U.S. Southern District of New York's attorney, wanted to further investigate & criminally prosecute members of Erdogan's family & political party & the state-owned Halkbank. Trump got help, of course, from Attorney General Bill Barr & Acting AG Matt Whitaker. "At the White House, Mr. Trump's handling of the matter became troubling even to some senior officials at the time. The president was discussing an active criminal case with the authoritarian leader of a nation in which Mr. Trump does business; he reported receiving at least $2.6 million in net income from operations in Turkey from 2015 through 2018, according to tax records obtained by The New York Times.... Former White House officials said they came to fear that the president was open to swaying the criminal justice system to advance a transactional and ill-defined agenda of his own." Caitlin Oprysko of Politico: "The head of U.S. Customs and Border Protection [Mark Morgan] railed against Twitter on Thursday after he said the social media platform locked his account for violating its policies on hate speech when he tweeted about the U.S.-Mexico border wall.... Screenshots of the tweet provided to the conservative site The Federalist and confirmed to Politico show Morgan's tweet hailed the efficacy of the border wall, saying that 'every mile helps us stop gang members, murderers, sexual predators and drugs from entering our country. It's a fact, walls work,' the tweet read. A Twitter spokesperson confirmed that Morgan had been locked out of his account but said 'the decision was reversed following an appeal by the account owner and further evaluation from our team.'" The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Thursday are here: "As the nation heads into what some public health experts warn could be a 'dark winter' of coronavirus illness and death, a growing cadre is coalescing around Joseph R. Biden Jr.'s call for a 'national mask mandate,' even as they concede such an effort would require much more than the stroke of a presidential pen. Over the past week, a string of prominent public health experts -- notably Dr. Anthony S. Fauci, the government's top infectious disease specialist, and Dr. Scott Gottlieb, a former commissioner of food and drugs under President Trump -- have said it is time to seriously consider a national mandate to curb the spread of the virus." Ursula Perano of Axios: "Former Liberty University president Jerry Falwell Jr. announced Thursday that he had filed a lawsuit against the school, claiming that it had 'needlessly injured and damaged his reputation' after his resignation earlier this year.... Falwell resigned in August after a series of controversial scandals culminated in Reuters story alleging that he and his wife had a years-long intimate relationship with a business partner." Mrs. McC: Uh, Jerry, it might not be the school that damaged your reputation. Check your mirror. ~~~~~~~~~~ Mrs. Bea McCrabbie: If you voted absentee, you should be able to trace your ballot online to see if it has been received. Even though I hand-carried my ballot to the town clerk, there is an online record of its status that is easy to access. (I Googled something like "track my absentee ballot". I didn't even enter the state, but Google figured it out straightaway & provided a link to my state's "Check Ballot Status" page.) Dana Milbank of the Washington Post, who lives in the District of Columbia, writes, "I';m voting twice this year, just as President Trump told me to do. I returned my absentee ballot the day I got it last month, but the local board of elections, deluged by the volume of ballots, still hasn't 'accepted' my ballot and suggests I cast a provisional ballot in person on Election Day." (Also linked below.) State laws will vary, but it's certainly worth checking to make sure the state has recorded receipt of your ballot & find out if, like Milbank, you can vote provisionally if your ballot remains "in the mail." Election 2020 The New York Times' live election updates Thursday are here: "... Mr. Trump has added a Thursday trip to his itinerary in Tampa, Fla. -- where Mr. Biden will also appear later in the day -- to hold a rally outside a football stadium.... In his speeches, the president uses the size of his crowds as evidence that he can't possibly be losing. The irony is that the same contrast &-- Mr. Biden's adhering to public health guidelines while Mr. Trump flouts them -- is exactly the message that the former vice president and his Delaware-centered campaign want to send to voters." The Washington Post's live election updates Wednesday are here. Access is free to non-subscribers. ~~~ Related stories linked below. Brian Schwartz of CNBC: "People in the securities and investment industry will finish the 2020 election cycle contributing over $74 million to back Joe Biden's candidacy for president, a much larger sum than what ... Donald Trump raised from Wall Street, according to new data from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics." (Also linked yesterday.) Manuel Roig-Franzia of the Washington Post profiles Doug Emhoff, Kamala Harris's husband. Alexander Burns of the New York Times: "As an immense new surge in coronavirus cases sweeps the country, President Trump is closing his re-election campaign by pleading with voters to ignore the evidence of a calamity unfolding before their eyes and trust his word that the disease is already disappearing as a threat to their personal health and economic well being. The president has continued to declare before large and largely maskless crowds that the virus is vanishing, even as case counts soar, fatalities climb, the stock market dips and a fresh outbreak grips the staff of Vice President Mike Pence. Hopping from one state to the next, he has made a personal mantra out of declaring that the country is 'rounding the corner.'" He also blamed the media for reporting on the record-breaking case numbers, blamed testing for the case numbers & claimed Covid-19 wasn't that big a deal because he beat it & his teenaged son barely suffered: "He has sniffles, he was sniffling. One Kleenex, that's all he needed, and he was better. But he's a case." ~~~ Kevin Liptak of CNN: "... Donald Trump is ending his reelection bid in a frenzied cross-country push for votes in states he won -- some handily -- four years ago. But he is not pretending to be happy about it. 'It wasn't even going to be like we had an election,' Trump said on a rain-drenched tarmac in Lansing, Michigan, on Tuesday, lamenting that the coronavirus had imperiled his political prospects and, in his telling, forced him to return to the cold grind and meteorological mishaps of the campaign trail. 'I probably wouldn't be standing out here in the freezing rain with you,' he told a crowd of hearty souls who had been standing for hours in persistent drizzle to hear him speak. 'I'd be home in the White House, doing whatever the hell I was doing. I wouldn't be out here.'... He hasn't shied away from telling his supporters he would never find himself in their states unless he needed their votes. 'We win Wisconsin, we win the whole ballgame,' he said last week on yet another frigid airport tarmac, this time in Janesville. 'What the hell do you think I'm doing here on a freezing night with 45-degree winds? Do you think I'm doing this for my health?' he continued as the temperature dropped and some of the crowd began trickling out." (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~ ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As far as I can tell, while Biden's closing argument is a promise to unite the country (and good luck with that), Trump's closing argument is, "I don't give a damn about any of you." ~~~ ~~~ Trump Leaves Trumpbots Out in the Cold. Geoff Bennett, et al., of NBC News: "Thousands of ... Donald Trump supporters were left in the freezing cold for hours after a rally at an airfield in Omaha, Nebraska, on Tuesday night, with some walking around three miles to waiting buses and others being taken away in ambulances. Many of those at the rally at the Eppley Airfield faced hours in long lines to get in and clogged parking lots and busy crowds to get out, hours after his Air Force One departed around 9 p.m. Crowds cleared about 12:30 a.m.... At least 30 people including the elderly, an electric wheelchair user and a family with small children were among those requiring medical attention after hours of waiting in the cold at the rally at the Eppley Airfield. 'Supporters of the president were brought in, but buses weren't able to get back to transport people out. It's freezing and snowy in Omaha tonight,' Nebraska State Senator Megan Hunt tweeted." Mrs. McC: What did they expect? Once they had showed up for a Trumpian superspreader photo-op, Donald didn't need them anymore, so of course he iced them. (Also linked yesterday.) Hey, Trump Has Endorsements, Too. Here, via the Washington Post, are some dictators, authoritarians & nationalists for Trump. Sean Sullivan of the Washington Post: "The deadly police shooting of a Black man in Philadelphia has roiled the presidential campaign in a key battleground state just days before the election, igniting tensions over race, violence and law enforcement that pose political challenges for Joe Biden and President Trump. Trump has seized on riots and looting that erupted in the aftermath of Monday's shooting in an effort to portray Biden as soft on crime, while selling himself as the 'law and order' candidate. 'You can't have chaos like that -- and he'll be very, very weak,' Trump predicted Wednesday of the Democratic nominee. Biden has pushed back on those attacks, saying repeatedly that he does not condone looting and has no tolerance for violence against police. He also expressed outrage at the killing of Walter Wallace Jr., condemning in strong terms 'another Black life in America lost.'... The former vice president's emphasis on violent protesters has frustrated some, who say he should focus less on looting and more on racial justice.... Philadelphia was under a curfew Wednesday night." ~~~ Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump said Wednesday that the federal government is looking into the police killing of Walter Wallace Jr. in Philadelphia while condemning the rioting that followed his death.... Trump called on the state to mobilize its National Guard to address the riots and looting, which Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) had already done earlier Wednesday. The president also sought to blame the unrest on Democratic-run states and cities, saying that 'Republicans don't have it' and characterizing Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden as weak on crime. He claimed at one point that police were told to 'stand back' and not 'do anything' to quell the riots. Trump did not say how he came to understand this but said he heard it 'on very good authority.' 'This is a group that [Biden] supports. He doesn't want to condemn them,' Trump said. 'You have to condemn them, you have to be strong, you cannot have chaos like that and he will be very, very weak.' In fact, Biden condemned the violence during an appearance in Wilmington, Del., Wednesday prior to Trump's press conference." Intentionally Hilarious. Just in time for the 2020 presidential election, the "Access Hollywood" tape resurfaces. Fortunately, this time around there's video! with Sarah Cooper starring as Donald Trump & Dame Helen Mirren playing Billy Bush. Video of the segment, which is part of Cooper's Neflix special, at the link. Thanks to unwashed for the link. Update: But a story linked below shows how useful this performance could be to Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.). Unintentionally Hilarious. Justin Baragona of the Daily Beast: Fox "News"' Tucker Carlson claims he is the victim of a "nefarious Democrat plot" to steal incriminating evidence he had against Joe & Hunter Biden. Baragona's recap: "Tucker Carlson's office received secret documents from a source that could change the course of the election, asked for them to be shipped across the country rather than scanned and securely emailed, his producer sent them off, and they have now been stolen from a mail facility, and no one knows what happened." In Announcing Election Interference, Ratcliffe Interfered with Election. Natasha Bertrand & Daniel Lippman of Politico: "Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe went off script when he alleged during a press conference last week that Iran was sending intimidating emails to Americans in order to 'damage President Trump,' according to two senior administration officials with knowledge of the episode. The reference to Trump was not in Ratcliffe's prepared remarks about the foreign election interference, as shown to and signed off by FBI Director Chris Wray and senior DHS official Chris Krebs, the director of the department's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency.... They were surprised by Ractliffe's political aside..., the officials said.... [Ratcliffe also] omitted any references to the Proud Boys during last week's briefing, even though the group was named in his prepared remarks.... The press conference centered around menacing emails that had been sent to Democratic voters warning them to vote for Trump 'or we will come after you.'..." Timothy Johnson of Media Matters: "Oath Keepers militia leader Stewart Rhodes said members of his militia will be at polling locations on Election Day to 'protect' Trump voters during an appearance on far-right conspiracy theorist Alex Jones' program.... Rhodes ... [said] Oath Keepers would follow directives from ... Donald Trump to take members of the 'deep state' into custody and 'do what we have to do,' that Trump should invoke the Insurrection Act before the election, that Oath Keepers will 'be in range' of Washington D.C., to stop a 'Benghazi-style' attack on the White House on election night, and that a war will have to be fought against Democrats on the West Coast who are 'bought' by the Chinese government.... Rhodes telegraphed how he will interpret election results, saying that he would consider a win by ... Joe Biden illegitimate and evidence the election had been stolen, presaging how he and his militia might react to that outcome." (Also linked yesterday.) Dana Milbank of the Washington Post: "The once-proud Republican Party has determined, correctly, that its only way to prevail in this election is to keep people from voting. Republicans and their allies have devoted some $20 million to wage more than 300 court fights across the country either to strike down election rules that encourage higher voter turnout..., according to the Center for Public Integrity.... Republicans have won the popular vote for the presidency only once since 1988, and the Senate Republican majority has for years represented a minority of the population. But they have used this minority rule to stack the judiciary, including six of the nine Supreme Court justices. Now Republican billionaires are financing a legal war to block voting rights -- and the judges the minority Republicans installed on the courts are trying to shield Republican power from the will of the people." "Florida Man Charged"! Gary Fineout of Politico: "Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis was briefly unable to vote this week because a 20-year-old Naples man altered the Republican governor's home address in the state's voter registration database. Florida authorities arrested Anthony Steven Guevara late Tuesday and charged him with two counts, including felony voter fraud for changing someone's registration without their consent. DeSantis, who lives in Tallahassee, discovered that his address had been changed to West Palm Beach when he went to vote in Leon County on Monday afternoon, according to a report filed by the Collier County Sheriff's Department. After being told that his address had been changed, DeSantis called the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Secretary of State Laurel Lee said that the situation 'was corrected immediately' and the governor was able to vote. The state's voter registration system wasn't breached and is secure, she said in a written statement.... Guevara ... showed officers how he was able to change the governor's address through the state's voter registration portal.... Voter registration information is public in Florida and other states. Guevara told them he changed DeSantis's address to that of a You Tube personality." ~~~ ~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Sounds like a remarkably sloppy system to me. A partisan group could maliciously change tens of thousands of addresses & cause those voters hassles at the polls. However, in fairness, anything that discombobulates DeSantis is inherently funny. Michigan. Brakkton Booker of NPR: "A Michigan judge has blocked a ban on openly carrying firearms at Michigan polling places on Election Day. Court of Claims Judge Christopher Murray granted a preliminary injunction to pro-gun groups who filed motions to block the directive issued by Michigan Secretary of State Jocelyn Benson on Oct. 16. Benson sought to prohibit firearms at polling places, clerk's offices and other locations where absentee ballots will be tallied. Her order also barred individuals openly carrying guns from coming within 100 feet of buildings serving as polling centers. However, Murray said in his opinion Tuesday that Benson's directive didn't follow the formal process laid out in state law about how new orders are enacted.... Following the judge's order, Benson swiftly vowed to appeal." (Also linked yesterday.) North Carolina. John Kruzel of the Hill: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected an effort by the Trump campaign and Republicans to reverse a six-day mail ballot due date extension in North Carolina. The ruling was a major blow for Trump, who polls show to be locked in a tight race with Democratic nominee Joe Biden in the crucial battleground state, a must-win for the president's reelection chances. The court's three most conservative justices -- Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito and Neil Gorsuch -- would have granted the request. Justice >Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the court Tuesday, did not participate in consideration of the case." An AP story is here. Pennsylvania. Adam Liptak of the New York Times: "The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused a plea from Pennsylvania Republicans to put their request to halt a three-day extension of the deadline for receiving absentee ballots on an extraordinarily fast track. The move meant that the court would not consider the case, which could have yielded a major ruling on voting procedure, until after Election Day. Justice Amy Coney Barrett, who joined the court on Tuesday and who might have broken an earlier deadlock in the case, did not cast a vote. A court spokeswoman said Justice Barrett 'did not participate in the consideration of this motion because of the need for a prompt resolution of it and because she has not had time to fully review the parties' filings.'... In a separate statement, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr., joined by Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil M. Gorsuch, said the court may still consider the case after the election." ~~~ ~~~ The story has been updated to reflect the denial of the North Carolina Republicans' application: "In a pair of decisions welcomed by Democrats, the Supreme Court on Wednesday at least temporarily let election officials in two key battleground states, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, accept absentee ballots for several days after Election Day."
Wisconsin. Poorly-Reasoned AND Factually-Challenged. Dan Berman of CNN: "Vermont's secretary of state formally asked Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to correct an opinion he wrote Monday that mistakenly said Vermont had made no changes to its election rules due to the Covid-19 pandemic, In a letter to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Secretary of State Jim Condos explained that Vermont had, for the first time, sent mail-in ballots to every registered voter and also began counting votes earlier than in previous years. In a Monday night order rejecting a Democratic bid to allow Wisconsin to count ballots returned up to six days after Election Day, Kavanaugh wrote a concurring opinion that cited Vermont as a state that hadn't made changes to its 'ordinary election rules.'" ~~~
~~~ Update. New Lede: "Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh on Wednesday night tweaked a line in his controversial opinion on Wisconsin mail-in voting this week, after he received criticism for incorrectly saying Vermont had not changed its election rules due to the Covid-19 pandemic.... Late Wednesday, without comment or explanation, Kavanaugh issued a revised opinion, changing the phrase 'ordinary election rules' to 'ordinary election-deadline rules.' [The offending sentence] now reads: 'Other States such as Vermont, by contrast, have decided not to make changes to their ordinary election-deadline rules, including to the election-day deadline for receipt of absentee ballots.'"
Presidential Election 2020. Andy Kroll of Rolling Stone: "The disinformation operation was christened 'Project Clintonson.' It brought together two notorious figures in Republican political circles, Blackwater founder Erik Prince and Trump adviser Roger Stone. Their objective couldn't have been more explicit. 'We do not need to make major gains among African American voters,' said a 13-page proposal for Project Clintonson that Prince sent to unnamed donors a week before Election Day 2016. 'We merely need to dampen turn out [sic] and make it difficult for the Black Democratic elected officials in Hillary's pocket to turn out Black voters at Obama-like levels. A shift of a few points in the right places can swing this election.' The aim of Project Clintonson was to spotlight a young black man named Danney Williams, who claims that he is Bill Clinton's son, and to cast Hillary Clinton as the 'villain of this drama.' The pitch for Project Clintonson says that Williams was 'definitively the abandoned son' of Bill Clinton and that 'African American voters would be incensed to learn that it was Hillary who demanded that Bill abandon his only son.' There is no evidence to back up the claims about Danney Williams and the Clintons.... It's unclear how much of this plan came to fruition.... [But the project shows] the Trump operation's real aims when it came to black voters, the lengths they would go to dissuade black voters, and the very real possibility that similar operations are underway in 2020."
Arizona Senate Race. Vaughn Hillyard & Dareh Gregorian of NBC News: "... Donald Trump offered a not-very warm welcome to Sen. Martha McSally on Wednesday at his campaign rally in Arizona, where McSally, also a Republican, is fighting to hold on to her seat. After saying she was 'respected by everybody' and 'great,' Trump rushed McSally to the stage at an airport rally in Goodyear.... 'Martha, just come up fast. Fast. Fast. Come on. Quick. You got one minute! One minute, Martha! They don't want to hear this, Martha. Come on. Let's go. Quick, quick, quick. Come on. Let's go,' Trump said. McSally spoke for just over a minute, and said she was 'proud' to work with the president -- something a moderator could not get her say during her debate with Democratic challenger Mark Kelly earlier this month. After McSally spoke, Trump called up a trio of politicians from out of state to speak -- Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, and Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif. Of the three, only McCarthy, the House Republican leader, is running for re-election in November. All spoke longer than McSally did -- as did another guest speaker Trump called on, Nigel Farage of Britain's Brexit party. Trump did not rush any of those four."
Georgia Senate Race. Doug Richards of WXIA-TV: "Sen. Kelly Loeffler said Wednesday that she doesn't disagree with anything ... Donald Trump has said or done.... Loeffler told reporters Wednesday that she doesn't know anything about an Access Hollywood tape made in 2005 in which Trump described sexually assaulting women.... Loeffler has been running to keep the seat to which she had been appointed in the US Senate, and boasts that she is the Senate's most reliable supporter of the president." Mrs. McC: So special thanks to Sarah & Dame Helen for reviving the tape for Kelly's edification.
** Terrorist-in-Chief. Greg Miller & Isaac Stanley-Becker of the Washington Post: "The CIA's most endangered employee for much of the past year was ... an analyst who faced a torrent of threats after filing a whistleblower report that led to the impeachment of President Trump. The analyst spent months living in no-frills hotels under surveillance by CIA security, current and former U.S. officials said. He was driven to work by armed officers in an unmarked sedan. On the few occasions he was allowed to reenter his home to retrieve belongings, a security team had to sweep the apartment first.... The measures were imposed by the CIA's Security Protective Service, which monitored thousands of threats across social media and Internet chat rooms. Over time, a pattern emerged: Violent messages surged each time the analyst was targeted in tweets or public remarks by the president.... Over the past year, public servants across the country have faced similar ordeals. The targets encompass nearly every category of government service: mayors, governors and members of Congress, as well as officials Trump has turned against within his own administration. The dynamic appears to be without precedent: government agencies taking extraordinary measures to protect their people from strains of seething hostility stoked by a sitting president. In recent weeks, the danger has become more alarming and visible." (Also linked yesterday.)
Self-Described "Smart Businessman." Morgan Chalfant of the Hill: "President Trump early Wednesday defended his business practices as a real estate developer after The New York Times reported that he failed to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in debt, most of it related to a Chicago property, that was forgiven by lenders. 'As a developer long ago, and continuing to this day, the politicians ran Chicago into the ground. I was able to make an appropriately great deal with the numerous lenders on a large and very beautiful tower. Doesn't that make me a smart guy rather than a bad guy?' Trump tweeted.... Trump did not mention the Times report specifically, nor did he deny any of its details, as he often does with media coverage that he views as unfavorable or critical." (Also linked yesterday.)
Another Screw-the-Earth Moment Brought to You by Donald Trump. Juliet Eilperin of the Washington Post: "President Trump will open up more than half of Alaska's Tongass National Forest to logging and other forms of development, according to a notice posted Wednesday, stripping protections that had safeguarded one of the world's largest intact temperate rainforests for nearly two decades. As of Thursday, it will be legal for logging companies to build roads and cut and remove timber throughout more than 9.3 million acres of forest -- featuring old-growth stands of red and yellow cedar, Sitka spruce and Western hemlock. The relatively pristine expanse is also home to plentiful salmon runs and imposing fjords. The decision, which will be published in the Federal Register, reverses protections President Bill Clinton put in place in 2001 and is one of the most sweeping public lands rollbacks Trump has enacted."
Noah Weiland & Sharon LaFraniere of the New York Times: A $265 million public campaign to 'defeat despair' around the coronavirus was planned partly around the politically tinged theme that 'helping the president will help the country,' according to documents released on Thursday by House investigators. Michael R. Caputo, the assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services, and others involved envisioned a star-studded campaign to lift American spirits, but the lawmakers said they sought to exclude celebrities who had supported gay rights or same-sex marriage or who had publicly disparaged President Trump.... Ultimately, the campaign collapsed amid recriminations and investigation. Democrats on the House Oversight and Reform Committee and the select subcommittee on the coronavirus crisis released the records, declaring that 'these documents include extremely troubling revelations.' They accused Alex M. Azar II, the secretary of health and human services, of 'a cover-up to conceal the Trump administration's misuse of hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars for partisan political purposes ahead of the upcoming election.'"
Michael Shear of the New York Times: "Miles Taylor, the former chief of staff at the Department of Homeland Security, was the anonymous author of The New York Times Op-Ed article in 2018 whose description of President Trump as 'impetuous, adversarial, petty and ineffective' roiled Washington and set off a hunt for his identity, Mr. Taylor confirmed Wednesday. Mr. Taylor was also the anonymous author of 'A Warning,' a book he wrote the following year that described the president as an 'undisciplined' and 'amoral' leader whose abuse of power threatened the foundations of American democracy. He acknowledged that he was the author of both the book and the opinion article in an interview and in a three-page statement he intended to post online. Mr. Taylor resigned from the Department of Homeland Security in June 2019, and went public with his criticism of Mr. Trump this past summer. He released a video just before the start of the Republican National Convention declaring that the president was unfit for office and endorsed Joseph R. Biden Jr., the Democratic presidential nominee." (Also linked yesterday.) CNN's story is here. ~~~
~~~ Here is Miles Taylor's statement, published in Medium.
Adam Klasfeld of Law & Crime: "David Correia, a business associate of impeachment figure Lev Parnas who did business with Rudy Giuliani in the company Fraud Guarantee, plans to plead guilty on Thursday morning on unspecified charges. Federal prosecutors declined to comment on what counts of his indictment Correia plans to plead guilty to or whether he intends to cooperate in the prosecution of Parnas, his co-defendants, or potentially others who have not been named. Correia, however, has been charged with the two key conspiracies that prosecutors hope to prove at trial next year: illegally funneling foreign money into U.S. elections and duping people to invest in Fraud Guarantee, a company that reportedly paid $500,000 to Giuliani." Mrs. McC: Includes photo of Correia with Trump, but the image of Trump looks so familiar I wonder if the picture is Photoshopped. Anyhow, Rudy must be glad to see himself back in the news associated with criminal fraudsters instead of with scenes of his "tucking in his shirt." (Also linked yesterday.)
The Trumpidemic, Ctd.
The New York Times' live updates of Covid-19 developments Wednesday are here: "France will reimpose a nationwide lockdown, while Germany will close bars and restaurants and impose other restrictions for a month in a last-ditch effort to protect hospitals from becoming overwhelmed with virus patients as Europe battles a second wave of the pandemic."
** Speaking of "Over-confident Idiots." Michael Warren, et al., of CNN: "... Jared Kushner boasted in mid-April about how the President had cut out the doctors and scientists advising him on the unfolding coronavirus pandemic, comments that came as more than 40,000 Americans already had died from the virus, which was ravaging New York City. In a taped interview on April 18, Kushner told legendary journalist Bob Woodward that Trump was 'getting the country back from the doctors' in what he called a 'negotiated settlement.'... 'Trump's now back in charge. It's not the doctors.'... The statement reflected a political strategy. Instead of following the health experts' advice, Trump and Kushner were focused on what would help the President on Election Day. By their calculations, Trump would be the 'open-up president.'... Kushner was also dismissive of party politics, calling the Republican Party, 'a collection of a bunch of tribes' and describing the GOP platform as 'a document meant to, like, piss people off, basically.' Kushner went on to tell Woodward that Trump did a 'full hostile takeover' of the Republican Party when he became its presidential nominee. He also told Woodward, 'The most dangerous people around the President are over-confident idiots' and that Trump had replaced them with 'more thoughtful people who kind of know their place.'" (Also linked yesterday.) ~~~
~~~ Paul Waldman of the Washington Post: "Kushner's comments reveal something important about both him and the president. We know their handling the pandemic was dictated by politics, and that's a big part of the reason it was such an unmitigated disaster. But even more infuriating is that it was dictated by bad politics. They could have done the right thing for the wrong reasons, taking steps that would save lives solely to benefit President Trump's reelection campaign.... Instead, they did the wrong thing for the wrong reasons. They minimized the pandemic and undermined efforts to contain it because they thought doing so would be a political gold mine. And this has all but guaranteed Trump's defeat." Read on.
David Badash of the New Civil Rights Movement: "... Donald Trump and his White House advisers are now fully-embracing the debunked concept of 'herd immunity' as a means to approach the coronavirus pandemic. And while Trump, White House officials, and even Dr. Scott Atlas, the Fox News radiologist who brought the concept to the president, all deny herd immunity is their new policy, senior health officials working with the coronavirus task force say Trump and his advisors are all in. Experts warn adopting a herd immunity approach could cause an additional half-million Americans to die. But The Daily Beast Wednesday night reports the Trump administration has 'begun taking steps to turn the concept' of herd immunity 'into policy.'" The linked Daily Beast story is subscriber-firewalled.
Fred Imbert of CNBC: "U.S. stocks fell sharply on Wednesday amid concerns over the latest increase in coronavirus infections and its potential impact on the global economy. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 943.24 points, or 3.4%, to 26,519.95, posting its fourth straight negative session. The S&P 500 slid 3.5%, or 119.65 points, to 3,271.03, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 3.7%, or 426.48 points, to 11,004.87. The Dow and the S&P 500 both suffered their worst day since June 11." Mrs. McC: Just is case Trump was planning to tell us how great the economy is because stock markets.
Ellen Nakashima & Jay Greene of the Washington Post: "Russian-speaking cybercriminals in recent days have launched a coordinated attack targeting U.S. hospitals already stressed by the coronavirus pandemic with ransomware that analysts worry could lead to fatalities. In the space of 24 hours beginning Monday, six hospitals from California to New York have been hit by the Ryuk ransomware, which encrypts data on computer systems, forcing the hospitals in some cases to disrupt patient care and cancel noncritical surgeries, analysts said. The criminals have demanded a ransom ranging upward of $1 million to unlock the system, and some hospitals have paid, they said. On Tuesday, the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services issued a joint advisory alerting health-care providers to the threat." Mrs. McC: These cybercriminals are so horrible, even Donald Trump wouldn't stoop so low.
David Waldstein, et al., of the New York Times: "The joy of the Dodgers' long coveted World Series title was overshadowed on Tuesday night when Justin Turner, the team's veteran third baseman, joined his teammates in celebration on the field shortly after learning he had tested positive for the coronavirus. Turner's return to the field, which occurred right in front of Rob Manfred, Major League Baseball's commissioner, at Globe Life Field in Arlington, Texas, raised questions about how the league had allowed such a public lapse in its coronavirus protocols and drew widespread criticism from experts in epidemiology. M.L.B. said on Wednesday afternoon that it would investigate the incident, but placed the blame squarely on Turner, saying he had refused the orders of league security to remain in isolation." Mrs. McC: I hope Turner is too busy celebrating his team's World Series victory to go out & vote for Donald Trump.
Benjamin Weiser of the New York Times: "Twelve years after a New York Times journalist and two others were taken hostage at gunpoint in Afghanistan and held for more than seven months, an Afghan man has been arrested and charged in the kidnapping, federal authorities said on Wednesday. The man, Haji Najibullah, who has been described as a former Taliban commander, was ordered detained by a federal magistrate judge in Manhattan on Wednesday. The journalist, David Rohde, as well as an Afghan journalist, Tahir Ludin, eventually made a desperate nighttime escape in June 2009 from the second floor of a Taliban compound in North Waziristan, in Pakistan's tribal areas, that included dropping down a high wall with a rope and making their way to a Pakistani militia post. The third hostage, Asadullah Mangal, their driver, did not escape with them but managed to flee five weeks later."
Another GOP Outrage Show. Shannon Bond of NPR: "The CEOs of some of the biggest tech platforms defended the way they handle online speech to an audience of skeptical senators, many of whom seemed more interested in scoring political points than engaging with thorny debate over content moderation policies and algorithms. Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Twitter's Jack Dorsey and Google's Sundar Pichai appeared virtually Wednesday at a hearing of the Senate Commerce Committee that was supposed to focus on a decades-old legal shield insulating tech companies from liability over what users post. But many Republicans on the committee used the opportunity to berate the executives over suspicions that their companies and employees are biased against conservatives -- a frequent complaint on the right for which there is no systematic evidence.... Democrats mainly focused their questions on what steps the platforms are taking to protect from election interference and crack down on hate speech and radicalization as well as how the tech companies have contributed to the downfall of local news media by sapping advertising spending." ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: As Business Insider's (firewalled) headline writer put it, "Republicans use a Senate hearing to criticize tech CEOs for fact-checking Trump's posts before the election." ~~~
~~~ It's All About Marsha. Steven Overly of Politico: "Sen. Marsha Blackburn used a Commerce Committee hearing Wednesday to ask about the employment status of a Google engineer whose criticism of the Tennessee Republican has become fodder for right-wing media outlets over the past two years. Blackburn (R-Tenn.) asked CEO Sundar Pichai whether Blake Lemoine, a senior software engineer and artificial intelligence researcher, still has a job at Google. 'He has had very unkind things to say about me and I was just wondering if you all had still kept him working there,' Blackburn said during the hearing, where she and other GOP lawmakers accused tech companies of squelching free speech. Pichai said he did not know Lemoine's employment status." Emphasis added. ~~~
~~~ Mrs. McCrabbie: Clearly, it is lost on Marsha & her confederate colleagues that there's no way a private company can "squelch free speech" because it has no duty in the first place to let every customer have his say. The Senate, on the other hand, is Constitutionally proscribed from "abridging the freedom of speech." Pichai can make a decision about Lemoine's employment, but Blackburn's public attempt to influence Pichai to fire an employee who spoke against her sounds pretty unconstitutional to me.
Roger Sollenberger of Salon: "Weeks after Michigan prosectors hit the pair of right-wing provocateurs with charges in an alleged voter-intimidation robocall scheme, Jacob Wohl, 22, and Jack Burkman, 58, have been indicted by an Ohio grand jury on separate felony counts. Local prosecutors charged Wohl and Burkman each with eight counts of felony telecommunications fraud and seven counts of felony bribery for allegedly sowing false fears about voting by mail in targeted minority communities in Ohio, plus multiple other states. Warrants were issued for the pair's arrest, who face up to 18 years and six months in prison if convicted." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
Nina Schtick of UnHerd: "It is no exaggeration to say that soon almost everything we see or hear online will be synthetic -- that is, generated or manipulated by AI.... Some experts estimate that within 5-7 years, 90% of all video content online will be synthetic. Before long, anyone with a smartphone will be able to make Hollywood level AI-generated content... [T]his technology has a dark side. It will, inevitably, be misused, and for that most obvious of male-driven reasons. It was reported last week that the messaging app Telegram is hosting a 'deepfake pornography bot,' which allows users to generate images of naked women. According to the report, there are already over 100,000 such images being circulated in public Telegram channels.... The women who appear to feature in this cache of publicly-shared fake porn are mostly private individuals rather than celebrities. More disturbingly, the images also include deepfake nudes of underage girls." --s (Also linked yesterday.)
News Lede
Weather Channel: "Hurricane Zeta ripped off roofs, knocked down power lines and trees and flooded streets as it came ashore in Louisiana on Wednesday evening and moved over New Orleans. As the hurricane moved farther inland, trees and power lines fell in Mississippi and Alabama. Storm surge flooded communities along the northern Gulf Coast. One death was reported Wednesday night. New Orleans Emergency Medical Services tweeted that it was responding to a fatal high-voltage electrocution on Palm Street about 8 p.m. CDT. The Associated Press reported that the coroner confirmed a 55-year-old man had been electrocuted by downed power lines."
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